He Did It Because Of The Sun -(short story)

The light is reflecting on the hand gun still smocking from the bullet that just exited the barrel.

A dead body, a hole on the left side of the bare chest of a young man laying on the white beach sands. The blood, slowly coming out off the cadaver, is turning black at the contact of the air.

The sun beams gave the killer a headache. He never like the beach, never hated it either, he was just on it because it’s what people seems to do when they have nothing to do.

He hears screams in the distance, movements, but the shooter doesn’t move. He took a life, and it didn’t bother him that much. Maybe a little bit. The sun is still bothering him.

He doesn’t understand the screams. Why are they screaming when every day, thousands of innocents peoples die every day from gun wounds, caught in the middle of a war they never wanted. If he had an uniform, they would’ve probably praised him a hero, he would have received a medal, street would have been named after him. They should worries about the sun, it’s giving him headaches.

The insults that he start to hear are getting more and more distinct. Peoples are angry. Again, for something this common. Did they know the sun gives headaches?!

Lost in his own head, he let two men tackling him down. His face pushed in the sand by a hand. His arms were tied behind his back. Soon, a knee is pressing against his back. A cold metal feeling around his wrist, probably the police, he couldn’t know, his ears are full of sands. He couldn’t care less, sands in his eardrums or not. At least he doesn’t see the sun anymore.

Soon, a firm hand grab him by the shirt to put him on his feet.

There are the heroes of the day, two police officers. Overweight, sweating profusely, with the stereotypical serious, yet proud, smirks on their sun burned faces.

Civilians are running around the dead men, screaming. Because it is common knowledge that screaming and crying next to a dead body will bring it back to life. The other who aren’t busy crying over the dead body of an unknown person are shooting insult at the killer. Some are throwing sands at him, other try to punch him or grab him, but the police officers do their best to protect the killer. Not that they didn’t want their catch to be beat down, but because once you catch a big fish, you have to bring it home so you could show to the inhabitants that you are a useful individual to society.

Slowly, the trio is making their way throughout the angry crowds. It’s strange how peoples work, they seems to be ready to kill him. To kill a killer, therefore making them killers. By just killing one man, dozens are ready to kill him. And some of those peoples are considered good samaritans among theirs peers, some of them are even religious peoples, which make sens because their gods would forgive them if they beg him enough.

The young killer didn’t really know what will happens next, that’s the first time he’s being arrested.

In fact, he is happy, he will be able to continue is analyzing of human behavior under very peculiar circumstances.

And in jail, there’s no sun.

This short story was inspired by Albert Camu’s novel The Stranger.

Jaskiers

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This Is Our Last Stand (short story)

« – From the beginning, I knew you would be trouble!

• Then why did you stayed with me? »

B. and F. were once again in a middle of a fight. The arguments were getting more and more regulars. They both asked themselves if they still loved one another. Both thoughts yes, but somehow, they managed to ruin their relationship.

« – I was hoping that I was wrong… That you’ll prove me wrong!

• This was a test then? All this time, this was just some kind of game for you?
• And you failed!
• I’m glad ! Not all failures are bad, I’ve just learned that because of you, thanks! »

This was spiraling, every day, the guts wrenching bouts kept getting more violent. They both felt that dreadful feeling; what will happen the day the words will not be enough anymore? They knew that if they’ll continue in that way, it will turn physical. They knew, they knew! But they loved each other, that’s the worst part of love. Loving to the point of reaching a point of no return. Their love will turn into hate. If they had to fall into this dark corner, they would fall in it together. What if? What if it was a necessary step to finally stop the downward spiral ? No, love, love is a complicated feeling, but to reach the point of physical and verbal violence, it will turn life into a living nightmare. But… this is love? Love right? It supposed to beat everything isn’t it?

« – No one will ever want you anyway.

