Fantasy Hotel California: the new Host

[egghead]

The mirrors showed a complete stranger. There was a battered corpse where Rachel’s reflection should have been. At this point, the angry collar around her neck had become a permanent stain. Despite hatred simmering her blood, she smirked, because she knew revenge was going to taste sweet.

At the creak of the bathroom door, she spun around. There, in the doorway, floated a siren in black. Every beam of light in the room danced a mesmerizing waltz along her curves. Rachel blinked, briefly stunned into silence before coming to her senses.

“Wh...What are you talking about?” she trilled, clapping eagerly. “It suits you just fine!”

Carried by an invisible current, the redhead drifted closer until only a small gap separated them. Almost tenderly, she tucked a strand of hair behind Katrinne’s ear. “There,” she hummed. “Now you’re perfect.”

-

Glen’s face was physically incapable of a smile. The most he could muster was a constipated grimace, and even then it drooped. “Yes, sir,” was all he said. No more, no less.

Crouching, he began unraveling the bandages. Another tidal wave of nausea struck when he saw the wounds up close. The gashes gaped widely, grinning at him. Sealing his eyes shut, the back-alley doctor set to work.

It was over as soon as it began. Glen didn’t realize he was holding his breath until he stood up again. The world spun around in the same way it did after a long night at the bar. “All done,” he announced before slumping to the floor, unconscious.

 

[Taelonthesands]

"Thank you so much, Sir. Truly this is far too generous of you. You are a saint of a man," Saoirse practically had a few tears in her eyes from the relief she felt. Of course, she could also sense warning signs building up at the back of her mind, but after the journey she's been on, she'd rather risk shifty service than no help at all. At least, that's what she was considering this to be mostly for the fact that the employee helping Sisceal did not seem to be as bright-eyed about this all. Still, this was a gift that she was not about to turn down. Besides, if she was really endangered she could always find a way out of it somehow.

She gave a wide smile in return to Sisceal's own, "Your name is lovely by the way, reminds me of something but I can't name what! That's...probably unimportant though. If I may ask, I would like to get out of these soggy clothes, I don't know if there is a spare uniform I could borrow for now that might be a little dryer?"

Saoirse was about to continue on until the other employee spoke. At the sight of his fall, she immediately went to catch him, falling along with his weight to the ground. "Oh my goodness, Sir?" She looks up to Sisceal in a panic, "What should we do? I think I have some smelling salts in my bag from my first-aid but I don't know if that will work!"

 

[Axeykins]

"Why thank you. I've had it for as long as I can remember." He smiled gleefully at her. "Nevermind that though. Of course we can find you some new clothes to dawn, we can escort you to your room where you'll find an entire closet full of them, whatever you desire to wear. I'm sure there's a dryer in there as well. Whatever that may be." Sisceal clapped his hands together eagerly. Only for the smile to dissipate with the thud of the sad sack and Saoirse falling over beside him.

"Um...I suppose you could try that?" Sisceal reached down to poke at the man. Retracting his arm very quickly after the slightest touch of him. "He must be a bit woozy from assisiting me. Never could stand the sight or smell of blood very well." He shrugged carelessly.

Taelonthesands egghead

 

[Taelonthesands]

"Well lucky for him, that's become something I've gotten used to," She says, pulling her bag off of her back and reaching in deep for her first-aid kit. Her hands were trembling slightly through the process, her nerves starting to catch up to her despite how calm she was trying to remain. She'd never helped someone like this before. She'd barely seen anyone who resembled what the man did, let alone at all.

Saoirse soon reaches her kit, pulling it out from her bag and taking out the package of smelling salts. "If this doesn't work, should we call another worker to come to help him? I don't mean to sound rude, I'm just not sure that I have anything else that may help. Plus I can't see any windows that may lead to a doctor."

"Oh well, I suppose we'll just find out," She continues as she cracks the package below the supposed Bellboy's nose. "Sir, can you hear me?"

Axeykins egghead

 

[buzz]

“Perfect?”

Dots erected themselves across her neck, the mere brush of a few strands being enough to fluster the deprived she-devil. Left with an addled brain and a set of fangs in her face, she could only take a series of small steps backwards, in a futile attempt to wedge some kind of invisible buffer between the sharp rows and her sweating face.

