The Curtains

CHAPTER 1

"Lemme out, please! HELP ME"

"I don't wanna die. HELLO"

The screams parroted against the butchery walls. No one will help you out.

"Dam Dam"

My hands kept on whacking the heavy wrought iron door, hazy vision inept me to discern the place, eyes barely helped to foresight in the presence of dark. The walls were painted with blood. Susi lay dead on the floor. Her body was viciously wracked. Bits of mirror was darted on her eyeballs; the forehead was half smashed in pieces, the skin was brutally sliced, feet were completely twisted.

A small sparkly tear was stuck right on her cheek. She has undergone a lot. I couldn't stop the flow of my tears. All I can hear were my screams, echoing against the walls, crying with pain and fear. Guts forced me to stand back, cheeks slouched against the floor to look outside the door, tears watered the vision, blurry images formed through demi slash of eyes, restraining my mind to take a sudden call.

I was trying to seek help but my frozen vocal cord shook my voice.

"HM HM HM HM HM HM"

My ears bounced up to that same weird Twinkle Twinkle sound.

I paused.

Gasping, gasping and gasping, fear ceased me from moving, eyes were stirring like a wiper. I felt a hand on my shoulder, darkness surrounded the room.

Three days earlier.

The Journey begins.

A long way from the city, in the middle of nowhere, there was a motel named "The Curtains", covered with sharp-pointed bushes like feelers and eroded trees whose leaves were fallen off, sounded like a crispy wing as the wind passes by. The building was sabotaged, windows were half broken and one side was utterly wracked like crushed pepper, dust-coated the building light brown and leaves covered the craft men's cinematic artsier. Many ferocious series of fairy tales attached with it, persuade people to keep the brand still alive. The historic journey began on the 26th of June 2010. My friend Clair Steward rushed into my house on Cowls street, the oldest street in the oldest section of Alaska.

She shouted, "Emma, come at once!". Before I even had time to get myself up, she rampantly shouted again

"Yeah, I'm all done".

"Just a moment, I'll be there", I uttered under a whisper, almost in sleep when getting dressed.

It was a bright morning, slow wind buzzing my ears, curtains were drifting like a slow melody.

I headed towards the closet, slide the door open, eyes were glimpsing sideways. I dressed up in my casual apparel, dark blue skinny jeans, a hazel top with brown stripes, a multi-colour scarf wrapped on my neck, along with a jacket. I simply clipped my light brown hair and wore aero soft joggers. Packed my stuff in a blue tracking bag, hung it on my shoulder and moved out of the room.

"Morning Mom" I went down the stairs directly into the dining room, mom and Clair were chatting over breakfast.

I yawned and dragged myself near the table to have a fluffy delicious bagel with a salted egg fry.

"Where are the others ?", I asked Clair, she was busy eating cheesy bread.

"Have you even called them to come early", I kept on asking frequently, sighting the road through the window.

She nodded yes and began to eat again.

"You all better watch your back and don't forget to call me when you reach there", mom said with a heavy heart, her eyes were clutching the flood in.

"I'll be fine mom. It's not my first project", my words might have eased her for a split second but she remained terrified.

I took the tray off her hand, hugged her tightly, almost squeezed her, to make her feel good. Ears jumped on to the noise of siren, I moved my hand back from mom to grab the lying bag.

"It's time to go, mom", the feeling was weird to leave her all alone, but duty comes first.

My shivering legs moved near the door, opened the door. to go outside. There was a black jeep near my front yard. Clair and I walked to the car, I waved mom goodbye and stepped inside the jeep. We all were heading towards our dream project. Dream to probe "The Curtains", a five-star luxurious motel, which was shut down due to 400 tragic deaths. Some say it was due to fire which burned down the whole entity, while others rumoured that it is a haunted place where anything can happen anytime.

"What a crap".

Furious and curious minds of archaeologists are always dire to quest the mystery behind the walls. The heat of the moment was making me assume myself a latchkey child, striving hard to achieve her aims. We loaded all our stuff into the jeep and were ready to hit the town.

"I'm gonna drive", Simon hilariously cried, my cousin. Six feet tall, black hair, dashing personality with brown eyes. His leather jacket was quite old and grimy, four years elder than me. Susi, Karen, Edward, Jacob, Elizabeth, Will and May also joined us. I plugged myself into my creepy songs and pulled a book out to read. I have read that book a hundred times in each passing year of my life, as it gives a pain-pleasure, on how a girl finds the love of his father.

Cold breezes were enchanting the environment, it was so peaceful and quiet. Karen placed her legs out through the window, her head was rested on my lap. Wide-eyed and mesmerized by the passing beauty of nature. I looked up and halted, gazing at huge mountains wrapped with snow and fog, overshadowing the beautiful villages in the footstep of those mountains. The melody of the flowing streams and rivers at distance forced me to unplug my music and the crashing sound of the waterfall ahead was hitting my ears like thunder. I just put my head back and got silent.

"Hey, what are you reading", Will worded out, dragging me from my inner world.

I frowned and pushed him back.

"You disturbed my thoughts", I abruptly said, pointing my book near his face.

Will almost whimpered as May dragged him away from my seat and spun him around badly to sit still. She was pulling out a joke. She was the one who enliven our trip with her silly pranks. It was a long and tiresome journey, as the destination was on the outskirts of town. The sky turned black, the wind started gusting, smog covered our path, it was almost 11:00 pm at night and in the middle of nowhere, we decided to stop by.

"Good God, we were already stuffed with camps for such unforeseen circumstances", Clair said by catching a deep breath.

I walked near the car to grab some bags, heavy bags miffed my arms, my legs were quivering with such weight. I sighed before lifting. I felt like a factotum, luckily Jacob helped me station the camps. What a long and cold night it was. Deep darkness covered us with a bunch of creepy and scary noises. Passing puffy clouds masked the moonlight, the black sky was calmly flecked with white shimmering stars, I put on my jacket as the cold wind passes by. Few of my friends placed the born fire and turned on the music to dance. I sat at a distance on a broken tree, about to complete the book and suddenly the phone rang beside me.

"HELLO", poor signals hung down my call.

It must be mom, so I dropped the voice message.

My eyes began to blink when I heard the footsteps approaching me. I shifted myself a bit corner to glimpse the person. It was Jacob, a tall white man with short black hair.

He smirked, his eyes were shining, and the striking looks were diverting my attention to him. After an exchange of a few comforting words, he leaned towards me, entwined me, kissed my forehead, his brittle beard twinged me. My mouth hastily fell open, I mumbled scared, muscular arms prisoned me so tightly that it was hard to retaliate. Catching my conscious in a snap second, I pushed him back vehemently and walked past him. I strolled briskly, not wanting to think about him any longer. I hid my feeling behind the wall of my heart. I glanced back at him, his lower head and watery eyes were somehow breaking those walls. I went inside the camp, zipped up, took off the jacket and laid straight on the fluffy pillow. Eyes were staring right up, arousing warmth distressing my mind.

To be continued...