Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:32:57 +1000 (EST)
From: "[iso-8859-1] Wombat" <bungala_wombat@yahoo.com.au>
Subject: 'The Old Valley Road Hotel' {Wombat} ( MM, SciFi, Anal, Size,
     Biker ) [ 9 ! 50 ]

The Old Valley Road Hotel.

By Wombat.
-------------------------

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Part 9 - A Scary Tale.
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Hal switched to another topic.

<< That magnificent old stone hotel that you own next door that's all
boarded up, do you have any plans for it? >>

<< Don't know. >>

<< It's a substantial old building and it's still in reasonably good
condition.  It would be rather a shame to let it decay away.  There
are many rooms in that building. >>

<< What are you getting at? >>

<< I'm not sure.  I'm curious.  I'm always insatiably curious. >>

Derek smiled.  << You're right there! >>

<< I must confess to being a bit surprised that you are sleeping in
here in what is essentially a big tin shed when you could be sleeping
over there in that old hotel.  Most of the rooms inside are quite
palatial. >>

<< How do you know? >>

<< I went astralling around inside and had a look.  Like I went
astral travelling around inside the hotel.  What that means is that I
sent out a part of my mind and it goes out like a robot drone and
looks where I tell it to look.  That place is a luxury hotel, still.
It's pretty dusty inside and it needs a good cleaning up but once
that's done, it would be a really nice place.  Have you slept in
there? >>

<< I tried sleeping in there a couple of nights when I first got
here, but I couldn't.  Things were banging around me, doors were
banging all round the hotel.  It was really spooky.  There were
things floating around me that I couldn't see clearly.  Sometimes
they would touch me.  I tell you, mate, it was really scary in there.
My skin was crawling all over.  It was a lot worse the second night,
like the things had reinforcements.  I had taken the boards off the
windows in the room where I was sleeping.  It was a starlit night
outside but those things inside made it pitch black inside.  I
couldn't see a thing.  Those things were coming at me in droves.  It
got so bad that I had to get out in one hell of a hurry.  I was
screaming in fright.  I literally jumped off the first floor verandah
to get out of the place.  Luckily I landed in a bush or I might have
broken a leg.  I spent the rest of the night outside in the four-
wheel-drive.  I tell you, that place is haunted, like really haunted.
I never want to go back in there again.  I simply can't describe what
it was like in there.  It was just so horrible. >>

Derek shuddered.  His powerful shoulders shook at the memory.

Hal smiled at Derek and grasped his hand for a few seconds.  Derek
felt better at once.  There was a hard, determined glint in Hal's
eyes.

<< Well, Derek, my friend, we'd better do something about it. >>

<< Like what! >>

<< Get rid of those things haunting the hotel. >>

<< What?  Do an exorcism? >>

<< Something like that.  Not the traditional Christian ritual with
bells and candles and incense.  I'm planning something more
effective. >>

Hal fell silent.  Derek could see a lot of activity in Hal's mind as
Hal probed the hotel telepathically.  There was too much going on in
Hal's mind for Derek to follow.  Then Hal looked at Derek
appraisingly.  In Hal's mind Derek could the thought forms, the mind
glyphs concerning himself.

<+ Derek is tough.  He will not crack >+

The hairs on the back of Derek's neck stirred.  He could feel Hal
wanted him to do something terrifying.

<< What are you planning do?  What do you want me to do? >>

Derek's fear was rising.  Hal put his hand over Derek's.

<< I want you to be brave and full of courage.  I know you can do it.
>>

Hal continued: << Let me give you some background history.  From your
description it sounded like there is a serious demonic infestation in
the hotel.  There is, but there are human souls trapped in there as
well, so it is not going to be a straightforward operation.  The
human souls are from people who have committed suicide in there or
who have died there in violent or desperate circumstances.  That
hotel has a pretty bloody violent and gruesome history, particularly
from the century before last, the nineteenth century.  An important
suicide there was in 1933 when the owner was going bankrupt after
spending a lot of money extending the hotel to its present size.  It
was during the Depression so few people could afford to come and stay
there.  The bank was about to foreclose on the mortgage so the owner
hanged himself from the main staircase.  He was really angry and he
felt he would show the bastards.  Of course the staff and guests
found him hanging there.  It was a bloody gruesome sight, so of
course they were shocked.  As you can imagine, that incident brought
a huge amount of negative energy into the hotel.  There was already a
large amount of negative energy in the hotel from earlier incidents
and that added considerably to it.  The place closed down shortly
after that and stayed closed until it was reopened as a guesthouse
during World War 2 in 1942.  It became quite fashionable then in the
1940's, particularly amongst American servicemen who used to come
down from Sydney with their Australian girlfriends and stay here.
There were a lot of Mr and Mrs Smiths staying here then. >>

Hal grinned and continued.

