Oh, hello. My name is Andrew. Have you come to hear my sorry tale? I know, this room may look a bit odd, but it’s all metaphorical. Listen in and you may come to understand.

It was my first day on the job. Maybe it’s yours too, I don’t know. I was working in this very building. Floors 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 were dedicated meeting rooms for confrences, and every floor upward of that was hotel rooms.

Yes, I know I didn’t mention the third floor. I’m getting to it.

Anyways, I was supposed to go to the fourth floor to prepare a room for a conference. But without realizing it, I pressed the wrong button and ended up on the third floor.

I walked into a hall with one single door at the end. This didn’t seem right, so I looked back at the elevator and saw that it said it was floor three. I should have turned around right there and then, walked straight into the elevator, and gone right back to my normal life. But I didn’t.

I felt a pull towards the door, as though some other entity was tugging at me, encouraging me to explore. I couldn’t stand my curiosity. I reached for the handl of the only door, and walked right into this room.

It was completely red. Completely red. Crimson walls reflected the bright blood-red lights beaming not that high above. In the middle of the room was a huge four poster bed with perfectly fitted maroon sheets and red pillows. And on the bed, splayed across it face-down, was a woman, blood trickling down her arm.

Being the fool I am, i ran to her side and felt her wrist that dangled off the bed. There was a pulse, but it was faint. “Are you okay?” I asked.

She moaned and sat up, looking me in the eye. “I- I think I’m okay…”

She smirked suddenly. “You? I’m not so sure.”

She bore down upon me with such severe force I started. Her mouth opened and I saw fangs.

Then she sliced down, and pain exploded in my arm. She bit me with all her force, giving me so much agony i howled.

“I’m free! I’m finally free! She shrieked with joy as she watched in amazement and mad wonder as the blood slowly vanished on her arm, healing her, and just before the last blemish vanished, I noticed two marks on her arm.

Much like the new ones on my arms right now.

The pain was becoming unbearable. I yelled and splayed myself across the bed, shuddering as I tried to endure the agony.

She patted me on back. “I’m sorry it had to be you. But it must be. The woman who bit me said so. But don’t worry, soon you will be released.”

She walked out the door then, a soul for another, as I lay on the bed, trying to quell the whimpering as spasms of pain rippled up my arm.

I couldn’t move, nor speak or cry out. I lay there for hours, days, weeks, was it months? I don’t know.

But then you came along, assumably by the same ways as I. And now the words of the woman make sense at last.

Don’t worry, soon someone will release you, too.

I’m sorry, though. In another world, we could have been friends.

Enjoy your time in this room. You may as well get to know it. You wil be here for a long, long time.