Incarnata

by Brandon Faircloth

  An older man sitting on one of the lobby sofas raised his hand and spoke when Bramford nodded at him. “Mike, that’s all well and good, but tall tales aside, what’s the deal with this place? I thought it had been shut down for years. This stuff all looks like new.” There were several murmurs of agreement across the crowd, and I found myself nodding along as well. Bramford raised his hand and went on.

  “Look Joe, I admit I was expecting it to be in worse shape too. I came up this morning and walked the place over, and the whole thing is like that. Maybe the county has had cleaning crews up here. Or maybe the doors and windows just seal well and everything was left clean. I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. All it does is make our job easier. Okay? Okay.”

  “Now that we’ve got the fuckery talk out of the way, let’s talk about the job. My contract is for two phases with a potential third phase if they like what we do. Phase one is where we are now. Assessment. As you all know, you were hired to do a specific job. Some of you are here to evaluate the building itself. Plumbing, electric, structural defects. I expect it will have some of each. It’ll probably have some unique quirks also, given how old it is.”

  Another raised hand. “How old is this place?”

  “Fair question. From what I understand, it was built around 1880 or so, at least the initial structure. That first structure is now the sub-basement, the basement, and a central portion of this floor that I think is a large storage room I ran across this morning. It was expanded over the years, with the final version we see here being finished around 1923. That means old wiring, bad pipes, possibly all kinds of bad shit lurking in the walls.”

  The same guy raised his hand again. “When did it shut down?”

  Bramford frowned slightly. “Look, this isn’t story time, okay? We can talk about the history of the place later if you want to, but for…”

  The out-of-place kid piped up from his corner. “It shut down in 2003. It had been run as a hotel for over a hundred years at that point, always owned by the same family, never closed during all that time. Then one day in 2003, it just…stopped. From what I’ve read, no one around here worked at the hotel, so it took a little while before they realized no one was coming or going. When they came and checked, it was just like it is now. Clean and undisturbed, with no one inside and no sign of where they went.”

  “Jefferson, that’s enough.” Bramford’s face was red now, and I realized it was more embarrassment than anger. “For those of you that don’t know, that’s Jeff, my kid sister’s boy. He’s going to be working with me on this as…a character-building exercise. Help me keep an eye out for him, if you will. As for what he’s saying, that…” He moved his glare away from Jefferson and back to the crowd, “is a prime example of the kind of fuckery I’m talking about. And unless one of you mutts is also my sister’s secret love child, it’s fuckery you want to stay clear of.”

  Clearing his throat, Bramford went on. “Now, as I was saying. Those of you here to evaluate the building, you know your role. For the rest of you, you fall into one of two teams. Team One is to go over this building with a fine-toothed comb looking for cosmetic defects. No one expects you to know if a wall has structure problems, but you should be able to identify if its cracked or needs paint. Or if the carpet is worn out, that kind of thing. The four of you on Team One will work in pairs.”

  “Team Two is inventory. This is the bigger job, which is why eight of you are on it. Again, you’ll work in pairs both for safety and efficiency. This part of the work is very important for several reasons.”

  “First, this place is packed with tons of expensive shit. When the county seized this property five years ago, they didn’t quite know what to do with it. Now they think they’re going to turn it into some kind of county-run resort or possibly sell it to the feds for some kind of government facility. Don’t know, don’t care. But while they hash that out, they want to claim and sell all the fancy stuff sitting in this place. It can be a big money maker for them, and for us.”

  “Because number two, I’ve negotiated a small cut of the proceeds from the sale of any of the items we catalogue. I made a lower bid banking on making the money back on that cut, and going through the place today, it was the right call. For all of us. Because each of you will get a share from these sales as they happen over the next few months and years. It may amount to a little or a lot, and its not fast money up front, but it’s extra above what you were promised any way, so I don’t expect to hear many complaints.”

