Hotel Le Grand

xi

The mime continued to smile as he waved the skin around like it was normal. We all watched him for what felt like hours until he dropped the skin and took a giant step forward. Like he was testing to see if he could.

His smile grew wider and he danced around for a bit before pulling out a long, blood stained knife and wagging it at us like a mother scolding a misbehaving child. I opened my mouth and continued to stare. He was terrifying, but so fascinating. Finally, after he knew he had our attention, he lifted one hand and motioned for us for follow him before turning and taking off down the hall.

I took a single step forwards, but someone suddenly grasped my arm and gently pulled me to a halt. Turning my head, I saw that it was Levi, a hard expression on his face. "What are you doing?" He muttered, not looking away from the end of the hall.

"He wants us to follow him," I said, furrowing my eyebrows. "Shouldn't we?"

"It's a trap. He's going to kill you."

I pinched my lips together and watched the mime run back, his painted face contorted with confusion. He motioned for us to once again follow him while doing a little hop backwards. Deep down, I had a gut feeling that we should follow him. "We need to," I blurted, looking up at my boyfriend.

"What do you mean, 'we need to?!'" Kayla shouted from behind us. "He's psychotic like the rest of this dang place!"

"Yeah," The rest of them piped.

Jared, a voice murmured in the very back of my skull. He has Jared. I stiffened, "Jared. He's got Jared!" The mime grinned from ear to ear and clapped his hands together in joy while nodding his face vigorously. Faye shrieked and released Jace, beginning to race forward when I gripped her arm. "We follow. Not fight."

She grimaced but quit struggling against my hold, "Fine." I nodded and leaned into Levi, hissing when I took a step forward. My feet burned with each step, but the glass no longer dug deeper into my skin, taking away some of the initial pain. The mime motioned again and skipped down the hall before finally reaching a door. We halted a good ten feet away and watched while he lifted a finger to his lips like he was shushing us, his grotesque painted smile smudging as a wide grin settled onto his lips.

I stared at the door and bile rose in the throat as I spotted the blood dripping lazily down the doorjamb. This was the door my hand had gotten slammed in, and that meant--

The mime threw open the door and slipped inside, avoiding the bloodied, tipped chair in the middle of the room. He covered his mouth and picked the chair back up, tipping his hat to us before skipping merrily to the bathroom. He placed his hand on the doorknob and waved us over before once again placing his finger to his lips. "Shh, he's sleeping," He mouthed and opened the door as quickly as he could, revealing something that automatically had Kayla and Faye vomiting onto the floor.

Jared was nailed to the wall above the bathtub, the thick black ropes from earlier wiggling and crawling over his body like snakes as he breathed shallowly. Blood dropped from long, terrible slices across his entire body, chucks of skin missing. A knife sat on the bathroom floor, a small red puddle surrounding it. The mime had taken to slowly skinning Jared alive, but that wasn't the sickest part.

As we were looking at Jared's mutilated body, the mime proceeded to dance over to the tub and pull a ladle from the bottom, slowly bringing it to his lips and swallowing a big gulp of thick, red liquid. I dry heaved, gagging and stumbling back into Levi's chest as he enveloped me in his arms and turned
away, cringing and gagging along with me. The mime sat up and cocked his head at us, as if wondering why we were so horrified.

There was silence that had begun to settle when it was broken by Jace screaming and running forwards, grabbing the mime by the shoulders and slamming him into the ground. We all stood, shocked, while Jace proceeded to repeatedly slam the miles twisted face into the ground. He didn't stop until the mime's body ceased to move and a puddle of red began to seep from his face. Jace, not wasting a second, got off the body of the mime and went for Jared, placing his hands on the rope when they suddenly transferred from Jared to Jace, wrapping around his hands and slithering up his arms.

Jace shouted, stumbling back while Levi released me. Just as he was about to put his hands on Jace, I grabbed him and yanked him away, "You touch it, it gets you too. Don't touch it."

Meanwhile, Jace was shrieked and trying to pull the ropes from him, but they only tightened and lengthened, moving further and further up his body until they were nearly at his shoulders. Faye began to panic, reaching out to help her boyfriend when I jumped between her, turning to Jace. "You need to stop moving. They're like boa constrictors. The more you move, the more they squeeze."

Jace stopped struggling and looked at me with wide eyes, full of intense fear. If he didn't stop, they would squeeze until his spine snapped and kill him. "What do I do?" He asked, barely above a faint whisper.

I bit my lip, which hurt the large gash on my cheek, "I honestly don't know. I just know that's what they do." Jace closed his eyes and moved, sitting down on the counter. "Can we cut them?" He asked, his eyes moving to look at the bloody knife on the ground.

"We could try. Levi, you get Jared down and I'll try to cut Jace free, okay?" I bent down and picked up the knife while Levi stepped over the mime and went to working on Jared. I bent over and touched the sharp tip of the blade into the black rope. The rope slithered back from the touch and tightened around Jace, causing him to gasp and flinch. "Crap," I swore, biting my lip.

Figuring I didn't have much of a choice, I brought the knife down on the rope and began to saw, but it only responded by tightening and making an odd kind of whistling noise. Just as I was about to back off, a hand wrapped around my ankle and dragged me down onto the floor.

Face to face with the mangled, blood soaked mime.