Yep, back again tell a friend. I've been on a roll with updates lately, I'm just super motivated to work on my Halloween stories so hopefully the frequent updates continue. This next chapter is probably some of my best work yet, I'm not kidding I had so much fun working on this. Things get a little intense near the end I hope everyone's ready for a wild ride. Enjoy the chapter.


Chapter 2: Welcome to Seaview Hotel

The first few hours were surprisingly smooth. We enjoyed the fresh breeze coming from the England coast. And the greetings we got from the locals; we were able to get by without any complaints until the last two hours.

"So, where is the hotel located again?" I questioned,

"On a cliff overlooking the sea." Amy answered as she drove, "It's a really nice place from the pictures I saw. Then again, most of them were taking in the 90's."

"Wow, this hotel is pretty old. Why do you think Maya and her friends checked into this place?" I inquired,

"According to the information I acquired, Maya and her friends were supposed to camp out before the festival. But the weather had other plans, so they checked into a nearby hotel." Amy relayed,

"And the nearby hotel is Sea View, correct."

"On the nose." Amy winked,

"Hey, do you know who's running the place?" Mimi cut in,

"Apparently, he's a middle-aged man named James Alexander Hall. I wasn't able to find a picture of him, but he's well known around here."

"Hmm, I wonder why?" I pondered,

"Kyoko failed to mention this part of town doesn't even have cell service." Emily complained, "How are we supposed to fill her in if we can't get reception?"

"Don't worry. I'll email her our progress during the investigation. But first, we need to get there." Amy remarked, returning her focus on the road.


We fell into silence the rest of the way. Only breaking it when we arrived, I rolled down the window and peeked my head out to read a sign hanging on the front gate.

"Hmm, "Sea View Hotel Proprietor Jimmy Hall." I read,

"Looks like this is the place," Cindy stated,

"Indeed, it is. Let's get this party started." Mimi smiled as we got out, grabbed our luggage, and went inside,

"Whoa, nice place we've got here." I admired,

"Yeah, pretty classy. I wonder if there's anyone else here, I didn't see any other cars." Emily noticed,

"That might be a good thing. With fewer people here, there will be fewer distractions." Amy stated, seriously, she always gets like this on a case. It's like a part of her brain turns off just to keep her focused.

We walked to the front desk and rang the bell. A moment later, a young man came to us.

"Ah, hello ladies, welcome to Sea View Hotel. What can I help you with?" He asked with a cheerful smile,

"You must be James Hall." I guessed,

"Oh, no need to be so formal. My friends call me Jimmy, well actually I have no friends, but my parents called that at least." He chuckled,

"I see, well, Jimmy. We're with the Saihara Kirigri agency," Amy explained,

"Yes, I've been expecting you. You're boss Kyoko told me you were coming. Lucky for you, things have been dead around here lately. You know how every hotel has a dry season. Well, mine is mostly around the summer months. Come back in two weeks, and things should be so busy you won't be able to recognize the place."

"This guy's crazy," Emily whispered,

"Shh." Mimi hushed finger to her lip,

"As nice as this conversation is." I stepped in so we could talk business, "We aren't here to chat the day away. We were called here because five teens had gone missing, and they were last heard checking into this hotel. Have you seen them?"

"One of the missing teens, her name wouldn't happen to be Maya, would it?" Jimmy questioned,

"Yes, do you know where she is?" I followed up,

Jimmy closed his eyes as if trying to recall a memory.

"I'm sorry, girls, I see a lot of folks come and go around here; I don't remember seeing Maya's group leave if they did. They checked out very early in the morning. But you're welcome to stay and look around, but may I ask you to please stay out of the other rooms? There are some old family heirlooms in some of them, and I don't want anything breaking. Hope this won't inconvenience you." Jimmy hoped,

"It shouldn't, but what's in the rooms?" Chloe wondered,

"Oh, nothing much, just some random nick-nacks. But they're still very important to me." Jimmy stated,

"I doubt we'll need to look inside any rooms but ours." Mimi said politely, "By the way, where are we staying?"

