Scarlet Desires

I drove on a dusty road for three hours. My throat ached from thirst, and my eyes became numb from the heat. In the distance, a red hotel shimmered. I got out of my car, and a girl greeted me at its glass door. She enchanted me with her sapphire eyes and pink-tinted lips.

“Follow me,” her voice kissed me like cool air. She turned around and lit a candle. I followed her through a dark corridor.

“Do you have dinner ready?” someone whispered from below.

“Special night?” I asked.

“Not this night. But yes, very special. It's the hotel's 100th anniversary.”

“Woo, it's quite old.”

She glanced back at me and grinned with her pearl-like teeth. “Yeah.”

She showed me to my room, and after a bit of rest, I went to the swimming pool. Instead of swimming, all of the people danced. The music was mid-nineteen's jazz. The waiter brought my drink. It was blood-red wine. I swirled it, and it didn’t move. I took a sip, and it ached my throat. “Agh! What is this?”

“It’s from our veins,” the waiter whispered.

I spit out the wine. “What?”

“It's what we call our wine-making machine,” said the waiter. His golden nameplate was scratched. He grinned, and his teeth came out as sharp as needles. His large black eyes pierced into my soul. I backed up in my seat, and the waiter’s expression returned to normal. He took my glass and said, “I’ll get you another drink.”

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“Hey, I like that drink,” said the girl with the sapphire eyes. She wore a loose white shirt. She held a similar drink. She took a sip and smiled. I took the glass back from the waiter and took another sip. The drink went into my neck like a ball of echinus. It scraped every part of my neck and got stuck at the end. Only with a considerable struggle, I managed to gulp it. I sighed, and my throat ached.

“Isn’t it nice?”

“Yeah, it is.” Her face sparkled like a star, but my throat ached again, and I was thrown back into reality. I should’ve left then. I knew that this was hell and that I was going to die here. But death didn’t stare into my eyes, yet. But she did. So, I stayed.

“I, ah, didn’t catch your name.”

“Lucy,” she said.

Every time I wanted to leave, the hotel somehow pulled me back. Its drinks, while horrifying at first, filled with a sense of passion I never had before. The scorching heat turned to a cool breeze, and its dirty carpets turned to grass in the meadows. It danced beneath my feet. Its food, while thorny at first, turned to delicacy later. I struggled to chew the skin at first, but then my teeth adjusted to it. As days went by, I became one with the hotel. I did everything in my power to stay with her as much as possible. But a part also loved the hotel. The hotel opened to me as I opened to it. Now, every time I went to the swimming pool, I danced with the others. Their bodies became one with me like many lyrics come together to make a song.

The moonlight beamed through the window to my right. A candle burned to my right. The lights divided the room into white and yellow, but the yellow light reflected in my eyes. Lucy lay to my right. Moonlight bathed her body with white.

“What do you do here?” I asked. “What do you mean?” she said. “I mean, are you a manager, the owner, or…”

“I’m like you. I’m a guest.”

“A guest? For how long?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Why didn’t you leave?” I asked.

“Why didn’t you leave?” she whispered.

I went silent for a minute then said, “Everyone is so nice here.” “Because you’re the next dinner.”

“What?”

“The Sunday night dinner, it's special. Everyone wants you to stay.”

After a week, at night, I sat at the dinner table in the basement. All of the other guests also took their seats. Lucy sat beside me.

Waiters dressed in glimmering white shirts marched into the basement. Their dishes reflected the candlelight. A waiter put a dish in front of me and opened it. He opened it, and my eyes bulged out of horror. A hand dripping with blood lay there. Its veins spurted out like roots. Its fingers were disfigured like a smashed spider.

“Oh, that looks tasty,” said Lucy, and she ripped out a finger. Blood dripped from her lips as she ate it. I stood, and my chair fell, smashing into pieces. All the guests with their mouths full of veins looked at me. I ran and ran through the dark corridor. A light shone at the end, but it ran away from me as I ran toward it. The corridor pressed me. I stumbled and fell. I looked up, and a security guard beamed down at me. I got up and took a step forward, but he grabbed my arm. “You can enter.” His eyes beamed red. “But you can never leave.”

I could punch him, sweep his legs, or anything else, but I didn’t. The hotel called back to me, and the harsh sunlight pushed me away. But why blame the light? In the end, I liked it.