The Room

2503 Words
“Good. It’s late. Finish your smoothie and I’ll show you to your room.” William didn’t feel like he had much choice, so he was a good boy and finished the drink. Yes, he was imagining that it could have been poisoned or drugged and he was about to meet a gruesome demise—the man staring the entire time he was drinking really didn’t help that perception—but he was giving humanity the benefit of the doubt today, one man in black at a time. When he’d drained the last drop from the glass, it was taken from him and rinsed in the sink—there goes the evidence—before the man moved back toward him. Okay, let’s get started! “I’m sorry, I still don’t know your name. I’m William Lanceton,” William reintroduced himself. He didn’t offer his hand this time, knowing it would likely be looked at like a snake in a garden again. The man continued his strides to the hallway and William thought he was being purposely ignored, but as he stepped past the boundary into the hall, the man paused and said quietly, “Anthony,” before walking on. “Anthony?” William repeated, before rushing to follow. Why does this guy never wait! “Anthony who?” William saw that Anthony was already turning down a new hallway and he hurried to catch up. Damn, he’s fast. “There’s no need for anyone to know more than that,” he heard from around the corner. When William turned and saw another hallway entirely covered by amazing paintings –oh and look a chandelier—he blew out a breath. “You want people to not be interested in you, right?” William shook his head and then sprinted to catch up. “Are you a billionaire or something?” “No.” Anthony had turned yet another corner. Just how many rooms did this Wonderland house have?? “Are you a fugitive, on the World’s Most Wanted list?” Anthony glanced back with a lifted eyebrow before looking straight again. “No.” “Are you one of the world’s top super models?” Anthony had finally opened the door to the last room on the floor and stood back as William approached. His silence at the last one made William look up to see his expression. The man was looking away at nothing again but there was a small smile playing across his mouth. “You think I could be a super model?” William glanced away into the room he was being given, but it was dark inside, dark like the inside of his head right now. “I also said you could be on the Most Wanted list,” he defended, then winced. Well, then what in the world are you doing, reminding him of his dark past? “Everyone thinks that.” He heard the distaste in the man’s voice and William reminded himself that he was supposed to make the man want to talk to him. “Let’s hope you can change that.” The man had already started walking away down the hallway and William whirled to look around at him. “’Let’s hope’? What happens if I can’t?” The man paused. Then continued walking. “Then you’ll just have to stay here until you do.” “What?!” “Good night.” Staring at the corner the man had disappeared around, William tried to make sense of what had just happened. He was supposed to stay here until he got everyone to not be interested in the “shadow with the monster dog in the big spooky house that never comes out even for groceries.” Did the man really expect that William could write an article about him that would bore people? With all the information he had already collected, this house really did sound like something out of a horror movie. An enormous black watch dog, rooms from another time, a large mysterious man swathed only in black who demanded to be left alone… How could he make that sound boring? William’s eyes had adjusted to the dark of the room he was apparently going to be spending the rest of his days in and it was right out of the Middle Ages. Everything was made of wood, intricately carved, there were tapestries—tapestries—decorating the walls, a four-poster bed with flowing curtains, a fireplace against the far wall and, when his hand reflexively went out to flick on a light switch to see more, it hit only bare wall. Where’s that switch? Thinking he missed it outside, he stepped out of the room and looked on the wall next to the door, but there was no switch there either. When there was sudden movement out of the corner of his eye, William leapt backward into the room, his over-active imagination assuming his life was coming to an end. The enormous black dog was sitting in the hall, staring at him silently. “Oh, it’s you again. If you are looking for dog biscuits now, sorry, but that was a one-time deal when we were outside of this house.” The dog just stared at him and William noticed then that there was a pack of matches at its feet. William looked askance at the matches before looking back into the room. There were, indeed, candles on every surface. “Really? He wants me to use candles? Please tell me there’s an actual washroom here at least.” The dog stared at him and quirked its head. Then it started trotting down the hallway, leaving the pack of matches on the floor. William poked his head back out the door and watched as the dog walked up to a door two doors down and then sat and waited for him. That couldn’t possibly be a washroom. There’s no way that he understood that. No way. William dubiously followed and opened up the door … to an Ancient Roman bathroom. Of course. He walked into the bathroom, his leather boots tapping on the stone tiles and looked around in disbelief. The room was made of stone tiles with a center bath in the floor. The room was lit by two small fireplaces, one on each side of the room, making it quite toasty in the room. He saw a skylight above which, thankfully, was modern enough to have a glass window. With much trepidation, he approached the only thing that looked like it could be a toilet and was relieved to see that, though it looked from a distance like an ancient potty, there was definitely a plumbing system within. The tap-tap-tapping of claws on tile made him look behind him. The dog had followed him in and was eyeing him with interest, as if waiting to see his reaction to the room. “You’re an odd one, you know that?” The dog just stared blankly back at him. William squinted suspiciously at the dog but left the bathroom to go back to his room. He scooped the pack of matches from the floor, lit one and went around his new room lighting candles. He sat down on his four-poster bed and looked around again, unsurprised to see the dog peeking into the room from the doorway. “Well, I must say, your master is not normal, but I kind of like his style.” The dog snorted and trotted away. Seriously. Weird dog. William got up and closed the door to his room, finally lifting his camera and happily taking pictures of everything around him. So far, he’d seen four different eras in this house. Was every room a different time period? He’d have to find out tomorrow. Or… After about an hour, hoping that was long enough for the man, Anthony, to go to sleep—he had said goodnight so that must have meant he’d been going to sleep himself, right?