so superstitious. Like no one is ever going to figure out floor 14 is actually floor 13 if they don't put the button in the elevator,” Leah said. “They could put in a button that says 'top' instead of 13 or 14.”
Then several things happened nearly all at once. Lightning struck the building causing the power to shut off and the elevator to screech to a halt. Isabella lost her footing and fell into Maryann, who fell into Nora, who fell into the side of the elevator with a heavy thump and much cursing. After a few moments of confusion and near-panic, Leah retrieved a small, forehead-mounted reading lamp from her purse and turned it on. The others regained their feet.
“I appreciate your resourcefulness, but why a head lamp instead of an ordinary flashlight?” Maryann asked.
“Because I figured in an emergency, I'd need my hands free.”
“Okay, that's a good thought, but how does it help here?” Nora asked.
“I don't know,” she snapped.
“Ladies, stop it,” Isabella said. “Let's try to get off this elevator if we can. I really don't want to be trapped here all night.”
“Assuming we can get out,” Leah said, looking at the panel of buttons. None of them were lit, but she pushed the button for 14 anyway. There was a slight grinding sound, and the doors slowly slid open revealing a hallway dimly lit by emergency lights. “I wonder if we can even get into our room since the keys are electronic.”
The dim lights made it difficult to read the room numbers, but the clerk had muttered something about the last door on the right, so that's where they headed. The door had no light on the electronic reader, but Leah put the card in and it opened up anyway.
The two-room suite was completely dark except for Leah's reading lamp. Nora pulled out her phone to use it for some light.
“No signal. That's great,” she said.
“We don't really need it right now. We might as well get some sleep and hope the power comes on soon. If not, we'll have to drag our luggage down the emergency staircase in the morning,” Isabella said.
Leah and Maryann went to the room on the left and Nora and Isabella went to the room on the right. As Leah brushed her teeth by lamp light, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw what looked like a cat tail disappearing into the wall. “I'll add spooky to dark and stormy,” she thought.
By the next morning, the power had been restored to the hotel but for some reason none of them could get a signal on their phones.
“That's weird,” Maryann said as she pulled out clothes for the day.
“What?” Leah asked, only half listening.
She held up an orange sock with a small red flower on the ankle. “I don't remember packing this.”
“Static cling,” Leah answered, her voice slightly muffled as she pulled a green t-shirt over her head.
“Wait, no, this isn't the right sock. I mean, it is the right sock. But I lost the right sock to this pair months ago.”
“Looks like it was just hiding in your laundry,” Leah said with a shrug.
“I guess so,” she said, putting it aside. She selected an orange t-shirt, red jeans, and a red denim jacket for the day.
In the other room, Nora had just finished pulling on a light purple retro-style shirt-dress when she saw something shiny in her suitcase and pulled it out. It was a pearl earring. “That's weird,” she thought. “I'm sure I lost this a month ago. How would it have gotten into the suitcase? Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter.” She put the earring in the tiny jewelry box she always brought with her and thought no more about it.
Isabella didn't notice anything odd as she got dressed. She wore a white button-up shirt with a subtle orange and blue pinstripe and jeans.
“Is anyone else having trouble getting signal?” Nora asked as they all entered the common room.
The other three immediately pulled out their phones.
“I got nothing,” Leah said.
“But this is an old building,” Maryann said.
“Yeah, but we're not staying at the Faraday Hotel,” she countered.
The others looked at her blankly.
“A Faraday cage; a structure to block all electronic signals. Honestly, it's science,” she sighed.
“Well, let's get some breakfast and make sure our instruments are still in the van,” Isabella replied.
They headed out in search of breakfast. As they walked down the hallway, Leah saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and thought she saw a black cat tail disappear through a wall. “I clearly need some breakfast,” she thought.
The hotel was large enough to have a small restaurant, but they walked by it without a second thought. There was a different clerk on duty than the night before. He appeared to be in his late sixties or early seventies, very skinny and bald, and was wearing reading glasses. The lobby had a few people milling about.
