Unsuspecting Chapter 1

1.Unsuspecting
The rain thunders down on the unwelcoming hotel, sudden flashes of bright lightening illuminating the blackened and empty windows. But this fist impression is misleading, the dark interior is in no way empty and the small woman sits in her armchair, reading by the faint light of a worn out old oil lamp. The men are unsuspecting; tired from their travels but even with this to distract them, the gloomy building still gives a gruesome and uninhabited feel to the whole street. Walking briskly towards the safety of the dry patch under the balcony the men fail to keep control of their umbrella’s and one, giving up entirely, lets his fly away in the wild and freezing winds.

RAP RAP RAP, the woman is not disturbed by the sudden noise and, no quicker than necessary, lazily closes her book and starts her assent from the permanent dent her bony backside has created. The murky window that looks down into the hall was the only way to see into the building, the men had their faces up against it, straining their eyes to see the faintest sign of movement. Sighs of relief meet the sight of the hobbling woman through the dirty window but her slow speed soon sends them into tirades of raised voices through the creaking letter box. The woman sees the men, their squashed faces looking straight at her, and continues towards the door the many locks clicking slowly was a new form of torture for the men outside, where the rain and wind were lashing at their legs and soaking through their layers of clothing.

When the door swings open with an ear splitting creak the men positively tumble into the hall and only narrowly miss the small, fragile woman. One of the men, slightly shorter than the other, was still shivering and breathing hard as he said “S-Sorry do you have a room?” In a wheezy voice. When the door has been forced shut, the woman just nods and gestures down the hall towards the dark entrance room which houses a large ornate wooden staircase. Walking slowly the woman stops at intervals to light the dusty lamps which line the hall and throw a sinister yellow light on the dark, stained walls and the mouldy carpets which seem to be falling apart as they walk down towards the antique staircase.

Looking nervous and staring around as if anticipating to see a ghost, the shorter man looks quizzically at the woman, she nods once, and he starts to ascend the dark, creaky staircase. The first landing opens into a wide living area with more antique furnishings, it would have been warm and welcoming if it wasn’t for the thick layer of dust which lay on everything and showed their footsteps on the blackened stairs behind them, only one gape at the sheer royalty that has been wasted on this ancient woman is allowed before a prod in the back tells the shorter man that he must turn left into a dark corridor, many doors leading off into more, high ceilinged living areas and any number of kitchens, bathrooms, drawing rooms, studies, storage rooms, bedrooms and even what looks like a walk in wardrobe with many musty overcoats and chewed up blouses. The woman, who is a little way ahead now, opens a door into another prestigious bedroom, it has two beds, a small table between them, a large arching window which shows the rain swept street below and, on one wall, a massive bookcase. The bookcase fills up an entire wall with an unorganised shamble of books, some look like an entire a to z encyclopaedia in one, while others look small enough that they could not possibly hold more than a few pages but not only the grandness of the place is overwhelming for the men, the cliché horror house demeanor of the place sends shivers down their spines and, as if to purposely add to the effect, the door creaks slowly shut behind them. They swivel around but are put at ease when they hear the slowly shuffling footsteps of the woman walking back up the hall.

The tense silence is broken by the shorter man who seems to be mostly unaffected by the Hollywood pre-zombie apocalypse environment that surrounds them “God that woman’s freaky,” he walks over to the window and looks down onto the empty street, “This whole place is bloody freaky” He chuckles and throws his large rucksack onto one of the dusty beds. “So” He says looking casually at the other man “which bed do you want?” He raises his eyebrows when the man doesn’t answer, shaking his head as though he was not listening the taller man says, “Oh” looking around “That one I suppose” and he walks over to the empty bed while his shorter companion takes off his sodden boots and empties the surprisingly large amount of water that they hold onto the floor. After changing into dry clothes in a dank bathroom that they find through a door which strangely has a cupboard as a door, they shake off their heavy bed sheets and, choking through the cloud of dust and moths that comes off the sheets they climb into the unexpectedly warm and comfortable. The wind whistles through the floor boards and the dust that clings to everything sends them into sudden fits of sneezes but, despite this, they both fall into a deep and dreamless sleep exhausted from their day of travelling.