THE HORRIFYING SECRETS OF ROOM NUMBER 111
If horror stories scare you, if you quickly have nightmares at night, if you're alone in your room reading these lines and the storm outside threatens, then don't go any further and select another story .
If the creaking of a wardrobe in the heavy silence makes you jump and then laugh, if the living dead amuse you, if you like to be a little scared, continue...
Elara woke up very early. She got dressed. She put on her old denim overalls, her t-shirt. She laced up her not very white tennis shoes. She redid her braid which had come undone during the night, then went down the stairs.
His parents welcomed him for breakfast. They explained to him that his fox had been running up and down in front of the house since dawn. They do not possess the gift of talking to animals like their daughter. They wondered what he wanted.
Elara went out, called her friend and sat down against the wall of the house. She stroked him gently.
-I have five little foxes. Do you want to come see them?
-Oh yes! rejoices our friend. That would please me. Can I take them in my arms?
"Certainly," affirmed the fox. Are you coming today?
Elara entered the house.
-Dad. My fox has five little foxes. Can I go see them, please?
Our friend does not go to school. The village is too far away. She does her homework and studies her lessons with her mother. But, that day, his mother gave him leave and dad did not need his services to collect the logs in the forest.
She swallowed her sandwich quickly and drank her glass of milk. She made
herself a picnic, which she packed and slipped into the pocket of her overalls
just above her penknife which she always takes to run in the woods. She
put on a belt and hung a canteen full of water on it. Then, thus equipped,
she left for the whole day.
The fox first followed the track that led to the junction of the three roads. As soon as they arrived there, he indicated a long path, then ran off after explaining the way to follow. He was going to join his little ones. He found that our friend was not moving fast enough for his liking.
The journey seemed endless to Elara. She missed her bike, but the trail was impassable on two wheels. She did not reach the cubs until around noon, very tired from her long walk.
They were lovely, all five of them. She took them in her arms. She caressed them. She kissed them. A moment of happiness and wonder.
Then, before eating her toast, she approached a small tree-lined lake. The den of his fox, very well located, was a few meters from this large pond.
It was very hot, very beautiful. She decided to bathe before leaving. She took off her sneakers and her t-shirt. She entered the pond dressed in her old overalls, already faded. The water was cold, but she got used to it quickly and swam pleasantly.
The pond formed a bend. When Elara reached the middle, paddling, she discovered the other half. And there, surprise! She saw a large building that seemed abandoned.
Worried and curious at the same time, our friend came out dripping, dressed
quickly and headed for this building she had never seen. She stood right
at the edge of the water. Three stone stair steps separated the facade and
the pond.
She observed a ground floor, a first, a second and a third floor.
The walls, old, dark, cracked, seemed sinister to him.
Elara entered through a large open French window, inside the building. She saw a monumental staircase. It led upstairs.
To the right was a desk covered in dust. Just behind it, she saw a cupboard, divided into small compartments.
An old telephone sat on the desk. She picked up, but she didn't hear a dial tone. The hall floor and carpets were strewn with rubble and dust. On the wall, the paper was peeling off.
She opened a large door and discovered a large dining room. She gradually realized that she was exploring an abandoned hotel.
Some tables still had a tablecloth. The cover was set. Knives, spoons and forks surrounded the plates and glasses. Other tables, no doubt over time, had overturned or collapsed and the china was broken.
Leaving the dining room, she crossed large living rooms in very poor condition. The paint on the ceiling was peeling off in large flakes. Some litter the ground.
Elara returned to the entrance hall. She went behind the desk and looked at the cupboard. She saw a large number of keys there. Each had an engraved number, 101, 102, 103, and so on. On the floor above, 201, 202, then 301, 302, etc.
Intrigued and having never stayed in a hotel, our friend randomly took the keys to rooms 101 and 105. She crossed the hall and climbed the stairs.
On the first floor, she entered a long corridor. It opened to the left and to the right. She walked to the door of 101, put the key in the lock and entered.
She observed the room she had just discovered. A large bed, a wardrobe and, at the other end of the room, a French window opening onto a small balcony. She opened it and went out onto the terrace. She overlooked the pond. Elara closed the window and the door and went to visit room 105. She looked like two drops of water at 101.
Our friend came downstairs and put the keys on the desk. She wanted to know more, but a noise intrigued her for the moment. A noise she hadn't really paid attention to when she arrived.
