A Night at Mama Marie's

Like the sound of a homemade ice cream maker on a hot summer day, the tires of the old white truck churned along the gravel driveway. Pete had gotten off from his shift working at a nursing home in Nashville and immediately got on the road. He was headed to visit his family in Tampa for Halloween and didn’t want to waste any time. He had been driving for many hours and somehow gotten lost off the main highway. As he tried to determine exactly where he was between Clio and Dothan, AL; he came across a once Victorian home turned hotel and decided he needed to rest if he was going to brave the traffic of West Florida. 

Mama Marie’s Home and Kitchen was lovely on the outside, with pristine white siding and just enough foliage to make the entrance look like the stairway to heaven as the last sunbeams of the day hit the front of the house. The roof was a jet black with black wrought iron cresting adorning the top and seemed inviting enough that Pete decided to see if there was availability. 

As he entered the cozy hotel the warmth of the fireplace heated the entryway, and the red carpet looked to Pete as if he had just entered a private lodge of the Czar of Russia. A large mounted head of a wild boar adorned the space above the molding of the fireplace, while white leather furniture looked as if it came right out of the Great Gatsby.

“Hello, can I help you?” Asked a voice behind a podium. 

“Um, yeah. Do you have any availability for the night?” Replied Pete.

“Yes of course. It’ll be $80 for the night and your room is just up the stairs, second room on the left. You actually arrived just in time for dinner, we serving clam chowder in our dining room here on the first floor if you’re interested.”

“Sounds great. I’ll just run my suitcase upstairs and I’ll be back down.” Replied Pete, he was starving and hadn’t eaten since just outside Nashville.

As Pete carried his suitcase up the staircase, he smelled dinner for the first time. The clam chowder smelled amazing but his migraine from driving was unbearable. He decided he would take some ibuprofen and lay down for 5 minutes before he went down to eat. So Pete set his suitcase down in his black and purple striped wallpaper room filled with portraits of the house and a bed furnished with a thick fluffy blanket that laid upon an old wrought iron frame.

The bed was so comfy and the room cozy but it wasn’t long though before Pete’s stomach told him that he can sleep after he eats. So, Pete decided to head downstairs and get a bowl of chowder. As he got up, he glanced out the window briefly and thought he saw someone with a shovel burying something outside under a large black willow tree, but when he took a second glance nothing was there. Must just be me being tired thought Pete. 

As Pete exited his room he briefly caught some small children running down the hall before quickly disappearing around a corner of the hall. Their parents need to get them under control Pete thought to himself hopefully, they won’t keep me up tonight. 

Pete descended down the stairs and entered the dining room just off to the right at the bottom of the stairs. Before him stood a massive, deep brown, rectangular oak table with a few small decorative gourds in the center. Surrounding the table were 10 seats, 4 on each long side and 1 on each end. At each seat was a large bowl of chowder and an open seat saved just for Pete between a tall man in a suit and a top hat and a young female who was so pale Pete wondered if she had ever seen the sun.

“Hello, we thought we would wait for you to come back down before we served everyone. It makes dinner much more enjoyable with more people for conversation.” Greeted the hostess who welcomed him before. 

“Tonight we will be having clam chowder and some lemon pie made by our very own in house chef, Gertrude.” Continued the hostess as Pete took his seat. 

As the hostess started serving the other guests, Pete noticed that there was something off in the chowder. Whenever the chowder was being poured something would sometimes fall into the soup and splash chowder out onto the table. At first, Pete just thought it was a chunkier chowder but then he thought he saw a slight movement in the bowl of the guest across from him. As the bowl in front of him was poured, he thanked the hostess and picked his spoon up. But as Pete stirred the soup he felt something against the spoon. It resisted being pushed by the spoon, and Pete scooped the object up with his spoon. To his horror, Pete witnessed a small, furry, white mouse on the end of his spoon. Luckily for Pete, this mouse was dead, but the soup across from him was still moving, and he immediately lost any interest in his food.

“Thank you for the lovely food,” thanked Pete as he stood to exit his seat. “But I’m not feeling great and think I should just go to bed.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, would you like me to get you some pie before you head up?” Asked the hostess.

