I am Martin from the Mary Jane treatment center for quote-unquote psychologically ill people at least you got to trust me when I say I am not crazy, I see Nichole the crazy woman I am not like her eating up the skirt she was wearing sometimes she swallows it. Ah, man that’s gross I could write a whole book about her and name it a “guide to madness” That wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
It’s four years since I have been inside this asylum after I have been trailed for the murder, I didn’t commit in the first place. Something that happened to me on that night four years ago is still fresh in my mind, the thing that happened to me that day I don’t know what to say about it, sleep paralysis could cover the part that I felt but that wouldn’t do the explaining of what I felt will not contribute a chunk about explaining the state that I am in, all rotten, confined within four walls which stare at me blankly keeping me in constant suspense about him visiting me again, it’s just a matter of time I would see him again standing against the wall looking at me with his good right face, that was my worst nightmare, I couldn’t stand his presence even a second it’s worse than the life in mental asylum.
I don’t know how to describe my worst nightmare or whatever it is that happened to me four years ago in the beach hotel on the day a tragedy occurred I just happened to be around, or I caused it. I pay a visit to the hotel every year after traveling the whole world to write my travel journal it was just another long trip before I relax at the beach hotel. Every long tour is exhausting but this one is more painful than all those I have traveled.
It’s all because of this fragment of memory that clung to my cerebrum making it a bit heavy so heavy that I almost thought it was a migraine. This fragment contains the image of a man with a pale white face and red eyes, so powerful that one looks into my eyes pierced through my brain burning it till now. I couldn’t recall the place or time It got into me, but it did as an evil spirit possessed my thoughts. I could associate the face with some other thoughts of mine as if the image is slowly getting clearer as I am thinking so hard about it. A man holding a steel mug in his left hand sitting down like a beggar on the street side staring with his red eye whereas the other part of his face was blocked by a shawl that served as a hood.
I finally made it to the beach hotel with all the pain, hoping to recover from the severe headache I was suffering from. I slowly entered the hall to find it too silent and I felt it again the hard look of someone from the back of me, I turned back to see the statue of Poseidon in the middle of the hall handing a trident. I thought this pain in my head was due to me turning old, but no one would term thirty as old age. I turned around involuntarily upon hearing a familiar voice from the back of my head. “Martin”. It’s Carol, the manager of the hotel and we are both quite familiar with each other as I have a second home in the hotel she works at. Although my head hurts it always feels good to talk to her as that’s their specialty, they are well trained in hospitality, but there is more to it her face is well decorated always which makes anyone feel a bit more comfortable around her, with one earring and hair brushed to the other side of the head as if she was balancing her head. I chatted for a while and entered my room.
It was unchanged since I left it, the same-colored bedsheets, curtains, and even the vase on top of the stand that stood in a corner, I left it there. I wonder if this room was left unused for a whole year. I rested a bit scrolling through Tik Tok. After a while, I ate at the restaurant and went back to my room to sleep as I started feeling a bit tired and not to mention this enormous pain in my head haunting me. I gazed at the paintings on the walls of the room masterpieces like Guernica by Picasso, Starry Night by Van Gogh, and Girl with a Flute by Vermeer all those elegant paintings don’t need any mastery to detect that those are fake not only because they are in this small building but also the texture and finishing varied a lot.
I started dreaming of richness that enabled me to buy all those original paintings and keep them in my own house. I slowly started to doze off running this train of thoughts where I am n hour so rich to own these paintings, but my house’s wall didn’t seem a fair enough place to have those paintings in so I just bought a big house, with a swimming pool and a personal garden where I live with Carol my rest of life. I stopped there for a moment I never had any romantic interest in Carol ever before, I started to picture her in various ways which I would hate to write on this piece of paper, this thought led to another creating thoughts I would feel very awkward thinking about, all those thoughts that I regret I ever thought. I closed my eyes so tight trying to sleep, all my work is of no use an hour went by like that then, the real sleep started to kick it was as if I was sedated by a drug that makes me active and gives the side effect drowsiness, I slowly fell asleep in my bed thinking that that could be a strange experience I come across. That day I felt like I was speaking to my shadow self, a person who is absolutely not me.
I had no bad dreams until some time, then this time the true colors of evil started to dance in front of me instead of inside me. Something woke me up, I found myself in a room so dark that for a moment I thought I was blind, just in a fraction of a second I recognized the bed I had risen from. It’s the same bed I slept on, I went nowhere it’s the hotel room I am in, lights turned off, feeling so hot in there. There was a power cut which is pretty rare in an industrial area like L.A. and that too for this much time, I wonder what is wrong. I reached for my phone turn on the flashlight that’s when I saw this notification for the first time “Tragedy at The Beach Hotel” from google news, but I was too drowsy to check the pop-up. I headed straight to the window to open it so that allow at least some air in to keep away this heat luckily there was some breeze from the sea. When I walked back to my bed I got this feeling again, the burning eyes, I turned around to check if someone was there. No one again.
