"Hotel Oyunsu" by Sergey Tarmashev, summary Automatic translate

This work, created in 2012, is a mystical horror with elements of Slavic techno-fantasy and gritty survival. The book has a cyclical structure, linking modern events with those of ten thousand years ago, and tells the story of an ancient evil dwelling in an isolated taiga valley in the Far East. The author uses the contrast between the pampered representatives of today’s "golden youth" and the harsh laws of the wild, punishing greed, pride, and cruelty. The novel is part of the author’s cycle of ethno-horror stories, distinguishing itself from his fantasy series by its emphasis on ancient legends and the psychological destruction of characters under the influence of primal fear.

Arrival of the elite company

On a winter night in Moscow, twenty-three-year-old Roman Senkevich, the son of an influential official, is bored in traffic on his way to an elite club in Krasny Oktyabr. After forcing his way through the crowd with the help of his personal security, he joins a group of friends — MGIMO students from high-ranking oligarch families. A mood reigns at the VIP table: Ruslan Agayev is dozing, Zarina Gaishalova is dancing in front of him, Max Smirnov and Edik Bazoyan are fiddling with their phones, and Marina Miroshnichenko and Irina Kulich are lazily gossiping. Garik Gabazov and Roza are also among the group.

Max is a professional snowboarder and freestyle champion, born into a humble provincial family, and regarded by his wealthy peers as nothing more than an unpaid instructor. Due to a conflict between Edik and his father, the group has lost their trip to Courchevel, Bazoyan’s accounts have been frozen, and he is banned from leaving Russia. Roman, eager to relieve boredom, shows his friends the website of a new eco-hotel, Oyunsu, located 300 kilometers from Khabarovsk. The photos depict a secluded valley with wooden cottages and an unusual marble mountain, reminiscent of an Aztec pyramid with a cascade of ledges. The hotel promises absolute privacy, no passports required at check-in, and an exclusive ski slope. Roman rents the entire resort for a week, and the group decides to fly there on his private jet.

During a long flight, Marina Miroshnichenko reflects on boredom and her relationship with Max. She likes him, but social distance and fear of his father’s reaction hinder their intimacy. Irina Kulich unsuccessfully attempts to flirt with Edik Bazoyan, provoking him into a game of backgammon. Garik Gabazov is having fun with Roza, who is giving him a massage. Marina puts on her headphones, dreaming of the flight ending soon.

The Road to the "Cup of Sorrows"

At the Khabarovsk airport, three powerful Range Rover SUVs registered to Garik await the group. Leaving their security guards behind, the young men set off deep into the snowy taiga. Their path is blocked by massive metal posts with a sign warning of a restricted area. Max discovers a panel buried under the snow, Roman enters the access code, the posts lower, and the convoy continues on its way. Soon, communication and navigation are completely lost.

Stopping in a forest clearing, the young men engage in a snowball fight. Their fun is interrupted by the appearance of an old Japanese jeep, from which a gloomy man in military uniform emerges. Max tries to ask him for directions to the hotel. The stranger claims there is no hotel in the valley, and the word "Oyunsu" itself belongs to a now-forgotten language of ancient aborigines and translates as "Bowl of Sorrows." He agrees to accompany them to the turnoff. Max gets into his car. The ranger explains that there is no cell phone reception due to military jammers. Reaching a crossroads, the ranger drives off toward his home, and the group sees the shining marble terraces of the mountain in the distance. Soon, the SUVs arrive at a frozen river with a reinforced concrete bridge and closed gates bearing a sign that reads "Oyunsu Hotel."

An elderly guard in a sheepskin coat and felt boots emerges from the gatehouse, bows obsequiously, and unlocks the gates, assuring the guests that the hotel is at their complete disposal. As the cars pass, the guard closes the gates, and high in the sky, a strange, large bird with taloned wings, reminiscent of a bat or a dragon, watches over them. In the snow beyond the gatehouse, the trail of felt boot prints suddenly ends in three bare footprints, as if a person had taken flight.

