Hotel and Hedge Maze

A tall white block stood above the hedges and orchids while the sun rose. There was a pathway straight to the doors that contained golden knobs. An angel statue stood next to the doors looking innocent. A visitor arrived with a suitcase and a bag, and she knocked on the door. She was excited that she could not wait patiently to explore the pretty world inside.

When no one opened the door this morning, Vanilla, a visitor, stared at the angel statue. She thought she saw the wings flutter and said, “This is not fantasy, is it?”

The maid opened the door as Vanilla stood there baffled at the statue. The maid snapped her fingers, “Are you the visitor for the month?”

Vanilla stuttered, “Y-y-yes, ma’am.”

After the maid closed the door, Vanilla moved her belongings into the living room. The angel statue grinned mischievously. While Vanilla sat on the sofa and looked at the picture frames with silhouettes, the maid gave her the cup of tea and biscuits from the kitchen. Vanilla ate those slowly. “It is so sweet.”

Then, the maid led her upstairs to room 50. Vanilla thanked her and opened the door. “Something smelled like cigarettes,” she thought and dropped her things to find the maid, who was on the staircase. The maid said, “I already cleaned the room yesterday.

Vanilla said, “No, the room smells like cigarettes. You need to come and look.”

The maid followed her to the room. They found nothing as the smell was gone. Vanilla was lost in thought when the maid said, “I need to make lunch so you can stay here.”

Vanilla went inside with her belongings and put them on the carpet. She sat on the bed and thought, “How are the cigarettes not here? Is this a fantasy?”

She explored the closet with curiosity. Suddenly, she found the golden box with a lock outside. She grabbed the box and put it on the bed. She looked around for the golden key, which was not there.

So she went into the hallway in search of the key. Before the maid called her, Vanilla looked at the angel statuette, on the pane in the farthest hallway. That one was smiling, so she ran and bumped into the tall, dark angel’s torso. Then, she looked up as the angel grinned.

The maid shouted her name, “Vanilla!”

The visitor snapped in the maid’s embrace. Her mouth dropped open as the maid shook her hard, “Vanilla, it is lunchtime.”

Vanilla said, “I saw something… that looks like an angel… with large wings… and a smile… that… makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“First, you have to eat lunch. Then, we talk about it.”

In the living room, Vanilla did not eat lunch. She instead hears a story than to explores the hotel. Her thoughts were saying, “Who is that angel? Is that real? Is that a fantasy-like creature? Am I the crazy one here?”

The maid sits beside her at the table and says, “The angel is not what you see. It is a boy dressed in a long robe and has large feathered wings. He was there to impress visitors with his smile.”

Vanilla said, “So is a boy trying to impress me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What he wants to do next?”

“It is unpredictable.”

“What about the statue on the porch?”

“That one… This hotel has many statues, small and large. The boy can bring it to life with his mind and tricks that you see smiles, but it is all just imagination.”

“Creepy.”

“You can go to your room, and I will call you for dinner.”

In room 50, the visitor lay on the bed thinking nothing but wishing the hotel not to give her the creeps. The smile of an angel is the wickedest one. She did not know why she, was brought here. Her parents were out of town for the month that she assumed was the best vacation for them. Vanilla never experienced lonely times on vacation. The hotel experience is the first.

Then, her eyes snapped open to the shadow at the end of the bed. She moved to the side and was on the floor. She stood as the shadow disappeared. “That one is different. It cannot be the angel statue,” she muttered.

She went to the bathroom to wash her face and hands. The angel statuette was in the bathtub. She heard the faucet turning. Eventually, she looked at the tub with shock. Dark angel was smiling at her with his hands on the tub. She turned off the sink and exited the bathroom to dry with the towel. She said, “That is not happening.”

She turned her head to see the angel in the long towel. “Did you just shower?” she asked while her face was red.

He approached her with his hand out to her face. She moved to the bed. He was at the edge of the bed and smiled. She said, “Do not hit me, please.”

Unfortunately, the maid was here holding her shoulders tightly, “Vanilla, it is dinnertime.”

“What did I just see?” Vanilla said.

