A large, black sixteen passenger van slowly ascended the snow-covered hills of Cologne, transporting the members of the Backstreet Boys, the Spice girls, and their managers, Simon Fuller and Sam Church toward their destination. Behind them, a convoy of buses toting the dancers and crew followed close behind, occupying the otherwise empty road. The midday sun poured down over the snow blanketing the ground and the trees creating a spectacular show of glitter and iridescence completely missed by the van's occupants as they conversed excitedly about sports, current events, and pop culture.
The two managers had made plans to combine the two bands for a joint world tour, beginning in Europe at the Kohn Stadium in Germany and ending in America. The musicians had already spent a week together in London getting to know one another before setting off to Germany. In an attempt to keep the press at bay and keep the tour a secret during the two months in which rehearsals would take place, they'd opted to rent a location in a secluded area, rather than have the musicians reside in a hotel in the public eye.
They had found a cabin up in the mountains that was gated and secure from onlookers. Conveniently, there was a small village and ski resort a few miles down the mountain from the cabin with cottages for the crew to stay in, a spa, and a few shops for the tourists. The trailing vehicles turned off the road once they'd reached the village where the crew would be staying, leaving the musicians' vehicle alone to make the final trek up to the cabin.
The building was surrounded by snow covered trees and located in a remote area off the beaten path. It was a beautiful, rustic building tucked away in the mountains providing the musicians with enough privacy to wander the grounds without having to worry about being seen. The original architecture of the building itself, although updated and renovated, was nearly 600 years old and loomed impressively in the distance as the vehicles approached.
Although rarely used, it looked well-kept and the groundskeepers had already been through to remove the freshly fallen snow to welcome the guests to the facility. The van pulled into the driveway and the engine cut out, leaving the surrounding area completely silent until the doors were opened and the occupants stepped outside. The excited chatter spilled out of the vehicle, livening up the slumberous winter scene.
"All right, you lot," Simon announced as he and Sam got out of their vehicle. "Myself, Sam, and everyone else will be in the cabins we passed at the bottom of the hill. You can call my mobile if you need anything."
"You're not worried we're going to trash this place, then?" Mel humoured as she pulled her bag from the bus's luggage compartment.
"I paid for extra insurance," Simon replied, not picking up on Mel's sarcasm. He was focused on his mobile phone, not really paying attention to the musicians as they gathered their things from the back of the van. Mel set her bag on the sidewalk and put her hands on her hips, giving Simon a look of disdain, but he didn't look up from his phone as he walked past her and headed toward the cabin to help get everyone settled.
"Can't say I blame him," Emma giggled, grabbing Mel's hand and pulling her toward the cabin.
"This is so much better than staying at another hotel," AJ announced as he lifted one of his bags over his shoulder and lifted the other with his free hand. "Do we get to use those?" He nodded toward a few snowmobiles parked next to the garage.
"The keys are in the kitchen," Simon replied. "Please, be careful with them. The nearest hospital is twenty minutes away... if the roads are cleared." He unlocked the front door of the cabin and made a gesture to invite them in. "Have at it."
Everyone quickly toted their luggage toward the cabin and rushed inside. Mel was the first in the door and she quickly dropped her luggage, tore her boots from her feet, and rushed up the staircase.
"I get the room with the biggest bed!" she roared as she raced Emma to the second level of the house. The girls quickly claimed their rooms, followed by AJ, Howie, and Geri. Kevin, Brian, Victoria, and Nick disappeared down the main floor corridor in search of rooms for themselves, while Melanie opted to check out the basement. She lugged her bags down the staircase, opened the door at the bottom, and dropped her things at the foot of the stairs.
The basement was a large, open space with a king-sized bed, a lounge chair, a closet, a washroom, and a small attached room with a washer and dryer. The room was painted white with one wood panelled accent wall and the floor was blanketed with a plush cream coloured carpet. The ceilings were high, adding to the spaciousness of the room. The only windows were the two, small rectangular panes located in the laundry room, not allowing for much natural light, but numerous wall sconces provided more than enough illumination and a giant flatscreen TV was fastened to one wall. Melanie explored the room for a moment before unpacking her things into the closet and dresser and flopping onto the plush king-sized mattress.
