I'd like to apologize for how long the viewers had to wait for the next installment. I had family over and school got really busy real fast. However I hope that wait was worth it. Here is Christmas at Royal Woods Spa Chapter 8: Snowed Out!
Thursday
Lynn Sr. was awoken by the alarm he had set on his phone. He groped at the nightstand until he found it and slammed the dismiss button. The sound of the winter wind was all that could be heard. He stayed quiet until he was sure Rita was still asleep before getting out of bed.
He put on his clothes and walked out of the suite. As he passed by the rooms he heard no noise, as it should be. He had woken up early to make breakfast sooner so he could get to work cleaning up their latest and greatest mess this season. He called the elevator and descended to the ground floor.
The bronze doors slid open for him and he walked through. He turned through the hallways until he came to the toppled tree. He paused to look at it for a few seconds before continuing on, walking over the fallen pine needles on the polished floor. He flipped on the lights of the diner and walked into the kitchen.
Something quick to make was in order. He walked to the back where the storage rooms were and began looking through them. He found the perfect thing, a tub full of oatmeal mix. He carried it into the kitchen and set it down on the counter. He scooped out twelve bowls of the stuff and separated two of them. He took the two bowls of oatmeal for Rita and Lily and put in diced fruits and sprinkled in cinnamon. The rest was for the other kids and himself.
He put the bowls onto the cart and pushed it out into the diner. He set out the oatmeal on the table leaving the one for Lily in front of the high chair. He then placed the other one at the table where he and Rita usually sat. He took the last bowl of plain oatmeal off the cart and walked out of the diner.
He came up to the piano. He took it all in before walking to the other side and sitting at the edge of the piano bench that wasn't under the fallen tree. He ate a spoonful of oatmeal as he contemplated how to clean this up. He put the bowl on the piano and began lifting the tree off the piano. He heaved it off the piano onto the floor knocking off some more needles.
He stepped over the tree and walked to the entrance to grab the sleigh. He grabbed the reins of it and pulled it back to the tree. As he began to move the tree onto the sleigh he heard footsteps. The kids. He kept his head down and refused to look at them. Even after he finished putting the tree on the sled he made himself look busy until the last of the footsteps faded away. He glanced up and saw that the coast was clear. He stood up and dragged the sled to the entrance and outside.
He trudged up to the tree line and continued in. The wind blew against his face throwing snowflakes into his eyes which he wiped away. He heard the river before it came into view. He passed through the trees and onto the gravel edge of the river bank. He turned the sled so that it was adjacent to the running water. He then stepped back and kicked the tree off the sled. It rolled down the slope and into the river and he watched it as it slowly disappeared into the icy gray water.
Lincoln slowly ate his oatmeal as he looked around the table at his other siblings. They were also feeling just as down as he was, except for Lily, who kept eating up the only oatmeal that wasn't plain. That hadn't escaped the kids attention, nor did the fact Dad hadn't even looked up at them.
"So… what do we want to do today?" Luan asked, finally breaking the silence.
"After the unmitigated disaster that was yesterday I would advise against group activities," Lisa said.
"So… nothing?"
"No."
"Nope."
"Nada."
Lincoln looked down at his oatmeal and continued eating. Well then. He could just play some solitaire in his room until things blew over. The rest of his siblings seemed content to keep to themselves and their roommates as well. They started standing up from the table and Leni began reaching for Lily when Mom said, "Leni, Dad's going to be looking after Lily today."
"Oh. Okay," Leni said as she retracted her hand. She lingered for a second more before turning and leaving. The rest of them slowly followed suit, leaving the diner.
Lisa slowly scribbled down numbers from her device that fed her information from the sensors she and Lana had placed out in the forest. She finished filling in the information for the current box she was on before stopping. She looked up from the clipboard to the glass slider leading to the balcony where the snow was up to where Lisa's feet dangled over the edge of the leather swivel chair.
Try as she might, she couldn't focus on her work. She would get through about a dozen data inputs before her concentration broke. The temperature was at a comfortable 68 degree's Fahrenheit, the chair was comfy and the only noise was the ever present winter wind. So it could only be one thing.
She put her foot up to the desk and pushed off turning the chair to face Leni's bed. Leni was looking up at the ceiling with her head propped up at an angle by a pillow. The teenage fashion magazine she liked to read was laying face down on her stomach with both hands folded over it.
She wasn't making a sound nor moving much except for her breaths and blinking. Lisa wasn't even looking in her direction yet she was still distracting her and she couldn't explain why. Maybe it was concern for her big sister. She put her pen down and looked at Leni.
"Leni?"
Leni raised her head up to look at her. "Yeah?"
"May I ask you what is bothering you?"
