by Mary Calmes
So it hurt not to be home, and the training itself was going to be tedious, and to top it off, I seemed to be the only one that found the situation we were in, when Tuesday rolled around, to be in the least bit odd. As I stared out the window at the blanket of white, I took a breath and tried to breathe.
“Simon?”
I turned to look at my boss, Dan Brenner. There were four of us from the office there together; along with him and me, there was Jess Turner and Kenny Boyd.
“Jess said you were kind of freaking out.” He gave me an indulgent smile. “You don’t think you’re taking this whole snowed-in thing to The Shining level for no reason?”
I loved Stephen King as much as the next guy, but really this had less to do with anything but the fact that no one but me saw the nightmare we were in.
He clapped me on the shoulder. “Mr. Saudrian, the hotel manager, has advised me that this sometimes happens this time of year.”
“They get snow.”
“Yes.”
“In November,” I said dryly.
“Yes,” he insisted.
“Are you kidding?”
He shrugged. “I guess where we are, close to the California-Oregon border, that—”
“We’re close to the camping grounds in Merrill,” I told him. “My sister and I camped there once when I was—”
“It’s just snow,” he said with a chuckle, “and you’re freaking out.”
I cleared my throat. “Dan, we got here yesterday afternoon and it was clear, and in a matter of a twelve-plus-hour period, we are completely snowed in. That doesn’t strike you as odd?”
His scowl was dark. “It’s weather, for crissakes.”
It wasn’t; there was no way. Even though I was not a meteorologist, I knew the difference between what was possible and what was not. And maybe somewhere in the Midwest you got freak snowstorms that buried you from Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning, but this was northern California, and it was, as I’d pointed out to my boss, November.
“Simon?”
I forced a smile, because having a debate with the clueless man was not going to get any of us any closer to the truth of our strange situation. “Okay, Dan, you’re right. I’m just bein’ stupid. Where’s Jess?”
He squinted at me. “I think she went to her room to change before we start the afternoon session.”
I nodded and left him alone in the sitting room on the second floor where he had found me.
It was a huge hotel, very nice, very high-end, with polished wood floors and imported Italian fixtures and a whole sort of Casablanca-type feel to it. There was a fountain in the entryway and black-veined marble, and the staff looked crisp and clean in their spotless ivory uniforms. There was nothing wrong at all with the inside, the piano bar and the sports bar; the French restaurant was heaven—it was the outside that was the problem, where the strange built-up overnight snow was. It could not be there, not logically, not naturally occurring. If you could forget about the fact that we were basically trapped, it was fine. My problem was that I couldn’t just put it out of my head.
Halfway down the long hall, I heard my name called. Turning, I found one of the other members of my human resources department, Kenny Bond. He jogged fast to catch up with me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, because his face was all scrunched up.
He held up his iPhone for me. “I just—I can’t get anybody. I’m tryin’ to call my wife, and I have no reception up here. All the lines at the hotel are down, too, and the Internet and everything else. I just fuckin’ hate this.”
“Yeah, I know,” I sympathized. “I’m on my way to get Jess. Come with me.”
He nodded, falling into step beside me. It wasn’t like him to be quiet, so I knew the whole isolation thing had him really bugged. As he walked with me, I felt the tension rolling off him.
At Jess’s door, I knocked quickly.
Nothing.
I had tried again, thinking she was in the bathroom or something, when the door suddenly flew open. I jumped back, startled.
“Christ,” Kenny barked at her. “What the hell?”
She lunged at me, wrapping around me tight and hard. I realized only then that she was shaking and panting.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, hands on her face, tipping her head back so I could look down at her.
“Let’s go,” she gasped, squirming free, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me after her.
“Honey”—I pointed into her room—“where’s your purse and laptop and—”
“Fuck it. Let’s just go to your room and—”
“Jess.” I cut her off, worried. She was frantic, panicked, her breathing shallow and fast. “You need to get your—”
“I don’t need shit,” she told me. “I’ll wear one of your T-shirts or—”
“Stop,” I said, soothing her, wrapping her in my arms again, holding her close to me, rubbing circles on her back.
She was close to hyperventilating. It took several long minutes for her to calm down. Once she had returned to her normal, composed self, I leaned back to look down at her. “Talk to me.”
Deep breath. “I was lying down on the bed, and something breathed on me.”
I squinted at her. “Breathed on you?”
“Yeah, like an animal.”
“You’re kidding.”
“You were dreaming,” Kenny chimed in.
“I wasn’t,” she told him. “And I’m not,” she answered me.
I agreed with him. “Honey, you had to be.”
She shook her head and then pointed into the room. “I’m not going back in there. Last night I didn’t sleep a wink, and you know that ain’t like me.”
It wasn’t. The woman could fall asleep anywhere, anytime. According to her husband, there had been a few very inappropriate times when she had nodded off when they were in the middle of things.
“Why couldn’t you sleep?”
“I felt like something was watching me, looking at me.” Her breath hitched. “I just… I hate that fuckin’ room, and I’m not going back in there.”
