Before eternity

 - Dad, how long is it to go?  Tim whined in the backseat again.

- It seems, - the father picked up the mobile phone and checked the navigator, - a couple more turns and we are in place.

"Watch the road, Eddie.

The woman in the front seat unbuckled her seat belt and turned to her son, who was hugging a gray stuffed rabbit.

- It's okay, we'll be there soon. Eddie," she glanced at her husband, "it seems to me that something is missing.

- Don't worry, it's always like this before the holidays. Chores, gifts. But this time, we won't have to do anything. What could be better than celebrating New Year's Eve in one of the best hotels in the suburbs?

Claire wanted to say that it would be more comfortable at home, but for some reason the words stuck in her throat.

"You know, Eddie, it feels like we've left our cat at home.

- It's funny. With your allergy to animals," Eddie grinned, and abruptly turned the steering wheel to the right.

"It's just a comparison. But for your sake, my boys, I'm ready to pretend that we left the cat in the care of the neighbors.

The man smiled, turned right once more, and the car stopped in front of the entrance to a huge hotel.

Golden facade, white columns with Atlanteans, seven floors and many balconies. The family got out of the car and walked cheerfully to the front door. The doorman met them at the door, took the bags, and escorted them to the reception.

A huge hall with mirror-polished floors, a three-meter-high Christmas tree hung with garlands and colored balls. Palm trees in tubs on the edges of burgundy sofas and armchairs. Hundreds of lamps hanging from the ceiling shone into every corner of the hotel.

"Welcome to the ante Eternum Hotel," the girl behind the counter said sweetly, and pulled out a book to fill out.

"Timmy, sit on the couch while Dad and I check in."

"How much longer?" – the boy asked.

- There's not much left.

"You'll be escorted to the upper floors," the girl behind the counter smiled and winked at the boy.

When all the details were recorded and the receptionist took the luggage, the family of three entered the elevator and the doors closed. The girl ran her eyes over the papers, sighed and began to correct the inaccuracies. Newbies often forget to add the last date.

"Okay, Father, nineteen seventy-five, dash, two thousand twenty-one. Mother– nineteen seventy-eight, dash, two thousand twenty-one. Son – two thousand fifteen, dash, two thousand twenty-one. Now, that's right!

A beige Buick drove along a deserted highway, kicking up a dusting of snow that settled in its wake. A girl was sitting at the wheel, humming something, and a guy was dozing next to her, with his feet on a torpedo.

"You won't believe what I just remembered," she suddenly exclaimed.

"That you wanted to let me sleep, but then you changed your mind?" – the guy stretched and lowered his legs.

- One story about a family that crashed on this highway exactly a year ago.

"It's so soothing." Is there something else, or can I go back to sleep?

- No, don't sleep! I recently read it somewhere on the Internet. There's an abandoned hotel nearby. So, their car skidded on the road right into the trees, no one survived. There seemed to be a husband and wife and a boy there. But the eldest daughter survived because she did not go with them. But a few months later, she was found dead. The police have not explained what really happened to her. The official version said overdose.

"You can be creepy, Kristy.

- Well, in short, I started telling you all this for a reason.…

- No, no, and again, no!

"Please, Robie, I really want to see it."

- So that road wasn't closed, and this detour was clearly planned? You just wanted to see the abandoned hotel. Kristina, you're driving me crazy!

- Well, please, - the girl looked at the snow-covered road, and at the same time looked at the guy with a plea, - Let it be a gift for the new year, I won't ask you for anything more.

- Kristy, it's three degrees below zero outside, I'm not climbing into a frozen building.

- Oh, come on, I can run there myself. I just need to take a peek.

The girl stopped the car abruptly and turned to the guy. She looked at him with sad eyes for three minutes, and then smiled when she realized that he had made up his mind.

- Just not for long, I want to catch Mom's roast. She always makes an amazing roast on New Year's Eve.

"Robby, you're the best guy in the world," Kristy reached out to the guy, kissed him, and jumped out of the car.

- Take your jacket!

They were standing on the edge of the road, and to their left, almost on a cliff, a seven-story hotel towered like a blackened stone.

"He's really beautiful," Kristina said dreamily.

- A huge piece that should have been demolished long ago.

- Come on, we need to see at least part of the building before dark.

"Mom's going to kill us."

The driveway to the hotel was littered with tree branches, trash brought from the road, and other pieces of paper that appeared from nowhere. The snow stopped falling in the morning, but some places were covered more than others. Sinking ankle-deep into muddy snowdrifts, the guy and the girl reached the main entrance to the hotel.

The walls were peeling off, and they looked like the Middle Ages. The glass was broken in almost all the windows, the Atlanteans who held the columns lost body parts and looked like terrible cripples. The front steps were smashed, and one of the doors had come off and was lying a little further from the entrance.