"Right, you girls have rooms on the first floor, which reminds me. Oh, boys, we have guests!"

We do? Thank goodness it's been getting boring around here." A boy voiced coming forward with another boy. The first one had spiky black hair, golden eyes, and was wearing a red bellboy uniform. The other boy had spiky blond hair, blue eyes and was wearing the same uniform.

"Hi, I'm Ventus, but you can call me Ven, and this is my twin brother Vanitas." He greeted, smiling brightly,

"Hehe, hi Ven." I giggled, returning the smile,

"So, you're from that supernatural detective agency, right?" Vanitas asked,

"Yeah, we're here about the missing teens. Do you know anything about their whereabouts?" Cindy questioned,

"Sorry, we were off duty when they checked in." Ven frowned, "We didn't know they were missing, to begin with."

"That's fine, so do you work here often?" I wondered, putting a hand on the front desk,

"Only in the summer months." Vanitas explained, "Our parents thought it would be good for us to get a part-time job, so we applied here. But we'll be going back to school next week, so we won't be back till next summer."

"Interesting." Amy noted, "Have either of you noticed anything strange while working here?"

"Aside from the rumors of the hotel being haunted? Nope." Ven shrugged,

Amy hummed as she thought about Ven's claim.

"Look, I know detectives ask a lot of questions, but could they wait until you settle in?" Vanitas asked,

"Of course." I shot up, "We'll give you a hand."

"It's fine. It's our job to take luggage after all." Vanitas winked as the twins grabbed our suitcases and headed to the elevator.

"Come on, girls, let's give them a hand." I ushered my group to grab the remaining bags we were about to leave when Jimmy cleared his throat,

"Yes?" We turned our attention to him,

"Actually, there's one more thing I'd like to offer you. You see, I have a comedy routine. I perform at around midnight; I play a character named Hugo Punch. He's kind of a comedic sociopath." He chuckled,

"Wow, I haven't seen the art of insult comedy through sociopathy in years!" Emily breamed excitedly, "We are so."

"Out." Amy interrupted, "I'm sorry, Jimmy. As nice as the offer sounds, we're too busy to sit down and relax. The longer we wait, the more danger the teens could be in."

"Are you sure I can't twist your arm on this?" The proprietor wondered,

"I'm sorry, maybe another time when there isn't a missing person case," Amy said sympathetically. We walked to the elevator and pushed the button to the first floor.


"Jimmy seems nice," I said,

"He does a little socially awkward, though." Cindy frowned,

"Don't mind him." Vanitas cut in, "He lost his family about 20 years ago."

"Whoa, that must have been hard on him." I gasped,

"It was." Ven nodded, "I heard he lost his dad first then lost his mother a few years later."

"I can't believe my ears." I said with widened eyes, "Do you know what happened?"

The twins shook their heads. "No, Jimmy doesn't like to talk about it, so we left it at that," Vanitas explained,

"That's very respectable of you." I complimented,

"Thanks." They smiled,

"You have your keys, right?" Ven asked,

"Yes, Jimmy gave them to us before we entered the elevator," I confirmed,

"Good, because we're here. Ven, I'm going to Cindy, Chloe and Mimi's rooms. You've got Dakota, Emily, and Amy's rooms." He said,

"Okay, come on, girls, I'll show you to your rooms." We followed Ven and Vanitas to our rooms. We set our bags down and started putting some stuff away.


"Hey, Ven, what's this?" I asked, holding up a key,

"Oh, that's a deadbolt key." He replied,

"What does it do?" I followed up,

"It locks the door from the outside. It's for added security and sometimes privacy. Just use the key on the second lock, and no one will be getting in or out." Ventus explained,

"Thanks, Ven, but why is this in here?"

"I'm not sure. To be honest, I've been looking for that one."

"Well, you can have it. I don't see what use it will do for me." I gave him the key, but he refused,

"Keep it. You never know it might come in handy while you're here."

