Vacancy

Chapter One - Road to Hell

"We're going to have to tear out the guts, but we can keep the bones."

"You sure? Nothing inside is good?"

"In a building this old, count yourself lucky the bare bones are still good," Robert explained to well-dressed business man, Daniel.

Daniel's tailored, navy blue suit accentuated his onyx skin perfectly, no doubt costing more than all of Robert's clothes combined. Robert would never admit it, but he always envied those business men walking up and down the sidewalks while he worked away on scaffolding up above.

"I may have gotten a good deal on this place, but it wasn't that good," Daniel muttered as he ran his hand down the decrepit wallpaper.

Daniel had sunk all of his money and then some into buying this old asylum with the hopes of turning it into a hotel. It was supposed to save him money buying a pre-existing building rather than building one from the ground up. But it looks like he bit off more than he could chew. Samara was going to be pissed.

Robert adjusted his blue hardhat while he let Daniel explore the old staff quarters, glaring at everything in sight. He watched as a ripped piece of wallpaper wiggled like a worm in the talons of a bird. It was strange, he didn't feel a draft, but some air must have been sneaking in through an old duct. Robert looked up to scan for the source of the draft, his hardhat slipping in front of his face again.

Dammit Steve, I told you to order the right sized hard hats two weeks ago! Robert inwardly groused as he readjusted his hat again for the tenth time since entering this run down piece of crap.

Whoever told Daniel that this was a wise investment must have had a silver tongue. Daniel would have been better off building a whole new place instead of gutting this one. Oh well, it meant Robert and his crew had steady work for the next four months.

Robert jumped at the sound of wood scrapping along the floor.

"Son of a bitch!" Daniel yelled.

He was jumping up and down, holding his knee.

"You okay?" Robert asked as he rushed over to the swearing man.

Daniel sucked in a breath, "Yeah, just smashed my leg on this old desk."

The further they got into the building, the darker it got so Robert pulled the flashlight from his tool belt. He shone the beam at the desk in question.

"I don't think that's a desk," Robert commented.

It looked like an old hospital bed. There were menacing leather straps hanging from the sides and a full layer of blood-colored rust coating the metal rungs.

"Oh God, do you think I'll need a tetanus shot?" Daniel looked down mortified at the old fashioned asylum equipment.

"Did it cut your skin?"

Daniel kneeled down and examined his knee under Robert's flashlight.

"It just cut my suit, thank God," Daniel sighed, getting up and brushing off the dirt now on his other knee. "I think I've seen enough. How long do you think the gutting and remodeling will take?"

This was the tricky part. You never wanted to promise the client more than you could deliver nor did you want to disappoint them with a lengthy timeframe because they could always just hire the next shmuck who promised them a quick turnaround.

"I'm going be straight with you here, Daniel," Robert choose his words carefully, "this place needs a lot to be up to code. The last thing you want is the city slapping you with a huge fine and shutting the place down because you cut some corners during the remodelling. So I'm going to say four months."