Rather than taking the regular elevator, Joshua leads us through a series of corridors to an elevator at the back of the hotel. There’s a sliding metal gate in front of the door, and a dial for the floors that looks like a golden clock hangs above us. The clanging metal is loud as Joshua slides the gate over and ushers us inside. He slams it shut, and I press myself against the back of the elevator, afraid it’s too old to operate. The others don’t look at all worried.
“Where are we?” I whisper, grasping the golden railing as the elevator shakes to life.
“This is the staff elevator,” Lourdes says, running her fingers along the burgundy textured wallpaper affectionately. “Most people don’t even know it’s here. It’s original to the Ruby.”
“It’s lovely,” I say, although I’m worried this death box won’t get us downstairs before it falls apart completely. The ice in the cooler rattles as we struggle along, and I officially meet the two other staff members—Casey, the shy girl from housekeeping, and Warren, who seems nice but wears a perpetual smirk, like he’s in on a joke we’re not. The six of us are quiet until the elevator shudders to a stop, and I stagger sideways, bumping my shoulder into the wall. Joshua rips open the gate, and the others quickly walk out. I follow them, glancing up at the dial to check which floor we’re on. The dial has stopped in the empty space between the lobby and the basement.
This isn’t the basement, at least not that I can tell. It’s definitely not where Elias took me earlier. I wonder then what time it is, and how much longer it will be until I see him again. There are no clocks, and I left my phone in my room.
Joshua points ahead to a gray metal door and then pulls a key from his pocket, looking back to smile at us. Outside there is a concrete slab patio, green Dumpsters off to the right, the smell of trash blending with the smell of flowers floating over from the garden around on the other side of the wall. The group doesn’t stop here, though. Instead Tanya walks to a plastic bench and lifts the lid. She removes flashlights and starts handing them out. By the time she gets to me, all that’s left is a small utility flashlight, as opposed to the handled floodlights the others carry.
Once we move beyond the concrete slab toward an area with trees, the air has cooled. We start across the grass, and the night becomes impossibly dark, pure blackness beyond the edge of the garden. Lourdes and the others are giggling, the beams from their flashlights dancing along the trees and grass. I can’t remember what the world looked like beyond the wall of the Hotel Ruby. It didn’t seem this dark when we arrived here.
“Wait up,” I say, quickening my step. My flashlight isn’t bright enough to offer me comfort, not when the others dissolve into small circles of light in the darkness. I sidle up next to Lourdes and take her arm. She looks sideways at me, her face half in shadow.
“Who should we meet first?” she asks. “We haven’t been out here in months, maybe longer. But I bet we can find Aras—he’s an old spirit. Older than the Hotel Ruby, I think.”
I gulp, uncertain if she’s kidding and then annoyed at myself for falling for this. I roll my eyes and then tug on her arm to stop. “Let’s go back,” I say. “It’s colder out here.”
“Just wait,” Lourdes murmurs, pulling ahead and ignoring my plea to return. The air has gone quiet, with the exception of Joshua, who I can hear laughing somewhere in the distance. The sound of it is comforting, grounding me in reality.
“We’re almost there,” Lourdes says, aiming her light at a small, worn path winding through some overgrown bushes. I wrap my arms around myself, the temperature continuing to drop the farther on we walk. It’s only minutes, but then the light slides across an empty space, falling on a large object. I stagger to a stop, unsure of what I’m seeing at first.
Lourdes bursts ahead, jogging forward just as Joshua and the others come through from another path, their lights trained on the same object.
It’s a fountain, or at least it used to be. Now it’s just a stone statue, ivy and moss crawling up the sides and filling the basin to distort the figure. Lourdes and the others go over to set their flashlights in the second tier of the stone, illuminating the area before sitting on the surrounding bench. Joshua already has the cooler open, handing out drinks, but I take a second to look around. The Ruby looms large behind us, although none of the light from its windows travels to where we are.
We may only be just outside the garden area, but it’s a world away. The overgrown brush hides us completely from view, and in this small clearing, nature has created our own little playground.
“Audrey,” Joshua calls, holding out a drink to me. I smile and meet him at the fountain to take it. The others watch me, and when I take a sip, they seem to relax, saying it’s been too long since they’ve been here.