• I was only with you because I pities you. I’m way too good for you.
• I gave you everything!
• Good, it wasn’t enough. You are a failure.
• Yet, you’re the one who slowly but surely undermining our relationship.
• You played you fair part in destroying it, hypocrite… »

When, how did all started to crumble? It’s strange, but both couldn’t figures out the starting point of the downfall of their relationship. No, actually, they both had their little ideas, but no, this wasn’t something that started this ongoing conflict. It was something lurking in the shadow of their love, something dark, in both of them. They probably are the kind of people who want their lover’s soul. They want everything from the other, taking everything. Passion? Yes, that had to be it. Passionate crime… that what’s will happen if none of them admit defeat. But no! The relationship will end, because one of them have to be defeated by the other, it’s no fun anymore, it’s serious.

« – When I look in your eyes, I don’t recognize the person I’ve fallen in love with.

• How could I be so stupid. I should have known that something was wrong with you since the beginning. Too many red flags.
• See, you’re weak. Stupid even. You’re stupid. I’m ashamed to be seen with you since the beginning. Should have listened to my friends.
• Speaking of stupid, your friends aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. But hey, you choose them.
• I have chosen you!
• Did you? Can you choose who you’ll fall in love with? That would be a first! Or you have really chosen me because nobody would love you. I’m glad all this time with spend together was a waste of your time. I loved every minute with you. It’s over, I’ll get over it, but I did grow during our relationship. For you, it’s a waste of time you’ll never get back. »

This was that last phrase that ended their relationship.

Their was love, at last.

Jaskiers

Through there and here – Final Part

I instinctively put my hand in my pocket to wipe out my phone, you know, to take pictures for the ‘gram, but I didn’t found it.

One of the guys who were on top of the car with me jumped to the floor, and the car roof crumbled under my feet.

Once again, it felt like my heart skipped a beat, I closed my eyes, waiting for a painful landing or a new space-time travel. It was the latter, and thanks God! I was back home, on my couch, with Proust’s book on my lap. It felt like I had just woken up from a dream.

I took a few seconds to check around me, to see if I was back in my time. My closed laptop on the kitchen counter confirmed to me that I was home.

I decided, like you would have probably done too, to check the internet and see if this had happened to someone else before, even hoped for a collective space-time travel experience, it would have been very interesting to see how peoples would have reacted to that, and if their perceptions of the world had changed for them like it changed for me.

But I had no result… Excepted for the few story about time-traveller’s talking about coming from the future to warn us about incoming doom and Armageddon.

This is why I took the opportunity to write about my experiences and share it with you.

I honestly don’t want to travel again, I’m not an adventurous guy, but damn, the world seems way more interesting and beautiful, but also versatile and violent that I’d previously thought.

If something like that happened to you too, write me!

It’s been an hour and a half and nothing have happened. Whatever I’ve experienced, a glitch in the matrix, an alien thing, seems to have stop.

Now, believe me or not. But I’ll tell you, sometimes, the world seems dull, but there’s magic, there so many things to live and experience. I think I might start dreaming about a better future again… and even acting for one !

So, that’s a goodbye. And I’m happy. Just happy. I don’t need help anymore.

The end

Jaskiers

Through there and here – Chapitre 2

I got up, open the doors and it was just red and dark, it was like I just opened the door to hell ! No need of a no Virgil, I opened the door to a literal inferno !

I had a few step to climb to get completely out of the cave, but there was no going back. I would have suffocated if I had stayed in the cave. So I climbed the step, slowly.

I could only hear that roaring sounds, the sound of the flame devouring whatever was outside.

After getting up the last stair, I was sucked out in the air, like if I had been swooped over by a tornado !

I thought, at this very second I was about to die. I screamed and closed my eyes, my body was twirling around like a leaf.

And then, quiet. No more flames, no more crackling noises.

I opened my eyes, and there I was in some kind of rocket cockpit, in a cosmonaut suit, helmet and all.

I looked around and there was three men with me. One sitting next to me, and two behind each one of us. Dressed in cosmonaut to.

They looked at me and the one next to me said something like : Hey Jerry, bet you fifty bucks I will step on the moon first.