"Well, if you say so. I can take things from here; you should help the others." I said,

"Alright, just call if you need anything." We waved to each other as Ventus went back to work. I was about to put some socks away when I opened a drawer and saw a silver sword. I screamed, and Ven came rushing back in.

"Are you okay? I heard you scream."

"A sword." I stuttered, "Ven, there's a sword in the drawer."

"What?" He questioned as he walked up to get a closer look, "Oh, I forgot that was in there. Jimmy told you there was stuff in the rooms, right?"

"Yeah, he said they were family heirlooms," I recalled,

"Well, you just found one. I think his mother was a collector of sorts." Ven explained,

"Does Jimmy ever talk about his parents before they died?" I questioned, trying to find a topic to calm myself down,

"Yeah, he does." Ven nodded. "He speaks fondly of his mother, Rose. His father, Harvey, on the other hand. They didn't get along very well. Jimmy said he was an angry man. He wanted him gone during his mid-teens."

"Wow, sounds like a semi-abusive family." I guessed,

"I think it was. Then again, Jimmy said he was kind of a problem child, so I digress." Ven shrugged while shaking his head,

"How well do you and Vanitas know Jimmy?" I inquired,

"Well, as our boss pretty well. As a person, not so much. He doesn't talk about himself enough to get a clear picture, but he doesn't seem like a bad guy. Sure, he's a little rough around the edges, but when you have a hotel that's understaffed for most of the year, you don't tend to get out much." Ventus explained,

"Wait, Jimmy doesn't leave this place?"

"No, he doesn't. His father was the owner before him. I guess after his death; he deiced to take over. But what do I know? It's none of my business. I just work here."

"I guess that's one way to look at it. Anyway, I'm sure the others are waiting for you, but can I come with I'm still a little shocked about the sword?" I questioned,

"Sure, I could use the help. Carrying these luggage's can be bad for my back." Ven smiled, offering his hand. I took it, and we walked into the hallway together.


Emily and Amy were putting their things away when Emily got nosey and decided to open a chest. To her surprise, the trunk was filled with trophies.

"Hey, Amy, look at this." She called. Amy walked over to her sister and gasped.

"Remember how Jimmy said there were heirlooms in these rooms?" Amy reminded,

"Yeah." Emily nodded, "How could I forget he mentioned it ten minutes ago."

"I think this is what he was referring to." The ginger guessed,

"I wonder who they belong to." Emily wondered,

Amy picked one up and was shocked that it had Jimmy's name inscribed.

"They're Jimmy's." She gasped,

"Wow, I bet he won these for his comedy routine." Emily guessed, "You know, maybe we were too quick to dismiss his offer. He probably hasn't had many visitors in a while. Maybe we should ask him to perform a skit after all."

"For once, I agree with you. We won't be able to do a thorough investigation until tomorrow anyway. Let's get a quick look around the hotel and met up for dinner."

"That sounds like a decent idea Amy. I'll get Cindy and Chloe; you can have Dakota and Mimi." Emily stated,

"Deal, I'll scope out the first floor you, Cindy and Chloe will have the second, and Dakota and Mimi can take Ven for the third," Amy explained,

"What about Vanitas?" The other asked,

"He's with me. I've got some questions for him."

"Alright, then see you soon." The two sisters waved goodbye as they went their separate ways. We ended up exploring most of the hotel. But there weren't any signs or clues of the missing teens or anything suspicious. If foul play was involved, the kidnapper covered their tracks extremely well. After an hour of searching, we decided to call it a night and headed downstairs for dinner. At first, we thought it would be better to eat out tonight, but the weather had other plans; a raging storm was pouring outside with the thunder booming and lighting crashing we thought it would be safer to eat at the hotel.


"Here you go, girls, it's not much, but I hope it will keep you warm. It gets chilly this time of year." Jimmy chuckled, serving us bowls of hot soup,

"Thanks, Jimmy." Amy smiled,

"That storm came out of nowhere. Good thing we're safe and dry." Chloe said, taking a spoonful,

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to be caught dead out in there." Emily joked, taking a bite of her meal, "Mmm, this is good. Hey, what's the recipe?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but it's from a can." Vanitas confessed, "It's just clam chowder."

