The overlook spanned along the backside of the hotel, its view cast upon the manmade lake below. It was early morning as Fiona admired her surroundings, her interest resting on the sloping hills making up the sides of the valley in which the lake resided. She sighed; it had been too long since she had been so lost in nature's embrace. It made her sad to think of the impending destruction that climate change had for places like these.
She stepped from the railing and returned up the pathway, which wound its way to the front of the hotel. It was littered with flat stones and bushes lining the sides, which were made up of dark greens, oranges, and browns. It was beautiful here. Far away from any bustling city, the honks of cars and the ocean of concrete covering every part of the landscape. Maybe she needed to do this more often. The constant weight that teaching often left upon her shoulders had lifted throughout this trip.
She was thinking about asking about the cost of this place during the summer when one of her fellow teachers, Derrick, rushed up to her.
“There you are; I finally found you, “ he panted. Principal Howard is gathering everyone for a meeting in the conference room; apparently, one of the teachers is missing.”
A pit of worry wormed into Fiona’s stomach, but she wasn’t sure where it was coming from.
“Thanks, Derrick.”
She started back up the path. Derrick went past her.
“I’ve got to find two others. Do you know where Dean and Grace might be?
She thought for a moment but then shook her head.
“Well, they will have to be around here somewhere.” He took off again, and she heard him quieter as the distance from her grew. “Couldn’t pick someone who likes running?”
She chuckled at that and took off up the path at a brisker pace.
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She entered the lobby, and the unrest immediately drew her attention. A group of teachers gathered around one of the entrances to a meeting room off the main hallway. Seeing the familiar figures, she strode toward them, trying to discover what was happening and who was missing. The first figure closest to the edge of the group, with whom Fiona had a previous acquaintance, was Malcolm. He was the biology and physics teacher. As he turned to greet her, he slipped and almost fell over before regaining his balance and adjusting his glasses.
He once did that while holding a bunsen burner, setting a child’s eyebrows alight. That phone call was highly unpleasant, or so he had said. But he was brilliant at the subject, so the school kept him around.
“Oh, good, you’re here. Based on how many I’ve counted thus far, we are only missing two others besides the missing teacher. Do you know who it is?” he said in his reedy voice.
Fiona shook her head. They both turned back toward the meeting room entrance and listened to the discourse of who it might be and why they might be missing. Throughout it all, as Fiona looked around, she had a sneaking suspicion of who it was. She didn’t see Pierce anywhere. Her stomach clenched uncomfortably at that. He had been a good friend to her several times during the school year. They might have been closer if Pierce’s life hadn’t been dominated by Grace 99% at the time.
The thought saddened her a great deal. She hoped that he would be alright. While she was deep in thought, Principal made his way to the front of the clump and addressed the small crowd.
“Come on in, everyone; we have a grave matter to discuss.”
The group shuffled forward, and everyone entered the meeting room. The room was decidedly too small for this group of people, with only one long table in the center and seven chairs set along the outside of it. Everyone crammed in as best they could and made space at the front of the room for Principal Howard, and who Fiona recognized as April, the front desk worker.
“Thank you all for coming; let’s get straight to it. Our–”
At that moment, Derrick, Dean, and Grace opened the door and squeezed into the cramped space. They muttered apologies as they got in, and the door closed again.
“As I was saying, our history teacher, Pierce Adams, is missing.”
The gathered people gasped collectively, and Grace was among them. Fiona noticed Dean caressing her shoulder comfortingly. His face was also grey and ashy. He genuinely meant a lot to them. Fiona turned back to Principal Howard as he spoke again.
“We don’t have a lot of information on his whereabouts, but this representative from the hotel will be helping our efforts to locate him using the hotel’s resources. We will also contact the local authorities to have as many people as possible to help find him and alert his family. If anyone knows anything about his whereabouts, now would be the time to say so.”
Nobody said anything; they all wore expressions of concern and worry, but it seemed no one had any information.
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“Well, please talk to either Miss April here or me, and she will pass anything said to her onto me and the authorities. I will now take some questions if people are unclear.”
A rush of questions met that statement, and soon, you could not see either the slight woman April nor the portly principal. Fiona was in shock; it was a strange feeling not to know the fate of someone close to you. They hadn’t been close relationship-wise, but they had been on the same floor, and their classrooms had only been a few doors down from each other. She was pressed against the wall as more teachers pushed past her to ask the principal questions.
