Urbanized paradise...the false name given to an anything-but-special town in the middle of the East Coast. There isn’t anyone who actually understands the reason behind the name, nor do they really care. The hierarchy is the same as any other city; citizens live in repetition day after day without complaint, the wealthy laugh at the ordinary for their own selfish amusement and the criminals take what they want and pay their consequence, over and over again. I will admit though that my life was more interesting than the average person. I worked; I had a job, got money and managed to live quite happily. I know what you're thinking, how can this be interesting or even worth getting worked up over? I'll tell you why, MONEY, the ultimate divide between the lower and the higher members of the world...if you could get money you were classed as a great worker, it beats the ridicule and the loathing that the sidewalk scrapers received from passersby every minute of their lives. Anyway enough about my life, I was supposed to be talking about how I died.
It was some way into July, I think, that’s one of the downsides to meeting your demise you never remember when it happened or even how it happened. The one thing though that I do remember is the weather. It was rain and nothing else. Cloud and rain, the seemingly eternal cycle that drifted over our heads, sun was classed as a near miracle for us. Our depressing weather patterns did give us a nice side though, we had the strangest plants anywhere on Earth and because of that our little town had some fame for the curious botanist that happened to find us on their travels. This time though, the rain was not so nice, not for me.
I finished work, as usual at around 7:06 pm, late I know but when you have nothing much to go home to you get the impulse to stay an extra two hours so you can sleep better because you are so exhausted you practically die, a statement that is all too ironic for my upcoming encounter. At around 7:15pm, whilst waiting for my usual transportation to my side of town, 14 blocks away, something of a distance that no-one will want to walk, especially not in the rain, even though we should be so used to it that our skin is waterproof. One step out of the door and my entire body felt the little transparent needles hitting every point, only comparable to having a blind acupuncture trainee stick chopsticks into your skin. The shelter seemed miles, further when you need to see through mist as well as a sheet of rain, before moving I decided to yell for a lift from anyone nearby, the replies were not exactly what I expected from such false mannered people.
I managed to get to the shelter, already completely soaked after about thirty seconds of walking, gasping for something that wasn’t rain or ridiculously low cloud, I didn't get it just a mouthful of water and something foul tasting, I don't know how to describe it exactly. Imagine the taste of a vaporised week old sock mixed with the worse smelling deceased creature and you probably come slightly close to the taste of our air. The cloud started to bring tears to my eyes, an occurrence that was bizarre, I tried to light a cigarette in the driest patch that I could find underneath the shelter, the inside of my own clothing. It didn't light; in fact the rain was so fierce it made it crumble before me. It was around this time that I noticed something through the sheet of skunk-water, yes that was my term for the weather, two lights “this is my pick-up” I thought, I was right, it was. I inched to the kerb of the sidewalk, sadly though I was unaware of how close to edge I already was. That was it...that's how I died. I know, you're disappointed aren't you, that the tale cut off there, I did say that the downside to dying is that you can’t remember how you died. I bet though that you can piece together what happened.

Now that I have told you how I died, I guess that I will now tell you my life now, as a member of the recently deceased. When you die, you don’t go to Heaven, Hell or even Purgatory, there is a stop in before then all, The Ferryman's Hotel and Casino. Not what you were expecting? Yeah, I know the feeling.
The transition from living to being dead is non-existent, there is no great light - well except for me there were two lights for me. Your perspective doesn't change, you can’t even see your own body after you leave it behind, you just end up at the hotel reception, wearing a strange looking robe with 'Newly Deceased' sequined on the back, they may as well have put a giant neon sign above your head saying "NEW GUY/GIRL", and a tattoo, mine says 7665, so I'm guessing that was the age that you died at in days.
The reception for the hotel is probably the worst part of the entire building. The lady at the desk looks more like a horse, chicken and dragon cross breed with a beard that questions whether she is actually female, I'm still trying to confirm it. Her assistant isn’t any more appealing, an actual dragon, and trust me she showed it well; scales 7 heads, seven heads, with ten horns rising from each one. When I first arrived I thought she was chicken lady’s pet, until she spoke, her voice would echo all the way to the 3 floor of the hotel, which was coincidently MY floor…it seemed to me that my bad luck while I was alive followed me to the afterlife, something that I wished it wouldn’t be, guess that the ‘what you wished for’ expression doesn’t exist, even in death. Anyway back to the reception.
Tthe floor is the nicest part in my opinion, a mosaic detailing Heaven, the typical longed paradise that is shown in every child’s book on the left, Purgatory represented as a tower made of unsorted souls with people entering the gate at the base in the centre and with the barren inferno is Hell the home of dragons and demons prodding the eternally damned with tridents governed with Hades’ gaze that is barely visible in the background, personally the best part is Hell, eternal damnation maybe but at least it’s warm there, bad wishing I know, but it is true. I guess that what deters souls from Hell is the all too apparent fact that you will then live in a world where you’re Satan’s little puppet for all of eternity.