The maid left first. The visitor sat on the bed. Then, the towel fell to be soft and warm. She stood and went out of the room. As the door closed behind her, the angel statuette on the window pane smiled again.

Vanilla sat on the chair with her stomach growling. The foods on the table were delicious and savory. She grabbed the drumstick and added the barbecue sauce on top; finally, she ate it slowly. The maid dropped off the suspicious cake at the center of the table. Vanilla asked, “What is that? A birthday cake?”

“No, it is for us.”

“That cake is big and round with lots of frosting and…” she found the pair of wings on a candle symbolizing the dark angel.

The maid explained, “He is joining us now for dinner.”

Vanilla dropped the bone onto the plate, and she stood. Before she could leave, the man appeared in a tuxedo and smiled at her wishing her to stay. Vanilla felt suspense in the air. Will I move or sit down as if nothing happens to me? She sat down on the chair with her head down. My life is going to end soon or in a month. Finally, she sighed deeply.

What made her feel uncomfortable, he sat across from her. He was looking at her with indifference. Still looking down at the plate, Vanilla cannot think of an escape. The maid said, “Welcome, Sir Max.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

His eyes glued on Vanilla, who did not move at all. He asked, “What is your name?”

Vanilla looked up and said, “Vanilla. Vanilla Mart.”

“What a beautiful name.”

“Uh, thanks.”

All three at the table sang a birthday song to the angel. She thought that the dark angel’s birthday was today. The maid cut the cake into slices and gave one to Sir Max, Vanilla, and herself. Vanilla stared at the candle with angel wings on the cake.

Suddenly, she took out the candle from the cake. She found the key to the golden box, which stayed in the room. Sir Max said, “The key has chosen you, Vanilla.”

She looked at him in shock, “Chosen one? You mean the box?”

“You can open it later.”

Everyone ate their slices except Vanilla, who stared at the key for any clue. She asked, “Where is the dark angel? You know that his birthday is today?”

Sir Max grunted, “He passed not too ago.”

The maid added, “Not to worry about it, Vanilla.”

The visitor went upstairs to reach the room. She entered and found the box on the bed. She plugged the key into the lock to turn it, but the box moved by the smoke. She smelled the cigarettes in the air.

“Dark angel,” she called him. “Are you on drugs?”

“Give me the key!” he demanded.

“The key has chosen me,” she said.

“Now or never!”

So she submitted the candle with angel wings to his hand. He smiled, “Looks are deceiving. The box is not what you see as a lucky box.”

“You mean the Pandora’s box? I am Pandora, the curious lady trying to open the box and unleash--” Her hands are on the box.

“Give me the box.”

She handed him the box with disappointment. “Why?” she asked.

“You will unleash all the evils and sufferings into the world you live in. Evils are from Adam and Eve’s first sin. I am just warning you.”

Vanilla sat on the bed thinking hard while the dark angel rushed to fly away into the night. He would drop this box into the unforeseen hedge, where he died not too long ago. He thought this would heal his heart from damage. Before he can do that, he must hide the box and key from the maid. If the maid found him carrying those things, she would be furious and call for help. He would be dead for good.

The maid knocked on the door interrupting Vanilla from her thoughts. When the visitor opened the door, the maid said, “You need to shower and sleep.”

“The candle and box are gone.”

The maid asked, “Who takes them?”

Vanilla shrugged. “No idea.”

The maid slammed the door in her face. Vanilla thought, “The maid is not nice. What is her problem? Did she want the box so badly than me? I need to follow her.”

Vanilla found the hotel doors open, so she ran outside, and the maid in the hedge maze, who was looking for the items in the darkness. Vanilla gasped that the angel statue was on the porch quietly with a candle and box in his hands. He was smiling.

He said, “Thanks for your help.”

Vanilla blushed, “I-I did not. I shrug because the consequences are cruel to the world.”

“Lead the maid to the vines, where her daughter slipped and fell to her death.”

“In the hedge maze?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Sir Max was already behind Vanilla. He heard the last words and touched Vanilla by surprise. Then, the angel statue vanished before he got caught. Sir Max demanded, “I heard you and my son are working together, wanting the maid to die.”