The first days of rest

The hotel welcomes guests with elegant two-story cottages. The cheerful manager, Petr, dressed in an expensive suit, comes out to their cars. He announces that he combines the duties of DJ, bartender, and guide, being the only employee on site to ensure complete confidentiality. The rest of the staff will arrive only on checkout day.

Marina checks into the luxurious suite, number seventeen, on the second floor, drawn by the glass-walled jacuzzi with a mountain view. Irina occupies the adjacent room, number sixteen. That evening, a grand party begins in the party bar, decorated with shamanic drums, masks, and torches. Petr expertly mixes cocktails and mixes drinks. Edik, Ruslan, and Max discuss tomorrow’s descent. Marina, having had too much to drink, agrees to try a "dill-flavored" pipe offered by Edik. Under the influence of alcohol and smoke, her perception is distorted: the music seems drawn-out, her friends’ movements slow. She performs a revealing striptease on the bar, removing her T-shirt and bra. Max catches her as she falls and helps her get dressed. A wet T-shirt contest ensues, the young people pour champagne on each other, and Olya, Natasha, and Rosa also take off their underwear.

Outside the party bar window, a clawed bird perches on a tree branch. To it, the hotel appears as a rotting, sagging structure crawling with maggots, with people bathing in a foul, festering liquid. The bird senses the presence of a sinister Something lurking in the darkness and flies away.

The next morning, the group heads to the mountain. Ruslan and Zarina stay in the room for some intimate fun. Max demonstrates his skill by sledding between marble ledges. Marina decides to take action and shares a seat with him on the cable car, openly hinting at their attraction. At the mountaintop, Petr stages a photo shoot for the group. Meanwhile, a bird in the sky sees the mountainside as a pyramid of bones and skulls, covered in bloodstains.

The beginning of the nightmare

Early in the morning, Ruslan Agayev awakens to a strange muttering under his window. Thinking his friends are smoking outside, he dresses and goes out. Zarina falls asleep again. Awakening a few hours later, she finds the bed covered in blood, and Ruslan lying next to her, his throat slit and his stomach ripped open. His dead lips beg for help, and a cadaverous hand reaches for her body. Panicked, Zarina runs naked into the street.

Max and Edik catch a hysterical Zarina in the snow. Marina and Ira clean her up in Max’s room and give her a sedative. Zarina falls into a stupor, repeating that "He’s coming for her." Max, Edik, and Garik go looking for Ruslan and the manager. In Agayev’s room, they find the walls covered in blood, but the body itself is gone. Behind them, a formless blackness begins to thicken in the corner of the bedroom.

Meanwhile, Irina Kulich goes to her room to get clothes for Zarina. Roman Senkevich locks the door behind her. Marina helps Zarina in the bathroom, but suddenly, instead of water, the showerheads begin gushing hot, sticky blood. The shower stall jams, and the water level rises rapidly. Olya and Natasha call Roman for help, but he can’t open the door. Roza smashes the glass wall with a chair, saving the girls.

Max, Garik, and Edik discover a trail of shallow barefoot footprints in the snow around the corner of the cottage, leading to a grisly X-shaped cross. On it, crucified upside down, with his entrails spilling out, is Ruslan Agayev’s body. Realizing a maniac is operating in the hotel, the young men run to their cottage for weapons, but the swords on the knight’s armor turn out to be fake pieces of metal. Max takes the decorative dagger.

Returning to his friends, they discover the water supply is shut off. Max decides to go after Irina, accompanied by Garik, Rosa, and Marina. In Kulich’s room, they find her body crucified on the wall in an X-shape, her throat slit. Garik searches the rooms, but the killer is missing. Panicked, the group moves to the next room; Garik and Edik are ready to kill each other due to mutual suspicions. Max forces everyone to lay down their weapons on the carpet. Marina takes the dagger and declares her suspicions of everyone: Garik and Edik are drug addicts, Max is a penniless hanger-on, Roman is a secretive American, and Olya and Natasha could have taken revenge on Ruslan and Irina out of jealousy.

