Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Almost immediately, Cleo's knees gave out as she slumped to the floor.
Her pupils dilating as now, looking at the other Cleo became impossible for her.
“Why did you kill me Megan?”
Her voice echoed again, staring at her with her bloodied frame and cold eyes.
Her words rattled against the walls of her skull causing a loud ringing in her ears.
“I-I am not Megan. My name is C-Cleo Ainsley.”
Cleo said with more tears running down her cheeks and blurring her vision.
Her voice was shaky and it was clear that even she did not believe the words that came out of her mouth.
Her voice was fragile and hollow. Almost like she was trying to convince herself that those words were the truth.
Her eyes ached as the tears seemed to fall on their own volition.
“So you stole my name too?”
The bloodied Cleo said with a scoff as she turned her head to the side not talking her eyes off of Cleo.
Silence….
The silence was loud and Cleo could hear the sounds of her hard breathing.
Her nostrils flared as she tried to take in deep breaths of air in a desperate attempt to calm her fast beating heart.
The silence was unbearable but Cleo did not dare look up at her.
From the side of her eye, she could tell that the strange reflection was no longer in the mirror.
Then a loud humming sound was heard.
It was coming from her desk.
It was from her laptop.
The device hummed and its screen light flickered.
Typing sounds could be heard and Cleo could tell that words were appearing on its screen.
Still not daring to look at the bloodied figure before her, Cleo pulled herself from the floor as she took unstable steps towards her laptop.
Her knees buckled with each step and it took all of her strength just to stay upright.
Her heart continues to hammer violently against her chest wall as a wave of nausea washed over her.
Cleo could already tell that she was not ready to find out that truth but to her, the reflection was right.
This was indeed not a life.
After what seems like hours, Cleo was finally in front of the laptop on the desk.
Her breath hitched as she read the first words.
The cursor danced at the end of the sentence as if waiting for her to read to write more.
YOU ARE NOT CLEO.
Cleo’s mouth became ajar as breathing through her nostrils became ineffective.
She drew in large gulps of hair through her mouth but that did nothing to calm her raging heart.
She swallowed a huge knot in her throat as her stomach churned threatening to empty out all of its contents.
Then all of a sudden, the sound of typing started again as more words began to appear on the laptop screen.
Cleo turned to look at the bloodied figure.
She had not moved an inch but her head was now also turned towards her, her gaze fixated as she tried to peer into the very depths of her soul.
The reaction came in an instant.
Cleo immediately turned her head back to the laptop as the typing sound stopped.
FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED MEGAN!!!
“I am not Megan.”
She whispered to herself as the cursor danced yet again.
Over and over Cleo read out the words typed in black.
Then the sound of typing started again.
This time, she did not bother to look at the bloodied frame of the other Cleo.
Her eyes remained fixated on the laptop screen, anxiously waiting for the next words that were going to show.
MURDERER
LIAR
TRAITOR.
Then the typing stopped.
These words were bold and in red.
Cleo’s breath became shaky as her hands became sweaty and clammy.
She started to hyperventilate as her chest became tighter and tighter but not once did she remove her gaze from the laptop screen.
Then just like that, the laptop went blank.
The bloodied figure disappeared and Cleo was now alone in the room.
Ringggggg
Ringgggg
Ringgggg
The sounds of a device ringing was more than enough to bring her out of her thoughts.
Cleo immediately went in search of the source of that sound.
It was her phone which was strange.
She was sure that she no longer had it.
When she woke up in the room again, she was sure tagt it had been taken away from her.
Was that also part of her imagination?
Did she also imagine the black wall surrounding the entire hotel?
She immediately picked up the phone from under her pillow.
Without looking at the caller ID, Cleo swiped to the right, picking the call.
“H-hello?”
The sounds on the other side was buffered and shaky but Cleo could still make out the words being spoken.
The line cracked and Cleo’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration to be able to make out what was being said.
“Megan…”
“Megan what have you done?!”
“Where are you?!”
“Police”
“The Police are here….”
“Travel……”
“The detective told you not to travel.”
Then just like that, the line became static and Cleo let go of the phone, making it shatter on the hard ground.
It felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured on her entire body.
Her blood ran cold in her very veins and her eyes widened in shock.
What had she done?!
She remembered it all….
She remembered what she had done….
Cleo looked down at her hands to see that they were stained with blood.
In fact, her entire outfit was blood stained.
How come she had not noticed this in the first place?!
Had she been living in a world that she created in her mind?
These were the questions that ran through her mind bug Cleo remained fixated on her bloody hands.
She remembered who she was..
She was not Cleo Ainsley.
She was Megan Melroy,….the personal assistant to Cleo Ainsley, an award winning author.
She was not married to Elliot Fournier.
He was the detective that first visited her when IT happened.
Was she in so much of a shock that she told herself lies?
That she created world after world in her head?
Megan walked over to the bed to see the same turn leathered book staring right back at her.
It was never hers.
It belonged to Cleo Ainsley.
“I killed them….”
She muttered, her entire form starting to visibly shake.
“I told you. You killed me.”
Cleo flinched as a voice sounded from behind her.
She turned around to see the same bloodied up Cleo but this time, she was holding the hands of the same dirtied up blonde child.
She had the same worn out stuffie in her hands.
Then beside her was Linda?
Yes…..she remembered.
Linda was never her best friend.
Linda was the colleague that Cleo always favored.
She was Cleo’s sister.
Behind them was Lucienne….. Cleo’s mother and finally Julienne….the maid,
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
They all started to chant in unison. Their voices echoed loudly against the walls of Megan’s skull making her out her hands over bare head in a desperate attempt to drown out their voices but nothing worked.
A sharp pain ran through her head making her scream out in agony.
“STOP! Please stop!!!”
She pleases but it fell on deaf ears.
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
WHY MEGAN?
They continued to chant over and over again.
Cleo could feel her reality crashing right in front of her and then silence……
They all disappeared like they were never there in the first place.
Her eyes go to the ceiling as the tears continued to stream down her face.
“What have I done?”
She whispered to herself in a low shaky tone.