"Never mind," Emily stated, slightly disappointed,

"Seems like Dakota and Ventus have hit it off," Cindy said, changing the subject. Everyone turned their attention to Ven and me, laughing our hearts out. I admit I've only known him for a few hours but, I've grown fond of him.

"She's flirting up a storm over there." Emily noted, "Do you think she likes him?"

"Of course, she does." Amy stated, plainly resting her hand on her cheek, "You know how easily Dakota falls in love."

"Hey, Vanitas, is your brother single?!" Mimi called out,

"What?" He replied, "Oh Ven, no. Neither of us are dating right now."

"Perfect, let's set them up." Emily shot up,

"Um, let's not set them up." Amy declined, holding her hand out, "Emily, we've got more important things to worry about than blind dating."

"Oh, right, the missing teens." The brunette remembered, "Maybe another time."

"Speaking of which, we better head to bed. We've got to get up early tomorrow to start our investigation." The bookworm stated,

"Where are you going next?" Ventus wondered, walking beside me,

"Well, we're going to look around here some more. After that, we're heading to the music festival. Hopefully, there's someone there who has seen them." Amy stated,

"Good luck. Those girls are lucky to have you on the case." Vanitas smiled,

"See you guys tomorrow." I waved,

"Yeah, see ya." They waved; we all went back to our rooms to get ready for the night, except Emily and Amy, who decided to check their equipment one more time before turning in.


"Alright, so first things first." She said, holding a checklist, "I'll call out the names of the equipment, and it's your job to tell me we have them."

"Amy, I know how checklists work." Her sister sighed,

"I know, but considering you have a habit of spacing out, I wanted to remind you in case you forgot something," Amy reassured with a sympathetic smile,

"Well, when you put it like that…." Emily drew out, "What's first?"

"Magnify glass."

"Check."

"Case notes?"

"Check."

"Fingerprint dust."

I don't know which container it's in, but I'm pretty sure it's here." Emily nodded.

"Great one last thing." Amy said, rustling through the bag, "Wait, Emily, why did you bring our ghost hunting equipment?"

"I was hoping we could do a little séance while we were here. If it's true that there are restless spirits here, then maybe they've seen the teens." She reasoned,

"Emily, you know the rules surrounding communicating with the dead." Amy reminded, "If there are spirits here, demons might be here too. There is always a reason why a spirit is restless. Besides, I doubt they even saw what happened."

"Alright, you made your point goodnight, Amy. I'll see you in the morning." Emily said,

"Goodnight, Ems. I'll see you bright and early in the morning." Her sister replied as Emily left for her room,

Meanwhile, something evil was brewing down on the ground floor.


"Leave them alone!" Jimmy yelled at a mirror, "These girls have done nothing wrong! Just leave them alone. It's unlikely they'll find anything."

"Hugo doesn't like meddling kids." His reflection replied, "They'll find us out and lock us up. I say we give them the old one-two. Let's crack their skulls and lock them up."

"No!" Jimmy yelled, "There is no we; you did all of this! You've locked Maya and her friends up. You've killed all those people who stayed here, you and that demon you've become friends with!"

"Afraid to say his name, are we? You know what you must do, Jimmy. If we're found out, it will be the end for both of us." Hugo stated with a sinister smile,

"That's what you think!" Jimmy retorted, "Maybe they'll finally set me free from your control!"

"Jimmy?" Vanitas asked, walking into the room,

"Ga! Oh, it's you. Sorry, you scared me." He replied, sighting his clothes,

"Sorry, it's just I heard yelling." The other apologized, "It's Hugo again, isn't it?"

"Yes." The proprietor nodded, "He's been yelling in my head since the girls showed up."

"Jimmy, I don't want to tell you what to do. But we need to come clean. We have to tell them about Hugo and what he did to the missing teens. Dakota and her friends came a long way for this investigation. The least we can do is give them the answers they need. Maybe they can free you from Hugo's control.

