Hotel Mortis - Chapter 1 Part 8

Part 8

With curiosity, 712 shook hands with the man who appeared out of the darkness. It was the hand of a living person – warm and slightly damp. It felt very welcoming and realistic.

The man shook hands with 712 and spoke.

“I’m 304.”

“304?”

When 712 asked, the middle-aged man who had introduced himself as room 304 scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“To be honest, I don’t quite understand what’s going on either. I think I might have lost my memory. I don’t remember why I’m here or even my name… So, instead of my name, I just told you my room number as a temporary substitute.”

Surprisingly, the situation was similar for both 712 and the man from room 304. They were even using their room numbers as names. 

712 conveyed that he was in the same predicament. In response, the man from room 304 seemed extremely pleased and relieved. Of course, when considered in a practical sense, the fact that there were now two memory-loss individuals wandering around this strange hotel didn’t exactly constitute a favorable turn of events that one could be genuinely happy about.

But 712 understood why the middle-aged man from room 304 was so pleased. In a situation where the past and the future were entirely unpredictable, having someone to rely on, even temporarily, was a comfort. The sense of relief was immeasurable.

“Isn’t this place a bit strange?” 

The middle-aged man from room 304 asked. He began his story with a weary face, even gesturing here and there.

“The first room I came out of was eerily strange as well. I intended to spend time there until sunrise, but it felt uncomfortable, so I just left. I was walking through the corridor, thinking of heading to the lobby, but this place just didn’t seem to have an end. It took hours of walking before I realized that the room numbers were repeating. I was devastated when I realized I had been circling the same place over and over.”

“I just realized the same thing moments ago. The path seemed to keep changing.”

“Exactly. I had no idea I was going in circles like that.”

Knowing that he wouldn’t likely get a proper answer, 712 still asked.

“Then where on earth is this? Can such a place even exist in the world?”

In response, the middle-aged man from room 304 sighed and shook his head in a helpless manner.

“Well… I don’t really know either. At least, this hotel doesn’t seem to be a place where the normal rules we know apply.”

He then shrugged with an ahh.

“Come to think of it, the phrase ‘the rules we know’ sounds amusing. Both of us are suffering from amnesia, unable to remember anything about ourselves.”

In response to the middle-aged man’s joke that wasn’t really a joke, 712 chuckled wryly. The somewhat somber mood that had settled between them eased.

“Well, then, could this place be something like the Bermuda Triangle, a mysterious location unknown to the world?” 

712 offered a guess within the limits of his understanding. The middle-aged man from room 304 fell into silence.

“Hmm… It’s possible. In my opinion, this hotel is much stranger and… looks more dangerous than the Bermuda Triangle.”

“Dangerous? Wouldn’t this hotel still be in a better situation than being missing for decades and then reappearing as a skeleton while on a flight?”

712 made a joke, but unlike the middle-aged person in Room 304, it didn’t quite land. 304 muttered with a deeply saddened and fearful expression.

“Who knows how we’ll be discovered in a few decades, or even centuries? If we’re found, it would be a relief. What could be sadder than the thought that even in death, my body might never return to my hometown?”

“Well…”

Impressed by the melancholy of his companion, 712 lowered his head. It was true. He didn’t know where he was, and he didn’t even know who he was. They were truly in a pitiable situation.

After a moment of silence, 304 subtly asked 712. 

“By the way… how long have you been wandering around here?”

“Me?”

“Yes. I’m talking about you.”

While engaging in conversation with 712, he continuously pulled up his jeans as if they didn’t fit well around his waist. 712 thought he looked like he was wearing someone else’s pants and spoke up.

“I’ve been awake here for about three hours and thirty minutes, I think. As soon as I woke up, I was walking outside the hotel room to find the lobby. I don’t have a watch, so I’m not sure how much time has passed, but I feel like I’ve circled around here just once.”

“Ahh, I see. It seems like you, being a young man, quickly realized that something is odd about this place.”

At the middle-aged man’s words, 712 finally realized that he appeared as a young man to others. That was it. He had not only forgotten his age but also his appearance.

He scratched his head with a perplexed expression.

“So, how long have you been wandering around here, sir?”

“… Are you asking me?”

“Yes.”

In response to his question, the man had a somewhat vacant look on his face. As if recalling a distant past, it took him quite a while before he spoke.

“… It’s been about three days.”

“Three days?”

