Room 407

On a humid evening in Kowloon, Clara, a British travel photographer, and Mateo, her Spanish partner, check into a faded boutique hotel called The Oriole. What begins as a romantic detour through neon streets and dai pai dong stalls turns strange when they find a carved tray, a brass key, and a ledger of payments hidden beneath the floorboards—objects that bind the building in a quiet, ritual bookkeeping.
Their curiosity triggers the hotel's rules: trays, mother-of-pearl discs and midnight placements are currency in a system that keeps rooms "balanced." When Clara and Mateo attempt to follow the ledger's logic, they are pulled into an arcane administration of closures—rooms that seal themselves, spectral child-figures that respond to coded taps, and a keeper who warns that "no rescue" is written into the book. The couple must decide between walking away or performing a placement that will bind them to the Oriole's accounts with an uncertain cost.
Every ledger entry is a promise—and every promise has its price.
What will the Oriole take in exchange for a temporary balance: time, presence, a life reclaimed, or something more intimate? When the hotel's ledgers call your name, how far would you go to settle the debt?

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- Damien Ashford is a novelist specializing in dark fantasy and mystery. With a passion for weaving intricate plots and vivid worlds, he invites readers to step into stories where hope and darkness intertwine.-