The Gray and Me

The ominous, gray clouds roll over me as I lie upon the cold pavement of the hotel parking lot with a hand-rolled cigarette resting between my lips. As I exhaled smoke, I heard faint voices coming from the far end of the parking lot opposite of me; I could not see past the red Chevy that sat in the parking space next to the empty one I was lying in. Three people soon came into view; one female and the other two were male. She wore the traditional, white Doctor’s coat with a pink shirt underneath and black scrub pants. She had curly, red hair that fell to her shoulders like a thousand tiny waves; perfectly framing her heart-shaped face. One of the men was elderly and sported a suit that contradicted his crazy, white hair; not a wrinkle or crease was found in the suit that was black as night. The other man was young and rather tall, but he wore your normal, everyday casual outfit.

               I couldn’t fight back the feeling that something was terribly wrong with this image. They were giving me the most peculiar look. Instantly, I found out why as the young man and woman peeled me off the pavement to drag me to their hotel room. As they attempted to shove me through their doorway, I saw my mother returning from her work at the same time as she always had; 5:12 p.m. I screamed out her name as she went to unlock the door. She paid no attention as my cries for help echoed throughout the back of the hotel.

               As soon as they successfully shoved me into their cold, hotel room, I took in as many observations as I could. There was a room off to the left, almost hidden like a secret sanctity. The room was colder than the rest of the place. With the hand rolled cigarette still resting between my lips and my arms restrained behind my back by the red headed woman, I exhaled smoke and it mixed with the breath from the cold. The walls were painted a silky white and a window with a shelf built at the bottom stretched across the back wall of the room. Through the window, I could see me and my mother’s hotel room. My mother was standing at the bathroom mirror, examining the wrinkles forming in her face; she grimaced at the thought of aging. There were books stacked on top of books on the shelf built from the bottom of the window; and a rather big metal table sitting in the center of the room with flasks, chemistry sets, and tubes filled with unidentifiable substances and chemicals. To the left of me and against the wall, just by the entrance of the room, sat a metal bed with aged straps that were unbuckled. I started to think of all the possible outcomes of what they wanted to do, what might happen to me, and what possible solutions I could come up with for escaping.

               The two men were at the huge metal table in the center of the room and were discussing the effects of certain mixtures between the different chemicals and substances. The red-headed woman, who was restraining me, felt the need to join the discussion and had started to loosen her grip. Now is the time, I thought to myself, Don’t be afraid! Don’t hold back!

               In the matter of a second, I yanked myself out of her grip and swung to the best of my ability. SMACK! I hit her right in the jaw and she paused to hold and soothe it. I sprinted out of the room as quick as I could and headed back towards the door I had been shoved through. Piles of junk and old electronics were piled in front of the door and I didn’t quite understand how they even got there. But all I could think of was to get the hell out of this room. Voices started to grow louder behind me as I frantically threw things out of the way.

               Thank God! I thought again as I gasped for air as I reached outside and slammed the door behind me. The clouds above were still ominous and gray; but the cold air had ceased as it became still and warm. The knob to the room began to turn slowly; in an act of panic, I sprinted around the back of the hotel towards the front. At the side of the hotel that faced the main road, I saw two vicious, black dogs. I slowed down to observe and walk a safe distance around them. One of the dogs was foaming at the mouth while growling and barking; drool flinging and falling into puddles around him. The other was only barking very few as if he was trying to get the other dog’s approval. As I made my way around the corner to the front of the hotel, the gray clouds began to fade away as the sky drastically changed to a pitch black.

               The only thing that allowed me to see was the faint glow of the lights that were mounted on the wall next to each and every front door of the hotel. The brick building seemed way older because the lighting seemed so … dead. I ran to the front door of mine and my mother’s hotel room. I ran up the couple of steps that led to the deck that stretched across all of the hotel rooms. I paused and stood at our door for a moment.

               Why are all the lights off? I asked myself. I brought my hand up and formed it into a fist; I started to hear a faint chanting in the background; almost as if they were coming from each of the rooms. I struck my fist against the door at least four or five times before I rested my hand and arm back at my side. The chanting grew even louder and I knocked once more. In an instant, every single, tall window that sat to the left of each hotel room door had ghostly faces covering every inch from the inside. They all stared at me, the chanting had become excruciatingly loud. I covered my ears and grimaced as the sounds stabbed my ear drums and began to back away. I had almost stumbled backwards and would have fallen down the stairs and hit the ground, but a mysterious man caught me.

               His eyes were as green as spring grass; his hair was jet black and an unruly mess. He wore an old, but wonderfully musty smelling, leather jacket that was partially zipped with intentions of barely showing off the stained gray shirt underneath. His jeans were a faded black; the kind of look that would make it seem he’s been wearing these jeans since the beginning of high school. His shoes, however, contradicted his entire outfit. It seemed he found himself a pair of sleek, very shiny, black dress shoes. It looked as though he had just put them on; they were not scuffed nor were the strings uneven. He was outstanding! All I could think was, Wow! He had unmistakably taken my breath away. For that entire half of a minute or less, I had completely forgotten about the faces in the window and the excruciatingly loud chanting.

               He put me back on my feet again and asked if I was okay, but I could not reply as all the surrounding started to creep back under my skin. I began to back away even further, away from the mysterious man and away from the chanting and ghostly faces taking up every inch of the windows. I almost reached the road when I finally stopped, when I was out of reach of the stabbing feeling in my ears, and far enough away to where I could not see the details in each and every ghostly face.

               A faint, indigo light started glowing through the cracks of the pitch black sky as the black began to fade. Enormous, dark gray clouds began to roll in. I felt my heart beat slow back down to a normal pace as it began to lightly pour. The drops hit hard enough that it felt relieving and soft enough to wash away my fears. I turned to face the road, as if maybe I should continue to run away from this place. There were black track marks in the dead center of the curved road that passed the hotel. As soon as a drop of rain hit the track marks, they burst into flames.

               I was absolutely mesmerized and entranced by the mystery of it. I heard a voice behind me, and I questioned if the voice was just talking, or being poetic. I turned to look back at the hotel; the mysterious man had a ladder leading up to the hotel sign that was suppose to attract people to stay there. It was a circular sign but it had different dimensions to it. It turns out that this man was reciting a very beautiful poem.

               His green eyes started to glitter as the sun began to peek over the horizon and through the clouds. A warm, light wind tousled his hair ever so slightly. His stare pierced right through me; and in the moment, I was in awe. He recited the last stanza as I decided to turn back towards the road and gaze at the new rising sun. The black tire, track marks were still a blaze; flames dancing wildly as the rain was still falling from the sky. A police car was moving in slow motion along with everything else; driving right over the flaming, black tire tracks.

“…Dear tragedy struck friend,

This is where your dreams ends.”

               I awoke with a THUD as I hit the floor. I sat up and took in the room; seeing a light gray glow shining in from the window from outside. I grabbed my chest and laughed.