I hopped out of my taxi cab that Saturday afternoon, tugging my backpack out the backseat and gazing up at the hotel. I tipped the brim of my baseball cap up to get a better view of the building that stood before me, lodged between a liquor store and a vacant apartment building.
The hotel was much like the pictures I saw on the internet: old, antique, a little eerie in a way. The windows were all the same size and same rectangular shape. The walls on the outside were made of rusty bricks and the cement trim on the bottom was chipping. The door was rather large and painted to look as if it was made of pure gold, though it was obvious that it wasn't. The Hollywood Hills Hotel towered over most of the other buildings in this town, looking more like a rejected Disneyland ride than an actual hotel.
The taxi cab drove away and my roommate, Christi, stumbled up beside me. "Oh no," she panted wearily, adjusting the strap of her purse on her shoulder. "This looks scary already!"
"Are you kidding?" I turned to her and snorted. "They probably hired the artichect from Craigslist. It's like they're trying to make this place look like a joke. I can't even imagine how cheesy the inside's gonna be."
"This place has been around forever, Jade," Christi retorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Trust me. I've actually lived in LA my whole life, unlike somebody. I've heard really bad things about it."
Christi is a very skeptical person. She can also be a little slow sometimes, if you know what I mean. She's always the first to believe a myth, the first to walk out of a horror movie, and probably the last person I should've taken on this tour with me today. But, she was the only one of my friends that were available, and she's a really good photographer. I'll need her photo-skills for my article.
"Like what? The real horror of the hotel lies within the tackiness of its decor?" I laughed and took Christi by the arm, tugging her towards the front door. "Calm down, Christi. There's nothing to be afraid of. Got your camera?"
"Yeah...but I don't wanna use it anymore," she pouted, her heels reluctantly skidding along the cement. "I hear it's not polite to take pictures of ghosts."
I rolled my eyes. "Well it's a good thing there'll be no ghosts inside."
I pushed the heavy front door open and I stepped inside. The hotel was much busier than I was expecting.
The floor was completely carpeted in red, suede-like fabric. The walls were beige and chipping at the corners. Old power outlets were just barely clinging by their wires. Plush, dark green chairs and couches were scattered around the lobby, surrounding antique coffee tables and old, bronze-stained lamps. The front desk was off to the left, the elevators were to the far right, and straight ahead there was a massive staircase that led to a loft above it.
I gazed upwards in awe. The ceiling was not much like a ceiling at all; it was like a giant stained-glass window that exposed the cloudless sky above it. People filled the lobby, either lounging in the chairs, lining up for a tour, or walking up the stairs to what I assumed was the bar.
I didn't expect the hotel to be so crowded. I expected it to be dead inside. Ha, see what I did there?
"Oh...I don't like this..." Christi muttered to herself, whisking her blonde hair in my face as she spun around to walk right back outside.
"Christi," I sighed, pulling her back to my hip. "Chill. Let's just go find a tour. That must be why it's so crowded."
"Or they're all dead people." my roommate whispered, clutching her camera bag in her hands.
I dragged her across the lobby to the front desk. Two women were standing behind the counter with their backs to Christi and I, facing a wall that hung over a hundred bronze keys on tiny silver pins.
