Fun and Games (AHS Hotel) - Mind Games
Imagine: Imagine waking up, trapped in one of the rooms at the Hotel Cortez
Warnings: Fear, Mind Games, feelings of terror, predator and prey
Pairings: None in this part
Word count: 2, 950 words
Reader gender: Female
Author: Ilariya_Lavoro writes
Part 1/2
Note: More canon characters to appear in the next part
Mind Games
Something wasn’t right
Your head hurt, that was an understatement to say the very least. You had a splitting headache, pounding away like someone had used you like a drum and this was simply after effects. You tried to focus but that wasn’t easy with the way your head was throbbing. A noise off to one side caught your attention. You weren’t as alone as you first believed yourself to be. It wasn’t just any noise, it was a voice reaching out.
The muffled voice called out to you but the words were flooding straight into one another making it almost impossible for you to interpret them. You were a little too curious for your own good, you wanted to know what they were saying to you. It was a call that you just could resist for better or worse. Which would it be this time around? Soon enough you would find out.
Whoever they are, this mystery person seems to linger just beyond in the darkness. A soft groan escaped your lips as you tried to move but you couldn’t. Heavy, they felt as if they were being weighed down which was impossible, right? Your eyelids flicker and flutter as you try to open them and adjust the darkened room. It soon dawns upon you that you are lying down on a rather firm surface.
As you try to sit up, you find that you are unable to lift more than your head and shoulder, you try once more but you fail to move. Your arms simply won’t budge. You are stuck, trapped in this current situation. You crane your head, trying to get a look at what is keeping you confided but even as you strain your gaze, you can not pierce through the dense void that encompasses the room.
The surface beneath creaks and groans as your head flops back down. You are lying on a bed, a hard mattress in one of the many bedrooms of the Hotel Cortez. You never left, you are still where you wandered aimlessly into in the early hours of the morning. However it was almost impossible to know how much time had passed since then. You remembered sitting down at the bar. You remembered being served a drink and flirting with somebody easy on the eye but you couldn’t recall their name or even what they looked like, after the second or was it the third drink your memory tapers off into a pleasant void of nothingness.
You had no knowledge of how you went from an enjoyable drink with a stranger to being here, trapped and waiting for whatever came next. A shiver rushed down your spine as the enormity of your predicament set in. This was far from a good situation to be in. You were now just hoping that there was a way out, a light at the end of the tunnel but in this moment, you couldn’t see it then you remembered the voice. You weren’t alone in here. Was this your capturer? Or Someone just like you caught in the spider’s web waiting for the spider’s sharp fangs to sink in as it claims it’s prey. This doesn’t happen, as they speak once more. There is hesitation, relief temporarily masking the fear that perfumed through the cracks.
“Thank God, I thought you were dead for a moment” You lift your head up arching as far as you possibly could as your eyes desperately search in every direction possible for the location of the person behind the velvety smooth pipes. Hindered only by the lack of light and shadow that blanketed every inch of the room.
The voice spoke once more “Can you move?” They asked. You dared for a split second to give in hope and believe that the owner behind the voice was more friend than foe. To hold onto the notion that they were not trying to lull you into a blind trip and strike when the iron was hot, the moment that you truly dropped your guard around them.
“No, can you?” Your voice broke as each word passed through your cracked lips. It was as if your throat was lined with sandpaper. You sounded positively dreadful but your words were sincere and truthful.
You heard a pained, frustrated groan in response that spoke volumes in the place of actual words. Silence then followed, this worried you about the state that your roommate in the loosest terms was in. The stillness was broken after a moment as the voice perked up and spoke slightly louder than before.
“That makes two of us, I’m handcuffed to the radiator attached to the wall” This was the worst possible outcome to this particular set of circumstances that you walked head first into. There were two of you trapped in this small room, bound to various pieces of furniture as part of someone’s twisted fantasy. There was an end game here, one that you dreaded to even consider. You feverishly tried moving your arms once more, you still couldn’t. Nothing had changed to allow you to even move more than a few inches. If this other person was handcuffed to the radiator then it was highly if not completely possible that you were handcuffed to the bed. Great, this was not the ideal time for an impromptu bondage session without your expressed consent.
