Sighing, I continued strolling down the street, searching for a place to stay. Sleeping on the curbs was not even an option- it was a Winter night and I would most likely die from hypothermia. But then I stopped after arriving at a small building, with an emblem reading: 'Grussel's inn, since 1967.' The paint on the sign had been scratched off, the doors made from a cheap and rotted wood. It was a rickety old shed. But I had no choice- I suppose staying at a crappy inn is better than staying on the streets on a Winter's night.
The door howled as I slowly pushed it open. The sun had set now, and it was too dark to see inside. I squinted, letting my eyes adjust to the blanket of darkness. With every step I took, The wooden floorboards that were skinned and splintered creaked loudly, alerting an old man sitting at the front desk. A candle lit up, and the old man, wearing only a layer of rags to cover his chest, shot me a threatening look. "Woah, easy there," I taunted, "Got a room for one?"
"Mn." The old man grunted, throwing me a chain of keys. "The room is unit 12. It's one of the keys there." His voice was harsh and croaky.
"Alright, thanks." I sighed, and went off searching for unit 12.
***************
Looking around the building, it was unusually quiet- however it was night now. Everybody must be sleeping. It was still too dark to see too well, so I bumped into many walls. Despite my poor eyesight, I could tell the hallways were incredibly narrow.
Eventually, I reached a small door reading 'Unit 9', so my room must have been near. 'Unit 10, Unit 11...Ah! Unit 12.' Now I just had to figure out which key to use.
I groaned out in frustration. There were at least 60 keys here, and I already lost count. How was I supposed to find the right key? I slouched against the wall, sliding down on my knees. The rust of the metal was wiping away on my fingertips, and the chains were digging into the skin. A few moments after once again staring at the keys for some sort of answer, I saw some unusual numbers on the bottom of the keys. Each key had a number on it, and I noticed that the numbers missing were from the room numbers that were occupied. "Of course!" I yelled to myself, but immediately placed my hand over my mouth, as I didn't want to deal with an irritated individual for being loud. I rubbed my fingertips on the edge of each of the keys, clearing away the rust and came to find a key with the number '12' on it. Hauling myself up off the ground, I slid the key into the keyhole, turning it aggressively. A light 'click' followed as the door slowly creaked open, revealing a very small room inside. I dropped the keys on a lifted piece of wood and fell back onto the bed, chuckling.
That was the first time I had struggled to find a key for a door.
I saw a very unusually shaped switch behind a drawer, and assumed it was for the bulb so I turned it on. However, there was a slight flicker of very dim light and then...nothing. The lights didn't even work. I sighed heavily and instead pulled my laptop out of my backpack. I turned it on, and remembered that I hadn't checked my emails in quite a long time. I now had something to do, so I logged onto my account, and I must admit- I was slightly disappointed. There was only one new message, despite the fact I hadn't checked in half a year. But that one new message seemed quite important, given the fact that it read: 'Very Important- Musician replacement.' Before I could click on it, a small icon popped up, blocking my view of the message behind it.
'Low connection, please try again later.' I stared at the screen, grating my jaw in anger. It was only to be expected, if this inn doesn't have a working bulb, why would it have connection? I slammed my laptop shut and lay on the bed. It was awfully cramped- just like the one I once had in prison. Yawning, I closed my eyes and thought about several different possibilities the message could lead to. Shame, I wouldn't find out soon enough unless I found somewhere that actually had accessible wifi. 'How about a different inn?' I thought to myself, considering this very thoroughly. But no, I couldn't do that. It took me long enough to find this inn, even after roaming around aimlessly for hours. Besides, I knew I didn't have money to afford an inn although I could just scam them if they were foolish enough. I turned to my side, tracing my fingers against the cracks of the wall. "Well it's late, I should sleep. I'll come up with something tomorrow."