Vanilla reassured him, “We are not doing that. We are-- err, um, she needs sleep.”

“Ladies need sleep. You look tired, ma’am,” he looked at the maid, who was in dirty clothes. Her face was sad and tired. She walked past the visitors to the room and showered.

Sir Max and Vanilla were in the living room, communicating quietly. Sir Max warned her not to bring death to the maid because she befriended him since his son passed away. Vanilla wanted to know more about a thing or two between him and the maid. He insisted, “Tomorrow over breakfast.”

“Aww, okay.”

Vanilla showered and slept in the bed with a Minion plushie from the bag. She slept soundlessly with it while the smoke came into her room. It was the dark angel and the two items. He smiled at her and slept with her throughout the night.

The maid knocked on the door and opened it. Then, she found the usual hair next to Vanilla’s head. She came to remove the blanket, a dark angel woke up, and finally, he vanished with the items before she took them. That made Vanilla open her eyes and find the maid looking angry at the empty side of the bed. Vanilla asked, but the maid stormed out of the room.

At the dining table, Sir Max welcomed the maid and talked about the story to Vanilla, who listened carefully. The maid screamed and threw the plates on the floor. She did not say a single word. Sir Max said, “She is not sleeping well, I guess.”

“Right,” Vanilla agreed.

The maid pointed her finger at Vanilla, saying, “I saw her sleep with your son, Sir Max.”

“I did not see him. It was empty on my right side,” Vanilla said.

“Then, that is your imagination? Huh? You are one crazy lady here. I will kill you.”

Before the maid chokes the visitor, Sir Max puts himself between these two females. He said, “Just calm down, ma’am.”

“I am not a ma’am. Just call me Lucy.”

“Lucy, calm down,” Sir Max reassured her.

“Not until I kill the girl and--”

The maid fell on her belly and was silent. The dark angel has knocked her out with the golden box. He looked at her with harsh treatment and said, “You are the troublemaker, Lucy. You should mind your business the way your daughter is supposed to be in the first place!”

“Son, you should have gone!” Sir Max shouted.

“I came to finish my job.”

Before Vanilla asks, the maid stands and grabs the candle key. She is using it to stab the angel’s torso. She was angry for pushing her down to the floor. He turned into smoke, so the box vanished. The maid ran around the hotel until she was tired.

Sir Max said, “He should have gone before the maid tried to kill him.”

“I want to ask him, but he runs away from Lucy.”

“This has to stop completely.”

For an entire month at the hotel, Lucy, a maid, was restless and destroyed many things inside each room, including the rooms downstairs and the kitchen. All she wanted to do was to catch the dark angel and get the box to unlock to release her daughter, the evil one.

Vanilla grabbed her belongings from room 50. She was already outside looking at the sad hotel. Sir Max came with a cell phone talking to the police. The car parked at the edge of a maze and two police people, who reached the building to find the maniac.

Sir Max approached her and said, “This is for her good.”

“What about the dark angel? I have not seen him in a while,” she said.

“I hope my son is okay.”

What she noticed was the dark angel holding the box with his face. He has decided to crush it with his pair of dark wings. She ran towards him, but the wings covered him completely. She heard the box crushed open as Sir Max explained, “That is his job.”

“To destroy the box forever so there will be no more troubles in the world,” she said.

The police came with the maid in handcuffs. They were already in the car. The maid said nothing to both Vanilla and Sir Max. She already loses the battle for her daughter. Then, the vehicle has driven off away.

The wings around the angel disappeared. Vanilla touched his shoulder, so he turned around as a human boy. She asked, “Are you okay, dark angel?”

“I am no longer a dark angel. I am a human boy.”

“So, what is your name?” she smiled.

“Michael Max.” He stood to embrace Vanilla. “Thank you, Vanilla.”

She blushed once more while the candle with angel wings burned in the kitchen fire and exploded the hotel to pieces. The big smoke released heavy cigarettes. Sir Max shouted at the children to move away from the fire. Trio was at the edge of the maze looking at the stunning fire until nightfall.

“At last, that is the end of their crazy lives,” Michael said with a smile.