•GOLDEN HOUR• WALLY CLARK

•CHAPTER 1•

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

MAY 5, 1989
SPLIT RIVER HIGH SCHOOL

Lori Love walked the halls of the high school numbly. The music in her walkman was turned up to full volume, she was trapped in her own mind.

At school, she kept to herself, she was very much the definition of a wallflower. People didn't talk to her, but they didn't make fun of her either, she was always just invisible.

"Welcome to the Hotel California. Such a lovely place. Such a lovely face. Plenty of room at the Hotel California. Any time of year. You can find it here." She muttered as she clutched on to her books.

High school was supposed to be the best years of your life... but to Lori, school was her hell. She counted down the days until she would be able to graduate, just 22 more days. Just 22 more days and she would be rid of that place forever.

She took a short cut to her Food and Nutrition class, passing by the football trophy stand, displayed in a lonely hallway.

She sighed in relief as she sat her stuff down on the floor next to her chair, this was her last period of the day.

"Miss Lori, good afternoon," she was greeted by her teacher. She scooted her headphone away from her ear so she could hear, "good afternoon Mrs. Blanken."

Her teacher smiled before gathering objects for the days assignment.

"Oh shoot!" Mrs. Blanken stated, looking around at the ingredients. "I ran out of flour, Lori could you please go down to the storage facility to grab some?"

Lori looked around at the empty room, her short cut got her there faster than she thought, "sure Mrs. Blanken."

She smiled and scooted out of her seat, once again placing her Walkman headphones over her ears as she made her way towards the basement.

This wasn't her first time finding supplies for the teacher, so it wasn't unusual for her to ask this of her, Mrs. Blanken was known as the airhead teacher.

Lori's eyes scanned the stored foods on the high shelves, looking for the product needed.

Her eyes stopped when they hit the top shelf. She looked around for a ladder she could grab but there were none in sight.

Her eyebrows scrunched in thought as she began to think of how she would be able to get this flour.

She tried to jump up and grab it, she tried to find another item she could use to knock it down with, but nothing seemed to work.

She sighed in frustration as she stepped on the shelf and began to climb up the shelves, this was her last resort.

She reached the top, grabbing the flour with a relieved smile. She began to climb back down as the shelves began to shake.

She screamed as she fell to the floor, the shelves falling down after her. Her last sight was the shelves and stored products coming quickly down on top of her.

It went dark from there.

Her eyes shot open shortly after that. Her expression became horrified as she saw her body limp under the shelves. She froze. A couple minutes later, a student came down calling her name.