The Imago Hotel had twenty-four floors not including the basement and sub-basement.  The first floor mainly consisted of the lobby, the dining room, the kitchen, the laundry, two large ballrooms and a large storage area that was apparently part of the original building.  There were also a handful of guest rooms on the first floor, as well as several groups of much smaller rooms that appeared to be for staff who lived at the hotel.

The second floor, where my room was located, had more rooms, but also included an indoor pool and sauna area, two smaller ballrooms, and a large library.  Standing in the elevator lobby of the sixth floor, it looked much the same as the lobby on the second, but something was different.

I frowned.  “It has columns here.  Like the ones in the main lobby.”

Jefferson caught my eye and nodded.  “I noticed that too.  And I don’t think they’re like the ones in the lobby.  I think they are the same ones.”  When I raised an eyebrow, he went over to one of the spiraling columns of black marble and put his hand on it.  “I’ve looked around this place, and these four columns?  As best I can tell, they are replicated on at least some of the floors, in the exact same place.  There are some floors where you can’t see the columns because there are walls there.  But if I’m right, these columns run through those walls.  From the bottom of this place all the way to the top.”

I tried not to look skeptical, but I couldn’t help it.  “But why?  Even if you’re right and these four columns line up on every floor and are all part of super-long columns running through the entire place, why would anyone do that?  They don’t look big enough to be load-bearing or something.”

Jefferson had taken his hand away from the column with a look of distaste and was wiping it on his pants as he looked back up at me with a shrug.  “Yeah, it’s weird.  And maybe I’m wrong.  I’ve heard a lot of stories about this place, so maybe it’s getting to me.”  I could tell he wanted to say more, but I didn’t push him.  We needed to get to work anyway.

Giving him a grin, I handed him the notebook and pen we had grabbed before going upstairs.  “Well, it’s definitely a creepy place.  Glad we’ve got each other for company.  But we better get started.”

****