Well that’s enough of the reception and its features so I guess I’ll move on to the casino. There was an opening in the wall to the left of the main door that was illuminated by a large neon sign that stated ‘Animarum Casino’ in bright purple, the thing that confused me most about it is that there was no door that led to the casino itself but rather just a black swatch of nothingness on the wall that didn’t have anything special about it at all, until you walked into it an made contact. The sensation that takes hold of you is both ice cold and pleasant like dipping you finger into a glass of ice water during a summer heat whilst you are transported to the casino beyond. The floor of the casino was a black and red stone that was warm to the touch like the place had under floor heating, that could ease your feet whilst you betted on the deaths of the living, lost and won souls as the prize, the walls were dull from the shadows of the slot machines that radiated out from the roulette and craps tables in the centre of the room and were accompanied by banners also of the same colours as the floor with a gothic ‘AC’ that interlocked with each other in the centre of them. The noise that was generated in the casino main lobby was deafening from the constant sounds of slot wheels, the bantering of competitors and the odd fight that broke out when a winner got too cocky or the loser got too angry and lashed out.

There were two floors to the casino, the second floor housed a bar that seemed to have fallen victim to one too many bar fights, something I was hoping wouldn’t exist in the afterlife, but I guess where there’s booze there’s fights even down here. The bar was named ‘THE ARCHANGEL’S BAR’, I will never understand the names they give the places here. The bar was significantly more illuminated than the casino floor below. Purple florescent lighting beamed down from the roof and covered the entire floor with the tint and the silhouettes of those basked in the light below. There were stools scattered around small rounded tables with some on their own. On the walls were paintings of the Hotel, some casinos from Earth and the casino here at a time when it was busiest sadly though this was during the Great War, well sad for humans, massive business increase for the Hotel and Casino. The bar itself was gargantuan in both size and popularity, with a juice bar for those unlucky few that die without living there lives fully. The bartender was human looking but was in fact a demon called Diavol, who donned a Victorian style formal suit consisting of black trousers, a silk waistcoat embroidered with patterns that were alive, yes alive, they moved and contacted with each other all barely visible as they were covered by a coal black blazer jacket split at the back from the waist down, silken waistcoat, white gloves, polished, pointed shoes. His face was gaunt and expressionless enhanced by deep red eyes that signified his hidden form covered partly by long thick black hair that was split into sections at the bangs, along the bridge of his nose and the sides of his head so they did not cover his eyes and hinder his job to which he performed with amazing speed and accuracy that could not be matched, in fact just to prove it he frequently took up challenges by bartenders that had died and ended up here, they always lost within seconds them commencing.


Well this is the end of the past telling, so I’ll leave you with the story from here on out. I will let my thoughts intervene though, so you get a better grasp of my actual feelings to things as I encounter them.

As I ascend to my designated room on the 3rd floor, which took forever by the way, I gripped the side banister as if it was my only link with my current form and the endless oblivion, if there was one. Each step triggered a hellish roar that caused me to stop moving and take a second to gather my head and carry on. I reached halfway up the staircase when an arm came out of nowhere and grabbed my leg causing me to scream, my hair to stand beyond its edge and turn around looking at the floor shaking, looking at the arm I yelled “Get the hell of me!” to empathise my fright I kicked the arm off me. The arm retracted. I was happy that even down here people, or whatever that thing was, listened to and did what they were told to do “yeah, let be a warning to you”, I continued as I turned my head back and whispered, “What the hell was that?” I turned to start climbing again. My moment of apparent authority was brought to a sudden halt when a voice omitted from behind me, “Well that wasn’t nice, was it? And I thought that humans were raised to be somewhat kind creatures.” I stopped and turned once more to where I was previously standing on the staircase to see the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Standing in the same spot as I was a demon the stereotypical type with red skin, long pointed ears, crooked nose and a snarl to its voice, it was wearing nothing, yeah it was stark naked I felt like vomiting so I just had to ask to get it out of the way “Ummm, where are your clothes? Are you this place’s equivalent of a nudist?” The creature glared at me as if to it was ready to rip my very throat out causing me to panic, a lot, I just asked the wrong question didn’t I was the only thought passing through my mind at this point, but the panic was relieved when all the it did was sit cross-legged on the floor with its arms folded and with its head tilted to the side with closed eyes as if to say that I’m not worth looking at. “I’ll have you know that I am the...” he coughed to clear his thought before continuing his sentence so I knew from common behaviour that what he was going to say was embarrassing for him, he coughed again but under it I heard a word “wait...”,
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t here that’ I said in confusion pressing my hand to my ear.
“I SAID I’M THIS PLACE’S WAITER!” the demon bellowed at me. I just stood there in silence with a smile trying to weave its way to my face, I couldn’t stop it at all so I just let it out in the most convenient way that I knew how, which was to laugh, “YOU...A WAITER? How the hell can you possibly carry everything you’re like what, 2 foot tall and 3 foot wide? There’s just no way, not even here, that you could be a waiter” I chuckled after my laughter had subsided, it was true though, how could something so small and round carry everything that the souls residing at the hotel wanted. Difficult to fathom isn’t it?
“Don’t let my size fuzz up your feeble mind ‘fleshy’, I’m a demon that is bred for this job, here let me prove it to you”, the little demon reached for the banister, and a deafening sound of splintering wood pierced my eardrums as he ripped a chuck of it from the very rails, I stared in awe trying to comprehend what I had just witnessed. “H...H...How did you do that? Are you serious? That’s impossible...” I stuttered uncontrollably as the demon looked at me the face of someone that has just proven that he can kill me...again..., in other words a stupidly smug grin splitting his cheeks accompanied by dagger like eyes that glared straight into my already exposed soul.
“I told you didn’t I? I’m bred for labour. I possess a strength that is unmatched to anyone here, even stronger than the demons that reside in Hell itself. Feel like an idiot yet for questioning me, human?” I just nodded slowly still numbed by all of the thoughts of the worst case scenarios if I annoy this guy.

