The driveway was clear. It was sunset, it looked beautiful. The sunset, I mean. The trees reflected the rays onto the driveway, illuminating the gravel and the pavement.
“Where are my AirPods Gary?” Jamie asked. He was built like the typical jock, blonde straight hair parted in the middle and six-feet something. I could care less. “It’s in your ear dumbass.” Gary replied, a grin etched across his face. “Shut the fuck up” Jamie snapped back. He probably felt stupid, not that he wasn’t. Gary was our ‘wise guy’ although he was full of sarcasm and pulled a few pranks here and there, the group wouldn’t exist without him. He was a scrawny five-seven guy, with brown short hair and a very clever grin that was always on his face. He also always carried a small backpack around with him, we never ask what’s inside. (Probably stuff his mom packs for him.)
“I’m parking the car here. You three get out.” I signalled Jamie, Gary and Dimitri to get out of the car. “Take your stuff with you Jamie”. “I thought you were gonna carry it for me Bran” He laughed as he hauled his gigantic backpack off the trunk. “Do you have to bring your gym food and all on this trip Jamie?” Gary murmured while checking something on his phone. “Shut the fuck up nerd” Jamie hissed.
“This place has a 4.7 review score on Google. Decent right?” Gary said while swiping through the photos of the hotel. “Good enough” Dimitri got out of the car with his luggage and slammed the door behind him.
It was finally silent and I was finally alone; even if for a few minutes. I’m Brandon. And we are on a small vacation near the countryside for the weekend. Me, Jamie, Gary and Dimitri. Me, Gary and Dimitri were childhood buddies while Jamie joined us a few years back after we had an altercation with his then ‘girlfriend’. It was wild and fun at the same time. It was bad blood at first, but we soon realised that we had more in common and it would be better to be friends than enemies over some random chick he was getting on with.
Gary had an idea for this trip after Dimitri’s recent breakup, he sounded very empty and erratic on the group call a few days back and Gary, being the sweetheart he is, booked this hotel for the weekend. We would fish in the pond adjacent to the hotel, eat the famous local steak sit on the small hill nearby and drink a few glasses over Dimitri’s breakup. A quaint, blissful weekend with the boys. I was excited and happy.
I glanced at my watch. 6:32PM. I love the weather and the view during this hour, so beautiful. I let out a brief sigh, closed my eyes; memories of the past flooded my brain for a few seconds before I got my grasp back. I grabbed my backpack and opened the door.
***
The guys were waiting outside the entrance. The hotel was luxurious, it was not the majestic kind you see in movies but it could be considered luxurious for the majority of commoners. The architecture resembled a mixture of gothic and ancient roman style. The marbles were greyish and it had around forty floors. The entrance door was made of glass and it was tinted black, you couldn’t see the insides.
“Took you long enough Bran. Jerking off in the car alone?” Jamie chuckled, slamming his hand on Dimitri’s broad shoulders. “Yeah thinking ‘bout your mom” I replied brushing off Jamie’s grin. “Funny” He groaned.
“Alright lovebirds. Shall we check in? None of you forgot any luggage in the car right? The driveway is a bit of a walk from here.” Gary emerged from behind Dimitri, his phone in his hand. “Yeah we got everything.” Dimitri replied.
Dimitri was built like a tank. He had a buzzcut, brown sharp eyes and a big scar across his face. He moved from Russia to here around seven years back and got this scar protecting us from an attempted mugging. He always put himself on the front to protect us if need be.
I approached the entrance door and pushed it open. The cold air conditioned hall swallowed the dry, hot air outside. The reception was straight ahead. The hall was painted black, a light black-ish tone. It was minimal but beautiful.
The receptionist was an Asian woman probably in her thirties, she wore a black suit and a small pointed black cap but the most prominent part of her outfit was her pitch-black lips. It was as if I was gazing into an abyss.
“Good evening and welcome to the Grand Mosaic, are you here to book a room, Sir?” The woman said in a very bright tone, her accent was unlike anything Ive heard although I must admit it sounded very pleasant. “Uh, yeah, good evening we already have a booking here by the name of Gary Port?”
She started swiping on her tablet for a few seconds, looked back up, and smiled. “Oh of course sir. Room 334, I’ll get you the keys now. Hold on” She procured a key from somewhere under the reception desk. “It’s on the fifth floor, have a great stay sir.”