—William crept to his closed door and gently opened it, peeking down the hallway. The lights had definitely been dimmed, which was a great indicator that the man had gone to bed himself. Eager to check out the house unfettered, William made one step to leave the room when he looked down and saw with shock that the dog was lying asleep right in front of his door. Barely keeping his gasp inside, he just stared open-mouthed down at the black mass of fur in his way. Seriously? But then, why should this surprise him, really? He was a stranger to this house. Why wouldn’t the man send his dog to guard the stranger’s room? Maybe he could get around him though… With much care, he removed his boots and very slowly started moving around the sleeping dog in his socked feet. He noticed then that there was a rug in front of the door that the dog was sleeping on, which had definitely not been there before. I wonder if it was master or dog who brought the rug here. He really had no idea, since this dog seemed capable of anything. Just when William thought he’d made it past unnoticed, the dog’s head swung up and glowing green eyes stared him straight in the face, immediately turning into a glare as it looked up at him and his boots in his hands with a disapproving frown. Yes, disapproving. William was certain he read that on its face this time. “Uh… Nice doggy…” The dog rose to its feet and when it was this close he was shocked again by its size. He would have called it a wolf if it had been a different colour. But were wolves even this big? “Hey, I was just thinking of an evening stroll,” William said cheerily, as cheerily as you can speak in a voice just above a whisper. No sense waking Anthony, too. “Uh… want to come with me, doggy?” The dog did not look impressed. “Hey, I don’t know what else to call you. You don’t have a collar.” The dog ignored that comment as it walked towards him and then would have walked into him if he didn’t back up into his room again. Just as the dog wanted, he was sure. “Pfft, am I a guest or a prisoner? Wait, don’t answer that,” he joked sarcastically before he dropped his boots just inside the room and sighed. Leaning on the doorframe, he pulled out his cell phone to check the time. The dark looks the dog gave the phone caused him to pull it protectively to his chest. “Hey, don’t even think of it. I’m keeping it. You’d have to take it from my cold, dead hands… but don’t get any ideas.” With his own dark look at the dog, he lowered the phone slightly and flicked his thumb across to unlock it. He kept the door open, still leaning on the door frame. He had no idea why he was keeping the dog company, which just stared at him crossly, but he did. “Let’s see… what can we find out about this house, I wonder… 1 Maple Tree Avenue…” He finished typing in the address. “Aha!” The dog’s ears perked up and William smiled snarkily at it. “You wanna know, too, huh?” He slid down the doorframe to sit on the floor, just a few feet from the dog. For some reason, the cranky beast was making him feel more comfortable in this strange house. He couldn’t say why, but it did. He looked back at the screen. “Wow, there’s a website made just so that people can add photos they take of this house. No wonder Mr. Anthony has problems. The house is a local fad.” William started reading out the description blurb. “A community of people looking for answers… Most especially the dark shadow owner—” the dog grumbled and William chuckled. “Hey, those were their words, not mine.” The dog plopped down on its rug and looked entirely put out. “—the dire wolf’—look at you, a dire wolf, they call you—'and the interior of the house,” William finished. “Hey, look,” William laughed and turned his phone to the dog. “It even has a picture of you.” As William questioned what in the world he was doing showing a picture to a dog, the dog looked so avidly at the phone that he had to reason he wasn’t being that strange. The picture was a blurry one because clearly the person taking it was running away from the dog that was little more than a black blob with glowing green eyes and white teeth. The dog seemed pleased with the picture and looked back up at William. William lifted an eyebrow and smiled. “Proud you’re scaring the living daylights out of someone, aren’t you?” He shook his head, still smiling as he continued scrolling through the photos. “Well, Mr. Dire Wolf, I bet you are a big part of the reason everyone is so interested in this house, you know that, right?” The dog was silent. Of course. “No wonder people are coming to take a peek. Doesn’t look like anyone’s gotten inside though. You must be really good at your job.” He wasn’t imagining it. The dog definitely looked pleased with himself. “Pfft,” William shook his head and tucked his phone away. “You are the strangest thing I have ever seen.” He stared down at the dog, quirking his head as he looked him over. “How much am I imagining things and how much do you really understand? I wish I’d had a dog growing up, so I knew more about you. But Mom only liked cats.” When the dog wrinkled its nose, William nodded. “I know, right?” He looked out into the corridor as he stood up. Unsurprisingly, the dog stood up, too. It probably thought he was going to make a break for it. “Don’t worry, Mr. Wolf, I’m not crazy enough to think I could outrun you.” William stretched and leaned against the doorframe again. Then grinned. “But you’ve got to sleep sometime.” The dog was back to looking disapproving and William chuckled. Even if it was all in his imagination, it was fun. Maybe he would get himself a dog when this was all over. Then shook his head at his own thoughts. He must be lonelier than he’d thought to keep conversation with a strange man’s guard dog. He closed the door and returned to look at the bed. Well. It did look incredibly fluffy. Maybe he’d rest for a little while, until the dog fell back to sleep.
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