2
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself young lady." William Collins knew Wilfred Tipton. Tipton did a lot of business with his family's company, and every time they got together, Collins had a lot to tell him about his daughter. While Tipton was busy keeping his Fortune 500 Company going and tackling with union problems and protesters against his ravaging of the countryside, Collins spent his life relaxing with his money and focusing on his pursuit of the paranormal for scarier and more atmospheric paranormal novels. At times, he became a pseudo-father figure to the unrestrained and uninhibited heiress that was London Tipton. He lead her into the lobby with his fingers clutching her by the arm.
"What did she do?" Moseby came to investigate.
"Well," Collins looked to London casually annoyed by this parental intrusion to her life. "After I barred her from the room, she went out on the ledge and broke in from my balcony…"
Moseby groaned from the news.
"Jesse locked himself in the bathroom, but she grabbed Zac by his leg and held on as he tried to shake her loose." Both Collins and Moseby looked to London. "She pulled his jeans right off screaming that they were meant to be together… right in front of Sam Raimi and the production staff as we discussed the movie."
"I was right!" London smirked proudly. "He is a boxers man."
Moseby groaned even louder from the embarrassment.
"London, what am I going to do with you?" Moseby screamed and Collins turned away to get aspirin from the hotel store. London just rolled her eyes annoyingly and gracefully glided away to return to her penthouse. She was stopped again. Moseby had her by the shoulder.
"London…" He said her name angrily. "Where's Maddie? You vanished upstairs with her right behind her!"
"Oh,…" London checked out her nails. "I locked her in a closet."
"Which closet?!" Moseby screamed at her. London looked at him and shook a bit from his frustration. When she did, what skewered brain function in her pretty head lost its train of thought and blanked out on what she was thinking. She was not a stupid person, but her attention deficiency hampered her in many ways. All she could do was roll her eyes and try to recall what floor it was.
"Uh, uh, uh…" She tried recalling. Moseby groaned out loud trying to think.
"There are four housekeeping closets on each floor!" Moseby tiredly stated the problem ahead. "I'll check them all!!" He gestured to Esteban to accompany him. "Esteban!"
"Looking for Mrs. Maddie again." The Hispanic-American bellboy mumbled out loud. "Boy, this sure feels like a rerun." He referred to when she got locked inside Suite 613 for a month back when everyone thought it was haunted and vacant. It was a very distraught moment from Maddie's past that she had worked through and had tried to forget. At the moment, she was a short distance from that room. Buried under a metal shelf, a cover of sheets knocked from their shelf and several bottles and containers of cleaning fluid, she had been inhaling spilled bleach and glass cleaners for a few hours. Unconscious across the floor, a mysterious hotel presence recognized her and coddled over her. Her skin shivered from the cold air off it.
"Maddie…" A mysterious voice cooed to her. Maddie didn't stir. A drop of blood had descended down over her head from the back of her head. Her left lip where she had hit the floor was also bleeding. Her covered face was passively serene; only in her dreams was she truly at peace with the world. Her left hand twitched from the cold presence wrapping around her.
"Maddie…" The voice beckoned to her again.
Her eyes woke up to a brilliant blue. Her breath gasped from the pain in her body and she blinked again to her normal brown eyes. Her aches and pains permeated to her soul. Taking a second to recall where she was, she started pulling herself out from under the mess and carnage of the ravaged closet. Her hand smeared the blood from her lip. Her eyes tried to focus as she braced against the wall. She only pulled herself about halfway to her feet before she stopped, collapsed to catch her breath and then pulled her injured leg to stand. A pain shot from her knee to her hip as she stood erect once more. Her breath filled the room. Why was it so cold in here?
"Oh no…" She recognized this cold feeling about her. She felt it in 613 when she lost her identity. "Not again…." She felt the room enclosing around her. Her eyes looked around scared for her life. A piercing grasp grabbed her arm, but when she screamed it stayed trapped in her throat. There was an invisible hand clutching her right wrist!
Trembling, unable to scream, Maddie tried wrestling her arm free, but she couldn't do it. It was almost as if something was tightening on her arm under her skin. A tear dropped from her eye and she clenched her fist trying to lose the sensation. It was happening again, and she couldn't stop it. Whatever spirit was restricting her wanted her to finish what it had started. Maddie backed to the door and turned round to it. Unable to control her actions, Maddie reared her right arm back and punched her fist to the door, plunging it through the solid oak door and splintering it in two!
"Oh my god…" Maddie realized what she done. "What's happening to me this time?" She pulled her arm freed through the opening she had made. What ever was controlling her had let go of her. She pushed the damaged half of the door aside and scooted the chair out of her way. Slightly limping and with her eyes full of tears, she limped achingly down the hall for the elevators. Her hand shook as her finger pushed the button to return to the lobby, and she achingly and nervously tilted her wavering head up to the floor numbers. Her eyes were full of tears as she trembled. When her elevator doors closed, the other elevator opened up.
"Maddie, we're coming…" Moseby came out first. He sent Esteban to one closet as he headed to the other. His feet carrying him along, he reached for his keys then looked up to the decimated closet. The shattered door was off its hinges, the contents were strewn everywhere and the chair once by the door was on its side a few feet away from it.
"It looks like a tornado hit it!"
Instead of arriving at the lobby, Maddie's elevator had arrived to the twentieth floor plaza. What was going on here, she wanted the lobby! Her face awash with tears, she ambled and limped fraught from her experience past snack machines and guests relaxing in the lounge area for the exterior balcony. Lance Fischman, the pool boy, looked up from straining the hotel swimming pool and noticed her wandering past him. Her lip had been bleeding and her sleeve was torn, the whole side of her uniform had been bleached to bright blue and her loose tie was hanging loose to her waist as she limped along to the edge of the building. It looked as if a powerful force had tossed her around. Her eyes were trancelike as she wandered across the veranda.
"Maddie…" Lance stopped and posed a bit with the pool skimmer by his side. "Are you okay?" He asked with concern. Maddie walked to the other side of the swimming pool and shoved a chair from the drink hut over to the wall. She placed one step on the chair, another step onto the top of the railing and pulled herself up to the top of the wall looking over the side of the building. Alarmed guests stopped talking and turned to look at the upset young blonde climbing over the top of the wall. Why wasn't anyone doing something?! Lance looked around as Maddie pulled herself up on top of the ledge. She stood on the wall and looked down to the street beneath her. Tears filled her face. She'd been crying.
"Maddie!!" Lance raced toward her. He stepped on the chair, but it buckled under his weight. "Maddie, get down from there!" He tried reaching her as others swarmed to stop her suicide attempt. Hotel employees dashed around trying to do something.
"Lance…" Maddie looked down upon him as he and other adults tried reaching her to pull her down. She was too high! "I can't control myself!!"
"Maddie!!" Two guys started lifting Lance up to grab and take her off the wall. He reached up to pull her back, but Maddie tipped herself forward out of his grasp…
…and started descending down the outside of the building.
"Maddie!!" Lance screamed from his soul in shock as she took her life. He broke down screaming her name as his eyes filled with tears. she was gone...