She needed some air. She went past the other groups of teachers, making their way to the front and going out to the lobby. She decided she needed a cup of coffee and made her way to the restaurant inside the hotel. She was shown to a table and ordered a coffee and an omelet. The time alone with her thoughts was excruciating. The thought of Pierce missing only reminded her of her childhood—the screams, the car, the men. She shook herself; she couldn’t think about that right now. Having a mental breakdown in a restaurant wasn’t a great idea.
The coffee came, and she sipped it while calming down and thinking about how to help. She wondered how long Pierce had been missing. She cursed at not sticking around to ask some more questions, but there you are. She could always go back. The sound of a dish breaking drew Fiona out of her thoughts. A waiter was cleaning up a dropped plate, which looked like it had been her omelet, and the hostesses stood nearby, giving him an earful. She turned back to her coffee when she overheard something strange in their conversation.
“You really are useless. First thing tomorrow, you’re going back through the portal.”
The server then seemed to have done something, and the conversation dropped a tone. Fiona itched to turn around to see what was happening, but she felt like she had heard something she shouldn’t have, so she pretended not to be listening in. Portal? Had she heard that right? What was going on here? She was going to find out. This shit had gone far enough.
She finished her coffee and went over to where the hostess and server were. The mess had mostly been cleaned up, and they both looked at her as she approached.
“Is there anything else we can help you with, ma’am?”
“Nah, just wanted to take the omelet off the bill and pay for this coffee,” She smiled congenially.
“Of course, let me just get the bill for you. It will take a second, so why don’t you go sit back down?”
Fiona nodded and made her way back to her seat. Walking back, she looked around and noticed she was the only one in the restaurant besides the staff. There must be enough seating for almost 100 people, and she was the only one. She checked her phone. It was still before noon. There should still be some breakfast stragglers and others coming in for lunch.
She sat back down and waited for the bill. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen any other guests besides their group of teachers for a couple of days. There’s no way the school could afford to rent out the entire place for a week. The hostess approached her with the bill and set it down before Fiona.
As she began to leave, Fiona called after her,
“Man, that coffee made me feel portal.”
The hostess froze and turned back to Fiona.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“Oh, just that the coffee made me feel immortal,” Fiona shrugged.
A broad smile broke the hostess's face,” Oh yes, of course, yes, we have a lovely French roast here.”
Fiona matched her smile. “It was delicious, thank you.”
The Hostess turned back around and quickly left toward the kitchen doors. Fiona had heard correctly. Now what the fuck was this about a portal.
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She was sitting in the lobby, casually flipping through a magazine. Several people had approached her while lounging, talking about Pierce and where he could be. She nodded and engaged politely through it until they left her alone. She kept a keen eye on what the staff was doing around her during every conversation. She flipped to a page with a full spread of some tennis player’s latest win in Wimbledon. She spied April out of the corner of her eye. She had been looking at her for the past five minutes every minute.
She got up and put the magazine from which she had retrieved it on the table on which she had retrieved it. She stretched and headed toward the elevators. She had to be quick. Every ten minutes, one of the staff, no matter who it was, whether a maid or a chef, had gone down this hallway past the elevators. Which door was it?
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
Fiona almost jumped out of her skin as she turned to face April. She had a nearly painful smile on her face.
“Oh, uh, I was just looking for the maintenance offices. My shower wasn’t working, so I wondered where to find someone to help me.”
“I will send someone to check in on your room soon. Do not worry, ma’am. Oh, and my condolences for your co-worker Pierce, as the staff must take some blame.”
April then gestured toward the elevators. Fiona gritted her teeth as she made her way toward them; the way April had said it made her hair stand up and her blood boil. She pushed the button and waited for the elevator. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw April getting pulled into the room behind the front desk. An employee was frantically discussing something as she led April into the room.
With a jolt, Fiona realized she had just been presented with a chance of a lifetime. Without wasting any time, she ran back down the hallway and started jiggling the knobs on each of the five doors. One was likely because it did not budge under Fiona's attempts to open it. She pressed her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything, but nothing. She cursed and started to pace. She then heard an audible click from the door in front of her. She ran into one of the closest doors and slammed into it. It burst open. She winced, hoping no one heard that, and slowly closed it behind her as the door she had been in front of moments before opened slowly.
She heard two men outside talking as they wandered back down the hallway. She cracked the door open and saw that the door the men had come through was closing slowly. She sprinted inside the room beyond and gasped at what she saw. Her gaze met a massive warehouse with perhaps 70 people moving around and completing the tasks. What had she been caught up in now?