Sell the Hotel (2)

The streets of the old district were quite too dusty for Rhodes's liking. It was as if the absence of modern cars littered the paths with more particles than it would in a city. However, the man worked fifteen hours or longer in a top-tier hospital. Why did he know about the streets of his city?

Regardless, the doctor wore a face mask to keep dust off his nose. He wrapped himself in sleeves just to expose the minimal amount of skin. If Frieda didn't know better, she would think Rhodes was sick.

"Are you okay, Uncle? You don't look fine…" Frieda stared at the hardening glare in Rhodes's eyes. The movie-star doctor looked murderous with that skin-slicing gaze.

"Am I scaring you?" Rhodes closed his eyes and sighed in his heart. Complaining about the dust wouldn't make the surroundings any better. He softened his gaze and regarded the teen beside him. Instead of studying, this girl opted to accompany him today. She must have been holing up in their house for so long. He just didn't realize her left leg was injured.

Frieda shook her head. "I just think you're irritated. Did Mom say something before we left? I can only imagine her mood after Dad lost so much money…"

Rhodes walked at her pace to the hotel. "We'll get it back. For now, tell me what you heard about Faded Rose. I'm sure you know how it lost its charm. If your father has been working there all his life, it should have been prosperous before."

"Prosperous?" Frieda snorted. "I never saw it prosperous. When I was five, all they thought of was convincing the investors to invest again. I might be born too late."

She looked up at the man walking between her and the street. "Your amnesia's a little convenient. I heard about your wedding and other things. It's like you reached the point in your life where it will freeze soon. Stuck in a loveless marriage? Inheriting millions from a dead mentor? It only sounds good to fools."

Rhodes hummed in agreement. "I want to stay optimistic things like, things will always change. But I don't know how good my life really was. The magazine cover life didn't seem as plain as it was."

A groan escaped Frieda's lips. She turned to watch the shops lining the streetside. They were all old-fashioned and empty, just like the entire old district of Menorosa. "Sometimes, I think of renting a villa in the new district. The world stops right here, and I don't want to be like Dad. He could only hold onto that one hotel because that's all he knew for all his life.

"Do you know? Dad had been working in that hotel even before he met Mom. He rose through ranks, but it limited him to a lot of things." Frieda hummed with regret. "It's slowly crashing down… and taking him with it. I pity Dad… and Mom for having to deal with this."

"Aren't you going to blame me?" Rhodes chuckled at the lamenting teen. He figured she hated this place more than anything. She wanted to get into her friends' college to stay away from Menorosa.

Frieda glanced at him. She looked away. "Well, you did contribute a lot. If it wasn't for you, the hotel would have lived longer. Everything would stay the way it should be. I wonder what prompted a level-headed man like you to have an outburst. Do you know? Faded Rose has been haunted for so long. They said, even before the Iveren family sold it to the Coles family."

Rhodes flinched. "Iveren?"

The daughter hooked some hair behind her ear. "Yeah. They're not exactly Coles or Wester family kind of wealthy dynasty… but they are loaded. They used to own all businesses here in Menorosa until decades ago. The Coles family took over, but they suddenly left. Menorosa lost direction for a while… and then the new district sprouted.

"I heard the shops here in the old district don't like those people running the new district. A war is happening between them… and the old guys are losing." Frieda gestured to the empty shops they passed. "Look. Nothing. Everyone's in the new district these days."

"Faded Rose couldn't have brought down the whole county with it, right?" Rhodes cringed at the thought. He looked ahead and saw the clear sky that Faded Rose couldn't obscure.

…

As expected, Faded Rose looked abandoned. The parking lot was free of dust, leaves, and guest vehicles. Rhodes and Frieda swept their gazes across the picture and found no sign of activity. They only knew the hotel was open because someone was cleaning the clear glass with a dry cloth. The cleaning lady met their gazes, making her freeze and run away from the revolving glass door.

It was weird, but Rhodes figured she called for reinforcements. Someone came to their hotel… someone new. The cleaning lady could have also recognized him. Regardless, he climbed the steps leading to the glass door. He allowed Frieda to enter first before going in.

Rhodes saw the big smile on the receptionist's face. The guard was also unusually stiff as if trying not to greet the guest too casually. 

Frieda scrunched her face and looked at Rhodes. She whispered, "You're not going to book a room here, right? I mean… that might look weird."

"Hi, I'm Rhodes Huxley. I'm here to see your manager, Mr Matthews." Rhodes didn't answer the teen girl. He walked to the receptionist for his request. His confident stride and smile could only freeze the receptionist. "Can you ask him to meet me here? Or should I go to his office?"

"Y-Yes, right away!" She grabbed the phone and dialed the manager's office phone number. Her gaze kept alternating between her desk and Rhodes's face.

However, Rhodes didn't pay attention to her anymore. He stared at the clear glass walls showing off a well-maintained hedge garden. The picture looked cramped at the bottom. He figured flowers should have hung from the lattice roof, but they were cleaned now. The sight would have matched the framed enlarged photographs lining the walls leading to the elevator lobby.

What made him look was the familiar feel drawing him close. It reminded him of the dream space where Vanya took him last night. The negative energy was stronger, and Rhodes guessed a scary spirit resided in that dream space.

His gaze never left the glass walls. The clear sky and the smooth hedges were soon graced by a woman's faint apparition. Her long hair covered most of her, but her dainty arm reached out to touch the hedges. Her sleeve was soiled with brown residue, giving it maps of yellowish stains.

Rhodes took a deep breath. The coldness didn't reach him yet, but he could only plan for an escape. The woman paused walking and turned to the reception. Her face was obscured with dark hair, but the strands conveniently swerved away to show her mouth and chin.

"Oh…" Words came from her red and purple lips. "Rhodes is here."