𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐥

Chapter 7: Run

She was light headed. She stepped off the elevator in a daze.

Why wasn't there any blood? There were teeth everywhere and there was a goddamn bone sticking out of her! Why wasn't there in any blood?

She wandered through housekeeping and out the door to the back parking lot. She couldn't even enjoy the crisp night air. She saw Ellen near the gardening shed smoking a cigarette. Wren shambled towards her.

"You look like shit, was it that bad?" Ellen asked before putting the cigarette out on her shoe's heel.

"The girl... she was..." Wren struggled to find the words she needed "... mangled."

"I knew I made the right call by avoiding that circus. I did hear a siren while I was out here though."

Wren swallowed hard and continued "Colette was there... with who I think were two of her family members. I think they were her cousins?"

"Okay?"

"They were the one's we saw in Lost and Found."

Ellen's face dropped. She knew what she was implying.

Ellen quickly walked into the shed. She was only gone for a few seconds before she came back with two trowels.

"We need to start digging." Ellen said before handing one of the trowels to Wren "We'll start at both ends of the flower bed along the build and meet in the middle, if we don't find anything there we'll start at the picking random spots along the hedges."

Wren took a deep breath "Okay. Let's get to work."

Wren started at the right side of the flower bad, she dropped to her knees, and furiously began turning over the soil.

It was supposed to be you.

There was nothing there, so she moved onto to another patch and began digging again.

Another woman is dead because of you.

She didn't find anything there. Onto the next patch.

If you just hadn't gone down to Lost & Found. If you hadn't agreed to go into housekeeping that woman would still be alive.

Nothing. She began digging elsewhere.

You know what you'd be doing right now if this had been a normal night? You'd be in bed. Sleeping. You'd have tomorrow off. But now you're digging in the dark for a bunch silverware. What are you even going to do if you find what you're looking for?

"Wren!" Ellen called out "I found it!"

Wren bolted upward and sprinted towards Ellen.

Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe there will be another note to make sense of all this.

Wren slid to a stop next to Ellen as she pulled the tool roll out from the dirt. This tool roll was much thicker than one Wren had pulled from the vent, and was bound up at the end with zip ties and tape. It was stained with dark blotchy patches on the bottom and looked as though what ever was inside it had sprung a leak.

Ellen picked the roll from the pit she had made in the dirt "Huh..."

"What is it?" Wren asked as she leaned in closer.

"It's a lot lighter than I thought it would be." Ellen turned back towards Wren "Do you still have that knife?"

"Yeah!" Wren slid the knife out and handed to Ellen.

She began sawing away at the duct tape, thankfully the knife was serrated. She made quick work of the tape and moved onto the zip ties.

"Moment of truth." she said as she snapped the final zip tie and unfurled the tool roll.