Nightmare AirBNB (Part 5)
Peering cautiously inside, my heart raced sickeningly in my throat. The walls, which might have been a pale yellow at one time, had turned a sickly gray and were cracked, like the skin of some dead, withered creature. Ancient furniture that my great grandparents might have owned was stacked and crammed into most of the space.
What stood out was the metal framed bed covered with stained blankets and the wooden desk with an attached stool type chair. There were scrapes and gouges in the surface of the desk and it was partially covered with what looked like newer paperbacks.
There were incoherent scribbles all over the walls, more scrapes and gouges, all disappearing up into the corners which were pitch black. Except you could see the remnants of ancient spider webs like curtains for windows that didn't exist.
It was a hell hole and that poor woman had been locked inside of it! By Millie?
"Oh my word, Simon. That poor woman," I whispered.
Imagine living like that. Our bright pink real estate agent host was a monster! I ran up the stairs after Mom to tell her what we'd seen. I could hear my parents talking with the woman and someone on the phone as I rounded to the top of the stairs. The woman sat quietly at the dining room table, running her fingers over the salt shaker. I think she was humming to herself while Dad puttered to make her tea.
Mom was on the phone with Millie so I moved closer to Dad and, as quietly as I could, I told him what I had seen downstairs in the room. I told him what I believed. Dad looked alarmed but in a way that said he was upset for the woman and her safety.
"That is not right. What the hell could she be thinking locking a woman in an AirBNB. In a filthy room, no less. It's vile."
Dad grabbed the phone from Mom who made a frustrated noise but let him go. He took the phone into the hallway and shut the door behind him. I could hear him yelling but not what he was saying. So I quietly filled in Mom too. She looked as horrified as I felt. Her eyes kept going back and forth between the old woman and the door to the hallway.
A few short moments later, Dad came back in and Millie was right behind him looking frantic.
"Oh Mom! Are you okay?" she fussed and Mara smiled vaguely. "You know you're not supposed to leave the house alone!" She had her hands on the old woman's shoulders and turned her face toward Mom and Dad. "I am so sorry. This should never have happened. I think she forgets we don't live here anymore. Not since ... Well, I'm sorry. I'll take her home. I'm sorry."
She was trying to get Mara to her feet to go but she wasn't budging. In fact, it looked like she made herself more comfortable and lightly licked her lips.
"Millie, shoosh," said Mara. "I would like the tea before I go. You know I do so love tea."
Millie made an embarrassed sound. Her smile stretched too thin and it no longer reached her eyes. "Mom, let's go. We've scared these nice people enough. I'll make you tea at home."
It sounded like Mara growled and Millie's look of embarrassment shot to panic. She tried to cover it but we all saw it. And it got worse as Simon came bounding up the stairs. He brought the stench from the open storage room with him and there was no way Millie didn't smell it. There was no way she didn't know exactly what we had found. Because she had kept her mother locked away in that hell hole.
"You let it out?" she asked, the color disappearing from her face. "It's loose?"
Mara snickered and poured a mound of salt onto the table. "It's your own fault, Millie," she said in a voice that was no longer sweet at all. "You always do this to her. She doesn't deserve it."
Mom slid closer to Dad and Simon began backing down the stairs again. I backed toward the stairs myself. Something was growing in the air between us all, threatening to suffocate us and I was too scared to find out what it was going to become. I looked at Mom and she nodded, lifting her chin, telling me to take Simon downstairs. She didn't have to ask me twice!
I took my brother downstairs and into my room again. This time twisting the lock and getting Simon to help me pull the dresser just enough to block the door from opening all the way should someone get in. I don't know if it was the right thing to do or if I should have stayed with my parents to make sure they were okay. Protecting Simon felt the most important.
What felt like forever passed and then someone knocked on the bedroom door. I heard another door close and Mom called, "Hey kids, it's okay to come out."
Simon looked unsure but helped me push the dresser out of the way again. He looked sick to his stomach and a little green when we faced Mom in the doorway.
"What happened?" I asked, glancing nervously around to see Dad locking the storage room with a key.
Mom hugged Simon and explained. "I guess Mara does this a lot. Millie says it happens at least once a month now. She's not sure how Mara gets out or into the condo but this is the first time she has done it while it was occupied."
Dad came over, holding up the key. "Which one of you unlocked the door?" he asked while I was still trying to process what Mom had said.
"It was not me. I had no idea there was even a key!" I protested.
Simon swallowed hard and I saw realization dawn on Mom's face. She gave him a squeeze.
"I was curious and I didn't even think I unlocked it! The door wouldn't open so I put the key back in that little cup I found it in on the kitchen counter."
His words were rushed and he had the look he always gets when he's getting himself ready for the inevitable punishment coming. Dad was already shaking his head dismissively and heading for the stairs. "After everything that happened, I don't blame you, Sport."
As he went up the stairs, I looked at Simon, still hugged into Mom's arms, and he mouthed "Sport?" with a confused look. I shrugged. I couldn't figure it out either. Dad was in a weird mood but he had a lot on his mind I guessed. All the fighting with Mom made what Simon did into no big deal.
