From the Bottom of My HEART: LABYRINTH : A Short Fiction

|| Om Ganeshaye Namah ||

Bonjour Friends,
Hope you all are doing good.
First of all I would like to thank you all for your positive response, regarding my first post.
Your feedback has given me enough courage to write my 2nd post. (Please try to bear this one as well).

So, my this post is regarding a short story featuring a fictional character "Mr. Robert Anderson".

It's my first attempt to write anything like this, so, please feel free to suggest improvements if any.

CHAPTER 1

Mr. Anderson was going through a mixed feeling of being happy and sad, as he drove his car down the road.
Now, he was an Ex. Military official, today was his last day on duty.
On the day of his retirement he was wearing a beautiful black armani suit which accentuated his good physique.
Suddenly his car came to a halt with a screeching sound. "Probably some mechanical problem" - he thought, looking at his rolex watch. It was "11.00pm".

He pulled out and again inserted the key into the ignition and turn, but the car failed to restart. He repeated the process several times but, of no use.

He finally came out of his car and looked around for help.
It was then, he saw a large building in front of him named - "LABYRINTH HOTEL".

He though it would be better to spent the night at the hotel and then in the morning would leave after his car got serviced.

The hotel was located on the other side of the street. He locked his car, grabbed his black briefcase and started to move towards the hotel. After reaching the entrance, he walked into the reception.
The reception was an enormously large hall with the walls painted in light blue colour and were decorated with the beautiful scenery.
The aura of the hotel did not appeal to him much for he being used to visit super luxurious resorts only, besides he owns several resorts in the country itself.
He proceeded towards the counter and got himself registered.
Receptionist handed over him the keys - "13th floor sir, room no. 131" she said with a pleasing smile.
Mr. Anderson asked her -"This hotel seems to be empty, so, isn't any room vacant on the 1st or 2nd floor?"
she replied- "Sir, sorry for the inconvenience but all are floors are under renovation."
"No problem "- He said with a *sigh*.
He started moving towards the spiral, wooden staircase as the elevators were not operational due to the renovation work going on.
This hotel was the creepiest place he had ever seen.There was a peculiar smell of cement and paint all around. The stairs were worn out making a screeching sound with his every step, as if they were about to break at any moment.
Somehow he reached up, to his room, all tired and disgusted by the aura.
It was not a luxurious hotel, the room was not so large but had a dining table, a comfortable bed and a restroom. Thick, maroon curtains were hanging all around.
Mr. Anderson wanted to leave the place. But he told himself that he was being irrational, he had already paid for the room and everything would be fine.
As he was sitting on couch thinking about his last day on duty, he startled by an unexpected knock on the door.
He moved towards the door and slowly turned the golden knob to see who was there.
There was no one.
When he was wondering, he saw two men running down the corridor, where one of them was chasing the other with a pistol in his hand.
Mr. Anderson immediately went back to his briefcase, pulled out his gun, tightened his coat and started to run in the direction of the two men.

He was running and running and running, but the corridor did not seem to have an end (he thought to himself - " Truly the hotel is named LABYRINTH").

After running for about 5-7min. he heard the sound of a gun shot.
He immediately ran in that direction, being an ex military official, he was proceeding with caution in order to catch the criminal red handed.
After moving a few steps closer, he saw a faint shadow lying on the floor.
He proceeded closer.
He saw a man lying on his stomach on the floor, in the pool of blood.
The victim was a man in his late 30s may be, he thought. He tilted his body cautiously to see his face but immediately set back.
He had recognized the person.
The victim was Smith, his colleague, who was suspended from the army a month back due the charges on him for betrayal, proved by none other than Mr. Anderson.
He felt a wave of shock, he never thought this is how the night will turn out to be for him.
He collected himself and started to think about the other person, probably the murderer. But, he did not knew in which direction to proceed.

As he was thinking, he suddenly saw a shadow peeping out, probably looking at him and immediately disappeared.
He ran in that direction and the shadow also kept running, both of them were running up the stairs. After a few minutes of chasing, shadow stopped, it was a dead end.

Mr. Anderson immediately shouted -"Stay there else I will fire!"
That shadow screamed in bewilderment - " No, No, Please, Don't shoot , It's me ah aaaaaaaa.........." and the man tripped and fell back from the 14th floor.
Mr. Anderson looked down from the spot, there was a large gallery down there on the 1st floor.
He immediately started to run down the spiral, wooden staircase to the first floor. As he reached there he saw another body lying in a pool of blood.
"Probably he is dead"- he thought to himself, standing at a distance.
He slowly, gathering up his courage started to move towards the body. (Though he was an ex army official and used to these sights, even worse, he felt his feet to be too heavy to lift this time).

Now, he was standing in front of the body.
The man lying dead down there had a nice physique. He was approximately of the same age as Mr. Anderson.
The man was wearing a black office suit, "probably armani", he thought.
He was feeling a very different sort of uneasiness as he never felt before.
He began to turn the man to check if he was still alive. As soon as he turned him, he screamed " NO, NO This Can't Be True !"
The man lying in front of Mr. Anderson not only had a similar physique as him, but also had a face that exactly look like him.
Mr. Anderson felt numb. It was him, lying dead, in front of himself.
His heart started pouncing up. He could not move, could not believe his eyes.
A cold sweat drenched from his forehead. He felt as if someone was striking a hammer on his head. Hard.

With a loud noise of "THUG", he woke up.
He was lying on his bed, he looked around, he was sleeping in the room of that creepy hotel "LABYRINTH".
He again heard a loud knock on his hotel room door.

To Be Continued....

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I hope you liked this, even if not and looking for me in anger then remember , MURDER is serious Crime :P.