I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and here's to a happy, and hopefully saner, New Year!
Moments later, Rose heard the same jazz music she was hearing before. However, upon taking a closer look at the place around her, it no longer came from the old record player, but from three tall, broad young men playing the saxophone, trumpet, and drums on the podium. All around her, there were now dozens of people in the room, either dancing with a partner or chatting in large groups, laughing wildly while drinking from those elegant glasses Rose had seen in the ballroom earlier.
"Oh, Caroline, this must be the best New Year's Eve party I've ever been to!" a woman with a short haircut, gold earrings, and a light blue gown was saying, sipping from a red beverage, most likely wine based on what Rose had seen her mummy drinking in the past, as she was speaking.
"This party's sure swell, Peggy, but it's not the party that I love so much as being able to have a good glass of liquor for once," Caroline answered, speaking in an American accent, and having already downed a full glass of wine and turning to the table to pour herself a second glass from the bottle which had been placed in the tables of all the guests. "The stuff they gave us at the speakeasies in Chicago was dreadful; nothing but cheap beer and whisky imported from low class tavern owners in Canada who are desperate to make money in the illegal booze business. This is the real thing I've been wanting to have since I was fifteen, and if there's any dream of mine that came true by coming to England, it's being able to taste something like this at last!" She then started laughing hysterically before once again taking a big gulp of the wine.
Rose remembered her mummy rambling when she was drunk once about how alcohol had once been illegal in America, and how she believed she would die if Britain ever imposed such a law. However, that had been a long time ago, before her mummy or even the grandmother she'd never met had been born, and these women looked too young to have lived during that time.
But then again, everything in here looked so old despite also seeming so new. The clothes all the party guests were wearing, for one thing, were very different from anything Rose had ever seen any adult wearing before, including dresses which were sleeveless yet more ruffled and lacy than most modern dresses, and elegant black or white tuxedo coats on the men. In addition, the music and how everyone was reacting to it was unusual. In one special event Rose had once attended with her mummy, this type of music was being played as well, but everyone listening to it simply remained seated and talked to fellow guests. However, in this party, everyone was dancing along to the music, with some actually acting as wild as Rose heard some people acted at rock concerts, with one woman yelling out as she swung around the place with her partner.
And then, Rose saw several things which were familiar. The first was the statue of the angel with the robe which covered only part of its body. Only now it was placed alongside two other statues in the front of the room, the first being one of a tall woman with hair that went all the way down to her feet and covered her breasts, and the other being a lion who stood straight and looked upon the place with what appeared to be a look of pride and power. The second was the mirror, which remained in the same location as it was when Rose first saw it earlier. And the third was a large photo of what was clearly the exterior of the Northern Horizons, which looked just as large and luxurious, if not more so, as when Rose stepped outside despite the picture being in black and white.
So, what it really possible that she was in the past?
"Hey, little girl, what are you doing in that boys clothing?" a woman in a white gown with puffy sleeves asked, looking at Rose with what was clearly a disapproving expression.
Rose looked down at what she was wearing: a blue sports t-shirt with the number 25 printed on it and black trousers. Yes, this was certainly something girls wouldn't be caught wearing in the old days.
However, she wasn't going to admit who she was or where she was actually from any time soon. "I was just playing dress up a while ago and a boy lent me his clothes to wear," she said quickly, saying the first lie which came to mind.
"Well, he must be one of the servant's children judging from the state of that clothing," the woman said with a disgusted expression on her face. "Proper young ladies should avoid associating with those types of children whenever possible, my dear. And putting on boys clothing is another bad habit you should avoid, even if it is for play. You could develop all sorts of perversities if you keep on doing such things."
Rose wasn't sure what "perversities" meant, but judging by the woman's tone as she'd said it and how she had brought up bad habits, she assumed that this couldn't mean anything good.
"Oh, don't make such a fuss about that, Wendy," Caroline said with a chuckle. "There's nothing wrong with these dress up games children like having every once in a while. I remember how thrilled I was when I got to wear a soldier's suit and armor when playing Joan of Arc in a school play when I was ten years old and attending boarding school in Paris. If anything, I think taking on some of the more masculine traits in this century is what's been giving us ladies all of the rights we've been gaining in the past couple of years. I'm pretty sure Joan of Arc would have been proud of all we've achieved."