Irregular noise. "Tuk…tuk...tuk; touk; touk... touk". It
seemed to come from under the kitchens. A cellar perhaps. Elara
crossed the hall, passed near the banister and noticed a door which she opened
immediately. It overlooked a wooden staircase.
She went down. The steps creaked under his feet. She came to a hallway that led to several cellars on both sides. The noise came from a room to his left.
Our friend walked over and looked through the keyhole. At each "touk", lamps were lit, then the light gradually decreased. When they were about to go out, a new "touk" occurred and revived the lights. Sinister. Frightening.
Seeing no one, Elara opened the door. She discovered a huge, very strange machine. Water, which seemed to come from the pond, came through a fairly wide pipe. This water flowed over a large wooden wheel and made it turn. The rotation of the paddle wheel drove others which activated a set of coils of copper wires. A very old installation, an electricity generator. It provided some light in the building. The abandoned hotel...
Elara closed the door and went back into the entrance hall. She then grabbed keys 201, 203 and 312. She wanted to take 111, but, curiously, the key to room 111 was missing. She chooses the one from the 314 in the locker next to it.
She followed the stairs to the second floor. There, she visited 201 and
203. They looked like the bedrooms on the first floor, except that the doors on
this floor seemed much better quality, much thicker and more solid.
She put keys 201 and 203 on the floor, just below the first stair step on the second floor, near the banister.
She went up to the third.
She slipped the key to 314 into the pocket of her overalls, next to her toast which she still hadn't eaten, then, holding 312 in her hand, she headed first towards the door of room 111. .
She saw a little light through the keyhole. A lamp was on. She sizzled a little. Elara saw an unmade bed. She gently grabbed the handle and tried to open it, but it was locked.
She walked to the 312, inserted the key and opened it. She took the key out of the lock, went in and closed it behind her. The room was empty. Our friend put the key 312 on the bed, and went to the French window. She went out onto the terrace.
She tried, from the balcony of 312, to look at what was happening in 111, but the dirty windows prevented her from seeing anything.
Then, pushed by an extreme curiosity, Elara climbed on the wrought iron which adorned the terrace of room 312. She put one foot on that of room 111, while holding on to a gutter which passed between the two. She stepped over the void and jumped with both feet onto the balcony of room 111.
The French window was closed. She couldn't get in there.
Through the dust and cobwebs of the window, she made out a small bathroom on the left. She noticed a bathtub. She realized that this bathtub full of water was almost overflowing. A person, whom she assumed to be a woman, as she saw the edge of a black dress, seemed to be cleaning something there. Our friend could not find out more.
She understood that she was not alone in the abandoned hotel.
She turned quickly, climbed back onto the forged irons and jumped onto the balcony of 312. She went into the bedroom and closed the French window. Only one idea was running through his head now: to run away quickly.
She walked over to the bed to retrieve the key to 312. Remember that she had
left it on the blanket. But the key to the 312 was no longer on the bed!
Elara's heart began to pound. She was seized with a terrible fright. This anguish increased still more when she saw the handle of the door of the room 312 lowering very gently while creaking.
Our friend looked around her. A door made it possible to communicate between room 312 and room 111. The only way out.
She walked towards this door, lowered the latch and found that it was not locked.
The doorknob giving access from the hallway to 312 was completely depressed now. The door opened slowly.
Elara rushed into room 111, and closed the communicating door behind her.
In the adjoining bathroom, an old, white-haired woman with a bewildered expression was cleaning something in the bathtub.
Suddenly, this strange person, who hadn't noticed the young girl, pulled a
human skull out of the soapy water in the bathtub.
Elara almost cried out in fright, but at the same time the door of the 312 communicating with the 111 opened ajar. Our friend rushed behind the bed and lay face down.
Wanting to conceal herself better, she lifted the fringes of the bedspread that were hanging down to the floor. Lifting those bangs, she saw two whole human skeletons under the bed.
Christina screamed.
A second woman entered the room. The other, putting down the brush and the soap she was holding, walked towards our friend who tried to run away but the two old ladies grabbed her by the wrists with incredible vigor for their age.
She struggled with all her might. She kicked one, bit the wrist of the other, and, thus freeing herself, opened the connecting door and rushed towards the corridor by the 312. The two women pursued her.