“It appears as if I’m in a similar situation over here. I’m Y/N L/N” You responded, it looked as if the pair of you were going to be stuck in this awkward position for an undisclosed period of time. It made sense to get acquainted with the person who was experiencing this nightmare alongside you.
“I’m Matthew Vaughan, I’d say it’s nice to meet you but considering the mess we are in, that will have to wait. Seriously when we are on the other side, I’m taking you out for a drink” You chuckled, seeing what he was trying to do. Lighten the mood and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’d like that” You could cling to that, maybe there was a way through the figurative maze of thorns that lay at your feet. A brief smile passed over your lips as you thought of the hereafter but you could not follow that train of thought down the rabbit hole and daydream. Not quite yet. There were still a few burning questions that lingered on. The how and the why. You focused on trying to recall the events that led you up to this moment.
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You had been sitting alone at the bar for far too long, staring down into your now half empty glass. The bartender was floating around, of that you were certain. How could this happen? Your night hadn’t started here and you were meant to meet your date here.
Thirty minutes had passed and still they had not appeared. Your excitement, your buzz had deflated like a lead balloon. For once, you thought that you found someone that wanted to discover who you were, wanted to talk and understand what made you tick but it seemed that they were like everyone else in this world, a complete let down.
You had been staying at the Hotel Cortez and it seemed like the ideal place to meet up with your date. Have a few drinks at the bar before heading out in the night but your plans were not scattered to wind. For the rest of the night, it would be just like every other night with you, yourself and I but at least for a moment the alcohol would chase your blues away.
“Another one?” Liz had asked, approaching you with a bottle in one hand. You had quickly nodded “Yeah, hit me again Liz”
You had lost count of how many you had put away but by the time last orders came around you were plastered but giggling to yourself. You had found it hilarious that you found it difficult to walk in a straight line. Each step to you in your intoxicated state had been a comedic piece before another followed after. You had forgotten about the one who had never turned up as you had found better company on the way back to your room.
You had rambled about everything and nothing but in that moment no-one cared. You and your companion were heading the same way, staying a few rooms apart on the same floor.
You shook your head, pushing back the memories of the previous night. You had been more liberal with your alcohol consumption than before. As the memory of staggering back to your room with a loopy grin and a companion for the night hot on your heels. You were more than ready to chase the morning with a night of anonymous filthy, racy fun.
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One moment you were trying to keep the key into the lock and failing as you burst out laughing and in the next second, there was pain. It had come straight out of the blue. It was hot and intense followed by the soothing embrace of weightlessness that you welcomed with open arms.
It hit home, hard and fast. You had been targeted to be someone’s victim, someone’s play toy until they grew tired of you. Your life was in someone’s hands and that shook you to the core. This happened to other people, not to you. However it happened to you and to Matthew.
‘I don’t want to die here,’ You whispered to yourself, not wanting to shake Matthew’s misplaced hope. He believed he could get out of this alive but someone had to be optimistic and right now that wasn’t you. Maybe he didn’t remember as much as you did. You would hold back the information for now, you didn’t want to fracture his sunny disposition. You would need that warmth to make it through the chilly horror that awaited you both.
“We’ll get out of this” Matthew spoke once more, his voice more confident than before. You wished that you could muster up the same level of self-confidence as your cohort. “I do hope so” You reply, your voice low and soft matching your feelings at that moment in time. The sound of the lock turning took your focus away from your companion in the gloom.
“We’ve been found. '' He proclaimed with such joy and happiness at the thought of the person coming through that doorway as the saviour. As an end to this bleak situation. In his mind your nightmare was over. You could not think that innocently. Realistically you could only consider one possibility, your kidnapper and tormentor was back.
You, the negative counterpart in this twosome, believed that the person who was about to enter the room was not here to help but hurt, maim and possibly kill the two of you. “We’re here!” You could hear the confidence, the hope oozing from his words as he shouted at the top of his lungs to grab their attention.
Abject horror and panic set in, quickly washing over you, this was not how you wanted to go out as the door creaked open.
The nightmare had only just begun
The door flew open, flooding the room with bright white light, temporarily blinding the pair of you. Without a second thought, you turned your face away from the spotlight that had been the doorframe seconds before. After a few moments had passed, you re-opened your eyes to look upon the face of the newcomer but no-one was there standing in the doorway. Was this just a cruel tactic to build you up before tearing you right back down? This was just cold and calculated to a new kind of low.
