Ricky got a sense of the room and then shut off his light. He navigated between the tables from the foggy moonlight, hoping that he could pass unnoticed by whatever was in the center hallway. He paused when he was close to the doors, listening. Something was out there. He told himself that it sounded like the thing had gone by the door, heading towards the kitchen, but it was probably just wishful thinking. When he didn’t hear anything more he started again. He was headed towards the far corner. There was another hall there—this one had windows down one side that looked out over a deck. In the winter, skiers and snowboarders would leave their equipment out there when they ducked inside for a break from the cold.
There was just enough snow dusting the deck that it looked like it was glowing blue. Ricky slowed and looked at the weird tracks out there. In the middle of the deck, the footprints converged to a single line. Near the door, he saw that the individuals had spread out before entering. It was impossible to count how many. The gaskets between the glass doors let night air leak in. It wasn’t enough to account for the chill that ran down Ricky’s back. He imagined the hotel swarming with monsters. They could be patrolling the halls above and standing guard outside the doors to the parking lot.
There would be no escape.
He felt the fear rolling around inside of him. He knew where panic led—it would take him to a place where he would be unable to think or act. He would be consumed by the fear and forced to watch the horror unfold. Surviving past demons hadn’t made him any stronger, it had only made him realize how random and uncontrollable the world could be. People were tiny, fragile flowers and it was just dumb luck when someone made it through the day without being killed by some random event.
“No,” Ricky whispered to himself.
He forced himself to close his eyes and breathe deeply until his heartbeat slowed and he could hear the world around him instead of blood rushing through his ears.
He decided that he would survive and it wouldn’t be because of dumb luck.
While his eyes were shut, he pieced together a mental map of the hotel. The hall he was in had to lead to the back part of the lobby, near tall windows that looked up at the mountain. Before the reception, Ricky had stood out there, admiring the view with his friends from college. It seemed like a million years had passed since that moment. Ricky was the only one of their group who had decided to stay in the hotel. Everyone else had driven home. They were probably fast asleep in their own warm beds.
Riley’s brother, Carl, had talked him into staying at the hotel. It was supposed to be a wild night of drinking and reminiscing until they couldn’t keep their eyes open anymore. Ricky should have cancelled the room when Carl dropped out. He barely knew Aaron and Jennifer. This whole thing felt like someone else’s crisis that he had gotten unfairly sucked into.
Ricky inched his way up to the door at the end of the hall and scolded himself for what he was thinking. When he had chosen law enforcement as his career, he had made a commitment to a life of danger. It was his job, whether he was on the clock or not. He couldn’t shy away from it just because it was difficult.
Ricky angled left and right to see through the glass door before he opened it. The back sitting area with the tall windows and the fireplace was on the other side of the door. In another version of reality, he would have sat near that fire with Carl while they tipped their last glasses before the end of the night.
Ricky pushed through the door.
All was quiet. The fire had been extinguished hours before. He used his foot to ease the door shut and pressed his back against the wall. The main lobby was to his left, just beyond the dead elevators. If Riley was still there under the front desk, Ricky was going to have to do something about it. He would have to honor Riley’s request and “help” him, and he couldn’t risk any hesitation. Ricky worked his way along the wall, trying to be absolutely silent.
From the direction of the lobby, he heard the thunk of a door shutting.
He left the soft glow of the moonlight coming through the tall windows and headed down past the elevators. When he saw movement headed for the front desk, he froze. There were three shapes darting through the shadows. They were so close together that it would be difficult to get one without being surrounded by the other two.
Ricky decided to wait until they left the desk. If he couldn’t get the phone working, he would follow the trio and try to pick off the one in the back before the other two noticed him.
He remembered the monster from the stairwell. It had appeared nothing like a human. According to Nick, they could do that—make you think that they were human before they showed their true nature and attacked. As far as he knew, the things near the front desk would be like that. The shapes looked human now, but when he stabbed them they would probably turn into serpents, like the one that had been wrapped around Nick’s neck.
Two of them moved away from the counter and headed towards the front doors of the lobby.
One stayed at the counter.
Ricky saw his opportunity.
The closer he got, the more he realized that he was right. It had looked like a human from a distance, but now he saw the strange curling shape
