CHAPTER 2: THE RADIANT HOTEL

The Radiant Hotel was a five story high beige building that would reflect the sun's rays under better weather. The clouds created a thick blanket hovering over the city, blocking any sun from penetrating through. The upper rooms of the hotel all had balconies, some balconies were in disrepair, and others seemed to be right out of a catalogue. Signs of renovations could be seen like the dumpster with broken ceiling tiles and dry wall.

The Radiant Hotel was a bit of a hassle to get in and out of the parking lot. It sat at the corner of two busy main roads. The on ramp and off ramp to the highway could be seen from the upper floors of the hotel. A black '67 Chevy Impala pulled into the parking lot; the loud music could be heard through the car's body. The era of the music matched the era of the car.

The car pulled into a parking space near the door, and the driver killed the engine. Two men in business suits and dark trench coats stepped out of the car, slamming the car doors behind them. The man who had ridden shotgun turned to the driver, "This job is small fry, Dean."

The driver's green eyes flashed at the other man, "We have some time to kill, Sam."

"We should be hunting down Lilith." Sam said.

"We're out-gunned." Dean argued.

"We have to stop her from breaking any more seals. If she breaks all 66, we're screwed."

"Don't you think I know that, Sam? We've gone over this a hundred times."

"Then why aren't you doing anything about it?"

"Sammy, we were fighting this war before we even knew we were, don't give me that crap." Dean pulled open the hotel's front door, stopping Sam's response.

Sam shot an angry glare at Dean, and then stepped through the door his brother held and walked in the hotel's main lobby.

There were people staying in the hotel milling around and sitting on the couches conversing in hushed voices. They didn't notice the door open.

The main lobby was tidy, even the floors were kept clear of the muck people's shoes brought in with the rain. The wild animal theme seemed out of place in Ohio, deer busts were hung on the wall. Other taxidermy animals hung around the lobby's walls. A few crossbows and compound bows hung loaded on the walls in show.

The elevator was set off on the far right wall. There was a white staircase leading up to the first floor on the left of the reception desk, to the right of the reception desk was a staircase leading to the lower floor where the indoor pool was.

The reception desk seemed to be a normal desk, even with the prairie scene painted on the side where customers could see. There were shelves of keys and small mailboxes on the wall behind the reception desk. A boy in his teens was sitting at the desk hunched over a spiral notebook, scribbling away words known only to him. The nameplate on the desk said his name was Brayden Halloran.

Dean thought that the boy looked like a younger version of Sam. Sam and Dean waited for the boy to look up from his writing, but the scribbles continued across the page. Dean's impatience welled up inside, he reached for the bell and struck it. The teen finally looked up.

"I'm Detective Rodgers, this is my partner, Detective Kirke. Can we ask you a few questions?" The man with the green eyes asked, holding up his badge, the man next to him followed his lead.

"Uh…sure," the kid at the front desk answered, reluctantly setting the pen down. The men put their badges back in their pockets.

"We're looking into the death of Mr. Amos Roscoe. We understand he stayed here two weeks ago." The taller man asked, producing a piece of paper with a picture of the man in question.

Brayden looked at it for a few seconds longer than most people did, "Yeah, I remember him, he was a jerk, but he didn't stay long, only one night."

"We understand that he was in town for a business convention, surely he would have stayed more than one night."

"He didn't. He paid for three nights, but stayed only one, he left before morning." The kid said, picking up his pen and pulling the notebook a bit closer to him.

The man with the green eyes raised an eyebrow, looking at his partner, the kid didn't notice.

A man had come in from the rain and was standing behind the two detectives dripping rainwater on the clean floors of the lobby, he cleared his throat loudly.

The detective with the green eyes turned to glare at the newcomer, the new comer dropped his gaze.

"We'd really appreciate if we could see the guestbook." The taller detective said, he didn't seem to notice the newcomer.

Brayden shrugged and shoved the thick book towards the detectives. The tall detective swiped it up and brought it to the corner of the desk, letting the newcomer at the reception desk.

Dean snatched the book open and flipped through the pages, clearly searching for a particular date, "Nathan Gravis, Brian Calico, Matt Duncan, all stayed here before they bit it." He said in a low voice only his partner could hear, "They all planned to stay more than one night, but left after their first."

