Title: Dohr – Part 1
Author: Dancing Star
Pairing: Connor / Lindsay
Rating: 12
Category: AU, Mystery,
What happens: Connor, Lindsay and Peter have to deal with a being called "Dohr"...
Notes: none
Dohr – Part 1
"What did you say? Where is the mall?", Lindsay asked while she turned the map by 90 degrees. They were on the road for two hours to Rocky Heights Mall. If they could believe Peter, the first Canadian Bubble Tea store had opened here. And that´s why Peter persuaded her and Connor to come with him to the Rocky Heights Mall on a Saturday, two hundred miles away from home. Certainly Connor and Lindsay had something better to do. They didn´t even like bubble tea, but Peter had "brought" this drink from a trip to America and he swore to his friends they would then go crazy when they tried the tea only once. In the store, there should be more than two hundred different flavors and when Peter had told his friends about the store for the first time, Connor had replied he didn´t even know there was ever two hundred different tastes.
They were on the road since two hours. Half an hour ago they left the highway and drove on country roads. Peter´s car didn´t have a car navigation device, so they had to go with the good old map. Lindsay had taken over the function of the navigator in the passenger seat and unfortunately they almost got lost, because they had turned off the highway too early.
"I hope this Bubble Tea is worth the travel ...", Connor said, who was sitting in the back seat.
"Believe me, it is worth every mile," Peter replied.
"I saw a report on TV that the bubbles would be toxic..."
But Peter ignored his comment. Instead, he turned to a sign, which was labeled with "Rocky Heights Mall" and pointed to the right, on a dirt road. The left branch of the road seemed to be at least tarred.
"Why are we leaving the road and drive on a dirt road?", Lindsay asked, as the gravel swept under the tires of the car.
"Because the sign has told us," Peter answered and he noted their concern immediately, "I'm sure we haven´t lost our way this time. This road is currently renewed and is therefore only covered with gravel ..."
Connor in the back seat rolled his eyes, because he couldn´t see any construction vehicles. In addition, this road was too narrow for sailing by two directions and thus the road wasn´t worth covering.
Another sign now led to a parking lot, which was surrounded by a chain link fence. Peter followed the sign and stopped his car in the parking lot.
They got out as soon as he turned off the engine. "Are you sure we are right?", Lindsay asked skeptically. The sky was now gray and some dry leaves blew across the parking lot.
"Pretty sure," Peter replied.
"Please don´t say because the sign told you ...", Connor said.
"Are we the only mall visitors?", Lindsay could see the back of Rocky Heights Mall.
"We're about to find out," Peter promised. He locked his car and together they tried to find the main entrance. They ran about twice around the mall, but didn´t find any door that was open.
"This is not the Rocky Heights Mall," Connor said.
"Up there you can read it," Peter objected, pointing to a sign. In fact, there were the words: "Welcome to the Rocky Heights Mall." The double doors seemed to be closed.
"This is definitely the wrong mall," said Connor, "Are you sure the store is in Ontario? Don´t you have had misunderstood the newspaper?"
"I'm pretty sure. Just check the internet if you don´t believe me ..."
Connor fumbled for his phone, but he noted he had no service.
"That's enough now," Lindsay decided, "We have wasted enough time today. We should make our way back home." And she knew Peter would protest this time, she added:" I'm sure we'll find another shop that sells bubble tea."
They made their way back to the car park where Peter´s car was.
First Lindsay noticed that someone locked the gate at the link fence, which led to the parking lot, with a massive lock.
"Great," she muttered as she looked at the lock more closely, "It is certainly not the case someone would overlook our car before the parking lot was locked..." The car park was empty except for Peter´s car.
She turned around and saw a tall, blonde woman who stood suddenly in front of Peter's car.
"Guys...", Lindsay gasped. Connor and Peter also turned and saw the woman. "Hey, you...", Peter cried. Of course, he wondered where she had come from so suddenly. Peter began to walk in her direction and his friends followed him.
"This is private property," the woman said, "You´re not allowed to park here."
"We didn´t know. We thought the parking lot belongs to Rocky Heights Mall, "Peter apologized.
"The mall has been closed for ten years," the woman told, Lindsay thought it explained why the building looked so empty. "There is a Rocky Heights Mall in Jackson, Ontario," her face lit up suddenly, "But every now and again some people get lost here... I'm Kelly."
"This is Connor and Lindsay," Peter introduced his companions, "And I'm Peter... Can you unlock the gate for us?"
"Unfortunately no", Kelly replied, "I don´t have any key."
"How did you come in here?"
