24 Zuideinde

On Wednesday, at eight in the morning, Graham Hymes was waiting sleepily for a public motor carriage. He had had a quick breakfast of a street stall sandwich. The city was getting colder and colder each day, but not as cold as winter yet. Graham was still wearing his trench coat and a trilby. His hands were covered in gloves. He carried a briefcase full of candles and paper and other necessary stuff.

Graham had a feeling that he might have to stay longer in Zuideinde, so he was prepared. He had also told Luuk of his plan to steal the artifact and instructed him to visit Jacco in his restaurant to brief him about the plan. He had promised to come today, but he might not be able to if he was still not done with his business.

One moment later, a public motor carriage pulled over after seeing Graham's hailing him. Graham walked up to the driver's side first and asked,

"Are you willing to take me to Zuideinde?"

The driver seemed to be thinking for a while before he finally said, "I'm really sorry. I can't drive that far."

It was indeed rather difficult to find someone who was willing to drive people that far-- Zuideinde was two hours away after all. But it wasn't impossible, because many people still needed to go to and from there, so the drivers could still make money by carrying passengers too on the way back.

He waited and hailed more motor carriages, but most of them refused to drive that far. Graham got curious why a lot more drivers refused to drive there. It was definitely not normal. He stopped one and after the driver refused, he asked,

"Why are all the drivers refusing to drive to Zuideinde?"

"Haven't you heard, mister? They said there was a ghost there! One driver saw one while driving and he was scared shitless!" the driver said with full-blown emotion.

Graham frowned. He had never seen ghosts and didn't use to believe in them. However, after entering the world of Contractbounds, he wouldn't be surprised if ghosts were also real. He asked the driver curiously, "What happened to that driver?"

"He drove as fast as he could away from that area and hit an electric pole. He is lucky to have stayed alive. Now all drivers don't dare to drive there."

Graham thought that it would be impossible to just wait for a driver who was willing to drive him there. They would most likely all refuse. He decided to just use his power to convince this one. He looked at the driver in the eyes, his own eyes glowing red under his contact lenses.

"You will take me there, right? Because I'll pay you extra if you do, and I'll make sure you're safe," he said with a convincing tone.

The driver looked confused for a short period of time and then finally nodded slowly. He gestured Graham to enter and started driving once he was inside. To get to their destination, he needed to go west from Tuinstraat and turn left towards the south at the first intersection. From there, he only needed to drive straight south until they reached Zuideinde. It was an easy route. The distance was the only problem before, but now the ghost rumor was a problem on top of that.

A lot of trees were visible from inside the carriage, and once they made the turn, the view changed to tall buildings and a lot of stores. A lot more motor carriages were driving in the street, with bicycles driving slowly on the side of the street. Graham had once thought about buying a bicycle, but he decided against it. It was too impractical because he would often need to abandon it to go to places that bicycles couldn't reach.

The city view lasted for about an hour. The further south they went, the viewer tall buildings they saw. The buildings were slowly replaced by houses and apartments, and they were slowly replaced by farms and fields. There were corn and wheat fields on each side. There were people working on the field with heavy machinery that Graham only knew as a tractor. He didn't know the different kinds. To him, they were all tractors.

The further south, the view became different. There were tulip fields, but the flowers were not blooming in that season. The place would be a tourist destination when the tulips were blooming.

After driving for two hours, the motor carriage that he was in went under an arch with the sign 'Zuideinde'. He had arrived at his destination, and without seeing any ghosts. He asked the driver how much the normal fare was.

"Usually it's fifty duits," the driver said. He seemed rather tired after driving for a while.

"Here you go, plus the extra for your trouble. If by the time I'm finished you're still around, can you take me back to central?" Graham slid three coins of twenty duits through the gap in the glass divider.

The driver took the bronze-colored coins and thanked his passenger. He watched Graham got out of his motor carriage and drove away to another location still within Zuideinde. He wanted to rest there and find another passenger before driving back to central.

Graham was looking around. He had been in the area before but not often, so he was not familiar with it. The place was not as busy as other parts of Sloten, not even East Sloten. Zuideinde belonged to South Sloten, and it was mostly a tourist area. But since it was autumn, the main tourist attraction was not available, so not a lot of tourists were there. The people currently there were mostly locals. In winter, the place will start getting busy again for the winter festival.

