Chapter 34
DAMIEN
The hotel would not stop shaking. Each tremor rattled Damien’s brain in his skull. What was going on in the engine room? Were Delilah and the others safe?
He couldn’t do anything. He’d never felt so useless in his entire life. (And that was saying something.) He haunted the ladder, seeking out any signs of his friends returning. Finally, he stopped at the alcove on Floor Gluttony to grab a snack.
The food lying around the alcove was mostly crushed. He could barely find an edible packet of anything. Chewing on a slightly stale biscuit did not make him feel better. It just distracted him from the yawning void of his own uselessness.
Soft fur pressed against his legs. He looked down. Nefertiti wound round his ankles.
With a half-hearted smile, Damien reached down to pet her. ‘How are you doing, Your Majesty?’
Nefertiti accepted his touch and her favourite chin rubs. But she didn’t purr. She seemed nervous, her eyes darting around and her tail lashing.
‘You’re worried about the hotel too, huh?’ Damien sighed. ‘I’m sure it will be okay. The others have it handled. They’re a lot braver than me.’
Nefertiti headbutted him and flashed her fangs.
‘You’re always standing up for me, even against myself.’ He chuckled ruefully. ‘Fine, I won’t talk down to myself any longer.’
A very distant cry echoed down the lift. ‘Daaaaaaaaamien . . .’
Was that Delilah’s voice? Damien looked up.
The hotel shook. The voice cut off. Had something gone wrong? What if Delilah had been hurt?
His palms clammy with anxiety, Damien grabbed the ladder and climbed.
At the reception floor, Damien leapt into the alcove. Nefertiti appeared out of nowhere, nudging his legs from behind as if urging him forward. The room was covered in dust falling from the ceiling and the light had gone out. At least the shaking had stopped.
‘Delilah?’ he called.
As the dust cleared, he made out Delilah standing on a wheely chair. A roll of duct tape hung out of her mouth. She used a piece to fasten the light to the ceiling.
The unlit bulb wobbled. She ripped off more tape with her teeth, then fastened it tighter. The chair shifted on its wheels.
Damien called, ‘You should come over here! It’s not safe in the reception room. There are too many objects flying around. That wheely chair isn’t stable, either. The lift shaft is a better place to weather out the quakes.’
‘I can’t,’ she called. ‘We’ve got to patch up the hotel.
Lucy said that this place is like a living creature, and one part being broken affects the others.
She’s trying to restart the hotel right now.
If it isn’t in good enough shape, it might not work.
Anything that remains broken might never be repaired.
Heather just got this light fixed!’ She glanced over her shoulder.
‘John is working on fixing your lift too. I went to tell you. He even got Godfrey and the rest of the crew to help him. You should have seen him! He finally stood up for himself.’
Damien could feel the ground start to shift again, a tiny tremor. ‘You’re going to fall.’
‘Then I’ll get up and fasten this bulb again,’ said Delilah through a mouthful of tape. She pressed her hands tightly, rising on the balls of her feet. The chair wobbled.
‘I-I can’t help you.’ His throat felt dry. ‘I can’t leave the lift.’
‘That’s okay. I’ve got this.’
Damien’s legs throbbed, aching to lunge forward and grab the wobbly chair. ‘I can’t,’ he repeated. Maybe he was saying it to himself. It was impossible for him to leave the lift shaft, yet that did not stop him from feeling horribly guilty.
He took a step forward. When he reached the doorway, it thrummed as if an invisible force pushed back against his body. He clung to the wall, feeling like a fly trapped in amber, unable to go forward and unwilling to go back.
Nefertiti pushed against his legs, urging him on.
‘I can’t.’ His throat felt drier than a desert. ‘You know that.’
She pushed harder. ‘A word with letters three, gaze into a mirror and the answer you’ll see.’
‘Now isn’t the time for riddles!’ The hotel rattled and moaned under his feet.
She dug her claws into his leg.
‘Ow! Fine. Reflection is too long. Me is too short. You? Is the answer you?’
She purred.
‘The answer is you.’ Damien froze, clinging to the wall. Even the rocking of the hotel became distant to him. ‘You’re saying that I’m the reason I can’t leave the lift.’
She gazed up with wide eyes, a silent encouragement flowing from cat to human.
For as long as Damien could remember, he’d always believed that the lift attendant couldn’t leave the lift. His job was permanent. No one slept in Purgatory, so he was always on duty. People needed him.
But no other employee was trapped in place. Heather wasn’t stuck at her desk. Godfrey and his crew could easily move between floors.
