Mask of Madness

Welcome to a world where the ordinary unravels into the extraordinary and the mundane transforms into the terrifying.

Meet Chance, a precocious 19-year-old supernatural expert, and Detective Tyler, a seasoned investigator, as they embark on a fateful journey home.

As the night veils the world in darkness, an unforeseen circumstance forces them to seek refuge at a desolate motel, lost in the heart of nowhere.

Little did they know that their anticipated respite would turn into a twisted nightmare from which they might never awaken. In this realm of chilling uncertainty, every shadow hides a dreadful secret.

Brace yourself as the Night Creeper, your loyal narrator, guides you through this tale written horror writer by Casey Burrin as you enter the Doorway to Darkness.

For more horror, visit caseyburrin.com.

Transcript

Ever since I was five years old, I could see what nobody else could see. Some say it’s a gift, but I say it’s a curse. Due to my vision of the worlds beyond this one, I’m a beacon for any manner of evil, no matter its form. 

I forget this sometimes since it doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I’m reminded of my malediction. So, it was on that day that I found out the hard way that I’m never out of the storm because it never stops raining – at least not for me.  

My business partner in the dark arts is Sgt. Tyler, as a former police officer, turned paranormal private investigator. 

At 3 a.m., we were driving home from visiting a client with a curse gone wrong that narrowly turned out for the worse. 

Tyler stared out the windshield with her head cocked to one side like she was willing the car to drive. She’d already informed me that she didn’t sleep well the night before, but it still surprised me when we weaved over the yellow line. 

“Tyler!” I said as she nodded off. 

“Sorry, kid,” Tyler said. “I only got three hours of sleep last night and what time is it? Ugh. It’s 3 a.m.” 

“No worries,” I said. “Sleep is essential for your body to support healthy brain function. Clears out toxins, fights disease, maintains a healthy weight and improves mood. With my busy schedule, I only get 10 hours of sleep a day.”

As I was talking, the car wandered into the gravel along the side of the road, and we almost ended up in a ditch. 

“Tyler!” I yelled. “Wake up!”

Dust kicked up around the car as she slammed on the brakes. I stared out onto the long, lonely stretch of highway, surrounded by pine trees with no other cars in sight. Just the light beams of the car illuminated the roadway. 

“Alright, I give up,” she said as she took off her seatbelt. “You’re going to have to drive us the rest of the way home.” 

She climbed out of the car and walked around to my side. She sensed something was amiss when she came around the other side, and I hadn’t moved. 

She knocked on my window, and I lowered it about an inch. 

“Chance, I got no patience for your personality right now,” she said. “Hop out and get in the other side.” 

“I’m not so sure that would be a good idea,” I said.  

“I can’t drive, I’m exhausted,” she said. “I need to sleep. Now get out, so I can get in the passenger’s side.” 

“There’s probably something you should know,” I said. 

“Tell me on the ride home. Hop out?” 

“I can’t get out.” 

“You crippled?” Tyler said. “You don’t look crippled. Why can’t you get out?”

“Well, I can, but…,” I said. “I can’t.” 

“Stop speaking in tongues. Spit it out. What are you driving at?”

“I can get out, but I can’t drive.” 

“If you can get out, you can drive. Now get out. Stop this foolishness.”

“You don’t understand,” I said. “I can’t drive.” 

“You won’t or can’t?”

“The second one.” 

“So what if you left your wallet at home? No one will catch you. I’ll talk our way out of it. I’m a cop, remember? Don’t worry about that. Now get out.”

“You don’t understand,” I said. “I can’t drive.” 

Tyler’s eyes narrowed as she pressed her lips together like she’d just slicked them with gloss and was trying to distribute the product evenly. 

“What?” Tyler whispered. “What!” 

“No one ever taught me,” I said. “I never had a reason to learn. My driver takes me everywhere.” 

“Are you crazy! Are you nuts! How old are you? 19? Are you kidding me? How spoiled are you in that mansion you live in?” 