"No fucking way!" Mel shouted as she bounded into Melanie's room. "This room is huge!"
"I've already claimed it," Melanie said with a sly grin.
"The view out my window is better anyway," snorted Mel as she hopped on the bed, leaning back against the wall and resting her legs across Melanie's stomach.
"Is it something like this?" Melanie asked, retrieving the remote from her bedside table and turning on the telly, which displayed a realtime image of the scenic view outside the cabin. She changed the input, displaying the same image, but months earlier when everything was green and warm. She smirked and grunted as Mel playfully squished Melanie's stomach beneath her legs. The two of them looked toward the staircase as Geri, Emma, and Victoria descended the stairs and looked at Melanie's room with awe.
"Nice!" said Emma with approval as she crawled onto the bed with the two girls. She sat next to Mel with her legs crossed, not wanting to squish Melanie any more than Mel already was.
"Aren't you going to be freaked out down here all by yourself at night?" Victoria asked, seeming a bit off put by the basement. "Especially with these staring at you? Who the hell did the decorating down here?" She walked over to the far end of the room where the dresser was situated against the wood panelled wall. On either side of the dresser were two oval wooden frames, each donning old sepia coloured images of unknown people, both expressionless, with their eyes staring directly at the camera so their gaze appeared to follow the occupants of the room. Victoria looked closely at one of the photos before shuddering and turning her back to it, making her way over to the bed with the other girls.
"I'm sure I'll be fine," Melanie snorted with amusement, rolling her eyes. Victoria was easily frightened by ghost stories and horror films. More than once, the other girls had been forced to go through Victoria's hotel rooms to look for intruders or ghosts before she went to bed. Victoria hated to be alone at night.
"I don't know," Mel added wickedly. "Tor's right. It is a bit creepy down here." She smiled evilly at Melanie and coyly bit the tip of her tongue.
"Fuck off," Melanie snorted. "You lot are just jealous. I've got all this space to myself and I've got a toilet and shower that I won't have to share with the lads." She smiled and pulled her hands behind her head. "I also won't have to listen to any of you lot snoring down the hall."
Emma grinned and grabbed one of Melanie's pillows, pulling it behind her head and moving to hit Melanie with it. Mel clenched her legs to keep Melanie pinned down and unable to do much to defend herself. Melanie cried out and held her arms in front of her to protect her face as Emma struck her with the pillow.
"Don't let us interrupt" said Nick as he came down the stairs two at a time and grinned at the girls. "Feel free to get rough and take each others clothes off, too. We can wait."
"Is that seriously what guys think girls do when no one's watching?" Geri snorted, rolling her eyes at Nick. Emma, Victoria, and Melanie looked at him with expressions of annoyance and disgust that mirrored Geri's. "You think we take any opportunity to get naked together and cop off?"
"I have made you lot snog me, so he's not far off" Mel laughed, tossing a pillow at Geri. Nick's jaw dropped and he stared at Mel with disbelief. She laughed and stuck her tongue out, biting down on it to make her piercing protrude more and raising one eyebrow suggestively.
"Be a good boy and maybe I'll let you have a go later," she purred before bursting into a belly laugh.
"Simon said there's to be nothing romantic or sexual between us lot," Emma warned sarcastically. "Until after the tour." Mel looked at her with mock fear and rolled her eyes, ducking just before a pillow hit her in the face. She laughed and grabbed Emma round the neck, pretending to choke her.
"We want to go into the city to see what's there and check out the venue before rehearsal," Howie explained as he joined them in the basement. "You girls want to come? We're probably going to grab dinner while we're out because the cooks don't come until tomorrow."
"I could do a bit of shopping," said Victoria, making her way toward the staircase.
"Ooh, me too," said Emma excitedly, pushing Mel away and climbing over Melanie. She raced after Victoria, followed by Geri and the guys as Melanie and Mel wrestled with one another to be the first one to the stairs. Everyone bundled back into their winter gear and headed out to the van, leaving Kevin to lock the cabin up behind them.
Enveloped in darkness, the house no longer looked warm and welcoming, instead seeming dark and ominous hidden amongst the trees. With the musicians enclosed within the van, the area was suddenly quiet once again. There was no birdsong, only the sound of the wind whipping through the bare branches of the trees and the dwindling sound of the van's engine as it departed.
