Chapter 26
Chapter 26
The darkness was comfortable and for once, Cleo did not want to let go of its embrace.
It felt like the darkness was alive, pulling her in a tight hug as she nestled into it.
It felt safe for she knew that when her eyes opened, she did not know what horrific realities awaited her.
In the darkness there was no confusion, there were no voices and there was no light.
It was warm and safe and for once, it was a place that she could rest.
However, even though Cleo wished she could stay in the darkness forever, she was well aware that as long as her heart remained active, there will come a time when she is forced out of the darkness to face the same fears that she had opens to run away from.
“Mommy? Mommy wake up! Wake up mommy.”
A soft feminine voice prodded at her over and over again.
The reaction came to her in an instant.
Cleo’s eye kids tightened against each other in a desperate attempt to remained engulfed by the darkness.
However, her actions proved futile as her eyes fluttered open.
The first that she noticed when she opened her eyes was that she was in some kind of hallway.
The hall way was dark and misty.
Cleo looked behind her to see that she was seated in front of a red door.
Room 324
It read and she felt a wave of shiver run down the very length of her spine.
“Mommy?”
The same voice called out again and she turned she look in front of her.
Before her was a young dirtied blonde child who looked like she had not been taking care of in months.
It was the same child but this time, she was back to her dirty unkept state.
In a hand, she had her plushie which was also dirty and torn at many places.
And in her other hand…..she had a small tattered leathered book.
Cleo immediately recognized the book and reached out to grab the girl.
She touched her yes but her hand went through her.
“W-what?!
She couldn’t touch the girl and it was then that Cleo noticed her transparent form.
She was there but at the same time, it seemed like she was fading away.
Her body started to move backwards but the little child arched her head to the side while coming even closer.
“Mommy, you know you can’t touch ghosts. Silly mommy.”
She said with a child-like grin but Cleo’s hand gisted over her chest as she tried to control the unexplainable tightening of her chest that she felt at this very moment.
Once the form was in front of her, she carefully dropped the small book in her laps.
“Why do you keep running mommy?”
The girl eyes her red wooded eyes staring at her without blinking.
“Because I need answers.” Cleo croaked back.
“Mommy, if you need answers then you need to stop pretending.”
The little girl responded, her voice echoing throughout the hallway.
“By mommy,”
And with that, the little blonde child disappeared like she was never there in the first place.
The suddenly the end of the hallway seemed to be coming close to Cleo at a very fast pace.
She held on to the door knob behind her but the door wouldn’t open.
Cleo woke up with a fright, gasping for air as she swallows bouts of it.
Her entire form shook as sweat glistened against her skin.
Her hair was stuck to her face as her eyes immediately scanned the entire room.
She was back in the Hotel Room.
She was back in Hotel La Rue.
There were no men in white, no cameras on the ceiling and no sticky notes on the wall.
Jumping out of the bed, she ran over to the window to see that the back wall that had been there before was nowhere to be seen.
She could see the trees and the road.
A sense of relief washed against Cleo at the sight of this but her heart continued to hammer against her chest.
Was it all a nightmare?
Perhaps the fact that she husband and boyfriend had cheated on her was a reality that was taking a toll on her more than she had thought.
Her box was still closed and none of her belongings had been arranged yet in the room.
“Perhaps I just fell asleep the moment I got here yesterday.”
She said to herself as she took in deep breaths.
Something caught her eye on the bed.
….It was the same journal that she saw in her dreams.
The same one that she had been using since she was in highschool and had dreams of one day becoming a writer but at the same time, the journal seemed so unfamiliar.
Like it did not belong to her.
Like it belonged to someone else.
Cleo could not explain what she was feeling.
She just kept starting at it like it was some kind of plague.
Knock
Knock
The knocking on the door was more than enough to bring her out of her thoughts and snap her back into reality.
Her entire body froze in shock and fear as she started at the door in worry..
“Cleo, it’s me. Open the door, we need to talk.”
A voice sounded from outside.
Cleo knew that voice.
It had been embedded into her mind for years.
It was the voice of Elliot, her husband.
Has he somehow been able to track her down?
Cleo tried to move to open the door but it seemed lien eve kegs had a mind of their own.
Her entire body was frozen in fear and she could not understand why.
Then she remembered….
She remembered the dream that she had and how her husbands was a man in white.
She remembered how her hands and feet where strapped to the table.
She remembered the warning that she had seen on the sticky notes.
But there was one that stuck to her the most.
“Pretend.”
Cleo now knew what she must do to find out the truth.