Chapter 29
DAMIEN
Damien peered up the lift shaft. If he looked at just the right angle, he could make out the waiting room of the floor above. ‘They’re taking a long time in Limbo.’
‘You say that every time,’ Jaime said. ‘It hasn’t been that long.’
‘I know, but . . .’ Damien frowned. ‘Is the hotel rumbling again?’
Heather grabbed on to her reception desk. John pressed against the wall to keep his balance.
Heather said, ‘It’s definitely shifting. I’d call this an earthquake, except we’re no longer on the solid ground of the real world.’
Damien adjusted his glasses, which he wore out of habit, not because he actually needed them. ‘Am I the only person who sees darkness seeping out from Floor Limbo?’
Heather came and peered over his shoulder. ‘Yikes, that looks very, very bad.’
Shadows seeped down the shaft. Damien shuddered as they passed him.
‘I’m going after them,’ Heather said.
‘I have a more effective idea,’ Damien said. ‘Can you gather all the guests on this floor?’
Spreading down the hallway like a massive tug-of-war team, the guests pulled on a rope.
‘Just a little more!’ Heather screamed down the line. ‘We almost have it!’
Slowly, Damien’s lift rose. He clung to the railing, as the stops and starts made his entire lift rattle. They just needed to coax the lift up one floor, to Limbo.
‘STOP!’ he shouted.
The lift shivered, then stopped moving, suspended in place.
Damien forced the doors open.
At the same time, Delilah, Lucy and Howard poured out of Floor Limbo. Lucy was saying something, waving her hands.
‘Look out!’ Delilah screamed.
The darkness rose up behind them like a typhoon, the wave about to break.
‘Over here!’ Damien waved from the lift. ‘Get on!’
Delilah turned, her eyes widening. ‘How—’
‘No time for questions!’ He held out his hand.
Delilah ran forward, her arm outstretched, and Damien yanked her into the lift. Lucy and Howard leapt so fast that they fell in a pile.
Damien didn’t bother to close the doors. ‘Bring us down!’
The lift dropped a lot faster than it had gone up. Air screamed in Damien’s ears. He fell to the floor. An arm and a leg lay on top of him – he didn’t know whose. The fall made his stomach try to leap out of his throat.
With a painful jerk, they stopped.
Groaning, Lucy staggered to her feet. Her hair covered her face, the red glow of her eyes burning through.
Howard grabbed the railing. ‘Thank Purgatory that I made my knees younger.’
Delilah helped Damien up. ‘Thank you for the rescue.’
‘Any time.’ Looking up through the emergency hatch, he watched as a wave of darkness roared out of Floor Limbo, then retreated like the tide. ‘At least so far the destruction is staying on one floor. I really hope that doesn’t change.’
‘That’s why we need to reach the engine room and repair the hotel right now,’ Delilah said.
From the reception lobby, the guests cheered. Several people worked together to tie the lift in place again.
‘Everyone came through for us.’ Delilah smiled across the crowd. ‘I love this hotel.’