“I think you’re the first person to ever call me perfect...” Covering her mouth to feign a girlish giggle, she sidestepped around her unusually endearing, former attempted murderer to sit on the room’s centerpiece: a large dust-laden bed. “I’m sure Vincent would find something to nitpick about this, but let’s not think about it.” She brushed the stray particles collecting on her lap while thinking rather hardly about what he would hypothetically say. A quiver of the lips threatened to finally overthrow her incessant smile, but like the stretchy silk gripping her body, the asymmetric smirk was hard to displace. It would be deathly embarrassing to give her new companion the slightest hint that she cared about Vincent’s opinions, let alone the fact that she was actually hurt by them. She raised her head, grin beaming wider than ever, perhaps a bit too wide. “More importantly, how are we going to decide who gets what side of the bed?”

 

[Axeykins]

"Another worker?" He was caught off guard by that statement for some reason. Most likely because he had no idea what he would do seeing as Glen was the only guest he'd made a temporary employee in a long time and possibly at any time. "oh! Oh of course, I'll see what we can do about that. I don't have many workers at all in truth and I don't think there are any doctors nearby? Not last the last time that I checked?." Sisceal watched patiently and curiously to see if this concoction really worked. It could be useful to him later on if he needed to wake the guests for any particular reason.

He leaned in closer. His nose scrunching up in repulsion. "No worries about him though other than passing out. I think he's human? Haven't bothered to check, but alll seems normal. He's simply old and sad and...disgusting to me. Pathetic old man doing nothing but leaving his friends behind." A hiss of venom filled his tone the longer he stared at the man passed out on the floor. Feelings welling up for reasons he couldn't explain.

Taelonthesands egghead

 

[egghead]

Rachel shrugged. “What do you got in mind? Flipping a coin? Rolling a dice?”

This was more difficult than she thought. Katrinne’s chronic uncertainty built a sturdy wall between them. Breaking through that barrier would just be the start; earning her target’s trust was another obstacle altogether.

Returning to the closet, she sifted through dead people’s clothes for something to wear. “Why do you give that loser the time of day anyway?” Rachel scoffed without looking back. “You saw what he was wearing back there. The idiot wouldn’t know fashion if it slapped him in the face.”

Yanking out a hanger carrying a shiny black tuxedo, she scrutinized the fabric for any rips or tears. “Believe me, when he sees you in that outfit, his head is gonna blow right off.”

-

Cold darkness was welcomed with wide open arms. There was never a time Glen felt more at ease than when he was in some form of coma. But as usual, it didn’t last.

A horrible stench dragged him out of his stupor. Glazed eyes, now wide open, saw two blurry silhouettes hovering over him. As if forgetting where he was, Glen screamed, thrusting out his arm. He shoved the closest shadow, not realizing it was actually the new guest. In his broken mind, it might as well have been a demon. “No! Get away from me!”

 

[buzz]

She laughed, at first meekly but then erupted into a boisterous cackle, the shrieks bouncing off the walls and piercing her own eardrums from the sheer volume. One hand gripping her stomach and one hand pointlessly covering her mouth, the lady devil's frenetic giggling reduced her to a clump on the floor. It took a good few minutes before she had collected her lost marbles and limped onto the bed. “You’re funny, Rachel, I like you!” How odd that phrase was in the context of their history didn’t quite materialize in her empty brain, which was apparently still recovering. “I wish I could say that to him,” she grinned with excitement arousing from just the thought, “ooh, the way he’d fall apart! I wouldn’t be surprised if he cried, you know.”

Her rambling was cut short when she saw what was pulled out of the wardrobe. “A tuxedo? Well, are you into wearing things like that?” The laughing fit seemed to have lit a fire of confidence in her, showing itself through cringe-inducing remarks that highlighted her era. “I think your red hair would look beautiful with a matching dress! I never did understand the trend of women wearing menswear, honestly.”

The sound of her voice filling the small hotel room masked the brief creak outside their door, thin legs nearly blowing his cover as he rest an ear against the wooden frame, listening to every word, every jibe. He let tears flow while he could, each time gripping the blade in his pocket harder, before starting towards his room to change.

