Mr. Samelson tied his shoes a single knot on the sleek black dress shoes. The ends of the shoe had creases from years of use. His suit, a strong silver with a black tie and accompanied black undershirt. Sammie, as his childhood friend nicknamed him, had light blond hair greying with age not yet with white streaks like his red beard. He had a big meeting today. A leading financial firm was looking for someone good enough to manage their credit projections. Mr. Samelson was that man. He was in New York at a new hotel on the top floor overlooking a vast swarm of Manhattan metal and concrete. He always thought of New York as a prison by human design, but stunningly beautiful. The hotel he was at was the oddest design he had seen. A large square that surrounded the roundabout where guests arrived. You had windows on two sides of your room. Ones looking out at the city, the others looking into the open space in the middle of the square. He closed the inner windows, he didn’t need his hotel neighbors looking back at him. Sammie stepped into the glass elevator and headed down to the lobby. It was her birthday yesterday he thought to himself April 10th. He pushed the thought out of his mind. The elevator dinged as it opened he stepped out and turned around as a flood of people pushed past into the elevator. As he did he looked out the windows over the road and to the other side of the lobby in the hotel. He could see the bell hop pacing in an odd manner. The bell hop turned to the hotel, his back now to Sammie. He walked up to one of the shell shaped light sconces on the wall and removed it, inside he grabbed a key. This piqued Sammie’s interest, what is the key for? As if fate had heard him, the bell hop froze and then swiftly turned around. Sammie had only a second to realize what that meant. He stepped behind the closing elevator doors to not be seen as the bell hops eyes looked directly at him. God, I hope he didn’t see me. Sammie waited a second as the elevator rose. The bell hop was now swiftly walking towards the hotel entrance. Sammie checked his watch he had time before his meeting, and his interest was piqued. He rushed to the right and the main entrance of the hotel. He could see the bell hop pathing the same on the other side. He turned the left corner and the bell hop continued straight, he walked up to a door near the front desk. Luck would have it no one was there right now. He opened the door and stepped in. Odd the key wasn’t for that. Sammie caught the door with his foot and peaked in the bell hop didn’t seem to notice he walked to the end of a long hall. At the end a black door he took the key out of his pocket, inserted it into the lock and pushed the door open. The bell hop walked into what seemed to be a black void. Sammie followed, he stepped in the void as the bell hop disappeared. In front of him were red words written in blood? Dripping down the wall it said, So it begins.
The phone woke Sammie out of his sleep. He flipped on the light illuminating his hotel room. Thank god it was all just a dream. He sat up in bed as he grabbed the phone. The other end came the panicked voice of his daughter. “Dad, something bad is happening!” She seemed to shout out at him. “Slow down, what is wrong, Arlis?” That’s all he could get out as the phone call disconnected.
Housed and Fed 