It was a little after five o’clock when Trixie turned off a winding rural road and onto the long drive that led up to the Raven’s Hollow Hotel. The sky was rapidly darkening and already she could see stars twinkling in the purple twilight. The temperature had dropped, reminding her that winter was only a few short months away.
She rounded a bend, clearing a small copse of trees overrun by tangled undergrowth, and got her first look at the hotel. The pictures she’d studied online didn’t quite do it justice, she thought. The foreboding, menacing structure rose up on a low hill, dominating its surroundings, heavy, oppressive, and uninviting. It was hard to imagine it had ever been the sparkling jewel of the county. A place to see and be seen. She followed the drive around to the parking lot. The pavement was cracked and tall weeds had sprouted, a testament to the resilience of Mother Nature where even in a sea of concrete, life sprung up. She pulled up beside two cargo vans and parked.
She stared up through her windshield at the abandoned hotel's grey stone facade. Good grief, she thought. All that's missing at this point is a raging storm and howling wolves and the setting would be complete. She blinked, turning her head sharply. There was something in a second story window… a flash of light just on the edge of her peripheral vision. But when she leaned forward and peered up more intently, there was nothing but dark glass dimly reflecting the dying rays of the setting sun. The light, or whatever it had been, was gone.
She rounded a bend, clearing a small copse of trees overrun by tangled undergrowth, and got her first look at the hotel. The pictures she’d studied online didn’t quite do it justice, she thought. The foreboding, menacing structure rose up on a low hill, dominating its surroundings, heavy, oppressive, and uninviting. It was hard to imagine it had ever been the sparkling jewel of the county. A place to see and be seen. She followed the drive around to the parking lot. The pavement was cracked and tall weeds had sprouted, a testament to the resilience of Mother Nature where even in a sea of concrete, life sprung up. She pulled up beside two cargo vans and parked.
She stared up through her windshield at the abandoned hotel's grey stone facade. Good grief, she thought. All that's missing at this point is a raging storm and howling wolves and the setting would be complete. She blinked, turning her head sharply. There was something in a second story window… a flash of light just on the edge of her peripheral vision. But when she leaned forward and peered up more intently, there was nothing but dark glass dimly reflecting the dying rays of the setting sun. The light, or whatever it had been, was gone.