“HELLO?” Matthew continued to call out from his seated position on the floor. The position of the bed directly skewed his view of the door. He tried once then again. Each time his voice grows more desperate to hear, to be found and set free. “There’s nobody there” You tell him, your gaze finding him for the first time. In that moment, the light behind his eyes dulls as the reality of it all hits him square in the jaw. There’s no going back from here.
The lights in the bathroom begin flickering on then off again. This pulls your attention away from the somber man. This was an old hotel right? Faults with the electrics happened all the time. Just as quickly as it had started, it was over. “What’s going on?” He asked, as fear started to creep into his words.
The light show had added to the already uncomfortable atmosphere, unnerving Matthew putting more on edge than before. You on the other hand had seen such sudden displays before in the time that you lived within the walls of the Cortez. Your own room was similar to this one in design and had on occasion suffered from loss of light as well as the opposite.
This was a different kettle of fish, this wasn’t your room. This wasn’t a place of familiarity and comfort. This didn’t feel right. Something was wrong, off but you couldn’t put your finger on exactly what. This small fact puts you on edge.
“Hello? Who's there” He tries one last time as he sinks below desperation. An answer came but the one hoped for as the door slammed shut. Hard enough to cause the doorframe to shake from impact. As the light flickered into life for a brief moment before plunging you back into the darkness. You gasped, terrified by what was happening all around you. A scream erupted free from the depths of your very soul that echoed around the room.
As the notion that you were going to die in this room. This was how your night and life was going to end. Here in these four walls of this cramped little room. You were trapped, along with Matthew who wept silently on the floor as his mind came to the same conclusion. It was over. You had lost the game. No-one knew where you were, no-one was coming to help you.
Creak
Creak
Creak
The floorboards groaned, you could hear the sound of approaching footsteps, your eyes shot left then right, frantically searching in the pitch black for any sign of where the unknown noise was coming from within the room. You found nothing, no person moving about the place. You were losing your mind with all these sights and sounds. How much longer could you or Matthew last with these twisted mind games? You simply didn’t know.
In the confusion, you had failed to notice the figure standing by the door, silent and unmoving. Their face were shrouded in the dark as they watched their helpless prey give into fear. They remain still, waiting for the right moment to strike. For now they would simply watch and enjoy with perverse pleasure this game as events played out. The endgame grew near. Soon the fun would truly begin.
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James Patrick March was the true master that lurked in the shadows of each and every room and corridor of the hotel. The Cortez was his realm, his hunting ground. No-one was safe from his fatal touch. Fate was in the palm of his blood stained hands. For which way the pendulum swung lay solely with him and he loved it. Loved each delicious moment as he slowly stalked his prey through the halls with a knife in hand, ready to strike when the moment arose. He lived to see the light fade from the eyes of his victims as he stole their life from them.
This was just another night perfect for the hunt. He stood silently watching as his prey lost their collective minds as he toyed with the lights, doors and floors. Causing noises without any visible explanations. His lips twisted with a vile smirk, enjoying little facial cue of terror displayed upon their faces. He remained hidden for now as he silently slunk across the room until he stood at the foot of the bed. To see his victim bound in place, helpless and powerless to stop the upcoming onslaught that he would soon deliver when he was ready.
His eyes danced across every delectable inch of the body of one that would soon be gone from this world. As he planned out his diabolical scheme in its entirety, where he would plunge his blade and where he would slash and cut if he used the knife in his hand as his weapon of choice. The sweet relief of death’s eternal embrace would be brief for the trapped mice as they would roam the hallowed halls of the Cortez for the rest of their endless days when the madman plunged his blade in again and again.
The knife would be the perfect choice to end their lives on this most beautiful of nights. With its glistening curved blade crying out for the taste of it’s poison of choice. To have the surface dripping with beads of the rubies that it desperately craved. Now that was a true masterpiece to gaze upon time after time. James was finally ready to reveal himself and begin his frenzied, relentless attack as the viper struck. She would be first. Yes that would be perfect, to see the blood flow free from her body as he was serenaded by her pained screams driving him wild. Enticing him to fuck as much as to kill. Maybe he could would do both this time around. Oh how much fun lay ahead for him. Truly this would be a night to remember.