She put her head down back on the pillow. "Oh, it's nothing."
"Leni, I am very adept at understanding people's moods. I can tell that you're feeling sad about something."
In response Leni slid the magazine over her face. Lisa sighed through her nose. Emotionally connecting to people was never her strong suit and Leni wasn't making things easy for her. She spun around and pushed off rolling the chair next to Leni's bed.
"Leni, when I say this I say this as both an expert and as your sibling; it will make you feel better to get whatever you're feeling off your chest by talking about it to someone."
She waited for Leni's response. Leni moved a hand to her face and pulled down the magazine. Lisa felt grateful that she was able to get Leni to open up. She waited for Leni to say what she had to say.
"I've just been feeling bad about what happened yesterday. About that dumb idea with the carts and ruining the Christmas tree."
"I empathize with you. In hindsight that was very foolish of us to partake in that activity."
"And when Dad yelled at me…" she trailed off.
"Were you frightened by his outburst?"
"No. Yeah, but it's not that, he said he didn't trust me with Lily after I took her along with us."
"Is that what's bothering you?"
"Yeah. I didn't think Lily could have been hurt doing that. I didn't think anybody could be hurt doing that. You know I never want any of you guys to be hurt, right?"
"Yes Leni, we all know that."
"But I just keep thinking about what might have happened. What if my cart was the one that hit the tree? What if Dad was right that I don't deserve to take care of Lily?"
"Stop thinking about that. Lily didn't get hurt and that's all that matters. I know you wouldn't let something like that happen to her. All you can do is learn from this. Dad will see that you've shown remorse and learned your lesson."
"Really?"
"I'm sure of it."
Leni gave a sigh of relief. "Thanks. I really needed that."
"Of course."
Leni pulled the chair closer to her and put her arm around Lisa. "Can I?"
"Go ahead." Leni pulled Lisa off the chair and into a hug. "You're the best Lisa."
Lynn Sr. opened the door to the conference room and stepped in. Rita was behind her computer typing away and taking sips of coffee from her mug. Lisa sat next to her scribbling away on a scrap of paper with a purple crayon. Rita looked up from her screen. "Hi Lynn."
"Hi Rita. I can take Lily off your hands now."
"Alright." She turned her head to look down at Lily. "Do you hear that Sweetie? Daddy's going to be taking care of you!"
Lily babbled excitedly as Rita lifted her off the chair and onto the floor. Lynn watched as she mounted her tricycle and began to peddle. He stepped out of the doorway as Lily drove past him and down the hallway.
Lynn Sr. turned his attention back to Rita. "I'll be back soon."
"See you then," Rita replied as he closed the door. He looked back to where Lily was. She had stopped in front of the elevator bank. He walked over to her and called an elevator. The doors slid open and Lily drove inside followed by him.
"So, where do you want to go Lilster?"
"Game room!" He pressed the button for the corresponding floor. He waited as the elevator moved before the doors opened up. Lily raced out leaving Lynn in the dust. He hurried along until he caught up with her at a corner. They did this until they got to the game room.
Lynn looked around the room. Some arcade games, a pool table and a bookshelf with board games. Lily drove up to the book shelf and grabbed a chess box.
"How about we look for something else?" He pulled out a deck of Go Fish and held it out in front of her but she just shook her head. Oh well, he would just entertain her with this. He picked her up and placed her down on a chair next to the table. He set down the chess set and began setting up the pieces.
"Okay," he said as he turned the white side of the board to Lily. "You can go first."
Lily moved a pawn forward. He would just react to her moves and slowly play this out. The game progressed faster than he expected with Lily knocking out his pieces left and right. He felt somewhat embarrassed about how quickly she had cut him down as she shifted one of her rooks to checkmate his king.
"Checkmate," she giggled. Lynn watched with pride as his little chess prodigy grabbed the black king and tossed it in the pile with the others.
"You're really good at this Lily," he praised her. "Now let's make this a bit of a challenge." He reset the board and flipped it around. He made the first move and they began their next match. They slowly picked away each other's pieces in drawn out traps and exchanges until only their kings were left.
"Well Lily, it looks like we have a stalemate. Lily?" He looked over to Lily. Her eyes flickered before shutting and she began to breathe quietly. She had been all tuckered out by the chess match. Lynn pushed the board to the side and scooped Lily out of the chair. He pulled off his sweater and wrapped her up in.
He looked down at the daughter he cradled in his arms and felt a rush of joy. He began to think of his other children. Maybe he had been too hard on them. What they had done was bad, but he had gone too far.
As he cradled his bundle of joy he began thinking of how to make up with them.