I looked at the window in front of me.

The cockpit was facing the sky ! And that’s when I’ve heard : Ready for take off in 10…

You get it, we got blasted into the sky. Everything was shaking, again ! I couldn’t move, I guess we all couldn’t move, it’s a thing about G’s force I think, exactly like when you in a rollercoaster and you fill like you brain and guts are disconnecting from your body.

Then, a beeping sound. Someone talked in my earpiece : Jerry, can you confirm that… Oh my god, abort ! Abort ! Eject now !

And my three pals just disappeared into the air, the cockpit had opened itself above us.

« I see… I see three of them ! Who’s still in the rocket ? Eject ! Now ! »

Well, that was for me, and I didn’t knew how to eject myself from a rocket, I ain’t no Elton John nor David Bowie!

There were so many fucking buttons, all flashings lights, and beeping.

« – Jerry ! Jerry jump ! Albuzz here, three of us jumped, I have eye contact with Amry and Dolory but I think Jerry didn’t jump !

• Fuck sake, Jerry, eject now ! It’s gonna blow up ! »

And in just a flash, I find myself in the middle of… I couldn’t tell you, it was just blue… My feet were under water, water that covered everything, everywhere I looked, it was like a calm, very calm sea. The sky was blue, the sea was blue, the exact same shade. And no noise, nothing.

Now this is weird but I’ve felt very appeased, very relaxed.

The calm, the fresh air, and this place was southing to me. But that feeling didn’t last very long, because in that blue desert, I was alone. Their was strictly nothing, the horizon was non-existent. It was like the sky and the soil were one but it had depth.

This started to confuse me. Soon, I turned into a panic mode and started running. Didn’t know where, didn’t really cared. There was nothing man made, it freaked me out, no bearing. I thought that if I didn’t started to look for something, I would just die here. From hunger and thirst or by trying to kill myself by drowning in the few inches of water.

Jaskiers

Finding Beauty Again (Merci Proust)

As I was reading Proust, the part when he is on a train on his way to a thermal station where he discovers during a halt a beautiful young farm girl. Just the sight of this beautiful woman gave him back the taste of Beauty, some kind of meaning in his life, I was about to experience first hand that experience a few hours after having read his words.

I was taking a break from playing a video-game, smoking on my balcony and watching peoples passing by. I love watching people. It’s sound creepy, maybe it is, but after staying for years, more than a decade in fact, in a little village with almost nobody walking by, (or if you saw someone, you’ll definitely know that person), after that dryness human experience of seeing little to nobody new, living in a city full of people that you don’t know and don’t know you is an exhilarating experience. It’s almost like you’re living again, reborn, back in society.

So, there I was, smoking my cigarette, observing life and society going about their life when I spot a beautiful woman. Not the first one that I’ve spotted, high up in my balcony, but after reading Proust, that sight was powerful and full of meaning.

There I was, experiencing what a man who died one century ago wrote about.

This is the magic of literature. Well, one of the many perks of reading a book.

That lady was walking her littler black dog, making me think of a Bob Dylan song, «A Hard Rain A-Gonna Fall» when he sings: I met white men who walked a black dog.

No, the simple sight of an attractive woman leads me to music. Life is strange, but art found a way to make it magic. Does art have a defined function? I don’t know, and I wish not, because it would put art in a shackle. We, human, have to categorize everything, it’s in our nature, everything has to be in a box.

Art isn’t in a box, well, it is in every box and a box itself.

And art was what I was seeing. I was looking at Beauty.

And that thought came out of my brain: go, talk to this lady, tell her something!

Hell no! Hell no! The time have changed, and for good, I think. We are living in a time where yelling at a lady passing by is not ok.

What if I was in the lady’s situation and someone I don’t know yell for me to give him or her my phone number? I would keep my head down and go away. We never know with people nowadays.

I kept watching her, I wasn’t hiding myself, it was already weird enough for me to look at her, if she ever rises her head toward me, I didn’t wanted to scare her.

