Hotel Ruby (28 page)

“I know,” he allows, “but I'm getting better.” Despite the moment, the words are filled with heartbreak. “And I'm taking your advice,” he says.

“It's about time,” I say automatically, my fight drained away.

“I'm going to do awesome things just for myself,” he says. “Turns out I'm pretty amazing.”

Elias sniffs a laugh next to us, and then he tells me again that I have to go. I look despairingly toward the elevators, toward my escape. I hear Daniel swallow loudly, and then I jump forward and hug him, strangling him around the neck.

“I'm going to remember you like this,” I say into his shirt. “In this suit with your hair brushed.” He laughs, hugging me tighter. “Because when I wake up,” I continue, my voice cracking, “you're going to be on the side of the road, and Daniel, it's so horrible. I can't face it. I can't.”

“You have to,” he murmurs, pushing me back. The crowd around us has gotten louder, growing restless with the scene.

“Daniel,” Elias warns under his breath. My brother looks up, noticing something over my shoulder. He straightens, his expression hardening.

“You have to go, Audrey,” he states, his eyes trained behind me. “Right now. You're almost out of time.”

“I'm afraid he's right, Miss Casella.”

A hush falls over the crowd, my fear ratcheting up until it's got a grip on my throat. I turn and find Kenneth standing in the center of the lobby with a sickening smile and a rosy glow of victory on his cheeks. He's wearing a black tuxedo, and he folds his tiny hands over the breast of his jacket.

Elias puts out his arm, resting his hand on my hip as he steps in front of me. I appreciate his attempt, but I doubt he'll make much of a shield. Daniel closes ranks at my side. Kenneth scoffs at the display of protection, laughing at us.

“You are free to go, Miss Casella. No sense in making such a fuss. Honestly, with all these childish outbursts, one must really question your upbringing.”

“Son of a bitch,” Daniel says, his anger getting the best of him. He starts forward but gets only two steps before he whines out a terrible sound and grabs his head with both hands. I scream his name, but he's staggering, blood racing down the side of his neck. Seeping from the wound in his head. Elias holds me back as I fight to get to him, but when Daniel collapses, nothing can stop me. I move past Elias and kneel at my brother's side, putting my hands over the crack in his skull, blood rushing through my fingers.

My brother tries to say my name but chokes on the blood filling his mouth and turns to the side to cough it up.
His injuries are the most horrific thing I've ever seen, and my hands can't begin to stop the flow of warm blood pulsing over my fingers. I gather Daniel up, resting his head on my lap, telling him it'll be okay. His body jolts. I'm watching him die, just as he did on the side of the road.

“Shh . . . ,” I whisper, letting the lobby fall away and disappear. My body trembles, emotionally broken. In my mind we're no longer here. I'm kneeling next to him in the ditch, cold air around us, and wet dew on our skin. The only light shining from the headlights of an overturned car.

“I'm here,” I say. “I won't leave you.” Daniel continues to struggle for breath, his skin turning gray. He knots his fingers in the hem of my dress, shuddering and in pain. He turns his eyes toward me, and tears leak from the corners. I smile down at him sadly, trying to give him comfort so he knows he's not alone. “I'm here,” I whisper, brushing his blond hair away from the blood.

“Audrey, what . . .” My father appears behind me, and I look over my shoulder at him. He's in the lobby with the others, wearing a white tux, smoothed hair. When he sees Daniel, he gasps and covers his mouth. He falls to his knees in the dirt next to me, the lights of the car shining on the side of his face. He takes up Daniel's hand, gripping it tightly to his chest and smearing himself in bright red blood. “Dan,” he calls. “Daniel, we're here.”

My brother's teeth chatter, his eyes wide, and I can see how scared he is, how scared he must have been to die. He
did it all alone once, but now we're here, and he'll never have to die alone again.

His eyelids grow heavy, his grip loosens. I don't cry—can't cry anymore. I've lost everything I've ever cared about and I have nothing left. All I can do now is be strong, stronger for both of us. Strong like I should have been after Mom died. “I love you, Dan,” I whisper, leaning in to kiss his forehead. His skin has chilled from the night air. “I love you.”

