The Swiss Murder | Completed

5. The Arrival

This chapter is dedicated to @debrlynn! Thank you so much for your constant support! Your comments make my day ❤

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"Hey Eric, let's go."

Eric snapped out of his trance and looked towards the source of the voice, it was Emma. He looked at her for a second, he didn't feel like responding, didn't feel like doing anything really. He just wanted to sleep. Emma cleared her throat and motioned him to get moving. The others were already a few steps ahead of them.

Sighing, he grabbed his luggage and walked in the same direction as others. He was so tired and it took great effort to even move. Why was he feeling this way? Maybe the fight with Anthony?

He always hated it when they fought, which was getting frequent now that he thought about it.

Ever since...

No, he wouldn't think about it, he had promised his parents. It had left a huge, dark mark on his life, tainted it into oblivion. He wasn't about to let it ruin his trip too. And that was final.

He walked past by Emma while in his thoughts, her expression only registering in his mind a few seconds later. She looked hurt. Hurt and worried. But why? He was so confused. But then realized he had practically ignored her. He mentally kicked himself.

Soon, he was going to tell her everything soon, he vowed to himself. Eric hated seeing his childhood friend like this and it killed him to keep his darkest secret hidden from her.

An hour later, they were all seated at the hotel reception, waiting for their room keys. The hotel was definitely something. It was built like a mansion and was luxurious in a minimal, sophisticated style. It wasn't very big, the whole setting was very intimate and cozy and the friends felt comfortable as soon as they had entered the hotel.

They were greeted by the hotel manager, Robert, who extended a warm welcome to the group, making them feel at ease instantly. He offered to give them a tour of the hotel to which they all agreed, even though they could barely walk now. But who could resist the beauty and charm of a cozy and luxurious hotel?

There were two floors of the hotel, with the top one partitioned into four sections and the bottom partitioned into two sections, the West and East wings. The top floor hosted all the rooms, each wing containing 8 rooms, making it 32 rooms in total on the whole floor. The East and West wing had a terrace at the ends of the corridor, whereas the other two sections didn't.

The ground floor had the dining room, common room, and a beautiful library loaded with books. When Anthony heard about this, he couldn't stop beaming from ear to ear. Books were his whole life.

The whole mansion was littered with subtle clues about Christmas, but once the friends made it upstairs, it was hard to ignore the huge Christmas tree glowing in the middle of the intersection of the four wings. Once again, the group was left speechless but also felt at home seeing the familiar setting.

They had all been assigned the North wing, with Scarlett, Anthony, and Emma at one side of the corridor, and Eric and Carter at the opposite side, facing their rooms. The manager informed them about the dinner timing and with that, he parted with the rest of them to give them time to freshen up.

Minutes later, they were all gathered in Emma's room, urging her to hurry up before they leave her alone and go downstairs to eat. But their threats only fell on deaf ears as she still insisted on wearing the perfect loungewear for today. Anthony didn't know how many times he rolled his eyes at that. Women.