The demon followed me, carrying my luggage, which only consisted of the bag I had when I died and my jacket over his head as I hauled myself up the staircase to the 3rd Floor, glancing every few minute at the demon to see if he was attempting anything suspicious, he hadn’t yet which made me more on edge than the previous glance. We reached to top of the staircase that led to my floor, “Do you know where your room is Mr...?” the demon asked me in that penetrating snarl that after an hour of hearing from him giving me a history of this place and who had stayed in each room which to be honest I didn’t listen to a word of, I just couldn’t bear to hear that snarl for much longer.
“Huh?” I said, in a tone that was just louder than a whisper, to him as I was still blanking him and his voice. I realised that it wasn’t the answer that he was looking for evidence of this was the expression he gave me, which wasn’t different in any way to the face he’s had for the journey up here leading me to question whether he is capable of displaying any emotion, other that hate for the immediately seen.
“I asked for your name and whether you knew what room was yours, idiot” he snarled yet again. I looked at him in confusion, blinking at least 4 times per second until I actually gained the smallest amount of required posture and told it who I was,
“My name is Warren, Jason Warren and I know what room I’m going to...” I said, in a forced tone of confidence that really wasn't needed, just to make myself sound like he wasn't the only thing here that could make someone feel unwanted, he wasn't the slightest bit moved by my hopeless attempt and just sighed at me and bluntly said in disappointment,
“You have no idea do you?” he said bluntly. This led me into a state of unconsciously admitting the truth that I had no idea where I was going, “Wow. You really are completely useless aren’t you,” he sighed “okay, follow me human, I’m only gonna show you the way once, that's it so remember the way there to the very inch,” he continued. As much as couldn't stand his company I was persuaded into allowing him to aid me so I let him. He guided me to the room where I was to reside throughout my stay. When I got to the door of the room, I was ashamed in myself. The door number was the same as the tattoo that I got when I arrived here, Room 7665, then I thought to myself, how can a normal looking hotel have this many rooms? It denies the laws of the possible, so I thought it best to ask the demon whose name I still didn’t know and he was insistent on keeping it that way, so I gave him the traditional nickname of the human world. It was a bonus too as the mere mention of the name angered him, satisfying myself,
“Hey, Dennis, how can a hotel this size have so many rooms without needing to be remodelled every second?” Dennis looked at me as though I was a newborn and told me the most logical thing I’ve heard all day. He explained that the Hotel, being the stop for souls that aren’t allocated a place in the three afterlife’s, was stuck in a rupture in space allowing it to expand as much as it needs to without any changes to the building’s structural design being made. His wording of it though, was a step above confusing so I had to simplify it majorly so I could understand it properly. I rested my chin on my hand and confidently, maybe too confidently, agreed to his explanation.
“Good human, good, may be your not as stupid as I thought”, I struck a triumphant pose to portray that I proved him wrong, “but you are quite dumb.” My body fell from the pose to the floor with a thud that slightly cracked the floor, noticing what I had done, I steadily got up and apologized for the damaged but before I could finish what I was saying an excruciating pain like a knife going through you travelled up my leg so pulled up my trouser leg to see a section of my leg was missing in the exact shape of the crack that I created, it was at this time that I noticed that the crack had vanished,
“WHAT THE HELL?!” I yelled in pain, “what the hell happened?”, I saw that Dennis had pulled out a small notepad from somewhere and was writing something down, he showed me the note all it showed was the letter ‘I’. In an angered voice I demanded an explanation to what had happened to me just now, Dennis told me that the way that the residents of the hotel are judged are through the actions that they do in the hotel itself. He also started telling me that if a resident damages the hotel in anyway, like what happened to me, they repair the damage with sections of their own soul, which just so happened to be a section from my leg in my case. He also explained that in order to get into Heaven, only residents that have not caused damage will be admitted there after their time in the hotel has expired which is approximately one month according to him. I didn’t bother asking how people got into Purgatory, I pretty much figured it out on my own and what deduced was that if you are sent there, you have damaged the hotel in some way so only half of your soul is taken from the hotel.