I close my eyes, and when I reopen them, we're in the lobby of the Ruby. I set my brother's head gently on the shiny floor in a pool of bright red blood. A crowd has gathered around the three of us, and Daniel is dead. My father is crying next to me, my brother's fist to his lips.

“Come back,” he whispers, eyes squeezed shut. Still out there on that road. “Come back, Dan.”

Elias kneels, touching my arm. “He'll be okay,” he whispers kindly to me. “Soon Daniel will wake up again.”

“No,” I say numbly, looking up at him. “Not really. Not in real life. Only here.” Elias leans in to rest his head on my shoulder, sorry for me. Sorry for everything.

“As you can see,” Kenneth's voice cuts sharply through the room, addressing the crowd, “we are done here. Everyone back to the party. Miss Casella is just leaving.”

My father looks up, reminded of where he is. He turns to me, his face gone white. “Oh, kid,” he says, shaking his head. “You can't be here. No, you . . .” He swings around, confirming we're still in the Ruby. “I shouldn't have let
you stay so long,” he says. “Oh, God. I'm sorry.” He sets down Daniel's arm and reaches for me. “I'm so sorry for everything.”

He pulls me to him, his body wracked with sobs. He realizes now that his son is actually dead. I lay my head on his shoulder, feeling like a little girl again. Forgiving my dad for leaving us after Mom died . . . because he's
my dad
. The one I always knew but forgot about. He apologizes over and over, not just for the last few days in the Ruby, or for the accident on the dark highway. He's sorry for every minute he's wasted since my mother died. For every minute we've ever wasted.

“I'm sorry too, Dad,” I murmur, digging my fingers into the lapel of his jacket. I squeeze my eyes shut, inhaling the scent of my mother's detergent. A smell of home. Wishing we could be there again.

“Yes, now, this is all very touching,” Kenneth says cruelly. “But we are on a schedule. And unless you plan on using your invitation, Miss Casella,” he continues, “I must ask you to return to your floor.”

My father and I pull apart, and he brushes back my hair, gazing at me. “I'll miss you, kid,” he whispers. “More than I can bear.” He sniffles, wiping his cheeks and climbing to his feet. He straightens his jacket, smeared in blood, and nods like a gentleman at Elias.

Elias nods back and holds out his hand to me. I stare at his outstretched palm and then around the lobby. All
its beauty and grandeur. The chandelier, the fireplace, the sparkling frames and rich tapestries. It's a beautiful, terrible place. Or maybe that's just because of Kenneth.

Most of the crowd has dissipated, returning to their roles in the party now that Kenneth has commanded it. The others have disappeared altogether, back in their own reality.

I let Elias help me up. Then I stand, looking down at my brother, at my blood-soaked dress. I should be afraid, but I'm not. Not anymore. Not of death. Not of Kenneth. The concierge narrows his eyes, as if my countenance confuses him.

“Miss Casella,” he hisses, losing his composure. “Your time is up. Return to your floor.”

From the ballroom the music gets louder. It's my song—playing on the side of the road, on a loop. Here it's slow, hard to recognize. It fills me with a sense of longing, but at the same time it reminds me of what I'll be returning to. My body begins to feel heavy, to ache. I look back down at Daniel.

Across the lobby the staff door opens. Catherine and Joshua walk out, her hand on his arm. She's a vision in a white dress, but that's not the startling part; it's Joshua, in a suit, tidied up like a guest. Kenneth's eyes widen, and he takes a step toward them.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asks incredulously, his bald head growing pink. “Joshua, get back in uniform! Miss Masters, this is not appropriate.”

Catherine smiles, charming and lovely. She leaves Joshua's side and saunters over to Kenneth, tilting her head slightly as she looks at him. “Yes, darling, I know,” she says arrogantly. She glances down at Daniel but quickly averts her eyes. “But you've killed my date. I had to improvise.”

Kenneth furrows his brow, trying to guess her intentions. He turns to Elias, about to command him to take her into the party instead, when there's a flash of silver. Before any of us can react, Catherine grabs Kenneth's head and swipes a knife across his throat, splitting it wide open, sending out a fan of blood.

Kenneth gurgles, sliding his eyes up in her direction, his fingers trying to close the wound. She sneers and lets him fall to his knees, choking on blood before he collapses to the floor.