And then, I started imagining her life. She was probably in her early twenty’s, probably a student, walking her family dog, taking a walk in the sun. Did she have a boyfriend? A girlfriend? How happy was she in her life? What was the cross she had to carry?

And then, she left, took a nearby street, disappearing from my eyes.

I rediscovered Beauty, at least for a little while.

Thanks to Marcel Proust, whenever I see Beauty, I feel grateful and alive. I’ve found an answer to a question I wasn’t asking myself before reading him.

Extract (in French) from Proust book; A l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs :

«Était-ce parce que je ne l’avais qu’entr’apercue que je l’avais si belle ? Peut-être. D’abord, l’impossibilité de s’arrêter auprès d’une femme, le risque de ne pas la retrouver un autre jour lui donnent brusquement le même charme qu’à un pays la maladie ou la pauvreté qui nous empêchent de le visiter, ou qu’aux jours si ternes qui nous restaient à vivre, le combat où nous succomberons sans doute. De sorte que, s’il n’y avait pas l’habitude, la vie devrait paraître délicieuse à des êtres qui seraient à chaque heure menacés de mourir, – c’est-à-dire à tous les hommes. Puis, si l’imagination est entraînée par le désir de ce que nous pouvons posséder, son essor n’est pas limité par une réalité complètement perçue dans ces rencontres où les charmes de la passante sont en relation directe avec la rapidité du passage. Pour peu que la nuit tombe et que la voiture aille vite, à la campagne, dans une ville, il n’y a pas un torse féminin, mutilé comme un marbre antique par la vitesse qui nous entraîne et le crépuscule qui le noie, qui ne tire sur notre cœur, à chaque coin de route, du fond de chaque boutique, les flèches de la Beauté, de la Beauté dont on serait parfois tenté de se demander si elle est en ce monde autre chose que la partie de complément qu’ajoute à une passante fragmentaire et fugitive notre imagination surexcitée par le regret.»

Jaskiers

An Ode To A Fast Car (Tracy Chapman Inspired Text.)

I was just a boy before I’ve met you.

I remember our first day as lover. In you flat, with your friend, I often felt out of place many times in my life but you made me fell welcome. This wasn’t easy for me to spend the day with you, at first I thought it would be. I was wrong, simply wrong. There is thing in life that doesn’t need explaining, like that feeling I had with you. If I could describe it, I would say that your love was my home. I haven’t had to force myself into playing a role, I was just myself. In fact, a better self, you had this effect on me, the only thing in the world that cured me from my mental illness, my demons, my fears, my sins. No need of pills or chemical treatment with you… well no, in fact, love do a weird chemical thing in our brain, that lead to happiness.

So there I was, with you and your friends, that were about to leave and all I could think about, is the night, our first night we would spend together. I was anxious for the night, but also looking forward to seeing another side of your love. I hoped I would enough for you.

We both talked about living with each other, so early in a relationship. The wise men say « fools rush in » and we were fools, but full of hope and of love.

That first day, we managed to visit some flat to live together. We hadn’t had much money, being together under a roof was already luxury for us.

Remember, that dusty old flat that we visited. With those creepy neighbors, telling us about how awful it was to leave there. We knew we wouldn’t leave there, but that feeling of a maybe, a future, together was so strong that we visited another flat. Same as before, we couldn’t say it was a roof that we would have above our head.

Then, a friend of yours wanted to see you, you and your new boyfriend. I was fine with it, as long as I was with you.

She started looking for trouble in the thrift shop we were in and we decided to leave her alone, in her mess.

We ran like fools, you with your high heels, your arm tucked under mine. I let you decide our escape route, we couldn’t stop laughing at the simple thought of your friend finding out we left her alone, with a pissed off shopkeeper.

And then, two straits dogs came toward us. They just looked at us and ran away. It was a sign to me, you, a dog, a home and that all I needed.

How could have we thought life would have kept us together? Happiness, some say, come at a cost. What do we had to pay?