Garik attacks Rosa, causing Olya and Natasha to remember that she left the bathroom during the flood. Edik empties her purse and finds Ruslan, Zarina, and Irina’s credit cards. Rosa cries and swears she didn’t kill him, but only stole the cards and money from Irina’s purse. She confesses to being a prostitute from an escort service hired by Garik under the guise of a classmate. Garik brutally kicks her, ties her up with towels, and throws her into the bedroom. Max and Garik head to the main building to find the satellite phone.

In search of salvation

Fighting through deep snow, Max and Garik reach the main building. The doors are locked, the windows are broken. Inside, they find broken routers, cut wires, and no phone. They run to an old wooden building on the outskirts, but it turns out to be an empty hunting lodge with a potbelly stove and a kettle. Reaching the manager’s house, they see the door propped open with a snow shovel. Inside the hallway, Pyotr lies in a pool of blood with a broken jaw and a stab wound. A broken satellite satellite lies nearby. Pyotr comes to and whispers that he is the only employee, and the guard is five kilometers away through deep snow. There is no more communication.

Max and Garik drag Pyotr to his friends’ room with a shovel. Roman Senkevich suggests they take the SUVs to the edge of the restricted area. Zarina, in the corner, begins laughing schizophrenically, claiming the killer is hiding among them in the darkness. The girls and the wounded Pyotr are loaded into the cars. Max starts the first jeep, but the wheels spin uselessly — the SUV is stuck belly-down in the virgin snow. The second car gets stuck right behind it, and Roman’s car’s electronics completely shut down. The snowfall intensifies, and Max decides to wait out the storm in the main building, where there are food supplies in the restaurant. Later, they plan to climb the mountain to get the snowmobiles they left there.

Pyotr is laid on a sofa in the restaurant. Garik declares that Rosa couldn’t have committed any more crimes while tied up and suggests they lay down their arms. Edik and Garik begin arguing again, swords in hand, until Max calms them down with a chair. Roman Senkevich decides to go to his room to get some American sleeping pills for Zarina. Olya and Natasha, tired of Gaishalova’s whining, volunteer to accompany him, hoping to get some whiskey. Leaving Zarina alone in the locked room, the trio departs. Behind them, the darkness thickens in the hallway and sinks into the wall.

In Roman’s room, the young men are having a drunken orgy, complete with striptease and spinning a bottle of Crystal. Meanwhile, in her room, Zarina Gaishalova decides to make Rosa moan to distract the Thing. She opens the bedroom door and sees untied towels on the floor and Rosa’s body crucified on the door in the shape of an "X." The bathroom door slams shut, and the blinds close with a metallic clang. Rosa’s corpse grabs Zarina’s leg, demanding help. Gaishalova breaks free and runs into the living room, but the front door is locked. She hears measured footsteps in the hallway. Zarina grabs a dagger and freezes. The doorknob turns, the door opens, and with a scream, Zarina plunges the blade into the throat of the intruder.

The newcomer turns out to be Roman Senkevich, who’s returned for the sleeping pills. Blood spurts across Zarina’s face, and Roman falls at Olya and Natasha’s feet. Zarina runs screaming down the hallway, pursued by hallucinations of her friends’ reanimated corpses. She takes refuge in one of the cottages, burrows under a silk blanket, but discovers something with a worm-eaten hand beside her. Her screams fade as sharp claws slit her throat and rip open her stomach on the rotten floor of the decrepit shack.

The disappearance of snowmobiles

Max, Edik, Garik, and Marina set off on foot to the summit of Marble Mountain along a well-worn trail. The climb is difficult, and Marina is haunted by the feeling of a malevolent gaze. Max whispers to her that he sees a dark fog behind the bushes. Halfway up, Garik collapses, screaming that Ruslan has placed his hand on his shoulder. Reaching the upper terraces, the young people are frozen in shock: the mountaintop is completely deserted; all twenty snowmobiles have vanished without a trace, leaving only a pristine expanse of snow.

