The Crossroads Hotel: Volume 1: The Crossroads Hotel, #1

By Karen Avizur

Welcome to the crossroads, where hospitality reigns supreme for the guests who are anything but human.

Marjorie works as the Manager for the Crossroads Hotel and Diner, catering to the locals driving through rural Missouri, but also to guests who are from other dimensions. She's worked there for two years and is now training Josh as an assistant at the front desk. From guests who shapeshift to little girls who never age, it's a steep learning curve for him. Then things get even stranger than normal when they get an earthquake, and more so when they realize it wasn't an anomaly. All Marjorie and Josh can do is roll with the changes and hope things settle down soon, but that's unlikely at a hotel where oddities are the norm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karen Avizur
• Release date: May 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224207244

Karen Avizur

Karen Avizur grew up on Long Island, New York and ended up in Orlando, Florida, with stops in Connecticut, West Virginia, and Los Angeles along the way. She's been writing stories since she was twelve years old. In those early days, she discovered it was impossible to keep up with her thoughts by writing longhand, and ended up borrowing a 7-pound laptop from her dad, quickly honing her typing skills. After graduating film school, Karen moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a film editor for several years while also pursuing her writing. She now lives in Florida with her dogs Malcolm and Kaylee, and spends altogether too much time either scrolling through memes or with her nose in a book.

Book preview

The Crossroads Hotel

Volume 1

By Karen Avizur

The Crossroads Hotel: Volume 1

Copyright © 2024 by Karen Avizur All rights reserved.

First Edition: May 2024

Cover and Formatting:

Shutterstock

Canva.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

Chapter 1

The wolf entered through the automatic doors of the lobby, limping from an apparent injury to its left paw. It looked like ten miles of bad road. Its fur was matted, blood coated its right side, and light imprints of muddy paws were left on the carpet. I would’ve guessed it had gotten hit by a truck, but trucks don’t leave gashes that look like bear claws.

I stood up straighter at the counter, pursing my lips in concern at it. At…him? Her? I wasn’t exactly able to check. Josh’s response was to gasp and go, Oh holy shit. Marjorie, is that a wolf?

To be fair, Josh had worked at the Crossroads Hotel’s front desk for approximately six hours, and I hadn’t expected him to be thrown into the proverbial deep end on his first day. Also, for those of you who’ve never seen one, wolves are huge. Your instincts stand at attention and yell death on legs! But I can’t control who or what walks in here. The things I can control, I do. For example, hiring Josh. He had seemed competent, attentive, and had an associate degree in hospitality.

But when I’d explained that sometimes we get eccentric guests, that unusual things happen here, I hadn’t bothered to elaborate. I’d tried in the past and it never took, leaving me irritated. It was better, in my mind, to be vague. Then I could assure myself that the employee didn’t know what they were in for, so I wasn’t annoyed they hadn’t listened, and they could blame me. Everyone ended up with somewhere to put their emotions.

A guest who had been in the process of checking out, one Mister Carl Jenkins, froze and stared. My god, he managed. His eyes darted to mine before looking back to the wolf. It-It seems…docile. You think it needs help?

The wolf raised its head a few inches, looking to Mr. Jenkins, its pupils dilating. And a reverberating growl rumbled up from deep in its chest.

Oh, damn. That was insulting, was it?

If you’ve never heard a wolf growl in an attempt to intimidate, it’s very easy to imagine. Your mind takes a snapshot of the creature and slips it into a slot marked PREDATOR in your brain. Every hair on your body pricks to attention, your heartbeat doubles, and the half of your brain in charge of keeping you alive frantically flip-flops between fight or flight.

Quick tip: With wolves, the answer is fight. Anything that runs is prey. So definitely try to look intimidating, be loud, throw rocks, and then you can assure yourself you did exactly the right thing when it rips your throat out.

I took a deep breath, ignoring the side of my brain that was currently a gibbering monkey, and used the side capable of running a hotel. No, Mr. Jenkins, I don’t think it needs help, I said. Josh, can you finish checking out Mr. Jenkins here, and I’ll be placing our new guest in- I glanced at the ledger and my brain did some quick box checking before taking out a fresh plastic card, room three.

