The Graveyard Hotel

If there ever was such a thing as sleep, I wouldn’t have been able to anyway. There were too many thoughts circling my mind.

I thought of the unexpected invitation and how it arrived at my doorstep. I thought of when I first met Clarissa and how she survived a car accident. My thoughts shifted to William and how he survived veering off a back road in a bad storm.

I thought of each person that Corvus brought through those gates. Many of who had the same confused expression I had when I first arrived.

I sat up at the edge of my bed and pondered. What was I doing before Corvus arrived with the carriage to take me here? I attempted to trace back my memory from before the carriage arrived but like the fog that cloaked the gates, everything from before that time was impossible to see. I gazed out my window and could see the wisps of fog from a distance. I watched the wisps of fog dance in the night sky, my eyes following the movements of each wisp, mesmerized.

I released a deep sigh and fell back onto my bed. Not from exhaustion but from a sudden thought that intruded my mind. The wisps of fog lingered in my mind and as my head rested on the bed, the transformed not as fog but as a strange creeping haze.

And then I had a strange and unsettling dream. No. Not a dream as sleep did not exist here. It was more like a vision.

I was back inside my home as the haze crept through it. It moved at a slow pace engulfing everything in its path. I could only stare at the sight of seeing my home and for a fleeting hopeful second, thought I had returned! And then my heart nearly stopped as my gaze fell upon another sight.

I could only stand frozen as I saw myself in bed reaching for a glass of water by my nightstand as the haze crept closer to me. The me I was observing. My heart raced fearing that I would be seen and what might happen if I was.

How was this even possible?

Without realizing, I took a step forward as I watched myself reach for the glass of water. The task should have been swift and effortless but my reach for the glass of water moved at a slow agonizing pace.

I took another step closer so that I was almost inside the room. What was wrong with me? The strange haze continued to engulf the room. The sight of it was almost mesmerizing if not mysterious. But the me — the me that laid in bed reaching for her cup — didn’t seem to notice the haze. There wasn’t even the slightest glimmer in her eyes to suggest that she had noticed anything strange.

Was I imagining it?

And then I saw myself look right in my direction and I froze in terror knowing I was seen.

But the me that laid in bed in such a weak state didn’t seem to notice me despite looking directly at me. Instead she seemed to look right through me before her body collapsed into the bed and her eyes closed.

It was almost like I was a ghost. The thought never had a chance to linger on my mind when my eyes flung open and I sat up in bed. I was back in my room at the Amulet Rosette.

My gaze moved frantically across the room as if expecting to see the strange haze but the air in the room was clear and as perfect as ever. My gaze moved toward the window. The haze was gone but the fog was still there.