Everything changed the moment that they walked through the doors.
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The air had a bizarre smell about it, like pine mixed with something oddly sour, like a candy that hurt the top of their tongue. The feeling soon passed, as the automatic doors opened with a near silent hiss as it beckoned them inside with little trouble. There was no one around from what they could see, but the carpet under their feet told a much different story. As if hundreds of shoes had walked that same path, with the threads of the carpet under their feet worn down to the frayed ends.
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It must’ve been hundreds… no countless thousands that had been here before them.
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And yet not a single soul was in sight.
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Up ahead they could hear the sound of wheels rolling away, just out of sight, the perfect timing to not be seen. It was… odd, more than a little odd, just downright unsettling. But not odd enough to warrant a comment, after all, there was nothing wrong with weary travelers wanting to get to their room for a full night's rest. They were one such person after all, exhausted from their travels and wanting a safe place to rest their head after having been through so much. And having to interact with as few people as possible, that was all the more understandable if you asked them.
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Certainly nothing wrong with that.
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“Welcome to the hotel!”
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A chipper voice spoke up, drawing their dreary attention away from the long corridor that was just around the corner. Tiredly turning their attention away from it, they looked in the direction of the exhaustedly happy voice, that seemed to drain what little energy they had left from their journey.
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There was a desk, and stood behind it were two figures.
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One of them had his head frantically buried in a mound of paperwork that completely towered over his tall lanky body. Leaving the other one to be the only one greeting them, they stood rigidly their fingers clasped around some papers of their own. Before neatly shuffling them all together, and laying them to the side.
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A striped black and white mask covered her mouth, with dark clothes that completely hid every discernible feature of her body. The clothes looked fancy, the kind of uniform that you’d regularly see someone wearing if they worked at a fancy hotel that saw to many important kinds of people. But looking closer at it… it was almost impossible to tell where the clothes started, and where the body of the person before them ended. All except for the short tuffy hair that stood out on top, like the kind of beacon a lighthouse would use to warn the oncoming ships and minds of any rational person away. It was easy to see where the natural color of the hair met with the bleached ends, as it had clearly been growing out for quite some time. It was so starkly different from the rest of the uniform, much like the other person working at the desk hidden away behind the papers. Every now and then they could catch a glimpse of bright red hair that popped up every once in a while. Short as well, but cut close to the scalp, indicating early balding, or even a punk rock-ish haircut that had gone unchecked for a while.
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She stared at them with what could only be a plastic smile.
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Or at least… they were sure that she was smiling behind that mask she wore. Or that “she”was even a she. It was honestly kind of hard to tell with the mask, as well as the short hair. Regardless, it still felt the same. A fake smile hidden with even faker eyes, obscuring the true intentions and feelings of the receptionist before them. The supposedly calming tune of the piano that played in the background of the hotel felt… odd. Almost out of tune, like one key was off, but not every time and never the same key was being played.
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But honestly, they couldn’t decipher which one it was, music had never really been their forte. Or if it was even off at all, for all they knew it could have just been the lack of sleep seeping into their head, making this whole experience just so painfully awkward.
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They really needed to get some sleep, and then some food.
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“Your key cards.”
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Just like that their attention was back on the person behind the desk, she… or they, hadn’t moved a single inch. And yet, there were two cards sitting right before them. Innocently within arms reach of them, as if the receptionist had slid it forward when they had been lost in thought thinking about the music playing through the speakers just out of sight. They must’ve moved so fast, and yet they hadn’t seen or heard the other person move. Looking down at the keys, they felt something unknowable drop like a pit in their stomach.
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An unreadable scrawl of numbers dictated which room they were supposed to go to.
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They couldn’t read it.
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And yet…
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In a numb haze, with their stomach twisting and turning so much that they thought they might be sick at any moment…
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They slid the cards towards them, their cold janky fingers almost struggling to grasp the thin pieces of plastic, before they seized it in their sweaty hand and walked away.
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They could barely focus on putting one foot in front of the other, let alone in which direction they were going. Behind them, they were sure that they heard the swishing of those automatic doors opening once again just as they turned the corner of the hallway. The sound of more footsteps of another lone traveler coming inside barely registered to them, and even if it had, they knew that they wouldn’t have turned around anyways.
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They were sure that if they did…
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Whatever was watching them leave wouldn’t be happy about it.
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So they kept walking, and did not look back as they took their first steps down the corridor.
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