Hotel of the Dammed
CHAPTER 2
The sun was making it's was down the horizon, it felt like the darkness of night came on to them quickly. They had spent most of the day exploring at the orphanage, Mark flicked on the head light to make Kay feel better about the ride, even though the Reaper had no problems seeing in the dark.
"Can't we just teleport to a hotel?" Kay asked.
"Where's the fun in that?" Mark replied as he spotted alight before then, "There's something up head, looks like a hotel."
"I can't wait." Riding on the bike so long made Kay's arse sore and numb at the same time, she never knew that it could feel that way.
They both could see the big neon sign that read hotel, the vacancy light was one. Mark pulled in slowly on the dirt parking lot, there seemed to be no cars out front. The building itself looked like an old rustic Savannah mansion, except for the old sign above the decorated front doors.
"Hotel California…" Kay said as she read the name, "I wonder if the Eagles stayed here on tour?"
"I don't know…" Mark looked around, "I wonder if anyone's here?"
"The sign's on." Said Kay as she pointed to the flickering neon sign by the road.
Kay grabbed her packsack as Mark grabbed his saddle bags, they walked into the hotel and looked around. They could see the old style front desk, including bell on the counter and the back wall filled with little boxes for each room. They looked around at the stairs by an entrance to what looked like a dining room decorated in the sixties. The lights were on and old jazz music played softly in the back ground.
"Nice place…" Kay commented as she looked around, Mark moved to the front counter and looked around himself.
"Where the hell it the clerk? He asked as he tapped the little bell twice.
"Can I help you?" Mark heard from behind him, neither he nor Kay had heard the clerk come from behind them.
It made Kay jump and Mark a little unnerving, "Where did you come from?"
"I'm sorry sir, just taking care of Miss Janice from room twelve." The clerk appeared to be in his late twenties, with short blond hair and blue eyes. His skin was fare and he was dressed in a red suit with gold cuffs, his name tag was pinned on his blazer, his name was Arnold.
The clerk moved behind the counter and smiled at the couple, "How can I help you?"
"We need a room. The suite would be preferable." Mark answered as he pulled out his wallet.
"Names?"
Mark sighed, "Mark Callaway."
"And the misses?" the clerk looked at Kay as she looked a round, a boyish smile on his lips.
"Kayla Bautista." He replied, Arnold starred back a little shock and then lowered his eyes.
"What was that about?" Mark had seen the look.
"Nothing sir, it's none of my business." He filled up the recite and handed Mark a book to sign in.
"It will be thirty-five, ninety-two." Said the clerk, Mark pulled out his credit card and handed it to the boy.
Arnold starred in confusion as he looked over the little plastic card, "I'm sorry, we only accept cash."
"Fine…" Mark roughly took back his card from the examining clerk, pulling out two twenties as he replaced the card back in its place.
"I will have Chet bring up your bags…" Arnold said he handed Mark the key to the room.
"The only bags we have are the ones we're carrying, and I think we can find our way." Mark replied as he turned to Kay, "Let's go."
"You're room is on the top floor, room three twenty three…" Arnold informed them as they made their way up the stairs.
Mark walked a head of Kay as she looked around, the decor hadn't changed, it was like they had built it in the sixties and never got out of it. There were old light fixtures and orange and gold colour wallpaper in the hall half way up the walls, the bottom half was covered in cherry wood.
Kayla couldn't help but stare around in wonder, it seemed that the same decor was all over the hotel, it seemed to bother her…it felt wrong some how.
"Are you getting anything from here?" Kay asked as Mark stopped at their door.
"Like what?" Mark was trying to get the old lock on the door to open.
"Like…something's not right about this place?"
Mark stopped and took a moment to think, then began to laugh, "That curiosity of yours is going to get you into trouble one day…"
Kay wrapped her arms around him from behind, "But if I wasn't so curious about you, I wouldn't have met you."
Mark rubbed her hands with his, "Ok, so it's not that bad, but promise me that you won't be poking around here. We're here for one night, and then we have to go straight to San Diego, you promised Dave that we would meet him there."
"I know…" Kay sighed as Mark finally opened the difficult door.
They entered the room, Kay was right about all the décor begin the same. There was a large king size bed in the room, with floral sheets on the bed with matching curtains on the windows. There were two dressers on the far wall, and a door leading to a private bathroom. Again, the walls matched the walls of the hall, Kay couldn't shake that feeling.
She dropped her bag by the bed and walked into the bathroom, there was a cast iron tub but no shower. The sink matched the bath and toilet, it seemed that the hotel never upgraded their pluming either.
"No shower hon…" Kay said as she came out of the bathroom.
"No problem, I'm sure you can make a little rain storm in the bathroom for me." Mark grinned at her.
"Oh you're so funny…" Kay sat on one side of the bed and picked up the receiver of the old rotary dial black phone that sat on the bed side table.
She placed it at her ear and listened for a moment, Mark stopped looking through his saddle bags as he starred at her in question.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
Kay held up the receiver and smiled, "No dial tone."
"So? Maybe they didn't hook it up yet."
"I don't think they have that feature…" Kay replaced the receiver back on the phone.
Mark moved over and sat beside her on the bed, "Kay, I understand that you can't help yourself with mysteries, but baby, we're on vacation. I don't want to sound like a chick but we're supposed to be taking this time to get to know each other, how can we do that when you're chasing ghosts? Can't you just turn it off for a while? I mean, you scared the shit right out of that poor little old woman when we stayed at that bed and breakfast in New Mexico."
She tried to smile, "But Mark, I swear she knew who that ghost was in our room…"
"I know, Kay, I know…" He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her, "…but you can't just go chasing things every time you get a feeling. It almost got you killed once, I wonder how many times you've done that…"
"Ah…I've stopped counting a long time ago." Kay grinned.
"How about we change and get something to eat downstairs," He kissed the top of her head, "...then come back here and…" He bent down and nuzzled her ear.
Kay closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensations her love was conjuring within her body, she loved his touch and the way he made her feel. She had never felt so much love, his warm kisses seem to remove all thought from her mind except for the yearnings for his love.
"Deal…" Kay moaned, Mark immediately moved from the bed and began going through his saddle bags again.
Kay was a left a little confused, "A teaser?"
He leaned over and gave her one short but sweet kiss on her lips, "Think of it as desert…" He whispered.
"Oh yeah…" Kay grinned, "…I'll have just the salad…"
To be continued.