I was in the light with you, I was ready to get up, no, better, rise up for you.

How could have I known that the car would not stop? How could I have known that somehow, this random car would take you away from me forever?

How can I live with your scream of agony, for mercy, for help, forever roaming in my mind?

I don’t thing about retaliation nor justice.

My soul wanders in the dark now, until we meet again.

Sorry wouldn’t be a word that you would have like for me to say to you.

I will hold on to your memory, your love, your light that I will search all my life.

Never, ever, I’m sure, I will meet someone like you.

But I know, deep down or high up, there is a place waiting for us both, and not a miserable flat.

We could call it heaven, if being with you is what’s waiting for me at the end of my road.

Jaskiers

If It’s The Last Time

[Inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2 – Warning: Spoiler]

As I watch some wild boars devastating the grass at the far end of the forest, I stay here, wondering if smallpox do the same kind of mayhem in my lungs than those wild animals makes in the forest. It probably looks like that in there, like a tornado just have passed.

Coughing blood after every intense activity, seeing myself, my body, weakened, this is probably the end, or at least, this is very close to it.

What’s left of me? A child that die after three hours of being born. And a wife, well, a «should have been wife» that do everything to forget me, friends that I will leave in need, a father figure going mad and a country that is changing way, way too much and way too fast.

Everyone keep telling me that I am a good man, that there is a side of me that is kind but it’s being overshadowed by the evil side, the one that keep thinking and hanging on a lifestyle that doesn’t belong in this new era we are entering in.

What a life, I had a good run. What happen to me is payback for all the ill I’ve done. There is a justice after all. At least, It’s look like it. This is at the very moment that death is around the corner that I finally realise that I have spent my time chasing ghost. And I have left a pile of dreadful things along the way.

What matter to me was nature, the Wild West, the anarchy and the poison of every god damn man in this world, money!

Damn! Money can’t buy me new lungs!

I wish I could have spent more time with that old Native American, riding next to him to the top of the mountain where is used to meditate and think.

Thinking! I have forgotten how to think! Like a raging bull, I’ve been going through life without planning what was waiting for me at the end. And the crash is my illness.

It’s all about love life isn’t it? What’s make us truly happy, for real? Have you noticed how falling in love was the most incredible and powerful things you could experience? It’s… rejuvenating! It’s something that bound us all, human beings. Everything seems pale next to being in love.

We don’t necessarily do great things when we are in love either, but at least, we do it for the most beautiful reason.

I had the chance to love and to be loved. That was a short period of my life, but the happiest one.

Years have gone by so fast! So fast! I always knew I will die young or, at least, not old. I was afraid to be old. And now, I wish I had this opportunity to grow old. Even alone, you don’t need someone to be happy, really.

If I could choose, I would have been a rancher. For once in my life, being stable. Here comes the time when the body can’t travel or being on the run, he can’t handle it anymore.

I would have had horses, cattle, a dog and a cat.

I would smoke a cigar on my porch, drinking whisky as I watch the sun set. Until I die.

But this kind of death isn’t for me, sadly.

The boars are now gone.

And I’m going on my last ride.

I’ll miss nature.

Maybe the other side, if there is one, is ready to welcome me. I hope so at least. I hope whatever decide our faith over here will see the good side of me, if there is one.

Can’t even take one good last breath, I guess I’m punished now to rest peacefully later.

I hope. Some people say faith is more important than anything. If think not. Love is.

Hope keep us going and love give us a purpose and a meaning.

Goodbye.

Jaskiers

Once Upon A Time, There Was America

Have you ever heard that old saying, it was ‘better back in the good old days’?

How hypocrite and stupid is this saying! If you are reading this, if you are a white and straight male, trust me, today’s world is the same as it was before. Maybe a little (slightly?) ‘better’, for those who haven’t been born privileged.

There was a time, my friends, where being black was more difficult than today. And even as of today, it is still awfully difficult for them.

