The Dartagnan Brothers Hotel

Chapter 10

'I can't really say if he will be conscious or not.' Jonas could hear Douglas's distinct voice.
'I didn't hire you to have uncertainties doc, I need this to work.' said Giovanni, who was staring into Jonas's eyes.
He could swear that he would never have go through that situation again. Douglas had made it clear to Mr. Dartagnan that he could not guarantee his well-being if he drugged him again, but it seemed that Giovanni's desire to punish him was greater than his desire to keep him alive. Although the air was charged with tension, the situation in the small red room remained the same, Jonas found himself stuck in the lucid dream induction chair, whilst Giovanni argued with Douglas. The priest continued to pray, and Monalisa had returned to her wildly drinking spree. For some reason, Jonas saw an inexplicable anger in her eyes, he had no memory of meeting the woman, much less of having done something that could justify the disparage shown by her.
'I will have to excuse myself for a moment, I have commitments at the party, they must be missing me already.' said Giovanni, looking at the gold watch on his wrist. 'Can you keep a minimum of civility until I return?' he asked rhetorically as he turned his back and left as he slammed the door behind him.
'Get me another bottle of champagne.' said Monalisa before Giovanni could shut de the door close whilst leaving the room.
'I'm certainly inside the hotel.', he still hadn't thought about where he might be, even though he knew that there was no better place where they could torture people, especially after everything that Getulio had told him about his brother. Things happened right there, the Dartagnan Brothers' Hotel was the headquarters of the C.P.F. as it was the place where those people had been committing indescribable crimes against anyone who dared to go against their creed. Despite Getulio's recent clarifications, Jonas was still vulnerable to that drug and headaches, which seemed to be getting more acute, despite being faster.
'Why does Giovanni want to keep this boy alive for so long?' asked the priest.
'If you don't know...' he replied without even looking to his side. The doctor was clearly there for the money.
'This boy has an important meaning for the sect.' interjected Monalisa as she poured herself another glass of what was left from the champagne bottle she had brought with her.
The mere thought of having any kind of interest towards that lady, or the priest, made Jonas feel terrified. Since the beginning of the evening, when Lara had brought him to sit beside her, he had noticed a certain animosity, something that was incomprehensible to him, since he had never seen her before in his life.
A distinguished lady, with dark eyes, and hair cut by the shoulders. Her wrinkles gave her the appearance of being of old age, probably the same age as Giovanni, but what intrigued Jonas the most was not being sure of what her intentions were to him. It was strange to him that the whole situation involved so many different people and that they did not seem to understand each other very clearly, but, even so, the ultimate goal seemed to be the same, to make Jonas pay for what he had done so many years ago.
Jonas began to feel a slight pressure on his right foot, very close to where the priest had once again knelt to pray. The old vicar was squeezing one of his feet with tender whilst applying pressure to it. That was when he realised that he was barefoot, his shoes were next to the door, with his socks piggy-wrapped inside it. He tried to move and kick so that the priest would stop touching him as the mere touch of that stranger disgusted him and made him shudder, feelings that he could not replicate due to the state he found himself in, however, what was happening in his own thoughts bordered the deepest terror he could possibly imagine.
'What are you doing?' asked Douglas as he noticed the priest's hand.
'None of of your business.' he replied sharply.
'You'll have your chance, priest. Now to stop disturbing the doctor, we need to continue the penance.' intruded Monalisa before the two could do anything else.
Jonas tried his best not to let Monalisa's words startle him, even though he knew she was the one that held the strongest grudge.
The priest, like Monalisa, seemed to be very interested in Jonas' penance, but his justification was probably in the provision of his divine services. Jonas had not been able to follow any of the sect's sessions, but from what Getulio had explained to him, Mr. Dartagnan was the one who did the preaching at those ceremonies. The presence of a priest probably gave more credibility to less conservative catholics who sought a reason to justify their presence when invited to the Hotel. But the great goal of the C.P.F. was to recruit as many people as possible so that its premise became valid in an increasing proportion in the territory. It was simple politics applied to religious belief: they had to start slowly, easing their way into the minds of those who were more prone to be convinced, and as the word of their work began to spread, people who wouldn't believe in what they were doing at first would just follow the path set by those who were convinced at the beginning.
