The day before Christmas
Leni yawned and raised her sleep mask off her eyes. Lisa was curled up next to her, her glasses on the nightstand. She looked over to the other bed and saw Lola with Lana, for some reason covered in pink snow clothes.
She then remembered and felt a sudden wave of worry and anxiety. She nudged at Lisa until she finally woke.
"Uh… good morning Leni," Lisa yawned as she sat up.
"Should we check on Lana?"
Lisa looked at Lana as she reached for her glasses. She put them on and squinted at her. "No, I do not think so. Her breathing is still stable. However, I will be staying here with her until I am relieved by someone else."
"Okay. I'm going to take Lola down with me, do you want me to bring you something?"
"Any sustenance will do." Leni got off the bed and stepped into her seafoam green sandals. She walked over to the other bed where Lola was asleep cuddling Lana like a large teddy bear. She slowly pulled at her until her grasp on Lana loosened enough for her to lift Lola up.
"W-what," Lola murmured as she woke up. "It's just me Lola. I'm taking you downstairs for breakfast."
"But Lana-,"
"Is being watched by Lisa," Leni said as she walked into the hallway. "She's in good care." At the elevator bank the rest of her siblings were standing around.
"Morning Leni," Luan called out. "How's Lana doing?"
"Lisa said she was good, though she's still going to be watching her. Why are you all still up here?"
"We wanted to wait until everyone was coming. Or at least who was coming," Lucy said as she pressed the call button. "Mom's going to be watching Lana so it's just us." The doors to the elevator opened and they all stepped in.
The elevator descended to the ground floor. The doors opened and they began walking to the diner. As they went along Leni started to feel on edge. The place was well lit and the art deco design gave the halls a welcoming look but still something felt wrong.
They passed the bare Christmas Tree and walked into the diner. At the table their breakfast was set out. She set Lola down on her chair before taking her own seat. It was a simple bowl of oatmeal at all the spots. She looked around for Dad but couldn't find him.
"Hey, has anyone seen Dad?" Luan asked.
"Nope."
"I'll go check the kitchen," Lynn said. She stood up and took her oatmeal with her and walked over to the kitchen. She nudged the door to the kitchen open and peered inside. "He ain't in here."
Weird. If he wasn't down here, then where could he be? She'd just go look for her after breakfast. And after bringing up breakfast to Lisa. And Mom. And looking after Lola. Actually, finding Dad could wait.
She turned to look at Lola. "Hey Lola, do you want to have a tea party later?"
"Yeah, that would be nice."
"Glad to hear. I'm going to bring breakfast upstairs to Lisa and Mom and then I'll be down." She stood up and started to walk away before stopping. "Oh, and make sure you're not left alone and with someone." She then continued, grabbing two bowls and spoons before leaving.
Rita watched Lana from the chair in the corner of the room, holding an empty bowl that was her breakfast. She had woken up alone that morning and from what she had heard from the kids Lynn still couldn't be found.
What was he trying to achieve? He made the food out of sight, kept the hotel running but to what end? Lana's health at this point was anyone's guess and he seemed fine to leave it to chance. Sure the kid's had dragged him through hell the past few days but to leave Lana like this as some twisted form of punishment? No, he wouldn't do that. He would never do that.
It was then she noticed that there was a change in Lana's breathing. It now had a raspy quality to it. She stood up and walked over to the bed.
"Is there something wrong Mother?" Lisa asked.
"I don't know, I thought that there was something different about her breathing."
She leaned down closer to Lana's head. She was certain that something was off. Lana then started to cough violently. Rita almost fell back in surprise before she pulled herself back up. Lisa had hopped off her perch and rushed over to Lana. She pulled out a vial and added it to a cup of water before tipping it in`Lana's open mouth. She choked on it for a second before swallowing it and the coughing stopped.
Rita listened to Lana's now peaceful breathing. "Is it over?"
"Temporarily. We may have a serious problem here," Lisa said.
"What?"
"It would seem that there is fluid collecting in the bronchioles of Lana's lungs. Street name; Pneumonia."
The moisture in Rita's mouth seemed to dry out in a few seconds. "Pneumonia?"
"That is correct."
She had to get Lana out of here. Forget Lynn, forget the vacation, Lana needed a doctor. "Stay here and watch Lana," she told Lisa before leaving the room. She entered her suite and looked for the keys to Vanzilla. Her methodical search slowly grew more rushed and desperate as she failed to find the keys.