Elara ran down the stairs at top speed. A ten-year-old girl runs faster than two old people. She arrived first in the entrance hall. She crossed it, ran towards the shore of the lake, and fled as fast as she could, skirting the pond.
She turned around several times. The two women were no longer following her.
Elara ran and ran again with all her might, until she was exhausted. So, drenched in fear and sweat, her heart pounding, having made sure no one was behind her, she slowed down and drove straight home. She didn't even stop to eat her toast!
When she arrived home in the evening, she told her parents about her adventure
in the abandoned hotel. At first, they were reluctant to believe
her. But when she took the key to room 314 out of her overalls pocket,
they realized that their daughter was telling the pure truth.
Dad immediately phoned the police. He was told that a report would be forwarded and the family kept informed.
An hour later, the phone rang at Elara's. She was going up to her room, but she stopped on the stairs to listen to the conversation. Commander François of the paracommandos was talking with his father. Our friend has already met him in other adventures.
The father called his daughter and handed her the device.
- The commander would like to speak to you, my dear.
-Hello !
-Hello Cristina. How are you doing?
-Better, but what terrible emotions this afternoon.
-Tell me, asked the soldier.
And the young girl once again detailed her adventure.
-GOOD. The gendarmerie asks us to lead the investigation. I will come tomorrow morning, quite early, in the company of three of my men, Privates Robert and Bertrand, whom you know, and a third. You will drive us to the hotel and we will try to discover the secret of these two women. You do not mind?
-Okay, promised our friend. At your side, I fear nothing.
"Perfect," replied Commander François. A good night tomorrow.
Elara hung up, kissed her parents and went to bed, after giving them the final explanations.
The next day at dawn, she got up. After putting on, as usual, her
overalls, her t-shirt and her worn sneakers, she went downstairs to have lunch.
Commander Francois and the three soldiers had just arrived.
-So, Elara, did you sleep well? On the way!
She sat in the front of the all-terrain vehicle to the commander's right. The three soldiers stood behind. They drove for half an hour, but the ruts in the road were so deep and muddy that they ended up having to continue on foot.
Our friend then guided them along the path that leads to the pond, near the abandoned hotel. Passing the fox hole, they cautiously approached the old building.
The commander watched him for a long time through binoculars. He didn't notice anything unusual. Everything seemed deserted.
- Good, thinks the soldier. Soldiers, start by going through the entrance hall, go down and search the cellars that Elara has just described to you. When you have visited each room, you will go back up and explore the ground floor, then the first floor and so on. Me, I'm going to take the stairs with her first and go and inspect room 111 and then we'll come down to you.
Our young daughter, not very reassured, shook hands with the commandant and
entered the hotel with him. They went up the grand staircase in
silence. The man took his revolver from his belt holster and held it
firmly in his hand.
On reaching the third floor, the soldier placed Elara behind him. The hallway was dark. They moved noiselessly to room 111. A little light filtered under the door.
Commander Francois tried to open it by moving the handle. It was locked. Then, giving a solid shoulder thrust, he stormed in and shouted "hands up."
Room 111 was empty. The bathroom too. The lamp was still crackling. The tub was overflowing with gray water. You couldn't see through it because it was too soapy and dirty.
The soldier meticulously observed every corner. He pulled the chain off the tub stopper to empty it. As the dirty water drained, he crossed room 111 and headed for the French window.
-Be careful, whispered our friend. Because the door on your left allows you to communicate with the 312.
Major François, seeing no one on the balcony of room 111, opened the connecting door and entered room 312. He searched it, but it was also empty.
Going back through the bathroom, he glanced at the bathtub which, meanwhile, had drained of its dirty water. Horror! It contained human bones! Two skulls, tibias, femurs, ribs and vertebrae. The remains of two people: two whole skeletons.
They both went out into the hallway and went back down the stairs in
silence. We couldn't hear the three soldiers. Where could they be?
They crossed the entrance hall. Empty! The door leading to the cellars was open.
Major Francois and Elara came down the steps. The soldier shook the hand of the brave young girl who was not leading off.
Arrived at the bottom, they saw, on the right, a kind of portcullis, as in the old castles. She was down. They listened to the dull noise that had intrigued our friend. "Tuk...tuk...tuk...". It continued to tear the heavy silence.
-What is that? asked the commander.
-I know it. Open there, on the left. You will see a big electric machine right behind it.