 

[Taelonthesands]

Saoirse yelped as she was pushed away from the other, her packet of smelling salts flinging from her hands and across the floor. It shouldn't have been enough to hurt her, but with her already frail body, she can feel where there might be a little bruising. Still, she keeps her attention on the now panicked man, slowly standing up and trying to get close once again. She takes the smallest steps she can, arm raised with open palms, trying to make herself seem as harmless as she can.

"Sir, please it's okay! You're awake and in the lobby of the hotel," She pauses as she stands her ground just about a foot or two away from the other. "Your employer is standing here too, you're alright."

Saoirse looks back at Sisceal asking for help with this situation, hoping that he might have a better idea of what to do. The only time she'd have to worry about something like this was back with her mother and even then she never knew what to do until her father came home.

 

[Axeykins]

"Calm down you useless twit you're fine." Sisceal hissed. A dark, nasty snarl spread across his face. "Why must you always cause me problems. Always, since you first even stepped in here. I didn't ASK for you to be here you just showed up." He stepped forward menacingly. A growing blind, mixture of far too many emotions burning and writhing inside welling up in him. Some weird feeling of betrayal and hurt targeting itself towards this man. He knew he had truly done nothing to him but it hurt none the less. Him and all the other guests currently trapped but the poor sap was the closest victim to his wrath right now.
"You're lucky I was told to stop for God knows what reason or you wouldn't be here right now. If I had my way none of you would be and I wouldn't have to deal with the problems you've caused!" He gripped his bloodied side as it stung with how quick the motion to point at his hair was. "I never asked for this? I hate looking like this. Do you understand yet?"

egghead Taelonthesands buzz

 

[egghead]

A shrill whistle that could have been interpreted as a laugh blasted from the side of Rachel’s mouth. “See, there’s your problem, Kat. You don’t step outside of your comfort zone.”

Stuffing the suit back into a dusty corner, she continued the search for the perfect outfit. Soon enough, a shimmering evening gown in the exact shade of red requested was unearthed. Without thinking too much about how it got there, she slipped into the washroom to get changed.

The door swung open a couple minutes later. Rachel emerged from a cloud of perfume. The dress wasn’t the only change; her hair had also been restyled and a fresh coat of lipstick adorned her lips. She almost looked brand new.

“Well?” Rachel asked, twirling to show off her new outfit. “What do you think?”

—

Glen might as well have been a statue. He gawked, too paralyzed to wipe off the spittle that sprayed onto his face during the verbal lashing. He never expected Sisceal’s mask to slip off so suddenly, and so soon.

His eyes darted, two captive birds in his skull. They briefly landed on the new guest but fled just as quickly. He couldn’t look directly at her, not after what he had done.

“Sorry,” Glen apologized, voice bare. He then motioned for her luggage, hoping that his boss would let him off the hook if he started doing his job. “I’ll...I’ll take those for you, miss.”

 

[Taelonthesands]

“Um…” Saoirse could cut a knife between the tension currently in the room. She was afraid to say anything, too worried that what she assumed was a pained rage from a tired and wounded worker, would lead to her getting snapped at as well. Clearly there was some bad history in the workplace, or at least something must have happened before she arrived, but she wasn’t about to make that her business. Especially when she felt guilty for making the poor bellhop scared of her.

When the bellhop gestures at her bag, her eyes widened, quick to realize this would be a good moment to break whatever was going on between the two men. “Ah, yes! Um, here you go, sorry to interrupt Sir,” she half mumbles to Sisceal as she gently shoves the bag into the other’s hands.

“Perhaps, this may be a good time for all of us to go collect ourselves, yes? Not to stomp on any toes, again I’m so sorry for interrupting, I’m sure whatever’s going on between you and the employees is very important. But I think healing your wounds by resting would be good for you, and personally I would like to not be in cold wet clothes anymore. Sorry.”

egghead Axeykins

 

[buzz]

Face elongated and hands grabbing fistfuls of the hair on her head, Katrinne formed the perfect portrait of wanton flattery. “Oh, you’re beautiful!” She glided to the reinvented woman’s side to take a closer look, like a dame inspecting a sparkly well-dressed mannequin. Poking and prodding, she lifted a pointy chin to grin in self-aggrandizing satisfaction at her intuition. “I’m too old for that. You, on the other hand, can pull quite the crowd stepping out of your usual...” her gushing regressed into a murmur, pausing so she could twist her face at the leftover collection of clothing in the bathroom, “...choices.”

