PatriciaStory

Nightmare in the honeymoon:

This story begins in Melbourne, Australia, the city where John was born and spent all his life, until the day he decided to move to London as he wanted to study Industrial Engineering at University.

He met Mary there. She was a nice student in Teaching Studies who lived close to the hall of the residence where he lived.

Since the beginning they were very good friends and she helped him a lot. Hhe started to fall in love with her.

Five years later Mary was working in one of the most important schools in London and John had recently finished his studies. He decided that he wanted to marry her, as he had been thinking a lot about it and he was sure that this was the moment.

One night John invited Mary to dinner at the Ritz Hotel. They were talking about all the things that they had done together and he thanked her, because she always had helped him. At this point in time, Mary thought that he was thinking of going back to Melbourne, but suddenly he surprised her. ‘Do you want to marry me?’ he asked. She was really nervous, since this was an unexpected situation. ‘Yes, I do,' she managed to reply, without thinking much about it. She was very happy and that night they started to organize the wedding.

The guests were only their family and close friends. The whole day was like a movie, a fairy tale came true. The only thing she missed during that time was her father, who had died a couple of years before. When Mary was a little child she had dreamed that her parents would walk with her along the the aisle to the alter. In spite of this, the day was wonderful.

It was the beginning of June and the days were very bright during this time of the year in Florida [how did they get to florida??], but it was not their journey's end. As he reminded her after talking with her for many hours, when they were at the university, they had talked about visiting Costa Rica and decided that this was the perfect place for their honeymoon. Ten days there were enough to get one's strength back and a superb way to start their 'new life'. But it would take a long time to get there as they would have to go through Miami and spend one night at the airport because of the bad weather.

By the time the got to Miami, it was about 3 pm. The flight to Costa Rica was scheduled to depart at 9 PM so they decided to find a place to have lunch, which was actually her breakfast. They spent about half an hour trying to find the right place. An Italian restaurant looked the best option. What about this? It looks charming, asked John. "For me it's OK!", she grumbled. She was tired enough to discuss it.

After having lunch they tried to rest on the benches, but the hustle and bustle of that enormous airport made it impossible for them [to what?]. By 10.30 PM they were flying over Cuba and, in three hours, they would be enjoying their destination. The guy in the travel agency had told them that it was the perfect moment to visit the country. "There is nice weather and low humidity’, he remembered the man saying. By the time the got the country that words looked like a bad joke.

Costa Rica is located between two oceans, Pacific and Atlantic. Its tropical climate is divided in two seasons, known to the residents as summer and winter. Winter is the period from May to November and during this time, it rains constantly. For that reason, when John and Mary were in their room, it didn’t stop raining. Apart from that, the weather was also very windy and there were flashes of lightning in the sky.

Looking for an internet connection in hotels and hostels there wasn’t as easy as they had thought at first, but one night she dreamed about a tiny hotel near a village called San Jose. The next morning she could tell John the colour of the windows and the name of the beach it was close to… They googled it and they found it! It was called “Los Tranquilos”. This spiked their curiosity so they decided to go… Alfred, the owner of the hotel seemed a mysterious and enigmatic person and didn’t like tourists. He told them that every night noises and people shouting could be heard. They couldn’t believe him but what happened minutes after changed all their beliefs…

John decided it would be a great idea to put the do not disturb sign on the doorknob, clearly he was expecting a long enjoyable evening before going out for dinner, so Mary was, as she lay naked on the bed. Suddenly they heard a piercing scream, it came from the corridor, and immediately somebody knocked on their door. They were terrified. Somebody was crying outside, it seemed to be an old woman.

John took the phone to call the reception desk, but the line was dead. Mary was getting nervous, grasping the sheet with her white hands to cover herself. John tried to calm her down, it wasn´t going to be an enjoyable night.

The woman stopped crying, and again, somebody knock on the door very softly, which made this even more terrifying. Just when John was about to open the door, a note slipped under it. They´ll never forget what they saw in that note. Although a childish drawing, he could clearly see himself killing her wife, her body covered in blood. Very angry he opened the door, wishing to punch the joker, but nobody was in the corridor. In front of him was a portrait of a landlord´s family, former owners of the hotel. An old woman was in the front line, a paper and a pencil in her hands.

They decided to leave the hotel. The receptionist told them they weren´t the first couple to experience such a horrible thing. Actually he has heard some peasants say that the hotel was haunted, for two hundred years ago was committed there a horrible crime: the landlord killed his entire family and afterwards killed himself.

Alberto, Ruben, Domingo, Gloria y Patricia