Hotel Miramar by Jonathan Dunne

Author:Jonathan Dunne [Dunne, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

21

Creeping Flesh

Dusk plunged on the island. Darkness cloaked Hotel Miramar once again. It was Christmas Eve, but there was nothing Christmassy about this hotel. Instead of Christmas carols, growling screams filtered through the bowels of this diabolical institute. That gut-wrenching roar from the mysterious Rocky (sounding too much like a tortured man and other times like an angry bear caught in a nasty snare trap) lit up the night as the darkness outside turned blacker.

Peter wanted to see the pale blue eye again. Maybe she could help their plight? While his mother and father were busy studying their growing skin abrasions and sores in the window’s reflection with the aid of Ruth’s flashlight, the boy slipped out.

Neither Dan nor Ruth noticed their child leave the room because their minds were on something else…at least, Ruth’s mind was. For the last hour, especially since it had grown darker in the room, she had been watching her husband with an inquisitive eye. There was something beginning to dawn on her — quite disturbing, yet horribly fascinating. About an hour ago, she first realised it when her husband had got up from the damp bed and walked about the room before looking for his reflection in the windowpane to check on his growing wounds. Not wanting to draw attention to her odd findings, she asked Dan to have a look in the ensuite bathroom (which sounded very fancy but was far from it in reality) for her hair clip she had dropped on the floor but could not retrieve it as it was too dark, even with the flashlight. Her belly fluttered when Dan walked across the room, into the grubby ensuite bathroom, and returned a second letter with the clip she had dropped…without his flashlight.

*

Peter walked a few steps and stopped at room 1815. He stared at the peeling paint of the door and the scribbled number before shining his flashlight through the keyhole…

He startled, stepped back, then forward to the keyhole. The eye was there. It was as if it had read his mind and was waiting for him.

‘Go back to your room,’ said the eye. ‘You shouldn’t be out after dark.’

‘Why are you looking out? Did you read my mind?’ He asked the all-seeing eye.

More whispers flittered from inside the door…

Sky Eye answered, ‘I’m keeping an eye out.’

No truer words.

‘For what?’

Whispers…

‘The Halifaxes. And if they see you, they’ll put you in the cage.’

Peter shivered at that thought. ‘Please help us. My mom and dad have some kind of…skin disease. My mom, she…’ He couldn’t bring himself to tell the eye he had seen his mother’s ear come away in her hand.

Whispering…

‘We cannot help you. You are a guest now.’

If the all-seeing eye’s comment about the cage shook Peter, the finality of this line left him breathless. In the back of his mind, the boy wondered why they were in darkness in room 1815. Peter was aware of the electricity situation. But there was a surplus of flashlights left at strategic points about the so-called hotel.

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