The Hotel episode 1

☠☠THE HOTEL ☠☠
☠☠EPISODE 1☠☠

"Whine up the glass dear, the night is pretty dark and I want to increase our speed", my husband said. It was truly dark, but not very dark.

We've been moving like the Israelites since the commencement of that journey although the Israelites had a destination but we don't. We just kept on driving and diving deep into the forest through a faded path like a lost goat.

We just had our wedding anniversary and decided to celebrate it at some lonely place, maybe in a quiet place, we are both adventurous, hence our reason for driving into that place that looks like half forest and half city.

Soon, the fuel in the car started showing a sign that it will soon finish and aggravate the need to find a place to rest for the night.

We saw no house nearby, we just kept on driving and driving deep into the forest.

"Ohh God, are we going to sleep inside car like this", I lamented to myself.

"Are you getting scared already"?, he asked while grinning again.

" Me, Scared. No oo, I'm not scared at all", I replied. I haven't finished talking when my husband halted the car.

I thought the fuel has finished, but come on, I know the car is old, almost as old as Methuselah but sulking fuel anyhow wasn't one of his attributes.

I was just about to lament in distress when my husband pointed to damn-looking building. It really look old and worned out, the plasters were all displaced and the paintings have faded.

The house looks like one that's about to collapse. I'm sure that prayer is one of the pillar witholding the house.

I presumed the building must have been in existence since the very beginning of time. Despite it's old features, the building was very big like the hotel used in "Hotel Mumbai".

We realized that it was a hotel. "Thank you Jesus", I said in my mind. We proceeded into the hotel, the inside of the hotel was exactly the opposite of outside, although, the source of light was just candles and lanterns, i could still see the neatness and the comportment.

There was no other building, vehicles or anything nearby aside the lonely hotel. Everything around the hotel looks ominous but we had no choice but to lodge in the hotel for the night.

It looked like hotel hasn't welcomed a customer in years because it was so calm and silent, just like cemetery.

We entered the hotel through it's only door and there was a pathway that led deep into the hotel. We had to walk and walk deep into the hotel due to its size.

We trekked and walked and stroll as if we were walking on a street. We were still going straight when we saw another pathway with a woman we presumed to be a receptionist at the dead end.

When we eventually got to her, we saw a large hall which leads to the whole room in the hotel. We noticed some tables that was prepared nearby, they were up to ten tables and it looked like it was prepared for couples, but there was no one there. We assumed that everyone has rested for the night, hence our reason for not seeing a single soul.

We got to where she was standing and greeted her. She was just starring at us like we offended her ancestors. We assumed that she was tired due to the days work.

Her face was so pale like that of dead chicken. Without replying or looking at us, she brought out an old wrinkled book and smiled slightly. The smile eased my tension a bit. She gave us the book while opening it and pointing at some particular place for us to write our names and details.

The page opened for us to write our names already contains five guest names which shows that some people had already visited the hotel.

This calm my mind a bit.

My husband collected the book and wrote his name, I collected it and wrote mine too.

I was about to drop the pen when the date of the last attendant caught my eye.

July, 07, 1961 was the last date written by the last customer that visited the hotel as guest. That was 60 years ago.

Then I realized that we've already paid the devil a visit.

© Elisha Kehinde Fagbemi