Slipping an arm around a red-covered waist, Katrinne once again pushed her object of projection to another course of action, though it was clear it was more of a demand than suggestion, “Come on, let’s prance around the halls. Maybe you’ll catch the eye of someone like...” Her mind went blank trying to scour the faces of the Hotel for a suitable suitor. “Well, someone. Come on!”

 

[Axeykins]

Sisceal was caught of guard by such a simple and most likely insincere apology. He expected more groveling. Coupled with the concerned tone of the new guest the fire inside began to extinguish. There really wasn't much to be furious about anymore. What was he even mad about? He snapped but reflecting back on it for even a second had absolutely no idea as to why. An unbridled anger had just take him over entirely and without reason. Or rather none that he could remember without seeing a blackened space flashing in his eyes.

"Y-yes. I suppose that's a good idea now, isn't it?" He swallowed his pride and grabbed a bag. "It's been a rough day for all of us. Rest is good and food if you want and fresh clothes which should be in your room now. Come with us." He motioned for her and Glen to follow. "You should find your key in one of your pockets. Unlock any door you please, it will always be your room."

Taelonthesands egghead

 

[egghead]

A smirk crawled across Rachel’s face. “You mean someone like your little friend, Vincent?” The name left a bitter taste on her tongue. “What do you say we give him a visit? I bet he’s dying for some attention by now.”

With one hard tug on the arm wrapped around hers, she stole the role of chaperone. Stopping outside their next-door neighbour’s room, she gave the door a polite knock. Or more accurately, a loud and annoyingly long rap.

“Oh, Vinny,” Rachel called in a sing-song voice. “Are you joining us for dinner, or did all that ass-kissing fill you up?”

-

White knuckles clutched a thin strap as if it were the only thing keeping him from falling into a black pit. The icy atmosphere melted, but not enough to thaw Glen’s anxiety. When he was instructed to move, his leg froze mid-air.

As if to calm his own nerves, he tried to lighten up the mood with a little banter. “I hope this isn’t coming out of my pay check,” he forced a cheap laugh. “Not that I expect to get paid or anything.”

 

[Taelonthesands]

Immediately after being told so, Saoirse checks her pockets, hand finally reaching out of her cardigan's pocket with a key. She was amazed, clearly, this place had to do with the stars. There was no doubt about it if the entrance to this place wasn't already a sign, this certainly was. A small smile spread across her face as they continued down the halls. It seemed wherever they were going, the two had been this way before. Which made Saoirse look at the bell boy funny when he made what she assumed was a joke. Of course, he would get paid...right?

Still, she laughed along, catching up to stand beside the bell boy. "I'll be sure to tip both of you nicely, sir. After all if any of the doors work we don't have to walk much farther."

"Though I am curious, are there other guests here? I don't mean to continue to demand Mr. Sisceal Sir, I just think it might be nice to go somewhere that's not lonely," She pauses in thought with a small frown forming, "I do suppose not many people are interested in interacting if they're staying in a hotel though. Shame, more things that the movies don't tell you the truth about."

egghead Axeykins

 

[buzz]

Being so quickly divested of choice was not something she was too unfamiliar with, albeit it remained as disconcerting as ever. The caustic clot in her chest spawned pangs that reverberated across limp extremities, best heightening when the woman on the other side of their arm knot revealed she was roaring towards the person Katrinne wanted to see least.
Still, bearing a sheen of confidence that truly only went skin deep, she kept her pointed nose high in the air as her escort summoned the earthbound fiend. The ones back home paled in comparison. A nerve-prickling shudder came with each knock, nearly melting the lady demon’s veneer. “Hey, Rachel honey, I don’t think he’s in the mood—“

“What the hell did you just say, you dumb, dirty, disgusting wench?!” The sheer velocity of the opening swing seemed to have evaporated the door into nothingness, nowhere to be found. In its place was a hot-lava coated face. The gleam of goat’s milk moisturizer rivaled only the stench, the cherry rouge powder made obsolete by the visual workings of anger. Donning a slim striped suit, unequivocally plucked from the Hotel closet, it was clear the dandy was expecting a visitor. He was more than a sight to behold and that fact was made best apparent by the digits soon clenching the redhead’s neck. “I heard it—these walls are thin—I heard you talking ALL that talk. You think you know it all, huh?” The mist from a mouth firing off a few minutes-worth of pent-up anger traveled as far as Katrinne’s face, which was not spared from the madman’s tantrum. “And YOU! What the HELL do you think you’re doing in that clown’s getup? I didn’t let you into my room, so you had to sell your dignity and room with a street rat? Well, you already look the part, Kat. I’m disappointed in you, really.” His hands fell to his side. “Get out of my face. What do you lowlifes even want?”

