The Horrible Hotel

1

The Bad Beginning

Violet sat at the little table in her and her siblings' cheap motel room, staring off into space. Sunny was munching on a box of Frosted Flakes - the travel size kind you always see in QuickStops and hotels. The cardboard tasted bad, but it was chewy with crunchiness on the inside - always an interesting eat.

"Well Sunny," said Violet, trying to start a conversation, "If Klaus gets this job, it could be the break we need to get our act together." she bit her lip. What if he didn't get the job, though?

Klaus had recently gone through a strange and convenient growth spurt, and Violet had mentioned jokingly once that he looked like a skinny, nerdy adult. This gave Klaus the idea of getting a job. When they read in the newspaper about a job hotel-sitting in complete isolation for five months, Klaus thought it was perfect.

"Five months of isolation?" Violet asked worriedly.

"We've been through worse," replied Klaus, "and this will give us a chance to truly relax and try to think of a way to get away from or stop Count Olaf! Or at least clear our name."

In the end Violet agreed and Klaus, after using his intelligence and knowledge to make a fake ID and other important papers, rode a bus to an office for an interview.

"It would be fun, staying in that grand hotel." Violet said, half to Sunny, half to herself.

"I don't want to go there, Mrs. Baudelaire," said Sunny, making her voice croaky like a frog. Violet winced. This was a development in Sunny that had started recently. An invisible friend.

At first Violet thought Sunny had an alternate personality or something, but was slightly reassured when Sunny told her that it was Jane who talked with the frog voice. Jane was a little girl who lived in Sunny's mouth.

The worst part was that although Sunny talked in funny words like "Doh" and "Flandar" that only her siblings could understand, Jane talked in perfect English. It creeped Violet out.

"Why don't you want to go there, Jane?" asked Violet with a little shiver.

"I just don't." croaked Sunny.

Violet sighed and stroked Sunny's head. "Well, I'm sure we'll all have a good time."

She sounded surer than she felt.

XOXO

"The winters can be fantastically cruel. And the basic idea is to cope with the very costly damage and depreciation, which can occur. And this consists mainly of running the boiler, heating different parts of the hotel on a daily, rotating basis, repair damage as it occurs, and doing repairs so that the elements can't get a foothold."

Klaus was sitting in a very ugly chair in the office of John Herowitz, his interviewer, who was telling him what the job would entail. He was quite nervous; he didn't think he looked like an adult at all. Would they notice? Would they arrest him if they did? He shifted uncomfortably; the seat was misshapen as well as ugly.

"Oh that's fine, I'm great at that sort of stuff." he wasn't really listening; he was too worried about jail.

"Physically, it's not a very demanding job. The only thing that can get a bit trying up here during the winter is the tremendous sense of isolation. Five months, you know." The interviewer avoided Klaus's eyes. Klaus didn't notice.

"We like isolation." Klaus said simply.

"Ah." said Mr. Herowitz. "But you see, Mr. Baudelaire, there is something you do not know."

"Oh?" Klaus asked, interested.

"Well, my predecessor in this job hired a man named Charles Grady as the winter caretaker. And he came up here with his wife and two little girls, I think about eight and ten. And he had a good employment record, good references, and from what I've been told, I mean he seemed like a completely normal individual." The interviewer loosened his tie before continuing. Klaus took this as a bad sign. Mr. Herowitz continued.

"At some point during the winter, he must have suffered some kind of a complete mental breakdown. He ran amuck and… killed his family with an axe. Stacked 'em neatly in one of the rooms of the West Wing, and then he put both barrels of a shotgun in his mouth." He cleared his throat, still looking at the floor, and Klaus's eyes widened.

"Police, they thought that was what the old-timers used to call cabin fever. Kind of claustrophobic reaction which can occur when people are shut in together over long periods of time."

Silence in the room.

"That's... quite a story." Klaus said carefully.

"I thought it was only right to tell you."

"Thank you." Klaus said, and stood up. "Don't worry about us, sir. Neither me nor my, err, wife will go mad." he tried to smile but ended up with a grimace.

"If you're sure..."

"Yes."

John Herowitz stood up as well and shook Klaus's hand. "I'll see you at the hotel in two days then, Mr. Baudelaire."

Klaus nodded, smiled, and left the room, heading for the door at a brisk walk.

He sighed with relief when he was outside of the stuffy office. He was not worried about the story Herowitz had told him, but he was glad he hadn't been caught.

Now he had the job. What could go wrong?

XOXO

Sunny walked into the bathroom and began brushing her four sharp teeth. She took great care of them, especially since with Count Olaf on the loose, she might need them someday. Sunny looked in the mirror. Jane began to speak, croaking as ever.

"Klaus has gotten the job." Jane said. "He'll call Violet now and tell her he got it."

Just then the phone rang and Violet picked it up.

"Hey Klaus. You're ok? You got it? Thank goodness…"

Sunny turned back to the mirror.

"Blanka?" she asked Jane, which probably meant something like, "Why don't you want to go there?"

"Not telling." Jane said.

"Gralnak!" Sunny demanded, which probably meant, "Tell me!"

Suddenly, images flooded into Sunny's mind. Blood squeezing out around the edges of a door, flowing into a lobby. Two twin girls in blue party dresses holding hands in a corridor. Blood in the hall again, so much that the furniture floated…

Mouth open in a silent scream of horror, Sunny fainted.


END OF CHAPTER ONE


For this chapter Sunny is speaking in her usual baby language, though before I had her in English. Now I think I'll make her speak in her regular baby talk, except for one point in chapter three when she talks a lot. Hope you guys like the changes.