'Oh, how I envy Giovanni.' said Monalisa, as she leaned at the wall and made some kind of noise to attract attention, breaking the silence that reigned in the small room.
'Why?' asked Douglas in an ironic tone as he had no interest in knowing the answer.
'I wanted to go with him to the appointment he mentioned. I'm sure he's taking another trip in the Dream Room.' she answered.
'Trip?' Douglas now showed a greater interest.
'It's what we call the lucid dream induction.' replied Monalisa.
'How jovial...' laughed Douglas as he realised that the priest was rubbing Jonas's foot once again whilst praying.
'You old pervert!' he exclaimed, seeking a tone of authority. 'Leave the boy alone! Isn't it enough what he's been going through all night?'
'Listen here, doctor... You are here to carry out orders! The next time you meddle with our private affairs, I will use all my influence to make sure you're the next one in that chair.' interrupted Monalisa.
'Do not startle me, boy!' replied the priest with a loud voice before being interrupted by Monalisa.
'And you, haven't I told you to stop disturbing the doctor? Wait for your fucking turn...' she finished with authority. It became clear to Jonas that she was to be the one in charge in Mr. Dartagnan's absence.
'I need to find a way to communicate with this doctor.', thought Jonas when noticing that Douglas was the only one around that showed him any kind of empathy.
For a brief moment he thought he was delusional. Within a few seconds, Jonas could hear his cell phone announce the arrival of a new text message. The noise was unlike any other that his phone could make, and he could recognise it in any situation. As he opened his eyes, he found Getulio's face staring fixedly at the screen of his cell phone, but before he could say anything, he found himself staring back at the red walls of the small room where he was being held hostage again.
That had been the shortest reflection he had had between one reality and another. He couldn't understand why it happened, but it certainly had something to do with the explanations Douglas was trying to give Mr. Dartagnan and the other members of his criminal sect. The doctor had already warned Giovanni that the continued use of that drug was not safe, however he kept on insisting that Douglas should go beyond the limit.
'Apply another dose of the drug, doctor.' said Monalisa as she finally pushed away from the wall with a small impulse.
'Pardon? I don't think we should, not until Giovanni is back.' replied Douglas with an air of concern.
'He is already in the dream chair and the the cure is already circulating through his veins.' she said as she motioned for the priest to rise from the edge of the chair.
'I don't think it's safe...'
'Do as I say!.' Monalisa seemed tired of needing to raise her voice every time she spoke to the doctor.
Jonas was afraid of the situation. At that moment, he realised that Rodrigo had not given him the wrong drug, but that, somehow, he had ingested two different types of drugs. The so called cure, which Monalisa had mentioned for the first time in all that time, seemed to have a different effect from the controlling drug of the lucid dreams, which Jonas had taken with the other guests in the Dream Room. He watched as Douglas approached the chair with another syringe next to the tubes connected to him, whilst he felt the priest prepare all the equipment in the chair so that he was, once again, induced into a lucid dream.
"As soon as he opened his eyes he realised where he was, the first thing that Jonas could hear was: 'In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti'. He did not have to struggle to remember what that one meant 'in the name of the father, of the son, and the holy spirit', it was clear that someone was about to start any kind of catholic prayer. He focused on observing the place he had been brought to by his own mind at the same time he tried to identify a familiar face that would bring him some kind of context.
He was in a place he hadn't been before, what indicated something new as his lucid dreams had, so far, only showed shards of his own old memories. A structure illuminated by torches and crowded with people. The walls had a low ceiling and, although the size of the place itself did not scare, Jonas could not distinguish its beginning and end; his brain seemed to be trying to trick his eyes. However, he soon noticed that he was in some kind of church, or chapel, or something that resembled to be religious. At first he couldn't recognise anyone as people were wearing a black cloak from head to toe and babbled repeatedly after the priest. 'This must be the little church that Getulio was mentioning.', he thought at the same time as he remembered that his mobile had rang a few minutes ago.
Jonas was curious about it. He didn't understand how he could dream of a place he had never been to and how he could be seeing something that seemed so real to a point that everyone's actions made sense and it starting to look like a new reality.