Marina spots a taloned bird high in the sky, hovering over an unknown wooden structure in the taiga, which wasn’t there yesterday. Max assumes it’s the gamekeeper’s house. Edik thinks the descent down the cliff is dangerous due to the risk of avalanches and suggests they return to the hotel. The young couple try to rip off the cable car’s suspended seats to use as sleds. Garik kicks a small snowdrift, and Ruslan Agayev’s round, frozen head flies out. Marina screams hysterically and runs down.

The descent in the twilight turns into a nightmare. Marina falls behind, hearing Irina’s hoarse laughter. The trail beneath her board appears like a crimson pyramid of bones and skulls. As she reaches the hotel, she sees long poles forming an "X" with the crucified body of Roman Senkevich. She crashes into the corpse at full speed and loses consciousness.

Bloody dinner at the restaurant

At the restaurant, Garik, Olya, and Natasha are waiting for their friends to return. Garik is certain that Zarina, who has gone crazy on drugs, is to blame for everything. Olya and Natasha ask for food, and Garik tries to rouse Pyotr on the couch, but discovers that the wound on his back is swarming with whitish worms, and the manager himself is emitting a cadaverous odor. Garik covers him with a tablecloth and drags his body into the office cubicle.

Screams are heard from the street. Garik runs out with a sword and finds Edik trying to unhook his snowboard bindings. Together, they free Marina from the board next to Roman’s crucified body. Returning to the restaurant, Marina wipes Senkevich’s blood from her jacket with napkins. Garik checks Pyotr’s pulse and declares him dead, leaving the body in the office.

Olya, Natasha, and Marina go to the pantry for groceries, but find only raw meat and unwashed vegetables. Natasha pulls out jars of black caviar and a bottle of wine. The group sits down at the table, the blinds closed. In the midst of dinner, Olya winces in pain and pulls a diamond earring from her mouth. Garik recognizes the exclusive Roman Senkevich jewelry, dips a spoon into the jar, and pulls out a human ear. Severed fingers and eyeballs spill out onto the tablecloth. Olya vomits, and Natasha shrieks. At that moment, the lights go out, plunging the hotel into darkness.

The triumph of sinister forces

The floorboards creak in the hallway. Marina crawls across the floor toward the kitchen, hoping to find shelter. The manager, Pyotr, emerges from the kitchen doorway holding a flashlight, begging for help. Garik snatches the device from him and turns off the light, but the maniac’s mocking laughter is already echoing from the main entrance. The door shatters, Garik turns on the flashlight, but the doorway is empty. Turning around, he sees the reanimated corpses of Ruslan, Roman, and Zarina behind him. Agayev asks for a "blow," blood spraying from his throat. Garik slashes at him with his sword, the blade getting stuck in rotten flesh. Gabazov falls, dropping the flashlight.

Irina Kulich’s corpse crawls out from under the table and embraces Olya and Natasha, dragging them along with it. The girls run into the hallway, screaming. Rosa’s corpse grabs Garik by the ankle, giving him a "foot massage" and breaking his leg bones with its claws. Garik, crawling out into the hallway, tries to fend off the advancing corpses with a flashlight, crawls into the presidential suite, and locks the doors. His confidence in his survival is shattered when wheezing sounds echo in the darkness from all sides. The flashlight goes out, and an invisible guard in a sheepskin coat uses long-bladed gloves to cut off Garik’s hand, slits his throat, and disembowels him on the rotten parquet floor of the crumbling hut.

Natasha takes refuge behind the sofa in the chillout area, listening to Garik’s dying screams. Roman’s corpse searches for her in the darkness, whispering words of love. Natasha feels an itch in her ankle and uses a lighter to illuminate her leg — the skin is covered in holes, from which maggots are crawling. A dead Senkevich grabs her from the darkness. She runs to the pool and hides under a metal ladder in the water. The corpses of her friends emerge from the water, calling her to them. Natasha throws off her soaking jacket and tries to climb onto the edge, but the guard slashes her across the neck with razor blades and rips open her stomach, ironically suggesting she "lose weight quickly."

