The Monsters of the Mind

Part 23

I closed the door behind me, slowly entering the room and taking a seat beside Rose on the bed.

Up close, I could see the age lines on her face and neck with slight wrinkles around her mouth and up on her forehead. She must have worried quite a bit as the years passed before her death. Her smile tough was kind and soft, unlike it had been earlier when we had our first face to face encounter. 

Her arm came around me, her hand resting on my shoulder while the other one took both of mine, her voice soft and filled with a mother's warmth, "Miss Martin... Kylie, what I'm about to tell you is a very distressing story. Several of our previous guests, both living and deceased, have shown little sympathy for our family. I can hardly blame them of course, as it is their decision entirely - especially after everything that's happened."

"I understand, Mrs. Hall," I replied.

The ghost sighed, "It's just been... a very long time it seems, since someone in this place showed any empathy toward us - even Jimmy. I know that the darker side of him has none - a monster at his core - but in reality, he really is a sweet boy. He's very much like how Hugo was before everything fell apart."

"And Hugo Hall - Jimmy's father - was once a good man? What caused that dark side to appear?"

"Perhaps I should start at the beginning," Rose spoke, going back into her memories, "It was about twenty or so years ago when I eventually told the dark truth about what happened to Hugo to Jimmy. Things had gone terrible after Hugo Punch started making regular appearances during the comedy performances - the jokes going so far as to insult anyone in the audience that was... well, let's say that one guest in particular wasn't too fond of being called a 'blood cow munter.'"

"I can understand why," I answered.

Rose chuckled, "Regardless, the guest decided to bad talk Jimmy and tell him what she really thought of him and his comedy act. Hugo became offended and had tied her up, locking her away in one of the rooms on the third floor.

"She was lucky I had been around the area and found her. Neither of us would have wanted to know what Hugo would've done if I hadn't found her in time. I was surprised that she didn't press any charges against Jimmy or I, but she did tell the newspapers."

"Which opened up a whole new can of worms, I imagine?" I asked.

"Oh, you don't know half of it..."

***

Rose's POV

The journalists had been knocking at the door all day, their voices disturbing the few guests that remained in our little hotel.

"Mrs. Hall!" I heard one of them call out, "We would like a word, please? Open the door."

The last of my staff members - the cook and a housekeeper - looked on from the kitchen I stood outside my door.

I could feel the stress and anger rising inside of my body, the heat of the pressure becoming too much for me to handle. It was like when I had discovered that Harvey had passed away, when I had been notified that Jimmy's psychiatrist had died in the basement, or when that little girl had taken a tumble down the stairs and cracked her head open on the landing. I felt powerless.

I knew that they were looking for Jimmy, though. Those reporters were going to ask where he was hiding and seek him out. I wasn't going to allow them to have him, though. He may have been nearly thirty by this point, but he was still my son - he was my responsibility to take care of him until the day I died.

"Rose?" the cook's familiar voice called from the kitchen doors, "Should we go out and talk to them? It doesn't sound like they'll go away at this rate."