The Dartagnan Brothers Hotel

Chapter 13

The more Jonas tried to understand what was going on, the more agitated he became. The sensation he was feeling was too real for it to be a dream or one of those psychotic episodes, he hadn't cried with that intensity since he ended his relationship with Joana Clemente.
Giovanni Dartagnan's face took over his field of vision, and the countenance of his head was outlined by the strong light that previously hindered his vision. He tried to find any other known face, but the one of the man who was trying to ruin his life was the only one he could make out.
'I need you to stay calm, my friend. You've been out of reality for a long time.' Giovanni's voice sounded with an ease that aimed to calm Jonas's spirits.
Gradually, Jonas managed to stop crying and tried to make sure his thoughts made sense. 'That was not a dream...', he thought as he sought all the care in the world so he wouldn't say anything that had happened to him to Giovanni or anyone else who could be there.
'Where am I?' he finally managed to say.
'You're under my care.' Douglas' voice followed as he came to be a part of Jonas' point of view. There was still no sign of the priest or Monalisa, but Lara seemed to be around there somewhere.
'What happened to me?' he started with the most obvious question, trying to get into the game as he knew he had to.
'You don't remember anything?' asked Giovanni with an expression of curiosity.
'I do remember. I remember many things, but what I want to know is why I am tied up to this chair?' he asked as he raised his voice. Jonas, even though still dizzy due to to being recently woken up, couldn't remember having had that kind of confidence before.
'Sorry, we were worried that you might get hurt.' replied Giovanni, nodding in Douglas's direction se he would release the bonds that held Jonas's hands.
Everything seemed to be developing very easily, Jonas did not expect that he could speak to Mr. Dartagnan that way and still be answered. It went against everything that had been going through for the past few hours, but he knew he couldn't get carried away by the cult leader's false kind impression, he needed to gain his trust and use it to his advantage.
'Wow, wow. Easy now!' exclaimed Giovanni as he jumped back when he realised that Jonas went to meet him as soon as he had his bonds loose. 'What's going on with you?'
'You! Don't play dumb with me!' shouted Jonas whilst being held by Douglas.
'Jonas, what happened?' he could finally see Lara.
'Where am I?' he asked, once again, without exhaling trust to anyone around. He knew he needed to be smarter than the others if he wanted to leave that hotel unharmed.
'You're in a recovery room, under my care.' replied Douglas.
'Can you remember anything that happened in your dreams? Giovanni repeated himself in a surprised tone.
'How long have I been stuck to this chair?' Jonas wanted to make sure that the time in that psychotic attack was the same as the reality he hoped to return.
'A few hours. We were worried.' Lara sounded sincere.
The three of them made a startled look towards Jonas.
He shook his head from side to side, trying to seek answers in the small room. as he kept looking for Monalisa and the priest, but there was no sign that they were anywhere around. 'Soon I will return to reality, but now I must take advantage of my lucidity in this place to find answers.', he thought when he realised that soon his head would hurt again.
'Do you remember what you dreamed of?' Douglas repeated Giovanni's unanswered question.
'Dreamed?' Jonas began to be frightened by the sense of reality that the conversation was giving him, letting the emotional start to override reason and spoil the brief moment of confidence he had just had.
What do you think you were doing in this chair until now?' asked Lara.
'I... I don't know? You tell me!'
'You got sick after some time at the party.' she started to answer.
'We brought you here so that Douglas could help you regain your consciousness.' interrupted Giovanni, who was looking at him with a worried expression.
Obviously, none of that made any sense to him, since that situation was just the result of a misunderstood lucid dream, something he was just beginning to understand, but the lucidity with which he could think, and the concreteness of the events that were taking place around him, started to scare him. Before, he couldn't even move inside the small red room, but now he was fully aware of everything that was happening, besides feeling the heat transmitted from his own hand when he went to get the recent tattoos done on his arms against his will.
That moment startled him. Despite feeling a slight discomfort in his arm, the two tattoos were completely gone. He tried to rub hard any makeup that might have been put on the drawings, as he noticed that Giovanni and Lara glanced at him with a certain concern, but he knew exactly what they were looking for. His body was sore, as if she had just been doing hours of physical exercise; he could see some scratches on his legs and arms, but nothing that matched the state he was supposed to be in according to what he had just lived so vividly.
His clothes were clean and hung on a hook that was nailed to the door, whilst he was wearing a white t-shirt and short pants of the same color, which he couldn't remember ever seeing before.
He knew that he could not let his fear be shown, but rather extract as much information as possible so that he could leave that place alive.