"There's a hole in the fence. People fit through. Cars don´t." Kelly led them to the hole in the fence. In fact, the gap was nearly thirty inches wide and they could easily slip through. Now that they were on the other side of the fence, Lindsay noticed a ruined castle for the first time. She hadn´t known ruins existed in Ontario. Connor also saw the castle and seemed to be very surprised.
"What is this castle?", he asked.
"No idea," Kelly replied, "I believe the ruins belong to a theme park which is closed for many years and about which no one cares..."
"What do we do now?", Peter wanted to know and what was more important: "How do we get my car from the parking lot?" Or how could they return back home without a car?
"I know the owner of the parking lot," Kelly said, "But you have to wait until tomorrow morning. The old Gill just doesn´t like to be disturbed so late..."
Kelly offered they could stay in the old motel, which had belonged to her mother until her death.
"Looks like Bates Motel", Peter noticed little thrilled when he entered his room. He decided that he would look after Connor and Lindsay, so he knocked on their door. "This motel is really old," Lindsay said, "The TV even has a coin slot." Normally, the TV in all the hotels in which they had stayed previously was included in the price.
The room smelled musty and the carpet had a strange 70's pattern. "Kelly should renovate," Peter said, as he sat down on one of the beds and the bed gave way at this moment. He apologized to Connor because he had just destroyed his bed.
"Probably the old furniture isn´t the only problem," Lindsay suspected, who had entered the bathroom, "The ceiling above the shower is filled with mold." She thought it was bad enough they probably had to spend the night here in their everyday clothes and she didn´t want to imagine how many little creatures called mites lived in the beds.
Lindsay now returned to the bedroom. "Do we really have to stay here?", she wanted to know of Peter and Connor.
"I'm afraid," Connor replied, "I don´t think there is another motel in this small town... Anyway, I haven´t seen one..."
"Why would anyone build a huge shopping center in the middle of nowhere, if there is no nearby town?", Peter asked. The small town in which they had ended up didn´t have particularly large number of inhabitants.
"Didn´t you notice we haven´t seen a single person since we are here?", Lindsay asked now, while she sat on a chair. In fact, they hadn´t met a single inhabitant of this town, while Kelly had led them to her motel.
"Besides Kelly," Connor corrected her and Lindsay nodded.
"All public institutions seem to have also been closed for years," she added, "I think something is going on here. Something must have happened ten years ago, so almost all the inhabitants-except for Kelly- have left this place."
Kelly was apparently busy with paperwork in her office. When Connor and Lindsay and Peter entered the small office, they noticed they were the only guests at this motel. Peter bit back a sarcastic remark.
The table lamp on the desk bathed the office in sinister light, as the three walked into the small little room. First, Kelly apologized for the state of her hotel and told them, she also knew there was a lot of renovation needed here. Then Kelly apologized that she couldn´t offer them dinner.
"Kelly, what's going on here?" , Peter asked.
"What do you mean?"
"We- and you- are the only people in this place. What happened to the inhabitants of this town?" No one lived alone in a town.
Kelly got up from her desk and walked into the next room of her office. "Come with me," she told them, and when they didn´t follow her into the dark room, she turned back to the door. "I want to show you something," she said. She even switched on the light and this time she told them why she didn´t want to do this first: "The motel is no longer connected to the mains. Behind the house is supplied by a generator, I don´t want the guests of the motel notice this. So I leave them the power and save as much as power as possible. "
Kelly led them through the next room, then they entered a long hallway where an incredible number of picture frames hung.
"Before all this started, many people lived in Rocky Heights," she told them, "The first newspaper clipping on the wall is from the year 1970." She pointed to a yellowed newspaper article with a photo, which was stored in a brown wood frame.
"What is this place?", Lindsay asked.
"I found the newspaper articles in a folder in the sheriff's office. When his successor didn´t want the newspaper, I took them and created a chronicle…. In 1970, the local reporter Sara Danson reported about a death that occurred in the mine north of the city: A construction worker was found dead one morning." That photo in the article showed the entrance to the mine.
"The construction worker was killed with ten stab wounds," Kelly said and then went to the next newspaper article, "One year later, Sara Danson herself was in the headlines: She had left alone her husband and her newborn baby for about two hours because she as Shopping. When Sarah Danson came home, her husband was dead and the baby disappeared."
"Has anyone ever found the baby again?", Connor asked.
"I'll tell you later," Kelly replied, "The years went by and the local newspaper sometimes reported about the case until Sara Danson died last year of a heart attack at the age of 60 years. The motel where we are now, was built 50 years ago. My mother has bought it several years ago by the previous owner and in her will, she left it to me. After my mother moved in here, uncanny things occurred in the area: A farmer found his sheep dead in the pasture. Another farmer reported that his wife had disappeared. Of course, he thought at first his wife had left him, but during a town hall meeting where the cases were discussed, someone noticed that all these terrible things only happened since my mother lived in the city."