I didn’t dare correct her that I didn’t actually live in a mansion. Due to the ample grounds around my home, it was more correct to describe it as a manor or estate. But Tyler never understood the finery of living as she’s an apartment dweller and always had been. Having been born in refinement, I took it upon myself never to correct those who couldn’t possibly understand this basic distinction. 

“Oh my God! Chance!” she said. “How are we going to get home?”

She climbed into the driver’s side and slammed the door. 

“I can’t drive either. I’m too tired,” she said. “I’ll get into an accident for sure.” 

“What are we going to do?” I said as Tyler tapped on her phone, ignoring me. 

After she perused the internet without my consult, she tossed her phone down on the console and started the car without acknowledging my presence. Tyler had a plan that she shared with no one but herself. I didn’t need to know apparently.

We pulled into a two-story motel that looked like it’d seen better days. We bumped over potholes on the blacktop that hadn’t been maintained for what looked like years. The vacant sign flickered incessantly, and water stains dripped down the motel walls. 

“It’s the closest motel I could find. It’ll do,” Tyler said. “You get a room. I get a room. All I need is four hours of sleep.” 

 “Is this what motels are supposed to look like? I said. “I’ve only stayed at hotels?” 

“Don’t be a baby,” Tyler said. “They probably don’t get much business. Places like this are family-owned and only open when they’ve got visitors. We’re out in the country, remember?” 

We entered what looked like the main office, but I wasn’t too sure. The earthly smell of mold wafted through the air and an entire panel of fluorescent lights had burnt out, so the light split the darkness in uneven ways. 

A lone button laid on the counter, so Tyler pressed it. We waited, listening to the buzzing of the fluorescent lights and the sound of dripping of water somewhere in the back office. 

“No one’s here,” I said, breaking the silence. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” she said. “This place is open. We’re staying.”

Tyler bashed the button again, trying to rouse someone to tend to us. We waited in near silence, save for the buzzing of the ceiling lights. 

“I’m sorry that I don’t know how to drive,” I said. “I never had a reason to do so. I know I should’ve, but it just seemed easier not to.”

“Your parents should’ve taught you or at least made you learn,” she said. “That was their responsibility.”

“They’re in Barbados right now, or maybe it’s Amsterdam,” I said. “I can’t remember.”

“Kid, I’ll teach you how to drive someday, so don’t stress,” she said. “It’s not your fault. Just hush. I’m in no mood.”

“I have a bit of a depth perception problem,” I said. “Just to warn you.”  

She mashed the button again over and over again. 

“Maybe they aren’t here,” I said. 

Just then, we heard a door shut and then whispers before a shuffling down a hallway. A reed-thin man who looked like he’d not eaten much ever in his whole life burst through the doors. His shirt and pants looked like he’d borrowed them from a much larger man, and his belt was cinched to the last hole. Wisps of black hair encircled his otherwise bald pale head. 

“Hello, hello, hello,” he said. “What do we have here? Two star-crossed lovers looking for some respite from the cold.” 

“Are you kidding me with this?” Tyler said. 

Due to her overtired nature and less refinement, I knew it was my place to save the day. I jutted my hand forward toward the man, who grasped onto it. 

“How do you do? Thank you so much for allowing us to stay at your fine establishment,” I said. “Let me introduce myself to you. I’m Chance and this is my business associate, Tyler.” 

“Nice to meet you,” he said. “Please call me Felix.” 

“We need two rooms,” Tyler said, holding up two fingers. “As in, one plus one equals two.”

“Two separate rooms?” the man said. 

“Yeah, cause, you know, that’s what two rooms would be – separate,” Tyler said. 

“Hmmm,” Felix said, stroking his chin as he looked us over.  “Are you sure? We’ve a room with two beds?”

Looks like we are the only ones here, and the only ones you’ve had in a long time,” Tyler said. “I’d assumed you have two rooms.”

“It’s just that one room would cost less, and it’s so much easier,” Felix said. 

“Easier for who?” Tyler said. 

“Two rooms are better for us,” I said. “Next to each other would work.”

Felix cocked his head up, looking down at me as he spoke and waiting for my reply, which made me take a step back from the counter. He shook his head as he looked us over, up and down like he was surveying a newly cut raw steak. 