  People started whooping and hollering and he raised his hands with a grin to settle them down. “Yeah, yeah. We’ll see how that goes. But what that means is that you people assigned to inventory…do a good job. No slackassing. You don’t have to know what things are worth, but you do have to list every little thing not nailed or bolted down. If you don’t, you’re taking money out of all our pockets.”

  He gestured over the whole crowd again. “Okay, that’s about it. Any questions?” Everyone was still murmuring about the extra money, but no one raised a hand. “Good enough. Find a room if you haven’t already. There’s food in the kitchen—nothing fancy, but you won’t go hungry. Get rest tonight, because we start tomorrow at 8. Dismissed.”

  I followed a few of the others and found my way to a massive kitchen filled with steel tables and appliances. At one end, piled underneath a large hanging tree of pots and pans, were boxes filled with small chip bags, stuff for sandwiches, and bottles of water and soda. After grabbing some food and heading back to my room, I tried turning on the television. No luck. It powered on fine, but all I got was the low hiss of static and pixelated snow. Flipping it back off, I ate my sandwich on the surprisingly comfortable bed, and before I realized it, I had drifted off to sleep.

  ****

  “Uncle Mike, I’m not on anything. And I’m not lying.”

  I had woken up earlier when I heard a rustling at the door to my room. I got up and saw a sheet of paper in the dim light that bled under the door from the lit hallway. It gave me a strange disorienting moment of thinking I was staying at a normal, living hotel that was slipping the bill under the door, and as the thought passed, it just served to drive home the point of how odd this place was. Aside from the lack of people and a bit of dust, there was little to distinguish it from what it must have been like when it wasn’t an abandoned monolith in the middle of this frigid valley.

  The sheet of paper said I had been assigned to Team Two: Inventory (which I already knew) and that my assigned partner was Jefferson Wells, who I could only assume was the nephew that had piped up at the orientation the night before. Going downstairs, I rounded a corner and found him and his uncle in an intense conversation. Jefferson looked scared and angry, while Bramford just looked tired.

  “Jeff, I’m not saying you are. I’m trying to trust you, okay? But you have to work with me here. And stuff like last night at the meeting…or spooking yourself overnight…it needs to stop, okay? Best case scenario, you’ll just freak yourself out and make your time here harder. Worse case, you’ll start infecting the men with your b…stories, and I can’t afford that. Neither of us can.”

  I had stepped away and out of sight, but I could still hear the hurt in Jefferson’s voice when he replied. “I get it. I need to keep quiet or you’ll send me off.”

  Bramford sighed. “I’m not threatening you, Jeff. I want this to work. I just need you to meet me halfway, okay? Now if you see signs…legitimate signs…that someone else is here with us, of course I want you to tell me. But I’m telling you, this place has been cleared multiple times. I went through the whole place myself yesterday morning, and I know what signs to look for if someone is squatting. So keep your eyes peeled and all that, but I really think you just got spooked up. Either way, stay on the lower two floors unless you’re doing inventory with your partner. Just because this place looks like it’s in good shape doesn’t mean it doesn’t have places where its rotten.”

  There was a moment of silence, and when Jefferson
spoke again, there was resignation in his voice. “I understand. And I do appreciate it, Mike. I’ll…I won’t be any more trouble. I better get out there and find her.”

  He was suddenly rounding the corner and his eyes widened slightly when he saw me, his face flushing with embarrassment. Giving me an uncomfortable smile, he walked up and stuck out his hand. “Jefferson Wells. I think we’re inventory buddies.”

  I felt a pang of regret that I hadn’t moved further away from their conversation, but it was too late now. So I shook his hand and tried to return his smile. “Samantha. Samantha Hollis. Yeah, I think we are.” I lowered my voice conspiratorially. “I don’t know about you, but I have very little idea of what I’m supposed to be doing. So if you’ve got any experience with this sort of stuff, it’s appreciated.”

  That was only partially true—I had never done a massive inventory before, but it didn’t seem overly complex. Just make a list of detailed notes of everything we found that could be easily understood by whoever needed to review them. Still, it had the intended effect—Jefferson brightened immediately, seemingly happy to have found someone out-of-place like him.

