If the last chapter didn't get you wondering about what kind of place Northern Horizons is supposed to be, then you'll certainly be left with many questions by the end of this one.

That morning, instead of heading off for school or continuing on with the hopeless job search, Jackie and Rose Tyler went to the Northern Horizons Hotel.

At first sight, it seemed like a luxurious vacation destination. The building stood separately from the many other places surrounding the busy urban area, looking about three stories tall, and painted a luminous white. Surrounding the plaque with the name of the hotel and year it was found (being 1901), there were several statues adorning the entrance, including one of an elegant woman from ancient times and three lions, one of which seemed to be missing an eye.

However, this good impression died away once they stepped through the door. From the inside, it looked more like one of those run- down motels in which Jackie's family used to stay during those few holidays spend away in the countryside than the Goring or Covent Garden. The walls were painted in a light brown color that barely did anything to conceal the cracks and stains which could be seen on every corner. There was even a small hole under one of walls which made up the entrance area, and what looked like a spider web around the ceiling. Rose started to shiver from the unattractive sight, and Jackie did her best to avoid looking for too long.

The other contents of the room weren't any more pleasing to the eye. The furniture around the front desk looked as if it had been bought several decades ago, with a gray sofa and armchair which were tearing apart, a wooden coffee table with a pot of small flowers whose petals were hanging down, looking very dry and neglected, and several china dolls set up around the tables which were missing heads or arms.

Jackie walked up to the young woman at the front desk. She had her blonde hair in a ponytail and was wearing black trousers and a red shirt with "Northern Horizons" stitched around the breast area. "May I help you?" she asked in a tired voice.

"Yes. We're here to visit some guests staying in Room 236," Jackie explained, giving her the number the man had given her over the phone, which she luckily remembered to write down despite the state she was in last night.

The woman nodded. "All right. Go head on up if you want to, or you can get assistance from one of the staff members."

"But where is everybody? This place seems deserted."

The woman softly chuckled. "Oh don't worry, there are a couple of workers and guests hidden up somewhere. You'll certainly find someone over in the shop or security area, which are both to your left."

"Thank you," Jackie said. She then got a hold of Rose's hand, and as they were walking away, Rose heard the woman thinking, It's certainly nice to see the hotel filling up again. If they only knew how creepy it gets when no one's around.

To the left of the staircase, things seemed in better condition. There appeared to be several large and well-equipped rooms, including both a rec room with table tennis, arcade games, and a television, a playroom with more toys than any child could keep in their bedrooms, as well as a ballroom with a sign at the door indicating that entrance was only allowed if you were an employee or had a reservation. The store the woman had talked about sold a variety of candies, magazines, and fast food, and the girl working there gave them a friendly smile as they walked by.

However, the person who ended up escorting them was a middle-aged woman who went around with a look of indifference and weariness. She had wild brown hair set up in a sloppy ponytail, a wrinkled work uniform, old brown shoes, and very pale and dry skin. Upon seeing Jackie and Rose, she gave them a sly smile and said, "I see you both got here quite a bit early. Are you the mother and daughter headed to Room 236?"

"Why yes," Jackie responded, sounding surprised. "How did you know?"

"Let's just say I've gotten to have more interactions with the guests staying there than is normal for someone who's just a shopgirl. But then again, I've been working here since 1976, longer than anyone else in this hotel, and that includes its current owner."

"Interesting. I'm Jackie Tyler, and this is my daughter Rose."

The woman just looked at them for a while before finally reaching out to shake Jackie's hand (Rose stepped aside when she tried doing the same to her). "The name's Allison Willington, and I'll take on the job of escort for now, since my shift doesn't start until eleven today," and she turned to look at the other shopgirl, who just shrugged indifferently. "Go ahead, Allison. I know how good you are at keeping visitors entertained," she said.

"Thank you," Jackie said, and it wasn't until then, as she'd gotten a lot closer to Allison, that she noticed the familiar stench of liquor coming from her breath as she spoke. She may not have been drinking heavily, but from the way she was staring at them, as well as how she tended to ramble on at certain points, it was obvious that it was having some effect on her. Rose noticed this too, and she already started dreading what they were in for. If this woman was anything like how her mother was when she got drunk, they were heading for a lot of trouble.

Allison, however, was oblivious as to how they were feeling about her. "Come on now. I don't want to stand around here for too long. We've all got things to do."

