The Monsters of the Mind

Part 20

I clung to the door frame, fear filling up my soul from my toes all the way to the top of my head.

'What the HELL is THAT?!' my mind screamed, seemingly afraid by the sight as well.

"I don't know," I answered softly, too afraid to move, "and if I did know, I don't think I'd want to know..."

A low whistling sounded through the bathroom as soft cries echoed from somewhere deep in the darkness of the unending pit at my feet. The cries sounded like that of a young woman - no older than me. I could imagine Hugo depositing a previous guest down here, leaving them to rot and become a forgotten spirit like the others.

But when I opened my mouth to call forth, another voice beat me to it.

"Do not buy anything without my permission!!" a voice - deep, dark, and filled with hatred - was shouting, although faintly, "I will not allow you to ruin my life!!"

Crashes echoed following more cries and screams - sounding like glass shattering against wood - as the deep voice continued, "Your life means nothing! Do you understand what I'm telling you?!"

A woman screamed painfully as the door pushed me up and out of the room, knocking me to the floor and slamming close with a loud bang!

It took a moment for me to collect my thoughts, sitting there on the floor of Room 301 as the lights flickered and turned on, illuminating the entire room.

My mind blinked rapidly, 'Was that... Rose? What was going on?'

I looked down at the spirit receiver, my brows furrowed, "Maybe there's more to Hugo Hall than what people really know..."

***

"Okay, okay," I paced the walkway in my room, looking at all of my notes.

After witnessing what I assumed was a memory of the past, I took myself to my room and began writing down everything that I had seen and heard. I took those notes and compiled them with the others that I had made during my stay here.

Starting at the beginning - I knew that there was something going on within the hotel that had to deal with Jimmy Hall being at the center of it all.

Following that assumption, I had discovered that when he was a child, something had happened to him - based on what I heard from Dr. Bose - and had caused him to have this split personality trait. However, it had been only a few years (around the time Jimmy had turned four or five) since his father died and - according to the manager at the restaurant - that was when everything that could go wrong for the Sea View Hotel did go wrong.

But, what made everything so intriguing was that there was some sort of ancient power at work here.

The events at the hotel - Amy Bell's mysterious death, Dr. Bose's suicide, the fire, Harvey's attack and death - it all fueled the fire of rumor regarding a demon's curse upon the Hall family. And it wasn't just during Jimmy's time here either - his own father had been a subject of rumor before he passed away under mysterious circumstances as well.

And now, I had a vision from Rose.

I knew she was trying to protect Jimmy from the outside world, based on what Harvey and Dr. Bose told me as well as the first vision I saw of her with the police after Harvey had been killed. Had she done the same for Hugo? And, if so, what were the repercussions?

I rubbed my chin, looking at my notes.

"The demon is passed through from father to son," I mumbled, "Was Jimmy's father the eldest of the family line?"