  “Well, I haven’t either, but I’ve seen it done before. Basically we just go room by room on the floors we’re assigned. List everything that isn’t a fixture by location and physical description. My uncle will get the lists typed up and sent to the appraisers the county hired so they can provide an initial valuation of the items available to be auctioned off. Then they’ll do a final valuation when everything is taken away to storage until they hold a big county auction. Or maybe several with all this stuff. Either way, our part isn’t hard, just boring.” He glanced around the lobby nervously. “I just…I don’t know what a lot of this stuff is. Not trying to sound dumb, I just…well, I don’t know the fancy words for furniture and lamps and stuff, you know?”

  I grinned at him. “Well, I can help out there. My dad ran a furniture store for a few years when I was growing up. I picked up some stuff by osmosis. You got good handwriting?”

  He nodded. “Pretty good, yeah.”

  “Cool. How about you write the list and I’ll tell you what to write. How’s that sound?”

  Jefferson was clearly relieved. “That sounds awesome.” He was probably only a few years younger than me, but he looked like a little kid in that moment. Still, whatever the weirdness between him and his uncle, he seemed like a nice guy.

  “Okay. Well let’s grab some coffee or something and then head on up. I think we’re starting on Floor Six.”

  ****

  The Imago Hotel had twenty-four floors not including the basement and sub-basement. The first floor mainly consisted of the lobby, the dining room, the kitchen, the laundry, two large ballrooms and a large storage area that was apparently part of the original building. There were also a handful of guest rooms on the first floor, as well as several groups of much smaller rooms that appeared to be for staff who lived at the hotel.

  The second floor, where my room was located, had more rooms, but also included an indoor pool and sauna area, two smaller ballrooms, and a large library. Standing in the elevator lobby of the sixth floor, it looked much the same as the lobby on the second, but something was different.

  I frowned. “It has columns here. Like the ones in the main lobby.”

  Jefferson caught my eye and nodded. “I noticed that too. And I don’t think they’re like the ones in the lobby. I think they are the same ones.” When I raised an eyebrow, he went over to one of the spiraling columns of black marble and put his hand on it. “I’ve looked around this place, and these four columns? As best I can tell, they are replicated on at least some of the floors, in the exact same place. There are some floors where you can’t see the columns because there are walls there. But if I’m right, these columns run through those walls. From the bottom of this place all the way to the top.”

  I tried not to look skeptical, but I couldn’t help it. “But why? Even if you’re right and these four columns line up on every floor and are all part of super-long columns running through the entire place, why would anyone do that? They don’t look big enough to be load-bearing or something.”

  Jefferson had taken his hand away from the column with a look of distaste and was wiping it on his pants as he looked back up at me with a shrug. “Yeah, it’s weird. And maybe I’m wrong. I’ve heard a lot of stories about this place, so maybe it’s getting to me.” I could tell he wanted to say more, but I didn’t push him. We needed to get to work anyway.

  Giving him a grin, I handed him the notebook and pen we had grabbed before going upstairs. “Well, it’s definitely a creepy place. Glad we’ve got each other for company. But we better get started.”

  ****

  Have you ever tried to count everything in a furnished room? Like literally everything except for the lighting fixtures and the carpet? There’s more there than you think. Particularly in the rooms of the Imago Hotel, which were large and chock-full of furniture, art, and various smaller details that I guessed were supposed to make a guest feel more comfortable. Regardless of the initial intent, now they were all items we had to catalogue and describe in a way that would be meaningful when a stranger in some county office looked over our pages of notes. In other words, they were all little pains in our ass.

  Still, the work wasn’t bad, and after the first couple of hours, we had made it through five rooms and were settling into a good rhythm. By lunch we were nearly halfway done with the rooms on that floor, and even accounting for the elevator lobby and the maintenance room at the far end of the hall, we guessed we’d be done with the sixth floor by the end of the day. It was about twelve-thirty when we went down to grab a sandwich, and aside from a pair of men that Jefferson said were carpenters his uncle regularly used, the dining room was empty. Sitting there, quietly munching on a bologna sandwich, Jefferson suddenly looked up at me.