She ran her fingers through her hair. She was certain that the keys weren't in here. If they weren't in here, than whe-
Lynn. With absolute certainty she knew it was him. Her despair only grew as she slowly began to fully comprehend the gravity of the situation. Lana was sick, very sick, and she could only guess at how long Lisa could keep her stable without proper medicine. Meanwhile Lynn had essentially disabled their only way to the hospital and could be anywhere in the hotel.
As reluctant as she was to have the kids interact with their father while he was having this… breakdown, she needed their help if she was to get Lana the medication she needed. She left the suite and took an elevator downstairs to the lobby.
She found the kids sitting around the tables in the diner. To the side it looked like Leni and Lola were playing a game of tea party. She cleared her throat and got all of their attention. Maybe, just maybe, one of them would know where he was and she wouldn't have to ask them to find him.
"Does anyone know where your father is?
They one by one told her no. With no other option she had to ask them to look for Lynn.
"I need your guy's help. Dad had something that I need but I can't find him anywhere. Can you go and search for him?" They all said that they would go and look for him.
"And one more thing; if you find him, come straight back to me, okay?" They got up from their chairs and streamed out of the diner in all directions. Now they just had to comb the hotel and wait until he finally turned up. She just hoped that Lynn didn't do anything rash when he was found.
They had searched the hotel from the ground up, starting with the basement and underground garage. They had checked every room, every nook and cranny but Dad could not be found.
They had made it to their floor before Mom had told them to take a break before they moved on. The stairwells and elevators were being watched in case Dad came down, or up if they had somehow missed him.
Lincoln sat on his bed. To his side was his stack of comic books but that was far from what was on his mind now. Something did not add up with what was going on around him. Mom needed Dad and for whatever reason he was keeping himself away. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen him after lunch yesterday. Was there something going on that he didn't know about?
Were Mom and Dad… mad at each other? Sure they had had their conflicts before, but this was something else. He looked at the phone on the nightstand, contemplating if he should call Lori. She had been around the longest of his fellow siblings, she must have some advice on a situation like this.
He picked up the phone and dialed her number. There was only one ring of dialing before a recorded voice said, "I'm sorry, your call cannot be made at this time. Please try again later."
Lincoln pulled the phone away from his head and looked down at it in confusion. Lori never missed a call. He tried calling again and waited for a response. "I'm sorry, your call cannot be made at this time. Please try again later."
Lori always had her phone on her, always charged. Why wasn't she picking up? He turned the question around in his mind for a while… She always had her phone so she could communicate with Bobby on a whim. If she was with him then she probably didn't have her phone available.
He dialed Ronnie Anne's number to see if he could contact Lori with their apartment phone. "I'm sorry, your call cannot be made at this time. Please try again later." He sighed in annoyance and put the phone back down. Was it broken?
He then dialed for Lynn's room just to see if the telephone worked at all. There was a short ring-tone before she picked up. "Hello?"
"Hey Lynn."
"Hey Lincoln, what's up?"
"I was trying to call Lori but my phone won't connect, so I tried to see if it would still connect to the other hotel phones."
"I could try calling her."
"Uh, yeah, could you do that for me?"
"No problem. Call you back in a bit." The line went dead and he put the phone back down. He waited for a minute before it started ringing. He picked up the phone and held it to the side of his face.
"Did you get her?"
"I tried three times but I couldn't get a hold of her."
"Oh. Well, thanks for trying."
"Of course. See you when we get back to looking for Dad." He hung up before laying flat on the bed. Now the phone's were down, probably snowed out. He stretched before getting off the bed and leaving his suite to continue the search.
Rita straggled behind as the kids dispersed, each in pairs going to a different elevator or stairwell. Eleven floors, not including the basement, and they still hadn't found Lynn. The only upside was that with each floor they searched there were less places for him to hide.
She looked back to the hallway as Luna and Luan got onto the elevator. Her eyes glazed over the rooms, the wall paper, the furniture, the door to the conference room. Her eyes stopped there as she noticed the door was slightly ajar.
"You gettin' on?" Luna asked.
"You go ahead, I'll be up in a minute," Rita said. The elevator door closed leaving Rita alone. She walked to the door, treading lightly to make as little noise as possible. She came to the threshold and listened closely. She only heard the wind blowing against the glass wall.