 

[egghead]

Massaging a tender throat, Rachel hissed a giggle so acidic it stripped her pleasant veneer. “Touched a nerve, didn’t I?”

There was no reason to continue the act. Vincent already knew that she thought him nothing more than a lapdog, and much like a drooling mutt, he was all bark and no bite.

In one swift move, she slid in front of Katrinne, shielding her from any more petty jabs. “Maybe you should’ve been cleaning your ears instead of that blister you call a face,” she sniffed. “We asked you to join us for dinner, but clearly you’re in the middle of a pity party.”

With a shit-eating smirk, she added. “How could I tell? Your mascara’s still running.”

 

[buzz]

Her fists concealed sweaty palms, fully intending to raise them in teary-eyed fury. But the sizzle of her anger died out as abruptly as the sight of him cut off, the fire of his face blocked by a red-laden back. This prompted Katrinne to think, quite heavily, about her past choices. It was like a tick jumping from one host to another, clinging on for dear life. In the she-devil’s case, it symbolized something similar—maybe not life itself, but rather the contents, the continued validation, the reason. Vincent would never do this for her.
The hot-headed gentleman was less keen on reconciliation and philosophical rumination. “Oh, fuck OFF, you bloody idiot! I don’t need a stupid dinner. I don’t need to listen to what someone like you has to say either, I don’t care, never did...” He went from shriek to seethe, a far-stretching smirk grotesquely materializing on his cakey face. With one flick, a switchblade erected itself in the space between the two. Veinous hands gripped the small blade far too tightly. It was pointed at the woman’s eyes. “Scared now, huh, girlie? This is what happens to people who yap, yap, yap...Hey, Kat, letting the human save you? It’s funny! If I were you, street rat, I’d find better company. She’s not worth much, regardless of what the tag says. But, I guess you two aren’t too far apart in that category. At least you had the balls to strike at the Host himself! Poor kitty Kat over here wouldn’t dare!“ He stared into the duo, relishing each second that he held the advantage, a breathy half-laugh the only sound escaping him. He hadn’t even noticed the stream escaping his eyes.

The hiding devil could only mutter in response. “He’s right.”

 

[egghead]

The madman’s ramblings quickly deteriorated into white noise. Insignificant, but irritating to a point where Rachel would do anything to not have to listen any longer. Her hand shot up, seizing Vincent’s sweaty fist.

She gave a short half-second laugh that sounded more like a rattlesnake’s warning. “What about you, huh? Do you have the balls?”

Twisting his bony wrist, she yanked down an equally scrawny arm and aimed the blade towards her own neck. A slight nudge would plunge it straight through the gullet. One wrong move, and it was all over.

Pinning him with a glare, Rachel put forth a challenge. “Do it, coward. Prove you’re not all talk.”

 

[buzz]

Not one part of him quivered. He wouldn’t let it be that easy. His heart throbbed like a piston in motion, the only release found through its owner’s shallow breathing and quickly accumulating layers of sweat. “Get off me, witch!” He tugged his arm out from under the clamp of red acrylics—or at least, what seemed to be so. He wasn’t sure what the fiendish woman was made of nor did he want to know. “If I’m going to get my couture dirty, it’s NOT going to be for a grimey rat like you. No,” he smirked and laid his eyes on the prize, “it’s gonna be six inches of steel in HER neck.”

The long-silent lady in black choked on air and rummaged for coherent diction to defend herself. “I—...what? Vincent, you’re acting odd. Put the thing down, you know that’s not going to do much to any of us.”