“Felix,” Tyler said. “Do you mind?” 

“Alright, I’ll give you rooms 201 and 202, right next to each other on the second floor,” Felix said as he placed two keys in front of us. 

Tyler whisked them off the table, and we both turned around, heading for the door. 

“It’s so nice to have you stay with us,” Felix said. “We do want to serve you.”

When I entered my room, which had a lovely view of the parking lot replete with designer potholes, I thought this is what hell must be like, but not as nice. I’d only stayed at 5-star hotels before, but I’d think even the most well-tread barbarian would’ve been disgusted with this place. 

I walked to the bedside table and tried to turn on the light, which didn’t work, of course. In near darkness, except for the room window that had lost its curtains long ago, I sat on the bed that felt squishy as I sunk into it. 

Covered by a mildewed bedspread, the bed - I firmly believed - had been infested by a family of people-eating beetles. I’d had enough of this and headed out the door onto the balcony. 

I knocked on Tyler’s door, but there wasn’t an answer at first. I pounded on the door and then heard wrestling on the other side until she opened the door. 

“Chance, you better be on fire,” Tyler said.  

“I can’t stay here,” I said. “The light doesn’t work. It reeks of mold and decay, and I’m sure the bed beetles will eat me alive.” 

“It’s called bed bugs, and I’ve stayed in worse,” Tyler said, standing in the doorway. “Just sleep in your clothes on top of the bed. That’s what I’m doing. Don’t get under the covers.”

“I think my sinuses are bleeding, or maybe it’s a brain bleed,” I said. “Or maybe an aneurism.”

“Fine,” she said, stepping back into her room. I heard the tingling of keys. 

“Sleep in the car,” Tyler said. “That’s as far as I’ll go.”

She slapped the keys into my palm before shutting the door in my face. 

I climbed into the driver’s side as I thought I’d get familiar with the console if I was to learn to drive, a skill I was still dubious of acquiring. I fumbled with the dials and knobs until I started to nod off. 

I tilted back the driver seat to be more comfortable and shut my eyes. Just as I was entering the first phase of my sleep cycle, I vaguely recalled the sound of footsteps crunching across the gravel parking lot.

“Chance!” Tyler yelled, as she banged on the window. “Let me in! Kid!” 

I fumbled with the door, but nothing worked as I didn’t have the car on. 

“Chance! Now! I mean it!” she said, scanning the area for danger like somebody was after her. 

“What’s wrong?” I said. 

“No time to tell you. Just please, let me in. Where are the keys? Find the keys.” 

I fumbled in the darkness until I heard the unmistakable sound of metallic keys, clicking against each other. I held them up through the window, so Tyler could see I’d found them. 

“Great! Let me in,” Tyler said, yanking the door handle. 

“Why are you whispering?”

“Hurry! We’re in danger!” 

“Danger?”

“Yes, Chance! Danger as in crisis, as in emergency, as in peril” Tyler said. “I swear to God, you’re hurting my brain.”

With my hands shaking, I was able to get the keys in the ignition but having never driven a car before, I didn’t know what to do. Also, Tyler’s demeanor put me in a state of mental confusion.

I fumbled with the window that cracked about an inch open. 

“Oh, hey,” I said, surprised at my success, but in the darkness of the car, I lost the button again. 

I didn’t know what to do with the locks. I pressed a button, allowing the backseat door window to go down about an inch, so now I had both windows cracked. But in the darkness and my nerves on overdrive, I lost my way again.

“You’re just pecking at the locks and window button,” Tyler said. “Hurry up!”

“You’re making me nervous, and I don’t know what’s going on.”

Tyler took two steps away from the car and held her two hands together with her eyes closed. After a deep breath, she opened her eyes and walked back to me. 

“When you left, I felt bad. Real bad,” Tyler said. “You’re just a kid, and this place is kinda crappy. OK, it’s real crappy. So, I thought maybe we could find another motel somewhere down the road. Someplace a little better. I thought maybe I could make it there.” 

“Well thanks, it’s nice to be listened to,” I said. “I always appreciate my opinions are taken into account.” 

“It’s not real,” Tyler said. 

