The Room: Hotel California

He was a part of the criminal underworld- its darkest darkest part.

The Raven was the name he went by.

Only a few close friends knew his real name.

And he had so few close friends.

By far his most devilish work was done in cyberspace- on social networking sites.

The Raven did not make money at this.

Not like the drugs he sold.

But it's what gave him the most joy.

The most delight.

Evil for the pure simple joy of evil.

It was not often that the Raven's curiosity was aroused.

But it was aroused this time.

When he received a key to Room 722 of the Hotel California in Palm Springs, California.

In an envelope.

In the mail.

An envelope addressed to him at his most secret location.

With no return address on it.

The key was an old fashioned metal hotel key.

Not like the computerized key cards that most hotels gave out these days.

So the Raven drove down to Palm Springs.

To the Hotel California.

He discovered in the lobby that the elevator wasn't working.

So the Raven walked up 7 flights of stairs to the 7th floor- the floor on which was room 722.

He stood outside Room 722 and was a little hesitant to open the door.

"What's stopping you, Raven?" a tall blonde man outside Room 721 asked.

The Raven looked at the questioner.

"Aren't you Dracul Van Helsing the famous Canadian vampire hunter?" the Raven asked.

"I am," the man replied.

"What are you doing here? How do you know my name?" the Raven wanted to know.

"I track vampires," Van Helsing answered.

"Well," the Raven laughed, "I'm no vampire."

"There's more than one kind of vampire," Dracul Van Helsing lit a cigarette despite the California state's strict no smoking laws and blew smoke in the Raven's direction.

"I don't know what you mean," the Raven smirked.

"I'm talking about people who pose under different aliases and different personas at various blogging and social networking sites," Van Helsing approached the Raven, "people who befriend lonely, sad and depressed people- people who are suicidally inclined and then by befriending such people try to encourage those people to commit suicide. And in many cases, some do. Those people who pose as friends and then try to push others into suicide are a modern 21st Century cyberspace form of vampires."

"Well," the Raven laughed, "you can't prove any of that."

"But I know you did it," Van Helsing approached.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? I'm not a vampire of the Dracula kind," the Raven continued to smirk, "I'm a mortal flesh and blood human."

"No, I'm not going to kill you," Van Helsing replied, "you're going to kill yourself. You may have noticed the elevator door is open on this floor and yet the elevator is trapped on the 8th floor above. You're going to jump down the elevator shaft and kill yourself. That way you will no longer be able to go after lost lonely souls and get them to end their lives."

"And how are you going to get me to kill myself?" the Raven laughed.

"Why don't you take that key and open the door to Room 722?" Dracul instructed.

The Raven did so.

What he saw in the room literally turned his hair white.

The Raven turned around and faced Van Helsing.

He seemed to choke on his own words, "You... you... you... you're more than just a vampire hunter aren't you?".

"Yes," Van Helsing calmly lit another cigarette and again blew smoke in the Raven's direction, "I am."

The Raven dropped the key to Room 722 on the floor, ran down the hall and jumped down the elevator shaft.

His shrill penetrating scream as he fell downwards was the last sound he ever made on this Earth.

Van Helsing calmly opened the door to the stairwell and walked down the stairs.

To be continued.