Multiverse of Magic & Mistakes (Completed)

1.1.6 Chapter 6

Bath, UK, Earth, June 2019.

Violet slowly walked through the long bland corridor of the newly opened hotel, a large bunch of keys jingling in her hand. The hotel wanted some sort of exclusivity deal with Gulliver's Travel Agents and somehow Vi had been sent over to check it out. She was not sure why. The more she thought about why she was here, the fuzzier the details became. She checked the key in her hand. Room 237. "Ok, I guess I should check it out", she thought.

She reached an illuminated sign with "220-240" and an arrow pointing around the corner. Vi found herself outside the door for room 237. She placed the key in the lock and pushed hard. And the door opened to reveal... nothing. An empty black abyss of eternity.

Vi screamed and turned and went to open the door for room 238, it swung open at her touch, no key required. Again, there was the total blackness of eternal night. She was shaking now. Shaking and screaming, tears flowing down her cheeks. Room 239 opened into the same blackness. Vi turned and ran, sprinting down the corridor. She had to get out of here. Get back to the front desk. As she ran, each door she went past swung open to reveal the endless empty black abyss. Vi hurtled round a sharp corner. The stairs or lift must be round here somewhere. She rounded another corner, and there again was the "220-240" sign, no longer illuminated. Vi ran, and ran, round and round, down one corridor, round a corner, along another corridor, and as she ran the doors continued to open, and through every single one of them was an eternal black void.

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She awoke with a lurch and took several deep breaths, willing herself to calm down, for her heart rate to return to normal. Just another fucking nightmare. That was different, empty doors rather than the vanishing objects that had plagued her nights recently. What did it all mean? Vi rubbed her eyes, loose hair falling forward over her face. Shit. She had barely slept over the past few nights and felt like she had been spun round in a blender.

Birds loudly chorused outside, signalling the dawn. She crossed the room and sat in her desk chair, not daring to go back to sleep, and instead waited for the rest of the world to wake-up.

Later that morning, Violet was back at work. This time an outbreak of illness meant she was manning a desk. Her customer's, a couple in their 30's were flicking through brochures, deciding where to go on a honeymoon. "I'm thinking a city break, somewhere vibrant and exciting!" remarked the husband-to-be.

"How about a beach trip, somewhere calm and relaxing?" responded the wife-to-be, setting the tone for much of their (to be short-lived) marriage. Vi tried not to roll her eyes and put on her best customer-service voice. "Well, both of those options sound great! Have you considered a beach-city location? Our trips to Tel-Aviv, Barcelona or Nice are all highly-rated!"

When her lunch break came, the couple were still deliberating, and Vi was relieved to have a colleague take-over. She hoped that when she returned in an hour, they would have finally decided. The office doorbell jingled, as Vi escaped outside into another sunny afternoon. She glanced about the busy summer street, her eyes falling on the spot just down the pavement where she had spotted that weird glowing symbol. The pavement was its usual dark-grey, covered in the passing shoes of pedestrians only. Whatever the symbol she had seen was, she did not believe it was a secret project by an emerging new artist, as that strange boy had claimed. Whatever it actually was though, Vi had no idea.

Pulling her sunglasses from her bag, Vi made her way across the bustling Kingston Parade to a little sandwich shop, where she got her usual (houmous and falafel salad) and a diet coke and sat on a free bench.

The afternoon was sweltering. Children splashed in the shallow fountain at the centre of the square, whilst others ran laughing through jets of water that were set to spray upwards in a regular pattern. Some parents and teenagers sat on the fountain's edge, their feet dangling in. It was so hot, that if it wasn't for her uniform, and expected return to work in an hour, Vi would have joined them. She slurped her drink. She wondered at what point she suddenly no longer counted herself as one of the children.