When he’d first come to Purgatory, the lift had been his safe space.
In his childhood, the lift attendant at his apartment had been the kindest person to him.
In Purgatory, this had been the place where he felt useful.
At first, he hadn’t wanted to leave. It had felt safer to remain in a comforting, familiar, small place.
Damien remembered Lucy telling him, In Purgatory, the only restrictions on your body are the ones you impose on yourself.
Had he imposed the rule that he couldn’t leave the lift on himself? Had he turned it into a convenient excuse to avoid his test? Had it always been his own indecision and fear holding him back?
The hotel groaned, then tilted sideways. Delilah cried out as her chair rolled out from under her feet.
Damien took a deep breath, then leapt through the doorway.
For a moment, he felt a pressure pushing against his body. Then he shot forward, faster than he’d ever been able to move in life.
With one hand, he grabbed the chair. With the other, he steadied Delilah’s back. ‘I’ll help. You hold on to that tape.’
‘Thank you.’ She gasped. ‘Hey, you’re out of the shaft.’
‘I don’t completely understand it, either, but I think leaving was a choice I had to overcome, just like my test.’
‘We’re all learning valuable lessons today, if we survive.’
He laughed. He ought to have felt like a new man. Instead, he was still the same person: nervous and worried. The dusty air here tasted the same as in the shaft. But, now that he had taken one step forward, he could imagine doing it again.
The hotel bent with an unholy screech. Damien planted his feet and hung on. As the floor slanted, his feet slipped.
A massive warm body pressed against his back, bracing him. The huge furry presence held them both up as the hotel rocked, then finally stabilised.
‘Uh, thank you.’ Damien turned round.
A sphynx stood behind him. Tawny golden fur rippled across massive muscles. The tips of the eagle wings brushed against the ceiling. A barb lashed at the end of her long tail. She had a beautiful, proud dark face with a golden crown on top of her tightly coiled black hair.
For a brief moment, Damien wondered if he might be about to be swallowed in one gulp. Then he recognised the gooseberry-green eyes. ‘Nefertiti?’
She purred and pressed against his hand, demanding caresses.
‘You did brilliantly. You saved us both.’ As he stroked her lion fur, he felt a connection spark between them. It was difficult to put it into words. By freeing himself, he had freed her as well. His resolve was her resolve. His courage fed her power.
‘Whoa, you became even more magnificent.’ Delilah hopped down from the chair to stroke Nefertiti too. ‘I’ve always wanted to pet a lion.’
A groaning came from the floor below them.
‘We have to get down there,’ Delilah said. ‘We need to hold the hotel together for as long as possible. That way, we can buy time for John and Lucy to finish. We already have everything we need.’
‘Courage, friendship and belief in ourselves?’
‘No, duct tape.’ She held up a roll. ‘The single most useful maintenance tool in existence.’
Perhaps Damien was still a little drunk on freedom. For once in his life, he did not hesitate. He grabbed a handful of Nefertiti’s fur, then pulled himself on to her back. She felt so soft, he could sink into her fur. He reached down and offered a hand to Delilah. ‘Come on.’
Grabbing his hand, she let him pull her up in front of him. They both gripped the lion fur tightly.
Nefertiti asked, ‘What is in seasons, seconds, centuries and minutes but not in decades, years or days?’
Delilah groaned. ‘Riddles, at a time like this?’
‘It’s not just a game. She needs the riddles in order to be able to carry us.’ Even now, Damien could feel the courage flowing between him and Nefertiti like a power source. ‘I’m pretty sure she’s asked me that one before. The answer is the letter N.’
With a roar, Nefertiti took flight.
Damien’s hair whipped around his ears. He clung to his glasses.
Nefertiti landed on the cafeteria floor. She shook her wings, sending feathers flying.
The cafeteria was a wreck. The long tables had all fallen together in a tangle against the walls. A vending machine lay on its side. The buffet line had been boarded up, but one shutter hung off-kilter. A crack extended down the green and white tiles on the floor.
Delilah ripped off a long piece of duct tape and handed it to Damien. ‘Patch up what you can, as fast as possible.’
In the distance, rising somewhere from other floors, the first faint notes of singing could be heard. It sounded like Lucy’s voice, but deeper and larger. The words were in no mortal tongue. They shimmied through the air, making Damien shiver. A blast of heat ran through the hotel.
The warmth jolted him back to awareness. He used his tape to fasten the shutter. Meanwhile, Delilah slapped tape all over the crack on the floor. Together, they propped up the vending machine. As best they could, they set the tables upright and repaired the legs.