Of course she can't stand around for a long time, Jackie thought. When you're drunk, it's impossible to stay still for even a minute. However, she just said, "Sure. Let's go ahead," and the three of them started walking down the long hallway.

"So, how are you loving the palace which is Northern Horizons?" Allison asked sarcastically.

"Strangely enough, this side of the hotel seems a lot more appealing than the entrance. I mean, if you want to get guests to stay over, shouldn't they feel as if they're walking into some sort of paradise instead of a deserted old building from the moment they step inside?"

Allison laughed. "So far, you've been a lot more honest about the shape this hotel's in than anyone else I've spoken to. I've been trying to convince Truman, the owner of the hotel, to fix up the entrance for over a decade, but he keeps insisting that it's fine, that no one takes notice of small flaws like cracked walls and armless china dolls. He's especially fond of those dolls, since he claims they were supposedly a gift from some Eastern European king back in the turn of the century."

"Are you serious?" Jackie asked in surprise. If those dolls were the gifts of royals, why on Earth would they be in such bad shape?

"Supposedly, but Truman can be a bloody good liar sometimes. He boasts about this place as if it were the Buckingham Palace, especially when he's interacting with tourists. If you saw how many New Yorkers go bonkers to the point of taking Polaroid pictures of either those creepy dolls or this one statue of a Lion with a missing eye that Truman claims was a gift from the Ottoman Empire, you'd be in for one good laugh."

"That doesn't seem funny to me," Rose said, speaking up for the first time. "If I owned the hotel, I would just throw them away or try fixing them. It all just looks scary."

Allison chuckled. "Well sweetie, there is something about this place which gives people the chills. But as bad as it may seem now, it was a whole lot worse when I started working here. Back then, almost everything looked as if it were decaying, especially the walls. A lot of the rooms here, including the rec and play rooms, didn't exist, and the ballroom hadn't been used since the forties…"

Jackie then stopped by a large bulletin board filled with advertisements, announcing things such as the latest theatrical productions, upcoming concerts, top tourists attractions, and discounts at nearby restaurants. Her attention was caught towards a sign for jobs at the Northern Horizons, and listed right at the top was this:

Now Hiring

Winter Caretaker: December through March

Must watch over the hotel and take on various tasks

Temporary residence at Northern Horizons is required

See Michael Truman for details

"What are you looking at?" Allison asked.

"I was wondering about the jobs here, particularly that of the winter caretaker. What are they in charge of?"

"Well, because Northern Horizons still runs on a pretty tight budget, Truman closes the hotel from January through March. During that whole time, a caretaker is in charge of keeping the place in good shape until it opens again. They're basically both security guards and housekeepers who are on the job for twenty-four hours. They usually start in December in order to get to know the place and help assist employees when necessary. Mind if I ask why you're interested?"

"I've been out of work for several weeks now," Jackie reluctantly explained. "I used to work as an aide at a nursery school, but I had to leave for reasons I'd rather not talk about right now."

Allison nodded. "Well, you certainly look like you could make a good caretaker. You seem very observant and intelligent, and seeing how you were able to be straightforward about the shape the hotel's in, I'm sure you'd be able to talk some sense into Truman when he needs it."

"I'll have to think about it," Jackie said, and the three of them started heading up the stairs, where they came across a hallway with cream- colored walls, an elegant scarlet carpet, and a large portrait of a bridge built around a pond and a field filled with dandelions and red roses was on display in the middle of the room.

"It sure looks better around here," Rose said.

"That's right, sweetheart. Truman is especially proud of that painting, which was done by a young woman from London in the year this hotel was first opened."

"Well, before we get to the room," Jackie said, " I wanted to know if you could tell me what you know about this doctor we'll be seeing."

That sly grin was back on Allison's face. "Unfortunately, my dear, I may not be much help to you if you want to know what kind of work that old chap specializes in. When I first met up with him, I thought he was probably a child psychologist, on account of how he had two little girls who weren't his own kids along with him. But then he admitted that he'd never really worked with young children before; the youngest patient he'd had before was fifteen years old. He claims he never turns down a patient, so when asked to work with those girls, he couldn't say no despite his own inexperience with children."

"But what's wrong with those girls?"