The man cackled before impulsively plunging the knife in his own arm, retracting steel from its flesh outlet like a plug from the wall. The subsequent bloodletting did more than enough to, once again, silence the siren. A sewer pipe let loose, the opening seemed to writhe in place while its contents spilled comically about. The spatter sprinkled as far as her dress, the crimson disappearing into black and red respectively. “How’s that for balls, huh? You wanna go next?”

Katrinne sighed, shaking her head.

 

[Axeykins]

"Tip?" He threw up an eyebrow in confusion. What would he need that for? The tip of what anyways? He'd only heard guests before talk of such a thing but never before had he been offered such a thing. "I'm sure it will be good no matter what kind of a tip it is. I'll find use for it somewhere." He shrugged as he took the lead. Ushering her to choose whichever door she liked to enter her room.

"Soon as you're settled in you can wander about and meet the others! It's never been particularly crowded, it's not easy to be brought here or find your way here. But I assure you everyone is fantastic about interacting with each other. Though some better than others. Not everyone gets along but.....well they just don't get along." He gave Glen an ice cold side eyed stare. "I'm sure you'll be fine though for the most part. They're generally a bit more gentle on newcomers....most of them."
Taelonthesands egghead buzz

 

[Taelonthesands]

"R-Right, um," A little nervous at what the other proposed about her now fellow guests, ushered Saoirse to turn at the next door she saw, quite a few doors down from a hallway that had a sign pointing towards what she assumed was either a large ballroom with the slight change in ceiling height or just a different part of the architecture due to the age of the building. Sliding the key into the door, despite what she had just been told a few moments ago, she was surprised to see that it truly fit into the door's lock. It made her wonder if Sisceal was actually telling the truth and that this would bring her to her own room, or if this was actually a skeleton key for the rest of the rooms. Perhaps this room was another gift of the stars, one of those smaller rooms that would appear, that had kept her safe some late nights.

She turns the key and pushes open the door. Her mouth drops as she looks at the beautiful interior, aged in its design but magnificent none the less. She looked at the bed and like a giddy child, she ran for it, flopping on top of its covers as she laughed. It felt like what she imagined lying on a cloud would be like. Saoirse shoots back up, jumping off the bed and immediately looking inside the wardrobe, a loud gasp escaping her lips as dozens of clothes miraculously seeming to be her size, was presented to her. She looks back at the host, the brightest smile she's had in a long time beaming across her face, "Mr. Sisceal this is, this is wonderful! I can't even begin to describe my gratitude. I don't think I have enough money in the world to give to you for this."

"This is really mine to stay in? Do you mean it?" She practically skips over to the two, taking her two little bags into her hands, "Thank you, thank you so much. If it's not too much trouble, I think I'll take my privacy for a bit to clean up now."

Axeykins egghead

 

[egghead]

Glen couldn’t stop himself from wincing. There wasn’t anything more painful than watching a sheep thank the wolf for giving it a comfortable bed to die on. He turned away, guilt settling in his gut, swallowing everything like a black hole.

“Satisfied?” he asked Sisceal, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

—

No words came to Rachel right away. She had seen a lot of things, but nothing quite like this. Blood splattered against the floor, onto her skin, everywhere. All while the man who stabbed himself laughed hysterically.

Maybe this is what Hotel California did to people. Or maybe he was just batshit insane in the first place.

“You should take care of that first,” she jeered, pointing at his bloody mess of an arm. “You won’t be acting so tough when you’re bleeding to death.”

 

[Axeykins]

"It's nothing really. Nothing at all" An odd smile stretched across his face. Forced but meaningful at the same time somehow. "And I mean that in more ways than one. It's absolutely free to stay here my dear. Always has been the policy since the first host and it will be with me." He entwined his fingers together. Feeling slightly better mood wise even with the tone Glen threw at him again. "Of course." He shot him a sideways glance as his smile became wider and toothier.

"We are all done here. We'll leave you to get settled and comfortable. Then when you're ready we'll be waiting to show you around. Take as long as you like though, we've got all the time in the world." Sisceal gave a nod of the head to her as he bumped Glen out the door with his hip. Waving one last time to Saoirse before clicking the door shut.

He hardly took a step away from it before collapsing to the ground face first, hand clutching his side. He was exhausted and in pain. Even if it wasn't for long as this new guest was settling in he needed to rest.

egghead Taelonthesands