<< Anyway, that brings me to the next and last suicide.  In 1945 a
young lady fell pregnant to an American airforce officer.  He brought
her here to tell her that he was married and that he was going back
to the United States in a few days and rejoin his wife and family.
She told him she was pregnant and she wanted him to stay here with
her.  There was one hell of a row in which he accused her of sleeping
with other men and the baby was not his child.  It got pretty stormy
and they slept in separate rooms that night.  During the night she
pinched a steak knife from the dining room and stabbed herself many
times.  She died of course and made a bloody mess of the room.  The
American found her like that the following morning.  He was very
upset about it as you can imagine and it really upset the staff and
other guests.  He was arrested by the local police and charged with
her murder.  The coroner returned an open verdict at the inquest so
the American was put on trial.  The story made big news over in the
United States as well as here in Australia.  He was acquitted and
returned to America.  His wife divorced him, so he was a loser too.
That incident filled the place with more negative energy.  People
started to complain of seeing ghosts and being disturbed by things
that go bump in the night.  The guesthouse staggered on for about
another couple of decades.  It went steadily downhill financially and
closed in 1966.  In 1981 the place was reopened by a fellow who had
retired from the Commonwealth Public Service in Canberra and his
wife.  It was never a real success.  People used to complain about
ghosts and unearthly screams and noises then leave and not come back.
It got a reputation for being haunted.  The old public servant and
his wife must have been pretty bloody thick-skinned as they
apparently were never disturbed.  The rates were very cheap so there
were always people staying here, but no-one ever stayed long.  The
old couple kept it going on their public service pension and the
lease money from the garage for years until he died in 1991.  One of
their sons took it over and kept it going as a cheap guesthouse.
When the old lady died in 1993, there was a frightful tussle between
the old couple's children over the will that ended up in court.  The
will was settled in 1996 and the property here was put on the market
then.  It remained on the market until you bought it cheaply in 1999
two years ago.  The family were getting really desperate to have it
sold.  As you know, the land on which garage stands is part of the
same property.  The garage proprietors leased the land from the
owners of the hotel.  The garage closed down in 1970 after the Browns
Hill Road was built.  The garage lease was taken over by a gentleman
who set up a machine shop here in the garage building and that
business was quite successful for a while.  However it closed down in
1993 because of the fight with the family and business anyway was
getting very tough.  It has been empty ever since. >>

Hal continued: << Things were very ugly in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.  Things got off to a flying start here in 1866
when the bushranger Tom O'Leary held up the hotel and killed six
people in the process.  He was a notorious bushranger, a bloodthirsty
sort who had no compunction about killing people.  He must have
enjoyed killing people for he had killed about fifty, if I remember
my Australian history right.  He was a thoroughly evil man, a real
mad dog of a man.  In fact that's what he was called, Mad Dog
O'Leary.  There was a huge price on his head, twenty thousand pounds,
which was a fortune in those days, equivalent to about five million
dollars in today's money.  He struck fear and terror into the
colonies of New South Wales and Victoria.  As he was holding the
people here hostage, someone got in a lucky shot and wounded him in
the right shoulder.  The men rushed him, tied him up, dragged him
outside and strung him up from the big sturdy old gum tree that used
to stand where the gravel car park is now.  Unfortunately they muffed
the lynching and he was left dangling on the end of the rope slowly
strangling to death.  He was a strongly built man with a powerful
bull neck so it would have been hard to break it anyway.  He was
swaying on the end of the rope, screaming and cursing and howling and
kicking and struggling.  He called down all manner of curses upon the
hotel and the people in it.  It was not an easy death.  Far from it!
It was a truly horrible death.  He took about three-quarters of an
hour to die.  His ghost still prowls the hotel and now it's a
horribly evil being, twisted out of all recognition into something
quite demonic.  Since then other people have died as well apart from
the ones I've already told you about.  Some people were shot or
stabbed in brawls, others were robbed and killed, some people
committed suicide.  There was a string of half a dozen suicides
between 1900 and 1914.  The place became known as the suicide hotel.
>>