The soldier, still the weapon in hand, pushed open the door and went into the dark room, the basement of the electricity generator. Our friend accompanied him, of course. He observed the strange device.
Suddenly, they heard a loud clanking noise behind them. The commander rushed down the hall. Too late, a heavy portcullis had just come down from the ceiling and isolated them in the cellar!
The three soldiers appeared at this moment behind the other grid. The paracommandos were prisoners with Elara, in the cellars of the old abandoned hotel!
"We can't find any way out," shouted the three soldiers. We have just searched everywhere, on our side.
The soldier took Elara with him and returned to the generator room. He watched her carefully. Then, climbing on the machinery, he tried to slip into the wooden piping that came from the pond. But the passage was too narrow. He turned to our friend.
-I could pass, she said. I am thin. A chance.
-Okay, accepted Commander François. Listen up, little girl. You're going to sneak through this gut since you dare. I find you very brave. You will probably end up at the edge of the pond. But I forbid you to play the heroines! Don't try anything. You hear me well. Once outside, you will rush home. You will telephone the colonel, you will ask for fifty reinforcements, and you will come back with them.
-Okay, promised Elara.
- Wait, added the soldier.
He unfastened the belt that protected his revolver and wanted to hang it around our friend's waist. But the belt was too wide for her. He borrowed his penknife, made a hole much farther and tightened his belt around her stomach.
-Here, he said. Do you know how to use a gun? You know how to handle a gun, since you sometimes go hunting with your daddy.
-I've never fired a revolver, answered Elara, but no doubt I'll know if I have to.
-Look, it's not very difficult.
He opened the gun. He offered her the magazine with the bullets then closed it. He showed her the security button. The young girl slipped the weapon into the intended place of the belt.
She walked away towards the machinery and prepared to climb it. Commander Francois smiled.
- Elara?
-Yes?
-With your overalls and your belt, you look like a real fearless soldier.
Elara blushed, happy to be recognized for her courage.
Very proud, but with a heavy heart, she climbed the machinery and slipped into
the pipe. She crawled through the dirty water and reached an open space
between the second and third steps of the staircase that separated the hotel
from the lake. A nasty surprise awaited him...
Left and right, on either side, was one of the old women. Our young adventurer, frightened, sees only one solution to escape them. Rush into the building. Which she did immediately.
She ran up the stairs, past the office, grabbed the key to room 101, left there the night before, remember, and rushed to the first floor. She opened the door, entered and crossed the room.
The two women were running behind her. She unlocked the window. They entered room 101 in turn. Elara went out onto the balcony. The two terrible ladies crossed the room. Our friend hoisted herself onto the wrought iron of the terrace, hesitated for a moment, then jumped. She entered the deep water of the pond with t-shirt, sneakers, overalls and belt.
She rose to the surface. She quickly got out of the water, in front of the
hotel. She stood soaked, trembling on the stairs. His heart was
pounding. She glanced out the balcony. The two women watched the
girl.
Elara ran down the path. They couldn't follow her.
It was suddenly very dark. The sky was overcast. A lightning tore the
sky, a strong clap of thunder startled our adventurer and the rain began to
fall. The storm broke violently. It was almost dark. It rained a
lot. In an instant, Elara, already soaked, dripped everywhere.
The path turned to mud, and as the night lengthened the shadows, she could no longer make out her way. Several times she tripped over the brambles, slipped, straightened up, tried, by the light of the lightning, to get back on the right track, but she finally realized that she had indeed left the path without realizing it. She had gotten lost in the woods and was going around in circles.
She walked again, wading through the mud, still looking for her way, turning and turning, useless effort. The further she went, the more she got lost.
So she sat down against a tree trunk and really wanted to cry. The rain was still falling. She was not crying because she was wet or lost, although she was very scared, but because she had failed her mission. The commandant and his three soldiers were counting on her. And instead of managing to get back home for help, she was getting further and further lost in the woods.
But crying is useless. Elara knows it well. We must think. She sat up and looked at the tree. She climbed from branch to branch.
From up there, she scanned the surroundings. She saw a small, hesitant light. Our friend knows very well that, in stories, when you see a little light, it's never very good: a witch, a werewolf, bandits. But all this does not exist in his forest. So she decided to head for that glow.
