Inside this Twisted Labyrinth

Chapter Two

AN: See Chapter One for warnings 

*****************************************

Day 8

Vic hid in the shadows of the buttress on the brick wall surrounding an otherwise seemingly bland Holmes Hotel. On the outside it was nothing more than a plain white three-story building with overgrown hedges lining a rundown cobblestone pathway to double glass doors. The lounge, from what he remembered of the police investigation, was nothing he hadn't seen in a million hotels already: a reception desk that lined one wall, a few bulk-style metal chairs, an ugly maroon area rug over concrete floors. Plain, simple, boring.

But even the most plain of objects could hold the darkest of secrets.

Not wanting to make the hotel manager suspicious, Vic waited outside as Mike, Jaime, and Tony signed in to the hotel. As he waited for the all clear from them, he sent one last message to his boyfriend's tour manager who, at Vic's request, was staying in town for a few more days.

Mike, Tony, Jaime, and I are going after Kellin and the rest of the guys. If you don't hear from me again after this, please file a missing person's police report as soon as they let you, and tell them we were last seen checking in at the Holmes Hotel.

-Vic

He snapped a picture of the hotel with the date and time stamped over it and attached it to the email, as well as a copy of the blueprints.

He just hit send on the email when Mike called and gave him the all clear to sneak in the hotel.

"Seriously, bro?" Mike laughed as his brother leaned out the window, extending out his hand.

"I didn't think the windows would be so high off the ground," Vic grunted as he jumped up and grasped his brother's hand. Tony squeezed in the window next to Mike and grabbed his other hand as Vic used his feet to propel himself up the side of the building.

"Maybe if you weren't so short, lil bro," Mike teased, as he and Tony yanked Vic through the window.

"It's not my fault you're freakishly tall. Seriously, it's unnatural. Everyone in the family is short, but you," Vic grunted as his feet hit the window sill and he propelled himself into the building, collapsing in a heap on top of his brother.

"I don't see why you just couldn't use the front door, like a normal person," Jaime said, swiveling in the desk chair, eating an apple.

"Because the hotel manager saw me when the police investigated Kellin's disappearance," Vic said, rolling off his brother, who playfully shoved him, and climbing to his feet. "If he is the kidnapper, it would be suspicious if I checked into the hotel. He might just kill us outright, or choose not to kidnap us to throw suspicion off of him."

"Ah yes, I forgot. We want the creepy psycho killer to go after us," Jaime said, finishing his apple with a crunch, and tossing it into the trash.

Vic froze when at the word killer. Kellin's not dead, he told himself over and over. That woman, the one found in the woods who went missing at this hotel, she had been tortured for months before her death. Kellin and the others had only been gone for eight days.

Still, a lot can happen in eight very long days, and the thought of Kellin being ... tortured ... was only slightly better than him being dead.

He locked his knees against the sudden weakness he felt, clutching at the straps of his messenger bag.

"Jaime, put a sock in it," Tony hissed, punching Jaime in the arm.

"We are –"

"Shut up!" Vic said. "I know this is crazy. I know this is a stupid idea. But we don't have a better plan than this. You still have time to back out. I will completely understand if you walk out that door right now. But idiotic or not, I'm staying."