Out Of Thin Air (Chapter Thirteen) Fancy-Shmancy Hotel Hunting
"Next stop is Chicago. Doors open on the left at Chicago."
The voice brought me out of my trance. I had been staring at the patterns of lights on the tunnel walls as the train flew by. The train ride had consisted primarily of that and thinking every fourth person who got on the train was either Aiden, Sara, or Tori. I was paranoid that any second they would appear out of nowhere and kidnap me. So I was on my toes, metaphorically.
On a whim, as I had been acting frequently, I decided that this was the stop I would get off at. "Chicago" sounded as good a stop as any, considering it was the name of the town. I popped up from my seat, stumbling as the train lurched to a halt.
"This is a Red Line train to Howard," echoed the voice as it did every time we stopped. It was almost background music now. I walked swiftly through the doors before they could close on me, which was one of my newfound phobias.
The layout of this station was almost identical to the one I had got on at, only it was less trashy. I skibbled up the stairs, through another turnstile, and back up to the street.
When I reached the top of the stairs to the street, I stopped. This was Chicago. These were all the humongous buildings I had seen on my way in. Why on earth would anyone ever need a building this large?
I decided it was time to find a hotel. I still shivered at that word. I tried to ignore the fact that I was in way over my head, and there was no way I was going to pull this off. I buried it way in the back of my head and instead went with the flow.
And in this case, the flow was north on State Street.
Instead of instantly discovering the perfect hotel right at the first intersection I came to, instead I found a bank. How original.
I trudged past a Subway, Starbucks, pizza place, and grocery store before seeing anything that looked even remotely hotel-like. It only took me one glace at it to decide that was way to shmancy for my $80 budget. I kept moving.
A block later, my attention span had reached it's limit. You would think there would be more hotels in this part of town, considering all the touristy people hanging around. They had to be coming from somewhere, right?
I gave up on State and instead switched to Delaware Place. I was almost instantly rewarded, spying a shmancy-but-not-too-shmancy building situated on the corner. A banner read "The Talbott Hotel." What a stupid name.
Nevertheless, I popped inside. The front door was a revolving one, and I was very tempted to just keep spinning around like they did in that Elf movie, but I tried to look sophisticated.
I had pictured a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling, but instead I found the lobby to be rather barren. The walls all had dark wood paneling, and a couch was situated in one corner. That was pretty much it, other than the concierge at the front desk.
"Hello, how may I help you?" he asked as I approached the counter.
"Uh, yeah," I felt so trashy compared to this place. It was uncomfortable. "How cheap is your cheapest room?"
"It'll be around 130 dollars," the concierge stated matter-of-factly.
For a minute I was rather ticked, considering this being the only hotel I had found. But the interior threw me, and I didn't really know if this was where I wanted to stay anyway.
"'K. Thanks," I said, turning on my heel.
"Is that... all you needed to know?" he asked, confused.
"Just taking a survey," I muttered on my way out the door.
I continued on with my quest. It hadn't come to mind that a touristy part of town would probably have some pretty overpriced hotels. I cursed my stupidity. Cincinnati would have been a better choice.
But after my cloud of pessimism had cleared, I noticed another hotel across the street, one block down. In fact, it looked rather anti-shmancy, which was definitely a good sign. I almost skipped across the street.
The hotel was called the Whitehall Hotel, or so claimed a sign on top of one of their many awnings. There was no revolving door this time, but the interior was almost picturesque. I'm talking cream walls, matching carpet, and a chandelier picturesque.
"Can I help you?" called a concierge from across the lobby. I must have looked pretty helpless just standing there marveling at the walls.
"Yeah, um, what's your least expensive room?"
"We have rooms starting at $75 dollars." she answered.
I wanted to punch the air and do a little dance. It was absolutely perfect. The hotel was awesome and affordable. Hot Wheels. Beat that.
"Yeah. I want that one," I said instead. In retrospect, that sounded pretty stupid.
"Oh. Well, I really don't think you're old enough," she explained, her tone changing as if she were talking to a three-year-old.
"It's for my sister," I lied, digging the wallet out of my pocket. "She's trying to find parking right now, and sent me in here to reserve us a room. She gave me this." I stuck Madison Wright's ID card out on the counter. The concierge inspected it.
"And what's your name?" she asked me suspiciously.
"I'm Becca Wright." I was pretty good at coming up with names on the spot. Becca was actually the name of a character in a story I wrote for school once, and I had always loved that name. Now I guess it was mine.
"I'm really sorry, Becca, but I can't let you rent a room without your sister's credit card and her signature." She passed me back the ID, and I put it back in the wallet dejectedly.
"She gave me some cash," I told the concierge, "She said that would be enough. I really hope she doesn't get mad again."
"Sorry, but there's really noth-"
"See this?" I pulled up my hoodie sleeve to reveal a cut on my arm that I had discovered while I was washing off the mud. "Last night, when I forgot to do the dishes, she kinda.. hit me." I gave the concierge puppy dog eyes, and she looked at the wound, shocked. I covered it back up quickly. "But don't tell her I told you that, okay?"
