Dancing with a ghost

Chapitre 5

Lacy had spent a week in the hotel. Two police officers had come and asked her a few questions. She tried to describe the attacked as she could but, when she talked about a blond woman they did not seemed to believe her. According to them the thing that attacked the passengers was an animal. They could say whatever they want, Lacy was not mad. 

The hotel was a good place. She felt sheltered from stress. The city where she lived was stressful. Here she was far from the noisy cars, and hurry people.

She had returned in the library a few times, searching books that could help her for her studies. The first year had been really difficult and she did not want to suffer about that this year. 

Her watch indicated nine pm. It was time for her to meet James March, who had certainly finished his dinner. She wanted to apolagize for their altercation. The receptionnist had told her that his room was on the last floor, at the end of the corridor. 

The athmosphere here was odd. There were no sounds apart from her heavy breathing. She hated that. When she finally faced the door, her anxiety increased. She took a deep inhalation before knocking a first time on the wooden door. 

No answer. She knocked a second time but there was still no answer.

"Never mind, I would have tried." She said to herself. 

When she was about to leave, the door opened. The perfect cliché of every horror movies. And just as the main antagonist of an horror movie, Lacy entered in the room. The lights on the walls were dull, and the air strangely cold. The room was almost empty. A bed, a desk and a chair. Nothing more. There was no window. No rug. No decorations. Perhaps she was in the wrong room ? 

When her eyes stopped on the desk, she noticed an old  notebook. Of course she would not read it. It was personal. She could not do that. But Lacy was too curious, she had already the notebook in her hands. The scarlet letters surprised her at first. Then she saw the list.  

"... 

John Smith. Doctor. Burned.

Mary Williams. Strangulation.

Margaret Randall. Asphyxiated. 

Andrew Wilson. Bus drivers. Slaughtered."

She let the notebook fell on the floor. 

"You shouldn't be that curious." 

His accent. It was him. James March. 

She turned around to face him. She was so terrified that he could hear her heart beats. He loved this sound. 

"Hel... Hello." She stammered. 

"I did not expect you to be there? You make the task easier." He smirked. 

"Wh... What task." 

He laughed. 

"I'm gonna kill you my dear." 

Lacy's vision clouded because of the tears. James came closer to her and brought his lips to her left ear. 

"You have ten seconds." 

She did not understand until he started to count.

"Ten..."

She pushed him and ran out of the room. 

"Eight..." 

She tried to open one of the multiple doors of the corridor. Locked. 

"Help !" She yelled while heading towards the landing. 

"Nobody will hear you Lacy." His voice sounded closer. 

She did not want to watch behind her. She hurtled down the stairs. 

"Five..." 

Unfortunately Lacy missed a step and fell, rolling down on the few last steps. Her whole body ached. 

"Oh my God."

 She was not even able to move her ankle.

"Three..."

The sound of his shoes became nearer and nearer. 

"Two..." 

She sat on the floor, crying, when James appeared in her vision. 

"Honestly I'm disappointed, I thought you would run faster." 

This man was totally insane.  He picked her up as if she was a simple doll. 

"Please kill me now." She said while closing her eyes. 

She did not want to beg for mercy. A serial killer had no mercy. James caught her chin. 

"My dear, I have another plan concerning you." 

When she opened her eyes again, she did not have the time to say a single word that an handkerchief had been put on her mouth and noze. 

She tried to struggle but the product on the handkerchief was stronger. 

"No..." She whispered while her eyelids closed slowly. 

"Have a good night darling."