She took a step back and pushed the door forward. The room was dark save for her laptop which casted a glow on the window panes. She pushed the door fully open and peered in. No one was here.
She walked inside looking around for anything that indicated Lynn had been in here. Nothing. Just the open laptop. She walked to the other side of the table and looked at the computer screen. It was an unnamed document with a single sentence.
"Feelin' fine." What?
"How'd you like it?"
Rita jumped up in a yelp and was momentarily blinded as the lights were flicked on. Her vision was restored just as quickly to find Lynn leaning seemingly nonchalantly in the doorway. All over the walls were mad scribblings with a dry erase marker.
"How'd you like it," he said again. He took a step towards her and she instinctively took a step back. "Whatcha doin' in here?"
"Lynn, we need to talk," Rita said as she kept moving away, making sure there was a good distance between her and Lynn.
"Okay. Let's talk." He stopped at the edge of the table and picked up her coffee mug. He shook it around before placing it back down. "What do you want to talk about?"
"You know what we need to talk about. We need to take Lana to the hospital."
"We're still talking about that? It's just a cold. She'll deal with it." He resumed his slow pace and Rita did likewise.
"It's gotten worse. Lisa says she has pneumonia and she can't treat her by herself."
"So?"
Rita nearly choked. "So!? She might die!"
"Well, that'd be on her for going outside."
"Lynn! Listen to yourself! You wouldn't let her die," she pleaded.
"She was another damper on our vacation, she's being punished for it."
"What vacation?! Lana's dying and the kids have no idea what's going on! Please," she begged, "Just give me the car keys. I can just take her." She had come full circle around the table and was backing up to the door.
"No Rita. We are all staying here until the end of the break."
"There is no all! We are leaving."
Lynn's mouth curled downwards into a frown. "Rita. No one is leaving."
She began to back up quicker. She wanted nothing more than to put as much space between her and this raving lunatic.
"We are going to have a lovely, heartwarming Christmas which we will remember forever."
"Get away from me."
"Rita."
"Get away from me!"
"Rita, darling, love of my life, you didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not going to hurt you," he said in an amused chuckle. "I'm just going to smash the brains in of whoever tries to ruin our Christmas!"
His arms dropped limp to his sides as he stumbled forward. "I'm going to bash them right the fuck in!"
Rita's hands grasped at the handle of the door. Lynn's amused expression faded as he saw what she was doing. "Take your hand off the door. Don't close that door."
She took one step out into the hallway and he lunged at her with a yell. She slammed the door shut a second too late and his head got caught between the door and the frame.
Wham!
He slumped into the door frame and fell to the ground at Rita's feet. She held her breath not daring to make a sound. Had she just killed him?
No, she could hear him breathing, he was still alive. Now she had to figure out how to contain him. As she thought she knelt down and searched Lynn. She took both of the car keys and his key to the hotel.
"Mother?"
Rita turned around to see Lisa looking out into the hallway from Lana's room. "Is that Father?"
"Yes it is. He just hit his head and I'm taking him downstairs to check on him."
"I can assist you-,"
"No, just stay with Lana," Rita cut her off. Lisa went back into the room and closed the door. She then grabbed Lynn's legs and dragged him into the elevator. She selected the first floor and they descended. She realized she could just tuck him away into one of the freezers in the kitchen while she dealt with the situation at hand.
The doors opened and she continued dragging Lynn. As she crossed the lobby Lynn started to make incomprehensible noises as if trying and failing to put the syllables together. She pulled him across the diner and entered the kitchen. His eyes started to flutter. She had to work fast or he would regain consciousness.
She came to one of the large steel doors and let go of Lynn. She took a second to catch her breath before unfastening the door and opening it up. She took hold of Lynn's legs again and dragged him in.
"Hey," he slurred. "What're you doing?" She ignored him and dropped him at the farthest part of the fridge, next to the shelf that held the ingredients to the Christmas dinner they should have been having tonight.
Lynn grabbed at her ankle in an attempt to stop her but she just kicked him off. She made it outside and shut the door just as Lynn rammed into it from the inside. She stuck in the handle block and stepped back from the door.
"What're you doing!? Let me out of here! Open the goddamn door!"
He went silent before speaking again with a more controlled voice. "Rita, let me out of here and we can forget the whole goddamn thing. It'll be like nothing ever happened."