"Are you saying that residents thought your mother was a murderer?", Connor asked. They now walked past a newspaper article about the dead sheep.
"Almost," Kelly confirmed, "The former Sherriff of Rocky Heights believed the citizens and so he arrested my mother in 1990. I was five years old and had to watch all this, I can still clearly recall... My mother was five days being interrogated by the police. On the sixth day a man of the Federal Police came, who also questioned my mother. She claimed to have nothing to do with the unusual events, but bloodstains that matched almost with those of my mother had been found in the fence of the shepherd. "
They reached the end of the long corridor and thus an article with the headline "Danson-murder solved" appeared.
"The Federal Police Officer, who was questioning my mother at that time must have had a clue", suspected Kelly, "He compared a blood sample from Sara Danson and a sample of my mother with the traces on the wooden fence of the shepherd. He found out that the blood on the fence and the blood by Sara Danson were similar and in this way turned out that my mother was the baby who had disappeared without a trace after the murder of Sara Dansons husband. But so far the story isn´t over: The federal police and the Sherriff wanted to interview my grandmother- Sara Danson. She lost the nerves and shot the Sherriff with the gun of her dead husband. The federal police officer was hit by a bullet in his shoulder and later, Sara confessed she had lived for years with the blurred memories of the murder of her husband. "
"Does that mean she couldn´t remember the murder?"
"Yes," Kelly nodded, "Physicians later found out that Sarah Danson was heavily addicted to alcohol due to her hard profession at the local newspaper. Staying dry during pregnancy was very hard for her and supposedly she was drinking immediately after giving birth. The doctors in the hospital diagnosed an alcohol hallucinosis, which means Sara must have had massive hallucinations under the influence of alcohol: She admitted that sometimes she heard voices that laughed at her and told her she was a failure. Sara told the doctors, one of these votes was called "Dohr" and was a monster which lives under the ground and steals the souls of people. On the day on which she has killed her husband, the voice of Dohr said to her that her husband had an affair with the neighbor. She believed the voice and... well, the rest is in the newspaper... She couldn´t remember the act of murder until many years later. When the memories came back she remembered she had dropped of her daughter- my mother- in a dustbin of a hospital about 30 miles from here. The Sherriff has then collected all kinds of newspaper articles about it and you might think it´s strange for a five-year old girl, but when the new Sherriff didn´t want the article, I asked him if he could let me have the folder. He didn´t mind... After this case, many people moved away from Rocky Heights, because the drama was on nationwide TV of course and no one wanted to be associated with the town. Rocky Heights became a ghost town and soon we didn´t even need the new Sherriff, who then moved away... Last year Sara Danson then died of a heart attack, as already mentioned."
They returned back to Kelly´s office and when they entered the next room, Connor saw a small piece of paper hanging on the wall. On the note there were written some like "Dohr, robs soul, lives underground"
Kelly noticed the list now, too. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "It looks as if the story was untrue. But I promise you I told the truth. This town is close to the so-called Dohr mine and I thought I'd try my luck, but I haven´t found anything mysterious. Probably Dohr was really a figment of my grandmother."
With a strange feeling in their stomachs Connor, Lindsay and Peter returned to their rooms. Peter asked Connor if he was bothered when he sat back down on the broken bed, but Connor rolled his eyes.
"This town is quite an eerie place," Lindsay admitted.
"Remind me that we never listen to Peter, when he again proposes to us a trip," Connor told her.
"Agreed." Someday, Peter would cost them their life, Lindsay was convinced.
"It's very rude to talk about me when I am in the same room," Peter grumbled. But he knew he had made a mistake. For a second he thought it was the same as in the book he was reading at the moment: It was the story of a young lawyer who was caught in the castle of a creepy lord. The story was so fascinating that he was dreaming about it last night but when a panzer appeared in his dream he knew something was wrong.
Peter got up from the bed, because suddenly something occurred to him: "Didn´t Kelly say she knows the owner of the parking lot?," he asked his friends, "And didn´t she say she could call him?"
"I think she has also said that the old Gill doesn´t like it, if you bother him so late," Lindsay corrected him, "We have to wait until tomorrow, whether we want to or not."
Kelly was relieved when her guests had left. She hung up the key with which she could open front door to her office, at a key board. Here were two more keys. One of them had a label bearing the word "corridor". Kelly took the key and entered the hall, where she had shown the chronicle of the town to Connor, Lindsay and Peter. Approximately in the middle of the hallway in the right wall, there was a door that was always closed. Kelly opened the door using the second key and entered another hallway. The walls of this corridor were also papered with photo frames. In the photo frame there were newspaper articles, as in the first hallway.