"Don't remind me of that," Wendy said, shaking her head. "Just because women are now allowed to vote doesn't mean that we should crop our hair short and act as if we're on par with men, like those crazy flappers seem to believe," and she said this with a pointed look towards Peggy, who glared and looked away to get another glass of wine. "And now if you'll excuse me," Wendy continued, "I'm going to go get this little girl a nice dress to get her looking like the proper young lady she should be looking like. Feel free to drink your way into the new year with your drunkard of a friend there." And as she walked away, she mumbled, "Bloody Yanks. The only reason they come to Europe nowadays is to drink their wits away and attempt to create fine art which is the worst rubbish anyone's thought of creating."
"I'm no Yank!" Peggy yelled drunkenly. "I'm from Chicago, miles away from the old Yankees!"
"However, the Midwest is best known as the center of the bootlegging business, so that's nothing to be proud of," a man in a white suit said, caressing Peggy's cheek in a strange manner.
"Hush up, Edmund! We've got a child by our side who could be taking this all in," Caroline said, now being the one with the look of disapproval.
"Why should it matter, Caroline? That child appears to be too young to understand anything we're saying," Edmund said, laughing. Turning to Rose, he then said cheerfully, "Looks like someone's in the spirit of the new year, with a shirt bearing the year that's about to come."
"The year?" Rose asked confusedly. "What year is it exactly, sir?" she demanded to know without stopping to think about how this strange this would sound.
Edmund laughed once again, and Rose could smell the deep stench of liquor from his mouth as he said, "Why, it's only the last day of 1924, my dear! Are so young that you haven't learned about the concept of different years yet?" This resulted in a confused look from Rose, who really must have looked much younger to this man at that moment.
"I think, Edmund, that it's best if we placed this little girl in the playroom," Caroline said. Then, taking Rose's hand, she said, "Now, love, you're going to go into the playroom and wait along with Therese and Louise Purdue, two nice little twin girls who are in there waiting for their father. They're French Canadian, and based on how they were dressed so similarly to you when we first saw them, I must assume that maybe you're Canadian too; is that right?"
"No," Rose said, "I'm British, just like you."
"Maybe so, but I've never seen a British girl dressed as you are now," Caroline answered with a chuckle. She then escorted Rose into the exact same door which she'd set foot into when entering this room. This brought some relief to Rose, who believed that perhaps the door would now lead her back into the present, and as a result, she followed Caroline along without hesitation. Other than the obvious confusion resulting from being in a different time period, Rose didn't like how the majority of the party guests were so drunk and careless, so much like how her mummy was when she would get drunk. Edmund in particular had made her nervous, especially when she saw how he touched Peggy, and it made Rose wonder whether it was just in the past that party guests would act so strangely, or if they also did so in the present, which would make her look forward to the Christmas party a lot less.
However, when she stepped through the door with Caroline, instead of finding the modern version of the ballroom with Truman and Susan, she instead saw the same room which Truman and Susan had been in before her entrance into the ballroom, with the canopy bed, the theater book, and pretty much everything from before present except for the New Year's Eve picture, which was replaced by another photo of the Northern Horizons building. And seated in the desk were two dark-haired girls in matching white shirts with collars and blue trousers, looking more modern than anyone else in the hotel. To make it appear even more convincing that these girls were from the future, one of them was looking a collection of the Peanuts comics, while the other was reading a paperback version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while having what looked like a ham radio by her side. Also on the table was a stuffed golden wolf, with dark eyes that gave it the same direct look as the statue of the lion.
Upon seeing Caroline coming in with Rose, the two girls called out in unison, "Bon soir*, Mademoiselle Caroline," while darting curious glances towards Rose.
"Girls, I found another girl who looks as if she also got separated from her parents," Caroline told them. Turning to Rose, she then asked, "Would you mind telling us your name, love?"
But before Rose could say anything, the girl who'd been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, who appeared a little taller and chunkier than the other girl, said, "We already know who she is, Mademoiselle Caroline; her name is Rose Tyler."
"Thank you, Therese, but how do you already know her?" Caroline asked.
"She came here with her mother a while before all the others did," the one looking through the Peanuts collection, who must have been Louise, responded politely. "Papa told us about their arrival several days ago, saying that they were a little nervous about meeting the other guests."
"Oh, I see. That explains a lot about her, in that case," Caroline said, appearing to be more relieved now upon hearing what she believed to be Rose's situation. "So, I'll leave you two to keep her company for a while. Expect to see Wendy coming in with a dress for Rose soon, if she was actually serious about doing so, that is. In thirty minutes to twelve, if you're all still awake, feel free to come join us for the arrival of the New Year. After all, your parents may have come back by then."