My room was normal in appearance, apart from the size that seemed to be the size of half an American football pitch which is quite big in case you didn’t know; the floor was a dark hardwood with a red tinted grain and a black main colour making it look like the ground of someone’s fantasised image of Hell, which didn’t help my nerves about what Dennis told me earlier, being sent to Hell if I broke the hotel, so I was instinctively cautious. Tapping the floor panelling with my foot to make sure that it was okay to walk on, I stepped fully into my new, temporary, home. The wallpaper of the room was dull and dingy making me have thoughts towards the staff not really liking me ‘well at least the walls aren’t going to try and eat me’ I thought as I stood in the centre of the room. I looked at the bed, which was decent at least with covers and a pillow, to see an envelope that was address to me and the room, I opened it with caution since it had the most sinister look about it being large, black and red in colour with an ink seal that looked centuries old. When I took out the paper that was inside it read ‘We hope you are pleased about your room and its contents. Please do not forget about the Party of the Newly Deceased tonight at Midnight,’ I was slightly happy that the hotel was not all doom and gloom and had some things that are worth looking forward to. It was at this time, coincidently just as I was thinking about the fact I have nothing to wear for the party, a wardrobe appeared in the corner of the room that was previously bare next to the door. I began to curiously drag myself to the wardrobe but the closer I got the safer I felt about seeing what was inside so I did and what I found amazed me even more, it was a tuxedo that was perfectly tailored for my size which started to get me thinking a bit about how the rooms work, what I’ve discovered thus far about it is that the room changes depending on what the person staying in it desires are is required to have. I decided to experiment with this theory and the results were outstanding, whatever I wanted appeared in my room in an instant, it felt like a dream for me, I could list everything that I wished for but I won’t because you would be reading for hours, but I will say that things that were already in the room when you first entered do not alter at all, I spent at least an hour trying to get the wallpaper to change in colour, it failed, instead I caused myself a headache for concentrating so much on a single spot.

Three hours passed from filling my room with unnecessary junk and content of an explicit nature, hey I’m an adult, and I have some needs of my own, and it was at this time that I realised that I had 2 hours before the party that I was invited to “Crap!” I exclaimed, trying to regain my composure and trying to find the wardrobe under everything that I had brought here “where’s that damn wardrobe?!” I began to swim through, literally, since there was so much junk in the room now and eventually found it causing my heart to rise slightly, I looked at the clock again to discover that I only had 30 minutes before the party so I quickly changed into the tux and headed for the ballroom.


There was something strange afoot however, the outside of the room wasn’t the same as it was when I arrived; the blood red walls were replaced by a wallpaper that appeared to come from heaven itself, throughout the length of the hallway beautiful imagery of famous biblical events were shown in full. As I walked to the staircase I was admiring the dramatic change that the hotel had undergone during my time in room 7665. When I reached the location where the staircase was, it had been replaced with a trio of lifts that went to every floor that the hotel had, an astonishing 400 floors at its current standing height, “wow” I said in complete awe at the hotel “is this what the hotel actually looks like?”, it was at this point that my ol’ pal Dennis appeared from the lift shaft and he too underwent a change…he had clothes on, and that’s dramatic in its own perspective. My confusion took over so I asked him what had happened to the hotel, his response was half of what I expected,
“Is it really that confusing for you humans to understand? Really?” he looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and continued, “I’m sure by now you’ve realised one of the privileges to being a resident, have you not?” I simply replied with a slight nod, “well that feature works by the thoughts and desires of the one person that is assigned the room. The entire hotel however, works through the most common thought that is detected by all of the residents at the time of opening that letter you found on your bed earlier. Following so far?” again I nodded “so in a nutshell, the reason that the hotel has undergone such a massive change in the space of a few hours is because the most common thought that was detected was simply that majority of people here wanted the party to be amazing and some even had details to how the decor should be. See simple.” He turned away from me to walk off but before he could I asked in the most unenthusiastic voice I could bring myself to make,
“But how does that effect you wearing clothes?” it defiantly got his attention as he suddenly stopped moving with his shoulder jerked over his head with the most infuriated face I had ever seen in my life, it was like something out of a cartoon; his eyes turned red, he sprouted demonic wings and a tail that was tipped off with a flame, and his entire body was engulfed in a fiery aura.
“DO. NOT. SAY. ANYTHING. ABOUT. THE. CLOTHES, you got that, boy?!” He snarled at me viciously. I was confused at this point to why he got so worked up about the fact he wasn’t naked so again I asked him about it but in a more polite way, torture for guy who spent his natural life being an ass to people who looked at him in the wrong way. This time he answered, giving an actual explanation rather than a flashy display, “apparently,” he began “the higher-ups, or Gods, have decided that all staff of the Hotel are to follow suite of the appearance it takes on for events such as this. So in short if the Hotel’s look changes to how it is now, I am forced to ‘look’ nice so I help set the mood for the guests but I HATE it so much,” he started to twitch his entire body though he is in a straight jacket and trying to get out, “I feel so damn restricted in this garb, I don’t know how you humans do it, he continued with a hint of envy in the undertones of his voice. I thought it best not to stay and torture Dennis about his appearance as I quite like the way that my body looks now rather than mutilated so I headed into the elevator to get to the party on time.

The ballroom was massive, large enough to fill everybody who had died recently, which totals to about thirty thousand souls in one room a lot in one area I know but size really is not an issue with this hotel. The layout wasn’t anything that I wasn’t used to on Earth; the drinks bar was at the back and extended out to a third on the room space, above the room was a balcony that served as the VIP suite that only demons and people who died as wealthy men and women could enter, talk about crushing the common ,eh? The dance floor was of a typical look having a smooth wooden floor and lights that make it an epileptic’s worst nightmare.