“I'm tired of appropriate,” Catherine murmurs to his twitching body, and drops the knife with a clatter. She exhales, long and hard, and then smiles at Elias. “I see why the housekeeper does this so often,” she tells him. “Such satisfaction in it.”

Joshua comes to stand next to Catherine, pulling a handkerchief from his breast pocket and handing it to her. As she cleans the blood off her hands, they both stare down at Kenneth's body with no emotion. Catherine looks over at me and smiles. “Thought you could use my distraction,” she says, indicating Joshua.

“Now you'd better hurry,” Joshua tells me. “It only takes
him a few minutes to recover, and he's going to be pissed.”

Although part of this was revenge against the concierge's tyranny, Catherine and Joshua tried to help me. I'm grateful, but at the same time I know they'll be punished for it. In the span of eternity it might only be a blip—but it's still pain. And I hate that he'll have that power over them.

“You have to go,” Elias whispers. His hand slides over my arm, drawing me closer. “Please, Audrey.” He buries his face in my hair, his breath warm on my neck as he pleads for me to leave him. “Before it becomes real.”

Real.
I straighten, my mind working to put together the pieces. “I'm real,” I say to myself, considering the words. Elias is still begging me to go, but I'm thinking about the night we went to the fountain. Lourdes gave me a muscle relaxer, a pill that didn't work for the staff. But I felt its effects. I hear the music from the side of the road in this hotel, a song Elias couldn't hear. I can touch people—something Catherine said she couldn't do.

I have a moment of clarity, my body calming, if only for a moment. I realize what it means—at least, what it means in the Ruby:
I'm real
. I'm connected to both realities. I'm still alive, my heart beating, my brain sending electricity through my body. Is that why Kenneth wants the guests from the thirteenth floor to stay away from his staff? If I could touch the guy in the lobby, make him shiver—what exactly can I do to Kenneth?

I'm about to find out.

I put my hand on Elias's shoulders to push him back, and he looks me over with such sorrow, such loneliness, as he expects me to walk to the elevators and out of his afterlife. I lean in and kiss him, put my hand on his cheek. He lets me, closing his eyes as he holds back his tears. But the thing is, I'm not going to the elevators.

Without a word I turn and walk directly toward the front desk. I hear Catherine gasp, the shuffle of feet as if someone is about to come after me. The little door behind the desk opens, and Kenneth appears—his face red with rage. Before any of my friends can interrupt, he waves his hand angrily and they groan and fall silent behind me. I don't turn back, imagining they'll all be dead. Burned up and punished for helping me. My hands ball into fists at my sides.

Kenneth steps up to the counter, his chin lower, his eyes blazing. “I see you're still here,” he says in a low growl. “Perhaps you don't truly understand your situation.”

“Or maybe I do,” I say. There is a flicker of worry in his expression, but he's quick to try and cover it, laughing.

“I think not,” he says dismissively. “You see, Miss Casella, your body—”

“Yes, Kenneth,” I interrupt. “I know. The Ruby already showed me. I'm dying on the side of the road just two miles from here. But I wouldn't accept what happened. I came back for my family.”

“What?” His sinister expression falters. “That's—why would you do that?” he demands.

“At first,” I say, courage growing by the second, “I thought I could get them out.” Kenneth chuckles, but I keep talking. “And when I realized I couldn't, I thought maybe I'd just kill you.”

He stops laughing. The words fall around him, and he tries to comprehend the meaning, doubt settling in his expression. The first inkling of fear. “You . . . can't,” he says, sounding confused. “You can't,” he repeats, trying to convince himself.

I understand now how he controls the people in the Ruby.
Fear.
Lourdes, Elias, my brother, all of them—they're not really here; their bodies can't feel pain. Kenneth has no power over them. Not if they don't let him. In death he can hurt them only because they think he can. They make it real. And in the Ruby it's only real if you make it real.

But I'm not part of them—I'm still connected, even if it's only a little longer. In the background I still hear the song, but it's fading away. I'm dying. I've been dying since I got here. I close my eyes, and when I open them, there are people all around. Checking their bags at the front desk, the bustle and chatter of a lively hotel. They speak with the desk attendant I saw on that first day. The others, walking over the grave of the Hotel Ruby.