Those people were organised in a semi-circle that faced an altar, where the priest continued to preach words that reflected the spirit of the sect. Between the altar and the people, Jonas noticed a huge wooden platform that resembled a giant bed. He was not close enough to the object to be able to distinguish exactly what it was, but he thought it might be some kind of monument, like the ones he had found in the maze, which the devotees were worshiping through the continuous sermon given by the priest. The vehemence with which those people dedicated their words and gestures to that object was something that Jonas had never had the displeasure of seeing before. He had never been able to see such devotion and euphoria in any other situation in his life.
'I need to get closer to that table,' he thought as he continued to look around, seeking to see a familiar face, but everyone had their faces partially hidden by the gloomy atmosphere. It was then, for the first time since he had awaken into that place, that Jonas tried to move. He tried moving forward, as he would do in the other lucid dreams he had experienced, but that did not seem to be possible in that situation. He tried hard, with all his mighty, but rushing it only seemed to be slowing him down. He was completely paralysed and there was nothing he could do about it.
Before he could start beginning to understand why he was stuck within his own dream, Jonas was pulled by an unknown hand, whilst his body obeyed commands that his brain had not sent it. In a somewhat groggy way, his own self started to follow the person, murmuring incomprehensible words that did not even echoed inside his mind.
The fright he felt, as he realised he had no control over his own wishes, soon turned into a generalised panic. As he passed by one of the church's stained glass windows, Jonas was able to catch a glimpse of his face mirroring, however, as much as the reflection was not so clear, he could recognise that face anywhere. Jonas finally understood that he was not inside a dream of his own.
He was in Rodrigo's body.
There was no time to stop and try to understand what was going on. As he got closer to the big wooden table, he could see that, at its ends, two steel cylinders were fitted into iron pulleys that held two pairs of handcuffs each. He could still see, from the way he was arriving, an elaborate gear that ended in an iron crank. The bed had an aged aspect, the wood was old an moulded and the gears and pulleys were rusted by time, but those steel cylinders seemed to have been changed very recently, giving them an aspect of importance for whatever that thing was as the members of Giovanni Dartagnan's sect worshiped it.
'Behold, my lord, the divine blessing that these devotees offer you. 'said the priest as Jonas, apparently trapped into Rodrigo's body, was being transported effortlessly to the large wooden board.
His body was been laid on the table whilst his hands and feet were tied by the handcuffs. The priest continued to deliver his sermon, whilst the people in black repeated with enthusiasm the words spoken by him.
'This man.' Jonas readily recognised Giovanni's distinct voice. 'It's here as an offering to god. I ask you to accept his blood and forgive us of all of his sins.
Jonas was in such a panic that he could do nothing but fight the very barrier that prevented him from moving. 'What did Rodrigo do?', he asked himself at the same time he was forced to face the ceiling. It didn't take long to understand how that contraption was going to work, he had watched enough movies to know he wasn't there to get a massage. He knew that his body would be stretched until it broke, or rather, Rodrigo's body.
'Is this real? Or is it just a lucid dream Rodrigo is going trough?', he thought once again trying to understand what was going on in the premises of the Dartagnan Brothers' Hotel. 'Giovanni doesn't seem to be in the room, but if the priest is here, this can only be a dream', he tried to analyse the logic behind the situation. He was still trying to understand the dynamics of lucid dreams and it was not clear to him how that scenario could be reflected in his own subconscious.
The mystery behind Giovanni's absence was solved as soon as Jonas could see that he was the one controlling the crank. The gears began to grunt in a forced way, whilst the other members of the cult returned to repeat the incomprehensible sayings that emanated from the priest's mouth. Rodrigo soon started screaming uncontrollably, whilst his limbs were stretched out on that wooden bed. His voice echoed in Jonas's brain, but the pain that the body seemed to be feeling did not afflict him at all. It was clear that this was a dream, however the pain Rodrigo was feeling seemed very real. He could hear bones being broken whilst smelling the fiery odor of blood being spilled from his limbs, but the worst feeling he could have at that moment was Rodrigo's scream of pain when one of his legs seemed to have being teared apart from his body."