"Oh, wow. No, of course I won't, sweetheart." She took another look at me, and smiled sympathetically. "I think we might be able to make an exception in this case."
"Oh, thank you so much!" I literally threw my arms around her. A few seconds later I released her, and started pulling all the money I had left out of the purse. I thought briefly about trying to con my way into a free room, but I didn't want to push my luck.
"Here are your keys," she said, putting two plastic cards in front of me. "You're in room 1012. That's on the tenth floor." I put the keys in my pocket, along with the wallet and the five dollars I hadn't given her. "Just tell your sister to come sign for the room when she gets back, okay?"
"Gotcha!" I tried to give her my best elated little kid act, and she was really buying it. "Thanks again!" I called, heading off to the elevator.
I pressed the up button, but the elevator was already there. I skipped inside, waving to the concierge, and pressed the 10 button. The doors closed, and the elevator began to rise.
I realized this would be the highest building I'd ever been in. In Wednesday, the tallest building was about7 floors or so. The elevator dinged its tenth time, and I got out, excited for the view.
Of course, there weren't any windows in the hallway, to my dismay. I searched eagerly for my room, and finally found it. It took me a few tries to figure out the whole key-card thing, but I finally got the door open.
The room was super-simple. A full size bed facing a TV with a desk and two chairs off to one side. But on the other side of the bed was the window. I approached it cautiously.
I almost fainted when I looked down. It was so far up. Really really really far up. This view was better than the skyline and view from the street combined.
I collapsed back on the bed. If this were a normal situation, I would have started unpacking. But nothing was really normal anymore.
I closed my eyes and kicked off my shoes. Just a cat nap, I told myself, then you can find out what to do about your non-existent, abusive older sister.
30 seconds later I was out cold.
~~~~~~~~
CRACK! wooooossssshhh CRACK!
I bolted straight upright. Gunshot was the first thing I could think of that could have made that noise. But why would anyone be shooting in my hotel room? And why was everything so dark?! Was I going BLIND??
Wait a sec. It was night out. That explains the darkness. Crisis averted.
But what was that noise? I was still pretty convinced someone had broken into the hotel room and was trying to kill me. In fact, I could make out a silhouette against the window. Someone was in my room.
I reached over to flip on the lights, almost certain whoever it was would kill me as soon asI did. But maybe that would be a good way to end this horrible adventure-slash-nightmare.
Just shoot me now. More déjà vu!
But when I finally turned on the lamp, I discovered the intruder wasn't a serial killer. At least as far as I knew.
I locked eyes with him for what seemed like an eternity. That acid green... it burned.
"Aiden?" I finally managed
The voice brought me out of my trance. I had been staring at the patterns of lights on the tunnel walls as the train flew by. The train ride had consisted primarily of that and thinking every fourth person who got on the train was either Aiden, Sara, or Tori. I was paranoid that any second they would appear out of nowhere and kidnap me. So I was on my toes, metaphorically.
On a whim, as I had been acting frequently, I decided that this was the stop I would get off at. "Chicago" sounded as good a stop as any, considering it was the name of the town. I popped up from my seat, stumbling as the train lurched to a halt.
"This is a Red Line train to Howard," echoed the voice as it did every time we stopped. It was almost background music now. I walked swiftly through the doors before they could close on me, which was one of my newfound phobias.
The layout of this station was almost identical to the one I had got on at, only it was less trashy. I skibbled up the stairs, through another turnstile, and back up to the street.
When I reached the top of the stairs to the street, I stopped. This was Chicago. These were all the humongous buildings I had seen on my way in. Why on earth would anyone ever need a building this large?
I decided it was time to find a hotel. I still shivered at that word. I tried to ignore the fact that I was in way over my head, and there was no way I was going to pull this off. I buried it way in the back of my head and instead went with the flow.
And in this case, the flow was north on State Street.
Instead of instantly discovering the perfect hotel right at the first intersection I came to, instead I found a bank. How original.
I trudged past a Subway, Starbucks, pizza place, and grocery store before seeing anything that looked even remotely hotel-like. It only took me one glace at it to decide that was way to shmancy for my $80 budget. I kept moving.
A block later, my attention span had reached it's limit. You would think there would be more hotels in this part of town, considering all the touristy people hanging around. They had to be coming from somewhere, right?
I gave up on State and instead switched to Delaware Place. I was almost instantly rewarded, spying a shmancy-but-not-too-shmancy building situated on the corner. A banner read "The Talbott Hotel." What a stupid name.
Nevertheless, I popped inside. The front door was a revolving one, and I was very tempted to just keep spinning around like they did in that Elf movie, but I tried to look sophisticated.
I had pictured a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling, but instead I found the lobby to be rather barren. The walls all had dark wood paneling, and a couch was situated in one corner. That was pretty much it, other than the concierge at the front desk.
"Hello, how may I help you?" he asked as I approached the counter.
"Uh, yeah," I felt so trashy compared to this place. It was uncomfortable. "How cheap is your cheapest room?"
"It'll be around 130 dollars," the concierge stated matter-of-factly.