"Look," Sam pointed to the room numbers all three men had been checked into, "they all stayed in the same room."

"Alright, let's go up and take a look." Dean suggested taking a step away from the desk to head up the stairs.

Sam stopped him, grabbing his arm, "We don't even know what it is, we'd be walking in blind. Let's go back to our hotel and do some research."

Brayden watched the detectives leave out of the corner of his eye; he was having an argument with the man who had just come in, "I'm sorry, sir, all the rooms are booked."

"Look, kid, it doesn't have to be anything grand, just something with a bed in it where I can sleep for the night."
"I'm sorry,"

The man cut the kid off from his apology, "Well if all your rooms are booked, you should've had the 'No Vacancy' sign lit. You must have something open."

Brayden looked hesitant to give the man the room, "If you could just wait a moment, sir." He punched a few keys on the computer keyboard and then returned his attention to the man, "We do have one room open." He paused, "Are you sure you don't want to go to any other hotel? There's a nice one down the street…" Brayden trailed off.

"I've already been there," the man insisted, "they're booked. I'll take the room you have."

"If you insist," Brayden said, pulling the log book back from the edge of the desk and pushing it towards the man, "If you could just sign in here, sir."

The man scribbled his name and the date, but left the room number blank. The man handed over a company credit card and the teen processed the transaction. The man never asked how much the room was. Brayden grabbed a key off the wall behind him and stepped around the desk motioning for the man to follow him. Brayden walked up the hotel's stairs and down the hallway to the last room on the left. He opened the door and walked in, heading straight to the fireplace. It was already lit.

"You should keep the fire going throughout the night, don't worry about adding too much wood, there's enough here to last the night." He added another log to the already blazing fire.

The man's phone began to ring, he answered it after looking at the caller ID, "Hey, Ron, how are we doing with this deal?" He paused to hear what Ron had to say, "Nah, man, don't worry, once Mr. Dufort writes his name on that deal; we are going to be millionaires."

Brayden knew that he was being ignored so he left the room. The business man never seemed to notice.

XX

The old clock on the mantle in the first floor's last room to the left read two in the morning. The rain was still coming down as hard as ever just outside the balcony doors, but the thunder was distant and the lightning was dim. Looking down from the clock on the mantle, the fire has gone out. Not even the ashes were smoldering anymore.

The business man was fast asleep in the bed, lying on his side facing the fireplace. The business man's face lit up as if someone was shining a flashlight on his features, he woke up startled, from being torn out of a deep sleep. He froze, staring at the being in front of him emitting the light that chased the shadows off his face.

A young boy with blond hair and fiery eyes stared back at the man with a mischievous grin set on his face. Seeming to come from within the boy, the fire flared outward from his body, enclosing him in a searing hot, bright envelope. The boy stood a foot away from the bed and just peered into the eyes of the frozen man on the bed. Minutes passed, and then the boy turned to walk towards the fireplace. He turned once, to look at the man frozen in fright, and disappeared.

XX

"Sorry, mom, but he insisted that he needed a room." Brayden told his mother defensively in the empty hotel lobby.

"Brayden Derrick Halloran, you know to never give out that room! Why didn't you put the 'No Vacancy' sign on?"

"I didn't put the sign on because we weren't technically full. There's travelers all over that just need a place to stay for the night, I'm not going to refuse them a room."

"You shouldn't have put that man in that room. The room is not a good place for anyone to be at anytime because he might show up."

"Not if the fire's lit. He's afraid of fire."

"But he still comes. I should close off that room forever."

"Patryck won't hurt anyone." Brayden said innocently.

"He already has! Six people, including you, young man, have seen him up there; you know that it means no good!"

They heard a yelp from outside, Brayden stepped around the desk ignoring his mother to take a peek at the noise that had come from outside. Brayden stepped out into the cool night; the hotel was lit up with the lamps from the street and the parking lot. Brayden's mother put her hand over her mouth to stop from screaming.

The business man that had checked into the boy's room was now hanging out the window in a noose made from the bed sheets. The man had a petrified expression frozen on his face.