“But, Jess—”
“And right before you knocked, I couldn’t get the door open.”
“Oh that’s crap,” Kenny barked at her, pushing by us and striding into the room.
We watched from the doorway as he walked to the center and stood there.
“What now?”
She pointed at the bed. “Get all my stuff. I’m sleeping with Simon.”
He squinted at her.
“Oh, you know what I mean! Grab my crap and c’mon.”
He rolled his eyes like she was being ridiculous, got her garment bag and her messenger bag, and brought those both to me before walking back in to retrieve her purse and her princess coat. Those were passed to Jess.
“Seriously?”
She just stared at him as he stood there, him in the room, us out in the hall.
“Do you—fuck!” he yelled as his body jerked backward toward the bed.
“Oh God!” Jess screamed.
I bolted forward, grabbed my friend’s hand, and nearly plowed into him. He had stopped moving so abruptly that the force I had exerted to reach him was overkill.
“Fuck.” He clutched at me, eyes wide, looking all over.
“What happened?” Jess demanded, standing at the door, gesturing for us to come out. She was not about to step one foot back into the room.
“Fuck if I know,” he said hoarsely, shoving me forward, fast, across the carpet and out into the hall.
The three of us stood together, clustered close.
“What was that?” I asked him.
His eyes were locked on mine. “I dunno. It felt like somebody grabbed me, like I was yanked into the room—did you guys see anything?”
I shook my head.
“No,” Jess’s voice cracked. “Goddamnit, I am freaking out.”
“You felt like there were hands on you?” I needed to clarify.
“Yeah,�
� he said, pushing up the sleeve of his sweater to reveal his forearm, “and now my whole arm fuckin’ hurts.”
“Oh shit,” Jess moaned.
The skin that stretched from above his wrist to his bicep was covered in dark, angry red splotches. It was going to turn black and blue and looked like someone had given him the Indian burn from hell.
“What the fuck!” Kenny almost yelled, fisting a hand in my sweater, holding tight. “If you hadn’t—I mean, Simon, I felt like I was gaining speed, ya know, and it hurt like a son of a bitch, but the second you grabbed me, it stopped. I mean, just stopped.”
I nodded. It was weird, because they were both acting strange, and the snow outside was eerie, but everything else felt fine. Everything looked fine. Nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Okay, well, let’s go to my room, Jess, and put away your stuff.”
“And we’ll stop at my room on the way and get mine,” Kenny told me. “I’m moving in with you too.”
His announcement was not appealing in any way. “Why? What’s wrong with your room?”
“It was cold.”
“Cold?” I squinted at him. “Ever heard of a thermostat?”
“Just… it gave me the heebie-jeebies.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“Just c’mon, Simon.”
I wasn’t in the mood to argue.
THERE WAS nothing more boring than a conference about things you already knew. Refresher, they called it, but it was busywork, plain and simple.
We were there to take classes, brush up on our listening skills and conflict management while we interacted with other HR managers/trainers from across the country. Our company, Ellis Pharmaceuticals, put a lot of money and resources into its people, and the four-day seminar/conference was for our benefit as well as all the employees of the company.
After the three of us collected Kenny’s things, both he and Jess moved into my room. There were a lot of products in the bathroom suddenly, but the counter was huge, so we were fine; cramped, but fine. The towel situation would have to be addressed, but Kenny was smart and grabbed his on the way out. We were late for the afternoon session, but the instructor, Mrs. Aoki, didn’t give us much more than a stern look as we tiptoed in.
As class droned on, the feeling of unease left me. Hard to be scared or worried when you’re bored to death. When we were dismissed for the day with homework for the following morning, we left quickly.
There were supposed to be drinks before dinner, and everyone was scheduled to report for a mixer around five thirty. Once we were back in the room, I watched Jess fall down onto the California king.
“You all right?” I asked her.
She rolled to her side to look at me, draping her hourglass frame over the quilt. “Simon, honey, your room is awesome.” Deep indrawn breath. “It’s warm and light and just… I love it.”
“It’s different,” Kenny said from the window, and I looked over at him. “I mean last night, my room… I just I gotta tell you, it was weird.”
“You ass,” Jess snapped. “You were giving me shit and your room was weird too?”
He made a face. “I thought you guys would be, like—” He raked his fingers through his thick brown hair. “I dunno, thinkin’ I was stupid or something. It was fucked up. I haven’t been scared of the dark since I was five years old, but last night… I turned on the light and I could swear—”
“That something was there right at the edge of the light,” Jess finished for him.
“Yeah,” he told her, his face draining of color. “What the fuck was that?”
“Did you sleep in the middle of the bed, afraid to get up?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head. “But I got up in the middle of the night and turned every light in the room on.” He took a quivering breath. “Did you do that?”
“I was too scared to get off the bed,” she confessed as she got up and walked over to stand beside me.
“You okay?” I asked when I realized she was trembling.
She leaned into me, wrapping her arms around my waist, her head against my heart. “I am now. I can probably even sleep tonight. Your room isn’t spooky at all. There’s no sort of dark places in here, and it’s not cold. My room must have been like a meat locker.”