-0-0-
The cabin was once again filled with a cacophony of conversations and boisterous laughter as the musicians returned from their excursion of shopping and a meal at one of Cologne's most prestigious restaurants. They'd been given a private room and were brought in through the staff entrance to keep the press and the other restaurant patrons from seeing the two bands together. It had been done at great effort, but the media and the general public were still completely unaware of the joint tour that was being planned.
While majority of the cabin's occupants had gathered in the kitchen and the sitting room for drinks and to watch a movie, Melanie had opted to go to her bedroom to settle in for the night. Of both the groups, she was always the earliest to bed and the earliest to rise. It had been a long, busy day and she couldn't wait to crawl into bed for the night.
She had showered and changed into her pyjamas before curling up on the squishy, leather lounge chair in her room. She put on her glasses and curled up to read a few chapters of a book to help herself wind down before bed. She turned out the lights, the only illumination coming from the lamps on the bedside table and next to the chair. A cold breeze from the vent at the base of the wall chilled the air and she pulled her feet onto the chair to keep them warm. A subtle tapping could be heard from within the vent, but she ignored it, assuming it was simply a noise the vents made as the air cooled for the night and the wood and metal expanded and contracted with the change in temperature.
As she got further into the chapter, her eyes began to grow heavy and she found she was no longer comprehending the words she was reading. She folded the corner of the page and set the book on the seat of the chair before making her way over to the bed. As she moved to turn off the lamp, the light hit something within the vent and grabbing her attention. She stared at the vent for a moment, curious. The breeze was causing something inside the vent to move and whatever it was was periodically catching the light from the lamp.
She cocked her head to the side and got off the bed to see what was causing the flickers of light. The vent was fastened to the wall with screws, but as she peeked through the grill, she could see something dangling inside, swinging back and forth, pushed by the cool breeze.
She sat back on her heels and looked around the room for something to loosen the screws. She retrieved her cabin key from the dresser and slid it into the slot, twisting one of the screws loose and removing it so she could slide the panel open.
She crouched low to see what was dangling within the vent. There was something metallic suspended quite far back and she had to get on her belly to extend her arm far enough to reach the object inside. She grasped around blindly, pressing herself tightly against the wall to reach in as far as she could. She hissed suddenly and pulled her arm out, looking at her hand and observing the cut across her palm where she'd dragged her skin along a sharp edge of the vent wall. She gritted her teeth and leaned down to look in the vent. She could see the object, but couldn't make out what it was.
Determined to retrieve whatever it was, she got on her belly once more and reached her hand into the vent. Visualizing where she'd seen the object, she felt around blindly, ignoring the feeling of blood trickling off of the edge of her palm. Her eyes widened excitedly as she gripped the object and she pulled against the wire it was attached to. The wire snapped, allowing her to pull the object from the vent.
She sat back and looked curiously at the brass key she'd extracted from the vent. She peered back into the vent to see if there was anything else inside before replacing the grill and fastening it into place using the cabin key to secure the screw once more.
She examined the key as she walked to the bathroom to wash the blood from her hand. She set the key on the vanity, then clutched a tissue in her palm as she searched the drawers and cupboards in the bathroom for a bandage. There was a first aid kit in the cupboard under the sink with antiseptic cream and bandages of various sizes. Once she'd dressed the wound, she took the key back to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. Although she was curious to find something to use the key on, she was growing steadily more tired. She did a quick scan of the room, looking for obvious places where a key could be used, before setting the key on the bedside table and opting to search the room more thoroughly in the morning. She crawled under the duvet and turned off the lamp, dousing the room in darkness. She shivered against the cold night air and turned her to face the wall, closing her eyes and slipping immediately into welcomed unconsciousness.
Slowly, the other occupants of the cabin retired to their own rooms for the night. The sound of vibrant conversations died to quiet whispers then altogether silence apart from unintelligible murmurs and snoring. In the basement, the noises of the sleeping musicians upstairs was silenced. Within the darkness, the only sound was that of Melanie's rhythmic breathing and a quiet shuffling within the vent that made its way toward the grill Melanie had closed earlier before descending back into the depths of the walls.