Chapter 1: A Reservation Made
Roxas had recently won a vacation to Disney Town. As part of the vacation, he was allowed to take some friends along with him, and had chosen to take Lea, Xion, Isa, Olette, Pence, Hayner, and Xolette along with him.
They had all just arrived in Disney Town via Gummi Ship. Xolette had wanted to take a Corridor of Darkness because she felt that they could get to the world quicker, but Olette had started limiting her sister's darkness intake because she didn't want her Nobody getting hurt by her darkness and possibly fading away into nonexistence again. The group had been standing in the center of Disney Town for a few minutes after arriving, when Isa decided to ask Hayner an important question.
"Hayner, where are we staying during our vacation?" Isa asked.
"I don't know. I wasn't in charge of that." Hayner replied.
"What? You were supposed to make our hotel reservations!" Isa said angrily.
"Well, now where are we supposed to sleep at night until we go home?" Xion asked.
Olette picked up an old flier that promoted an old hotel. Not knowing it was outdated from long ago, the brunette quickly looked at it.
"Hey, guys, I think I found a place. Ooh, it even has Gummiphone compatibility." Olette replied.
Xolette took the flier from her older sister and looked through it.
"Huh. Strange. Didn't know Gummiphones were popular so suddenly." Xolette said.
She took out her Gummiphone and typed in the phone number that the flier advertised.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Disney Town, in an area that didn't really see much use by even the inhabitants, a phone rang on the front desk of an empty lobby. It rang twice, before being picked up by a tall pale man in a bellhop uniform.
"Hollywood Tower Hotel." the man greeted.
"Hello, do you have any rooms for 8 people?" Xolette asked.
"I'm sorry. We don't have any vacancies." the man replied.
"Well, when will you? I have a group of 8 people and we don't have anywhere else to go." Xolette asked.
"When will we? Let me check." the man replied.
The line went silent for a minute, but he got back on quickly.
"It seems you're in luck. Something just... opened up." the man announced.
"Great. We'll be there within the next few hours. Thank you very much, sir." Xolette said.
Xolette hung up her Gummiphone.
"Well, everyone, I got us a reservation at a hotel. It's old, but it has enough rooms for us all." Xolette announced.
"Great. I need to get some rest. Let's rest up before we explore the town." Lea said.
Isa picked up a rental car for the group. Because almost none of them could drive except for himself or Lea, he drove everyone to the old hotel. After a short time had passed, everyone managed to catch a glimpse of an old faded billboard that showed the hotel they were headed to.
"Hollywood Tower Hotel? What kind of name is that? Shouldn't it be called "Disney Tower Hotel"?" Hayner asked.
"Who knows. Ask the owners." Xolette replied dryly.
Soon, there it was, standing at 199 feet. However, the hotel looked more foreboding than glamorous. The car went through a dark roadway as a thunderstorm came from behind the Tower. Isa parked the car outside the gate in an old parking lot, They all got out of the car and unloaded their luggage out of the trunk. Xion looked at the tower, and was amazed at the architecture of the roofs and buildings around the tower. She even looked at the sign at the center of the tower, which read "The Hollywood Tower Hotel".
"Doesn't look like much compared to the flier you found, Olette. It looks like it needs a serious renovation." Xion said.
Pence looked up at the tower with a frown.
"Judging by the scorch marks on the structure, the exposed elevator doors, and the slightly misaligned lettering, it looks like this place was struck by lightning awhile ago." Pence said.
"This place feels pretty strange. I'm getting the creeps here." Olette said.
"Well, we can't stay here all day. And besides, the weather's not getting any better. Xolette, is there another hotel we can stay at?" Roxas asked.
Xolette tried accessing her Gummiphone, but it wouldn't activate for some reason.
"I can't. Something's jamming with the Gummiphone. We'll just have to stay here for now." Xolette replied.
They made their way through the gate. On one of the pillars, a plaque was hung up, reading "Hollywood Tower Hotel. Est. 1917". Past the gate were the hotel gardens, which looked no worse for the wear. The plants were dead, the fountains were all dry, weeds and vines covered everything, statues were faded, and the path was broken.
"You'd think they would at least keep this place up, instead of letting it rot like it has. This looks worse than even the Old Mansion." Hayner said.
"A little gasoline, a blowtorch, no problem." Lea said dismissively.
Just then, a figure was spotted in the window, but vanished quickly, much to Roxas's surprise.
"Did you see that?" Roxas asked.
"See what?" Xion asked in confusion.
Roxas shook his head.
"Never mind." Roxas replied.
The weather got worse and it started to rain, but they reached the door just in time. The door opened and the group walked into an empty lobby. Cobwebs were everywhere, the front desk was abandoned, and luggage and papers laid all over. In the middle of the room stood a large owl statue. Antique music played over the ancient hotel speakers. And on the empty couch sat a faded and ragged doll. On the coffee table nearby, a card game laid unfinished.
"Yuck. What a filthy mess." Hayner said in disugst.
They all stood in silence, looking around their surroundings, when a voice came out of nowhere.
"Welcome, visitors, to the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Do not be alarmed, for I mean you no harm. I am at your service." the voice greeted.
A tall figure emerged from the darkness nearby and stepped forward. He was wearing a red bellhops uniform, and was a pale and rather intimidating-looking man.
"May I help you?" the belhop asked.
"Yes, reservation for 8. I called earlier." Xolette replied.
"Yes, of course. We have not had visitors in many years." the bellhop said.
"Because of the decay of this place?" Hayner asked.
"No. But lately, there have been more... disturbances. My name is Billiam Todd, or Billy for short. My father built this hotel himself, but he closed it up the night my younger brother Dewey vanished. My brother was a bellhop, too, and let's just say he was quite a klutz half the time." the bellhop replied.
"They never found him?" Olette asked.
"No, sadly. We have reason to believe he may have been disintegrated, along with the others when the lightning struck that night in 1939." Billy replied.
"What others?" Isa asked.
"The other four people who were on the elevator the night it happened. Now, your rooms are not yet ready, but please make yourselves comfortable in the library until they are. However, do not touch anything. And since the main elevator has not been in working order for some time, you'll have to take the service elevators in the maintenance room. We fire it up once a year and it's in good shape still. This way, please." Billy replied.
Roxas heard an owl hooting as Billy led them away. He quickly turned to look at the owl statue, but found nothing suspicious. He went back to follow the others, unaware that the statue's eye had started glowing, as if watching him.
Billy led the group to the library, a small room filled with antique items and faded books. The doors closed and the power suddenly surged out as lightning struck across the sky. The room quickly turned to chaos.
"Hey, what the..." Lea started to say.
"What's going on?" Pence asked.
"Hey, did someone touch something?" Hayner asked.
"Now, look here, Billy. If this is some kind of prank, I don't find it funny at all!" Xolette shouted.
Suddenly, the lights were back on and everyone calmed back down. Billy stood on the other end, a passageway in the wall opened to reveal the path to the hotel basement.
"Your rooms are ready. Now, if you'll just follow me, please." Billy announced.
The group followed the bellhop out of the library and into the passageway.