"Or they will think I'm mad, and I'll get thrown into death row for my crimes." He muttered dryly,

"It's a risk, but they seem pretty understanding. I'm sure if we explain the whole story, they'll know what to do. After all, my brother has his own dark secret; he wants to them talk about." Vanitas frowned,

"He'll be waking up soon, won't he?"

"Yes, and when he does, those girls could be trouble." Vanitas nodded

Jimmy sighed, "I'll think about it overnight."

"Good, see you tomorrow, Jimmy. We'll be here." Vanitas waved and went to his room,

"Goodnight, Vanitas. Thank you. I needed a good chat." Jimmy walked out of the staff-only room to turn in for the night, stopping by sudden dizziness.

"Ugh, you just won't let it go, will you." He grunted, trying to stay in control, but it was no use. Jimmy collapsed to the ground, and his surroundings began to darken.

"Those bad eggs need cracking. Whack 'em hard and break their shell, kick 'em down the stairs to hell. and If you won't take them out, I will." Hugo's voice echoed in Jimmy's head, soon his conscience faded out, Hugo was in control.


Emily was sound asleep in her bed; she was completely unaware of the footsteps coming towards her door. And the sound of a key undoing the lock, it was only when Jimmy crept towards her that Emily opened her eyes to a nasty shock.

"Wha!" She shouted as she jumped out of her skin, nearly avoiding getting hit by a bat.

"What the heck, man?! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" She yelled,

"You've been snooping around a little too long. It's time to put a stop to it," Hugo said, rising the bat to strike,

"Whoa!" Emily dodged the swing, "Okay, I have no idea what's going on, but I'm getting out of here!"

Emily kicked Jimmy to the ground and ran out of the room to mine.

"Dakota! Dakota, let me in!" She yelled, pounding frantically on the door,

"Wha, what's going on?" I questioned drowsily; I rubbed my eyes and got up to open the door. As I did, Emily burst in panting heavily,

"Emily, what's on?" I asked,

"We've got to get out of here. He's after me!" She replied urgently,

"Who's after you?" I followed up,

"It was terrifying; he was swinging a bat old vigilante-style!"

"Emily, slow down. I can't understand a word you're saying. Who's after you?"

"Jimmy!" She yelled,

I couldn't believe my ears and started laughing.

"Really, Jimmy?" I laughed, "Emily were you sleepwalking again?"

"Hey, are you calling me a liar?! I know what I saw!"

"I'm not, but sweet, hospitable Jimmy attacked you? That is…"

"Completely right." Jimmy's voice cut through as a clap of thunder light up his silhouette,

Emily and I screamed as we hugged each other in fear,

"Wow, you gotta admit that lighting strike had impeccable timing." Emily admired, "Look if this is about us not attending your comedy routine? We've changed our minds. Why don't we head downstairs and give her a go."

"You six have been a thorn in my side since you got here." He explained, hitting the bat on his hand, "I've spent years protecting the secret of this hotel, and I'm not going to let a group of meddling kids expose it."

"Emily, look out!" I warned as Jimmy swung the bat down,

"Hey, batter, batter, batter, batter, swing!" Emily yelled as he missed her knocking out a lamp,

"Wow, this guy has a good arm for a middle-aged man." She sweated painting on the floor,

"It's the end of the road for you, my dear." The deranged proprietor said, hovering above me,

"Leave my friend alone, you creep!" Emily yelled, defending me with the broken lamp,

"Isn't that the lamp Jimmy hit?"

"You'd be surprised what I can use as a lethal weapon." Emily strained, trying to fight off Hugo. It was a tight squeeze in the tiny hotel room, but somehow, he was able to overpower her. Landing on the ground with a thud,

"Ugh." She groaned, nursing her aching head,

"And stay down." He said, turning his attention back to me,

Emily took this as her chance to use her sweeping low kick and knock Hugo off his feet, landing hard on his back,

"Whoa, thanks, Emily."