Kenny nodded. “It was fuckin’ freezing.”
I had been warm all night, and I was crazy about my room. I had watched a movie, gotten cozy in bed, and fallen asleep.
“But it feels great in here,” Kenny said, flipping on the TV. “Let’s just hang here instead of going to the mixer after we do the bullshit homework.”
“If you guys want.” I yawned, ready to stretch out on the bed for just a minute.
It was funny how I lay down in the middle and both of them leaned against my legs. I muttered a thank-you when Kenny pulled off my shoes.
That night we had room service and watched movies and played cards. When I woke up at three in the morning, I realized that the lights were finally off and both my friends were in bed with me. Kenny was sleeping facedown beside me, and Jess was next to me on the other side. I was in the middle on my back with her wrapped around me. I shifted, and she tightened her arm around my waist.
“I knew the moment I met you that I’d get to sleep with you someday,” she murmured, snuggling against me.
“Go to sleep,” I muttered, tightening my arm around her back. It was funny, but I would have wagered that everyone at Ellis Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco thought Jess and I had slept together at one point in time. We were just too close, the rumor mill said, for it to be anything but sex. As Kenny let out a snort, I had to chuckle. Seeing the three of us like we were would just have made the stories that much better. I hoped Leith was too busy to worry about me, since I had not called like I promised.
V
I STAYED awake the following morning even though the session was enough to make me want to slit my wrists. The afternoon one was worse, and I was surprised at how many people didn’t show, as well as the fact that a lot of others nodded off. And it was boring, yes, but normally, as adults, we didn’t actually fall asleep sitting up. Looking around, I realized how exhausted everyone looked, like no one was getting any rest at all. Our trainer cut the afternoon session short because she felt that everyone needed to recharge their batteries.
As I sat at the bar having cocktails with Kenny and Jess, I realized I had not seen our boss all day.
“We should go check on him,” I suggested.
“Sure, you do that.” Jess smirked at me, coughing into her hand. “Brownnoser.”
“Really? Is that necessary?”
“Yeah,” she drawled, laughing at me. “But whatever, go look for him, and me and Kenny’ll go check with the concierge again about Internet service and a phone line.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed, getting up and starting out of the bar to go find my boss.
“Meet at your room in an hour, and we’ll get dinner!” she called after me.
I waved but didn’t turn back around. Halfway to the door, I moved sideways to let a woman pass and ending up stepping into the path of someone else. I would have been plowed into by the stranger if another hand had not gripped my bicep and yanked me sideways.
“Careful.”
My head turned, and I found there in front of me a very handsome man. “Oh, hey, sorry.”
He let me go immediately. “My mistake.”
“Oh, no, that’s okay, thanks for saving me from gettin’ run over.”
“It’s my pleasure,” he assured me.
I offered him my hand. “Simon Kim, San Francisco office.”
His smile was strained as he clasped mine. “Chale Diaz, New Mexico.”
“Nice to meet you,” I sighed, pulling back my hand. “Are you comin’ in or going out?”
“Fuck if I know,” he muttered under his breath, but I heard him, saw him shiver.
Reflexively I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”
&
nbsp; His head snapped up, and his eyes locked on mine. “Sorry, I didn’t, I just, I can’t—I need to call my… partner… and I can’t”—he cleared his throat—“reach him.”
I gave him a warm smile. “I can’t reach my boyfriend, either, and it’s gettin’ old.”
Seeing the wave of relief that washed over him made me feel really good. “Yeah, it is.”
“I’m off to check on my boss, and then I’m gonna have dinner with a couple of my friends. Would you like to join us?”
He nodded. “I would really like that.”
As we walked we got to know each other, and I found out that he and his partner had been together for six years. It had been rough going at first, as his boyfriend, Wade, had been a big-time player before he had fallen head over heels for Chale.
“You haven’t lived until you’ve had to screen booty calls at two in the morning,” he said with a snicker.
I enjoyed listening to him, and when he asked why there were bruises on my face, I explained about my ex.
“Oh shit.” He scowled at me. “What did your guy say?”
“I’m not sure what he’s going to do, but one of our friends is a lawyer,” I said, thinking of Marcus Roth, or Marot, as Jael called him. Of the four other warders in Leith’s clutch, or group, he was the one I had liked almost instantly. The man had the warmest brown eyes and a soft, resonant voice that soothed, I was guessing, everyone he met. He was deadly in combat, vicious in the courtroom, and yet always kind to me. I was always happy to see him. “And the last I heard, he was on his way to file a restraining order on my behalf.”
Leith had called me when I was on my way up to the resort and told me that Marcus would be handling the legal piece of dealing with Eric Donovan and that his friend Malic Sunden would be handling the rest.
“What does that mean?” I had asked Leith.
“It means that if I go see Eric then he might not live. Malic is bigger and scarier than me, but because he knows he’s powerful, he’s really good about not exercising it over others. I might just go off; he’ll just scare the crap out of him.”