The music playing could burst your eardrums from not the noise but the vibrations that you could feel through the floor from the bass of the songs that the DJ, who was actually human rather than the previous demons that had taken on the similar roles that I had seen throughout the hotel. The lights of the dance floor flashed and alternated from green to red to blue to yellow and did so to the beat of the music without missing a single time. Dancers moved across the dance floor in perfect synchrony with those around them creating a vibrant display underneath the ever changing lighting.

I had never seen so many people in one area that got along before without fights or bloodshed happening every two seconds. There were so many different people, small, tall, rounded, like Dennis, wealthy, poor, you name it they were there commuting and drinking alongside each other without compliant, I had not seen this at all. The bar at the back was overflowing with drunks and women trying to make a living, yeah, they are probably what you are thinking, the bartender was Diavol, who was never more alive in performing his art for the masses, but if I’m honest there is no-one else that could do what he does and remain perfect.

Three hours passed by in the party and I could help but notice that the stock of the drinks began to run low and at the same time the overlooking staff had changed to different people. This confused me greatly, but at first I shrugged it off as a change in shifts on the rotor. I didn’t leave this alone however, the curiosity was too great to ignore so I asked one of the bouncers what was going on, the answer was difficult to comprehend at first but it was also very logical in the explanation, the bouncer told me that the way that the stock is supplied for the hotel is through the world of the living. I didn’t understand this at first but as he continued I learned that there is a door in the basement that souls that were granted permission could enter through and return to the world of the living until the reason that they enter for is complete, in this case it was for supplies to supply the hotel’s pantry.

The party had come to a close and it was a mess, more so then could be possible at any party in the living world, the floor was littered with the glasses and cups used to ferry drinks, most of which ended up on the floor. Stools and tables were overturned and splintered, some into many fragments. Amongst the destruction were a few scattered passed out souls that had drunk too much or knocked unconscious from a fight that had previously occurred. In the aftermath however I noticed something weird, something that didn’t make sense from passed experiences in the hotel. Regardless of the damage that had been dealt, there wasn’t a soul that had undergone the process of repairing it using their soul. I didn’t really question it though because it did make sense in its own way, I mean what is the point of enjoying a party when the attendants are constantly weighed down by the possibility of damning themselves from the inevitable damage that they will undoubtedly cause.

As night befell the hotel lights from the rooms illuminated it from the outside slowly getting dimmer one by one as the residents went to slumber, it was really something quite beautiful but also it had a saddening atmosphere about it that I hadn’t fallen victim to before. I didn’t follow suite rather I sat on my window ledge and stared out of the window into the vortex beyond the hotel. The vortex was infinite, never ending, purple, navy and black swam together and mixed, divorcing after certain time and then re-emerging. As I stared into it I was hit by the realisation that I guess everyone here gets as well a question that was inevitable to surface “am I missed?” I whispered quietly to myself whilst wallowing in a slight depression.

After about 15 minutes of sitting and gazing I decided to attempt to get some amount of sleep amounted to nothing since I stayed awake with that same question burning a hole in my skull. It was at this time that I remembered about the door that the bouncer at the party told me about, the one that could grant me access to the world of the living for a short period of time “should I?” I spoke to myself, staring wide eyed at the ceiling, “better yet can I? Will it amount to anything?” I continued still unsure. I spent awhile decided whether I should or not and finally conjured up the guts to move.

I got to door but opened it with more caution than was necessary at the time. I crept outside of the door glancing both sides of the corridor for a sign of anything that would give me away, there was nothing but I still took no chances for messing up. As my entire body finally cleared to doorway I closed the door but didn’t lock it on purpose in case I needed to make a quick entry back. I slowly stalked down the corridor to the stairs, since the requirement for a decorative scene wasn’t needed anymore, and began to descend, one step at a time, scanning the surroundings for any sign of life I was in luck. There wasn’t a soul in sight. I reached the ground floor but froze instantly, lying at the foot of the stairs was the dragon woman that was the assistant for the reception, “Damn!” I thought to myself “there’s no way around this”, I said looking around for a different way to the basement, and it wasn’t long before a saw a rope that was attached to a fabric display hanging on the main wall beside me. “That’ll work.” I said enthusiastically with my head tilted backwards following the rope with my eyes, expressing every ounce of determination I had. A little creaking echoed throughout the lobby as nervously I leant over the rail to grab the rope trying not to make noise. I stepped onto the edge of the step to extend my reach allowing me to grasp the rope in-between my fingers. I slowly retracted my arm to reel the rope towards me as it came closer I clenched both hands around it as tight as I could tugging on it to re-assure myself that it would be able to take my weight, there appeared to be no problems with its strength and so I perched myself on top on the rail to repel down to the floor. I was beyond nervous but I took a deep breath and convinced myself that it was the only way down. I inched towards the drop not perfectly safe and only supported by a century old rope that looked like it could disintegrate any second but I swallowed my fear and descended fast. The friction from the rope shaved the skin off my hands causing them to bleed and sending an agonising sting through my body but I put up with the pain to remain silent and unseen. My feet touched the floor after a seemingly endless descend and I glanced quickly to the bottom for stares for any sign of movement, I nerves were gladly relieved when I saw that the dragon assistant hadn’t moved from her spot.