Being homosexual? Back in the ‘good ol’ days’? Let me give you a friendly reminder, it was illegal to be gay in America until 2003.

Being black, or gay, or both, life was about being outcasted. Wait, hold on, more than outcasted, they were lynched, insulted, threatened, and even killed. And you couldn’t ask the law to help. You had to pick up yourself and go on. If they didn’t kill you of course. It’s still going on today…

See, I’m an old, old man now. My job, all along my life, was reporter. Working with prestigious newspapers, doing real investigations. Of course there wasn’t any internet, everything was… slower. But we, reporters, on the ground, behind our typewriter, we were spreading informations, real ones. If you were fake my friend, no newspaper wanted you on board. The news rooms were battlefields.

Hunter S. Thompson, who breaked the codes and the boundaries, Woodward and Bernstein and their detective works pushing Nixon out of the fucking White House, you named it.

Those were the day when journalist, writer, poets were Rockstars along with Jim Morrison, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones. It was a revolution.

God, it was as violent as today. Maybe a little less, considering the amount of mass shootings skyrocketing right now.

But ‘back in those good ol’ days’, protest could turns into slaughter. For example, the four of may 1970, when the National Guard killed four students in Ohio while protesting against the war in Vietnam.

This was also the discovery of a new type of horror, serial killers. I won’t mention their names, you probably know some. But let me tell you, today, we do not have serial killers, well there is, but now, schools shootings seems to have taken the place of those monsters.

It’s terrifying. A bunch of people, mostly women, loved serial killers. Now, people admire school shooters. Those are mostly young men, white and with a simple access to gun. They kill as much as serial killer on a shorter period of time. And it’s spreading all over the country. Never ending.

Politics ask for thoughts and prayers, but no laws about restraining or even banning guns. And even if such laws pass, it barely does anything. Because, the NRA got some high profile politicians on theirs paycheck. In my opinion, this is legal bribing… Therefore, it will not end soon. Kids in America go to school like their in a war zone. All this for Freedom… kids pay that American Freedom by dying in classrooms…

Man, America is violence. It begun by the massacre of Native American. We live in a bloodstain soil, in violence in it’s purest form. Something got to change. We thought that a black president would change things drastically. It didn’t. A beautiful symbol of course, a powerful step forward but… nothing have changed.

We all needs a new Martin Luther King, a Robert Kennedy, a Malcom X before is assassination, someone need to help the black community and make the whites understand the tragic situation that the blacks and other minorities are facing. We need someone to gather us, to show us that we can live together and that we being divided and manipulated constantly for political gains… Why? Because a polarized and divided country is easier to govern. Divide and conquer. We should talk about sexism, the meetoo movement, women denouncing the sexual abuse and assault they face in their life. Powerful men who thought they were untouchable had to face justice. Femicids are on a all tome high. The fight need to go on. Equality is far from being reached.

Back in the ‘good ol’ days’c I was in the newsroom when Doctor King died. Same as for the murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

I was at the scene of the murder of his younger brother, Bobby.

This was America sacrificing a potential peaceful and brighter future.

Today is better than the past. Come on, let’s not being grumpy, you, old folks dreaming of the past reading this. But it is far, far from being perfect. Because, like I’ve already said before, from the get go, things were already extremely bad. We need to care for each others, to stop being scared of our neighbors. Tolerance, respect, communicate, sharing! We need to be together so bad. Let’s not live in fear, this is not a life to live frightened. Neo-nazism is back in force, we need to face them, block them, and fight to keep our democracy.

I will live this earth soon, for a better place, I hope to at least. But I doubt this world is going in the right direction.

It was just the rambling of an old man. Sometimes, it’s good to hear what they have to say.

So, stand for what’s right, for your rights, for you life.

Jaskiers

Just Another Haunted Hotel Room Story – Part. 4

FYI: I am not fluent in English, I’m trying to be at least. Sorry for the potentials mistakes. Feel free to correct me in the comment section.

—

« – Mister? Are you all right?