Hal went on: << O'Leary's ghost was so evil it was semi-demonic
itself and it attracted hordes of proper demons to the hotel.  The
human ghosts there are desperately sad and angry beings themselves.
They are raging and furious and sunk in utter despair so they have
become contaminated by the demons.  The hotel now is a real haven for
demons now except for one thing.  There are no living humans in it.
Demons and bad ghosts need to feed off the energy of living human
beings.  If they can't get any energy, and the best source is a
living human being, they gradually over a long period of time fade
out of existence.  When the hotel had people in it, it was fine for
the bad spirits as they had plentiful sources of energy.  The ghosts
and demons would enhance the availability of the living person's
energy by stimulating negative emotions in him.  For example, they
would appear to a guy and give him a fright.  The fear the man felt
would make more energy available for the ghost to feed off.  Fear is
an easy emotion to arouse in a human being, which is why ghosts and
demons like to scare people.  If that fear turns to panic, so much
the better.  A huge amount of the person's energy becomes available
then.  The ghosts and demons would have loved it when you were there.
They were half-starved as no-one had been in the place for years, so
there were no energy sources available to them.  They can't get
energy from the natural non-human life forms like plants and animals
because those are protected by devas, who are not to be mucked around
with.  Demons are no match for a deva.  The human condition is that
we have to look after ourselves.  The ghosts and demons would have
loved it when you flew into a blind panic.  They would have sucked a
huge amount of energy from you.  I'll bet you were absolutely
exhausted after that. >>

Derek smiled ruefully.  << I was.  I felt really buggered then.  The
next day I went and hired a van at the caravan park and stayed there
a week.  Then I realised I was being a bit stupid because I had the
garage to live in as well, so I moved in here to the loft.  I put the
boards back up on the hotel again to stop the windows from being
broken.  When I asked the caravan park owner about the hotel, he said
he'd heard that it was haunted. >>

<< Derek, you must be awfully brave to go back there for a second
night.  If I had been you, there's absolutely no way I would have
gone back in there again.  You have real courage and that is a fact.
>>

Derek smiled modestly.  << Thanks.  I don't feel very brave. >>

Hal got up from the table.

<< It's time to go and clean the place out. >>

<< What?  Now? >>

Derek looked up at the big, bronzed muscleman standing at the table.
Hal looked implacable.

<< Yes.  Now.  We have to clean those ghoulies and ghosties and
things that go bump in the night.  We've got to get them out of there
and I need you to help me. >>

Hal inclined his head in the direction of the door.

<< Come on. >>

To Derek that sounded very close to an order.  He got up from the
breakfast table reluctantly.  It had been an excellent meal and he
had enjoyed it thoroughly.  He swigged off the last of his coffee and
Hal strode over to the door.

Derek asked: << Am I still invulnerable? >>

<< No.  It faded out last night while you were asleep.  I'm not going
to make you invulnerable again because it is bad for a normal person
to be made invulnerable too often.  It screws up their metabolism.  I
want you to stay healthy.  Besides, invulnerability certainly will
not help you against demons and ghosts.  It is a physical barrier
that won't stop them.  They'll just go straight through. >>

Derek looked at Hal.

Derek: << Are you going like that, stark naked? >>

<< Of course I am. >>

Derek felt his own nakedness acutely.

He spoke with determined emphasis: "I'm not going over there with no
clothes on.  That place makes my skin crawl.  In fact I'm getting
goose-bumps just thinking about it."

Derek could feel indeed goose-bumps on his arms and legs.  The back
of his neck prickled.  Hal rolled his eyes and smiled tolerantly.

<< Alright then.  What about those blue overalls you were wearing a
couple of days ago? >>

<< Not the ones with the slit in the pants. >>

<< Fine then.  They're probably too small for you now anyway. >>

A pair of overall of a darker blue appeared in Hal's hand.  They were
made of stretch material too.  Hal was not going to be denied Derek's
company on this mission.

