Hotel Basylum

CHAPTER ONE

Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly - Charles Addams

The silence of the empty countryside is ruined by the sound of a roaring car as it sped passed. Fred is in the car with his phone placed on his ear, talking to someone on the line,

"... Norbert, just do me this one favor."

"I am trying, man, but your boss is practically breathing down my neck."

"Tell him anything."

"Of course I did - sick brother, dieing mother, even annoying aunt that is missing you."

"Really... annoying aunt?" Fred said with a grin a his face.

"It's funny but you need to know I tried, he just won't take any."

"The dieing mother excuse works every time."

"Maybe, but not this time."

"Really... What did he say?"

"Well it seems you had burned up those life lines long ago."

That sly old bastard.

"Just keep him off, I can't let him ruin this special vacation for me."

"I will try my best and you owe me one."

"Well, you owe me a lot more."

"This should clear up those debts."

Fred sets the phone down on the passenger seat by his side and continues driving, enjoying the country music droning from the speakers and the nice scenery that just kept rushing by.

Basylum Hotel was written in gothic letters on a signboard which reflected the evening orange sun and stood over the large grotesque door of the vast stately building. Surrounding the building were well trimmed hedges, and some renaissance statues. At both sides of the building stood a parking lot almost filled with cars.

The silence of the street was being disturbed by the sound of a car driving into the parking lot of the hotel. Fred comes out of the car, looked curiously at the vast building before him and checked his GPS to confirm that he was actually at the right place.

For Fred, this had come as a big surprise for him. He had seen the advert for the raffle tickets on his computer screen while he was editing some of the morning papers he was going to submit to his boss, he simply clicked on it half-heartedly and registered for the tickets though thinking it was a spam. He got to work a few weeks later, having long forgotten about it, he booted up the system and suddenly a message appeared on the screen telling him he had won a 5month stay in Hotel Basylum. He had heard of Hotel Basylum before but hadn't thought much of it since according to news it was for the rich of the rich. So it was well above his paycheck.

He had managed to squeeze a leave from his tightfisted boss who was not too happy about it, complaining about how they were going to be short of staffs. He hadn't told his boss why he needed the leave, if he did the man wouldn't have let him out of his sight.

Fred reached into his car boot, pulls out his baggage and walks through the large door as the doorman pulls it open for him, some part of him was expecting to see people cladded in armor suit or even Dracula welcoming him with a toothy grin. All he saw were giggling couples and some fun lovers, and of course Basylum lived up to its reputation as he could recognize a lot of them as some of the people who litter magazine covers. He was the only odd one out.

He walked to the receptionist desk, a very beautiful lady, she looked like she would be more in place as a model on the runway and was probably in her late twenties. She looked at him with a hint of a smile on her face.