The Lost Ones (working title)

[Ellia Jordan]

:::a young woman hidden carefully in the folds of a long cloak slips into the office noticing that as she had been told the place was more than a bit messy, but still workable. She steps forward and lays the wrapped scroll on the only open part of the desk:::

 

The sky seemed to rip open and let the rain pound down as Lottie walked down 4th Avenue. She was on her way towards her destiny, not that she knew what was about to happen. That is the good thing about being human, you never know what the future will hold. I however have been here longer than most and know that sometimes it would be wonderful to be as young and trusting of the world as a normal human. My name for the record is William Dashar III. I was born, so far as I can remember in 1223 in a small community on the North Shore of what became Ireland. My people were not of this place, but came here to start anew. Things didn't turn out the way they thought they would and the events that followed their arrival came to be the end of most of them. I am the last of my kind, but this is not my story, it is however the story of that young woman walking in through the rain on a warm desert morning.The woman's footfalls gained in tempo as she tried to find a place to hide from the cold downpour soaking her new business suit. As she slipped under the cover of a doorway her heart began to race. She was going to not only be late for work on her first day but was going to be soaked to the skin when she did manage to get there. Quickly she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. After dialing a number she waited for the call to be answered.“Hello?” A husky voice answered from the other end of the line.“Johnny, I need your help.” she replied looking around and realizing suddenly that she was not in a very safe place. What had looked like an old storefront was in fact a ratty old hotel. “I'm lost and soaked to the skin.”“Shit. Where are you Lorrie?” there was a not of panic in his voice that did nothing to help her stay calm.“On 4th. Somewhere near 10th I think. This place has me all turned around.” she was trying to find some kind of sign or something that would help him find her.“What is around you?” he asked hoping that she hadn't past the street she needed to turn on. He had known that something wasn't going to go well today when he woke up. He really hoped it wasn't that his baby sister was going to get hurt.“I am standing under the main sign of an old hotel. Something about a Arrow, the place is not open. Doesn't look like it has been in years.” she answered trying to stay calm.There was a sigh from the other end of the phoneline. “Okay, I have a feeling I know where you are. Do not move, I will be there as soon as I can. And for the love of god don't talk to anyone.” he hung up before she could say anything else. He knew he only had minutes to get to her in weather like this before they found her. He wasn't going to loose anyone else to the creatures that hide within the walls of that old hotel. He dialed another number on his phone as he raced out of the house and into his car. It was answered by the end of the first ring.“What the hell are you calling me for?” came the angry reply.“Lorrie got lost on her way to her new job.” he answered simply as he put the car in gear. “She's at the old Arrow Hotel.” he didn't wait for an answer just closed his phone and tossed it on the passenger seat. He knew even as much as his old friend now hated him there was nothing the man would not do for Lorrie. A few short minutes later he was pulling up through the rain to the front entrance of the Arrow Hotel. There was no sign of his sister. “Damn it. I knew I wouldn't get here fast enough.” he growled as he climbed out of his car and into the rain. There was no sign of anything wrong other than the feeling that his world would never be the same again.“We couldn't have gotten here before they took her if we had been sitting in the cafe across the street. Now is not the time to worry about that. We have to set our minds to find and save her before she is trapped in that nightmare forever.” David said stepped away from his own car. “But we can't just run into that place. We need a plan, how are we going to save her and not get us all trapped in the nightmare of the Lost Ones? If I remember the stories correctly as long as this storm holds we can get out without too much of a fight. The weather holds the path open, its how they steal without getting caught.”“So since you have done this before how do we get her out?” John asked praying silently that his old friend knew more about the legend than he did. The damn thing had always scared the heck out of him so he could never bring himself to do very much research on it.“First thing we have to do is figure out where they took her in. This place never looks the same twice. After every storm it changes, the doors move, the windows shift, heck even the outside paths change.”“How can all of this happen and no one notice that something is wrong?” John asked looking around trying to get his barrings and find an open entrance at the same time. He wanted nothing more than to find his sister and get the hell away from the place before something else bad happened.“Why would they notice anything. Its just an abandoned building, people don't care about the place. Heck most people don't even notice it.” David moved away from the cars but kept his distance from the building itself. As he moved John began to notice that where ever it was David stood the rain slowed to nothing more than a drizzle.They were both soaked, but neither seemed to be bothered by it anymore as they walked around the building mapping the outside paths in their minds. “David, thanks for coming I know we have some difficulties between us.”David stopped and looked at his former friend, “Difficulties is putting it mildly. The things that happened that night destroyed a friendship that had lasted nearly 30 years. They only reason I am even here dealing with this is her. I refuse to let anything happen to her even if...” his voice trailed off as he decided that it wasn't a good idea to continue with the topic of Lorrie and where the two of them stood.