Upon the man’s response, 712 was quite surprised and asked back. The slightly incongruous attire that appeared a bit out of place didn’t quite match, but his appearance was clean and devoid of the weary look that one would expect from someone who had been wandering around for three days or more in this strange hotel.

“Uh… Seems like you’re in very good spirits.”

“Well, I suppose I’m more or less that way.”

The man in room 304 brushed off 712’s astonishment and continued speaking.

“After wandering around this place for about three days, I realized that roaming the corridors is quite pointless. The hallway layout may change, but you just end up going in circles. It’s much more meaningful to search inside the rooms.”

“Searching inside the rooms?”

“Well, since there seems to be no way out through the corridors, wouldn’t there be some passage leading to an exit somewhere within the rooms? At least, that’s what I believe.”

It was a fairly plausible hypothesis. No, even if it wasn’t true, he needed hope, so he decided to trust the words of the man from room 304.

“Then, sir, how much have you searched these rooms? If you’ve been here for three days, you must have seen quite a lot…”

At 712’s question, the man shook his head.

“I haven’t seen much. This place is really strange. Once a day, at a specific time, the room layout completely changes.”

At that astonishing reply, 712 widened his eyes. It was unbelievable. The arrangement of the rooms changes every day? Almost as if the interior of the hotel is alive?

“At a specific time…?”

“It’s related to the time you woke up there. You woke up at 3:33 in the early morning. At that moment, the layout of all the rooms is reset.”

“How is that possible?”

“I can’t explain the reason. I just realized it through experience.”

“To not even know the reason…”

712 felt fear beyond astonishment. He began to consider the possibility that he himself might be nothing more than something insignificant, moving according to the rules of this hotel.

“Don’t you feel chills? I don’t want to meet death in a place like this. I feel like I could be completely consumed by this hotel and never escape, not even my spirit.”

The man whispered gloomily. 712 nodded in agreement with his words.

‘I can’t die in this place. I must find an escape route.’

With that thought in mind, they decided to search through each room together. 712 stared at the ornate door beside him.

“Shall we start with room 712 then? It’s where I came from, and it’s an extravagantly luxurious room. Just standing still made me feel intimidated and like my stomach was churning, so I walked out without looking back. I left without looking back. If I had known, I should have examined it more closely.”

As he spoke, he attempted to open the door, but the handle wouldn’t turn. It didn’t seem to have an automatic locking mechanism, yet strangely, it remained tightly shut as if someone from inside had locked it, and it wouldn’t open.

“A person can’t open and enter the same door twice. Exiting may be possible multiple times, but each person only gets one opportunity to open and enter a room door.”

The man in room 304 explained as he pulled up his sagging pants. 712 tilted his head and asked.

“I’ve only exited through this door, I’ve never personally opened and entered it.”

“Even if you have no memory of entering, it seems that it is still considered as having entered.”

It was a strange and hard-to-grasp rule. After trying to open the door a few more times, 712 eventually gave up and yielded his place to the man.

“Well then, sir, you should give it a try.”

304 seemed to hesitate, then made a suggestion to 712.

“Since I’ll be exploring here, would you mind checking room 402?”

712 shook his head with an uneasy expression. Acting alone would likely lead to another separation. 304 managed to persuade 712 in this matter.

“There shouldn’t be any problem. It hasn’t been much past 3:33 AM yet, so even if the corridor layout changes, the arrangement of the rooms shouldn’t change.”

“Is that so…”

“Based on what I’ve figured out over the past three days, yes.”

The man from room 304 gripped 712’s shoulder firmly, boosting his courage.

“It’s not a difficult task. Let’s assume that the one who finishes first will wait in the corridor. If the other person doesn’t come out for a long time, we’ll knock, so please open the door.”

Feeling something odd about his words, 712 asked.

“You mean, not enter the room directly?”

The idea of waiting for someone else to open the door when he could open it himself felt quite inefficient to 712. However, 304’s perspective was slightly different.

“We never know, I might need to open the door to the room again today.”

And then he added shortly after.

“But if there’s no response by the time I count to 60, I’ll go ahead and open the door myself. Will that work?”

Right. The opportunities to open the door from the outside were limited, so they needed to save them as much as possible. His clever thinking made 712 feel a little ashamed. He hadn’t thought deeply like 304, and was more concerned with the task at hand.

‘Those who have been here a few more days really are different, after all.’