CHAPTER 5

I hired a taxi, Was driven there. Having taken the book with me.




CHAPTER 5





It was a very large structure that looked lke it was a what I would suspect for a castle in its construction. There were towers from which there were huge search lights on the top of the towers along with machine guns. The walls thirty feet tall. The gate was wide enough for a car to drive through. The gate had a huge iron wrought barrier there. They had two men to operate the winch of the gate. From what I was to see, they took their jobs seriously.





I had to climb a half a flight of stairs to get to the top of the stair way to be admitted inside the buildings to see Jacquiline. I knew she had to have the answers I sought. It looked more like it was more a prison than a sanitaruim. I did not know which was where I was supposed to find her. The walls were masonry and whitewash.

The stairs were numerous to get up there. There was a door through which I had to go through to enter the office. The woman dressed as a nurse at the front desk looked at me over her spectacles. Said,”Yes."



“I would like to see Jacquiline, who had burned the house down in 1870 whom they caught and brought here.” I said. She looked lifted her head when I said, her name. There was a look of concern on her face, she looked worried about me seeing her, Why would she be so concernedin my seeing her. I wondered.





“Why would you want to do this?” she said, she looked at me, gnawed at her ear piece, she had an expression of fear on her face. “What is your desire to see her?”







“I could have swore I saw her, at the address last night?” I said. “I want to know what she can tell me.”





“About what?” she asked she looked at me amazed by something, just what I did not know. "She could not have been out of the asylum, this place is escape proof. I tell you. I assure you of this event."
.




“I would like to know, what she knows this about the being I saw there. Last night.” I said.





“ She has not left her room, since she came in here.” she warned, The look on her face suggested that she did not know, what the devil I was talking about? I had seen her in her home. I know, why I had seen her there. She had to protect me, from what laid in wait for me. There. She would not hear of me saying what had said.





“I can tell you, she did not move from her room. I tell you.” she stated not believing what I had said, in anyway.



“Could you sign the book, to show that I have allowed you to see her.” she said as she passed me the book. I looked at the file and saw her as she was when she had been interned here The gown I saw her wearing was the same one, I had seen last night. There was not a hair out of place with the picture. There was a picture of someone who looked exactly like me, standing beside her.





The woman who allowed me to sign the book looked at my face and then at the one on the sheet where she and this man stood. She could not believe what she had seen there. There was no way I could be there, at that time.I was not even born yet, when she was interned. The woman looked at me again.





“I am afraid, that I am sure. I had seen her there.” I said definitely. I know, what I had seen, and it was the woman I had described and was told she was here, when she had burned the house down. I had looked into the papers to see the person, who destroyed my family's home here. That was her name, it was as she appeared when I had seen her last night. I looked down to see a signature that looked like my own on the admittance sheet.





“Are you sure, you would still like to see her.” she said. She pushed herself back from where she sat to scream into a mike to cause the person to reaccordingly to her.





“Yes. I am sure,” I said.





She rang a bell. A huge attendant appeared at the desk beside her through one of the doors that was there. He looked at me, he did not look very impressed with me.



Being there. “What is it, that you want Silve?” the man asked as he glared at me.







“I want to see Jacquiline. She was brought in here long ago.” I suggested.





The attendant said,”I see. She is a night owl.”





“That does not concern me, I suspect that I had seen her. Last night in my family's home.” I said.





“Having that happen, is strange. However I can reassure you she has never left the infirmary.” he said as he walked down the hall way with me at his heels, He looked as if he had done this time and time again. Whistling a tune.




He looked like Jack Dempsey. He had been through a few fights. His nose had looked as though it had been broken and in correctly set, His jaw looked solid as granite.



Having stopped at the door to the chamber, where I was told she was. The door had to beopened with a skeleton key. He cautioned,“I will be right here, if you need me.”





He stepped to the right to allow me to enter. The door was a heavy sheet of metal with a slot at the bottom to allow the patients to acquire their food. The door opened to allow me to enter.





The walls were masonry., they looked as though they were blood stained. The woman opened her eyes to see me as I entered the room. She looked like a very old lady. was holding a blanket that looked moth eaten to her chin. To stop me, from seeing her form.”So, you have come? Peter, I knew you would.”




I said,”Yes!” She looked very old she could not be the one I had seen at my family's doorstep, she looked as if she had been remarkibly concerned about that as well. Her eyes sparkled with delight as she saw me there. Her skin was pale as a thombstone, her lips were thin and appeared bloodless. She looked very wane. Her grey hair was in a bun.

