1. Darcie
Darcie
I sucked in a deep breath and set my suitcase and bag at the reception desk. This place was going to need a lot of work if I wanted to actually make it a working hotel again.
I walked around the desk to a room behind it.
"Ah yes, power!" I flipped on each breaker and could hear the lights fighting to work.
When I turned around, the lobby was now illuminated with some not-so-happy lights.
"Home sweet home, I guess," I said as I headed toward the stairs. The documents said there were five floors with about fifteen rooms per floor except for the fifth floor. It only had four, as they were all larger suites.
I climbed my way up to the first floor. Some doors were open, some shut. Each room looked to have a bed, desk, small couch, and a very outdated bathroom. Sheets covered the furniture; laundry carts sat in the hallway untouched.
Each floor was the same, doors opened, doors closed. Sheets covering things. The lights in the hallways stuttered and blinked as they probably weren't used to being on.
The fifth floor was different though. All four doors were shut.
There was hardly any dust around. I took out the master key I was given just earlier that day, but the door was unlocked.
It was clean. Like someone had recently come in here and wiped things down.
An actual television was plugged into the wall; the couch was moved to the middle of the room and looked lived in.
Strange.
The next room, the kitchenette, looked like it had been in use more than the living room portion. There was still a sheet covering the couch, no television plugged in. Pots on the drying rack, a fridge that had a lock on it.
Even stranger.
I pushed open the next one, and it was almost as if nothing was used in here. Everything was still covered; the kitchen was dusty, the bathroom wasn't even in use.
There was one more room; I reached for the door and turned the knob, walking in. Nothing was in the living room or kitchen, but the snoring from the bedroom stopped me in my tracks.
Then, it suddenly stopped. I blinked, and a man stood in the doorway wearing nothing but his boxers.
"Who the hell are you?" He snarled.
"Who are you? I snapped.
"I live here!"
I laughed, "That's funny because I own the place."
He looked at me for a moment like he was trying to decide the best way to kill me.
"You own the Wickes House Hotel?"
I nodded. "Just inherited it today from my recently deceased grandfather."
"Mr. Carrington."
"Yes, how do you know?"
"He uh, he and I became friends."
"And he let you live here in the dark?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Why, what?"
"Why did he let you live here in the dark? Don't you need light?"
"Light is helpful, and there are lamps in the rooms that I use, but no. I don't really need a bunch of light."
"What's your name?" I asked, getting annoyed with the half-naked man standing in front of me.
"Roderick Belmore. And you?"
"Darcie Carrington."
"Nice to meet you, Darcie, but if you don't mind, I was in the middle of sleeping, and I'd like to get back to it."
"It's in the middle of the day. Do you have a night shift job?"
He pursed his lips, "Something like that."
"Well, I'm sorry, but you can't stay here. I'm going to be renovating this place."
"Are you insane?" He shouted.
"Come again?"
"This place is historic and has character; you can't just tear things down."
"I never said that. But I am going to update the rooms a little, put a TV in each one, and update the shower. The character isn't going anywhere, apparently."
"That was rude."
"Mr. Belmore, I'm in no mood to continue this with you. Please get your stuff and go."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "No. Mr Carrington and I had a contract. It was verbal and binding. I live here. Now I will be nice and condense myself to one suite and not three, but I'm not going anywhere."
"My grandfather is dead; your contract isn't valid!"
"Ask him yourself."
I scoffed, shit.
"I can't do that," I lied.
He smirked, "Sure you can. I know you can."
I turned on my heels and started toward the elevator.
"It doesn't work," I heard him call from down the hall.
I stopped, thought about turning around, but opted not to. Instead, I made my way down the four flights of stairs until I reached the lobby. Roderick was sitting on the reception desk with an apple in his hand.
"How the hell did you get down here so quickly? You said the elevator didn't work!" I shouted.
"It doesn't. But I think you know."
I shook my head. Although I suspected.
"Look, you can deny it all you want. You can think that it's not real, whatever. But I'm telling you that I know you know. Just ask your grandfather. He knows what I am."
"Please leave," I said firmly, standing my ground.
"Can't. It's daylight," he smirked. "I will certainly be out of your hair tonight though. Until then you'll just have to suck it up."
"And what are you going to do when I start renovating the rooms?"
"I'll just move around a bit. As long as you and I work out our own contract."
"I'll think about it."
"Think fast, your contractors just pulled up."
I looked at the front door, then back, and he was gone.
Two men walked through the front door, their expressions changed the moment they saw the work.
"This is going to be one hell of a job." The first one thought.
"Maybe we charge more?"
"Yeah."
I crossed my arms over my chest. Over my dead body will they charge me more. They knew the location before they agreed to the job. It's not a secret on what this place looks like. The doors have been unlocked, and the place was abandoned for decades.
"Miss Carrington?" One of the guys questioned.
"That's me."
"Yeah, looking around at just the first floor, this looks like I'm going to need to hire a second crew to work this."
I nodded, listening and letting him have his moment.
"There are four or five floors?"
"Five."
"I see, yeah, it will probably take about three years to complete as well."
"Three years? You stated one in our first meeting."
"I didn't know how much work this place needed."
Roderick strolled down the stairs, now fully dressed.
"Gentleman, thank you so much for waiting. I was just upstairs getting a peek at the rest of the place."
"Who's this?" one of the contractors questioned.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Miss. Carrington must have forgotten to mention. I'm her attorney. I'll be handling the finances and everything for this renovation."
They looked at him, then back at me, then back to him again.
I wanted to protest, but honestly, I didn't.
"Attorney? You didn't mention you had one."
"Sorry, must have slipped my mind. With everything going on, you can understand."
The contractor nodded, turning back to face me.
"I think we can do a year and a half and for the same price."
"Thank you both so much. I am meeting with a couple of other contractors today, but I'll be sure to give you a final answer by the end of the week."
"Other contractors?"
"Yes, you didn't expect me to pick the first one, did you? I need to do my research."
They nodded. Said nothing else and left just as fast as they entered.
I turned my attention to Roderick. "That was unprofessional."
"They were ripping you off."
"How did you even know that?" I groaned.
"Stop denying it. I know you know."
I stood there in silence.
"Look, the faster you stop lying to me and yourself, the faster we can move on and actually fix this place up."
"We?"
"Yeah, we, because I'm not letting you waste your money on hiring contractors like that."
"And what exactly are you proposing?"
"I know the laws, the permits needed, and all that stuff. So I'll help you fix the place up, and we'll hire people I know that will do it for cheap and a place to stay while we work on it."
"Can I think about it?"
"Sure can. I'm going back to bed. Don't think too long, those guys are vultures and will be back to bed for your business." He turned and walked away toward the stairs; in seconds he disappeared completely.
I sucked in a deep breath and walked over to the reception desk where my stuff was. I had to do it. I needed to talk to my grandfather.