"Of course, Mademoiselle Caroline. Thank you for bringing Rose over," Therese said, watching as Caroline left them alone, who gave them a friendly wave before shutting the door.
Rose felt a shiver running through her body as she realized that she was all alone with these strange twins. For some reason, she sensed that their father wouldn't be coming in any time soon, that they had been in that room on their own for a longer amount of time than she was capable of guessing.
And as she thought this, Therese said in a calm voice, "You're right, Rose, Papa hasn't actually seen us in a long time. Of all the people in here waiting for the arrival of the wolf, he's the one who's spend the most time on his own, searching through every room in this hotel for a quicker solution to our problem."
"What problem are you talking about, and who is the wolf?" Rose asked anxiously, her eyes darting in the direction of the golden wolf placed on the table, and wondering if it was more than just a stuffed animal.
"Couldn't you already tell, Rose?" Louise asked with an innocent expression on her face. "All the people you've been seeing here are dead, including the two of us. Out there in the ballroom, every day for the past sixty-eight years has been New Year's Eve of 1924. As the guests who were present on that day have passed away over the years, they all find themselves returning back to that night when their lives changed forever, because although only one person died on that night, the spirit that caused it to happen affected the lives of everyone involved in some way, and of many others who've come here over the years. For all of us here, this is our own version of Limbo or Purgatory; the place we're forced to remain in until someone is able to save us and help guide us to a better place."
"So, are you two also from 1924?" Rose asked, glancing at their modern clothing as she asked the question, and wondering if that would explain why they sounded older then they looked when speaking.
"No," Therese started to explain, "We're actually from the year 1980, and while much of this room remains the same as it was in 1924, we're still able to do things like bringing in our newer toys and books or playing our radio. We spend the majority of our time here because this was the place where our father placed our bodies after killing us, as I believe Allison has already told you."
Rose remembered how Allison had told her and her mum about how one of the former caretakers had killed his daughters and then himself, but she'd never brought up how he'd hid their bodies in this room, which meant that she either hadn't wanted to scare Rose any more than she already was or that she didn't know anything about that part of the story.
"Allison didn't know anything about that, Rose, and as of now, she still has no idea about how dangerous this hotel actually is, even though she always had her suspicions," Therese told her. "And yes, both Louise and I were born with moderate psychic ability. This helped us be able to predict our papa's fits of anger and protect ourselves as we saw fit, especially since our mama left when we were only two. He was extremely dissatisfied with everything in his life, from his job to our neighbors, and even life in Quebec. He thought that by coming to England, he'd be able to find the prosperity he believed he deserved, so when the best job he could get here in Northern Horizons was as a caretaker, he took it as an insult to his abilities and intellect."
"What was it that your papa thought was so special about him?" Rose wanted to know.
"The best way to describe him would be to say that he was very similar to the father of Victoria Waterfield, the woman you met a while ago, as well as your own father," Louise said. "He was an inventor who'd been able to create excellent devices during his good days, including a machine that served food for you and a tablet with some of the capacities of computers. He sometimes liked showing us his works in progress when he was in a good mood, and promised to teach us how to be inventors ourselves when we got older."
"However, because other people constantly told him that his inventions were useless, he quickly lost respect for so many people, and even took it out on us if he was angry enough," Therese continued, starting to look anxiously towards a silver watch which lay around unused beside the golden wolf. "In fact, when Mr. Jameson, who was the owner of Northern Horizons before Mr. Truman took over, heard Papa rambling on about the serving device he invented, he laughed and told him to bring out a model of it and use it at the kitchen for the guests if he really believed it could work. This was the first thing that irritated him while working here, and it was nowhere near the last."
"The more time passed, the more his anger seemed to grow," Louise said, starting to pull her fingers around the collar of her shirt. "He felt that nothing about the work he was doing was satisfying him in any way, even declaring it to be worse than any job he had in Quebec. We got very frightened of how he was acting, and would sometimes talk to Allison about what went on, since she was the only one who was willing to listen to anything that a little girl would say. She helped us out in some ways, even standing up to Papa when she could, but she thought there was something stronger going on which she didn't believe anyone could do anything to help."
"So, he just became crazy because no one thought he was talented?" Rose asked, starting to shiver a little from fear, perhaps after noticing the nervous ticks of the twins.
"That was part of the reason why, but that alone would not have been strong enough to provoke him to do what he did," Louise continued, now placing her hands in her pockets to avoid fidgeting. "What really made him lose his mind was something that had been present in Northern Horizons from the beginning, who most likely came about when…"
"Louise, I believe Rose is getting a little too frightened by the story," Therese interrupted her sister. Then, with a concerned glance towards Rose, she asked, "Would you like some tea and treats to calm yourself down a little?