I approached the door the basement located at the Far East corner of the room but something was amiss, the door wasn’t locked. I reached for the doorknob and slowly creped the door open and proceeded inside. “Hello?” I whispered into the blackness to which I heard an echo, “hello?” I whispered again with an elevated pitch and tone, there wasn’t an answer the second time either. I took the opportunity of lifelessness and proceeded into the basement.

The basement itself was abyssal; no sign of anything moving and quiet, so quiet in fact that you could hear yourself blinking never-mind thinking. No light crept through the blackened windows which emphasised the darkness that surrounded me. Without any light, I scavenged a discarded flashlight that I noticed on the floor after stepping on it and used it to illuminate my dull environment. What I saw was nothing like what I had imagined, there were not only un-used furniture cramped into every crevice of the room but there were also souls that had been frozen in time, “is this what happens to you when you’re denied access through the door?” I thought aloud whilst surveying the room to see if it had anything of value or interest. Eventually I found it, the gate to world of the living.

The gate stood tall and carved out of rough, solid stone with razor edges, in the centre was nothing but hole, no door, as I look scoured the edges of the gate for a switch I saw at the top above the hole writing but it was not clear enough to read in the dull rays of light that emitted from the dying flashlight that I loosely held in my hand so I decided to make use of the mirrors around to concentrate it on the scripture. After altering the angle of the nearby mirrors I managed to barely make out what it read, ‘channel anima in terram sanguinem aura’, I stood there confused to what it exactly stated but from the knowledge that I had previously acquired from the party I got the general idea that it read that it was a doorway to the living world. I felt glad that the gate existed and that my effort up to now was not wasted on false hope. Nervously I approached the gate to enter it but then I realised that I hadn’t got permission from the hotel to do so but my curious mind got the better of me forcing me to set aside all of the conceivable things that could go wrong. As I placed one foot in front of the other I felt my chest thumping from my aggressively pulsating heart until I was millimetres away from the gateway. Unable to bare myself to willingly break the rules of the hotel I clenched my eyes shut and leapt through. My effort was wasted as I did nothing, I did not pass through the gate and enter my other world and instead I plummeted to the ground with enough force to shake the massive arch. I glanced backwards towards where I previously stood trying to fathom the reason why I could not enter. It was here that a question suddenly hit me, what if this is a fake gate? Where is the real one? Is there a real one? With all of these questions colliding and multiplying within my mind and the disappointment of wasting my night to get here, my head began to ache leaving me disorientated and depressed.

Still with disappointment present I worked my way back to my room following the route I took to get here. As I entered the lobby from the basement I felt the cold draft passing through the empty passageways, it was welcoming after spending a few hours in the damp and humidity of the basement amplified with the heat and sweat I conjured up from numerous attempts to get through the gate. I was relieved and stood in place momentarily to take comfort to the breeze to chill my dripping form. I looked to the foot of the staircase to see if my obstruction was still present, I was in luck here as she had moved though I didn’t know where to and frankly I didn’t care. With the night steadily becoming dawn I decided to not return to my room but rather to remain in the bar of the casino to wind down and forget that un-eventful bout of hope to return to my previous life.

Dawn broke the shadows of the halls lifting the sinister atmosphere that seemed to be present for an eternity. What I found to be better for the dawn than the night is the awing change of colour within the surround rupture to which the hotel was rooted in. Rather than the blues and purples that could be seen during the night, oranges, yellows and whites stood in their places mixing and enveloping each other in a magnificent display, a definite change to the sun in the world of the living which stayed the same each morning.

As the remains of my failing dissipated, consciousness fled with it and the world became black

5


As the peak of morning approached, the light beamed from the glass that surrounded me. My eyelids glowed as they made contact with the fresh illumination much to my dislike displayed and made obvious by the natural reaction of waving my hand to break it. As I forced my brain to open my eyes the room was fuzzy. When the inconsistency of my environment became clearer i noticed that I was lying on the rugged and cold floor of my room. I hauled myself to my feet trying to get my head together, stumbling as I gradually gained altitude. I wasn’t the greatest idea that I have had the pain from my encounter with the basement floor shot through my ribcage and I shrieked and stumbled to the wall to aid in keeping me upright. Once the pain had subside in noticed a note on my desk. I waddled to it, attempting to correct my footing so i didn’t fall over. The note was in the same format as the one I received last night but what it had written on it was less than desirable;



‘Due to reported circumstances, action has been taken for your past actions. As a consequence for your activities last night all possessions that you have accumulated have been removed and your privilege to have more has been removed also. We hope this does not inconvenience you to a great extent.

Regards

Hotel Administration.’