A rattling came from a lower floor. It didn’t sound like an earthquake, more like hundreds of grains knocking together.
Delilah climbed on to Nefertiti. ‘Come on. I think we’re needed elsewhere.’
Nefertiti said, ‘I’m full of holes, yet I’m full of water. What am I?’
Damien climbed on too. ‘I don’t know this one. Is it a human being? Is it me because I cry more than average?’ It became harder for him to think with the hotel groaning and the pressure on. ‘Is it a sieve – no, that doesn’t carry water. Stupid idea.’
‘You might be on to something with the kitchen.’ Delilah bit her lip. ‘A sponge.’
With a loud, happy growl, Nefertiti ran forward and leapt into the shaft. They clung on for dear life.
The sound of metal grinding came from above. Looking up, Damien saw his lift hanging overhead. Indeterminate shouts drifted down the shaft. The lift repair must be making progress.
The sphinx landed on Floor Gluttony. The rumbling sound came from the door.
Delilah winced. ‘Gluttony must be about to unleash a pile of sweets on us again.’
‘We can’t risk it interfering with the lift repair or causing more damage to the hotel,’ Damien said. ‘Give me more tape.’
Working together, they taped the door shut.
‘Shouldn’t the duct tape have run out by now?’ Damien asked.
Delilah winked. ‘A magician never reveals her secrets.’
‘Are you using real magic?’
‘I’m not sure!’ She pulled on the end of the tape, and more unrolled, without end. ‘We’re in a magical time. As long as I don’t think about it, more tape keeps on coming.’
The wood bulged. Delilah placed her back against the door. ‘Help me!’
Damien leapt next to her, leaning with all his body weight. Nefertiti put a massive paw on top of the door. The sweets strained, forming a bulge in the wood.
Between clenched teeth, Damien asked, ‘How much longer do we have to hold on?’
The maddeningly beautiful singing rose up, louder than the rumbling of sweets trying to break out. The notes scorched the air.
Delilah called, ‘I think Lucy is almost done.’
The hotel froze. At least the rumbling had stopped. The walls heated up, like clay in the kindling fire. The door burned against Damien’s back. He planted his feet and refused to move.
Tendrils of light drifted down past the open doorway leading to the lift shaft.
‘Is that the destruction coming from Limbo?’ Delilah demanded.
‘That’s exactly what I was thinking,’ Damien said.
‘We can’t let it spread.’
‘We can’t leave this door.’ They exchanged despairing looks.
Jaime poked her head through the doorway. ‘There you are! I came to tell you that the lift is repaired – and to grab a snack.’
Delilah’s eyes lit up. ‘Jaime! We need someone to seal off the door to Limbo.’ The roll of duct tape currently hung round her shoulder.
She twisted her arm so that it slid down into her hand.
‘Can you tape the door shut? It’s okay if it doesn’t last long.
’ She shouted to be heard over the notes of the song.
‘We just need to keep the hotel together long enough for Lucy to finish.’
‘I’m on it.’ Jaime saluted.
Delilah tossed the roll. Jaime caught it with one hand, then vanished up the shaft.
‘Be careful,’ Delilah called.
‘She’ll be all right,’ Damien said. ‘She’s explored this hotel more than anyone else. She knows this place, and it knows her.’
The fierce notes of the song turned peaceful.
Damien let the relaxing sound roll over him.
In that moment, he was filled with love for the hotel.
It was as if his own love melded with Lucy’s love for her creation.
After so long being stuck, he’d realised he could leave this place.
But did he want to leave? Or was the hotel his home?
From the upper floor, Jaime cried, ‘I’m here! I found the crack in the door.’
The slap of duct tape against wood reverberated down the shaft.
The very last notes of the song filled the air, so full of power that the music became briefly visible as golden smoke billowing through the shaft.
The weight pressing against Damien’s back vanished. He dared step away. The rumbling had stopped. The door had repaired. Peculiarly, the duct tape had merged into the wood of the door, leaving a dark border round the edges.
A very familiar chime made Damien whirl round. Once he’d hated the sound of the lift chime. Now his ears found it as beautiful as Lucy’s song.
The lift whirred down the shaft, stopping precisely at their floor. The doors opened automatically.
Nefertiti shrank back down to a housecat. Rubbing against Damien’s ankles, she purred.
Delilah placed a hand on Damien’s shoulder, then leaned her head against him. ‘We did it.’
Damien smiled. ‘Yes. We did it.’