3. “Please Knock Before Entering”

3. “Please Knock Before Entering”

 

Dresden pressed the down button for the elevator again despite the fact he knew that it wasn’t coming back. He felt his heart pounding hard within his chest. The idea that more of those Hall Wraiths, as he called them, would come back to finish what they started chilled and angered him. As a final ‘Fuck you’, he gave the elevator door a hearty kick and tried to tell himself that the pain that it caused was well worth it.

The hallway lights flickered briefly before they turned off altogether. Dresden’s breathing quickened; he knew what was coming and who they were coming for. He felt that instead of kicking the elevator, he should have kicked himself for wasting so much time with it. He could have used it to find the stairway, but now he was caught in the dark with nowhere to hide.

He pressed his back up against the elevator door for lack of anything better to do. The Hall Wraiths were going to find him no matter how small he tried to make himself. He closed his eyes, got down on his knees, and prayed. “Please, turn the lights back on! Please, turn the lights back on!” He repeated this mantra for what felt like hours. When he didn’t hear anything menacing coming for him, Dresden opened his eyes just in time to see the lights flicker back on.

“That worked?” asked Dresden. Not wasting anymore time, he got up and immediately searched for anything that resembled a sign. He spotted one five doors to his right across the hall from him. It read “Stairs” and that was enough for him.

The lights had already begun to flicker by the time he reached the door. It didn’t matter to Dresden because he wasn’t planning on staying long. As soon as he gripped the door handle the lights turned off again and didn’t show signs of returning.

Just go, he told himself. Leave this floor behind you!

Right when he was about to do just that, a woman’s scream froze him in his place. Goosebumps formed all over his arms and neck. There was someone else here! While he hoped that he wasn’t alone, he was beginning to suspect that he was. The scream couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Why did she have to wait until the hallway lights had turned off before she screamed? He really wanted to leave, but he couldn’t live with himself if he left her to her fate.

He reluctantly released his hold on the door handle and went in search of the screaming woman. The hallway was dead silent. Dresden didn’t like it at all. Had he just imagined the scream? Was it just a trick to get him to stay out in the open where he was vulnerable?

The woman screamed again! It sounded like it was coming from a room beyond the elevator. Dresden hastened his steps door the hallway. He kept one hand along the wall to his right, using it as an anchor. He didn’t want to take the chance of being too far away from something concrete. The hotel seemed to be able to do strange things and the last thing he wanted was to have the walls slip away.

Dresden kept count of the amount of doors he touched since he left the stairs. He was already mapping out an escape plan if things weren’t as they appeared to be with this new distraction. He just didn’t know how prepared he should be.

It had been at least a minute since the last scream. Dresden didn’t know how close he was to her. Did he pass her? Did he still have further to go? Or worse yet, did something kill her before he could get to her?

He had been concentrating on trying to hear the woman so hard that he didn’t realize that he had stopped breathing. His sudden gasp for breath frightened him, as if his heart wasn’t beating fast enough already. “Come on, lady,” muttered Dresden. “Where are you? Give me a sign.”

Dresden noticed that his palms were getting sweaty. This must happen when I get nervous, he thought. Rolling his eyes at this obvious fact, he wiped his left hand off on his pants, but kept his right hand on the wall. 

Where the hell are you, lady? He wanted to hear something, anything that would let him know that he was getting closer. The woman remained silent. “Hello, ma’am?” Dresden whispered. “Ma’am, are you alright?” He passed another door and counted five. “Ma’am! I need you to tell me where you are!”

There’s no way she’s going to be able to hear me!  But anything else above a whisper could alert the Hall Wraiths to his position sooner than he’d like. How could he find her if he can’t make a sound?

Try the doors! The next door Dresden passed he took the time to grab the door knobs. Maybe all of the rooms were like his and were unlocked on the outside. The door knob was unresponsive. Keep trying them!  He quickly walked over to what he counted to be Door Number Seven. He jiggled the knob, but it refused to open for him.

Dresden was becoming more anxious. He really wanted to find that woman soon so that they could get the hell out of there. Something told him to try the doors, but it wasn’t working! He needed more help! He wanted a sound be it another scream or a knock… something!

Unfortunately, he got his wish. As Dresden made his way to Door Number Nine, he heard it- the purring. They had found him and now it was only a matter of time. They were approaching fast behind him.

“Shit!” Dresden stopped walking and started running down the hallway. He still kept on hand on the wall and tried to count the doors, but the fear of getting caught was too overwhelming to concentrate on numbers. “Ma’am? Where the fuck are you? You’ve got to give me something!” He felt foolish for yelling at someone he wasn’t even sure really existed.

The purring was getting louder. Dresden grew more desperate for an escape. Forget the woman, he thought. She’s dead, otherwise she would have screamed again. It was just a trick to get him away from the stairs and he fell for it. Now his only hope was to find a room that was unlocked like his original room. The question remained if he would be able to get out once he got in it.

The Hall Wraiths were gaining on Dresden. He could almost feel their hot breath on his back. He imagined that the snouts he had seen were right behind him, tongues anxiously awaiting the taste of his flesh.

Another locked door. Dresden had stopped counting five doors ago and each one had been locked. He couldn’t see how much hallway he had left, but he knew that he was running out of space to run. He tried another door and it, too, was locked.

“FUCK!”

“HELP ME!” a woman screamed.

It came from a room on the left side of the hall. He didn’t waste any time in running blindly across the hall. He ran into the wall hard, but he didn’t stop looking for that door. He moved to his right and searched for a door knob. The door should be close by. When he didn’t find one, he continued to sidle down the length of the wall. He became puzzled when he didn’t come upon a door immediately. Where was the door? Were there no rooms on this side of the hallway? That was ridiculous! He had seen them when the lights were on! Where did they go? Was it possible that these rooms can move?

