“Neeeext!” the casting director said cold heartedly as Clarence was nervously reading a couple of lines from the new up-and-coming thriller, “Zombie Killer 500.” The movie was about a five hundred year old man who was incredibly skilled in killing zombies. Clarence was auditioning for the role of Sonya Slasher, a helpless dame who was about to be eaten alive by a gang of zombies, but is then saved by the five hundred year old man who teaches her everything he knows about killing the zombies. The casting director called her three days after her audition and gave her the news.
“Hello!?” Clarence answered excitedly.
“Hi, this is Natasha calling in regards of your audition on Thursday, Im calling to let you know that you unfortunately did not get the part of Sonya Slasher, but we would like to offer you a role in a movie we are planning called, “Into the Sun.” We think you would be perfect for the role of “Carol Light,” a spunky cowgirl who falls in love with a city boy.”
Clarence was flattered but she did not like the sound of the movie, it was typical and corny. But she would do anything to make it big.
“Well...Thank you very much for the offer, I'm flattered. Would you be able to tell me when we start filming?” Clarence asked.
“We would begin filming in 6 months, what do you say? Are you in?” Natasha sounded nervous.
“I think...I would love to be Carol Light!” Clarence exclaimed.
“Great! I’ll call you in the next couple of days to discuss details!”
Clarence hadn't even gotten a script yet, but she wanted to get started right away. She wanted to put on the best performance she had ever put on. Clarence decided that in order to get in the mindset of a cowgirl, she would travel to a small town in Kentucky for the next six months. She wanted insight into the world of a cowgirl and Kentucky would be the perfect place.
One week later she was on her way, her plane arrived at 6:32 p.m. She would stay at a cheap, local hotel in a town called Manchester with a population of 1,431. The drive to the hotel was an hour long, it was dark and the air was so dry. Clarence would poke her head out the window every now and then. She fell asleep for a few minutes, and when she woke up, the taxi was stopped in the middle of the road. She sat up, and noticed the driver was unconscious. On the road there was a deer lying on the floor, someone was kneeled next to it, moving, and jerking it around. Clarence got off the car and stared at the woman next to the deer. As she got closer the woman raised her head, drips of blood fell to the hot pavement. Her face was covered with blood and her mouth reeked of raw meat.
“Do you need help!?” Clarence asked the deranged woman. The woman got up slowly, and started to back away. She started to walk down the road, Clarence made her way back to the car to try to wake the taxi driver. She got back in, and tears started to swell up in her eyes, and run down her face. She was homesick, not even a day in this town and she already wanted to go back home. The taxi driver began to wake up, confused, he looked back at Clarence.
“Woah. Im sorry ma’am! I have no idea what happened, last thing I remember is slamming the breaks and then boom. Nothing. Lets get you going, you must be exhausted.” said the driver as he started up the engine.
She checked in at 7:30 and went up to her room. The walls were dingy, paint peeling off, the carpet was old, and there were so many dark brown stains on the floor, most of them looked like drips, as if someone had spilled coffee all over. There was a smell that Clarence didn't recognize, it was intoxicating and only apparent when she passed through the 300’s hallways. She didn't think anything of it, after all, why would a hotel owner care too much about their hotel if no one ever visited? Clarence tried to search up reviews of the hotel on the internet but absolutely nothing came up, just the name and location of the hotel.
She entered her room, to her surprise the inside was clean, the paint on the walls were peeling as well but for the most part, it looked beautiful in comparison to the rest of the hotel. She  couldn’t sleep that night, although the beds were comfortable and the night was calming. She could not get the picture of the woman eating raw meat out of her head. The woman was probably homeless, and starving, but Clarence still felt uneasy about it all. She woke up the next morning to the sound of scratching on the wall against her bed. It was piercing, it sounded like someone was running their fingernails across a chalkboard. She was furious, Clarence stormed out of bed, put on her robe, and slippers and went next door. She started knocking on the door, no answer. She began to bang on the door.
“Excuse me! Im trying to sleep here damn-” the door opened. A woman with blond hair, blue eyes peeked out the door with a big smile on her face.
“Why hello! I’m so sorry dear! Ill keep it down. I have kittens you see, they love to scratch the walls.” the woman said sincerely.
“Oh.. well. Im sorry for being so rude its just that I had a long flight and I get cranky in the mornings. Im Clarence Clairance, from L.A.”