'Can I talk to you alone?' he finally broke the silence when he met Giovanni Dartagnan's eyes.
The charming old man nodded indicating that Lara and Douglas should leave the room. He started walking with his hands crossed behind his back as he watched Jonas looking for something different throughout his body.
'Of course I wouldn't be a fucking mess in here, this is just a dream...', he started to think. 'But the tattoos should be here, I remember seeing Giovanni watching them before.', he concluded so that he could turn his attention back to Mr. Dartagnan.
'Why don't you explain what is happening to me?' he asked trying to look as sane as possible.
'Which part you don't understand?' asked Giovanni, giving him a surprised look. 'It seems to me that we were very clear about what just happened here, right? You were sick during the party because you used the wrong drug before using the dream chair.'
Jonas waited for Giovanni to say something more before he could start asking questions again.
'Don't you remember when you passed out in the middle of the main hall?' Giovanni asked before giving enough time for Jonas to organize his thoughts.
'I do remember that, yes.' he replied dryly to relive himself of the memory of his first psychotic attack that night.
Jonas decided it would be better not to tell Giovanni everything he remembered, but he did went through a step by step of what he had in his mind up to that point so he could see the expression on his face and activate his memory so that he could remember any other details that might be useful to him.
'And it was at this very moment that we brought you here. You fell on the floor, waking up just now.' said Giovanni whilst looking seriously at Jonas. 'Do you remember anything else after falling into the floor?'
'I remember dreaming several things...' Jonas tried to get into Giovanni's game without giving out information. 'Actually, I remember this situation here being the dream.'
'How do you mean?'
'I remember being in this room, with you.'
'But you've been knocked out all the time.' Giovanni started to become more defensive.
'Short moments...' Jonas didn't want to define what those moments were, because the new information seemed to have made Giovanni uneasy.
'And the rest of the time?'
'I remember dreaming, and if you are telling me that this is my reality, I dreamed a lot.' said Jonas trying to establish a leading role into that game.
'And what exactly were these dreams?'
'Why don't you tell me?' Jonas's tone was outrageous.
What are you implying?'
'Nothing, despite the fact that you were controlling my dreams through this chair' he said as he pointed to the place where he had been previously held.
'We were monitoring your life signs, that's all.' Giovanni defended himself.
'So why was I tied to this chair? Isn't it like one of those in the dream room?' Jonas noticed he was managing to put Giovanni in a difficult situation.
'Listen here, boy. We are here to help you, I do not understand this accusatory tone of yours.' Giovanni started to answer with an authoritative voice. 'You were stuck in this chair because this situation was unprecedented, we never had anyone who took the wrong drug before being connected to one of these chairs. We monitored your vital signs and your brain waves for your own good!'
Jonas could feel that Giovanni was losing his patience to that accusatory and demanding intonation as the two looked at each other with unfriendly expressions. Jonas knew it wouldn't be easy to win that fight. Whatever the situation was, dream or no dream, Giovanni had the advantage, and Jonas needed to be smart so that he would not be fooled by the theatre that Giovanni was posing with his elegance and good manners.
'So, why don't you tell me more about these dreams you had whilst recovering.' said Giovanni as he walked slowly in front of Jonas.
He was really trying not to say more than he needed to, but the situation was not the best and the atmosphere of the conversation did not seem to favor him. 'If this is a dream, I have no reason to be afraid.', he thought logically as he realised that the reality would not be influenced by that conversation.
'It is a bit weird for you to tell me that these dreams I had whilst recovering were not induced by the chair.' began Jonas with an ironic tone, already bringing an angry expression in Giovanni's face.
'And why do you say that?' Mr. Dartagnan was clearly trying to keep himself calm.
'Because I never met your brother in my life, and there he was.'
Jonas finished that sentence knowing that he could not return from that point. Was that either a dream or his true reality, that information would tell Giovanni everything he needed to know as the owner of that immense property would already be aware of everything that his then brother would have told Jonas about him.
'My brother? That is, indeed, very strange.' he said with a really confused expression.
'Strange how? Because he manage to get out of his confinement?' Jonas was defiant again.
'Don't let these dreams make you lose track of where you are young man, I have every right to defend my honor in my own house.'
Giovanni continued to keep a confused expression, but he didn't want to give the impression that Jonas might be leading the conversation.
'But tell me more, what did my brother tell you?'
'You know what, I can't really remember it very well... But I do remember talking to him for a long time at the end of the maze that runs through this land.'
Giovanni pulled a smile out of the corner of his mouth. He could see that Jonas wouldn't be stupid enough to contradict himself in his own speech, not in a moment of tension like that. The pompous man could clearly see that Jonas was hiding much more than he let on.