Marina and Max’s finale

Edik Bazoyan hides behind the stove in the kitchen, letting Marina go first. She hits her head on the metal and loses consciousness. Edik locks the door, leaving Marina at the threshold as live bait. He takes cover in the locker room, propping the door open with benches. Irina Kulich’s corpse hugs him from behind, sinking its claws into his throat. Edik stabs her, the blade getting stuck in the corpse’s neck. Breaking free from his jacket, Bazoyan runs through the snowdrifts into the street. He jumps into an unlocked SUV, but Natasha’s corpse falls out onto him. Edik gets into a third car and starts the engine, but the wheels spin. The blackness on the passenger seat cuts across his throat and stomach.

Marina regains consciousness from the cold on the kitchen floor. She crawls into the restaurant, sees Pyotr dead, hides in the room, and then runs to the SUVs, where she stumbles upon Olya’s crucified body. A gamekeeper appears, smashing the body with a rifle butt, clearing the trunk, and takes out two cans of gasoline. They take Marina and take refuge in a hunting lodge. The gamekeeper tells the girl to sit quietly, and he and Max go off to search for the maniac, carrying torches.

Marina is left alone in the inky darkness. There’s a knock at the door, and a wounded Peter appears on the threshold. The girl screams that she knows his secret. The manager instantly changes faces, transforming into a terrifying gray monster covered in worms. He declares that bullets are impervious to him, and that a hairpin made of the sacred metal of the White Giants, capable of destroying evil, was lost in the masonry of the corner fireplace ten thousand years ago. The monster raises its clawed paws, but Marina drops the burning lighter onto the gasoline-soaked floor. The hut bursts into flames. The gamekeeper rushes inside, knocks the monster into the fire with a torch, and drags Marina outside. Max sets the walls of the log cabin on fire with a second canister, and the monster’s screams are silenced by the flames.

At dawn, the three survivors ski across the taiga. Marina looks back and, instead of a luxurious hotel, sees nine rotting shacks covered in scraps of skin and maggots. Above them rises a crimson pyramid of skulls and bones, topped by nine blackened crucifixes, the letter "X," containing the fresh bodies of her friends. The girl vomits a rotten, worm-infested mess, and Max experiences the same. High in the sky, a clawed talonwing screams, watching them go.

In the epilogue, four new SUVs stop at the fence of the restricted area. The young people enter the access code, and the gates open. An hour later, they enter the ornate eco-hotel "Oyunsu," admiring the tame deer and the marble mountain. At the door of the main building, they are greeted by a broadly smiling manager, Petr, in a Brioni suit, offering the services of a DJ, bartender, and guide.

Events of antiquity

Ten thousand years ago, the hunter Litsuro of the small Vinpan tribe fell hopelessly in love with the most beautiful woman, Chiuka, who was coveted by Hesuda, the chieftain’s son and the best warrior in the surrounding lands. With a caravan of drags, Litsuro traveled to the marketplace of the White Giants — mighty two-meter-tall men with blue eyes. There, he bartered with the young daughter of the merchant Lyubava for a magical dagger-pin made of sacred metal, enchanted by a shaman to protect against illness and evil spirits.

Meanwhile, the leader of the treacherous Xinziao tribe raids the sacred temple of the White Giants, slaughtering the warriors and craftsmen for gold and rods of sacred metal. They capture Lyubava, but she escapes on the way to the camp. In the taiga, she is nearly attacked by a pard, but Litsuro saves her with her own hairpin, which creates ghostly dogs. The White warriors, led by Ratimir, find Lyubava, thank Litsuro, and give him a wooden amulet, after which they burn the Xinziao camp to the ground.

