Hotel Marin

When you picture your dream hotel, what image does your brain create? A fancy pool to relax by, clean marble floors in the lobby, room service at any hour?

Then Hotel Marin is not for you.

Hotel Marin is no ordinary hotel—she is alive.

The lobby is her mouth. the halls are her veins, the gorgeous library holds her brain. But nobody sees her stomach.

That is the furnace in the basement where all of victims burn. It might seem a bit unruly but she has a team of two staff members that helps keep her up and running at all times.

A long time ago, Hotel Marin didn’t have a soul. Well, she had one in he metaphorical sense, but the original owners, Edgar and Genevieve Marin opened her in 1893. Her doors welcome all sorts of guests and every room was always buzzing with energy.

One day, Edgar’s wife took the elevator down and did not come back up.

Because the carriage dropped to the first floor with her inside the carriage. No one could figure out what had happened. Edgar mourned and grieved for months on end. He closed the hotel and one day hired a witch of sorts.

“I wish to be here with her forever.” He told the witch. She complied, and the hotel came to life. Edgar thought it was his wife, but something much darker was now in the building. Years passed and Edgar could not age. His grief seeped into the walls of the hotel and helped it grow into its own being. As time went on the building began to rot until guests were welcomed back within its walls.

But there was one issue. They would come in, but never come out. The hotel fed off the guests left and right. It only took a few days for Edgar and his team to catch on.

Soon, he closed the hotel again, and slowly starved it. Walls began to crack, pipes burst, and his spirit began to whither away with the building.

Until one day Jolene entered.

A young woman desperate for a job, and a place to stay came in through Marin’s doors. Just her presence fueled the hotel enough to turn on the lights. Edgar noticed this immediately and offered her a job as the front desk manager. He did his best to explain his predicament. She was not startled easily, it was almost as if she had seen something like this before.

“I will help you on one condition.” She told him.

“Yes, anything. Please.” Edgar begged.

“We only check in people who have commited crimes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Whatever do you mean by that?”

“If your hotel acts how you say, we feed it people the world needs protection from, murderers, thieves, pedophiles etc. You did tell me it would eat anyone.”

“How do we only check in those types of people?”

Jolene looked around at the building. “If a beast is hungry enough, it will do anything for its next meal.”

Edgar nodded. “Very well then. I trust you.”

A few months passed and their method proved to be successful. The hotel had never looked better. It was practically spotless. Jolene’s heels clicked on the marble floor as she made her way around the front desk. The elevator dinged as Edgar exited the elevator.

“What has she thrown at us today, Edgar?” she asks while looking at the guest book for todat. Only silence is greeted back, “Ed—”

“She’s in a bad mood.”

“Dare I ask?” She continued reading the log.

Edgar sighed, “Just look.”

She muttered under her breath and looked over the desk at the gift the hotel left them, “Well that’s…new.”

Blood covered Edgar from head to toe. But that wasn’t the disturbing part. It was the guests head in his hand, clearly disconnected from the rest of its body.

“What floor, what room?” She reached for a pen to write down the incident but the hotel was already bleeding ink into the page for her

“Fourth, room 417.”

“What happened?”

“Wanna guess?”

She sighed rolling her eyes, “It’s nine in the morning, no I don’t want to guess why the hotel is throwing a hissy fit.”

The ceiling creaked at her remark.

“Watch your mouth.” She snapped her fingers at the ceiling.

“You’re asking for it, Jolene.” Edgar put the baby head on the desk.

“I helped you bring this place back to life. I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you.” Jolene took her pen and pushed the head off the front desk, letting it roll on the floor.

. . .

“This is it!” Gale squealed as her husband pulled in through the gates of Hotel Marin. Her husband squinted through the glass and questioned the GPS. Had they taken a wrong turn? Gone too far? Or maybe it wasn’t open to the public anymore.

The building stood firm, back straight, and windows forward, ivy tickled up the sides, but her wrinkles didn’t diminish her beauty, sure it showed her age, and there were cracks up the front of the stone layering. She was built by hand, every stone laid and pieced together. She looked old, but she was old, and with age came experience.

“Are you sure this is it?” Gale’s husband asked pulling into drop off spot for luggage.

“Yes, it is! Oh, and it’s just as beautiful as it was on the website!”

“There’s a website for this place?” He looked back at his daughter, Shelby. She shrugged and continued looking out the window at the hotel.

No longer drenched in blood or carrying a baby’s head, Edgar pushed through the revolving doors of the hotel. Instead, he wore a nicely fitted suit and performed as a doorman. He pulled the car door open for Gale. “Welcome to Hotel Marin, let me help you with your bags miss.”

“Oh, thank you! They’re in the trunk. Where’s Shelby? Shelby?” Gale looked around for her daughter.

“I believe she went inside miss, don’t worry, Joann is keeping an eye on her.” Edgar said as he rounded the car helping her husband with the bags.

“Oh, Shelby! Wait for mommy!” Gale ran in her heels into the hotel. She was welcomed to an air-conditioned building away from the July heat, “Ah that feels better. I’m sweatin’ like a pig!” She laughed and walked up to her daughter standing at the front desk.

“Hello, you must be Shelby’s mom,” Jolene smiled her practiced fake smile she had put on for the past few months, “How can I help you today?”

“Oh, um we need a room—can we have one up high, oh I would love to see the view!” She pulled her sunglasses down to look up at the ceiling. It was swaying a moment ago, like a dog’s tail eager to play. The hotel knew it was about to be fed.

“Sure, and how long will you be staying with us?” Jolene looked at the guest book to see the woman’s name already written down. Beside it in bold was the word MURDERER. “Miss?” Joann asked again.

“One week darling. What’s your name?” She pulled her sunglasses down to see her name tag, “Jolene?”