Rita didn't say anything. All she could do was sorrowfully wonder how it had all come to this. It seemed that Lynn was gone, replaced by this spiteful, vindictive man.
"Rita?" he asked. There was no longer any menace in his voice, just pleading. "My head hurts. I think I need a doctor. Please don't leave me here."
"I'm going to take Lana to the hospital," Rita said. "I'll come back for you once she's there." She waited for his response.
"Rita?"
"Yes?"
"You've got a big surprise coming to you," he said with amusement. "No one is going anywhere, he he he. Go see Vanzilla."
No. He didn't. He couldn't have.
"Go, and, see!" He laughed, punctuating each word with a punch to the door. Rita ran out of the kitchen and out of the diner heading to the entrance. The doors to the cold and dark world opened for her and a cold gust of wind blew in her face. She unlocked Vanzilla and jammed the keys into the ignition switch and turned.
Nothing happened. "No, no, no, no," she muttered. She kept turning but the engine would not come to life. She slammed her hands on the dashboard in frustration and got out of the van. She opened up the hood and saw that the car battery was missing.
She, no, they all were truly trapped.
Lynn Sr. had taken up the corner of the freezer using a large sack of rice as a pillow. He had dozed off to sleep a few minutes after Rita had locked him in to try and get rid of his splitting headache.
Knock, Knock, Knock
He slowly woke and rubbed his eyes. There was just a numb pain now, but each knock on the door sent a sharp pain through his head.
Knock, Knock, Knock
"Rita?" he called out.
"It's Jack, Lynn."
Lynn used the pantry next to him as support as he slowly got back to his feet. He then stumbled to the door and leaned on it to keep himself from falling down.
"Lynn, it seems you didn't follow through with the… plan we discussed," Jack said in a mocking way.
"I know, I know, there's no need to rub it in," Lynn grumbled. "You just let me out of here and I'll finish what I started.
"Me and Dell are wondering if you have it in you to do what must be done." Another rod of pain pierced Lynn's head and he rubbed his brow. "It would seem that your family has gotten the best of you."
"For the time being. Only for the time being."
"It would seem that you must take the harshest choice of option."
A ghost of a smile danced on Lynn's face. "There's nothing I look forward to with greater pleasure."
There was silence. The shuffling of the latch and the turn of the handle and the door opened to meet no one. Lynn stepped out, freed. He looked around for Jack but didn't see him.
Now, where had he left that hatchet?
Rita had decided to call a family meeting to deal with the crisis at hand. The hunt for Dad had been called off and Lana had been carried from her room into Rita's suite. She was currently on Rita's bed sleeping.
In the living room of the suite the rest of the kids sat on the red couch as their mother paced in front of them, trying to think of the right thing to say.
"Okay. We have a big problem. Lana has got pneumonia and we need to take her out of here and to the hospital."
"But what about Da-,"
"Forget him! He's not thinking right. The van is missing its car battery and without it we can't go anywhere."
"We could try calling for an ambulance," Leni suggested.
"The phone lines are down," Lynn said. "Me and Lincoln tried calling Lori but it wouldn't connect."
Lynn? Or had it really snowed out? In either case it really didn't matter. Could they somehow replace the battery?
"Lisa, is there any way you can replace Vanzilla's battery?" Rita asked.
"Possibly, though it will take me some-," Thunk!
They all jumped at the sound and glanced around wildly to see where it had come from.
Thunk!
It was coming from the door to the suite. It couldn't be Lynn, there was no way to escape, she was sure of it.
Thu-chink!
The door began to splinter and for a split second she saw the metal of a hatchet blade.
"Get in the room," Rita yelled. The kids scrambled into the bedroom and she followed right behind them. She locked the door and searched for something to further barricade it. "The nightstand, get the nightstand!" Leni and Luna picked up the nightstand and placed it in front of the door.
The sound of metal slicing through wood continued, then abruptly stopped.
"Kids? Daddy's home!"
"Dad?!" The kids all exclaimed.
"What's going on?"
"What's he doing?"
"Why-"
"He's lost his mind!" Rita snapped, silencing them all. She looked around for some escape, and the only thing she could find was the ventilation cover.
"Lucy! Open that vent up!" Lynn Jr. held Lucy up to unscrew the hatch and pushed her up. They handed Lana up to her and got everyone that could fit inside, leaving Rita, Leni, Luna and Luan in the room.