• What the fuck happened?
• A client called me saying she could hear screams coming from you room. I entered and…
• The fire! Fuck! The fire? Is everyone all right ? Did you take my notebook out of this hellhole?
• What? No, there is no fire!
• What the…
• You are in your room sir, everything all right here. Except you of course.
• But the TV and the furnitures were on fire and…
• Jack, the TV is on its stand, there is no fire!
• I’ve tried to open the window but I couldn’t…
• Yes, client complaint often about our windows. That why it’s smell like cigarette and shit like that, can’t open it so they… »

Jack T. stopped listening to the young man, because he saw the spot on the ceiling transforming into a picture perfect demoniac face, horns and all.

« – Fuck ! I want to change room right now!

• Ho ho! Jack! You dull boy! All work and no play, hasn’t changed much it’s seems! »

The writer looked at the young man who’s face was metamorphosing into his wife head and using her voice.

« – You haven’t changed! Asshole!

• What? Leave! What are you doing here!
• But I’m your wife!
• Was…
• You son of a bitch »

He received a slap on the right cheek and some spit on his face.

« – What the Fuck Rosie! You know you’ve got a restraining order against me, I can’t be close to you!

• See, I’m gonna call the cops! You will never see the kid again!
• Bitch! »

Jack pulls up a gun, point it at his wife face and shoot.

The brain matter splatter everywhere and the dead body transform itself as the poor hotel clerk.

« – Shit shit shit! Sorry!

• What the hell is going on here!
• I’ve… shoot a man!
• What?
• Oh my God Please help me!
• Hell no ! I’m calling the cops!
• No! I’m sick!
• God damn right you sick you son of a bitch! »

The hotel room door shatters and enters a giant snake.

« – What…

• Sssssss shut up! »

The author points his gun at the snake.

« – No darling please!

• Stop ! Stop using my wife voice! »

The reptile jump at him and wrap himself around Jack body and tighten his grip. The bones crack and Jack can’t breathe anymore.

And he woke up. The bedsheets are drenched. No dead body, no giant snake.

Feeling terrified, he decides to have a smoke. Maybe with this, he would be sure that he isn’t dreaming.

He doesn’t waste time, put the cigarette between his lips, take the lighter, light up the smoke and inhale.

He coughed. His lungs and throat weren’t used to the smoke anymore.

His heartbeat who was going haywire slowed dawn and the writer exhaled the poisonous vapor and sighted.

Everything was calm. He felt a sensation of appeasement, the nicotine doing their work.

He builds up some courage to take his notebook to write the strange and horrific dreams he had just experienced.

Just as he put the pencil’s lead on the paper, Jack hears a soft knock on the door.

The adrenaline immediately spread their powerful forces into every part of his body.

He waited a few seconds. Maybe he had confused a soft knock with a random noise from outside.

Silence.

And an another knock, more noisy this time.

« – Yeah? Said Jack in a very low voice.

• Mister, it’s the hotel’s clerk.
• Did… what do you want?
• Is everything all right for you?
• Yeah… why?
• Just heard some… noise. You know…
• Well… what kind of noise?
• Like someone… like you weren’t alone…
• Ha… no as far as I know I am alone.
• It’s okay… if there someone with you… you know, one of those ladies of the night…
• No! God no! No I promise you I’m all alone here.
• You wouldn’t be the first customer doing that y’know.
• No! No! I don’t have prostitutes in my room.
• If you say so… Wouldn’t be surprised y’know. Fame and money get you some puss…
• I said no God damn it!
• Won’t you shut the hell up over there!
• Sorry madame ! I’m just checking out with a client.
• Well it’s the fucking middle of the night! Damn! You guys gonna have some bad rating on internet!
• Oh! Well, we’re used to it there so, go on.
• Jesus! I will get you fired!
• Ok boomer whatever.
• Little asshole!
• What a distinguished vocabulary you have here!
• Don’t mess with me boy!
• It’s okay!
• No it’s not!
• Holy shit!
• Boy you think you can fuck with me?
• Sorry madame!
• It’s America asshole! We carry guns for a reason!
• Yes, right, I’m sorry!
• Jack! I’ve told you I would found you! »

Gunshots erupt, door bust open. Jack’s ex-wife enters the room.