“No, but thank you. I’ve been traveling for a while and just need to sleep.” 

Pete may not have eaten in a while but he was no longer hunger and was rethinking whether to stay at Mama Marie’s but just longed to sleep and decided to stay. As he approached the top steps of the stairs he was greeted by what appeared as two African-American twin boys holding hands. They must have been somewhere between the ages of 10-13, and the boy on the left was dressed in a grey three-piece suit with a powder blue bow tie and carried a small cane in his right hand. In his left hand, he held the hand of the other boy who was dressed in tattered and torn grey pants made from an old flour sack material and held up with a thick twine belt. While for a shirt he wore a loose white vest which appeared to be made of the same material as the pants and he wore no shoes and no undershirt.

“Hey guys, I would avoid dinner if I were you.” greeted Pete.

The boys didn’t respond but just stood at the top of the stairs. 

“Right, I’m just going to go to my room.” Said Pete feeling a little awkward about the boys’ response.

With that the boys turned and headed down the hall, walking before disappearing around the same corner as the kids before Pete went down for dinner. 

After seeing them leave, Pete didn’t care about the awkward situation and just wanted to get some sleep so his raging headache could dissipate. But as he entered his room, he saw through the window across the room a figure under the black willow tree. This time as he shook his head clear and took a drink from the water bottle in his suitcase, the figure didn’t disappear. Under the tree stood someone dressed in a plague doctor outfit, with a bleach white mask, and glossy black leather ensemble. In their right hand, he clutched a black cane and in their right, they held a lantern. The doctor just stood and stared back at Pete before moving out of the moonlight and into the shadow of the tree. As they stepped into the shadow the light of the lantern faded and vanished, but Pete could not pull himself away from the window until a knock at the door startled him. 

“I’ve brought you some lemon pie!” Exclaimed the quickly becoming annoying voice of the hostess.

Pete opened the door with an annoyed but thankful grin. 

“Thank you,” Pete said quickly as he accepted the pie, knowing full well that he was not going to be eating anything that night. As he was attempting to close the door, the hostess stopped the door. 

“Is everything going splendid with your stay with us?” Asked the hostess.

This was when Pete started to notice the details of his hostess. At first glance, she appeared young and full of energy, with a passion unmatched for the glorious but small hotel. Now as the light of the room illuminated her face Pete noticed that she was older than she originally appeared. Wrinkles under her eyes and on her forehead showed years of strain; while sagging on the left side of her face was invisible to Pete until this moment. As she smiled at him awaiting his response, Pete could see multiple decaying teeth, and black gums holding them in place.

“Um yeah, everything’s great.” Muttered Pete, trying to appear grateful without staring at her mouth. 

“Wonderful, breakfast tomorrow morning will be held at 7:45 sharp and we hope you will be feeling better by then. Gertrude’s food is always a highlight of anyone’s stay at Mama Marie’s.”

“Yeah, I was really looking forward to her clam chowder so hopefully I’ll be more up to the task tomorrow. But I gotta get going to bed, so goodnight.” Replied Pete as he waved and closed the door.

Pete finally climbed into bed and tried to get some needed sleep. But as he closed his eyes, a knock rang on the door. Feely irritated now suspecting that it was the hostess again, he quickly opened the door but was surprised to see the twins from the top of the stairs again. Before Pete could greet them, however; the twin in the suit spoke, “Don’t fall asleep. He is watching.” Then the twins immediately turned and disappeared down the hall.

Strange thought Pete, who is he? So he concluded that it must be a creepy prank and again laid down in the bed. This time just as he was closing his eyes, he caught a movement in the corner. Pete quickly grabbed his phone and turned the flashlight on. In the corner next to an old red velvet chair squatted a young adult with long messy brown hair and dressed in a white nightgown. With his low beam flashlight he couldn’t make out if they were male or female but as the figure spoke Pete could tell she was a young lady. 

“Don’t sleep. He is watching”, she sobbed.

“Who’s watching, what’s wrong?” Asked Pete.

Without an answer, she quickly scurried under the bed in a crawl similar to an alligator.

