by S.J. Drew
replied.
"Tonight I'm siding with Nora," Leah said. "This is too much driving and for what? The County Fair? The Snowman Festival? The Pine Tree Festival? Why are we even here again?"
"Eddgers University's Annual Poetry Festival," Isabella answered.
"I've never even heard of this school," Nora said.
"It's a small, private, liberal arts university that apparently takes the liberal arts very seriously. The founder, Alan Eddgers, graduated from New York University and was a member of the Eucleian Society."
The other three stared at her a moment.
"How do you know that?" Leah asked.
"I try to make a point to learn about our gigs," Isabella said with a sigh. "I want to know the audience so we can tailor the playlist accordingly."
"Oh, that makes a lot of sense," Maryann said.
"What was the Eucleian Society?" Nora asked.
"Well, I haven't done a lot of research," Isabella answered, "but it sounds like a kind of proto-fraternity club thing. Guys got together and talked about literature and philosophy and all that kind of thing."
"Oh, I see. Well, that explains why the guy would found a liberal arts college," she replied.
The hotel was actually a converted manorhouse that had belonged to the university's founder. It dated back to the 1840s although it had been extensively remodeled, expanded, and upgraded since the original construction.
The desk clerk was a co-ed wearing a black suit with a white blouse and looking generally bored. She perked up as they approached the desk.
"We have a reservation," Isabella said. "Under Nesmith, or possibly 'Nevermore and the Ravens.'"
The young woman typed on the keyboard and her long red nails clacking noisily against the keys. "Um, there's a problem."
"Of course," Leah sighed.
"I show a reservation for two double rooms, but there aren't any openings. I think someone gave away your rooms."
"Then we'll take what you've got left," Isabella said.
"We don't have any. We're all booked up because of the festival."
"Fine," Nora said. "Just give us a list of the other hotels in town and we'll go there."
"Um, they're booked up too. That's probably why your rooms were given away."
"Okay, then I think it's time you got your manager," she said acidly.
The young woman actually looked grateful to dart into the back area and turn the problem over to the manager. In a few minutes, a stout, middle-aged man with thick glasses walked up to the desk.
"I'm very sorry about the mix-up," he said. "We do have one suite available, and I can transfer your reservation to that room."
The young woman gave her manager a confused look. "But I just checked..." she said.
He cut her off. "The Master Suite is open."
"What?" she blurted. "Oh! Okay, yeah, I guess."
It was now the band's turn to looked confused.
"As I was saying, I'll give you an upgrade to the Master Suite at no charge," he said with a wide, fake smile.
"How about you give us a discount since we clearly had the reservation and you clearly made the mistake in giving away not one but two rooms?" Nora said with an icy stare.
He blinked behind his glasses and his smile turned even more fake. "Not a problem, ladies, not a problem. I'll take twenty-percent off your original room rates. Do you feel that compensates you for this mistake?"
"Yes, thank you," she said politely.
He finished typing into the computer. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to be patient for just a bit longer. I need to ensure the Master Suite is ready. Please wait in the lobby." He pulled out four business cards and wrote something on them. "Here, have a complimentary drink in the bar area while you wait. I'll personally come find you when I am certain your room is ready."
They took the cards and their luggage to the spacious lobby, which was adjacent to a retro-fitted small bar and restaurant, which seemed to be doing such good business they didn't think they could find a seat. They took over a pair of small couches in the lobby and Maryann was sent to redeem the gift cards. In a surprisingly short amount of time, she returned with drinks and a few snacks she said were on the house.
"Why wouldn't any room be ready already?" Isabella asked. "I mean, even if they weren't renting it out it should have been cleaned."
"Maybe they got in over their heads with all this business and didn't bother with rooms that weren't going to be occupied," Nora offered drily.
They nodded in their heads in agreement as this seemed like the most likely scenario. They discussed plans for the show, finished their drinks, and finally at nearly midnight the manager came and found them and personally escorted them to their room.
