You walk back to the lift. You can feel the paper between your fingers. It's cold. Startled, you look down and see a blue slip. You thumb the paper and hold it tightly in your hands. What is it? What is this place?
The lift is very quiet this time. It seems it works harder during the night. It stops. The doors open revealing a hallway. Dark. Creepy. You can hear laughter coming from the other end. You hear a door creaking and the handle rattling. You are astonished at yourself. How did you find yourself afraid?
You see a flicker of light. A little blue tealight in front of you. You trip down the hallway to the source of light.
"Where's that old man?" you ask.
"He's in the other room." The voice is very old, barely audible, but it seems to come from everywhere.
You walk down the hallway to the room where the laughter is coming from. The cande lamp is flickering in the room. You can make out a small bed in the far corner. In the middle of the room is an old lady. You can see her in the shadows. There is a man on the bed. He's wearing a towel wrapped around his waist.
"Who are you?"
"He's an old friend. A long time customer." She spills the lamp beside her onto the bed. The towel on the old man bursts into flames. "I'm sorry. It is time to go."
She begins to walk down the hallway. There are six doors. You can see two large altars covered in candles. You open the cabinet in the center of the room. There are thousands of little candles in there. But you don't need the light. You can see it all perfectly.
You follow the old woman down the hallway.
"Why did you do that?"
"That was my master," she says, her voice is fading.
Another door. Another altar. She holds her hand out to you, but you don't see her finger. It's too dark. It smells like powder. You look up at the light in the dome shaped room. The slide show is about to begin.
You walk to the altar and look up at the screen twirling around and around. You watch the pictures. Images of people you know. A picture of you and your mom on a beach. A picture of you and a classmate at your first reunion. A picture of the two of you on your wedding day. The pictures fly around the screen until they become one. The last image is a picture of a wooded area in the winter. You watch the screen spinning around and around. You watch it until it stops. You look up at the wall. Your reflection is staring back. It's the same reflection, but it's different somehow. Your eyes are the same. Your hair is the same. But it's as if it is not you. It is like your reflection is there but you are not. You move forward to the altar and take a piece of chalk. You write a word that only you know on the wall: "Fugue."
You turn and walk out of the room. The lady walks you out of the hotel. You sit in your car and watch the lady. Tears stream down your face.
You take the paper out of your pocket. It is different somehow now. It is blank. You look back at the hotel. You can see the face of the man. He is in every window of the hotel. He is staring back at you.
You start the car and drive home.
You pull up in front of your house. The car dies and you look at the clock. It is almost midnight. You get out of the car and you feel that you are in a dream. It's like a dream you have forgotten. You feel something on your leg and hear a car's alarm blaring. It's him isn't it? You look around the deserted area. The car alarm has stopped. You look up to the area where the car died. The alarm blaring has stopped. You turn around to the front of your house. The alarm has stopped. You look at the clock. It's 11:57pm. The alarm did not sound because you woke up.
You smash your finger down on the alarm's red button. You hear the alarm start to chime and break apart. You return to your house. You know the alarm will not stop until it is 12 am. You slip inside your house. You walk down the hall to your room and turn on your computer. You feel safer with the light on. You open your internet and you can see your email. You start to compose an email to your friend Katie.
You write different words, but nothing makes sense. You feel the words are written down the wrong way. Your eyes sting. You look up at the photos of you and Katie. It swims in front of your eyes. You stumble out of your room.
You walk up to your door again and begin to write an email to your mother. You write a long and detailed description of what you see. Your mother bursts through your door. Shocked.
"You scared me." She says.
"You scared me." You say.
"Do you-do you want something?"
"I don't know. I don't know what I want. I just know that I should be driving and I'm not. But I came home and I wrote you this email."
Your eyes begin to swim again.
"I know something is wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"I think I'm going crazy."
"You're not. Or maybe, the other side of crazy."
"What?"
"I can't say it. You either know or you don't know."
They say that about pain.
"We will get through this."
But you don't know.
Pic (Source)
Congratulations @crocodilesputnik! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 4500 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!