She drew herself off of the bed, to walk towards me. Her movements were very much like those of the woman I saw two nights ago. The same movement to move across the floor as the type that she had used to walk with me that night.







“You have seen? What you have seen?” she asked, there was a twinkle in her eyes. As if she knew what I had seen, as she to was there with me on that night.







“I saw whatever it was in my house.” I said, as I looked at her, she was now crying as though afraid of what I was speaking about.







“Your house.” she laughed, her laughter chilled my bones with it. "You do not know, what you have seen? Do you/"







“Yes,” I said, "And no. Do not know what I saw there. Whatever it was/"





“You are a Whatelly?” she asked as she ruffled my hair with her hands. She smiled at me, like a wolf entering a hen house.t





“Yes, I am.” I said, growing more afraid.





She looked at the door to see the open hallway, inched towards the entranceway, that was no longer barred to keep her captive. Asked, “Why are you here?”





“To find answers?”, I said.





“Oh! my to find answers.” she chortled.





“Why did you burn down my house.” I said.






“I had to stop it from leaving the house," she warned.





“To stop what was there from leaving?”





“Chluthi from leaving your home. The being has to be stopped. I think, I gave you a book. Last eve.” she said as she looked at me, the chill filled my marrow.





“How do you know, that Chlulthu was responsible for this. The reason, you set it ablaze.”





“Saw it there. It was pursuing me, as I fled from the house.” she stated.





“You can not be, there. You were here, in this place last night?”





“You say, you saw me, there. Inside your house.” she said.





“I did.”





“I know, I burned it to the ground.” she said.





“I was able to enter the house, with your help.” I said.





“Did you know that I gave your ancestor the book from their library. Just before I set it ablaze.” she said.





I handed her the book, I had found in my hand. She looked at the book, she was frozen in fear looking at the book. She was petrified, by what she saw.The book was in her hands she recognized as being the one that she had given to his family. So, long ago.







She said,”You are the one. I gave you that book. Long ago.”







“That happened last night?” I said.





She tumbled to the floor. Her skin turned more palicid. She looked at the door, as did I. I saw the squid-like head and the tentacles that began to move, She screamed as did I. The being stood in the doorway, it looked towards us. I felt a chill slither into my bones. The monster walked into the room. I had walked into the room. I choose to charge at it, I had to protect her, from it. Its appearance was threatening us both. There was a stench of rotten flesh that was there. It seemed to be so real, that I could not shake the scent from my nose.





Upon hammering it with my shoulder, I felt it shudder, the tentacles spasmed and fell upon my back. The suckers clung to me, I had felt them tear into my back bicept, forearm and chest. There ran blood from where these suckers rested upon me. I toppled from my feet. It fell with me, Other tentacles had clung to my neck, as well.





I reached out to draw the tentacles up from where they rested upon me. I had to fight as if my very life depended upon them coming off of me. Perhaps it did. I saw his shoulder. There were circles on his skin 3 inches wide circles on his flesh that bleed from their centers. I could smell that he deficated as he had died.





Tearing the tenacles, free from my flesh.It appeared that these suckers had on them teeth. His arm and chest was awash in blood. I looked at the face, I choose to atatck its head. Maybe that would release my arm, chest and the back.







She opened the book, began to read from it.





The monster looked at her, and vanished from the hallway. I began to walk towards the hallway where I had been allowed to go through the door to arrive here. She handed the book back to me.Smiled, at me. “I knew you would come. Thank you.”





“What is that?”







“You should know, as you are a Whately?” she asked.





“What do I have to do?”





“You have to close the portal hole. To send it back to where it had come from!” she said





“How?”





“Timberman might know, I never got his first name?” she said.





“Where will I find this Timberman?”





“He is someone I meet in the Mascrade.” She suggested in a whisper as she drew closer to me.





“The Mascarde.” I said.





“Yes, the mascrade.” she said softly, she looked over my shoulder, she fearfully drew away from me. As I heard the footfalls of someone walking down the hall towards me, and the jangle of keys. I looked at the person who was there. Coming towards us. It was another one of the guards, he looked at her as though frightened to death upon seeing the guard laying at our feet.





“What has happened here?” he asked.





“He fell dead. There has been an accident here.” she said, as she clutched my shoulder, tears were running down her face. I stroked her hair trying to calm her. She sobbed.







“There, there.” I said.







The guard lowered himself to his friends body, he was concerned as he looked at the injuries that lead to the death of him. There was blood pouring from the wounds that the being had established in him. He said, “This, is the same as the other man who came with you to here.”







He stopped as he looked into my face, he looked horrified as he looked at me,said in a faultering voice,”You look like man who took her here.”