Graham walked around to look for a hotel. He needed to rent a room just for the day to do his divination. He couldn't just do it out in the open because it would attract too much attention. After walking for a while, he stumbled upon a small two-story hotel called 'The Hotel'. Graham looked at the sign for a while.

"Val, this hotel name sounds like the worst name, but at the same time the best."

He entered the hotel and came up to the reception table. There was a teenage boy at the reception table, probably sixteen or seventeen years old. He was wearing a shirt under a vest, looking professional. He stood up when he saw Graham and greeted him with a clumsy smile.

"Good morning, Sir. Welcome to The Hotel. How can I help you?" he tried to sound more mature, but his inexperience was apparent in his tone.

"Morning. I'd like a room, please. Do you accept hourly rent?"

"Uhm..." the boy looked unsure, "Let me ask my dad-- the manager first." he entered the room behind the reception desk.

"This seems to be a family-owned hotel," Graham concluded.

He looked around the hotel interior while waiting for the boy to come back. The inside of the hotel was all wooden, so it gave off a classic vibe. The lobby itself wasn't huge, but it was nicely decorated with flowers and paintings. The sofas available looked comfortable.

Not long after, the boy came back still with his clumsy smile. "Yes, we do, Sir. The shortest duration is half a day, though."

"That's good enough. I'll take one room."

"Can I borrow your identity card, Sir?"

Graham gave his identity card to the boy and he wrote down the detail on the guestbook. After he was done, he returned the card to its owner. He turned at Graham and said, "Your room is number twenty-five on the second floor. Here's the key."

Graham took the key that the boy was handing over and asked, "Just out of curiosity, who named this hotel 'The Hotel'?"

"That was my Grandfather, Sir. This is a family-owned hotel."

Graham nodded and showed a face of approval. He then asked another question, "Do you work full-time here?"

"No, Sir. The usual receptionist is sick, so I'm helping out around here." the boy said politely.

Graham nodded. He then thanked the receptionist and headed to the second floor.

"Enjoy your stay at The Hotel!" the boy shouted enthusiastically.

The staircase creaked under his weight. He walked slowly not to make too much noise. The second floor looked similar to the first floor, with the wooden interior. There were several rooms down the corridor. Graham looked for his room, which was number twenty-five. It was the fifth room on the right. He unlocked the door and entered the room.

The hotel room was not huge, but it had enough space. It was also nicely decorated and felt comfortable, although the floors creaked. There was a king-sized bed and a small television. Graham looked through the curtain and from his room he could see the tulip fields unobstructed because there were not many tall buildings there.

He went over to the table after turning off the light and shutting the curtains. He took out the candles from his briefcase and set it up for the ritual. Once the votive candles were in formation, he lit them one by one in the usual order. After that, he repeated a question in his mind and concentrated. He had a feeling that his divination would be more successful because he was closer to the area.

'Where can I find the information regarding the death threat?'

After a while, the room became dark and the flames burned brightly. Gradually, a blurry image appeared in the flames. It was of an old, abandoned-looking house in the middle of an overgrown field. The image gradually disappeared after showing Graham what he needed to know. The room slowly became normal again after that.

Without putting out the candles, he took a piece of paper and wrote something on it.

'There is danger waiting for me in the abandoned house in the middle of the field.'

Graham lit the paper on fire using the flame from the candle. It very slowly burned and consumed the whole paper.

"So, there is danger, but it's not life-threatening."

Graham then looked back at the still burning flames and concentrated. He repeated his next question in his mind.

'What is the danger that is waiting for me in the abandoned house?'

After a while, the room became dark and silent. A blurry image slowly appeared in the flames. It was too blurry, more so than usual, so Graham couldn't make out what it was, but it looked like an ethereal figure with no defining features. After that, the image disappeared little by little. The room turned normal.

"Was that the ghost from the rumor?" Graham was surprised.

His divination had shown him that the level of danger was still acceptable. It wouldn't be a mortal danger, but he was still baffled.

"How in the world am I supposed to deal with a ghost?!"