"Come out, come out wherever you are…" Lynn Sr's voice drifted in.
"Get out of here, hide," Rita said to Lynn Jr. She pushed the others along through the vents.
Thunk!
Lynn Sr. started to get to work on their door. Rita got along the wall of the door along with the rest of the girls still in the room.
Thunk!
"Hand me the lamp," she whispered to Luna. Luna picked it up off the floor and handed it off to her as the ax head sunk through the door entirely. In the back Leni began to whimper in fear.
Thu-crunch!
A chunk of the door fell away to the floor leaving a gaping hole. The ax swung through once more to expand the gap before Lynn Sr's face popped in, a demonic smile plastered from ear to ear.
"Here's Lynnie!" He stuck his hand in to unlock the door when Rita swung the lamp into hand. He yelled in pain and quickly retracted his hand, cursing as he picked out glass shards from his skin.
Rita looked around to see what else to use to fend off Lynn but all she had was the shattered lamp. She waited for his next assault to begin but the ax never fell. She could hear him suppressing his panting trying to stay quiet.
Then she heard it, a break in the monotone wind. A rumbling noise that was slowly growing louder. She heard Lynn pick up the ax but instead of trying to reach them he turned and left the suite.
When she was certain he was fully gone she gave a sigh of relief that she, and her children, had been spared Lynn's wrath, at least for now. As the girls began to calm down she wondered what that noise had been.
Lori slowly winded the car along the icy road to the hotel. She could see the glow of the hotel illuminating the air around it from behind the tree cover. Sitting in the passenger seat next to her was Bobby.
"So, they really have the whole hotel to themselves?"
"Yeah, it's literally just us and nobody else for miles around. Just a usual Christmas in a really big place."
They left the forest and the hotel came fully into view. Bobby started silently counting the floors. "That's like twenty-something floors!"
"I know! All those room's to choose from. Away from everybody else. Just you and me."
They both laughed to themselves as Lori pulled her ketchup red car up behind Vanzilla. She killed the engine and they both pulled on their winter coats. They got out of the car and walked to the entrance, hugging each other to keep warm.
They walked into the hotel, looking around at the decor. Art deco walls, some plush couches and chairs. What she noticed most of all was the bare tree next to the base of the stairs.
"Hey Babe?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't you think it's a bit quiet?"
She took the time to listen and found that she could only hear their footsteps and the wind outside.
"Yeah, but it's a big place. My family could be anywhere in here."
They walked up to the tree. Bobby looked it up and down before turning back to face Lori. "This would make a great-,"
He yelled and fell to the floor. Lori felt something wet splatter her face. She spluttered as she looked down at Bobby, a jagged, diagonal cut going from his shoulder to waist with blood starting to seep up.
She looked up to see Dad holding the bloody ax in both hands. She tried to form something, anything to say before he threw down the ax next to Bobby and lunged at her. His hands curled around her neck and she couldn't breath. She punched him square in the jaw in an attempt to make him release her.
He retaliated by slamming her head against the ground before lifting her up and throwing her against the wall. He held her up so that the tips of her feet were barely touching the ground. She tried to ply his hands off her neck but failed to do so. The pain in her chest was agonizing and the corners of her vision were beginning to black out.
Then another scream and fresh, sweet oxygen rushed into her. She fell to the floor and scrambled away from Dad, who was clutching his leg as blood seeped from it. Behind him was Bobby, dropping the ax and also crawling away. They met and got to their feet, holding each other to remain standing.
They hobbled away to the elevator, Bobby grunting in pain and Lori still gasping trying to catch her breath. They reached the elevator bank and Lori smashed the call button. The door opened and collapsed into the elevator. Bobby turned onto his back and groaned in pain as he kicked the buttons. The door's shut and it took them up.
"What," Bobby panted, "the fuck was that?"
"I, cough, literally don't know," Lori wheezed. Had that really been Dad? No, that was impossible. But even so there was still a mad axeman about. Was the rest of the family okay?
The elevator came to a stop and the door's opened revealing another hallway. They both got back to their feet and slowly walked out of the elevator. There had to be somewhere to hide. She tried the doors as they passed by them but each one was locked.
They came to the end of the hallway. They started to turn the corner when a streak of gray sliced in front of them. They both fell back in fear that somehow he had caught up to them.
