Chapter 13 #2
Jaime ran into the lift. ‘So many kinds of sweets!’ She gathered them up in her hands. ‘I don’t know what to eat first.’
‘Time to claim the winnings from my bet.’ Delilah pushed through the sweets, then swept Damien up into a hug. Back on Limbo, she’d feared she might never see him again. Her arms trembled. Unable to keep up her flippancy, her body locked tightly round his.
His eyes widened in surprise, and his arms went up round her back. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I should be asking you that.’ Delilah sniffled. ‘You were stuck all alone down there in the dark.’
‘It was . . . an experience.’ His lips quirked. ‘I wasn’t alone in the end. Nefertiti came for me.’
‘I was worried about you.’
‘Thank you. It’s been a while since I’ve had anyone to worry about me.’ He stroked her hair. ‘I’m all right now.’
Delilah couldn’t help hearing the implication behind ‘now’. Clearly, he hadn’t been all right at the time. She would have asked more, except at that exact moment laughter rose up from the lift shaft.
It sounded like a mixture of a baby’s giggles and a crone cackling – not many voices but the same voice constantly changing.
The discordance made Delilah put her hands over her ears.
A swirling shadow rose up from the depths, landing in the lift doorway.
It formed a figure almost humanoid, with too many arms and legs.
Delilah glanced over at Damien, desperately hoping that shapeshifting shadows were a normal part of hotel operations. Judging from his gaping mouth, apparently not. Everyone else stood equally frozen.
‘Excuse me, who are you?’ Delilah called.
The shadow fluttered down the emergency hatch and into the receptionist room, nipping at the edges of Delilah’s hair without quite touching her.
‘I’ve gone by many names.’ The voice shifted between a soprano to a deeper than human intonation.
‘The Harbinger of Chaos.’ The shadows ran past Heather’s ankles like a cat.
‘The End.’ The dark wisps turned into a ray of light.
‘The Final Roll of the Dice.’ The voice shifted again, becoming syrupy and rich as fudge.
‘At the moment . . . I feel like a Barbara.’ Shadows coalesced into a woman.
She had dark brown skin and buoyant curls falling around a smooth oval face and a flat nose.
A red jumpsuit clung to long legs. She easily stood six feet tall.
Delilah gulped, trying not to feel intimidated.
‘The hotel has fallen into disrepair. I’m sorry, but if you came for a visit then now is a bad time.
’ Instinct told her to get this strange woman as far away as possible.
The air smelled like danger and abrupt shifts in odds.
If Delilah had been gambling, then she would have folded immediately.
Barbara grinned, flashing perfect teeth.
‘I know. I never would have been able to break in if the hotel had been in proper order. Dear Lucy went to great trouble to keep me out. How convenient of you to move the lift out of my way. Where is Lucy?’ She flooded around the room.
Her movements did not seem human – she would step twice with her right foot and somehow her walk was not quite level with the ground.
Delilah’s eyes hurt watching her. She landed next to Howard, peering down at him.
‘My, it’s the legendary ring thief and escape artist!
The man who evaded Hell to reach a natural end! I’ve heard Lucy talk about you.’
‘Only good things, I hope?’ Howard asked calmly, the only person not even a little fazed.
‘She said you were funny.’
‘I like to think so.’ Howard winked. ‘Dad jokes are all I have left . . . I’m just “dad” inside.’
Barbara shuddered with her entire body. The lights overhead flickered. The air itself seemed to shudder. ‘That was the worst pun I have heard in an eternity. You’ve melted my human form.’ She collapsed into a pile of shadows, gone as fast as she’d arrived.
Still having shadow trauma, Delilah peered all around the room just in case, but saw nothing to indicate the strange woman had ever been there.
Pale-faced, Heather slapped Howard on the back. ‘You banished her. Great job.’
‘I didn’t think the pun was that bad . . .’ he mumbled.
Delilah took a deep breath. ‘Is Lucy the designer of the hotel?’
Howard nodded. ‘Lucy sometimes visits her hotel, but I can’t predict when or where. I don’t know how to find her right now, nor do I have any way to contact her. I’m sorry that I can’t be more useful.’
Delilah considered for a moment. ‘We should gather the guests and ask if anyone has seen her. Since you’re our only witness, you’d be invaluable. If we can track down her last known location, then we can use the ladder to travel and look for her.’
Heather said, ‘It’s a place to start. The designer of the hotel would be the best person to repair it.’ She didn’t sound terribly optimistic. Perhaps she was still a little shaken from their strange visitor.
‘I wish I could do more to help you, instead of being stuck in the lift.’ Damien paused. ‘Should we do something about that . . . Barbara . . . being?’
‘Like what?’ Delilah shrugged. ‘I got the impression that she’s only here because the hotel is broken. If we fix it, maybe she’ll leave. She hasn’t caused any problems yet, either.’
Although Delilah shared the same sense of unease, she didn’t see any point in worrying about it until the trouble happened.
Damien shuffled his feet. ‘Do you think we made a mistake by unblocking the door leading to Hell?’
Heather shrugged. ‘Nothing could have stopped a magical shadow. Though I hope we didn’t attract her attention.’
‘It’s fine,’ Delilah said with a loudness determined to make it true using the power of optimism. ‘Nothing evil goes by the name Barbara.’
Damien coughed. ‘Uh, the other names sounded kinda evil. Harbinger of Chaos?’
‘It’s fine,’ Delilah growled.