« – Is this a fucking dream?

• You shit! It’s probably more of a nightmare.
• Shit! What the fuck is going on!
• I haven’t forgotten Jacky boy! »

The woman shoots right at the writer.

Jack woke up. In sweat, once again.

Jaskiers

Just Another Haunted Hotel Room Story – Part 3

FYI: I am not fluent in English, I’m trying to be at least. Sorry for the potentials mistakes. Feel free to correct me in the comment section.

—

The need for a smoke came back stronger than ever before since he stopped smoking. He needed to blow off some steam.

Once again, he had to face this inner demon of temptation. After all, just one, to cool off. But this is the cliché excuse to get back to smoking.

He took a glass of water instead, risking drinking it from the sink, with those terrible drought that had been hitting California recently, there was a risk of infection drinking water from the tap. But, this was better to drink a potentially cancerous glass of liquid than to definitely inhale cancer right into his body.

He laid back in the bed, looking at the spot on the celling. He couldn’t see anymore animals in it. This was proof that his brain was tired.

Dosing off once again, he fell into a dream, a nightmare in fact.

He was back in the fancy hallway of the Monclar Hotel in Colorado. Alone, he could hear a scream, a women scream along with terrifying scritching noises.

The hallway was well lit by a big crystal chandelier hanging from the roof to a few inches above the floor. Jack T. was almost blinded by the flashing crystals lights marking his sight with purple spots on his retina.

He tried to yell his wife name, Clara, because the screams he could hear sounded like her voice. But the only sound coming out off his mouth was an animal like groaning. The more he tried to yell, the more the groaning was loud and disturbing. When he decided to put his hand in front of his eyes to stop the light from burning them, he realised that his hands had became those of a beast.

Long and thin fingers, with long and thick black nails, his skin was covered in dense black fur.

By reflex, he took a glance at his lower body part but nothing had changed.

He tried to move around, going up the set of stairs on his right, the one that leaded to his room. He moved pretty fast. Too fast even. He could not control his pace. When he finally managed to reach the top of the set of stairs, he took the direction of the corridor leading to his and his wife room. He ran so fast that he blew past the long corridor, pulverising the window of his bedroom, breaking the room’s window and ended up in the snow, outside of the hotel that suddenly exploded.

Jack woke up in sweat. Maybe because of the dream, but also because the TV was on fire. He got up of the bed, coughing from the poisonous fumes filling the room and ran to the door. Of course, it was locked. He remembered, for once, where he had put the hotel room key; on the TV stand. But the television and the stand where devoured by thick black and red flames. The key was definitely lost. He prompted himself to the window but he could not understand the mechanism for opening it. Why do hotel room as those complicated windows opening mechanism along with weird shower malfunctioning?

As he was thinking about this, he felt like writing it down on his notebook. His precious notebook! He didn’t really cared about his wallet and laptops nor his trousers. He didn’t want to have his precious notebook burn, with all these wisdom, thought and ideas going up in flames and destroyed forever, never to be recovered. Jack never trusted his memory, writers have a tendency to forget things pretty fast because they often think about the thousand of things they could write. Their brains are often on maximum overdrive, keeping them up at night, pushing them to daydream.

Even more interesting stuff that he had to write about on the pages of his beloved notebook that was just standing on the bedside table.

He quickly leaped next to the bed to pick it up. But the notebook was stuck, impossible to grab off the table, like it was glued to the wood.

The writer tried his best to lift it up, planting his nails on the woods, bleeding. The effort made him suffocate even more. He wouldn’t give up, nails were coming off the fingers, shards penetrating deeply in his fingertips.

He felt a hand on his shoulder yanking him.

He woke up, laying in his bed. The young hotel manager was seating next to him.

Jaskiers