Age of Men

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  Age of Men

  By Eduard Joseph

  Published by Eduard Joseph

  Copyright 2016 Eduard Joseph

  Front cover design by Eduard Joseph

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  This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are

  not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. Any resemblance to any person or

  persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved

  The right of Eduard Joseph to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the South African Copyright Act of 1978 (as amended).

  1

  Australian Airways Flight 19, an Airbus A83 on the return flight of its maiden voyage, was on its way to Sydney Airport and had a crew of seventeen with a passenger load of three hundred and three passengers; amongst the passengers were Samantha Woodster and her teenage son, Alex.

  She had just received a promotion for the company she worked for – meaning that she had to leave her life and everyone she knew behind to move to Sydney. The new position was at their head office and came with a six figure salary. Though it took her almost ten years, her life was finally steering into the right direction; she had a deadbeat husband who walked out on them, a horrible apartment and a job that gave her enough stress for two lifetimes, but in life you can’t gain without pain… and she was finally gaining on the good things in life.

  Alex on the other hand, wasn’t happy about leaving behind his friends to move to some stupid island filled with kangaroos. He wanted to stay in the town he grew up with his best friend, Peter. Everyone he knew was back home, including the girl he started dating a few weeks before they moved. Her name was Michelle and though she might not have been the most popular or prettiest girl in school, Alex adored her.

  They’d been on only three dates, but Alex knew that she was the girl for him and even started saving up some money from his paper-round to buy her a bracelet for her birthday next month… but, now he’d never see her again. He didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her as she was away for spring break with her family when his mom decided to up and go in two days.

  Samantha sat at the window staring out, though there was not much to see out in the night’s sky except dark clouds spread out across the horizon like a wool blanket. Alex played a game on his portable gaming device while she dreamt about their new life in Sydney. The firm had already arranged accommodation near the beach and from the photos Samantha could tell that it was the perfect place to call home. Home was where the heart was and while her heart was steering them towards Sydney, Alex’s heart was back in his old town.

  She turned to Alex who had been giving her the cold shoulder for the last few days. He was at a very difficult stage of his teen years and blamed her for everything that went wrong in his life, and the move only made his case that much stronger. She knew that it was only a phase as she too once was young and misunderstood – but not as misunderstood as him.

  Alex was the best thing that had ever happened to her. His father simply walked out on them when he was just a baby which was probably the best gift he could ever give her. She never heard from him since and she never bothered trying to get in touch with him either. She heard of too many women who got in contact with a deadbeat husband and then ended up in a lengthy custody battle over a child he never wanted in the first place.

  Though Alex hated her at that moment, she knew – or rather hoped – that he would one day realize that she only did what she thought was best for him and that a better life awaited him in Sydney.

  The flight attendant talking next to Alex made Samantha look up.

  “Can I bring you something to drink?” The flight attendant asked.

  “A coffee would be nice.” Samantha said with a smile.

  Samantha turned to Alex whom was ignoring her and the stewardess. He was more interested in his violent zombie-killing game. He decided if he ignored his mother enough she might realize what a big mistake the relocation was and change her mind.

  “What would you like?” Samantha asked him.

  “Beer.” Alex mumbled without looking up.

  She resented the rebel years, but decided to play it cool when it came to her son’s mood swings. Samantha looked up at the flight attendant and smiled.

  “He’ll have a soda.” Samantha said.

  The flight attendant nodded and moved on as Alex grunted in frustration.

  Samantha glanced over at Alex and wished she could make him understand that she’s only trying to do what she thought would be best for him. He constantly complained that he was unhappy back home and now that they were moving he complained about that as well. Yes, it was indeed sad that the move happened when he finally met a nice girl, but he was still young and there were plenty of nice girls down under.

  “I know you hate me.” Samantha said.

  Alex ignored her and continued with his game.

  “I didn’t want to leave our life behind either.” Samantha said, “But the Company gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I’m doing this for us...”

  “You did this for yourself.” He grunted without looking up.

  “With this new job I can give you everything you could ever want.” She said, “We can finally start living without worrying about a budget or not being able to pay the bills.”

  Alex didn’t respond and when it became evident that she would suffer his silent wrath the rest of the trip, she sighed and turned back to the window. There was just total darkness outside and the only thing she could see was a blinking light at the end of the wing. Every now and then she could spot the ocean down below between the ominous clouds.

  “There is nothing out there but ocean and clouds.” Samantha said, “Pretty scary don’t you think?”

  Alex was growing agitated with the fact that she wanted to chat. He knew that if he didn’t say something she would annoy him until the plane landed. He just wanted her to shut up and let him be.

  “We’re in a plane thousands of feet in the air,” Alex said annoyed, “On our way to some stupid island in the middle of the stupid ocean. Of course there would be nothing out there except the stupid ocean.”

  Alex shook his head at her stupidity and continued with his game.

  That was it; Samantha finally gave up. She’d leave him alone for the rest of the flight. She picked up her eBook reader and continued reading the book she’d recently stumbled upon an author from South Africa who wrote some pretty interesting novels. His novels had almost every genre mixed into one to create fantastic and enticing reads. She had just downloaded one of his latest short stories entitled Hotel Horror Story;

  In September of 1985, the Odendale Hotel in the small town of Haysville was closed down for good by the authorities after numerous complaints from the town’s residents. The hotel, which was situated about a mile outside of town, was advertised per highway billboards as ‘your home away from home’, but residents and guests of the hotel had a different opinion.

  Some of the residents of Haysville noticed strange happenings in town during the construction of the hotel and there were even rumours that the hotel was not built on ancient burial grounds like in horror movies, but that the hotel might have been some kind of doorway built by the developers – targeting Haysville specifically for the fact that they were a small town in the middle of nowhere.

  Construction started in April 1980 and curious kids would go to the building site after school to watch builders build what they hoped would be the future of their little town.

  Alex Jensen, aged 12, reported that he and his friends went to the building site after school on t
he day of April 25th, 1980 and noted that all the streetlamps leading to the hotel was on despite it being 3 in the afternoon. He didn’t think much of it, until each light started switching off after another – as if drawing his attention to the site of the new hotel. He reportedly heard voices whisper, “come and see…”

  None of Alex’s friends noticed the lights or heard the whispers, but Alex couldn’t help but feel that they were being watched by something other than the builders who occasionally glanced at the kids from afar.

  On the night of April 29 while preparing herself a cup of tea, Mrs Martha Williams reported seeing at least fifteen cats running down the street in the same direction as they all growled and hissed. When another ten cats came running by, she went out onto her porch to see what the commotion was about and noticed that the cats all seemed to run down Main Road – the street that led out of town towards the Odendale Hotel.

  On the morning of April 30th, 1980, construction was unable to continue due to the fact that the carcases of at least a hundred cats were found scattered across the Odendale Hotel building site – some of the cats were badly decomposed as if they had been lying there for months. It took a clean-up crew five hours to remove all the dead cats as some of them were compressed between building equipment and vehicle wheels.

  The hotel opened its doors on May 29th, 1980 after a hurried construction to meet deadlines and its first guest, Peter Smith, checked in on June 4th,