Florida Gothic

Due to my Sins and Obligations, I had to drive one thousand miles to Florida for one day, then drive back. It is a decent sized town between Disney Territory and the coast. There is nothing here of note. 

I am the only person in this motel. Thirty-nine empty rooms, me, and the people running it. Second, there are only four non-chain restaurants within three miles of here. Three are variations on MALE FIRST NAME's Pizza Place, and the 4th is YOU GET CRABS. That is literally the name. There are, however, two Walmarts and a Target within three miles. Somehow.

So I decide to go to Crab Place, which is in the Target parking lot. About two miles, twenty-five minutes walk or so. On the way there, I realize that both the roads out from my hotel are one way, both going east. Something like three-quarters of the roads in this town are one way, and that way is Not The Way You Want To Go. I find out that most of the roads that are bidirectional are shut down because of work on the railroad.

Walking, I decide to take a short cut across a parking lot. There are some kiosks and stuff, the usual Southern market fare. Towels, fireworks, drug accessories, whatever. I end up getting accosted by a man in a dishdasha, trying to sell me carpets. After checking to make sure that I was not pickpocketed by urchins, I made my way beyond. Everything feels normal for the next few minutes, I think, but then something hits me.

I can, from this vantage at the halfway point, see three separate billboards advertising different laser hair removal companies. All of them have a hairless cat somewhere on the billboard. Why three? How can there be three here?

Get to CRAB, I eat quickly and leave. Nothing odd there that cannot be explained by being in a place named YOU GET CRABS. I head into Target, because my shampoo busted. Someone walks out pushing a cart with five big screen TVs in it. It struck me as very sinister. I cannot explain why.

I head back to the hotel. Waiting at a light for traffic to change, someone hands me three dollars and drives away. Like I was begging by standing there A few lights later, two people wearing gorilla mascot costumes and riding rascal scooters drive into traffic without waiting for the light to change. They make it across without dying.

At the hotel. I go to the front desk to ask for a towel. There is no one there. I am totally alone in this hotel right now. I open the room’s fridge to put some sodas in there, and end up spending an hour convincing myself the red streak stains are just pasta sauce.

There is a door in my room that leads nowhere. I open it, and there is just the wall. Even the wainscoting continues across. I blocked the door with the dresser. There is a desiccated lizard corpse under that. 

I am alone.

In 12 hours, I will be out of here. But my mind will always be ready to be cast back. To the town where the sun hid its face, and the sky wept at the acts done beneath it.