"No problem, let's get the others and make like a banana and split." She said we ran out of the room, with me locking the door behind me,

"Good thing Ventus told me about the deadbolt." I laughed, silently thanking Ven for telling me that.

"What's going on?" Amy questioned, running up to us,

"I heard banging coming from yours and Emily's rooms Dakota." Mimi stated, voice laced with worry, "Did someone try to hurt you?"

"No time to explain. We have to get out of here." Emily voiced urgently,

"Why, what's happening?" Chloe wondering,

"It's Jimmy. He tried to kill us!" Emily whispered yelled,

"What?!" They all questioned in confusion,

"It's a long story, but first, we have to get out of here before he finds us."

"I think it's a little too late for that, Emily," Cindy said, pointing to the shadow coming towards us,

"Here's Jimmy." He smiled, making us all scream,

"Really, that old cliché line?" Emily stated, unimpressed, "Couldn't you have chosen something more… sinister."

"Forget that. Just run." I said, taking her by the hand and running to the elevator,

"Hurry up, come on," I grunted, waiting for the elevator,

"Look out, Chloe," Cindy yelled as Jimmy tried to strike her; I pushed Chloe out of the way, taking the hit. I screamed in pain as Hugo hit my shoulder,

"Ahh, my shoulder!" I yelled, "I think he dislocated my shoulder!"

"This just got personal." Mimi growled, "Take this freak show!" She yelled, firing a spell to stun him. As she did, Cindy rushed to my side, getting me to my feet, and carried me to the elevator.

"Good thinking Mimi." I breathed now that we were safe,

"No problem, good thing my third eye powers are still kicking." She winked, flipping her hair back,

When the elevator reached the ground floor, Cindy helped me sit down and used her third eye magic to heal me,


"Ugh, thanks, Cindy, that really hurt." I groaned,

"Don't mention it, now can someone tell us what's going on? And what's with Jimmy? He wasn't acting this way when we got here."

"I have no idea what's wrong with Jimmy." Emily spoke up, "I was sleeping in my room when he broke in and attacked me."

"Emily came to my room next to warn me." I continued, "That's when Jimmy attacked me. He said he didn't like us snooping around and wanted to silence us."

"That doesn't sound like the Jimmy we met," Chloe spoke,

"Okay, there are two possibilities here." Amy came forward, "One Jimmy has dissociative identity disorder, and his split personality is in control. Or two, he's being possessed by some demon who doesn't want us discovering the dark secrets of the hotel."

"So, what do we do?" Chloe wondered,

"We get out of here." I said sternly, "We tell Kyoko and let her send someone to handle it. We don't have jurisdiction in this field. We need a higher-level clearance to tackle demons of this level."

"That would be a great idea if it weren't for one thing," Mimi spoke by the front door,

"What it is, Mimi?" Amy questioned,

"We're locked in the door won't budge."

"Quick, call the agency." The ginger ordered, "Kyoko will send troops to rescue us."

"The phone's dead." Cindy reviled, "The line has been cut."

"Jimmy must have done this to keep us from escaping." I theorized, "This is a lot of effort to keep us quiet. I wonder if he has something to do with the missing teens?"

"Now, that is a good question." Amy agreed, "Girls, we're trapped with no choice but to investigate. If anyone finds anything that will lead to our freedom, you let us know.

"Well, I found something," Chloe spoke up,

"What is it, Chloe?" Her sister asked,

"This." She answered, holding up a spirit box,

"Jimmy!" Voices called out,

"Get out of the hotel!" A man's voice warned,

"Get out while you can!" A little girl's voice warned, "You have to find out what he did and tell everyone. Make him realize what he did!"

"Girls." I said, turning to them, "I think we've got ourselves a secondary case."


Oh boy, being stuck in a haunted hotel with a deranged maniac is always good. How will Dakota and her friends get out of this one? Also what's gonna happen to Ven and Vanitas? You're gonna have to wait to find out but it will be worth the wait. Anyway I' signing off please let me know your thoughts and theories in the comments I love reading them. And if you're reading this on Ao3 then Kudos are always appreciated see you soon.