- It's so cool here!  Kristy whirled around with her head up. – You know, in the immediate vicinity this place is not liked and avoided. They say the hotel was built by an unknown rich man, and died immediately after opening. That was a couple of decades ago. The staff didn't really go anywhere either. The land here is not fruitful and is not needed by anyone, so people have left everything like that. But there are rumors that on New Year's Eve, music and people's voices can be heard from the hotel.

"I hope there are no ghosts here."

- There are no such things!  The girl grabbed Robie by the arm and pulled him inside the hotel.

The hall gloomily greeted the new guests with dampness, twilight and a booming echo. The floors were cracked, and in some places, there were gaping holes in the ground. The Christmas tree in the very center crumbled, and the rotten trunk bent obediently in a creepy greeting. A hole had formed in one of the walls, and the December sunlight illuminated the lobby of the once majestic hotel.

- Christmas tree, Robie, do you understand what this means?

- That even in this backwater they celebrated the new year? – the guy replied and with the toe of his shoe he picked up a cushion from the sofa lying on the floor.

- No! The Christmas tree means that people abandoned this place on New Year's Eve or immediately after it. It's strange, just like that, to take and close such a huge institution. Oh, what a beauty!

Kristina went to the reception desk and took a book for registration from the shelf. The cover is blue, cracked and crumbled at the corners. The sheets were twisted and yellowed.

- Kristy, are you satisfied already?  Robie looked desperately towards the exit.

- No, of course not. Look, you can see the names and signatures here. But the arrival dates are strange, only the years, and even then, everything is written in a different order.

"What are you doing there?"

"I'm registering," the girl replied laughing, and taking a pen out of her jacket pocket, she wrote in the free column: Robert Sloane and Kristina Simon. – Your room is on the third floor, down the corridor to the left.

And Kristina took the key off the board and handed it to her boyfriend.

- Maybe you shouldn't?

"Coward Robie, would you like to see the apartment?"

- The time is almost up, the sun will set soon, and getting to Mom will become more difficult.

"As you wish, I'll take a quick look at the number."

And the girl, without waiting for her boyfriend to decide to keep her company, went towards the elevators, where the stairs were supposed to be located nearby.

The steps, once covered with a carpet, crumbled right underfoot, the wooden railing collapsed, gathering in a toothy heap below. It was damp all around, and small bushes had sprouted somewhere, but the snow clearly couldn't get here. The girl carefully climbed up, pressing herself against the wall with mold, counting the flights.

- Why the third floor?  Robie shouted from below.

- Because it's more fun that way. Catch up, I'm already in the hallway.

 The third floor looked like a place from a horror movie. The darkness swallowed up almost the entire corridor, and it was impossible to tell how many meters it stretched into the depths. To the right of the stairs, a maid's cart was parked against the wall. The neatly folded towels were slowly rotting, and the shampoo bottles were foaming with green liquid. The girl took out her phone and turned on the flashlight. The left side of the corridor appeared in the twilight. Wallpaper was rolling off the walls, and now it was completely impossible to tell what color they were before. Some of the room doors are locked, some are open, but Kristina seemed to be walking to a certain place.

"The first, the second, the third, I think it's this one.

The girl pushed the door open and shone her light inside. The curtains on the windows had decayed, and the light of the winter sun fell on the huge bed. There were two bags and a suitcase by the chairs, from which protruded the ear of a stuffed rabbit with the child's name "Timmy" embroidered on it.

The beam of the flashlight danced across the walls and corners, and a black hand appeared from under the bed, rotted over the months. She slowly reached for the girl's leg, as if afraid to startle her.

"Where are you?" – I went into Robie's room, and the hand immediately disappeared.

"Your eyes look like you've seen a ghost."

- You won't believe it, but I think I heard music. Some kind of New Year's song.

- Fear can do a lot to our minds, believe me, I've read a lot about it.

- Come on, let's get back in the car and go to my mom. I'm not a coward, but it's too creepy.

- Okay, come down, I'll catch up with you now.

Kristina bent down and pulled the rabbit out of the suitcase. The fur remained gray and clean, and did not fit in with the destroyed hotel.

"That's creepy too, Christy. Drop it!

And at that moment, the creaking of floorboards was heard above their heads. The sound shifted, and clearly indicated heavy footsteps.

"You're right, Robie, we've gone too far.

The guy ran out of the room and raced down the corridor to the stairs, the girl ran after him. They were in such a hurry that they didn't notice that the hallway was no longer dark, and the wall sconces were starting to glow with a dim yellow light.

Robie ran down the stairs, turned the corner and almost crashed into the revolving door of the restaurant. The faint New Year's music was coming from there. The door swung open, revealing a bright kitchen with a set table.