Jonas was feeling as he had passed out after that fateful moment, he just couldn't figure out if Rodrigo was dead as he had returned from that nightmare. He looked back at Getulio's puzzled face, trying understand if any of that pain was real or if any of his own body parts were harmed by the experience he had just woken up from. The old man was still sitting on the bed with the stump of his amputated leg resting on a small pillow. His expression was of curiosity, but Jonas's horrified look turned his words into enormous concern.
'What just happened?' he asked as he tried to get up to help Jonas, who was rising from the floor he had fallen into.
'Rodrigo...' started Jonas as he regained his composure and realize that he had his mind in full consciousness. 'How did you know he was at the party with me?' he asked, trying to be neutral on the subject, but he couldn't hide the melancholy out of his voice.
'Giovanni had told me about his plans for tonight, I must confess.' the old man's answer was not very convincing to Jonas, since he had just told him he hadn't seen his brother for a while.
'You can continue...' he said, as he ignored the white lie, hoping that Getulio would finish his reasoning and explain, once and for all, everything he knew about the events of that night.
'I've already told you, boy' he started emphatically. 'My brother knows how these things afflict me and always arranges for someone to come by and torture me before committing whatever his next atrocity is.'
'So it means that you knew all along what your brother had in store for me? Why didn't you tell me before?' asked Jonas, now standing and ready to extract any information that Getulio could still be keeping from him.
'Simmer down, will you? I've already told you that I'm on your side.' said Getulio, as he moved on the bed and lost the pillow that supported his leg. He seemed to be threatened by Jonas's tone of voice.
'How is that on my side? You know the outcome of my entire near future and are reluctant to let me know about the situation!' exclaimed Jonas, expressing indignation.
'It's obvious that I don't know your entire future! My brother did not share all the details of his plans, he just tortured me with mediocre words knowing that I am against it and, at the same time, find myself powerless to prevent him from continuing.' answered Getulio, sincerely.
'You lied to me...' Jonas was disappointed. 'You could have warned me about what was coming.'
'I did not lie!' shouted Getulio fervently. 'I've told you from the beginning. I will help you, as long as you help me too.'
Silence washed over the small wooden hut. Jonas could feel that the old one-legged man was being sincere, but he was still very fragile with what had just happened and feared that Rodrigo could be dead if that wasn't a dream.
'Why did you wake up talking about Rodrigo?' asked Getulio curiously and remembering that the two had not yet talked about his last psychotic episode.
Jonas told him all the details of his hallucinations and described throughly  his last lucid dream. He was hoping that Getulio could explain what was going on, since the old man seemed to know more than he let on.
'I have two theories.' he said, appearing way too calm with what Jonas had just told him.
'Please don't hide anything from me...' pleaded Jonas, already tired from the twists and turns brought by that night and that place.
'First of all.' Getulio again stretched what was left of his amputated leg on the pillow. 'I think my brother may have induced a lucid dream in your mind.'
'Care to elaborate?' Jonas was getting tired and confused.
'You told me you were tied to a chair, didn't you? So these machines, combined with synthetic drugs, have a very strong hold on the human brain, but I believe that this is the least plausible probability. You see, it's very complicated and time consuming to do something like this...'
'So what can it be?' asked Jonas in distress.
'The second hypothesis is that you were not in Rodrigo's dream, but in Giovanni's dream, or anyone else present at this meeting, as a mere spectator.' said Getulio trying to make himself clear.
'What then? I don't understand...' the dilemma of dreams was getting more  complicated with every new information. It seemed that Getulio knew what he was talking about, like someone who had been studying the subject for a long time.
'If this scenario that you experienced is true, it is very unlikely that you were present in the body of someone who, excuse my insensitivity, is apparently already dead.' the tone in Getulio's voice was serious.
'Dead? Are you telling me that Rodrigo is fucking dead?' asked Jonas as he let his eyes fill with tears.
'For what you just told me, it's quite possible, isn't it?' he answered frankly.
'But how could I be in someone else's dream and be another someone else at the same time?' Jonas could not find any connection in the theory presented by old stumpy.
