MADELEINE HOTEL, Part V
"MADELEINE HOTEL contains unsuspected secrets. About to go crazy, Harry, is at the mercy of a macabre event, which begins with the arrival of a strange visitor..."
A sordid touch was heard. It was like sandpaper, like the trail of a viper in the brush. It was repeated slightly in sequences. Something that, moving, was rubbed against the tongue and groove... I directed the light bulb towards the wall. I sneezed once!, then two; Sudden allergy!, appears without warning, untimely. I staggered as I shook my nose and even that viscous nasal jet, liquid, running to my chin... _Formaldehyde! _, I identified, the penetrating smell associated with death... used to preserve corpses, foul smell !, toilet cleaner. I thought, At the end of this, I will have the gas pipe checked!...
<<sneeze>> ¡!...
_What are you doing here? _, I asked the man who was walking down the hall. He appeared out of nowhere with inadvertent silent steps, in his strange gait, apparently without shoes... He said nothing, ignored me completely. Nothing polite! While covering his face with one hand, with the other, he held the opening of a door. Enchanted, it hindered the lantern light, letting me see the thick of a mustache...
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"He peeked into each room. Then, striding sideways, rubbing his back against the wall, he made the wood creak. Dressed in black suit, tie-tie and a pocket watch, I recognized him for his hanging chain...
He evaded me, sinking into the gloom..."
I kept sneezing! I must suspend !, I said to myself, _ "But I will kill myself" _. I opted to go down the stairs where I was perched, trying to fix the lamp in the hallway... I placed the breastplate, the screwdriver and the screws on the carpet, with the intention of picking them up later. I went quickly to the switch to turn on the luminaire... and nothing. Again, it didn't work. Due to the electrical failure, he had to lower the breakers from the board. I carried a battery lantern with me, which was used by the depositary. For safety reasons in the file warehouse there were no electrical outlets. A measure against fires, according to hotel standards.
I barely managed to spot the guy who wandered down the hall. _I could be anyone! _, everything went so fast, like a blink. I thought it was one of the waitresses who finished their jobs and then checked the rooms. But no, if my eyes did not deceive me, what I saw was the silhouette of a man, that "had no doubt." Where would you leave your shoes! _Any guest lost? _, Would you need help? _, I told myself... I'd better go after him!
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"As I could, I crossed the waiting room whose dimensions were memorized, but not, those of the reception hall, where everything was completely black... Hey you, stop! I called again... In the opaque light of the flashlight, I saw the subject's shadow get lost on the main staircase..."
That smell was the only thing left in the environment. I know the origin of my allergy!, brutal! He spread the outdated fragrance. _A cheap perfume!, ha! _, rather butane, creolina, go tastes those. I better not think! It's coming to me again...
<<sneeze>> ¡!...
_Oh! Of course, obviously. How stupid !, the "breaker", how could I forget it? I was never going to turn on the damn lamp while the power supply was disconnected. I got distracted by the intruder in the hall. _"But I'm going to solve everything!"_, it was just a detail...
The flashlight batteries had run out. He walked in stumbling, from the waiting room, to the electrical connection, which was located under the wall clock. As I passed through the furniture I seemed to hear murmurs... _ Without wanting to stumble something, or maybe someone? _. Now I heard more clearly:
_ "I will miss you so much"_, "Yes! We will all miss you..."
¿... ?
That cold ran through me, again from head to toe. Like the nightmare I had when I was a child! Almost paralyzed, I would have liked the light to come on by magic. But the legs did not give me!, _ What happened in the room of the Madeleine?_, Why always something macabre, in this hotel, it makes me tremble?... It did not sound good !, I looked inside me, the courage to start walking and end the new lunge of fear, which I did not know why he attacked me at that precise moment.
I reached the electricity board, activated the breaker and... Eureka!.
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"All the hall lamps were lit, leaving the 5th floor of Madeleine Hotel with perfect lighting. The velvety fibers of the carpet looked flawless. The wooden walls with the border at the top, ivory. The lattice arch of the cornices. The ceiling, placed in a diamond shape supported by white lacquered wooden sticks."
I was glad to see all the doors of the rooms properly closed, some with the hang tag "Please do not disturb". It wouldn't last, for a long time...!
<<sneeze>> ¡!...
Silence, which was soon interrupted... _ The damn smell returned!_,
formalin!
Again I panicked, felt like vomiting, of running towards the window. Horror entered through my ears! I wanted to jump down the stairs and roll... Break the window glass and ask for help. Hail Mary from heaven! Save me, from this curse that does not stop harassing me...
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A woman dressed in black, with her head down, crooked, prayed the hypnotic whisper that was my torment. That translucent veil, exposed the profile of an aquiline nose, embedded in a livid, stark face, purulent yellow skin was countenance of its silhouette. The skirt dropped to the ground, without a definite shape, with the antañon snaps moving slowly, while with her knee bent she remained supported, in a coffin...
He raised his hand pointing at me, the pointed finger was digging into my being from a distance... The flame of death tore the little that was left of me, killed me, turned me a potato of bones and flesh. And so dropping the scapular, the trembling, almost inaudible voice of death, spoke to me, imperative...
_ Harry Volte! Are you, Harry Volte? ...
She continued:
"For years I have come to meet, with my beloved...! At first, our courtship was sheltered between the sheets of this hotel... Until the day, when he fell down the stairs !. Today we are, martyrs, of an unforgivable love, refused to leave, what was their refuge... "
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Without noticing, as attracted by the cursed magnetism of his incendiary finger, I was soon, petrified, submissive, standing next to the woman... An unbreakable enigma bent my reason, my body, it wasn't me anymore! The amulet of that old humpbacked and fetid, became the complicated "Harry", now in the biggest mess of his life...
_ "Do not move from here!", she said...
That sounded like an order...
_ "I'll be right back, I'll go for a rosary..."
Waving the black lace of her dress, she walked towards the stairs... She seemed not to touch the floor, looked like a rag, tattered by inertia. He left, leaving me alone, with the dead...
Breathing a little, I swallowed the sparkling saliva, intoxicated by adrenaline... At that time, I was crazy! A thinker outside the real context. With the chaotic mind complicit in my deep fear, I had nothing left but to approach to look.
Through the coffin glass... I remember the embalmed figure. I looked at her, which wax statue. In the face of the late lover, a thick mustache, let me know who he was...
To be continue...
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[Original Content]
@nachomolina
#venezuela
Also published in Spanish, in my personal account of the Steemit.com platform. If you want to check the publication, here it is the link:
https://steemit.com/blocktrades/@nachomolina/madeleine-hotel-parte-v-or-escrito-por-nachomolina-or-relato-original-or-suspenso-or-horror-or-esp
