| Arnie |
May 14th, 2002 08:42 AM |
Hi everyone,<BR>Here is the next installment. Be sure you have read the last one (about ten postings up) or you may not follow this part.<BR><BR>"This antique clock that supposedly hadn’t worked in years showed the time to be exactly 12:15am. Not only that but the small pendulum inside that had remained stationary for the previous two days of the Smith’s stay, was now swinging from side to side—emitting a small click each time it reached the outside arc of its movement. <BR><BR>Lisa Smith lay in bed for approximately five minutes waiting for the minute hand of this mesmerizing little clock to move to sixteen: It never did and yet it continued to tick away. Finally, her attention returned to the window and the apparent moonlight coming through it. Lisa knew for a fact that there was no moon that night, so she decided to leave the comfort of her bed to look out the window and see just where this light was coming from. What she saw both surprised and confused her.<BR><BR>When Lisa gazed out the window, a full moon stared back in at her. She knew that there was no moon that night and yet there it was, big as life and twice as bright. Feeling a bit disjointed and a little frightened, Lisa decided to return to bed and the comfort of her husband. She turned around to move the few steps back to bed and stopped dead in her tracks: There was no longer a form underneath the covers. <BR><BR>At first Lisa Smith assumed her husband must have gone to the bathroom without saying anything. Then she remembered that the bathroom was actually down the hall and she realized there was virtually no way Terrie could have gotten up, opened the door, closed the door and walked down the hallway without her noticing, yet that must be what happened—how else to explain his absence? Then Lisa noticed something else, not only was Terrie not in bed, but the bed itself was made—complete with comforter and shams in place. <BR><BR>Now Lisa was becoming frightened. She knew that even if Terrie had (somehow) managed to sneak by her to use the restroom, there was NO WAY he could have possibly made the bed without her noticing. And besides, why would he? <BR><BR>As confused and scared as Lisa was becoming, she decided that there must be a logical explanation for what was (seemingly) occurring. She put on her nightgown and opened the door to the hallway to search for Terrie. When she turned the doorknob the door opened easily but with the loud creak she had remembered from when they were first shown to the room. “Okay,” Lisa thought, “we locked the door before going to bed so Terrie must have left the room, but then why didn’t I hear the creak as HE opened the door?”<BR><BR>Lisa Smith left the room and headed for the bathroom. As she approached it she could plainly see that the door was open, the light off and that it was empty. She continued past the bathroom and proceeded to go down the four flights of stairs to the main part of the house, still in search of Terrie. When she arrived in the lobby/living room, Lisa noticed a man with his back to her standing behind the waist-high partition that served as the check-in area for guests. Recognizing immediately that it wasn’t Terrie or Mr. Kern, Lisa tentatively said, “Mr. Van Der Hout?” There was no response. Again, she said (more loudly this time) “excuse me, Mr. Van Der Hout?” Still, no response.<BR>
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