'There is an enormous engineering behind these lucid dreams. The chair, to which you are connected, is equipped with brain wave monitors, and all people who are induced to lucid dreaming share the same type of router, that is, a small universe is created for the connected people, where each one will have the freedom to run for their own dream. However, these brain waves can be programmed to intertwine, which ends up causing what you have experienced now.' said Getulio trying to elucidate things in the best way he could 'My guess is that you were induced by the drug that causes lucid dreams, but you were living Giovanni's dream, or someone else's, who chose you to relive an experience Rodrigo had had before.'
'But is your brother's dream something that has already happened?' Jonas could only imagine that the answer was positive. All the lucid dreams he had had until then had been memories taken from his subconscious.
'I believe so. Lucid dreams are nothing more than the reflection of one's subconscious. They are lost memories taken up by the brain itself, but look, these are all hypothesis, I might be wrong. Do I make myself clear?'
'But why don't I dream something that makes me happy, like it happened the first time? Why doesn't my subconscious look for good memories?'
'That's what I'm trying to explain to you. Your dreams are being modified by the dream chair. And in the case of the latter, I think you were inserted into Giovanni's subconscious, so you came across something you had never seen before.' Getulio seemed to be running out of explanations.
Jonas was stunned by the excess of information.
'The combination of these new drugs with the technology of the dream chair is able to take the human mind to the most diverse experiences. It is something new, little experienced. It's no wonder that it is not allowed.' continued Getulio as he finished his explanation.
'You mean to tell me that, besides being living in a strange reality, I am being inserted in the minds of other people, and in dreams that are not even theirs?'
Getulio just nodded his head with confusion. The complexity of it all was even more profound than what Jonas had imagined, he could not see a light at the end of the tunnel in the face of all that was happening, let alone understand the remote possibility of it happening.
'What can you tell me about this alternative reality? I've been going back and forth for hours from a psychotic state that seems very different from the lucid dreams I've had before.' his curiosity seemed to be in line with the disposition that Getulio, suddenly, showed to explain things.
'I haven't figured that one out yet... But I have a theory about what might be happening to you.' the old man seemed to be afraid to talk about it.
'Another fucking theory? There is no certainty or truth about what is going on here, is there?' replied Jonas, sarcastically, after all he had not alternative but to join the weird little game that everyone around him seemed to be playing. 'What would that theory be?'
'I understand your disregards for the subject, it is very complicated and sometimes difficult to understand.' Getulio followed Jonas's sarcasm.
'Of course, I understand...'
'So... Jokes aside, I believe that these outbreaks of reality that you are having, have already happened.' he stopped whilst Jonas still waited for the explanation to follow.
'They have happened?' Jonas asked himself aloud before he turned his attention back to Getulio. 'But how did I wake up with tattoos I had never seen before?'
'Yes, they have happened, these tattoos are still a mystery to me but I reckon they might have done it to you whilst you were passed out inside the maze. In the other hand they might have done that to you at the same time you were living the memories you just mentioned, but you are never going to be completely sure about it unless Giovanni wants you to. Remember the pamphlet where you read about depersonalisation?'
'Yes.' he remembered what he had read a few minutes ago.
'So, I believe my brother gave you another synthetic drug without you even realising it.' the old man started to talk whilst things started to make sense to Jonas. He soon remembered the sole called cure that he read about in the small pamphlet and was mentioned by Monalisa minutes ago.
'The cure'. responded Jonas.
'How do you know about the cure?' he asked, looking proud.
'It was in the pamphlet you just showed me, and a lady mentioned it in the other reality.'
'MonaLisa?' Getulio's question had a distinct rhetorical tone.
'Do you know her?' Jonas showed no surprise, it was quite possible that Getulio knew everyone in that place.
The old man just nodded, again, which seemed to be some kind of nervous tick he had.
'When I woke up from the first lucid dream, I remember your brother mentioning that Rodrigo had inadvertently changed the pills. Now you want to tell me that I took something else that I don't know about?' Jonas wanted to bring up that topic before forgetting what had happened.
'This is all part of the game, my boy. My brother obviously made a point of misleading you.' he emphasised his speech with a sad tone.
'Let's return to the point, shall we? What's so special about this drug?' asked Jonas before he could digress on another subject without finishing his explanation. It no longer mattered to him how many, and which, drugs he had taken.
