Let it Snow!

❄Twenty-Five❄

The electrical lighting of the windowless interior, Nora noticed, was chosen with great care. A multitude of small, flame-shaped lamps mounted along the wall suffused the long hall, and the stone spiral staircase lined with several closed doors into which it morphed, in warm but soft, flickering, candle-like light.

Nora followed Daniel down the hall and up the staircase; they must have climbed up a couple of floors at least before they stopped in front of one of the locked doors. Nora sighed, realising that she hadn't been paying enough attention to the doors along the way to recognise this one from the others, should she ever need to find it alone.

Daniel pointed out another key from the chain she held in her hand for her, this one looking a little more old-fashioned than the first. There were two more, nearly identical, and one large, very old skeleton key still left.

She unlocked the door, and they walked into another long hall. This one was illuminated by the weak wintry light fighting its way in through a small window set into a very thick wall, half buried under snow, at one end, and finishing in another locked door on the other.

"That leads to the hotel," Daniel explained, noticing her observing the door. "And this key opens it."

He touched the right key, then pointed to the one next to it. "And this one's from the flat, come on, this way."

He took her hand and tugged her to the only other door in the hall, situated close to the window. Nora unlocked it for him, and he pushed it open, making Nora gasp.

They found themselves inside one of the towers, judging by the roundness of the large room they walked into, incredibly bright after the halls because of the white, snow-reflected light streaming in from three different sides, through tall, arched, diamond lattice windows, framed by deep blue velvet curtains. The effect which the not perfectly clear glass panels bestowed on the light as it filtered within the tower was something wonderful, ethereal, nearly fairytale-like.

Daniel pulled at her sleeve to get her attention and showed her a box full of slippers, for her to find herself a fitting pair, while he took his shoes and coat off. Nora followed his example and picked up the coat he let drop on a low wooden bench by the door, looking around for a fireplace and a couple of chairs where she could spread the damp clothes to let them dry.

She found the fireplace easily enough, behind a huge, white sofa, but it was swept clean and looked as if it wasn't used daily. However, the place felt much warmer than her cottage, even with all the fires on. In the end, she took a couple of hangers from a small wardrobe serving to store spare shoes, hats, scarves, and keys, and abandoned their damp things on the clothes rack fitted above the bench.

Nora walked across the open plan room towards the kitchen area and hung her handbag on the back of a chair, one of four placed around a round dining table made of dark wood. She took her phone out to check if she had missed any calls and found a text from Martin, sent twenty minutes ago.

'I'm sorry I couldn't pick you two up in this snowfall. Hope you got home safely, don't hesitate to call should you need anything.'

'Thank you.' She typed back. 'We have just arrived. See you later.'

She was tempted to add that he should be careful on the road if he was driving, but checked herself at the last moment, thinking that it wasn't entirely appropriate for someone who decided to retreat into his friend zone... Why does everything have to be so difficult?! she despaired, her eyes following a couple of flying ravens beyond the window, black ghosts drifting through the feather-like, white fluff falling from the infinite grey clouds.

"Daniel," Nora called once she slipped the phone back inside her bag, noticing that the boy had vanished. There weren't many places to hide in the round room furnished with a half-moon-shaped sofa and a coffee table, taking up the part of the room by the fireplace, a nest of blankets surrounded by a multitude of Lego constructions next to it on the left, an ancient looking writing desk and a high-backed matching chair under one of three windows to the right, and the kitchen opposite. There was only one door leading to some other room not far from the fireplace, and, beyond the writing desk, another spiral staircase-- this one made of dark wood like the old parquet and all the wooden furniture of the room, leading higher up, to the next floor of the tower. "I think I need your help, just this time, please. Would you show me around?"