"This can't be happening!" – the guy recognized his mother's kitchen in the setting.

There were candles, salads and a signature roast on the table with a burgundy tablecloth embroidered with Christmas toys and snowmen.

- Robert, why are you always late for family holidays? – a woman's voice was heard, which made the hairs on the back of Robie's neck stand on end.

"Mom?"

- Come in quickly, your father will be right there. The garage was covered in snow again, and he'd be working on it for another ten minutes.

The guy took only two hesitant steps forward and the doors creaked shut, blocking the light from the kitchen into the hall.

Kristina went down to the first floor and froze in complete silence.

"Robie, where are you?" Robie!

The girl walked to the center of the hall and stared at the Christmas tree, which just a few minutes ago was rotten and bent. Something has changed! The plant remained bent over, but some of the needles turned greener and the balls became shiny.

- Robie, this is not funny at all! You know I'm skittish.

Music started playing in the hall, and the gray hare fell out of the girl's hands.

"So it's all true, and my parents are here somewhere." Mom, Dad, Timmy!  Kristina rushed back to the stairs. "That old woman wasn't lying when she said that after death, souls need shelter and they're looking for a place nearby. My family should be here.

The stairs looked completely different now. The railing returned to its place, the carpet was restored and covered the steps. Lamps lit up on the spans. The third floor also managed to transform, the wallpaper turned bright yellow, the flowers in the floor vases came to life, and their scent filled the space.

- Mom always said that her favorite hotel room is four, on the third floor.

Kristina opened the door and found herself... at the reception.

"What's going on?" – the girl was dressed in a hotel uniform and was standing at the paperwork desk.

The hall shone with its sophistication and marble, a three-meter spruce sparkled with toys and garlands. People were sitting on burgundy sofas and chatting with each other. The hotel has regained its former splendor.

"This can't be happening!" Robie, where are you?  Christina shouted, and everyone present turned their heads in her direction.

The girl got out from behind the counter and ran to the exit. There was a doorman standing behind the glass door, and beyond that stretched the snowy expanse.

"Let me out!" – the girl beat on the glass with her fists, unable to open the door. The doorman turned and looked at her sadly through Robie's eyes. "Robie, help me!"

"It doesn't mater anymore," he replied, opened the door, and the girl jumped out. But what was her horror when, instead of the street, she found herself back at the reception desk.

- Please register us. We need to be settled in time for the holiday," a young woman holding a little girl's hand asked.

- what?  Kristina asked, not understanding what was going on.

- We definitely need to make it. Otherwise, you'll have to wait a whole year. Registration takes place only on this day, before the new year.

"Register yourself," Kristina threw a book at them and ran out from behind the counter again.

And so it went on and on. Kristina would run out and then find herself back at the check-in place. And Robert was launching more and more new guests, and soon the hall was so full that the hum of voices became unbearable.

"Register us," the woman with the girl asked for the umpteenth time.

"Why?" – Kristina cried, - We are all cursed here and stuck forever.

- That's why registration is needed.

"Okay," Kristina took the book and opened it to the blank pages.

The woman smiled, took a pen and wrote: Margot – one thousand nine hundred and ninety–three, Clara - two thousand sixteen.

Kristina turned the book towards her and realized that they needed to go upstairs.

"The desk clerk will show you out," she replied, and added "two thousand twenty-two."

After the woman, a man came up, and for some reason, Kristina, without understanding why, sent him downstairs. Feeling that he was different from many who came to the hotel.

"This is a record of life and death," she whispered, examining the book while the next customers lingered at the counter. I flipped through the pages and found the dates of my parents and brother. A cheerful New Year's melody was playing behind his back. "So Robie and I are dead, too?"

And she started looking for their names. After all, she made a record with her own hands at the very beginning, when they first entered the hotel. Does that mean she killed herself and Robie? The pages opened, and the book fell to the floor.

"I'll sign up," the old man asked, barely able to stand, but smiling. 

"Sure, just a second," Kristina bent down to pick up the book, on the pages of which were written: Kristina – one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight, dash, eternity. Robert– nineteen ninety-five, dash, eternity.

"My name is Larry," the old man said.

"Welcome to the Ante Eternum Hotel, Larry. I've signed you up. You go upstairs, the receptionist will show you," Kristina smiled sadly and made an entry in the registration book. And music was playing behind him, people in the lobby were gradually leaving, the fir tree was leaning more and more towards the floor, the light was beginning to fade, warning that the new year was coming, and those who did not register on time would have to wait in the dark for the next day of registration. He will walk around a ruined hotel with a decomposing body and yearn for a past life, in a place where souls find shelter before eternity.