'What I mean by depersonalisation, is you preserving the sense of reality and, at the same time, thinking that what you are living is not real, that is, what you perceive, whilst in that red room, has already happened, but at the moment that it happened, you were not aware of things, because your brain was induced to depersonalisation, and that caused those moments to be buried into your subconscious.
'And now these lucid dreams are bringing this old reality to surface?' Jonas interrupted his reasoning so he wouldn't get lost amid that much information.
'Exactly!' exclaimed Getulio as if he had just discovered the fire.
'But how does that apply to me? Is what I see in the room real?'
'Don't you have the feeling of being present in that room? Like you're actually there' Getulio was trying to spell things out in a way that Jonas could understand.
'Yes. I feel present, but I have no control over my body.'
'It is very likely that this is due to a neuromuscular blocker. Giovanni uses it on his victims to have more control over how his sadistic means of punishment will work.' he explained as he terrified Jonas with the news that he was under the influence of a third drug.
'Three drugs then? So what I experience, when I have these blackouts, has already happened?' he returned to the main subject.
'Yes, but the drug only makes you remember these moments when you have  these so called psychotic episodes you've been having. I wouldn't be surprised if my brother was controlling them too.'
'He controls what I can remember?'
'It all depends... If you are connected to the chair, it can induce and monitor a lucid dream, but if it is not, it will control only when you will have the outbreak. He might be able to activate the cure, which is already in your system, through the same technology that controls your brain waves; and from there, he can make you have these outbreaks and remember things that happened whilst you were under the effect of depersonalisation.' Getulio seemed proud of himself for having finished his reasoning with such confidence.
'So he can basically choose what he wants to do with me?'
'Yes, depending on the drug that is active in your brain... It's quite complex'
'I can see that... And why would he induce me to remember memories of me being stuck into that room?'
Getulio expressed the same indignation with his shoulders indicating that the doubt was mutual. At least, the discussions between the people in the small room about drugs and dosages started to make more sense to Jonas.
'Why do they call it the cure?' the more the old man spoke, the more Jonas had questions.
'Some dark and narcissistic reason that only Giovanni can tell you. You don't seem to understand the seriousness of the problem, my brother is willing to go very far to achieve what he wants.'
'I do understand it. I understood that my destiny is bound to a tragic end.' he said, looking unhappy about the direction things were heading.
'We can still turn things around.' the tone of Getulio's voice was very hopeful, but Jonas saw no reason to believe he was going to leave that place alive. 'You need to help me, we need to alert society and bring justice to this place.'
'I'm having a hard time assimilating all of this, I didn't even know anything remotely close to this even existed.' he said thoughtfully.
'I understand. I spent a lot of time studying and reading about it, and I still can't understand all its complexity, I don't expect you to understand everything instantly.' Getulio's expression was empathetic. He wanted to demonstrate to Jonas that he was not alone in that situation, and that they needed each other to get out of there.
That conversation momentarily came to a halt. Jonas was struggling with his own thoughts to put things back together and understand exactly what was going on that night. He was afraid that his best friend might be dead and that the same thing could happen to him in a very short time-frame. He couldn't remember anything that Rodrigo might have done that could be considered heresy, on the contrary, he thought that his friend was there to serve, simply, as an offering to Giovanni Dartagnan's eerie sect. 'Imagine what's in store for me...', he thought as he noticed Getulio fiddling with his pockets.
'Did you happen to see where my phone is?' asked Jonas when remembering the brief moment he was awake and realised his device announcing that a message had been received.
'It fell out of your pocket when you were out...' said Getulio, showing honesty as he handed the device back to Jonas.
'Any messages?' asked Jonas, looking at his phone whilst noticing that it continued its relentless search for a single bar of reception.
'You did receive a message, saying that a voice message has arrived.' Getulio looked suspicious.
'I don't know this number.' replied Jonas as he brought the device back to his pocket. It would be useless trying to look for any way that would make it possible to hear the message.
'Well I know it. Why is Lara calling you?'
'I didn't even know she had my number, how do you know it's her?' asked Jonas, puzzled.
'Lara is my daughter...' Getulio ended his speech with an expression of deep sadness.