'Well then, Jonas...'
Mr. Dartagnan began his speech as he cleared his throat and lit a cigarette. Jonas had already noticed that the man only smoked when he seemed to have something important to say.
'What do you mean to tell me with all this?' he continued as he blew smoke through his reddened nostrils. 'Let me help you, young man. Show me what's going on in that head of yours. Do you really think that I'm here plotting some evil crazy nonsense and that my supposed brother appeared in your dreams to warn you about it?'
Jonas realised, in that very second, that he had never mentioned any 'evil crazy nonsense' in any of his words. Giovanni had just blurted out that something was wrong there and that Jonas wasn't as crazy as he wanted to make it look like. However, if his theory was right and that was really a dream, he could not waste more time with that pointless conversation. He needed to extract as much information as possible that could help him out of the mess and rescue old Getulio so that, together, they could escape from that place once and for all.
'What happened to Getulio?' he went straight to the point.
'Getulio...' Giovanni replied with a nostalgic sigh.
'So I'm right then?'
Giovanni did not answer.
'Why don't you put your suit back on so we can get back to the party. I have a few things that I want to show you.' he said as he took another drag of his cigarette.
'Isn't the party over yet? What fucking time is it?' Jonas was surprised that people still could catch their breath after all the time they had been partying.
'A few minutes past six.' replied Giovanni, looking at the shiny golden watch on his wrist.
That was kind of what Jonas had in mind. Whatever reality he was living in, time had passed at the same speed. He wasn't sure of the right time, but he knew dawn was about to come.
'Have you seen my phone?' he asked when he remembered that he could find some answers if he could get his hands on the device. 'And my friend, Rodrigo, do you know where I can find him?'
'I have no idea of where your phone might be. And Rodrigo is likely to be at the party, your friend is a very exciting person.' that sounded exactly like Rodrigo.
Giovanni turned his back and went out the door, after putting out his cigarette in a glass nursing a warmed out drink that was perched on a small wooden bench close to where Jonas's clothes were hanging.
Jonas got up from his chair and started changing his clothes so he could accompany Giovanni to the party. His suit was clean, smelling good, and perfectly pressed, showing no sign that it had been dirty by clay, mood, or any of the other weird fluid he had encountered whilst he was in the maze. He looked again at his bare arms to search for the tattoos that were so vivid to him before, spat on his fingertips and rubbed the exact spot where the small inverted cross had been marked on his body in the hope of washing off any makeup that might have being put there. The pain was definitely there, or at least some kind of placebo effect, but there was no sign that his skin had been gripped by a needle.
His shoes were polished and his socks stretched over them. Jonas removed the glass containing the cigarette butt and placed it on the floor so he could sit on the bench to put on his shoes on. He felt that his feet were a bit sore, but that didn't tell him anything, as his shoes were not that comfortable and he usually got blisters on the soles of his feet after standing up or walking for too long.
He stood up sharply, ready to face whatever was waiting for him behind the door that Giovanni had just closed after himself. He collected the white clothes that had been put on him and pushed the small wooden bench towards the wall. A sharp noise of splinters crashing on the floor caught his attention after giving him a small fright, it was when he realised that he had not yet completely recovered his attention and dexterity, he was still a little dizzy for having spent so much time sitting on that chair. On the other hand, he could feel so well rested that he could have sworn he had spent hours sleeping.
He crouched on the floor to collect the small pieces of glass and place them inside the larger part of the glass that had not been broken by the short fall. The cigarette butt caught his attention as it was still burning. It seemed that Giovanni's intention was to put out the ember in the worn out drink that had been nursing in the glass, but the cigarette was completely dry as it had not reached the liquid. He collected the small pieces until he could notice a small detail in a part of the glass that had broken into a 'V' shape. The marks of a dark red lipstick intoned the splinter and gave the shape of a small lip that quenched its thirst there before the glass was tucked away.
For a brief period of time, he thought the mark would be Lara's, but even though he was still a little stunned by his newly awaken state, he could still analyse the beauty of that radiant woman to the smallest detail. 'If she was wearing a lipstick like that, I would have noticed.', he thought before concluding that another woman had been around there whilst he slept.
Monalisa. 'Of course I'm not going completely mad, that woman was here.', he put those words into his mind so he could remember to observe which lipstick the distinguished lady was wearing. He knew that as soon as he arrived at the party he would find her, more than explicitly, she was the one who flattered Mr. Dartagnan the most.