“It’s too fancy for my liking,” Gary murmured. “Nah, it’s fine. Have you got the whiskey on you?” Jamie shoved Gary playfully. “Yeah, I do. Does the room have a fireplace, be awesome if we gather ‘round the fireplace drinking to Dimitri’s sorrow.”
“Hmph” Dimitri replied.
We took the elevator to the fifth floor. The doors of the elevator were black marble and the insides were painted golden. The switches were black with silver lining on the edges. The elevator had a strange smell to it; it smelled like lilies but not exactly lilies. It wasn’t exactly pretty but it wasn’t bad either. More like an acquired taste.
Jamie made sniffing sounds with his nose, “Smells like doll’s eyes. I had some in my room I think, my mom got them for me” Oh. So it wasn’t lilies but doll’s eyes. Got it.
Ching! The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. FIFTH FLOOR- the letters appeared on the screen above the switches. The hallway was as minimal as the hall room, the floors were black marble, ceilings were painted golden and the rooms of the doors were red sandalwood painted black. “Pretty, huh,” Jamie remarked, exiting the elevator and stepping into the hallway.
Jamie Crew was a jock, but he wasn’t an asshole by any means. He always used to get in trouble and abuse substances a lot but never got caught with them. He was always high, in bed with some girl and if he wasn’t doing that he was at the court hooping. All changed when he had a small altercation with Gary back in freshman year. Gary had made a sarcastic remark about the girl he brought to a random party and Jamie, probably high, swung at Gary and grabbed him. Gary smiled and just said “It’s cool I didn’t mean it” And that was that. Something flipped in Jamie and he ditched the girl and started doing shots with Dimitri all night. Fun.
Anyway, the room was quite posh. And it did have a fireplace which excited Jamie a lot. We kept our luggage on the floor and crashed on the couch adjacent to the fireplace. “Pour us a glass Gary boy” Jamie laughed and sat down next to me. “As you wish, sir.” Gary pulled out a bottle of Buffalo Trace. “Get the glasses, it’s with you Dimitri.”
“Yeah,” Dimitri started opening up his small handbag and procured four red cups from it, “Here you go”.
“Alright boys, we drink to Dimitri getting fucked over by a random nerd from his physics class” Gary raised his cup and we followed. “Very funny” Dimitri scowled.
“Cheers!” The cups clashed and we drank three cups each.
I glanced at my watch. 9:28 PM. My head was a little dizzy. We had three hours until midnight. “Guys we should sleep early tonight. Gotta go fishing in the morning hours, Brandon you aren’t too drunk right? You get drunk easily.” Gary said as he got up and put his cup on the kitchen counter. “Bran wanna help me prepare the beds?”
“You’re such a clean freak, it’s a hotel the beds are already clean,” I replied, why was he so odd? “You can never be too sure, come help me.” Gary smiled.
***
I glanced at the clock. 1:46 AM. I was on my phone scrolling through Instagram, staring at pictures of models and celebrities. I let out a yawn and I think it was time to doze off, Gary had made plans for fishing early in the morning. The pond was a few minutes walk from the hotel and we all brought our silly fishing outfits. I looked to my right and Gary was wide asleep, snoring silently. No matter how snarky and sarcastic Gary was, I did consider him my best friend.
I plugged my phone into the charger, planted my face onto the pillow, and started dozing off.
***
I don’t know why I woke up.
Something woke me up, I don’t know what. Might be my conscience. The clock read 4:11 AM. Almost morning. Gary was still sound asleep beside me; Dimitri on the other bed and Jamie? I couldn’t see Jamie next to Dimitri. Weird. Gary moved in his sleep a little bit and let out a soft groan.
I shoved him lightly, “Gary, where the fuck is Jamie?” I whispered so as to not wake up Dimitri; he has a bad habit of being grumpy whenever someone ruins his beauty sleep.
Gary was sound asleep. I shoved him a bit harder. “Gary wake up” I whispered a bit louder, Gary shifted a bit in his sleep and opened his eyes slightly, “Are you fishing with me?” Gary murmured half asleep. I slapped him, “Jamie is not in his bed you fucking idiot. Where is he?”
“Huh? Jamie? Have you checked the fireplace he might have burnt to death” Gary smirked, still half asleep. “Shut the fuck up and come with me, we need to find him” I got out of bed quickly and dragged Gary who kept groaning, I gave him one final slap and he was a bit more awake now.