<< Here, Derek.  Try these on.  They should fit you rather well. >>

He held them out to Derek.  As Derek watched, the long sleeves rolled
up neatly by themselves to as high as they could go.  Fairies again!

Derek put them on.  The overalls stretched to fit his big muscular
body tightly like Lycra but the material was thicker and tougher,
almost like canvas.  The overalls showed every bulge of his
tremendously powerful body.  His great big, powerfully muscled arms
bulged out below the sleeves neatly rolled up high.  Derek did the
press-studs all the way up to his neck.  It was rather a tight fit
across his deep broad chest.

Hal: << Boots, sir? >>

He held up in one hand Derek's heavy black leather calf-length work
boots with the thick built-up soles.  He looked at Derek's bare feet
then back at the boots.

<< Too small, I fear.  These boots are size 9 and your feet are now
size 12. >>

Derek grunted irritably.  He looked down at his feet.  They were big.
As he watched Hal, the boots grew in size before his eyes.  Then they
became a perfectly even brilliantly shiny and highly polished black
all over.  They looked better than new.  Hal handed to him.  Derek
sat down on a chair, put them on and laced them up.  They fitted
perfectly, better than they did before.

He stood up facing Hal.  He realised that with the built-up soles, he
was eye level with Hal.  He was the same height as Hal.  Hal came
over and undid the press-studs down to below Derek's breastbone so
that Derek's robust thick pectoral muscles were on view.  His chest
and shoulders felt freer.

Hal: << Image is important.  You do need to project the he-man tough-
guy image for this.  Let them know you are not a soft touch. >>

Hal stood back and admired Derek.  He growled appreciatively and
clutched his own genitals.

"Phwoar!" he growled huskily.  "You look positively dangerous.  You
would not look any more dangerous if you were carrying a machine-gun.
Just take a look at yourself.  You're really hot and tough."

The big mirror floated over to Derek and positioned itself so Derek
could see his reflection.  Hal was right, as usual.  Derek really did
look hot and tough.  He tensed his arms and was pleased with the
result.  He looked really sexy and powerful, a real he-man.  He
thought he looked a million times tougher and sexier that he did a
few days ago in the old overalls with the slit in the seat.  Hal came
up behind him, put his huge muscular arms around him and rested his
chin on Derek's shoulder.

Hal was very appreciative.  << My!  You're a big fellow!  Feel all
that muscle. >>

Derek could feel Hal blasting energy into him.  His spirits rose.  He
threw a double biceps pose in front of the mirror and held it,
tensing his body all over.  He felt tremendous.

Hal put his arms down.

<< It's nearly midday.  Let's get this thing over and done with. >>

Hal walked over to the door and went down the stairs.  He was still
naked.  Derek took a deep breath and followed.  His heart was
pounding.  Hal was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.  When
Derek reached the bottom, he looked around as if for the last time.
He felt like a man going into battle and not knowing if he were going
to live or die.  There was his trusty Pajero four-wheel-drive which
had sheltered him on that dreadful second night.  There were his iron
junk sculptures finished and unfinished.  They looked like junk to
him.  He felt that was a chapter that had closed.  There was the
massive old wooden workbench where Hal had screwed him for the first
time.  That seemed such a long time ago.  So much had happened since
then.

Hal put his arm around Derek's shoulders and led him out through the
back sliding door and across the back verandah.  They walked across
the gravel car park towards the hotel in the spring warmth of the
midday sun.  Derek's heavy boots crunched on the gravel.

As they walked, Hal explained what was to happen.

<< Derek, mate, you are to be the bait for these ghosts and demons.
You're a big powerful muscleman, so there is a large amount of energy
stored in your body anyway, particularly in your muscles.  I've also
given you a big charge of energy in addition.  You are like a great
big oil tanker loaded with energy, but an oil tanker that is armed.
You will present a very tempting target to them and they will take
big risks to get to your great store of energy and drain it from you.
They will be desperate for it is a couple of years since any human
has ventured into the place and supplied them with energy.  That
human was you, Derek. >>

Derek shivered despite the warmth of the midday sun.  Prickles ran up
and down his spine.