It then occurred to me that on my journey to the note i didn’t encounter anything that I had wanted. As i removed the note from the envelope something fell from the creases. It was a small square piece of paper that recalled a memory from yesterday. It was the same style of paper that Dennis’ notepad contained so what it had on the front was more than predicable but temptation to investigate took over, leading me to pick it up. My initial suspicions were correct. On the paper was a single letter ‘N’, and with it being my nature I discarded it without much thought. I grabbed a shower and dressed ready for the day ahead.

As I approached the door the head for the lobby, there was a third note lodged in my door with contents that came across as an order. The note had come from Dennis; the handwriting was unmistakable, rushed and very simple without intricacy that was shown by the hotel manager’s letter. The series of notes triggered a thought in my head. These notes wouldn’t have been created if someone hadn’t had seen me last night. Who could it have been? These thoughts, however, didn’t deter me from my goal. In the short time that I had been awake I had already developed a plan to try the gateway again, tonight.

The note had bluntly instructed that I go to lobby for a meeting with the hotel’s main body. This couldn’t really be anything major, well not enough so that my position in the hotel is relinquished. So I obeyed it much to own disagreement.

The hallways leading to the lobby were gloomier than they needed to be. The only thing that was in abundance was the dust that accumulated on the window shelves scattered in an even and repeating layout all through the corridor and spiralled at the base of the occasional window that was opened, even a fraction of an inch. As I continued through enclosed and dismal space I finally arrived at the lobby. There was a sight that was rare to see, even in the underworld.

Crammed into every available millimetre of floor, all of the residents of the residents stood in uniform lines, most of them oozed anxiety, scratching their heads, biting their nails, slowly rocking from left to right to expand the space between them and their neighbours even if there was no room for even a penny to land without landing on someone’s shoes. The others stood there either muttering to each other or mimicked statue, not budging an inch under the pressure that was hitting them at all angles. Somehow the scene before me reminded me of my high school assemblies, with an atmosphere to match.

After standing in the same spot for twelve minutes, the entire room went deathly silent, not even the scratches could be heard from the anxious individuals. Seconds later the floor began to shake from vibrations that could be traced the room across from us to the north corner near the door to the basement that i had an encounter with the previous night. My body went numb in that instant, time felt as though it had frozen and my brow began to sweat profusely. ‘Is this about me?’ I thought scanning around me to see if anyone was watching me in the immediate state of panic that was rushing through my body. There wasn’t anyone that seemed to be looking at me but i still had the dagger-like chill from the eyes of someone watching my every move but from a distance that wasn’t limited to the lobby.

Some time passed before the source of the vibrations became massively apparent. A silhouette of a gargantuan beast emerged from the doorway. The features were unclear but I was relieved that was the case, I didn’t want to even imagine the possibility of what this thing looked like outside of its own shadow. Even thinking about that caused my body shiver. As the profound eyesore stepped away and out of the backing light the features became all too clear. The sight was a disgrace. The shadow gradually panned from right to left taking away the curtain that covered this monsters appearance revealing grey skin akin to a shark, brimmed with boils and blemishes that were calculated at twenty, maybe there were more hidden beneath the folds of skin under the place where the eyes should be. The eyes themselves were unnoticeable, tucked between the mass of skin that formed in excess at the cheeks and brows submerging them until they were nothing more than black slivers with a glint as the light scanned the socket and reflected off whatever was in there. As my eyes scanned the creatures face, more grotesque features were brought to enlightenment. Lower down from the eyes, where the nose should be located on any other organism, there was no such thing as a nose just a protruding lump of flesh that blended inconspicuously with the boils that anchored themselves around it leading to a slit in the skin that gave dimensions to what seemed to be the mouth. The monstrous being was dressed on a single piece of cloth spanning from its right shoulder at tucked itself beneath the opposing armpit and it length was barely able to hide its legs to the knees. The sight was unpleasant to say the least.



Following the monster was a petit and elderly looking being emerged from the depths that dominated the background. His appearance wasn’t inviting but it was better than the horror that preceded him. The elder’s head was mostly bald with only a few patches of hair scattered around its his scalp. Their placement was conveniently so that they avoided sections of peeling skin from the crown. The creature’s eyes were only slits, as though the weight of the skin the surrounded them was too heavy for the muscles in the face to keep them noticeably open. Growing from the chin was a beard, silver in colour and gave indications of neglect that grew further than he was tall, folding and curling on the floor before him. His attire was classical for a paranormal being of his stature. A long red silken robe spanned the length of his body bearing an embroiled crest in the centre that had no immediate meaning to me but I managed to deduce as much to re-assure me that he was a man of great position within the hotel. On his feet there was nothing, he stood barefoot on the stone floor.



The elder slowly and calmly raised his hand, quivering and withered, and his audience became silent and all heads turned to him without question as though he had forced them to. When he was sure that he had everyone’s attention he stood forward only two paces. Calmly he situated himself behind a pedestal that the monster to his left paced in front of him and he began to speak.



“My dear residents,” he opened with an amplified voice that echoed and encircles the entire room, “it is with great misfortune that I tell you one of our residents has been murdered in the basement of this grand hotel.” He continued in the same voice. My body froze and my heart accelerated to a near audible speed. I didn’t know what to do. I knew that this couldn’t be about me, I hadn’t killed anyone and I have only been in the basement once the previous night. What was going? Instead of freaking out from the pressure I remained composed to the best of my ability and tuned my ears to the rest of the elder’s speech.