Litsuro secretly returns home, gives Chiuka half of the boar he killed, and during the celebration presents her with the sacred hairpin of the White Giants. Chiuka places it in her hair and publicly chooses the common hunter over the noble suitors. The enraged chieftain and the bribed shaman declare Litsuro’s victory the result of the White Giants’ black magic and arrange a duel to the death between the hunter and Hesuda within a circle of fires. Hesuda’s copper knife becomes lodged in the White Giants’ wooden amulet on Litsuro’s chest, and the hunter plunges his bone kort into his opponent’s liver. The superior warrior falls dead.

Chiuka’s mother overhears the chieftain’s advice, plotting to cut out Litsuro’s heart on a sacrificial fire, and helps the lovers escape. The White Giants allow the couple to settle in the isolated Su Valley (Bowl), warning them of an ancient taboo: a fierce evil can awaken in the valley during winter. If a dragon-winged bird appears in the sky, they must leave immediately, and if evil attacks, they must light fires around the area and call for help from the mysterious knight-hunter, who can read human hearts.

Litsuro and Chiuka live happily in the valley. Chiuka furnishes a hut and builds four small fireplaces in the corners for protective mating dances. But the vengeful chieftain, Vinpan, tracks them down, infiltrates the valley, and shoots Litsuro dead on the threshold of the house, then finishes him off with Hesuda’s spear. Chiuka is slit open with her own knife and crucified upside down on crossed poles in an "X" shape opposite her husband’s body, forced to gaze upon his corpse. Before dying, Chiuka croaks words of love to the apparition of Litsuro, her soul cursing the valley, filling the Chalice with eternal sorrow. Chieftain Vinpan retreats to the hut to wait out a sudden snowstorm, but darkness thickens in the corner of the hut, revealing the ghost of a dead man. In the whirlwind, the chieftain’s entire troop vanishes without a trace, leaving behind only their weapons and clothing.

A moon later, the Vinpan hunters penetrate the Su Valley, finding the crucified bodies of the lovers and the abandoned belongings of their party. Hearing Chiuki’s cries and Litsuro’s laughter under the gaze of a dragon-winged bird, they flee, calling the place "The Cup of Sorrow" (Oyunsu). The shaman declares himself chief and leads the tribe south.

The remnants of the routed Xinjiao tribe, led by their surviving chieftain, seek refuge from their pursuers. Chieftain Xinjiao decides to occupy the Oyunsu Valley, believing the legend of spirits to be a fabrication of cowardly Wingpan hunters and their disappearance to be a trap set by the White Giants. He declares himself a shaman and leads the exhausted people into the valley. Under his orders, the warriors clear the snow from Crimson Mountain, which turns out to be a stepped pyramid. Xinjiao raids neighboring tribes, takes prisoners, and crucifies them alone at night on the mountaintop in the shape of an "X," disemboweling them to feed the Crimson Pyramid with blood.

Xinjiao’s warriors set out to burn down the White Giants’ winter hut discovered in the taiga, but stumble upon a camp belonging to a foreign tribe. They kill a woman, but a dragon-winged bird falls from the sky, piercing Yuo’s skull. A mighty White Giant with green eyes appears at the edge of the clearing, whose sorcery compels Heu’s hands to plunge a knife into his own throat. The surviving warriors flee to the hotel, but a snowstorm traps them in the valley.

At night, the Xinziao camp is consumed by a primal horror. The undead Litsuro, swarming with worms, descends from Crimson Mountain along with the corpses of executed prisoners and brutally slaughters them one by one. Women and children try to escape through the storm, but the torches go out, and they freeze in the snowdrifts. The Xinziao chieftain thrashes in fear in his hut as darkness thickens in the corner, revealing the ghost of Litsuro. A monster with blade-like claws cuts off Xinziao’s arm and disembowels him right next to the corner fireplace. The wounded chieftain, with fading fingers, vainly tries to dig a dropped White Giants’ hairpin from the stonework — the only artifact capable of stopping the ancient curse. The spirit of Litsuro takes his life, transforming into the eternal Master of the Valley, luring new victims under the guise of the steward Peter.