Nowhere Hotel: the frist floor
Nowhere Hotel: The First Floor
The door falls inward, I fall through. The lights slowly turn on. I am face down on the carpet. Deep, dark and red. The thick fibers of the rug are almost long enough for a man to grip in his fist. I look side to side then over my shoulder. The thick white fog blacks out the windows and looks like a concert wall in the doorway. The ghostly black rabbit is nowhere to be seen.
"Where the hell am I?" I find myself whispering.
Another man in the lobby approaches. He is a younger man, he is dressed in an outfit that feels all wrong to me. He has a satchel with a radio in it, not a modern one, not a walkie-talkie, we a talking a world war 1 portable radio emitter, the ones that plug into car batteries. He is dressed in a green coat and pants made out of canvases with high topped leather boots. There is a chevron on his arm and a patch on his chest that ready's "Addams" he has a dog tag around his neck with the plate tapped together to keep them from jingling.
Addams grabs me by the arms and pulls me up to my feet "I have been trying to work that out also solder." He talks in a soft smooth way. "I fell though that door not but a few seconds before you. I would have though we would see each other in the fog."
"where you attacked by that rabbit also?" I ask him
"it isn't like she was attacking us. I think she was trying to show us something. If you are here I am guessing you ran from her also?" Addams places a hand on my back. He is frightened. Feeling jumpy. So am I.
I squint as the bulk of the lobby is covered in a mist of heat. Everything is out of focuses. The things around us are just color at the moment, no shape yet. "Addams, what was the last thing you saw before getting here?"
Addams explains "I was on a boat. On my way to Saipan. I remember something hitting me in the side and I feel overboard. I hit the water and blacked out. When I opened my eyes, I was laying in the sand at the beach, the lighthouse was the only thing in sight. So here I am. You?"
I need to think about it "out biking with my brother. Something had me all ruffled up. Can't remember what, something to do with my brother messing with some girl he shouldn't have. Must have hit something, feel off my bike. Can't remember much else."
Addams does just what I just did, he looks me over and picks up on the idea that there is a name on the back of my vest. "Harley Davison." He remarks "are you Harley Davison?"
I would have told him no if I could remember, but that is still to clouded in my mind, I do remember what the rabbit told me though "Headsmen. That is what the rabbit called me."
The two of us walk into the lobby, given little else to do. The mist pulls away from us. The room becomes bright. A chandelier hangs overhead. The ceiling is forty feet up. There is a stairwell to the right and left of the check-in desk. A set of double doors on the east and west walls a single door behind the desk and two more doors hidden by the steps. A woman has come into view, she is dressed in a tent dress and bonnet standing at the window looking outside as if there was something to see. Another man is at the check-in desk. He is dressed up in the red coat and tassels that all hotel workers have in cartoons. A music box like melody is echoing from some unseen source.
"Jacob Addams." The clerk calls out "you have a letter." He is a small greasy looking man with short hair and big teeth. His skin has a blue hew to it and his lips are starting to tun black. I get the feeling this man is sick in all kinds of ways. Addams can see it also but approaches the desk nevertheless.
As Addams walks past me, I tack notice of the stain on the back of his coat. There are a dozen small holes in the back of the jacket and red black slime seems to cling to his back. Addams it looks like has been shot but it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all as he reaches across the desk to take the keys and letter addressed to him from the clerk "Thank you my kind ser." Addams remarks.
Addams opens the letter and reads over it aloud. "the demons of your past can only hurt you as much as you want them to."
I approach the desk next "anything for me?" I ask as if I was expecting something
The clerk sets a key on the table. It is large and hefty, bronze with a simple shape. Looks like a chateau key. "Dale Headsmen." He replies "I am sorry, nothing has arrived for you yet."
He knows me, just like the rabbit knew me. How come everyone around her knows me but me? "I don't recall saying my name." I point out to the clerk
"Mr. Headsmen, you have had this room on hold for years. You are of course expected."
I pocket the key then turn my attention back to Addams "any ideas?"
Addams is searching the paper at this point methodically as if looking for more then what is there. "this doesn't feel like paper, it feels like leather. There is no signature, no address." Addams looks at the key he was handed "7-1-5-1-9-4-4." There are number written on his key, again he reads aloud. "longest room number I have ever seen in a hotel. What is yours?"
I look at my key "8-2-8-1-9-8-8."
The two of us walk around. Opining one of the doors behind the stairwell there is a long chamber, the word Elevator and an arrow drawn on the wall guide us onwards. The ground feels soft, a smell like molding wood teases at my nose. The hallway feels long, to long. The ground underfoot is soggy. My feet start to drag, pulled down by what feels like tar on the ground. Bugs start to flutter around, what look like moth's cling to the walls, the things are as big as cat. Birds start to chirp. The longer we walk the more the hallway starts to feel like a tropical underground. This isn't a building, it is a maze.
We round a bend. We come to a door that looks like a bulkhead off of a battleship. A typewriter is affixed to the wall, a four-foot-wide cog holds the door head of us shut. A hammering sound is off in the distance.
I roll my key in my hand as I think. "what if it isn't a room number, What if it is a combination?" Addams and I are playing a game. One where we don't know the rules and we don't know how to win. We are now lost in the Nowhere Hotel.