"Mara told us quite a whopper before Millie showed up, you know?" said Mom. "Something about how she'd been locked in that room off and on for most of her life. Since she was a little girl. Because something came for the oldest girls in her family. I didn't say anything to Millie. I think her mom is very senile. Hopefully Millie will put her into a care home where she can be looked after better."
That seemed to be that. Dad insisted that it was a furniture storage and the bed I had seen was also just being stored in there. Mara had not been locked in there.
And we went to the State Fair. Simon and I were preoccupied by what had happened that morning but Mom and Dad, weirdly, seemed to be back to their old selves. I'd bet anything that they had decided between them to try to re-normalize our vacation by getting on the same page. As soon as we got into the car, like clockwork, the oldies were on and they were harmonizing on the choruses. But there was this underlying tension to it all.
Still, Dad gave me back my phone for the car ride and at least I was able to catch up a little on things with my boyfriend and my friends. Joe was mad I hadn't been speaking to him. My girl friends were worried and asked if they needed to call the police.
I reassured them all that I was alive and fine. I said I would be home in like 3 days. We made plans for the next weekend and I went with my family into the State Fair.
We got back to the AirBNB, full to overflowing with too much food and a lot of new memories together as a family. It had been the best day we've had together as a family in a long, long time. It was way too good to last and it did not. Almost as soon as they got upstairs to change out of the warm, sweaty clothes they'd worn all day, Mom and Dad were back to bickering. It was like every single thing one of them did annoyed the other.
It only stopped when Mom's phone rang. "Oh no," I heard her say. "I am so... what do we do? We're booked here until the end of the week." There was a pause and then Mom answered, her tone very solemn. "Okay, we understand."
Then I am pretty sure she was talking to Dad. "I just, Jerry... Millie committed suicide. After she killed her mother. This doesn't happen to people... this isn't real, is it?"
They started a conversation about whether or not they should find another AirBNB or go home. No, legally they could stay out the week. Who did they send condolences to? What was the protocol in all of this? Yes, it was real.
I stopped listening and put in an earbud to listen to music from my phone but I forgot to turn on any music. I wasn't sure why but my stomach felt heavy, my heart thudded dully in my chest. I had never known anyone who had died. I didn't really know those women but I had talked to them. They had been real and alive right there in front me! I was glad Simon had gone downstairs as soon as we got home. He didn't hear any of it and he didn't need to. I hoped Mom felt enough like her old, over-protective self not to tell him anything about it until he was an adult. Maybe not ever.
Something banged upstairs. It sounded like Mom's paperback novel hitting the wall. She was crying. Dad was whisper-yelling.
"Stop it, Patricia! You don't get to be angry with me! I'm not the one who cheated!"
"Jerry!" Mom hissed warningly and I saw her peek over the railing to me.
I pulled the earbud from my ear and waved at her as if I hadn't been eavesdropping. "Hey, Mom. I'm tired. Think I'm going to go to bed."
"Okay, sweetie. Have sweet dreams. Kiss Simon for me."
I made the disgusted face I always did when she asked me to do that. I never kissed him. And I sure was not about to do it now. There was way too much to process now. My family was going to implode. Sooner rather than later. I ran down the spiral stairs and threw myself onto my bed, kicking the door behind me almost hard enough to get reprimanded.
I don't know how long I lay there staring up at the ceiling but it had to have been hours. I don't know when I fell asleep either. When I startled awake later, I was pretty sure I had been having a nightmare.
The feeling of dread clung to me and hung in the air. It took me a moment, trying to calm my breathing, to realize that the feeling was not going away. Something was wrong. Frantically I looked around but, without a window, it was nearly impossible to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness.
Screw it, I thought, and reached for my phone, flipping on the flashlight. I immediately dropped it on the floor and saw the light retreat under the bed, leaving the room in dim shadows. But I knew. I could see it. That impossibly tall, purple-brown skinned monster I had seen bending over Simon in what I'd thought was a dream. It was standing just inside the door which was shut behind it.
I tried to scramble away to hide but suddenly I could not move a muscle except to breathe. My heart jackhammered in my chest until I was sure my parents, two stories up, would hear it. They would come and save me, wouldn't they?
"No, no, no!" I gasped breathlessly when it reached for my face, trying so hard to fight whatever was holding me in place. Pain began to fill my head and I opened my mouth to scream. But my voice was ripped from my throat because I thought my head was going to explode. For sure my skull would crack as it entered forcefully through my nostril. My brain was on fire and the pain was so insane that I couldn't move. I could only stand still and -
Ahhh that was more like it. I hadn't had new digs in decades. I hoped that I had caught her before too much of her parents' turmoil took hold. She was a little difficult to get into. Normally nightmares make it easy for me to slide in but she's tough. Mara was just violent. I repressed her almost completely when I was at my fullest strength.
But maybe Serena and I could co-exist. That was my hope. She could use the extra strength and I could use a little rest from having to be in control all the time. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to kill anyone anymore. It was pretty wicked the way Mara's ancestors trapped me into this cycle. Where they were aware of me and thought I was evil. I got stronger over the years and, while I know I cannot exist outside of someone else, maybe we don't have to be at odds.
What a strike of fortune to find distant cousins in the Donnegars. So distant that I might have a chance to start fresh with an alliance instead of animosity. Thank the eldritch gods for this place where things like this can happen for even people like me.
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5