<< Derek, it is good that you feel fear.  Someone who is fearless
will not attract them at all.  In fact such a man will frighten them
off and we don't want that.  I wouldn't be much good myself because I
am fearless.  I am such a powerful being that they will stay well out
of range of my perceptive abilities.  I really would scare them away.
So, Derek, your fear is good.  It will attract the evil spirits to
you.  It is according to plan.  The important thing is to keep your
fear under control.  You must not allow yourself to slide into panic
at any cost.  You simply cannot afford to panic.  No matter what, do
not panic.  You have to hold onto your courage no matter what.  You
have to stand and face them.  You may well take a few hits but you
will recover.  You will survive.  You will face them and fight if you
have to.  It is beyond your power to destroy these evil spirits at
this stage, but you would be no good as bait if you were a superman.
You will be my big black panther, ferocious and fearsome.  If
necessary, you will fight like a cornered panther and fend off these
evil spirits. >>

Hal patted Derek on the chest.

<< Stand up straight, soldier.  Be strong and true. >>

Derek looked at Hal and smiled wanly.

Hal went on: << Remember, Derek, that these ghosts and demons need
their victims to be in a negative emotional state for them to be able
to harvest your energy easily.  Fear and panic are their favourites.
But any negative emotion will do, like rage and hatred.  Remember how
you flew into a rage yesterday and lost your telepathic sense?  Anger
is a funny one.  Righteous anger does not do the trick for them, like
you're protecting something that is really important or standing up
for a principle.  However, anger born of negative feelings like envy
or greed will allow them to tap your energy.  So if you get angry, be
angry because you are fighting for The Light and all that is good.
Don't let your anger slide into hatred or rage.  Once you lose
control, you become easy prey for them.  Despair is another one.
Don't ever despair.  Don't even think about despairing.  They love
despair too.  They love misery.  They love suicides.  If a person
falls into a deep funk of despair and loses all hope, some very
rapacious demons can even suck up the energy of the soul itself,
causing it to wither away and die.  So, Derek, it is important that
you be strong and true and brave.  It is all right to feel fear, but
you need to be brave.  Be courageous. >>

They reached the locked back door of the hotel.  Hal produced the key
out of thin air and handed to Derek, who stood there looking at it in
his hand.  His muscular arms glistened in the sunlight.  He looked at
his naked friend, the muscle god carved from bronze.  Derek's heart
was pounding.  His throat pulsed visibly.

Hal: << Derek, using you as bait gives us a golden opportunity to
wipe this great big nest of evil spirits.  If we can wipe this out,
we can remove this festering source of evil that is influencing all
the surrounding area including Canberra and as far as Sydney.  This
place has become a real horror hotel.  Removing this nest of evil
will improve things considerably.  There will be less evil here once
this is done.  Derek, mate, you are doing this for Australia and the
world. >>

<< What will you be doing? >>

<< I've got very heavy friends, very heavy. >>

Hal emphasised the last sentence and tapped his nose.

He put both his hands on Derek's shoulders.

<< Be of good courage.  Be strong and true.  Remember that the Lord
God is with you always. >>

Hal released Derek's shoulders.  Derek turned and with a shaking hand
inserted the key in the lock.  He opened the door and walked in.  Hal
clasped his shoulder from behind.

Hal: << I'll be back. >>

Derek looked back at Hal.  As he watched, Hal disappeared with a
faint puff of sound.  He reached out with his telepathic sense for
Hal but there was no sign of him.  That lovely, big, strong, loving
mind had gone completely, leaving no trace.  Derek felt utterly
alone.  Squaring his powerful shoulders and holding his head high, he
stalked down the short corridor into the kitchen of the hotel.  When
he reached there, the outside door slammed shut with a bang that made
Derek jump.  He remembered that he had left the key in the lock
outside and raced back down to the door.  It was firmly locked.  The
automatic deadlock had snapped back into place and the door was
immovable.

Great!  Now Derek was locked inside this hotel of horrors.  Fear
started to rise in him.  He could kick the door down.  His powerful
275-pound (125-kg.) body would be able to do it but it would take
time and the mission that Hal sent him on would be a failure.  He
regained control of himself.  Derek was not going to give up easily.
He might have been Little Derek before but he was Big Derek now.
He'll show them.


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Continued in Part 10.
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