“Does the lobby seem bigger to anyone else?” Leah asked.
“No, you just weren't paying attention last night,” Nora said.
They walked to the doors and pushed one open. Rain was pouring down in thick curtains of grey, obscuring the street and the sounds of the city.
“So, maybe we can get breakfast in the restaurant?” Leah asked.
“Sure,” Maryann said. They closed the doors and walked back through the lobby.
“That's weird,” Isabella muttered, looking at a little tow-headed girl in a frilly pink dress playing with a worn-out stuffed elephant.
“What?” Maryann replied.
“That toy, that little girl has. It looks exactly like Mr. Snufflenose.”
“Mr. Snufflenose?”
“Yes. It was one of the first stuffed animals I ever remember. I took Mr. Snufflenose with me everywhere. He was missing his right eye, just like that, and I always had two ribbons tied around his neck to make him look pretty, just like that. I lost Mr. Snufflenose at a mall when I was five or six; about the age of that little girl.”
“That is weird,” she replied, thinking about the sock she had found in her luggage.
“Hey, when's the check-out time?” Nora asked the desk clerk.
The old man sort of shook his head. “You can check out whenever you want,” he said in a croaking sort of voice.
“Thanks,” she said, and walked away.
But Leah heard him add, “But you can never leave.” She turned to him. “What is this, the Hotel California?”
He shook his head in that slow way again. “You'll find out, soon enough.”
She quickly backed away and joined the others in the small, diner-style restaurant. “This place is creepy and I want to leave as soon as possible. I don't care if I get soaking wet.”
“Why is that little girl sitting in the lobby all alone at this time of day anyway?” Isabella said. “Shouldn't she be with her parents?”
“Everyone seems to be alone here,” Maryann said. “We're the only group sitting together.”
Isabella spent more time focused on the little girl than her breakfast. She saw a professional woman in her late 30s or early 40s sit down next to the girl and felt relief, thinking that was the child's mother. But after chatting with the girl, the woman left her alone. Then a strong, tall man in his early 60s sat down next to her and seemed to tell her stories. “Okay, so that's her grandfather,” Isabella thought. But then he too, left the little girl alone and went on his way.
Leah watched people come and go from the restaurant and the lobby, but she didn't see anyone come in or out the front doors. “Maybe it's just the rain,” she thought. “Maybe they don't want to get soaked anymore than we do.”
They finished breakfast and went back to their rooms.
Isabella stopped at the front desk first. “Excuse me; have you seen that girl's parents?”
“Nope.”
“Um, don't you think you should find them?”
“Not my job,” he replied.
Quite taken aback, she joined the
others.
“The elevator buttons are still out,” Maryann said. “None of them are lit.”
“They worked this morning; just push '14' and let's get out of here,” Leah said.
She pushed the button and up they went.
Leah was the last out of the elevator. She saw a black cat enter one of the other rooms right through the door. “I have got to get out of here. Cats can't walk through walls.”
They packed up their luggage and returned to the lobby to check out. The clerk checked them out with an amused expression. They opened the doors to find the torrential rain had not let up.
“Better out there than in here,” Leah said, and walked out. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she walked right back into the lobby. “What the hell?” she blurted.
The others tried to walk out but found themselves somehow walking right back in again.
The desk clerk watched them, still looking amused.
After a few more false starts, they walked back to the desk.
“What's going on?” Maryann demanded.
“What makes you think I know?” he replied.
“You were the one that quoted the Eagles,” Leah snapped. “So what's going on?”
He put his fishing magazine down and took his glasses off his nose. “I'll tell you what I know. You can't leave this hotel. None of us can leave this hotel. You can't make a call from your little personal phones or from the room. It's always raining outside, but it never floods. There is always food in the kitchen and water in the pipes. We are in a very small, very sustained world.”
“What do you mean, we can't leave?” Isabella asked.
“What do you think? You tried the front doors. You're welcome to try the