We opened the door to the drawing room and sure enough, it was empty. There were two empty cups on the kitchen counter that looked fresh as if two people had a drink here an hour or so ago. I’m not quite sure. “Where did those cups come from?” I asked Gary who had the same puzzled look on his face. “ I don’t know, looks like someone had a drink or two, no?” He replied, walking towards the two cups. He picked one up and looked inside for a few seconds before sniffing it, he then looked at me, “Smells like the same Buffalo Trace we had tonight. Check the bottle.”
“Where did you keep the bottle?” I asked him.
“It was on the kitchen counter when we left to arrange the beds. If someone, presumably Jamie drank it then it should be in this room. Check near the fireplace.”
“Alright”
The Buffalo Trace bottle, now half empty, was kept behind the couch near the fireplace, hidden from someone not searching for it but not hidden well enough for a deliberate purpose. It was as if someone was sitting on the couch drinking it and keeping it under the couch while leaving the room.
“Yeah, someone drank it, it’s half empty. It’s anyway overpriced for what it’s worth”
“Worry about that later, if we assume Jamie drank this with someone and left because he’s not here with us right now. We need to go find him, not that I’m worried for him” Gary kept the cup back on the counter.
“I think he’s with some girl he met on some dating app, that scum”
“Might be or he might’ve been mugged by someone” Gary laid his hand on my shoulder, “Let’s check the hallway”.
I opened the door. Our room was at the end of the hallway so you had to walk out into the carpet to see the entire hallway. Gary and I walked into the hallway together.
The same smell from the elevator surrounded us. The smell Jamie described as being a doll’s eye. It was stronger than before though. Way stronger.
Gary looked at me, “I don’t see Jamie, want to check downstairs and ask the reception?”
This sounded like the most viable idea and I obliged. We took the elevator to the ground floor, we were on the fifth so it didn’t take much time. The smell was still there, although not as strong as back in the hallway.
The Asian receptionist wasn’t there. Instead, there was a white man in his fifties, smoking a cigar while typing something onto his laptop furiously. He noticed the elevator open but he chose to ignore us, for whatever reasons. We walked up to him, but he was still ignoring us.
Gary cleared his throat and the man looked up at us, taking the cigar out of his mouth. “Yes, how may I help you?” His voice was very soft for a man that looked like he did. Strong white hair, brown eyes with a thick moustache donning a black tuxedo. “Uh, our friend Jamie is not in his room have you seen a six-foot-something guy with blonde hair roam around? He’s well built and it’s hard to miss his presence” Gary explained in one breath, I could sense the urgency in his voice. But not enough urgency. Felt a bit, how do I put it, forced.
The man looked at both of us, stared, to be precise taking puffs of his cigar a few times before taking it out of his mouth again. “The pond” He replied and went back to typing on his laptop again, although not as passionately as before. I could tell he was disappointed that we had disturbed him.
Me and Gary exchanged glances and ran off towards the pond. We jumped over a few bushes and saw the pond from a distance. There was no sign of anybody near it. The water looked crystal clear blue, as if from a Disney movie. A tropical blue. But the more we neared towards it the more muddier the water seemed to appear. After what felt like seven to eight minutes we reached the pond; it was barren. Felt like nobody had been here for years let alone months. The water was very muddy and dirty, fallen branches and twigs plagued it. Gary was out of breath and hunched over, still confused.
“What did he mean by the pond?” I asked, catching my breath as well. “I don’t know. I’m confused”
My phone rang out of the blue. I was startled by the sudden noise and ruffled through my pockets. It was Jamie.
“Where are you guys? Isn’t it time to go fishing?”
I looked at Gary and I think he heard it quite clearly. We ran inside the hotel to find the Asian lady back there and the man nowhere in sight. “Wasn’t there a man here smoking cigars, an old man?” I asked out of breath. She looked confused, “Calm down sir, nobody like that works here. The reception is vacant during the night, it’s in the description when you book a room with us. Are you sure you had enough sleep sir, you seem to be imagining things.” She remarked, the confused look turned into a look of pity and she went back to her work, flipping through pages of her notebook.
We quickly took the elevator to the fifth floor and ran towards our room.
Jamie and Dimitri were all dressed up in their fishing outfits we jokingly planned with wide grins on their faces which quickly disappeared when they saw our confusion.
“Where were you, Jamie? Were you sleeping? You weren’t in the room and two cups were empty we thought, we thought-” They didn’t let me finish.
“The pond” Dimitri replied.
“Let’s go” Jamie chimed in.
End of Chapter I.