Hotel California

There she stood in the doorway.

September 19, 2003, Tyrol.

Two young women were driving along in a car, one short and and a little muscular, and the other tall, and slender. They'd been driving for quite a while. Both were wearing the familiar blue speedwagon foundation jackets.

"Hey Rae, could you tell me about those two cities we were supposed to look around? Y'know, the abandoned ones?"

Rae looked up at the other woman, and rummaged around in a small leather suitcase, and pulled out a pink plastic folder, opening it up to reveal a bunch of pictures and documents.

"Theres these two small abandoned villages in the northern Italy called Curon and Resia, their story is that these cities don't exist anymore because they have been covered by a dam after the second world war... the curious thing is that the main church tower of Curon is still there and you can see it come up from the water,"

Rae showed her companion a picture of that exact clocktower sticking out of the water.

"During the winter the dam lake frozes and you can walk near it, they say you can still hear the last bell hit sometimes."

The other shuddered and shook her head.

"Why did you wanna know, Silvia?"

Silvia sighed and tapped the steering wheel.

"I don't know... I just have a really bad feeling about this... Why did we have to be sent there?"

Her face looked almost pained, it was obvious she wasn't great with such places.

"Because there's word of a possible stand user being around that place, perhaps a stand bound to a building, or object there..."

Rae swallowed, and put the papers away while she continued.

"We were chosen because our stands are perfect for sneaking around, especially your Sound of Silence."

The older woman whined loudly, and then yawned.

"Oh, Jesus... Are you suddenly so damn tired too? I'm, like, about to pass out..."

Rae nodded, she had been a little sleepy for a while, which was no wonder since they'd been driving for about three hours on end.

"Yo, look, there's the clocktower! Let's go check it out!"

Silvia suddenly spoke up excitedly, and pointed at the lake, setting the car at the side of the road and getting out.

Rae looked at it full of wonder, and got out herself.

"This looks so freaky! I'd kind of love to go out on it now... Can we come back when the lake is frozen? Please?"

Silvia pouted at Rae, who sighed and nodded.

"Ofcourse we can, no big deal!"

She smiled up at her, and stuck her hands in her pockets. She couldn't help but yawn, and softly slapped her cheeks.

"Maybe we should go look for a hotel, or some other place to sleep..."

Suddenly Silvia started walking off, causing Rae to snap out of her sleepy daze, and then her eyes widened.

A bit off the edge of the lake was a large building, which looked like a highly luxurious hotel. Speaking of the devil.

"Oh? What's this? How didn't we notice this before?"

Rae walked towards the car, and started taking out her stuff.

"Come on, don't just aimlessly wander around, please!"

Silvia snapped out of some sort of haze, and turned on her heels, jogging over to grab some stuff as well, locking the car door, a d walking back to the hotel together with Rae.

"This place feels so weird... Are you sure we should be staying here?"

Silvia nodded, and looked over.

"C'mon, this looks like some high quality place! They probably put it here because people will be visiting this area and might get tired?"

Rae sighed, and looked at it with a face full of worry.

"Fine... Were staying one night then. Got it?"

Silvia nodded, and watched as the front doors opened.

There she stood in the doorway, a young girl, seventeen years old at most, holding the doors open for them. She flashed a dull smile, and spoke to them.

"Welcome to Hotel California... May your stay be lenghty at this lovely place."

She lit up a candle, and showed them the way to the reception, and all the two of them could think was: this could be heaven or this could be hell.