The Monsters of the Mind

Part 8

Unlike how our conversation over tea the previous day flowed animblely, today's conversations - if any - were more shorter and less... agreeable. The topics were simple answer questions like 'How has your day been?', 'Is the room still to your liking?', and so forth. In between each question was awkward filled silence, as if the two of us were separated by a thick glass wall and neither of us could communicate with one another. I could sense there was something that Mr. Hall wanted to confide me in, but there was an internal war going on in his mind.

Once both of us had our fill, of both tea and biscuits, I excused myself to my room - claiming that I was tired and in need of a short nap before supper. Mr. Hall accepted this answer without question, once again asking if I would be interested in coming to the comedy show tonight.

I declined, feeling a bit remorseful about not accepting his invitation. However, in my mind, I had more important matters that needed my attention - the little girl in the hallway and the strange man knocking on the doors of the second level, for instance. With the idea of asking questions to the hotel's proprietor about what I've witnessed thrown out the window, I would have to get my answers from somewhere else.

Once on my floor, I retreated down the hallway toward my room.

I could feel my mind thinking of possible explanations as well as solutions to what I had witnessed for the past two days.

For starters, the eeriness of the place.

The hotel had been abandoned for some time, it seemed, and all because of these unknown rumors about this so-called 'family curse.' All rumors and lies stemmed from some variation of the truth and there was no argument that two people had died in the hotel - as far as I knew - and one was under mysterious circumstances. My first thought was maybe someone had caught wind of this second death and believed that it was a part of something bigger. Perhaps they thought it was best to alert the rest of the town?

'But where did that leave the little girl, and the strange man? And what about this James? Was 'James' the name of Jimmy Hall's father?' my mind asked.

"Too many questions for my liking," I grumbled reaching my door, my head throbbing from everything.

A nap was beginning to sound quite nice at this point.

Closing the door behind me, I turned to get into the bed when my eyes caught the strange little girl again.

She was still dressed the same way I had seen her - a pale blue dress with ribbon ties in the back and white shoes. She was pale skinned with a slight flush on her cheeks and her dark hair was still tied up into two little ponytails with white ribbons. She was clutching the little pink purse in her hands, stroking the fabric as if it was a lifeline.

"Excuse me," I entered slowly, not wanting to frighten her.

She turned her head toward me, her dark eyes wide.

"Please, I didn't mean to startle you," I began, but the lights flickered before going out. When they turned on again, the little girl was gone.

The purse was back where it was - on top of my book on the bedside table - and there was no indication that there had been anyone else in the room. I rubbed my face, turning away and looking back toward the bed, hoping to trigger something. But the room was still empty, save for me.

Am I seeing things?

I went into the bathroom and wiped down my face with warm water, rubbing the cleaning liquid into my skin. Maybe I was more tired than I thought...

***

Something was knocking on my door.
I opened my eyes - surrounded by darkness with the only light sneaking in from the crack under the door from the hallway. I could hear voices, though muffled, from the other side of the door. I sat up and looked at the clock on the nightstand. It wasn't moving, no sounds came from it. I reached out and tried the lamp, but the bulb refused to work.