“HELP ME!” the woman screamed again! The impending purring threatened to drown her out.

“I’m trying, lady!” Dresden shouted. He hurriedly kept searching for the door in the dark. The door had to be moving. He imagined that it was just beyond his reach every time he got close to it.

Finally, he touched a door frame. He clung to it in the hopes that it wouldn’t go anywhere. He found the doorknob and jiggled it, half expecting it to be locked. The knob turned all the way! He pushed the door open and dove inside, just as he felt a warm breeze pass behind him. Having fallen to the floor, Dresden quickly kicked the door shut. A thud was heard as one of the Hall Wraiths collided with it. It proceeded to bang against the door a few times, but after a minute, it gave up.

Dresden, gasping for breath, he stood up and leaned against the wall to his left. He took a moment to try and catch his breath. Just what kind of a place was this? He decided that he didn’t want to know the answer. He just wanted to get the hell out in one piece.

“HELP ME!” the woman screamed. The sound of her voice caused Dresden to jump. He was so happy that he found the room that he forgot why he was there. He walked into the room that looked just like the one he woke up in and saw a woman lying in bed. Everything but her head was covered by the black blanket. “I can’t get out!” she cried.

Dresden cautiously approached the bed. He couldn’t see anything that would prevent her from getting out of bed. The woman must have read that on his face and motioned with her eyes to the blanket. He grabbed the blanket and pulled it away to find that the woman was strapped into the bed. There was a strap across her chest, her waist, and her feet. There were additional straps that held each foot in place and each hand in place.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Dresden.

“Could you get me out of here, please?” she pleaded, almost snapping at him.

“Right.” Dresden started with the individual foot straps first. They were fastened on so tightly that he couldn’t undo them on the first try. They tightened as he struggled with the buckle. The woman cried out a little bit before he freed her feet.

“Thank you so much,” the woman said.

“Not a problem,” Dresden said. “I’d much rather be in here than out there.”

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know. Some kind of hotel…” Dresden unbuckled the feet strap and moved to the one on her waist. “But there’s something not right about this place.”

The woman looked down at her straps and scoffed. “You think?”

“What was my first clue, right?”

They both laughed nervously while Dresden unbuckled the waist strap.

“Who would do this?”

Dresden only shook his head. He just knew that he wanted to get his hands on whoever put them there. As he unfastened the last strap, he could see that the woman was feeling better. She sat up and rubbed her aching feet. For the first time, he noticed her features. While the yellow light from the table side lamp didn’t do her justice, he could tell that she had young, beautiful fair skin. She had shoulder length, straight brown hair, and matching brown eyes. The black pajamas she was wearing hid the rest of her features, but he supposed that they weren’t bad, either.

Realizing that he was staring, Dresden decided to change the subject. “Do you remember how you got here?”

The woman shook her head. “No. I definitely don’t remember ordering the Bondage Suite, if you know what I mean.” She put her feet on the floor and attempted to stand. Her feet were sore, but they were able to carry her weight. “I don’t remember anything; my name, where I’m from…”

“Yeah, same here,” Dresden said. Anticipating that she might fall, he had grabbed her shoulders. After if was apparent that she was going to be okay, she looked at him, silently asking him to release her. “Sorry. You’re the first person I’ve met here.”

“And where exactly is here?” she asked.

“Some place called Hotel Icarus.”

“Well, tell them that their room service sucks.” She looked at the name tag on his uniform. “Dresden. Since you said I’m the first person you’ve met, I’m assuming you just didn’t jump said Dresden and take his uniform.”

“I found it in the bathroom in my room.” Dresden looked at his name tag and nodded. “I guess I’m Dresden, but I don’t remember if it’s my actual name or not.”

“It could be Mud,” she joked. “I’d stick with Dresden.”

“Maybe you have one, too?” Dresden ran to the bathroom and turned on the light. It was an exact copy of the one in his room. He supposed that it would be if it were a hotel. On the marble counter was a black and white hotel uniform, just like the one he was wearing. He picked it up and handed it to the woman, for she had followed him. “You might want to change into these.”

“And it’s not even my birthday.” She smiled as she received her gift. “You mind?”

“What?”

She pointed to the hallway.

“Oh! Yes! Sure!” Dresden stepped out of the bathroom. She started to close the door behind her, but he turned around and stopped her. “That might not be such a good idea. I’d keep it open, just in case.” He could see the confusion on her face, but she didn’t question him. “I’ll be by the bed.” Not that he had anywhere else he could go.

While the woman had her back turned to him, Dresden surreptitiously tried the doorknob on the front door. Just as he suspected, it was locked. If this room was like his, then the key to get out hidden somewhere inside. He looked at the dents that were banged into the door and remembered that nothing good awaited them once they escaped the room. If they wanted answers, they would need to get to the lobby; that was if they could get passed the Hall Wraiths.

He was about to head to the bed when he noticed the doorknob and the lock beneath it. They were gold. No. Could it be that simple? If it was, it would be a first. He reached into his left pant pocket and pulled out the two keys he had collected. One silver and one gold.

“You didn’t like the bed?” the woman asked, now standing in the doorway wearing her uniform. She was also given a name tag that read: Berlin.

“No, too lumpy,” he replied. “You ready to get out of here?”

“Are you asking me out?” It was clear that she was more than anxious to leave the room.

Dresden stuck the gold key into the lock and turned it. It made a clicking noise as the locking mechanism was made to move. He was surprised it worked. Berlin was also surprised to learn that even if she hadn’t been restrained she still wouldn’t have been able to leave. Dresden opened the door and saw that the hallway was still dark, but quiet.

“What the hell?” Berlin asked.

“Welcome to Hotel Icarus,” Dresden simply replied.

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