She walked through it all, snagging the bottom of her overalls in the brambles, poking herself on nettles, bumping into tree roots, groping around, soaked in the rain, dripping with water, shivering with cold and shivering with fear.
She came in sight of a sinister building, and, at that moment, Elara understood with horror that this gleam was nothing other than the small irregular light of room 111 of the abandoned hotel. By dint of groping, she had returned to her starting point.
Our adventurer had only one solution left. We had to face the two
women. She gathered all her courage and entered the hotel. It was
still very dark, almost black. The lights were malfunctioning, because the
power supplied by the generator came irregularly. She advanced slowly,
looked left, right, carefully. She took out the revolver, lowered the
safety and kept it in her hand. She stood on the lookout for the slightest
noise. She didn't hear anything though.
She crossed the entrance hall. The silence was heavy and menacing. She walked towards the door of the staircase which led to the cellars. She was counting on asking Commander François for advice.
Arrived at this place, Elara perceived a slight creak on the floor. Panicked at the idea of seeing the two women arrive, she crossed the hall again and hid behind the reception desk. The two women crossed the room, walking towards our friend. They were chasing her.
She passed between them and spun as quickly as possible up the stairs. She went up to the first floor and then to the second. The two women were still running behind her.
Reaching the second-floor landing, Elara saw two keys on the floor, near the banister, those of rooms 201 and 203, left there the day before, remember. She took them both and suddenly had an idea.
She ran to 201, opened the door and turned on the light. Then, leaving the door ajar, and the key in the lock, she rushed to room 203. She entered it without lighting, and watched through the half-open door.
The two women arrived, out of breath from running up the stairs. They didn't even speak to each other. They entered without thinking in room 201, attracted by the light.
Elara, then, quickly left the 203 in which she was hiding, followed the corridor on tiptoe and brutally closed the door 201. She turned the key in the lock. The two strange people were now locked up, prisoners. Remember, the doors on the second floor are thick and strong. No matter how much they drummed, they couldn't get out.
Our adventurer went back down the stairs and headed, a little reassured,
towards the one in the cellar. She saw three levers to her right. Two
downs and one up. She risked lowering the third. The hotel was
plunged into total darkness.
So, quickly, she lifted the lever she had just touched, but straightened the other two as well. She heard the sound of iron and the portcullises which enclosed the soldiers and Commander François rose. They rushed up the stairs and found our friend. They congratulated her on her courage and initiative.
Then, Elara explained that the two ladies were locked up in room 201. She returned the revolver to Major François. They got in together, opened the door and tied the two women in handcuffs.
It was too late to return to the military camp. Outside, it was total
darkness. We would have to spend the night in the hotel.
Our friend was worried about sleeping in the same building as these two weird and dangerous people.
Major François suggested that he go to another floor. First or third. The young girl chose 301. The soldier promised our friend that a soldier would stand guard in the corridor in front of her door to watch over her.
It took her a long time to fall asleep in her damp, cold overalls. She ends up falling asleep anyway.
She awoke at dawn. She stood up immediately. She went out into the
hallway. The soldier guarding her was standing there, but seated and
asleep. He grabs himself when he sees her.
They all found Commander François.
Everyone went back to Elara's house. The soldiers took the two ladies with them. They got into the all-terrain vehicle abandoned the day before, and soon after the farewells, Commander François, his men and the two women left and returned to their barracks. A terrifying adventure was coming to an end for our friend.
She received news a few days later and all the explanations.
The two women were twins. They got married and spent their honeymoons in this chic lakeside hotel.
And then, after fifty years, they wanted, in the company of their husbands, to find this once very frequented place. They discovered an empty, dilapidated hotel. The two couples visited the abandoned building.
Exploring the floors, the two men fell through a window that no longer held and tumbled with them. A stupid accident. Be careful, this can happen when visiting places like this. They were killed instantly. In shock, when they found them dead, the two poor women went mad.
They remained there, unable to carry the two bodies, and under the guard of their large ferocious dog. They saw the bodies of those they loved decomposing and slowly rotting. They undertook to clean them because they found them ugly, in their madness, in their delirium. But, by dint of brushing them in the bathtub of room 111, there were soon only skeletons left.
At that time Elara had surprised them without knowing it.
Both women were placed in an institute for the mentally ill for treatment. The old hotel regained its solitude and the silence of its abandonment.
Our friend returned to her house, ready for other adventures.