  “I guess you heard some of that this morning, huh? Between me and Mike, I mean.”

  I nodded with an awkward shrug. “A little. By accident.”

  He returned the nod. “Yeah, well, I can tell you about it if you want.”

  I shrugged again. I was curious, but I didn’t want him feeling like he needed to bear his soul to me either. “That’s up to you, Jefferson. No pressure here.”

  Giving me a small smile, he went on. “That’s cool. And I don’t mind telling you.” He paused a moment, his eyes distant as he seemed to search for where to start.

  “About six months ago I got picked up by police with some oxy in my pocket. I told them I was just holding it for a friend, which was true, but when I wouldn’t tell them who the friend was, I got booked. Jump ahead to last month. My mom paid this expensive lawyer a bunch of money to work it out where I could have pre-trial diversion so long as I went to rehab and found an approved job. They had already sent me through a ninety day program before we went to court, so that part’s done.” He sighed. “The job…well, that’s why I’m here. I have to maintain the job for at least a year. If I do that, the case will be dismissed.”

  He gestured in the general direction of the lobby where Bramford had been when we came back down to eat. “Uncle Mike is a good guy, and I know him babysitting me is the last thing he needs to deal with, especially on a big job like this. So I’m really going to try and do a good job. But it’s just hard. My whole family thinks I’m a junkie or something now, when I’ve never done anything other than drink a few beers now and then. And this place…” He shook his head and fell silent.

  I reached forward and patted his arm. “I get it. Things can get fucked up fast sometimes. But you can get through it.” I hesitated, but pushed on. “But about this place. It sounded this morning like you were telling your uncle you had seen someone. Someone that shouldn’t be here.”

  Jefferson seemed to pale slightly as he put down his sandwich and met my gaze. “Um, yeah. I thought I did. Last night I couldn’t sleep and was super bored, so I was like, ‘hey, I’ll go ahead and explore the hot
el’, right? Get the lay of the land and whatnot.”

  “Now the floors we aren’t staying on or actively working on, Mike has the power turned off. He said he’s trying to minimize the expense and also doesn’t want to risk overloading anything until it’s all checked out. But I’m not scared of the dark, right? I grabbed a flashlight and went exploring.”

  “First off, this place is way creepier in the dark. I kinda felt like I was in a horror movie or something, but once I got started…well, it was kinda proving a point then, right? Like showing myself I wasn’t scared. So I started on our floor…I’m on the other end of the second, and I went up floor by floor, taking the stairs. I figured if nothing else, I’d be tired enough to sleep when I was done.”

  “Everything was creepy up on those dark floors, but it was all quiet too. Nothing out of place or too weird except for how clean and nice everything looked. Well, that and the columns near the elevators, which I had started noticing a few floors earlier. When I got to the sixteenth floor, I was starting to get tired, but was trying to push on. You know how the halls here kinda curve a little? How you can’t see the other end of them?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, they’re all like that, or at least up as high as the sixteenth floor. I had come out of the stairwell and was walking toward the middle, toward the elevator lobby, and at the time all I was thinking about was that I needed to get in better shape and I was curious if the columns would be in the middle there too.”

  “That’s when I saw someone cross in front of me.”

  My eyes widened. “Like you saw, saw them?”

  He nodded, his expression guarded. “I swear I did. It was far off and super dark except for the flashlight, but I saw someone cross in the hall in front of me. At first, I just assumed it was one of the guys. Except when I got up to where I saw them cross, no one was there.”

  I felt my skin prickle as I shrugged. “Maybe they went into a room or back downstairs.”

  Jefferson shook his head quickly. “No, I thought of that. Based on where they crossed, they would have wound up in the elevator lobby or one of the rooms right next to it. But my uncle didn’t unlock any rooms past the second floor until this morning, and I would have seen or heard anyone entering a room or getting on the elevator. Everything was super quiet and the elevator makes that dinging noise when it opens up.”