Just a moment later there comes a voice with a harsh tone so crispy sounded like the voice of a man who hasn’t had water for months. “Isn’t it beautiful?” it sent three shivers down my body which made me break a sweat I found myself drenched in sweat, then suddenly the breeze turned into a gust, then I turned around to see a man standing still facing the wall with paintings. I don’t know how he got into the room I know for sure he is definitely not a human. With some confidance I asked him “Who… are… you?” He didn’t answer but he turned his cold face towards me,
I saw it the face of my fears so pale as the curtains raised due to the gust letting in a fair amount of moonlight to see it. His eyes looked like staring straight into my heart, for the five seconds he stared at me felt like hours he finally turned away to look at Guernica. “Isn’t it beautiful, someone could paint something so precise, the definition of violence oh my, oh my look at it could you find a corner of peace in this painting, it’s beautiful, the perfect chaos”. He was casually speaking like I was his friend I tried to do the same “That didn’t answer my question” I said in a trembling voice trying to take the high table, that is the moment I regret in my whole life as a result I saw something shocked me so hard that I was unable to move. He turned around with his right face pale while the moonlight and his left face burnt to a crisp with his mouth open to his left ear. He walked gently towards me, I tried to scream, but they were muffled by an unknown force, I tried to move my body, but nothing worked as if I was buried alive.
The gust grew stronger, the curtains flutters wide apart, and with the moonlight, there is the shadow of fluttering curtains, the window outline but not that of the man standing in front of me. He said looking into my eyes “Don’t worry I am not going to hurt you nor let anyone. Mark my words just twenty more we will meet in person until then I want you to know more so let me give you a little gift.” He bent on me and tried to touch me that’s when a loud noise came from the corridor it sounded like a loud roar of some sort of animal.
I turned my eyes to look at it a monster-like thing with large strong hands so large that it budged through the door to enter, also broke quite a few bricks on its way and started to shriek so loud that its vocal cords ruptured and blood was everywhere on the floor I can feel the rotten smell of it, so horrible that I couldn’t stand it, but the man in front of me didn’t even flinch a muscle he stood still looking at me in the eyes and said: “Wanna see something interesting?”
I barely heard him with that thing shouting, he then raised his left arm towards that thing and twisted to first the shriek was stopped then it caught its stomach with it’s both its hands ducking its head down as if it is in terrible pain and then… it burst what looked like a scary monster now became torn to shreds it’s whole body covered the floor with the lumps of torn flesh all over the floor it’s stink almost made me vomit, He looked at me and said “ You will soon learn it, a simple pressure manipulation. “Now I must hire one more person”. He left the place like nothing ever happened there. I was too confused about what happened there.
As he left the room My body started to move again, I followed him to see where he is going, I didn’t make a noise as I don’t know his name. As I followed him, I heard a cry from a distance “Help!” He stopped all of a sudden and turned towards the sound walking towards it.
I still followed him I saw the cry was from a room, the room was completely filled with fire everywhere, he went into the room without any fear, he even caught fire but it did nothing to him, he went straight into the room where a lady was holding her baby and crying for help, as he walked in the lady started to scream more desperately, the similar reaction I gave after seeing his face I thought to say her to calm down and he was there for help but what the thing that he did left me speechless I trembled in fear as his burnt face turned towards me he opened his mouth wide open, bit her on the neck cutting off her vocal chords, a stream of blood rushing out of her neck I gasped, I covered my mouth so tight to stop the squeak which I let out tears started coming off from my eyes he then did something which I even hate to talk about he did the same to the baby, he stood up and gazed at me with his cold eyes with blood smeared lower jaw I turned back and started to run away from him I closed my eyes so tight and opened them to find myself in my bed, there is no fire, no damage to the room door.
I tried to brush off the whole thing telling myself that it was a really bad dream and maybe due to my travel stress, I woke up from my bed to see the sun rays hitting the room. I opened my mobile to find the notification “Tragedy at the L.A county beach hotel” I was a bit confused, this was the beach hotel I opened the notification to read the news, and it said that “A brutal murder took place at the L.A county beach hotel, a mother and her child were murdered in room number “012” in the Beach hotel and burnt the whole room down” I threw the phone away in shock my room was 011 I immediately dashed out of the room to see the next door burnt completely, I went to the spot where he massacred both mother and her child. I really found the blood stains over there; the scavengers must have taken the body. I covered my mouth with my right hand, but something was off. I couldn’t feel my face properly, I looked into the mirror to see half of my face burnt, and the lower right jaw was covered with dried blood. I felt all that pain suddenly burning my face, I yelled and blacked out.
As I woke up, I found myself in a hospital bed for treatment of my burnt face I couldn’t feel more sadness than that, but the devil pulled the trick on me, they arrested me for the murder, I couldn’t go off the hook as the evidence is so concrete the blood on my face matched with the DNA of the victims, I escaped jail by proving that I am not in control of my actions but I landed in an asylum instead which is worse than jail.
I got to do something now as he came last night to see me again he was in the garden staring right into my eyes through the window he raised a pointing finger in his right hand and a thumb in his left hand which I know surely represents sixteen he then left the place I didn’t understand the meaning of twenty more when he said it four years ago but I know it now he is counting the years of my death I know for sure he will take me after that. If there is anyone who faced this man or happened to see bizarre things and knows what they are. Or know what I am heading towards please help me get rid of it. It couldn’t just be a hallucination it’s something more than that I know for sure I didn’t kill them.