Jonas went through every possible pocket, but his hands couldn't find the telephone he needed so much, even though it would probably be useless right then. He tightened and adjusted the tie, which was probably tied by Lara, before closing his jacket and going out to meet Giovanni, who was waiting for him on the other side of the door he had stared at for hours whilst dreaming without being able to reach it. 'Whatever that means, it is an advance.', he thought before turning the knob and facing the figure of Mr. Dartagnan.
'Shall we?' asked Giovanni as he motioned for Jonas to start walking beside him whilst their slow steps were syncing.
He softly sighed before following Giovanni's footsteps. His shoes were grunting from the freshly washed rubber and his eye-lids were still heavy from the time he had been sleeping. Giovanni had a smile in the corner of his mouth and softly ran his hand over his face as he scratched his well-shaved beard, his walk was sturdy for a man of his age, but Jonas could see that the distinguished Mr. Dartagnan was already beginning to suffer from the mishaps of ageing.
'How old are you?' asked Jonas sharply.
'No one has asked me that question in a long time.' said Giovanni, laughing at Jona's lack of sensitivity.
'I see that people are afraid of you.'
'I prefer to think that what you call fear is respect.'
'Is it that bad? Letting people know your age?'
'No, but it's a little dowdy. I'm sixty-two years old, which means I deserve a little respect, don't you think?'
Jonas didn't want to answer that. He always thought that people would be worthy of respect when the attitude was reciprocal, and not simply because of their age difference.
'Can I stop by my room? I would like to speak with Rodrigo before... Before what again?' he asked as he realised he didn't know where they were going.
'Jonas, you are not a hostage here, you can do whatever you want. But I already told you that your friend must be at the party, if you want to check, the room is right there in front of you.' replied Giovanni, pointing to a door just a few meters away. 'As for what we're going to do, I have something I want to show you.'
Jonas followed up the path and stopped in front of the door to Rodrigo's room, which was next to his own. At least that idea of ​​interconnected rooms would do some good. He fumbled through his jacket pockets until he found the magnetic key that would open his door. His room was clean, as he had left it, and there was no sign that anyone had passed by it. He tried to open the door that connected his room with Rodrigo's, but it was locked. He knocked loudly and intoned his friend's name even louder, yet his voice reverberated through his own room without making any substancial noise that would invite an answer from behind the door.
'As I told you before, your friend must be at the party.' Giovanni made the same gesture with his hand so that Jonas would accompany him again.
The two went walking down the narrow corridor as silence had taken over the lack of conversation. Jonas realised that he did not know the age difference between the two Dartagnan brothers, but decided to leave that question for later on; he was very curious to know what the head of the sect had to show him.
They walked on and opened the door to the main hotel hall.
People were still dancing and chatting away. The music was calmer and the tiredness was palpable, although the windows were open, Jonas could smell the alcohol that emanated from the crowd that had been drinking tirelessly for hours.
'Don't these people ever get tired?' he asked when thinking that if he, at that age, no longer had the same energy to endure that much party time, the elders should be exhausted by then.
'When you went to the Dream Room, didn't you feel your energies renewed?'
'Don't you remember that you gave me the wrong drug?' he was trying to reply to every question as if he didn't know anything he had learned in the time he spent inside the maze with Getulio. It would be wiser that, for everyone around, he was experiencing that reality, and that Giovanni was speaking the truth.
'It is true. But now you woke up well, didn't you?'
'Yes, but it was because I slept, wasn't it? You said it yourself that I was not being induced to lucid dreaming.' Jonas frowned to show a certain irony in the rhetoric.
'Exactly! We had to put you to sleep so that the effect of the wrong drug would wear off and your brain would function with lucidity once again. As I told you before, this is the first time this has ever happened.'
Giovanni's premise, once again, was valid. 'He has a fucking answer for everything.', thought Jonas when he noticed that it would not be that easy to get information from Mr. Dartagnan, but he knew exactly what they were injecting into the body and also what Rodrigo had wrongfully given him in.
'Rodrigo must be here then?' he asked as he carefully passed his eyes through every corner of the room.
'Most likely, but this place is too big for you to find him now. I really need to show you something so that we can clear up all your doubts about what was going through your mind.'
Jonas really wanted to see his friend. The last time he saw him, he was being dismembered into a medieval torture bed. However, the curiosity in what Giovanni had to show him was greater than anything else at that moment.
They made their way trough the same door that had taken him to the maze before. Jonas became more and more anxious as he could see what that place was like in daylight. Anxiety started to mix with a feeling of anguish and fear; he had promised to never set foot in that place again. The dew gave a beautiful color to the lawn in front of the maze and the morning cold made Jonas shudder and close the first button on his jacket.