"Sure," Rose replied, only now realizing how hot and dizzy she was feeling, with a headache starting to kick in.
Therese offered her a chair and a cup of tea with cream. Rose sipped it slowly, surprised by how warm it was despite how it appeared to have been served up quite a while ago. She then took a bite of a strawberry-flavored biscuit, tasting very fresh and warm as well. This was all enough to ease her nerves for a while, and she noticed both of the twins smiling at her, probably happy to see that they'd helped her feel better.
"How are you now, Rose?" Louise asked.
"Much better, thank you," Rose replied. "Can you finish the story now?"
"If you insist," Louise responded. "So, you know all those incidents that have happened while you've been here at the hotel, like your telekinesis getting so strongly unleashed, Truman's inexplicable insistent on authority, the frightening sensations your friends Christine and Clara experienced, the strange objects you keep seeing, and the appearance of the phrase 'Dab flow'?"
"Yes?" Rose responded.
"This has all happened because of a dangerous spirit which has been present in the hotel since its earliest days," Therese continued. "For the first two decades of Northern Horizons' existence, it remained largely dormant, coming alive only through some of the statues and toys during those hours when no one was awake. But on this day, something provoked it to unleash its full power, resulting in the death of one of the guests present in this party."
"Who? Was it someone I met?" Rose asked, the fear building up once again.
"It was Peggy Finch," Louise answered. "As of now, she's so drunk that Caroline will take her up to her room so she can sober up a little. However, being so unused to drinking so heavily, Peggy starts acting very wildly, laughing hysterically and even making strange noises while on her own. She then starts bathing at around eleven, at which time the spirit, which had been present in her room ever since Caroline had taken her up there, attacks her and ends up killing her. According to Eleanor Perkins, the maid who heard her cries and found her body, she heard howling along with screaming, and upon finding her body, she saw the words 'Dab Flow' written in blood around the bathtub. She was actually convinced that it was a murder, but the police dismissed her claims because of a lack of evidence, officially declaring it to be a suicide, and parts of her testimony were kept out of the official reports in addition to the name of Northern Horizons."
"Eleanor Perkins never forgot about this though," Therese went on. "And ten years later, she died after throwing herself off the window of a relative's house. Her sister found 'Dab Flow' written on the walls of Eleanor's bedroom, and claimed to have heard an awful lot of screaming at the moments of her death. But once again, there was no evidence found of homicide, and once again, the death was considered a suicide. Wendy Collins, another woman you just met, died in a similar manner in her family home a year later. 'Dab Flow' was found written in her closet door, but once again, her cause of death was declared to be a suicide."
"Similar causes of death were experienced by others present at the party, but we can't go over them all," Louise said, placing a hand around Rose's shoulder upon seeing how frightened she was becoming. "I don't believe you'll be able to hear it at the moment, but know that at least Caroline passed away peacefully two years ago from an illness at the age of eighty-five. She's the latest member to come back here, and perhaps the happiest, based on what we've seen of her."
"But what does it all mean?" Rose asked in frustration. "Do any of you have any idea what 'Dab Flow' is, and why it came up when all those people died?"
Louise glanced anxiously at Therese. "Is now the best time to tell her?" she asked in a whisper.
"I believe so," Therese answered. "Because if we wait till it gets closer to eleven, we could end up provoking her to act in a dangerous way."
"All right," Louise said. Turning to Rose, she said, "Papa was the one who probably came the closest to discovering the source of the words. After we started hearing noises in the night that weren't that different from what your friend Christine was hearing, Papa became determined to discover the noise's source, and started looking through every room in the hotel at night. Mr. Jameson warned him against doing this one night after walking in on him at midnight, threatening to fire him if he went on doing so. But since he never allowed other people to order him around, he continued with his nightly searches, telling us that he wouldn't rest until he discovered what was causing the noise."
"So, one night, when checking up on the lavatories, he came upon the shadow of this creature," Therese said, picking up the golden wolf stuffed animal as she spoke and stepping up closer to Rose as she did so, as if she wanted her to get the best look at it as possible.
"A wolf," Rose said, "But why is that?"
"Papa heard an eerie voice telling him to remember the words from the old fairy tale of a little girl who placed too much trust in a familiar face, and how it nearly ended things for her. It involved only two words, which formed the name of the figure which would be the ultimate salvation for the souls trapped in Northern Horizons," Louise told her. "Think closely about that for a minute, and you'll find out what the significance of all this is."