"Woah, woah, woah, that's not Dad!" It was just Lynn holding a hockey stick out in both hands, Lincoln standing behind her.
"Sorry you guys, I thought you were Dad," Lynn apologized. "Wait, what are you two even doing here?"
"We were coming early, didn't Lincoln tell you?"
"I'm sorry, but there was a lot on my plate!"
"No kidding," Bobby said. Lori and Bobby got back to their feet and Lincoln and Lynn led them back to the room they were hiding in. Lincoln knocked on the door and it opened for them. They rushed inside quickly before barricading it again.
"Lori?!" the rest of the girls exclaimed.
"What are you doing here?" Rita asked.
"We managed to come up early. What the hell is happening?"
"Your father is having a mental breakdown or something, I don't know. One day he was fine, the next he descended into a raving lunatic."
"Why didn't you just leave?"
"He hid the van battery somewhere. Now it's either wait him out or try to escape out into the snow."
"I got it!" Lisa said from the bed as she was wrapping a bedsheet tourniquet around Bobby's back. "We'll just requisition the car battery from Lori's vehicle and use it for Vanzilla to make our escape!"
"But Dad's still out there!"
"I got his leg with his ax, after he did this to me," Bobby said as he sat up from the bed, the bedsheet now staunching the bleeding. "I don't think he'll be able to walk."
"Alright, but we're sticking together just in case. Leni, grab Lily. We'll take the stairs, go through the garage and around the front to the van. Okay?"
They all acknowledged. Rita picked up Lana from the bed and they opened the door. She quickly glanced around and saw nothing. She then fully stepped out and the rest followed her down the hallway.
They passed through the maze of halls heading for the furthest set of stairs. They were getting close to it when Rita came to a sudden stop.
"Rita? Lori?"
Then Lynn Sr. hobbled around the corner, an ax in hand and sweater tightly knotted around his calf. "I found you," he rasped. They started backing up thinking that he couldn't move fast. He started for them, his stumbling quickly turning into a limping run.
"Run!" Lincoln yelled. They turned heel and ran from Lynn Sr. each splitting off into the labyrinth of the hotel until each was alone in their flight to escape.
Luan had found herself alone trying to get to Vanzilla. It seemed that Dad wasn't after her though she didn't dare call out for a sibling lest she attract him. She speedwalked down a hallway that seemed longer and unbroken than usual.
She looked left and right repeatedly for an elevator or staircase. She stopped to look ahead and froze. In front of her was a man in a light green suit, his back turned away from her, peering into a room situated at the end of the hall.
He turned to face her and with him out of the doorway she saw a family hanging from the ceiling suspended by coils of rope, their faces blue and bloated. The man facing her just smiled and waved.
Luan turned and ran away, away from the man and the hanging family.
Luna flew down the stairs in leaps in bounds for the first floor. Her purple boots stamped on the floor as she jumped off the stairs and pushed through the door into another hallway. She ran through it before stopping at a doorway to catch her breath.
As she heaved in oxygen she looked up from the ground into the room she was at the threshold of. Tables lined with dead men. And at the far end a counter with a graying man in a red suit.
"Care for a drink?" he laughed. Luna threw herself away from the room and kept running to safety, away from the bartender of the dead.
Lucy finally got to an elevator bank. She could hear Dad's shouting faintly in the distance. She turned to press the call button for an elevator. She turned around to watch her back and stopped.
In front of her was a man with a pallid face, his blue shirt, slacks and hair caked with ice. In his outstretched hand was a glass with red liquid inside.
"Merry Christmas, isn't it?" he said. He raised the glass to head level as if to toast to the never ending hell that was the hotel. The doors opened and Lucy backed in. The man took a swig of the drink as the doors shut him off.
"Why me," Lincoln thought as he ran through the hallways followed closely behind by Dad. Even though the group at the beginning had started at thirteen and pared down to just himself Dad had stuck with him.
He had been running the same way in a circle it seemed to him and he was starting to lose the ability to keep going. He didn't know how Dad hadn't collapsed from a sliced calf and carrying that ax but he wasn't banking on him collapsing first.
He began to plan how to escape this loop without being followed. His eyes fell on the numbers next to the doors and then he knew what to do. With a second wind he sprinted ahead, getting out of sight of Dad.