“Oooh, a city girl! Tell me, what's a girl like you doin’ in a run down town like Manchester? Oh, my name is Beth by the way, pleased to meet you!” The woman extended her arm to shake Clarence, she was sweaty and her hands had blisters on them.
“I’m trying to get a feel for the country life, I’m going to be in a movie about a cowgirl, I just want to play the part well.”  said Clarence..
“Yeah, well. Goodluck getting any experience around this place. You’d be lucky just to make it out of here.” Beth closed the door, irritated.
Clarence was so confused, Beth seemed to like her at first. She walked back to her room and went back to sleep.
Clarence woke up three hours later and went down to the lobby to get some coffee. As she passed by the 300’s hallway, the smell was stronger than it had been the night before. After grabbing some coffee and a powdered doughnut, Clarence made her way to the front desk to complain about the smell.
“Yeah, Hi. I just want to let you guys know that there is a god-awful smell coming from somewhere in the 300’s hallway.” Clarence said, agitated.
The front desk clerk stared at her and pulled out a piece of paper.
“You’ll have to file a complaint, we ask all of our guests to fill out this complaint form before contacting us directly.” said the clerk with a big smile.
“Are you serious? Well, I think this is pretty urgent, there could be a dead animal in there!” Clarence raised her voice.
“Please fill out the form.” The desk clerk smiled and pushed the form closer to Clarence.
“Well. If you guys won’t check what the hell is in there, then I will.” Clarence stormed off and started to run up the stairs.
“Ma’am, the form! Please, you are not authorized to go checking random rooms in the hotel!” The desk clerk chased after Clarence.
Clarence made it to the 300’s hallway, and she began opening every unlocked door there was, the desk clerk had caught up to her by then, but this time the smile on her face was gone. She ran after Clarence, Clarence ran faster until she made her way passed an area where the smell was most present. She ran back to that area, room 301. She opened the door, the desk clerk grabbed her, and threw her to the ground. Before the desk clerk had time to close the door, Clarence was able to catch a glimpse inside. She was able to feel the coldness of the room.There was a woman with blond hair laying on the floor. The room was empty, there was no furniture, no television. Absolutely nothing. All there was, was parts of a body laying in the middle of the room, it was rotting away. The only body parts that remained were the head, the arms, and the stomach.
Could it have been Beth? She had the same blonde hair, but how did she end up there? And if she had just been killed that day, then why was the smell so horrible, and why did the body look like it had been laying there for weeks? Clarence barely had time to put everything together. The desk clerk grabbed her, and began to drag her to the supplies closet down the hall.
“What the hell are you doing?! Im calling the police!” Clarence threatened as she writhed. The desk clerk was surprisingly strong.
“Oh sweetie lucky for you the police is already here.” The desk clerk smiled once again.
A police officer came running towards Clarence.
“Please help me! You have to stop her, please! Theres a dead woman in that room, officer!” Clarence cried.
The police officer completely ignored Clarence, instead he handcuffed her and locked her in the supplies closet.
Clarence was left in the closet for a year, until another guest, Henry, came to stay at the hotel. He passed through the 300’s hallway, past the supplies closet. He could smell the rotting body. Henry had done countless hours of research on the hotel. He found a great sense of thrill in staying in hotels with bad history. He had asked some folks around town what the deal was with the scummy looking hotel he planned to spend the night in. A local named Jerry told Henry that it was rumored that the hotel was family owned. The family had a peculiar craving. They were cannibals, they loved the taste of human flesh and would do anything to get it, at any price. Although there was a female member of the family who was said to have some sort of morals. She wanted to give up eating human flesh, so she decided to leave her family. No one in the family knew what happened to her.The family used the money they made from the hotel business, and used it to bribe the local police department. They would keep quiet as long as the family would continue to fund them. This news excited Henry, it had encouraged him to spend a night at the hotel even more. Henry tried to open the closet, but it was locked. He grabbed a fire extinguisher that was located across the hallway, he hit the door hard, punching a hole through it. The smell of Clarence’s body penetrated everything, it was so intense that Henry began to vomit . He pulled himself together and took out his phone and took pictures of Clarence. It was a horrid sight. Clarence was hung like a piece of meat, a hook pierced her back, half of her body was gone. Henry managed to escape the hotel before his checkout date. The picture’s he had taken made it to the news station. Clarence’s name would be on the eight o’clock news every day for the next month. She was the most talked about event of the year, she was famous. She got what she always wanted.