“Sorry?” I said. 

“It’s closed.” 

“What’s closed?” 

“The motel,” she said. “This place. It’s not real.”

“We just checked in.” 

Tyler took another deep breath and rubbed her eyes in circles before talking to me again. 

“Because you were so upset, I looked online for another motel. Five months ago, they shuttered the place.”

“I’m perplexed.”

“Closed!” 

“What?”

“As in not open!” 

“We’re here!”

“Shut down.” 

“Say again?”

“Out of business!”  

“Tyler, are you saying this motel is out of business?” 

Tyler smashed fingertips over her eyelids and brows, rubbing her face in a circular motion before addressing me again. 

“How can you be so smart and so stupid at the same time,” Tyler said, pulling on the door handle. 

“Now that was just hurtful,” I said. 

“OK, kid. Listen. I called local police and got the dispatcher, and she said it’s been closed for months. No one works here. Chance, put it together. That creepy Felix’s got plans for us.”

I felt my lips go dry, and the realization that Felix intended what I didn’t know but nothing good. 

As I was about to reply, Tyler turned her attention away from me and back onto the motel. She stared at something off in the distance. I watched her face as she became transfixed with that which had caught her attention. 

So, I looked in that direction too. I saw Felix tiptoeing toward our rooms. He stopped in front of Tyler’s room and brought out his keys. Three men skulked up behind him, and he handed one of them a key before they headed toward my room. 

What I saw next caused what felt like my stomach descended to my tippy toes. Felix grabbed his neck as wads of skin welled up into a protruding pouch. He pulled it up over his chin, past his nose and eye until he’d taken that entire layer of leathery skin off. 

The true Felix laid before me, a bloody mass of hardened skin revealing a face without a nose. His eyes lacked any definition other than being a hole in his face. But his teeth – rows of razor-sharp needles – protruded from his mouth. The other men followed suit so that five ghouls stood before us, completely oblivious that we watched them. 

The men turned the keys on cue and bolted into our rooms. 

I felt my heart beating in my temples, pulsating as I struggled to breathe. 

“Chance,” Tyler whispered. “Listen, let’s calm down. 

“Ghouls!” I said.

“Look down on your left,” Tyler whispered. “You see the console with the word lock on it. OK, that unlocks the door, so push it now.” 

Turning to my left, I spied the console in question and the word lock. I pressed on it, and I heard a click, but nothing happened. 

“They are going to rip off our flesh,” I said to Tyler. 

“Press it backward,” Tyler said. “The button. You pressed it forward, but you must press it backward to unlock the door.”

I did just that, but again nothing happened. 

“Chance backward means backward, as in pull back. It does not mean push forward like you just did,” Tyler said. “Now try again.” 

I looked down at the lock again and saw that the level could be pushed forward for lock or backward for unlock. So relieved with my discovery I leaned on the steering wheel. 

BEEEEEEEEEP! 

The car horn caused the ghouls to spill out of the room. They all stood frozen as they looked directly at me and Tyler who’d momentarily slipped through their grasp. 

BANG! I heard the backseat window shatter as Tyler blew it out with her gun. 

She dove into the backseat headfirst and emerged in the front seat, smashing me against the driver’s side as she took control of the car. 

The ghouls sprinted toward us, descending upon the car within seconds. One of the ghouls jumped on the hood, but Tyler threw it in reverse, and he flipped off. 

She bashed into another, knocking him down. I felt the crunch of his body as we rolled over him. But as a dead being, it mattered not. The ghoul popped up, crushed and mangled, but still able to run after us again. 

Around and around, we drove in the parking lot in reverse, bashing into ghouls as they lost limbs and patched skin ripped off their bodies. But it didn’t matter. Ghouls can’t be killed by these methods. 

Tyler couldn’t turn the car around, so she drove it backward out of the motel parking lot, down the gravel road and onto the highway as the ghouls ran after us. But when we made it far enough on the highway straightaway, Tyler whipped the car around and gunned it. 

As I looked out the rearview mirror, all I could see were the ghouls standing in the middle of the road, their arms outstretched as they screamed in unrepented fury at our escape.