At that moment, Rose closed her eyes, trying to think about all the fairy tales which she'd read about that involved girls facing deception. There was Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and even a strange long poem called "Goblin Market", which her mummy had caught her reading from her book of British poetry and taken away from her before she could read it all the way through from some reason. It had been about a girl eating forbidden fruit despite her sister's warnings against doing so and then getting attacked. It reminded her a little of these twins right now, not to mention so many the other fairy tales she loved, even though it seemed scarier than them.
But the one that always haunted Rose the most was Little Red Riding Hood, because she'd done everything she'd been told to do by refusing to speak to the Bad Wolf on account of being a stranger, and yet she'd still been tricked by him when he disguised himself as her grandmother…
Hold on a minute, Rose thought. Red Riding Hood was the only one of those fairy tale girls who was actually tricked by someone who was very familiar to her. The bad wolf pretended to be her grandmother, and she believed it completely.
And then, the words that she'd seen on her first day at Northern Horizons suddenly flashed before her eyes:
Dab Flow
John Smith once told her about the various ways in which people could play with words, such as through using the same letters of one word to write another, or, as was usually the easiest method, by spelling words backwards. The words formed usually meant nothing, but just occasionally, they were able to form an actual word that was quite simple at times.
Dab Flow
"Rose?" she heard Therese calling out in frightened voice. "Rose, what's the matter?"
She ignored this, carefully working through the two words "Dab" backwards clearly spelled "Bad", and "Flow" was… lowf? Olf?
No, that wasn't correct. But upon working through the second word a little more, she discovered that it was none other than "wolf".
Dab Flow= Bad Wolf
So this meant that for some reason, the phrase "Bad Wolf" had been appearing during times of danger under the disguise of "Dab Flow", perhaps as a sign of what was supposed to save a victim. It was so important that these twins even had a stuffed animal of a wolf by their side. But how did all work? Did all those people die because they hadn't been able to guess the phrase correctly…
Look at the wall, girls! She suddenly heard a heavily accented male voice calling out angrly. And right before her, Rose now saw the figure of a shabbily dressed man pointing a gun in the direction of two girls kneeling down, whom upon taking a closer look, Rose recognized as the twins she'd just been talking to, who were staring at the wall with tears in their eyes.
We don't know what that means, Papa! One of them, most likely Therese, called out with a look of horror on her face as her eyes darted towards her father. We really are trying to work it out, but all we can guess is that it means something's flowing around the place which looks dab. Does it mean a lake at a park, or a river or pond…?
It's nothing of that sort, you little bugger! Her father responded angrily, shaking with fury as he aimed the gun closer towards their direction. Louise, do you know what it means? Because if neither of you do, I'll be forced to give you your medicine, and you're not going to like it!
But we really have no idea, Papa, Louise responded with a sob.
Rose then realized that she was starting to glow, lighting up the place with a light that was so strong that she almost felt blinded by it.
Rose, wake up! She could hear the girls calling out at the very same time as they were sobbing right in front of her. If you let yourself stay stuck in that vision, things could change, and you won't be able to save all the people trapped in here.
All right, here's your medicine, girls! the father yelled out threateningly. In the count of three. One…Wake up, Rose! Wake up, now!
The light reached its brightest point yet, glowing through Rose as powerfully as the sun.
Two...
No, Papa! Please just leave us alone!
"Bad wolf," Rose started saying to herself, thinking that perhaps this would help her break free from this terrifying vision. "Bad wolf, bad wolf…"
Go on, Rose, she could hear the twins from the room urging her on, dimming out the cries of the past versions of the twins, who were now crying more loudly than before. If you keep on saying it to yourself, you can get yourself out of there. As much as we'd like to live on, that's not how things were meant to be. You could save us in a different manner, but not here, not in this moment.
Three!
And then Rose felt herself and the whole room bursting, resulting in an uncontrollable shaking and a loud screaming, but whether it came from herself, the twins, or even their father, she could not tell. Within a while though, all was still, and the only thing Rose could see was the slowly fading light from her body.
*French for "Good Evening"
Next, upon waking up from her vision, Rose will gain a better understanding of what just happened to her. We'll see how much help Susan and John Smith will be able to give her and how Jackie will react to finding out who Susan is and what happened to Rose. Also, know that we haven't seen the last of the New Year's Eve party of 1924 and its guests yet, or of Therese and Louise Purdue, for that matter.