The Master Suite was located in the oldest and least modified section of the house; it was reached through a narrow and mostly private staircase. It was on the top floor and occupied a corner, so there were a lot of windows and what was probably a good view if it wasn't too dark to see anything. There were four rooms in the Master Suite: a proper bedroom, a small adjacent bedroom that had been presumably built for a servant, a bathroom, and a sitting room. The sitting room had built-in wooden bookshelves, an old-fashioned couch and two chairs, two in-tables made of heavy, dark wood, a coffee table also made of heavy, dark wood, and a fireplace with a wrought-iron grate with what looked like an abstract feather pattern. There was even a small fire that had nearly burned away to nothing.
"I'm surprised they'd have a room with a fire," Leah said. "I mean, that's a liability, right?"
"I'm kind of surprised it's still burning if they had to clean the room up," Nora said, as they continued to look around. There were two table lamps with glass, dragonfly lampshades and two wall sconces. The windows were large and wood-framed and could be covered by heavy purple curtains that were currently drawn back. The upholstery looked like it had been replaced at least once and the lamps were electric, but overall the room looked very old-fashioned.
"Wow, this stuff looks old," Maryann said.
"The bathroom looks modern anyway," Leah said. "Well, the bathtub has feet on it but it looks like modern plumbing."
Nora was staring at a lamp and searching online for something. "Don't touch anything," she said.
Isabella was looking at the marble busts that decorated the bookshelves seemingly at random. "What?"
"I'm pretty sure this is a Tiffany lamp," Nora answered. "I mean, it could be a replica, but I don't think so."
"That's expensive, right?" Leah said. "So this room is pretty fancy. And kind of weird."
"Yeah. I'm going to guess from the related articles that most of the furniture in here dates from the early 1900s or so. Maybe this is why the manager had to make sure it was ready. I'm sure this room needs to be cleaned, but I'd be real careful about having college kids messing around a real Tiffany lamp."
Maryann yawned and sat down on the couch. "I'm tired. We should figure out who sleeps where."
"Yeah," Isabella said. "But I kind of wish we had more time to look around. These books are odd."
"These aren't books," Leah said. "These are clearly dusty, leather-bound tomes of esoteric knowledge."
"Actually, I get that," Isabella said after a minute. "'Book' is just not the right word for these things. I'm not exactly getting a bad feeling about this place, but I am confused. And there's no order to these books. Look," she said and pointed at one next to a bust of a woman. "A Comprehensive Study of Owls is followed by Palace."
"What's that?"
Isabella pulled it out and looked at it. "Some kind of novel, I think, but I've never heard of this writer or this book." She shelved it on the other side of the woman's head. "And who are these people supposed to be?"
Nora now took a closer look. "Well, some have wreaths, so I'm going to guess Greek or Roman gods. Maybe the Muses, since this is a library?"
"We really don't need to worry about this now," Le
ah said, pointing at Maryann, who was almost asleep on the couch. "We should get to bed."
"Yeah," Maryann said, yawning. "I can't wait for tomorrow. It feels like we've been on the road forever."
Suddenly there was a faint tapping sound on the suite door.
"What was that?" Leah asked.
"What was what?" Maryann replied with a yawn.
"Didn't you hear someone knocking?"
The others shook their heads in the negative.
"Okay, guess I was just hearing things," Leah said.
The wood on the fire popped and cracked as it continued to burn down.
"Okay, let's figure out who sleeps where," Isabella said. "Maryann, do you just want that couch?"
"Yeah, as long we put that fire out."
The purple curtains rustled noisily. The band looked at each other and Nora sighed and checked the curtains. "I'm sure it's just bad insulation," she said. "This place is really old."
"I hear someone knocking again," Leah said.
"Are you sure it's not just creaking floorboards?" Nora asked.
"Yes."
"Who'd be knocking at this time of night?"
Leah shrugged. "I don't know, maybe the manager, or maybe someone who actually reserved this room and didn't realize it was given away too. Look, I'll just open the door." But there was no one in the dark hallway.
"Told you," Nora said.
"No, I heard something. I know I heard something. Hello?" Leah asked. She thought maybe she heard an echo of her own voice, but the passage seemed to be empty. "Huh."
The band got ready to get some, but not enough sleep, when they were interrupted by another noise which they guessed was something tapping at the windows.
"What's
