Chapter 13

The room was hot. She had already complained to the manger twice about it, but now the phone seemed to not be working. She certainly deserved better than this dump. She was far too important to be stuck in a sweltering room in a two bit resort in the middle of nowhere. She was one of the most powerful female executives in the entire industry, did they not know who she was?

Still angry at the less than agreeable state of her accommodations, Rebecca threw herself into the small chair by the window. Outside was a warm early summer day, the lake sparkled and shimmered under the blazing sun. The same blazing sun that was currently shining in through those flimsy curtains and making her room a sweltering hell.

This was supposed to be a vacation away from the hectic life of an executive. She was meant to be relaxing and enjoying her time away from demands, memo’s, ringing phones, and the endless string of emergencies that made up her daily schedule. Instead she was sulking in a room without air-conditioning in the ass end of now where. Not much of a vacation.

It was too hot to sit in her room, and Rebecca felt restless. Maybe a glass of tea in the dining room and a walk to the lake were in order. It was still hours before dinner was served, but surely she could get some iced tea, or even water at this time. She straightened her cotton shirt, and smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her designer blue jeans. Appearances were everything but as she looked at herself in the stark white light of the bathroom, she realized that her artfully undone necktie was not going to make the same impression here as it did back home. In the city, this was the cutting edge of fashion, here fashion meant your socks matched at least once a week. He yanked the tie off and tossed it over the shower curtain rod. She was as presentable as she was going to get and headed out of her room.

To her annoyance, though not surprise, the elevator seemed to have stopped running, she could see it through the quaint iron work gate sitting somewhere between the floor above and her floor. She was going to have the travel agent that booked this place for her fired. She had a bad feeling about the girl as soon as she met her, but her normal travel agent had retired and she needed someone new.

Peeved all over again, Rebecca made her way to the stairs. She intended to have a word with the manager as soon as she got to the lobby. This place a was a disgrace. There was nothing up to her standards here. Distastefully, she noted the dust on the stair rail and the wear on the carpets covering the stairs, the windows in the lobby must have been dirty as well, because the light seemed to be dim and shaded. Could this place not afford a housekeeper?

Fuming and on the verge of a true fit, the kind that made her employees scramble for cover and find an intern to offer as a sacrifice, she made it to the bottom of the stairs. She took long steps and almost threw herself at the front desk, not finding it attended she began to ring the little silver bell repeatedly.

There was no response, not even the sound of shuffling feet or a chair being moved from the little office just behind the desk. She rang the bell again with the same lack of results. She was just going to have to go back there and drag that little weasel out. He was going to rue the day he was born.

As Rebecca stormed behind the high countered desk and went for the door labeled “OFFICE” in large block letters, the sun suddenly went behind the clouds, plunging the lobby into near darkness. She hesitated, everything took a sinister cast now. Where was everyone?

“Even the weather hates this place,” she grumbled, shaking off her uncharacteristic case of nerves. She threw open the door. The manager was not there, but the giant black dog was. She backed up quickly, was this what they used for security?

She heard a soft tick tick behind her and she whirled aroud. It was not just the one dog. One of them barked.