"Lincoln," Dad roared. "I'm coming for you!" He came to an indent in the wall, probably for a drink dispenser, and squeezed himself flush into it. Then he started realizing all that could go wrong, Dad would hear him, Dad would see him, Dad would turn his head just a bit and it would be an ax to the jugular vein for him.
"Son!" Dad bellowed as he steam rolled past him. Lincoln felt his heart stop for a second as Dad blurred past him and further down the corner. Now that Dad was on a loop he had a short time to get the heck out of here.
He ran along the hallway loop until he got to the elevator. He got in and smashed the floor button and the doors closed. He descended and the doors parted before him to reveal the home stretch. There across the lobby was his family and Bobby piling into the van as Lisa attached the car battery from Lori's car. He ran to safety and ran away from the hotel.
"Lincoln!" Lynn screamed. He came to a stop, taking one hand off the ax handle and onto his chest as he gasped for breath. He had been chasing that brat. Or had he? He stopped and listened. There was no panting or the slap of feet against the ground.
He growled as he realized Lincoln had somehow outsmarted him. But there was still no escape, no way of getting away from him. Except the car.
"Fuck," he hissed. Lori and Bobby had gotten here, meaning they had transportation. He pulled out his set of keys and hobbled over to a door. He unlocked it and threw it open to reveal an empty suite. He hobbled across it and smashed the glass of the sliding door in. He trudged out into the snow and looked over the balcony. Through the winter wind he could see a bright light illuminate the snow in front of the balcony.
"Oh hell no," he muttered. He threw the ax off the balcony before jumping off as well. He fell before hitting the snow at the bottom, knocking his breath out but keeping his bones intact. He turned around to see that he had landed just next to the van tires. He groped around for the ax before gripping the wooden handle. He brought it to bear down upon the tire, but the van jolted forward before metal could slice rubber.
"No, no, no, no, no." He got to his feet and followed the van. They both were picking up speed and heading into the forest. Lynn swung the ax again and kicked up sparks from the back of Vanzilla as metal and metal clashed. The van then jumped off leaving only tread marks in the snow to follow.
He started to shiver as his limping run turned to a walk. "Rita," he cried out.
He let the ax fall to his side as he clutched his chest. "Lincoln!"
He continued for what seemed like years. He stopped when he realized that the tracks in front of him were gone. He spun around to retrace his steps only to see that they had been covered by fresh snow as well.
He spun around in a circle only able to see a few feet in front of himself. Without the shining lights of the hotel he was a blind man in a blizzard. He turned back once more and walked. "Lucy!"
He stumbled and fell to the ground. He picked himself up and casted the axe away before continuing. His breaths had turned to gasps and his shaking was uncontrollable. He flet so very cold.
"Leni!" He kept going, hugging himself to stay warm. "Lily!"
He fell a second time. This time it was harder to get back to his feet.
"Lu-a!" He slurred, having lost the ability to finish his words completely. "Lu-n!"
He took short, unsteady steps in a balancing act as he froze up. "Ly-," He fell down for the third time. He tried but failed to get back up. He resorted to crawling to keep himself going.
"Lor!"
He moved at a snail's pace, what little energy he had left draining into the freezing void around him. "Lan! Lol! Li!"
He stopped. He regretted. Not like this. Please, not like this.
With a second wind, he flipped himself on his back to look at the stars in his last moments.
One week later…
Jeffery pulled his car up to the hotel, behind the vehicles of numerous employee's and cops. He stepped out of the car and walked to the entrance. He passed by the workers, placing items from the caretaker's family into tubs at the officers feet.
He could hear them gossiping about another groundskeeper going mad. He ignored it and gave a wordless greeting to the desk attendant. He entered the hallway and walked into his office.
He sighed as he picked up the fallen chair. He sat in it and rubbed his temples. Every now and then it would come back around to bite him in the ass. Lynn had seemed a good person, the perfect one for the job. Having a stable family life with eleven kids and a successful restaurant showed that. But here he was.
He wondered if he had joined them. He looked up to the wall, to the picture of the hotel as it was back in '63 when it was founded. He squinted at the entrance. There was the graying man in red, as it had been when he first arrived. Next was Jack, who had appeared some years ago.
And next to them, Lynn Loud Sr.
The End.
Credits: The Shining and The Loud House
Thanks to the commenters:
U.N. Owen
Fanfictionmakermachine
And those who used guest.