"I don't have a bloody clue. One of them claims she has a sleeping problem, and the other says she gets bad headaches that require some medication I've never heard of before. But from what I've seen so far, little Clara sleeps as soundly as a baby, and Christine never complains of anything other than her boredom with the hotel. Pretty healthy girls, if you ask me, and all I ever see Sullivan do is write long reports and deliver envelopes addressed to places like Berlin and Paris."

"Sullivan? Is that the doctor's name?" Jackie asked, trying to recall if he'd ever told her his name.

"Of course it is! Did he really not tell you?" Now Allison was starting to look shocked.

"He might have, but I don't know for sure," she responded. Perhaps he'd said it during their phone call last night, but she just couldn't recall it at all, or anything besides his constant reassurance that everything could be worked out and the name of the hotel he was staying in. Apparently, he didn't have access to his office on Fridays, which Jackie thought to be quite unusual, even if he was only staying in London for a while.

"Anyway, despite all his secrecy and rather unconventional work methods, Sullivan truly seems like a good man. The girls adore him, since he's always trying to make them happy; buying them sweets, playing ping pong with them in the rec room, or just telling them all sorts of ridiculous stories. Also, in all the time he's been staying here, I've never once heard him raise his voice towards anyone. Not when I've made my occasional escapades, not when the little brats decide to act up, or even after Truman gave him that long, fully detailed tour of Northern Horizons. He's that calm, kind doctor every patient wishes they could have. What the old bastard does to be so good-tempered is something I'll never understand."

But is that really going to be of any help to Rose? Jackie wondered. Nice doctors always made your stay much easier, but that wasn't a guarantee that everything would go right. For all she knew, something alarming could be in the way today.

"However, I still get this strange feeling whenever I'm around him," Allison rambled on, no longer caring if they were listening. "Perhaps because the last time I saw a man come alone with two girls, things got quite ugly. This man was the caretaker back in 1980, having come all the way from Quebec, as a matter of fact. Complete opposite of Sullivan. If something upset him, he would always make it obvious. Got into about three fights with the owner at the time, and he didn't like me at all. Can't even begin to tell you how many times he called me a putain. But it was the way he treated those girls which was the most disturbing thing of all. When they were alone, they were always happy, having little exchanges in French and singing along to anything that was on the radio, but once their daddy came in, they always got these terrified expressions on their faces. I had my suspicions about him from the start, but nothing could have prepared me for…" and then, perhaps realizing how much she was revealing for the first time, she stopped.

"What happened?" Rose asked, having gotten too interested in Allison's tale of the former caretaker.

"Something which is too much for a little girl like you to hear," was all Allison would tell her.

"But I hear scary stuff all the time. You can tell me." No need to mention that she also saw a lot of scary stuff.

"No. I'm done with that, and besides, I've been wasting a lot of your time with my endless talking."

"I've found the room," Jackie called out. "Come on, Rose. Let's see what we're in for."

"Good luck to you two," Allison said, but she refused to go back downstairs. As a matter of fact, she remained seated in a large armchair set up between the bathrooms long after Jackie and Rose had been let into the room. There was something making her feel more cautionary than usual; something stronger than the four glasses of wine she'd had three hours before, and if there was one thing Allison Willington was good at, it was being able to confront insanity no matter how unstable she was herself.

Jackie knocked on the door two times, and it was answered by little Christine, who gave her a friendly grin upon recognizing her. "Nice to be seeing you again, Mrs. Tyler. Probably a bit too early, but that's fine with us."

Jackie smiled. "It's lovely to see you too, Christine. Is Doctor, err, your doctor ready to meet with us?"

"Yeah. Dr. Sullivan got up quite early and even ordered breakfast for you. I think you're going to like visiting him, even if you don't like doctors."

As this girl was speaking, Rose noticed that the girl seemed to be looking at her very intensely. As much as she tried to appear more focused on speaking to Jackie, it was obvious that her attention was still aimed at her, and all while appearing to be in a state of deep thought.

And then, she heard this:

Hi there, Rose. If you can hear what I'm telling you, send me a message through your mind.

To which Rose, acting upon shock, could only respond with this:

Who are you, and what kind of doctor am I about to see?

Thanks once again for your reviews, follows and favorites. With all the crazy stuff going on (or rather, what won't be going on) with DW this year, I know we'll all want a way to continue on enjoying new adventures, and I hope to be able to continue on with this story, and several more which I'm still trying to plan out, for this reason. If you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see me write about later, feel free to let me know :)