"Wholesalers died in Rocky Heights in mysterious ways," was a headline from the year 1998.
"Dohr's about," said an article from 1999, which was published in the newspaper of Vancouver and Kelly had printed it from the Internet on her computer. In another picture frame, the obituary of Sherriff Carl Whitmore was to discover. The Sherriff, which was shot by Sara Danson. The obituary of Sara Danson-Kelly's grandmother- was located next to the frame of Sherriff Whitmore.
Another article dated from 2005 was published in the Washington Post: "Small town in Canada is the weirdest place in the world-Dohr lives here." And an article called: "Dohr strikes again."
Kelly smiled at the thought that Dohr was even already known in the United States.
Between all the obituaries of people who had once lived in Rocky Heights and between all the newspaper articles about Dohr, Kelly still had room for another, empty picture frame waiting to be filled with another article...
"Were you able to reach the old Gill?", Peter wanted to know, as Kelly gave them porridge for breakfast in the next morning.
"Who?", she asked, then it occurred to her, "No, the old Gill didn´t answer his phone. I couldn´t reach him."
Connor suggested they could walk to the owner of the parking lot, on which Peter's car was, but Kelly shook her head. "You can´t. Gill doesn´t live in Rocky Heights. He lives in Langdon, the neighboring town."
This didn´t seem to be a problem for Connor and Peter, because they suggested they could walk to Langdon. A short hike was good for them.
"Langdon is 65 miles away. You never make it to sunset."
"Why should that be a problem?"
"Dohr will get you."
"If I remember correctly, Dohr was a figment of your grandmother," Lindsay said and Kelly smiled.
"Of course. This is just a relic from my childhood. When there were children in Rocky Heights, these weren´t allowed to leave the house after dark. People told the children at that time, Dohr would get them."
"Is there a store in this town, where we can get new clothes?", Lindsay wanted to know and Kelly sent them to Gina's Boutique, a small shop on the main street.
So Connor, Lindsay and Peter walked down the main street a little later. As the de-energized neon sign of Gina's Boutique was in sight, Peter expressed the remark he didn´t think to find something suitable here. "Stop complaining," said Lindsay, "We don´t go shopping." She walked past the entrance to the dark clothing store.
"What are you doing?"
"Searching for the old Gill," she replied.
"But you don´t even know where he lives."
"I have an idea how we find out."
Together with Connor, Lindsay squeezed into a phone booth, which wasn´t located far away from Gina's Boutique. First she picked up the phone. "No Dial Tone", Lindsay noted and Connor gave this information to Peter.
"That would have surprised me," Peter said, pointing to a telephone pole on the opposite side of the road. All lines of the city seemed to run together there, but the mast was badly damaged. Because the mast was at the other end of the main street, they hadn´t seen it when they had come to this forsaken place with Kelly yesterday.
"I can´t imagine that Kelly wants to have ever tried to reach the old Gill," Lindsay murmured, who now opened the phone book. Nearby there was actually a town called Langdon, as Kelly had said. Kelly had also said that the old Gill was living there, so she searched the registry for people whose surname was Gill. She even searched for people whose first name was Gill and they were lucky: Apparently there was only one man in Langdon, which could be the old Gill. "I dial the number on my phone," Connor suggested. After that they only needed a place where they had service.
"Let´s go up that hill," Peter suggested. Behind Gina's Boutique, there was a hill on which a tree stood.
At the top of the hill, Connor held up his cell phone and was looking for service. Peter had also noted the phone number and was also looking for service with his phone. When Peter was standing right in front of the tree, he cried: "I got service!"
Immediately Connor and Lindsay came to him and watched him dialing the phone number of the old Gill with an outstretched arm. After three dial tones someone answered the call.
"Hello?", Peter shouted into the phone, "Are you Gill McKinney?"
"That's me," the croaking voice confirmed, "And you are?"
"I'm Peter. I am stuck here with my friends in Rocky Heights. Kelly says you are the only person who has a key to the gate at the mall parking lot. My car is there and we can´t get away. Could you..."
"Boy, I don´t have a key to the car park at the Rocky Heights Mall," Gill interrupted him, "I sold the parking lot years ago because no one has come to town... And who is this Kelly, of which you have spoken...?"
"She says you're the only one who has a key... And she owns the motel on the main road..."
Gill seemed to be thinking. "I didn´t know that Kelly was released from the clinic..."
"Clinic?", Connor and Lindsay looked at each other questioningly.
"I don´t remember how much years ago it was," Gill apologized, "But to my knowledge, Kelly Danson is still living in a mental clinic."
"Why? What happened?", Peter wanted to know.
"Kelly has killed her mother," Gill told, "Because a voice, I think she called him "Dohr", has commanded her."
To be continued...
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