Hell's Army

Chapter Seventeen- A Boy's Best Friend is His Mother

The Hollands Hotel was sitting on the outskirts of town and seemed to be confused as to whether or not it actually was a hotel. The stone walls, high windows and rigid fence made it look more like a prison than anything else. Thick, drawn curtains glared down at Katie, and the iron door handle was twisted into a manic grin. For a second, she thought the hotel was going to blink awake and gobble her whole.

She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to go inside.

But Follows was staying in Huttsville, and this was the only hotel for miles that had all the necessary functions to accommodate life in general.

Huntsville was the sort of town that was famous for having loads of fields, and farmers with a good deal of their teeth missing, and not much else.

She went wearily up to the oak doors and into a little lobby with patterned walls and sickly pink floors. A tall, spindly man stood at the reception desk, hair slicked back, eyes staring at the wall with a frightening amount of concentration.

"Hi," she said after a few moments, and he shook his head like he was coming out of a dream.

"Good evening," he said. "I am Mr Suite. I will be ensuring that your stay here is as pleasant as possible."

He said this all very fast without blinking, and Katie shifted uncomfortably. "I'm looking for a friend," she said. "Ben Follows?"

"Mr Follows is in room 302," he said almost mechanically. "I hope you have a pleasant stay."

"I'm not staying," she said quickly. She held up the jacket. "Just here to give him this."

"That is a pity. If you were, I would do everything in my power to ensure you had a pleasant stay."

She nodded slowly. "So, I'll just be going, then."

He didn't say anything, and she hurried up the stars, his unblinking, cat's eyes following her the whole way.
She made her way down the hall to room 302. Pink flowers spilled out of baskets hanging from the walls, falling to the ground like little snowflakes.
She knocked on the door, and Follows pulled it open.

"Katie?" he hissed. "What are you doing here?"

She held out his jacket. "You forgot your jacket."

He snatched it out of her hands. "You need to get out of here. Now."

"You're welcome."

A man with hair the colour of straw and ashen eyes wandered into view, head stuck in an old looking book.

"Who's he?" Katie asked, pointing at him.

"Him? He's my friend." He said it like he wasn't really sure if it was true or not.

"The insurance guy?"

"Yeah." He pointed down the hallway.

"Go down to the lobby, okay? Someone will show you out." And with that, he shut the door in her face.

Katie thought about knocking again, demanding him to tell her what was going on, but decided against it. She'd already had enough weirdness for this week. She made her way down to the lobby and pulled the handle on the giant oak doors. Only it didn't budge.

"Hey, Suite," she said. Mr Suite stared at her. "The door's locked."

He stared at her.

"Are you going to open it?" she asked slowly.

He didn't even blink.

"Okay, you're really starting to freak me out."

It was as if he'd been replaced by a life-sized statue.

She barrelled past him. "Whatever. I'll figure it out myself."

She ran up the stairs to the windows. Miles upon miles spiralled down beneath her. Damn. She'd need to find Follows, get him to help her. She hurried down the hall, the eyes of ugly portraits following her all the way. Voices drifted in from a door labelled 'Kitchen.' Katie frowned, pried open the door. Mr Suite and three others were standing in a circle, staring at something Katie couldn't see.

"It's the blonde one, mother," Mr Suite said in his mechanical little voice. "We think he-"

"Suspects," an ageing man in a butler's outfit finished for him.

"What if he-" a woman in a red dress with sparkling pearls sitting around her neck began.

"Knows?" a boy, no older than eight, said.

"But that's-" Mr Suite said.

"Impossible," the woman finished.

Katie stared. They were all perfectly in sync, like a little choir. It was surreal, as if they were all working from the same stream of consciousness.

"There's a man with him," the butler said.

"There's something-" murmured the woman.

"Wrong with that man," Mr Suite said.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong," the little boy hissed.

A gurgling sound erupted from somewhere in the room, like when someone shoves food down a plughole. Their foreheads screwed up in concentration.

"Yes, mother," the woman said finally.

"We will, mother," the little boy promised.

"We love you, mother," Mr Suite said.
Then, as if a spell had been broken, they broke apart and started walking away as if nothing had happened.

Katie slipped out from behind the door and hurried down the hall. Now she was very sure of one thing- there was something going on in the Hollands Hotel. Something bad. She had to find Follows. And fast.