Overnight – Choose what happens next – Part 3 – She Needs Help

“Paul, we need to help her,” said Tory shakily.

“Who?” he asked as he helped her to her feet.

Tory wrapped her arms around Paul and broke down into tears. Her body shook uncontrollably while Paul held on tightly. He cupped the back of her head with his right hand as he kissed her head gently.

“Hey, it’s okay now. What happened? Who do we need to help?” asked Paul.

“He’s in there. There’s a man in that room at the end of the hall,” said Tory as she pointed to the old wooden door. “I heard a muffled scream and then a thud, so I went up to the door and I peeked through the keyhole. I saw a woman on the floor, white heels with blood splattered on them,” said Tory.

Paul look concerned and took a step toward the door, Tory still clinging to his side, but abruptly stopped.

“Let’s tell the lady at the counter what you saw, and they can call the cops,” said Paul.

“It might be too late by then,” replied Tory.

Tory let go of Paul and slowly walked towards the antique door. Paul reached out to stop her.

“Think about this honey. If you really did see what you said, are you sure you want to walk in there without the police?” asked Paul.

“I know what I saw. You should have seen the look in his eyes,” she replied. The thought of his eyes sent a shiver down her spine.

Paul looked back towards the stairs, worried about what might happen, but he could not let Tory proceed alone. He nodded his head and walked in front of her. Paul reached the door and placed his hand upon the worn brass door handle. He stared at the room number for a second, 203, looking back at his warped reflection in the golden metallic surface of the number 3. His heart skipped a beat as he turned the door handle and heard the creak of the heavy wooden door as it slowly swung open.

A darkened room lay before them. The candles no longer danced upon the walls, flickering amongst the tattered curtains and stained wallpaper. Paul scanned the room, squinting to get a better view of his surroundings as he searched the wall to his left for a light switch. His fingers found 2 switches. He exhaled as he flicked on the light switch to the right. A solitary lamp buzzed to life on the nightstand by the bed. The warm yellow glow of the old Edison style lightbulb filled the empty room.

Tory pushed past him in the doorway and made her way inside the room at the end of the hallway. She ran over to the other side of the bed where she saw the woman’s bloodied legs.

“No, this can’t be right. She was right here!” said Tory pointing at the spot on the ground by her feet. “Where did she go?”

Tory searched the room frantically looking for any clues, any answers to the mystery that lay before her. Unfortunately for her she came up empty handed.

“What exactly are you looking for?” asked Paul.

“Anything I can find. I know he came back into this room. Help me search the walls, maybe there’s a false wall. I don’t know, he couldn’t have vanished into thin air,” she replied.

Tory and Paul spent the next couple of minutes searching the room top to bottom but could not find a trace of any wrongdoing. There was no woman, no bloody heels, no towering man. The room was empty and awaiting its next set of guests.

They made their way back down to the main lobby and rang the service bell that sat atop the desk.

“Look maybe it’s better that we don’t say anything? I mean we didn’t find anything right?” said Paul.

Tory looked at him dejectedly and simply nodded her head. She knew something wasn’t right, she knew the towering man was somewhere close.

They heard the shuffle of small feet approaching the door behind the lobby desk. The white door swung open and Dorothy appeared through the doorway.

“Hello dears. Are we ready to finish up here?” asked Dorothy.

“Yes ma’am. Sorry about the hold up,” replied Paul.

“Okay, so we’re all set. Let me just get you the room key and you’ll be ready to go,” said Dorothy as she turned around and looked through the available room keys.

Tory felt uneasy as she looked around the small lobby and back up at the stairs from where they had just come from. She looked back over at Dorothy. Her heart dropped as she saw her hand go past a key with a maroon tag and come right back to it. Her hand hovered over the last key on the second row of hooks.

“Yes, that will do. You’ll be in room 203. That’s a very special room, very quaint,” said Dorothy. “Jebediah be a dear and come out here. Help this nice young couple with their luggage.”

Both Paul and Tory heard the loud lumbering steps approaching the office doorway that was behind the lobby counter. They saw a large man duck his head as he passed through the wooden doorway and stood next to Dorothy.

Paul smiled. “Thank you, you’ve been very helpful.”

The towering man walked around the counter and grabbed their luggage.

“Let us go to your room,” he said in a gravelly voice as he smiled and headed towards the stairs.