“Yes miss.”

“Call me Gale, no need for formalities, Shelby come here.” She put her arm out for her daughter.

Gale’s husband finally came in with Edgar and the bags, “Are we all settled?” Her husband, Joe asked.

“I just need payment.” Jolene replied.

“Alright,” Joe pulled out his wallet and card to give to Joann. She slid the card and finalized the payment. Then she pulled open a drawer that held all the keys in the hotel, each drawer belonged to a floor. In the top drawer, she looked at all the skeleton keys and waited for Marin.

“No?” Joann whispered. The drawer pulled shut startling Jolene. So, she opened the one below it. No keys moved. “They want a room on the upper levels, c’mon you gotta give me something.” Again, the drawer pulled shut. Jolene sighed and tried the next one. Finally, the hotel moved a key; 1203. Joann exhaled softly and took the key off the nail. She shoved the drawer shut and it bounced back against her abdomen causing her to double over.

That’s fair, she thought to herself.

Joe looked over the desk, “You alright miss?”

“Yep, just dropped your key, you’re in room twelve oh three, twelfth floor. The elevators are to your left. The pool is open twenty-four hours, it is only closed for cleaning. There is a bar to your right down the hall and a small restaurant open from four to eleven PM. If you have any questions, you can call me here at the front desk, just dial pound and then one and I’ll answer. Enjoy your stay.” Joann handed the key over to Joe.

“Do you have more than one key?” He asked.

“Unfortunately, no, these are all original keys that came with the building.”

“This place is pretty old, are the rooms at least renovated?”

“Everything is original. All I can say is trust the hotel sir.” She told him. Joe gave her a crooked glare before turning to his family. Edgar showed them to the elevator, and they all got in together. She watched the doors close with the sound of a bell and was left in silence.

The elevator ride was silent for a moment and then music started playing.

“Oh, I love this song!” Gale clapped her hands together as some Frank Sinatra song came on the speakers. Harold raised a brow and tapped an impatient finger on the railing of the luggage carrier. He had no idea what Marin was up to.

They reached the twelfth floor and Shelby stepped off the elevator first. Their room was not far from the elevator. Joe looked at the key and then slipped it into the hole. It wasn’t as flimsy as he predicted it to be, and the door unlocked with a firm turn and click of the lock. Edgar helped them with their luggage and Gale gave more money to Shelby to give to Harold. She did so without making eye contact.

“Well, the ice and vending machines are down the hall on the left, give the front desk a ring if you need anything and enjoy your stay.” He smiled and quickly removed his hand from the knob after closing the door behind him. He quickly made his was back downstairs. He wanted nothing to do with the hotel while it was digesting its meal.

In the room, Gale looked around and was disappointed to see trees blocking the view. Suddenly a headache was pounding against her skull.

“Would you like to take Shelby to the pool? I have a headache and think I need to lie down for a bit.”

Joe opened one of their suitcases and pulled out Shelby’s swimsuit. “Wanna go to the pool?”

She nodded eagerly and grabbed the suit and ran into the bathroom to change. Soon after they left Gale alone in the room to take a nap.

Exhausted, she lay down on the bed. The mattress was soft and so were the sheets. She soon drifted off into sleep for about an hour. But a loud noise awoke her. She saat up thinking her family had returned.

“Joe?” She called but no one answered. She began to lay back down but then a sound came from the bathroom. Someone was running a bath.

She shuffled off the bed half awake to see if they simply didn’t hear here. But she was soon wide awake when she pulled back the shower curtain.

The bathtub was filled with blood. the water no longer running. gale leaned against the bathroom door for support and tried to blink the scene away before her. But the blood in the tub remained, but now something began to emerge.

A head, neck, and skinny arms and legs crawled out of the tub. Its face was covered with dark long hair. Gale inhaled and screamed. The creature roared in response. She ran and tried to slam the bathroom door in its face, but it was much stronger than her. She ran back towards the bed and pulled up the skirt of the bed to hide under. But another body was already waiting for her there. This one had a knife sticking out of its neck.

“You..killed…me…you…bitch.” It growled.

She was then cornered by the two of them. They grabbed a hold of her. She thrashed her body this way and that but their grip remained. They turned her towards the bed and the mattress squeaked. The covers pulled back on their own and the sheets and mattress tore open. The springs were sharpened into sharp teeth and the floor opened up into a dark canal like a throat—no it was a throat. And she had a feeling she was going to be swallowed by it.

“You run…you…hide…and now you die…” The bed growled. She swore it smiled at her.

The corpses threw her into its mouth easily like throwing a fish back into water.

The bed tore her limb from limb. the metal and sheets quickly coated in blood. The corpses watched in satisfaction as she was ripped apart and swallowed.

Soon, Joe and Shelby returned to the bedroom, but it was spotless. Not a drop of her blood left for them to find. He looked around the room confused to find a newspaper on the neatly made bed.

Serial killer caught after months of victims found

On the front was a photo of Gale.

He stormed down to the lobby, his daughter trailed behind him. He slammed the newspaper down onto the front desk.

“Is this some sort of sick joke?” He snapped.

Jolene looked up from her book. “What are you talking about?”

“Where is my wife?” He shoved the paper at her. She peered over the desk to look.

“Oh, she’s in the furnace burning.” She responded casually.

“What?”

“The hotel ate her.” She shrugged.

He blinked still in disbelief. But the walls groaned in response.

Jolene nodded. “Yup, those are digestion sounds for sure.” She looked up at him. “I would suggest you leave before she decides she wants seconds.” She glanced at his daughter. “Or dessert.”

The lobby was empty within the hour of them grabbing their things.

Jolene looked down at the guest log to see the status of the family’s stay complete and a new name below theirs.

The hotel was already planning its next meal. It would soon be hungry again.