wish

chapter two

The Hotel was our special place. About a year ago Jake and I went through a phase when we thought we were urban explorers. One day we were walking back from the corner store, ice cream in hand, when we found an abandoned hotel. We had been taking a new shortcut back to Jake's house through the woods when we came across a wire fence covered by plants. We were always in the woods since jake lived right behind them and everyone else in our small town was too scared to go anywhere near it, but I had never seen this fence. I moved the green mess hanging off it with a stick and saw a metal sheet sign that read
'WARNING: ELECTRIC FENCE. DO NOT TRESPASS.'
so obviously, we went in after checking that it did not in fact have electricity running through it.

There was a small section near the bottom of the fence that lifted up, so Jake held it up while I crawled through, and then he slid himself through as I dusted off my jeans.

We found ourselves standing at the front end of a courtyard. A very old one at that. Dead grass and torn up dirt lay everywhere except for a cracked stone path that went through the whole yard. In the middle there was a stone fountain covered in moss.  To the side was a dead garden that I'm sure was gorgeous once. And then there it was, a giant brick building, at least ten   stories high. We walked up to some huge, old, vintage looking doors with knockers that looked like lions.

After brief look at each other, Jake reached for the doorknob and

nothing.

He rattled the knob, but it wouldn't open. When I tried, I came to the conclusion that something was blocking the other side of the door. The knob was turning fully but the door wouldn't push open.

"Stand back" Jake said, breaking the comfortable silence we had been working in while handing me his half-finished cone.

He turned around and walked a few paces before sharply turning back and breaking into a run. At the last second, he turned his body to smash into the door.
my best friend is so cool. I thought in my head.

Well, he would have been if it actually worked. Instead, he just hit the door and bounced right back, landing on the side of his hip.

I burst out laughing at his failed attempt to get us inside. He placed his hands on the ground and pushed himself up.

"Not funny." He growled, brushing his gray pants off.

"It was from where I was standing" I laughed, giving him a little shove.

"Okay then let's see your great idea."

I thought for a second before shoving the last of my cone in my mouth and taking a few steps backwards, picking up a few different rocks and weighing them in my hands, before landing on a sharp one. I calmly turned around and started walking. Jake stood there, looking confused.
Then I turned around and chucked the stone at a window. It hit near the bottom left and took out most of the bottom portion.
Jake knew what I was thinking immediately. He used his jacket to clear the leftover glass as i jogged over to the window, which was a lot higher off the ground then it looked before. Without missing a beat Jake half kneeled down and cupped his hands for me, I stepped in them and somersaulted in through the window, immediately turning around to grab his hand so he could climb through.

Dusting ourselves off, we looked around. We were now standing inside a dim, messy, but still elegant lobby. We started walking around, glass crunching beneath our feet. It was a big space, two grand staircases curved around opposite sides of the room, a long register desk sat all the way in the back of the lobby, and a huge chandelier hung from the ceiling. Turning to the door I could see I had been right. There were a few pieces of wood nailed to the door, blocking the entrance. But why block the inside? Someone really didn't want anyone outside getting in.

We tore through random rooms looking for treasure. We didn't find much. A few condoms and cigarettes but still, it became our little place. Our secret.

We spent the next few months fixing it up. Every spare moment we had was spent at The Hotel.

First up, we went into all the main rooms and picked up the trash, then we moved some furniture from the top suite and some other rooms down to the lobby. It made it cozier.

On one of the last days of cleaning, I was fixing up the garden when my phone rang.

"Hey Jake, what's up" I said, wiping sweat off my forehead.

"Hey, listen I spent the night at the hotel last night because my brother was being a dick, but I left my jacket in the basement while I was cleaning. I just got off work, so I'm headed there now, do you mind finding it?"

"Yeah sure, I'll see you when you get here." And with that we hung up and I started walking inside. I stepped down into the basement, thoroughly creeped out. I had told jake we should just board up the basement and not waste time cleaning it since I definitely didn't plan on spending any time down here. I can't explain it, but this place gives me a bad feeling, makes me anxious.

As I was walking through the cold, dark basement, a wood plank creaked under my feet. Huh I thought. Why did that creak sound different than the other creaks? Oh, shut up Félicie, I told myself, the whole place is a bunch of 'creaks. But this felt different. I can't really describe it, but I just felt like I had to check it out. I got down on the dusty floor and started looking around for the floor plank that gave off a hollow sounding creak. So, there I sat, pushing on the floor like a weirdo. push, nothing, push, nothing, push, nothing, push, creak. Bingo. 

I dug my nails under the edge of the board and lifted it up. I was right, underneath the wood was a little space, dug out. In it, a little heptagon shaped, black wooden box, with a red design on it. Looking at it, all the anxiety the basement gave me went away and I just felt a strong pull to this box. I picked it up with two hands and slowly opened the thin lid. And there sat two little necklaces, collecting dust. They were just simple little silver chains, but on them, hung a small, wonderful pink rose. I slowly lifted my hand up and used one finger to gently touch the rose. As soon as I did, the anxiety came back ten times worst, like a lightning bolt. I immediately dropped the rose and box back into the hole.

Hearing footsteps I quickly pushed the floorboard back over the little hidden spot and stood up just as the door to the basement flew open.

"Hey dork- what are you doing?" jake said, standing at the top of the stairs and looking confused.

"Uh- I was- what happened was- I came down here- "I was at a loss for words while jake just stared at me, eyebrow raised.

"Uhm... jacket." I finally pushed out.
" it's right here." He said, reaching right next to him on the banister where his light gray jacket hung, this whole time.

"Oh, how did I miss that." I nervously chuckled.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just tired. How was work?"

"Boring but they let me bring home some pizzas, so I have lunch waiting for us on the roof."

And with that we started going upstairs to the roof.