Lucy sat at the desk of her room fiddling with her pen in one hand and rubbing her fingers across the paper of her poem book with the other. She thought and thought of what to write about but inspiration eluded her. Lynn had gone up to the gym to blow off steam, leaving Lucy in what should have been an ideal environment to write.
But her mind kept wandering to yesterday, not about what had happened but why it had happened. She couldn't for the life of her remember why she had agreed to ride those carts. It certainly didn't sound like her. She usually didn't have normie fun unless on special occasions.
Which led her to another thought; why her other siblings had agreed to it. Lisa should have been the one to point out what could have gone wrong by doing such an activity. Lincoln should've voiced some concern. Somebody should have voiced concern but they didn't. Lynn had walked away from her streak at the basketball game.
She shut her book and spun the chair around to face the door. Back on Monday Lynn had started to talk about not thinking right when she was cut off by the other's fighting. What had she said? Like as if someone else's thoughts were floating around in your head.
Had the others experienced something like that? Had she herself? No, that wasn't possible. Was it? And what would cause it? Maybe the hotel… was haunted? While she welcomed the thought it was still very, very unlikely. She and Lincoln had searched this hotel top to bottom the last time they visited for the Footless Bellboy and she had found nothing. There was no way she could have missed an entity that manipulated thoughts.
Still, it was better to look into it. If nothing else it would give her some inspiration on what to write on. She stood up and exited her room heading towards the elevator bank. She called an elevator and ascended. She stepped off the elevator and walked to the gym. She opened the door and saw Lynn on an exercycle facing the window. She walked up behind her and waited for Lynn to notice her. She kept cycling, not paying any attention to her.
"Ahem." Lynn jolted to a stop and looked around the room before finding Lucy standing right behind her.
"Oh, it's just you."
"Yes, it's just me. I wanted to talk to you about something."
Lynn turned around to fully face Lucy. "Shoot, go right ahead."
"Remember back on Monday? When we were decorating the gingerbread houses?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"Before we were interrupted by that food fight you asked about if I heard voices in my head."
Lynn stayed silent for a moment as she tried to remember. "Oh yeah, that. It was nothing."
Lucy continued on. "You then clarified that 'as if someone else's thoughts were floating around in your head.'"
"Well, no, still not that. I didn't want to get competitive over that but a part of me wanted to and I had to keep talking it down in my head. Like I was fighting an evil conscience."
"Interesting. Did you experience this any other time?"
"Not that I can think of."
"Oh." So it had just been an isolated instance. Maybe they all had agreed to ride the carts by their own initiative. She felt a little disappointment that the hotel wasn't haunted. At least she now had an idea of what to write.
"Do you mind if I stay here?"
"Of course Luce. I'd like the company." She walked over to the corner next to the window and opened up her poem book. A character vs. self poem would do. She began to brainstorm ideas as the snowfall outside began to settle down.
Rita typed in another sentence before taking a pause. She took a sip of coffee as she looked through the glass wall to the outside as the sky slowly went from gray to black as dusk approached.
The door opened and she turned around to see who it was. Lynn carrying a sleeping Lily who was wrapped up in his seafoam green sweater. He took a seat adjacent to Rita and set Lily down on the table.
"Is sweetie all tuckered out?"
"Yup, from all the chess we played. She's a prodigy at it. I wanted to talk to you about something before we send the kids off to bed."
"What's on your mind?"
Lynn rubbed the back of his head. "When I was holding Lily I just thought about how… over the top I was with them yesterday. I'm going to try and set things right by getting another tree and having us all decorate it tomorrow morning."
"That's a great idea! Do you need any help doing it?"
"No, I can manage it myself. I'll get out there once we tuck all the kids in."
Rita shut down her lap top and stood up. Lynn did likewise and scooped up Lily from the table. They both left the room to place Lily in her crib before moving on to the rest of the kids.
Lana stared up at the ceiling of the room as she waited to finally fall asleep. She had felt miserable the whole day and she yearned for it's end. It had been her idea that ruined the Christmas Tree, made Dad angry and brought down everyone else along with her.
She looked over to Lola's bed. Her pink twin was fiddling with her sleep mask with a bored expression on her face as she waited for their parents to say goodnight.
She went back to looking at the ceiling. She hated the gnawing feeling of guilt that seemed to be eating her up. She moved her baseball cap down over her face to try and fall asleep faster. "I'd do anything to make up."
Maybe there is. Was there? She slowly moved her hat off her face as she began to think. Think of something to do to redeem yourself. Getting a new Christmas tree? No, she would need help for that and she wasn't ready to ask Dad yet. Dang it, she couldn't think of something else to do.
The rabbits. What about them? I never went back to feed them. They're out there in the snow, cold and hungry. No, Lisa said that they were doing fine. But you connect to animals in a way that Lisa doesn't. You know that they need that food. Come on Lana. End the day by making them feel good.
