When I woke up, I found myself lying on the floor of the dimly lit walkway.
There were spider webs everywhere and a heavy coating of dust on the ground. This seemed to be an abandoned hotel. As there was no sign of anyone ever being here before.
What exactly is this... where am I?
What happened to the ghost hotel and the front desk I was staying at? How did I appear in this abandoned hotel?
"Chichi..."
Waste paper on the ground was ruffled by the wind that had blown in from outside the broken window and I was scared out of my wits. I hurried downstairs and exited the building in one breath.
Shops are filled on both sides of the street. There were several people on the road going about their business of buying breakfast. It felt like I was born again as I heard the familiar yelling.
I breathed a sigh of relief and turned on the phone to check the time. It was 8 o'clock in the morning. Five hours have passed since I fainted. I opened the address book and quickly called the middle-aged man.
I was ready to cuss his entire 18 generations when I heard the helplessness in the elderly man's voice.
"Just like you were, I was duped in by someone too. There will be no accidents so long as you comply with the two requirements. This is going to be a simple night job for you. Someone can be hired to replace you after a year. Remember, it will take one full year. You can't leave it anyway. "
After repeatedly emphasizing "one year" so many times, he finally hung up on me.
What a mad bastard. Let's never meet again or I'll have to knock you out!
While eating, I thought about how to escape from the haunted hotel.
For an entire year?
If I stay for even one week, the joke will be on me. Everything pales in comparison to life and I think there must be a way to get me out of the ghost hotel in advance.
After hearing the explanation from the middle-aged man, I can safely say that last night I remained in a bhootiya ghar, a ghost's residence.
"Ring..."
Suddenly, the phone rang, and I saw the caller ID and it was my childhood friend Arhat. We are both orphans and we have been together since childhood from living in the orphanage.
"Hello, Arhat," I said casually, as I didn't want to drag him into this mess.
"Hey, Asura. So, how was your first day at work? It went well. There were no problems. He inquired with concern, as he always does.
"It was a great night Arhat. All I did was stay at the reception desk and register any new customers and take care of the tenants. Nothing more, "I replied with fake enthusiasm.
"Okay, Arhat, I will call you later. I am hungry and sitting at a tiffin shop right now. I will call you back later. " I cut off the call without hearing his reply and looked around the area.
There I found a tiffin stall and I entered it and ordered two dosas and two vadas for breakfast.
As I waited for breakfast, I opened the web browser on my mobile and typed. "Ghost house on Vernakulam Street."
Though I didn't hope much to glean any information about it from the web, surprisingly there was an article titled. "Disaster stuck at Hotel Raji"
I hurriedly clicked on it and, sure enough, it was the same hotel that I was in last night and the one I came out of. The article described how, due to the use of poor building materials, the terrace of the hotel collapsed onto itself, crushing the occupants of the fifth floor to death, causing the death of 10 people. There were details about the people who died and, sure enough, the people that entered the hotel yesterday were in them too. The most surprising thing was...
"Sir. Here's your breakfast. "
My concentration broke from the mobile towards the voice and I saw a young waiter placing the food on my table. I nodded my head at him, then went back to reading the article.
Among the deceased were a pregnant woman and a child who were the wife and daughter of the hotel owner, 'Saradon'. I was shocked by this bit of information. The proprietress herself died in her own hotel. That's sad. I felt a bit of pity towards the ghosts, knowing that they were just some unfortunate souls who happened to be there at the wrong time.
I put the phone on the side and started eating breakfast as I mulled over something that I hadn't given much thought to before.
'I entered the hotel through its front door yesterday night. At that time, it was in neat and perfect condition, not like the dilapidated, broken-down building I saw this morning. If what I saw was true last night, then it meant others should also see it, but seeing the reactions and no news about this weird thing, I can assume that there must be something different about me that made me see the ghost hotel. '
'Is it my eyes or is it something that is innate to myself?'
As I mulled over what could be the reason, I heard slight giggles and whispers from my surroundings, like something was going on.
"Sir... Sirrr!!.." I once again heard the voice of the waiter calling out to me, but it felt as if it was coming from afar away, and why did it sound concerned and...
"Aaah!!" I suddenly screamed aloud and all the sounds that seemed to be muted before arrived all of a sudden, making me disoriented and scrambling back onto the chair, causing me to fall back onto the ground.
"Thud!!"
As soon as my head hit the ground, I felt the breaking of glass and all of a sudden, my vision cleared and I was back in my chair looking at the mobile still reading the article and the waiter calling out to me.
"Huh," An exclamation left my mouth as I didn't understand what had just happened, but I was brought back to reality once again, but this time by someone shaking me by the shoulder.
"Anna, are you okay there? Do you need any help? " It was the waiter looking at me worriedly and shaking my shoulder.
I looked around my surroundings and noticed everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of weirdo. I shook my head vigorously, causing them to chuckle again at my weird antics.
I looked at the waiter and replied. "Yes, I am okay. If you could bring my order a bit faster, that would be helpful. I am hungry and it is making me dizzy. " I lied with a straight face as I myself was not able to understand what was happening.
As soon as the words left my mouth, a chorus of giggles and guffaws sounded from everyone around me, and even the waiter was trying hard to not laugh out loud and reined in as he didn't want to appear disrespectful towards the customer. As I looked at him with a questioning look, his smile couldn't be held back as a creepy grin appeared on his face and he motioned his head towards the table.
Like I was a puppet that was being controlled, my head moved involuntarily with my gaze towards the table and what I saw wanted to make me puke and scream. But I couldn't. I wasn't able to do anything. It was like I was locked in my own body.
What I saw was my own head lying on the plate looking at me with a creepy grin. It was decorated with a cherry on the scalp and some exotic-looking worms crawling all over my face as my eye sockets were hollowed out with blood flowing from them and I even saw a few maggots swimming in them. Not to mention the cuts on the nose and cheeks where the meat was missing, showing the bones, and it was at that moment that I noticed something.
My gaze traveled towards my hands, where I was holding a knife and fork which still had blood and meat on them.
As soon as I understood what had happened, the feeling of puking out was so overpowering, that whatever power that was holding me couldn't hold bind me any longer and I...