“Thus far there are no suspects in the investigation but I would like to announce that, starting from today, new rules will be implemented immediately”.

The speech seemed to never end and all I could do was stand there with an overwhelming anxiety and horror that this might be pinned onto me. After the announcement we were given freedom to wander again but the only thing that I was set on was to go back to my room to calm down.

The route from the lobby only worsened my anxiety that continued to take over my entire vessel which caused me to instinctually accelerate my walking speed to the point where I might as well of been running at my maximum velocity. The resident’s faces and glances seemed to be glued to me as though everyone already knew that somehow it was me even without me knowing that appointed fact.

I finally arrived at my room and the digits that were pinned to the wood had never seemed to be more welcoming to me before now. I quickly opened the door and headed inside, swiftly closing it behind me and locked it.

In my current state of panic I rested my back on the door and let out a sigh that expelled my anxiety almost immediately. As I came to relax once more I was flooded with the memories of last night in the basement. the shocked caused me to become light headed and I collapsed to the floor. Instead of trying to make sense of the situation mentally I decided to write down the memories that surfaced to see any point where I could have killed anyone, if it was me at all.

After excruciatingly dissecting the memories on paper I found no noticeable point that could have been related to murder. I analyzed every detail to the best that I could; entering; finding the flashlight; the clever placement of the mirrors that were lying around to make the text above the doorway clearer and finally knocking over one of the statues that was placed there. It then hit me. Was the statue actually a statue or was it a resident? However bizarre this sounded to me it actually made the most sense to me and was the only thing that could be applied to the situation. I pondered the possibility and decided it was the conceivable idea that my mind could come up with. I then had the immediate thought that it was my fault. Luckily for me though nothing could be proven so far and even this event wouldn’t prevent me from getting through that gate. I decided to but this whole thing to the back of my mind and enjoy the remainder of my day.

I paced my room thinking of something to do with my day but nothing came to me. So I paced some more. It took me a while to think of something finally but it was no surprise to me what I came up with, the casino. The only problem that I found with this was that I had no money to play the games there nor had I ever been in a casino even in my previous life. The only games I could participate in were those related to the toying of living souls that where yet to be admitted. I wasn’t comfortable with that though because it always reminded me of when I died and whether I was toyed with before it, just the thought un-eased me a great deal. I wasn’t going to allow this to stop though, my determination to do something, anything was too great so I grabbed a jacket and headed out even with the possibility of being shunned by everyone still hanging in my mind.

The casino was filled to the brim with residents of all types. Before I even got to the door I felt pressure in my shoulder that was equaled to a hand. I froze in place praying it wasn’t someone asking for trouble or security wanting to haul me away under suspicion for the murder that I could help but have reminiscence towards every few minutes. I relaxed, let out a faint sigh that was barely audible even to myself and turned around slowly. There wasn’t anyone there, at least there wasn’t any more. Confusion aside I resumed entering the casino when the last person I wanted to see decided to rear his ugly face. I do, of course, mean Dennis. He appeared from the ceiling donning his usual clothing hold a bag in his lance like fingertips. He began to slowly descend to the floor but suddenly stopped as if he hit something. As he hovered in mid-air and turned upside down still managing to keep hold of the bag. I didn’t do anything but stare at him as he rotated freely. I felt like hitting him in the stomach there and then just to release the frustration that had been building up inside me on the way over here, but saner heads prevailed and I looked away from him. I walked around him without paying much attention to his antics and proceeded into the casino steadily. Just I got to the entrance I heard Dennis say something that I couldn’t fully make out but even so it irritated me causing me to turn around and demand to know what he said. Dennis turned around still inverted and floated towards me. As he got closer to I felt myself clenching my hand to form a fist. When he stopped he began to open him piercing lips and formed words.

“All I said, Mr. Warren, was that you seem to be a bit edgy today”. Relieved that he wasn’t one of the numerous individuals that seemed to be sneering at me, I relaxed my hand and extended my fingers to their full length. He looked at me with dagger like eyes and noticed that I refused to link them with my own. Lowering to the floor he began to circle me as though to be examining for a medical experiment against my own will. he stopped pacing and looked up with a smirk that did not appeal to me at the best of times. as he lifted his head to look at my face, the smirk turned into a laugh as he folded his arms in his customary fashion and his lips parted and formed further piercing and howling words,

“Ya know, paranoia is a very bad thing, Mr. Warren”, he explained as the words slithered off his tongue and coiled my ears, “it can lead to a mass myriad of problems that won’t benefit you in anyway...have you been eating well? sleeping well?” Although i knew that his questions were out of curiosity and attention to my well-being, I felt more like a suspect during an interrogation. When his lips and his had stopped, I tried to look at him but I found that I could not do so. It wasn’t out of embarrassment, although it did play a partial role, but rather the feeling that if I looked at him directly he could see everything that had done and everything thought that I have had. Instead I subtly nodded in acknowledgement and decided to put on a fake smile in an attempt to shake him off my case but he saw through the veil and continued to follow me through the door to the casino.