'It's beautiful, isn't it?' said Giovanni, leaning on the porch that supported the two huge granite stairs.
'You have a property that can make anyone who lives in the city envious. In fact, why don't you advertise and open this place to the public?' he asked, knowing the exact answer.
'Are you a religious man, Jonas?' he asked admiring the immensity of that place and ignoring what had just been said.
'I was raised by catholics, but I never kept it as a habit in my life.' he replied without having to lie.
'I like to think that all of this is a divine work, a blessing from god, the creator of everything.'
Giovanni spoke as if Jonas was not around. It seemed that he was an inanimate figure, an object for which Mr. Dartagnan was venting and telling stories, something similar to a therapy session he had had as a child. The host continued babbling words related to religion and his beliefs without being able to hold Jonas's attention. He was more concerned with admiring the gigantic maze that seemed like his worst nightmare and now took all of his attention with its beauty.
Things became much clearer in the daylight, he could clearly see the entrance and exit at the bottom of the maze. The water fountain was there, now empty and without the presence of the already caught old one-legged man who had tried so hard to help Jonas out of that place and, even further, he could observe the small hut that had sheltered them for a short period of time. The place where Getulio had told him about the C.P.F.
'Would you mind?' Jonas heard Giovanni say as he emerged from the trance that had taken over his attention.
'Hm?' he replied without any parsimony.
'I asked if you would mind accompanying me to a place nearby, I want to show you something, remember?'
'Oh, sure, but do we need to go through this maze? I don't feel very well in closed places.' he lied so that there was no chance he would be alone with Giovanni in his own future grave.
'No, no.' he said with a brief laugh. 'It is just around the corner from the hotel, I have a small chapel nearby, please follow me.'
Jonas shivered. 'Now there is no turning back.', he thought as he made sense of it, feeling that it would be useless to say no to Mr. Dartagnan. If he wanted to force him to do something, it would be as easy as a simply invitation. The logical reasoning was simple: better to go willingly and loose, than forced and tied. Besides, Jonas was still not convinced that this was nothing more than another of those lucid dreams, but with an extra touch of reality.
'What are we going to do in this church?' asked Jonas as the two descended one side of the magnificent stone staircase leading to the garden that started the maze.
'We are not going to the church, but to a place nearby. You seem very anxious Jonas, just wait and see.'
Jonas started walking next to Giovanni once again, he was really curious to know where the old Mr. Dartagnan was taking him. If the church was not the destination now, surely he would come to know the rooms of Mr. Dartagnan's sect, which he imagined to be the ones he had experienced whilst taking on the role of Rodrigo in what appeared to be one of his own lucid dreams.
They continued to walk until they turned the corner of the base of the Dartagnan Brothers' Hotel. Jonas wondered what was stored inside that huge basement surrounded by a wall of huge stones and covered with sparse vegetation. In fact, he wondered about the underground plant where he was and whether old Getulio would have been taken to some old torture room that Giovanni and his troupe of fanatics might have over there.
Jonas was able to see, from a distance, the small church that Getulio had mentioned so much in his stories and that Giovanni had just called a chapel. The building was short in stature, with thick pillars, and a few windows with rounded arches, what was a clear representation of Romanesque architecture from the early Middle Ages. Although small, that church had nothing simple or any resemblance to a mere chapel. It was robust and full of details, surely the Dartagnan family would have spent a lot of money to make sure that structure would take such a beautiful shape. The church gave an idea of ​​heavy construction, stuck in the ground and practically impossible to be felled. It really was a temple of worship, and it was very likely that Giovanni Dartagnan would not let anyone get there without being invited.
'Splendid, isn't it?' he stopped suddenly and started admiring the architectural work as if he had never seen it before.
'A beautiful structure indeed. Not really favoured by what you called it.' said Jonas referring to the simple term of chapel.
'It was built by my family many years ago. Wait until you see the inside.'
'Is that where we are going?' he asked again.
'Not yet. Follow me, please.'
Giovanni and Jonas started walking again, but in the opposite direction to the Dartagnan family church. They approached a small structure with low walls, which must have been less than a meter high. The entrance was signalled by two high iron gates - more than twice the size of the walls - which were marked by the Dartagnan family crest.
'You wanted to know about my brother.' said Giovanni after crossing the gate and stopping suddenly. 'Here he is.'
It took Jonas a few minutes to realize where he was, as he could see the corner of the maze where he had spent the last night lost. It was only when he read the words embedded in a stone right in front of his eyes that he realised where Giovanni had taken him: 'Here lies Getulio Dartagnan. Rest in peace.'