Yeah, she'd sneak out after their parents came and said goodnight. She'd find some cabbage or some other leafy greens from the kitchen, go outside to give it to the rabbits and sneak back to her room without anyone being the wiser.
She heard the handle of the door being turned and she quickly shut her eyes. She heard the door creak as it opened.
"Goodnight Lana, goodnight Lola," Mom and Dad said.
"Night Mommy, night Daddy," Lola responded. The light switch was flipped, the room was plunged into darkness and the door closed. Lana waited in bed for another few minutes before she made her move. She leaned over and turned on the nightstand lamp and hopped out of bed. She changed out of her long green T-shirt in exchange for her snow gear. She went to the door and put a gloved hand on the knob.
"Where are you going?"
Lana looked over to Lola who was sitting up on the bed.
"I'm just doing one more thing before going to sleep." Lola looked at Lana for a few more seconds before shrugging. "Just don't wake me up when you come back in." She pulled her sleeping mask down over her eyes and shut off the light.
Lana turned her attention back to the matter at hand. She shifted the door knob ever so slightly, then again, and then again until she had rotated it all the way. She nudged it forward and peeked down the hallway. Nothing. She opened it further and looked down the other side of the hallway. Nothing.
She stepped out and closed the door behind her. She took the stairs downstairs and sneaked into the kitchen. She looked into one of the fridges and found a head of cabbage. She tore off a few leaves and stuffed them into the fold between her pant leg and boot. She then left the kitchen, passed through the diner and to the entrance.
She walked through the doors and out into the snow. She shivered from the wind though there wasn't any snow falling. She came to the tree line and weaved through the tree's as she tried to remember the way she and Lisa had gone on Saturday.
She heard the crunch of snow and freezed. The crunching continued and only got closer. She got off the path and hid behind one of the tree's on the side. She made out the silhouette of someone coming down the path. It was Dad pulling a sleigh with a tree on it. A new Christmas tree? He passed by her and kept going until he was out of sight.
She stepped out from behind the tree and kept going. She heard the sound of the running river and walked onto the gravel river bank. She remembered now. The tree where she had put Lisa's devices, the way she had gone. She went back into the tree's and wandered around until she found the mound of snow at the base of a tree.
She got to the warren and kneeled over it. "Hello, is anyone awake?"
She waited but the rabbits inside didn't respond. She reached into her boot and pulled out the leaves of cabbage. "I've got those treats for you little guys like I promised. Sorry it took me so long." Still no response. She gently folded the leaves and stuck it down the hole before getting up and leaving.
She weaved her way through the tree's. The snow started to fall again, turning from a sprinkle into a flurry in a short while. The sudden whiteout blocked the shining lights of the hotel, leaving Lana in the dark. Suddenly all the tree's looked the same.
"It's this way… no, it's that way," she said to herself. She slowly began to panic, thinking that she'd be lost out here all night. Her pace quickened and she soon broke into a run throwing all caution to the wind to get back to the hotel. She weaved through the tree's and jumped over the roots. She had almost lost hope when she finally tripped over a rock and fell face first into the snow. She got up and wiped the snow from her face and saw the muted lights of the hotel stretching into the sky.
A large grin formed on her face. She had never been this happy to go back inside before. She walked back to the hotel entrance hugging herself to stay warm. She passed by the frozen over pond, past Vanzilla, focused on the warm light in front of her.
Thump!
She fell backwards and landed on her back on the snow. What? She got back to her feet and walked to the sliding doors. They didn't open. She waited, slowly losing patience. She looked through the glass doors into the lobby. It was deserted with the new tree in place of the old by the diner.
She placed her gloved hands on the doors and began to push. It didn't budge. To her horror, she realized that the doors were locked. She quickly caved in her panic and called out for help.
"Hey! Anyone there?" No one came.
"I'm locked out! Is anyone there?" Still nobody.
"Help! Please!" Her plea's were drowned out by the winter wind. She stopped crying out for help and fell to her knees. Nobody was coming to rescue her. She crawled to the brick wall at the edge of the entrance wall and curled up into a ball.
The night progressed and Lana's shivering got worse. It was cold. So cold. She felt close to losing consciousness. Her eyes closed and opened. There were five kids in a semi circle around her, watching. It's just a hallucination. It had to be. She blinked again and they were still there. It was real.
"Help me, please," she pleaded before breaking into a coughing fit. They only kept staring at her. Their eyes. Was it amusement in their eyes as they watched her freeze? Or was it simply curiosity to see what would happen to her?
She couldn't stay awake for any longer. Her eye's slowly closed and she drifted into sleep.