Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

L e Casino En Nuages
by Iain Travers
At the top of a mountain in Cambodia is a very grand hotel, in great
disrepair. When I discovered it whilst biking one summer, a large cloud
rose over the mountain and engulfed both the hotel and myself. I
always wondered suspiciously, just what that secretive cloud was trying
to hide.
In i t s day befor e t he war and t he ter r or , i t had been beaut i f ul . Then i t had
been k now n l ocal ly as ?The Bl ack Casi no?. The name had been gained on account
of the lavishly decor ated walls, w hich had been clad in the finest-cr afted black
mar ble, impor ted as the folly of its or iginal ow ner. It had been built at the top of a
mountain that was small enough to dr ive up, yet high enough that it was still
car essed by clouds at its summit. The casino and the hotel that contained it had
been the w himsy of w ealthy Fr ench colonialists-past and held a clear view acr oss
the ver dant jungle canopy str ew n far below.
The Fr ench ar istocr acy and attending bour geoisie liked to gamble. The Black
Casino or ?Le Casino en Nuages?, (?The Casino in the Clouds?) as it was mor e
for mally know n, was built to satisfy their hunger and lust, to slake the thir st of such
desir es.
Once it had been the playr oom of a king, a playgr ound to the idle r ich and then by
later tur ns, an escape r oute to hell, a hospital, a hideout for gangster s, a mausoleum
and finally a near -for gotten cur iosity, slow ly being seduced by the cover ing char ms
of natur e?s encr oachments.
It was to be r emember ed by many of its patr ons as a symbol of the liber ation of
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