Dancing in the Flames

         Kyle stared out onto the dark empty interstate in front of him as he listened to his wife drone on about how terrible he had made this weekend getaway. He didn’t say much not only because she wouldn’t let him get a word in, but also because he too had noticed the lack of romance on their romantic weekend.

         “You don’t seem to understand that you can’t buy my love!” Mallory yelled looking into her palms held out in front of her as if they were holding a script she was reading from. “You can take me to all the expensive hotels restaurants and clubs all you want, but it means nothing if you don’t talk to me, dance with me, or even touch me!” She buried her head into her hands, not to cry, but in anger.

         Kyle took a deep breath and continued to drive. That’s not exactly how he remembered things, but being a married man he learned it was best to keep quiet. He loved Mallory, but over the weekend she had relentlessly attacked his recent gaining of weight and stared dreamingly at other men. She even took up an offer to dance with one or two while Kyle went to the bathroom. He knew his marriage was falling apart, but he tried to hold it together with this disastrous weekend.

         His mind jumped from idea to idea trying to decide on something, anything to give them a big enough push to stay together. Finally he saw a sign that gave him a hint of hope. He began looking for the next exit so that they could get off and hopefully have a fun night.

         “Where are we going?” Mallory asked as he began to pull off the interstate.

         “A hotel, I need to rest for the night and I figured we could get something to eat or something before hand.” Kyle said as he surveyed the streets for the place.

         “Where the hell are we? This city is so damn small I don’t want to stay here.”

         “I saw a sign for a nice hotel and club. I’m going to take you dancing!” Kyle said with a smile as he saw the lights from the hotel a few buildings ahead.

         “Oh… I don’t know if I feel like dancing tonight…: Mallory said quietly as they pulled into the nearly empty parking lot.

         “Then we will get dinner have a nice conversation and lay down together tonight.”

         The two got out of the car and walked into the lobby. A lone receptionist sat at the front desk. Her clothes seemed out dated but there were signs for a Victorian style dance so she must have been in character.

         “A room for two and the soonest reservation we can get for dinner.” Kyle asked the receptionist. Without looking up from her log book she pointed to a set of keys and a reservation ticket sitting on the side of the counter. “Ah! Thank you ma’am and do we need a card on file?” Kyle asked holding out his credit card, but the woman didn’t look up. “Oh… Ok. We’ll just head up to the room then thank you.”

         Kyle shook off the odd woman as just a rude teenage worker who didn’t want to be at work at nine. They walked down the hall to their room and began to change for dinner. Kyle looked over to his wife who was looking from her cocktail dress to Kyle and back again.

         “Maybe… maybe we could go dancing tonight.” She finally said.

         Kyle smiled, “Ok there’s a club connected to the hotel. I saw the doors downstairs. We can go after dinner.” Mallory shook her head.

***

         After a good dinner next door and a great conversation like they haven’t had in years the couple held hands and walked through the lobby to the club. When they entered they were surprised at the number of people in there. The hotel and the parking lot were near empty yet the club was full of Victorian costumed dancers dancing to a string quartet.

         “Would you like to dance Mallory?” Kyle asked holding out his hand. He looked into Mallory’s face and saw her smile at him. They took each other close and moved into the crowd twisting and turning with the group.

         They danced together for about an hour before Kyle bumped someone’s arm.

         “Sorry about that si-” Kyle’s face turned from glee to terror in a second. The man he bumped stared at him with what appeared to be a half melted face. “Uh… Honey? We should go…”

         “But Sweetie, I’m having so much fun.”  Kyle looked at his wife’s face. All the color had been flushed out and her eyes were as vacant as the hotel. He stepped back and watched as another one of these monsters stepped up, took Mallory’s hand and danced away with her.

         The crowd all stopped dancing and looked at Kyle. The woman from the front desk walked up to Kyle and held out her hand. He looked in her face and noticed the burns down the left side of her face and body going down to her hand she held out. He looked back into her face, she nodded and Kyle nodded back as he took her hand and danced away into the crowd.

***

         The next morning the sun rose on the small town. Town folk had become well aware of the vacant lot where 160 some years ago an extravagant hotel had stood and the cursed history it has had since it was burned down during the town ball. Cars have shown up mysteriously every year at this time, never to be claimed again.