Sinister Sands Hotel

Chapter 2 (Draft)

Judgy-Cat turned out to be a relatively good road trip companion. Sure, he ate most of my snacks and didn't touch the cat food I got for him. But not once did he puke or poop in my car, and he didn't complain about my driving at all.

Before we left, I typed the coordinates into the crappy GPS on my equally crappy phone. The GPS freaked out for a minute or two before calculating the directions. According to the GPS, the estimated travelling time should have been two hours and fifteen minutes; however, after two hours and ten minutes, the GPS loudly exclaimed in a haughty British accent that we had reached our destination.

I stop the car, wondering why the heck the GPS directed me to the middle of nowhere with a field on one side and woods on the other side. Did it make a mistake? Did I enter the wrong coordinates?

I stare at my phone, wondering what to do. Looking at the time on the screen, I let out a yelp of surprise when my phone pings suddenly.

"Turn left," the text from Weird Granny Lady demands. (Yes, I saved the number under that name.) 

"Now, where am I supposed to turn left?" I ask the cat, who just looks at me with his big, judgemental eyes. "There was no side road or... Oh, there is a road. That was not there before."

Now, this is where any intelligent person would turn around and go home, right? Random roads appearing in the middle of nowhere... The thing is, I'm not all that smart and besides that, I have no home, and my car's tank is basically empty.

I start the car up again and slowly drive towards the turn-off. As I get closer, I see a weathered sign: Nowhere Street. A sliver of anxiety works its way down my back as I realise that Nowhere Street leads into the woods. Still, I drive on and soon spot some buildings up ahead.

"Well, I guess this is the place," I tell Judgy-Cat, who doesn't reply; he's not much of a talker.

Driving up to the buildings, I think about all the things that could go wrong here. Murder by cult people, maybe. As I drive closer, I spot a big sign, 'Hollow Acres', with a smaller sign, 'Nothing Street'.

I pull the car up in front of the building with signage that I think is supposed to say 'Hollow Acres General Store'; instead, it says, 'Holl Ac  s Gen   l Store'. Some of the letters had fallen off at some point, I guess. I sit in the car and contemplate my surroundings for a bit. I can see two other buildings, but I'm not sure about them at all. They are in a state of disrepair as much as Holl Acs Genl Store.

"So, I guess I'm getting out?" I ask Judgy-Cat, who just looks at me impatiently, so I get out of the car and approach the creepy little building...

I hope I don't get murdered.

***