Дмитрий Леонтьев – Don't trust anyone (страница 3)

After that the man took out some papers and began to fill them in with a pen.

“The town looks so odd,” Jimmy uttered looking expectantly at his vis-à-vis.

The man didn’t give any sign of his attitude towards the city.

“You know, after I entered the town, I didn’t see anyone here except you and an odd girl and one other weird guy,” Jimmy said.

“How many nights?” the registration clerk asked.

“What?” Jimmy asked in amazement.

“How many nights are you going to stay here?” the clerk asked sounding disgruntled.

“Till tomorrow,” Jimmy replied.

“5 dollars and pay by cash!” announced the man taking out another cigarette from the pack.

“Of course, you don’t have electronic payment types,” Jimmy said taking his wallet out of the pocket.

“You think you’re smart?” the man at the registration desk asked him threateningly.

Jimmy realized he had said something wrong.

“No!” he responded, “I…I’m sorry, I’m so tired after the long trip and my car broke down,” he added.

“What happened?” the man asked.

“I have a flat tyre wheel and some problems with the engine. Is there any service station near here?” he asked.

“My brother can have a look at it. Now let me show you your room,” the man suggested pointing towards the long corridor.

“This way,” he said when they were standing outside the door.

The man put the key into the lock, turned it several times and opened the door with a creak.

“You can spend the night here,” the man said and invited Jimmy to be first to enter.

It was dark inside but the man at once switched on the light and Jimmy took a good look of his room.

“It used to be a mining town,” the man said suddenly putting the key on the table.

“What happened after?” Jimmy wanted to know.

“Iron ore was previously mined here. A long time ago a terrible disaster occurred here: a landslide killed many people, others suffocated,” answered the man and put the cigarette into the ashtray.

“Oh!” was Jimmy’s reaction.

“Yes! They say some miners were even found with bags on their heads, they did not want to suffocate or swallow dust,” continued the clerk.

Jimmy pondered on what he had just heard. He recalled that scary man with a sack on his head.

He shuddered at the image.

“And you know that virtually no one stayed here,” the man declared.

“Mary didn’t write me about this, she definitely deceived me,” Jimmy uttered.

“One local legend has it that you can see here some figures with sacks on their heads. They are ghosts of those people who had suffocated. They invite travelers to come and visit this town,” the man said and picked up the cigarette again.

“Wh… what for?” Jimmy felt fear arising inside him.

“Maybe one day there ‘ll be many people in the town again! These ghosts believe that everything will become as before,” the man answered.

Jimmy’s face turned pale.

“Keep calm, dude,” said the man, “This is only a legend! Right? Somebody made it up and already everyone believes it,” he burst out laughing.

“But in fact, after the closure of the iron ore mine, there was an outflow of the population. We‘re surviving here as hard as we can! But we all know each other! You, boy, don’t worry! Everyone here is kind. No one will hurt you,” the man said reassuringly.

“This is difficult to believe,” Jimmy answered.

The man continued to laugh.

“You said something about your car,” he reminded Jimmy.

“Yeah! I have a flat tyre and some problems with…” Jimmy began to explain.

“Where is the car now?” the man asked.

Jimmy wanted to show the direction with his hand but couldn’t because, in fact, he had no idea which way it was.

“Ok, don’t worry, I’ll find it and have it towed here. My brother will fix it,” the man promised.

“Thank you so much!” Jimmy thanked him.

“The town is so small and I’ll definitely find it soon,” the man calmed him down, “you stay here and get some rest.”

“That’ll be good, thank you!” Jimmy thanked him again.

“I’ll also bring you a meal later,” the man added and left the room.

CHAPTER 6

Considering what had happened to him earlier, Jimmy came up to the door and carefully locked it. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Then he turned around and decided to go straight to bed to have a little nap. The bed was next to the window in which he caught sight of the man from the registration desk. He had already exited from the hostel and was marching along the paved road.

Feeling empty and exhausted, Jimmy closed his eyes and immediately threw himself on the bed. He covered his forehead with his left arm making himself comfortable and getting ready to fall asleep. Hardly had he started dreaming, when the sound of the turning door handle forced him to wake up. Jimmy sat up and watched steadily the door. Someone must have been trying to open it from outside.

“Who’s there?” he asked loudly from the bed.

No one responded but the door handle was now shaking more violently and it looked like the lock was about to break open.

“Heeey!” Jimmy shouted and jumped out of bed. He ran up to the door.

“Is it you?” he asked scolding himself for forgetting to ask the registration guy for his name. He had no idea what the name of his host was.

The door handle stopped shaking. There was dead silence.

Jimmy pressed his ear to the door in the hope to hear some steps.

But he heard nothing. Carefully, Jimmy raised his right hand and ran around the handle with his palm. He gripped it and turned slowly unlocking the door. Jimmy stuck his head out into the corridor and looked around. There was nobody around.

“I guess I’m hallucinating,” he whispered. He turned around and got distracted forgetting to close the door behind him.

His eye fell on a figure of a girl in a white nightgown. She was standing right behind the window. He recognized her. It was Mary, his friend from the social network

CHAPTER 7

“Mary!” he shouted and ran up to the window.

“Mary! What’s going on?” he yelled at the top of his lungs trying to open the window. But it got stuck.

Realizing that he can easily lose sight of her, Jimmy knew he had to act swiftly. He turned around and rushed for the door. In the doorway he felt a strong gust of wind on his back though he well remembered that the window was closed. From the wind, the door slammed shut in front of him.

“Mary! Wait!” he yelled trying to unlock the door and, when it finally yielded, he jumped out into the corridor and ran through it as fast as he could.

“Mary!” he was calling out her name while running.