For a minute I was rather ticked, considering this being the only hotel I had found. But the interior threw me, and I didn't really know if this was where I wanted to stay anyway.
"'K. Thanks," I said, turning on my heel.
"Is that... all you needed to know?" he asked, confused.
"Just taking a survey," I muttered on my way out the door.
I continued on with my quest. It hadn't come to mind that a touristy part of town would probably have some pretty overpriced hotels. I cursed my stupidity. Cincinnati would have been a better choice.
But after my cloud of pessimism had cleared, I noticed another hotel across the street, one block down. In fact, it looked rather anti-shmancy, which was definitely a good sign. I almost skipped across the street.
The hotel was called the Whitehall Hotel, or so claimed a sign on top of one of their many awnings. There was no revolving door this time, but the interior was almost picturesque. I'm talking cream walls, matching carpet, and a chandelier picturesque.
"Can I help you?" called a concierge from across the lobby. I must have looked pretty helpless just standing there marveling at the walls.
"Yeah, um, what's your least expensive room?"
"We have rooms starting at $75 dollars." she answered.
I wanted to punch the air and do a little dance. It was absolutely perfect. The hotel was awesome and affordable. Hot Wheels. Beat that.
"Yeah. I want that one," I said instead. In retrospect, that sounded pretty stupid.
"Oh. Well, I really don't think you're old enough," she explained, her tone changing as if she were talking to a three-year-old.
"It's for my sister," I lied, digging the wallet out of my pocket. "She's trying to find parking right now, and sent me in here to reserve us a room. She gave me this." I stuck Madison Wright's ID card out on the counter. The concierge inspected it.
"And what's your name?" she asked me suspiciously.
"I'm Becca Wright." I was pretty good at coming up with names on the spot. Becca was actually the name of a character in a story I wrote for school once, and I had always loved that name. Now I guess it was mine.
"I'm really sorry, Becca, but I can't let you rent a room without your sister's credit card and her signature." She passed me back the ID, and I put it back in the wallet dejectedly.
"She gave me some cash," I told the concierge, "She said that would be enough. I really hope she doesn't get mad again."
"Sorry, but there's really noth-"
"See this?" I pulled up my hoodie sleeve to reveal a cut on my arm that I had discovered while I was washing off the mud. "Last night, when I forgot to do the dishes, she kinda.. hit me." I gave the concierge puppy dog eyes, and she looked at the wound, shocked. I covered it back up quickly. "But don't tell her I told you that, okay?"
"Oh, wow. No, of course I won't, sweetheart." She took another look at me, and smiled sympathetically. "I think we might be able to make an exception in this case."
"Oh, thank you so much!" I literally threw my arms around her. A few seconds later I released her, and started pulling all the money I had left out of the purse. I thought briefly about trying to con my way into a free room, but I didn't want to push my luck.
"Here are your keys," she said, putting two plastic cards in front of me. "You're in room 1012. That's on the tenth floor." I put the keys in my pocket, along with the wallet and the five dollars I hadn't given her. "Just tell your sister to come sign for the room when she gets back, okay?"
"Gotcha!" I tried to give her my best elated little kid act, and she was really buying it. "Thanks again!" I called, heading off to the elevator.
I pressed the up button, but the elevator was already there. I skipped inside, waving to the concierge, and pressed the 10 button. The doors closed, and the elevator began to rise.
I realized this would be the highest building I'd ever been in. In Wednesday, the tallest building was about7 floors or so. The elevator dinged its tenth time, and I got out, excited for the view.
Of course, there weren't any windows in the hallway, to my dismay. I searched eagerly for my room, and finally found it. It took me a few tries to figure out the whole key-card thing, but I finally got the door open.
The room was super-simple. A full size bed facing a TV with a desk and two chairs off to one side. But on the other side of the bed was the window. I approached it cautiously.
I almost fainted when I looked down. It was so far up. Really really really far up. This view was better than the skyline and view from the street combined.
I collapsed back on the bed. If this were a normal situation, I would have started unpacking. But nothing was really normal anymore.
I closed my eyes and kicked off my shoes. Just a cat nap, I told myself, then you can find out what to do about your non-existent, abusive older sister.
30 seconds later I was out cold.
~~~~~~~~
CRACK! wooooossssshhh CRACK!
I bolted straight upright. Gunshot was the first thing I could think of that could have made that noise. But why would anyone be shooting in my hotel room? And why was everything so dark?! Was I going BLIND??
Wait a sec. It was night out. That explains the darkness. Crisis averted.
But what was that noise? I was still pretty convinced someone had broken into the hotel room and was trying to kill me. In fact, I could make out a silhouette against the window. Someone was in my room.
I reached over to flip on the lights, almost certain whoever it was would kill me as soon asI did. But maybe that would be a good way to end this horrible adventure-slash-nightmare.
Just shoot me now. More déjà vu!
But when I finally turned on the lamp, I discovered the intruder wasn't a serial killer. At least as far as I knew.
I locked eyes with him for what seemed like an eternity. That acid green... it burned.
"Aiden?" I finally managed