Pete was terrified at what he just saw but wasn’t sure what exactly he saw. Either way, Pete knew he had to check under the bed or he wouldn’t be sleeping at all tonight. So with the flashlight on the phone and a quick prayer, Pete jumped out of bed and pointed the light under the bed. To his disbelief, however, nothing was there.

Confused and terrified, Pete tried to convince himself that he was just suffering from lack of sleep and decided to just go to sleep and laid back down. But as Pete, laid in the dark he couldn’t get the words out of his head. Don’t fall asleep. He is watching.

Pete rolled over and faced the ceiling, when suddenly he heard, CLICK…THUD.

CLICK…THUD…

CLICK…THUD…

At first, Pete couldn’t recognize the noise; but soon realized it was someone coming up the stairs. Pete quickly sat up to looked out the window. Searching, hoping, but not expecting to see anyone under the black willow outside. In the opening of the tree branches, where the moonlight shone through like a stage spotlight, sat a lantern in the grass. The same lantern that was last held by the plague doctor Pete had seen earlier.

Pete quickly laid back in bed, hoping that the figure would respect his privacy and avoid his door.

CLICK…THUD.

The doctor was at the top of the stairs with his black cane leading the way.

CLICK…THUD…

The doctor approached the door. Then silence.

“He’s here…” whispered the female voice, under the bed.

Click…

The door began to open.

Pete quickly grabbed his phone and pointed the light at the door as it was opening, but as the door opened nobody stood on the other side. He finally decided it was time for him to leave and grabbed his jacket.

Pete approached the door opening and after taking a quick look outside his room, Pete made a run for the stairs. With each step-down, Pete got a little closer to getting out of this nightmare. But just as Pete was at the bottom of the staircase, he suddenly came face to face with the doctor.

In a flash, the doctor swung his open hand and a powerful backhand crashed into the left side of Pete’s face causing Pete to crash to the ground. As Pete sprawled across the floor, frantically attempting to get as far away from the doctor as possible. The doctor followed pointing the silver winged skull handle of the cane towards Pete’s horrified face.

Pete scrambled to get to his feet, and just barely dodged a swing of the cane from the doctor. In the process of dodging the oncoming strikes of the cane, Pete crashed through the front door and struggled across the porch of the old mansion. While crawling across the porch, Pete saw the hostess rocking in a rocking chair in the corner of the wrap-around porch.

“HELP!” Screamed Pete. But the hostess just laughed and watched as the doctor followed Pete out of the hotel.

Pete got to his feet as he got to the bottom of the porch steps and grabbed the ax next to the old chopping block. With a swing from Pete, the blade of the ax smashed into the white-beaked mask of the doctor; forcing the figure reeling backward with the ax stuck into his mask.

Pete took off running for his old white truck. As he got to the driver's side door and fumbled briefly with the keys in his jacket when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his back. As he turned around, he saw the twins. The boys still held hands, but the twin dressed in sack clothes held a large kitchen knife dripping the deep crimson blood all the way to the hilt.

All of a sudden Pete crashed backward into the side of the pickup truck and down to the ground, dragging a trail of blood down the side of his truck as the doctor joining the side of the twins. When just as the plague doctor approached and began his swing with the ax; Pete woke up.

Shaken and drenched in his sweat, Pete frantically crashed out of bed onto the floor not realizing where he was. As he looked around he realized he was back in the hotel room with the early morning sunlight crashing into the old room. Only realizing as he looked, it wasn’t as he had remembered it. The walls were a stained yellow color with the wallpaper shriveled in random places on the wall and floor. The bed had no sheets or blankets and the color matched the walls from years of stagnant water leaking from above. The window was broken and a breeze caused the stained curtains to wave towards the door, while rat droppings were piled in the corner.

Disgusted Pete quickly grabbed his suitcase and belongings and made his way down to his truck. When he came to the bottom of the stairs he looked around to the dining room and was disgusted to see old bowls on the table that clearly hadn’t been used in a decade. As he ran out to his truck and pulled around on the gravel drive; he looked back and saw the vine-covered mansion with a rocking chair on the porch, still rocking.