The young child walked on the desolate road clutching her oversized coat around her. The winds cut through the coat that seemingly kept slipping off her shoulders. The girl was on her way to the fabled city; rumor has it the last one in existence. There was a terrible downfall though. It was located on the high mountains, near the Cliffs of Obsidian made from long dead volcanoes which contrasted the light as the dead contrasts life.
As the freezing child drew closer her breath forming a cloud in front of her face, she began to see the lights from the city.
The young child has never seen something so beautiful: the blue, the green, the red, they all danced together in complete harmony. Even so high on the mountains, the towers stretched farther than her eyes could see, up into the clouds.
When she finally arrived at the city gates the red-haired girl saw the explanation of the long lived city. At the gate there were two towers, the shadow of a serpent cast down upon the ground. The lights did not dare to tread onto the shadows. The child gazed up at the very creature that brought upon such a large shadow. While the creature was indeed fierce, its iridescent scales reflected the light in a dazzling way giving a look that it was a glass catalyst for the light. The girl though, wasn't any less scared, for by the looks of it the serpent laid in slumber. The child proceeded on her way footsteps echoing as she made her way between the two towers.
The moment she stepped through the gate, a rainbow wall of scales blocked her path. Dust flew up, blocking both her sight and her breath. The wall moved till a giant white eye gleamed at her. The ginger froze, not knowing what to do, since the wyrm’s eye seemed to pierce through her very soul. The eye unlike the sharp scales or the horns was soft, they had an absent pupil, but the most striking part of the eye was the fact that it didn't reflect what was around it. The young girl looked deeper into the eyes trying to decipher what lay within, now she was less than a foot from the beast and was trying to get closer still. At only a hair’s length from the wyrm’s eye she made out a faint shape of a key, one put in a box. After this the child saw a flash of fear in the innermost of the serpent’s eye. The serpent moved back so its mouth was showing and tried to whisper something in a language that was foreign to the girl. After what seemed like hours,the whispering turned into screaming but somehow stayed at the same volume. The giant snake let her past with a look of pure sadness as the child left.
Just as this happened, a women wearing quite ridiculous mechanical devices appeared, the devices seemed to be junkyard metal fused together to serve no purpose as they seemed to be dormant. Her hair was a light violet, what little of it was left stood up straight waving at the sky, where her hair didn’t grow was a series of scorch marks. Her skin was disfigured in a most terrible way. “Oh? Who are you sweetie?” The women asked, her head cocked. ”Uhh.. I don't really have a name ma'am” the young child responded recoiling back into her coat. The lady looked at the girl, her brows furrowed at the fact that the child had no name. She seemed to pay no attention to the fact that the girl did not want to speak to her.
“ Well I think i should call you Embry since that was the name of my pet rock, who is no longer with us” Embry felt joy in her heart, something she has not felt in a very long time, so long in fact that she forgot the emotion all together. “ Well you can't stay here, it's freezing” The Lady spoke, her words jumbling over how fast she spoke. “But, you can stay over there” she said pointing to a building that stood out from the rest. Unlike the others that were built out if what looked like black glass, it was made out of red brick, a very rare item indeed it hasn't been made since at least three hundred years. Embry couldn't even begin to think how expensive it might have cost. As she drew closer she realized how small the brick building was, or at least in comparison to the towers that surrounded it. Embry stepped up on the rickety staircase that led to the door about fifty feet high. As the girl climbed higher and higher she realized something, the building was upside down, or at least, built that way. Another thing about it was how old it looked, like the buildings in the wastelands that littered over the rest of the world, But unlike those, this one didn't have any trees growing out of it or vines covering the surface making the building completely unrecognizable
By the time she reached the “top” of the building, Embry couldn't walk much longer, her eyes drooped with exhaustion.
Before Embry could even try to knock the door it slammed open. A tall man, who looked to be in his late 50s, stood in front of the door, blocking what looked to be the only way in. His hair was of a raven color and slicked to the back of his head, his outfit matched that of a butler’s. His eyes were like pearls, laking pupil and had an otherworldly feel to them, similar to the serpent at the gate. ‘I wonder if he and the snake have any conectio-’ Her thoughts were broken by the pearl-eyed man pushing her into the building. Once inside, the man seemed to vanish into pure air, only leaving a small note behind stuck to the rusted iron door. On the tea-stained note was the number -13. ‘A room number perhaps’? Embry thought.
When she finally looked from the note the ginger noticed something shocking, the hotel had a giant chasm in the center of the main lobby, ice-cold air leaked from it, giving it an horror-type of feel towards it. The chasm itself looked as though it was a sinkhole, as the dirty tiles near the edge were either broken or hanging over the edge or missing altogether . Around the center chasm was, ( in order from right to left ): a restroom, a dining area that gave off a warm glow, a reception desk, a library whose doors where less of doors and more of huge, rusted chunks of iron vaguely shaped like doors, and a door that said employees only. ‘Guess I'll check out the reception desk first, maybe they will give me info on what in god’s earth is going on here’ Embry thought to herself while walking to the area, stepping carefully around the chasm, her blue-gray coat keeping her warm.
Once she ponse sounded rehearsed until the end where she soundarrived at the reception desk she saw a very distressed women trying to organize her paper, her gray hair forming a lion’s mane around her head. “ Excuse me miss but do you have any idea what this place is?” Embry said in a very quiet voice, not wanting to upset the lady more than she already was. “Oh hey there sweetie do you have a card?” The crazy looking lady asked in a very sweet voice.
“Oh you mean this one here”? Embry said trying not to sound condescending as she pulled out the dirty old scrap of paper
“Oh yes, this is one, doesn't it look lovely? We got new ones this week” the old women braged. “But back on the point, you're looking for your room aren't you?”
“Yes” Embry said quite tired of all these insane people today.
“Well if you take the stairs down, turn then down, down again and maybe a bit more downs, then you’ll see it” The lady said, her resed unsure of herself , the hand gestures she made did more to complete the theory.
As Embry left the desk she began to think, ‘why am I here? Just because, it's a city “safe” from danger doesn't mean there will be other problems’ the child thought as she made her way down the stairwell into the chasm. The chasm only seemed to get colder the father she made her way down, the fact that it also had very little lighting seemed to make it worse. The old steel-made stairs made echoing noises, as if they were screaming at the chasm, at the cold dark abyss. The father she made her way down she noticed something, moisture contergated in the air, so much that it was like being trapped underneath a frozen lake. After at least a half an hour or more of climbing down, Embry saw a dimly lit hallway. As if the chasm was hell itself, she jumped into the hallway. Like the chasm, it was disterbly cold. ‘Why is everything so bloody cold here’ the ginger pondered as she made her way down the hallway. -9,-10,-12-, ,’wait, what? Why wasnt there a -11 room? Did they forget to paint it on the door,?’
Finally she made it to her room, -13. She was too tired to think why, or to realize she didn’t follow the directions to get to the room. Embry’s fingers graced along the door, which was freezing, not unlike the rest of this hellish chasm. She opened the door, warm air pouring violently out of the room, as if the air was dying to get out.
Inside of the room, was a dusty bed, chest of drawers, and a bathroom off to the left. Embry stepped on the weirdly moist carpet. ‘Why is it so humid and moist here’? The thought crossed her head, as she made her way in the room. The room has quite obviously hasn't been used in years. Embry flopped onto the bed, a cloud of dust springing up, making the ginger erupt in a coughing fit.
Once the dust has gone down, the child turned on her side the force of slumber overtaking her.