Sliding the card into the small machine, I programmed it for the proper room. This room had a large Jacuzzi bath, necessary for obvious reasons, and it was the closest room to the lobby that had one, which meant less walking for the injured animal. I’ll be back in a few minutes.

Josh was the third employee I’d hired for the day shift in the past month, and honestly, I did have high hopes for him. His smile was always wide and genuine when he grinned, his white teeth a distinct contrast against his dark skin, and he carried himself with confidence that made me feel like he was my age even though he was only twenty years old. (Yes, I’m twenty-four, but at my age a four-year gap can feel huge.) He’d never know it, but his smile was one of the things that got him hired. Someone that can give an open, sincere smile instinctively can be the difference between a satisfied guest and one that rants for ten minutes and then leaves a scathing review online.

Josh was not smiling right now. He wasn’t showing much of anything in terms of emotion aside from alarm. He blinked. The new guest.

Yes.

Check out Mr. Jenkins?

"I hired a human being, Josh, not a parrot. I know this is your first day, but this should be the most basic part of your job here. So. In the ledger book and on the computer. Can you finish checking out one guest and check in the one that just walked in?" I asked, my tone genuinely patient.

Of course he could. He knew every step of the exceedingly easy process, and he’d actually been taking notes as I showed him the ropes. To be honest, though, I was of two minds whether that fact made him a promising employee for this job or just the opposite.

For a moment, he didn’t move. Finally he said, Of course… I can do that. You taught me that, he stated.

Good. I went down to the end of the long L-shaped counter and through the gap to the other side. The wolf kept up a decent pace for the shape it appeared to be in, and I walked by its side to keep myself even with it.

Rounding the corner from the lobby to the hallway, we passed rooms one and two, stopping in front of three, and I unlocked and opened the door. Walking inside, I wordlessly held it open for the wolf and it limped in, its eyes scanning the room. At the foot of the king-sized bed, it turned to me and blinked once.

The button next to the phone is clearly labeled, an easy way to alert the front desk if there’s anything you need. If you prefer to rest first, that’s fine, but if you’d like to bathe first, the bath is just your size. He nodded once and limped to the bathroom, the door already wide open. I reached my hand in and flicked on the lights. The closet has more than enough towels stocked for you. Would you like me to run the bath to an appropriate temperature?

The wolf shook its head, taking a few more steps into the sizable bathroom and sitting down, exhaling a long, ragged breath.

All right then. I’ll leave your key card on the dresser. I hope you enjoy your stay at the Crossroads Hotel.

At that, I dropped the card next to the flat-screen television and left the room, shutting the heavy door behind me. All the handles of the doors locked automatically, of course, so there was no worry of someone barging in. The wolf could lock the deadbolt later. If it decided to, of course. If I was a wolf, I think locking my hotel room door would be a lot lower on the list than it is as a human, but to be fair it was an injured wolf.

Heading back the way I came, I took my walkie from my belt and switched to channel two. Marjorie for Fyfe, come in.

There was a pause and a flicker of hiss before a response. Go for Fyfe.

We have a new guest in room three, arrived in a bad way. Left muddy pawprints on the carpet. Probably a little blood mixed in there. Could you take care of that? Over.

No problem, lassie. Nothing urgent on my plate. I’ll head over there now. Over.

Thanks. Marjorie out.

I turned the walkie back to channel one. Channels were strictly designated, and for good reason. Channel one was for me, Marjorie Elianna, Crossroads Hotel Manager. Channel two was for Fyfe Murray, who took care of all matters of maintenance and housekeeping. We only had sixteen rooms and he was damn good at his job, so he was all we needed. Occasionally, if we had more than one thing that was urgent, I or another employee would lend a hand. Usually me of course since, being Manager, I had my fingers in all the pies.

Channel three was for our restaurant, specifically our head chef, Andrea. When entering the lobby, the open floor plan led to The Crossroads Diner on the left. The majority of customers were guests, but a decent amount of people came to the Crossroads just for the food, which wasn’t surprising. All the reviews online were fantastic. I ate most of my meals there and every bite was unfailingly delicious.

Channel four was the hotel’s owner, Mr. Lucero. There was a bright red dot next to the number four. I’d never used that channel before.

Arriving back behind the counter, I saw Josh’s eyes latch onto me immediately. Mr. Jenkins was