“David, if we save her, I mean when we save her all bets are off. I want you to do what you have to do. Don't worry about me or the things that happened that night.” John told him seeing the look of longing in his former best friends eyes. There was nothing he would not do to fix the wrongs he had done in the past.David stood there for a minute unable to say anything, “I will save her, and I thank you for the permission, but know this once she is safe I am going back to my own little world minus the both of you.” he resumed walking toward the building and the open gate he had seen into the courtyard.John followed him only a few steps behind, as David stepped through the gate John was a able to see a flash of light that illuminated the rain soaked darkness of the hotel grounds. His blood ran cold for a moment as he saw the shadows of the Lost Ones walking along the grounds. “Be careful David.” he called without thinking.David stopped for a moment and turned back to look at his friend, “John watch yourself. They do not look like they like us being here.” he watched as some of the shadows began to move closer to John and blocked his path into the gardens. “Go around there has to be another way in.” he called seeing John step back away from them.“Keep your phone on.” John called out as he backed away and moved along the outer walls trying to find another way in. He didn't think that keeping David's phone on would really do any good, but there was an element of hope in the statement. He walked around the building finding nothing more helpful than a piece of pipe and a length of rope. He was about to go back around and try to get past the shadows at the gate when he saw movement in one of the windows. “Lorrie!!” he called out not even sure that was what he had seen.The person in the window stopped and turned toward him. It was not his sister, but his heart raced a mile a minute either way. “John...” he heard the female voice call softly more in his mind than with his ears.“You can't be real.” he whispered, “You've been dead for years.” he watched the figure standing in the window as she placed her hand on the glass and looked directly at him.“John...” the voice came again.He took a deep breath and turned away from the woman in the window. He had seen her die on the worst night of his life, there was no way she could be standing there. No way that she should even be near the hotel or the Lost Ones. A few steps later he found himself standing in front of the office of the place with the welcome sign lit and the door open. Even confused he knew this wasn't a good thing, but at least it was a way inside. He knew it was going to be his best shot in to save Lorrie. Slowly he made his way through the door and up to the counter. “Hello?” he questioned wondering who or what was going to answer him.An older Oriental woman stepped through the back doorway into the office, “Hello young man.” she stepped up to the back side of the counter, “How can I help you?”He thought for a moment and decided that he was going to play along and see how much information he could get. “I am here to check in, my sister got the rooms for us this morning. I was late as usual. I'm hoping I can check in now and get my key.” he explained trying to to let the fear he was feeling show.Her smile seemed real enough as she lifted a book from the counter, “What was the name?”“Lorrie Knight. She should have booked two rooms for tonight.” he continued hoping to get the information that his sister had actually managed to check in and not be just taken by the shadows.For a moment there was a strange look of worry on the woman's face. When she spoke her voice was calm and careful, “Yes we have a Lorrie Knight checked in with a reservation for two more rooms.” the calm of the woman's voice did nothing at all to sooth John's ragged nerves.“Two extra rooms?” he asked shaking his head, “Why would she have two extra rooms?” he didn't realize he had spoken aloud until the woman replied to his question.“She said that two men were coming, I simply assumed that they would each need a room of their own.” The woman smiled, taking a piece of paper and handing it to John, “If you would just sign in we can see about finding your friend and getting things moved along.”John felt the shutter slide up his spine, “I don't think any of us will be staying. I am just here to pick her up and let her know that we have changed our minds on where we wanted to stay.” he let his voice soften, but refused to show any fear of the older woman.“I know you are afraid, everyone that comes here is scared of what is to come. However you need not be, we are not here to harm you only to give you a chance at the life you have always wanted.” she looked him in the eyes, “You were denied something or was it someone that you truly wanted in your life. Wouldn't you like the chance to try again?”John didn't hesitate in his response to her, “Things happened the way they were meant to. I was not meant to have a life with her.” he had come to terms with that years before. Even if he didn't like the fact. Things had happened and now his life, the lives of his sister and former best friend too for that matter were changed forever by events that none of them really understood.He watched as the woman's eyes brightened while she looked behind him in the direction of the door he had come through. He thought for a moment that his heart was going to stop as the voice rang out like music through the room. “But Johnny... time can be repaired. We can be together.”He looked at her knowing she was dead, had been dead for years, “I don't think so. I watched you die Clara. I am not going to even think about the fact that you are standing there.” he shook his head. This was one time being a nonbeliever might just save his sanity.Clara stepped toward him seeming as solid and alive as he was, “But I didn't die Johnny. I was brought here that night. I was welcomed into the lives of the Lost Ones. They have taken care of me since that night.” her voice started to thicken and the anger filled his ears. “Since the night you let me die in something that never should have happened.”He stood his ground, even if she wasn't real this was something he needed to do, a moment in his life that he needed to face, “Clara, I did not let you die, There was nothing I could do to stop what happened that night. I tried, we all tried.” he told her.“Yet I am still dead. Do you think it was quick and easy? Did you think I couldn't feel what was happening? Did you think that just because you walked away I would forgive you for everything?” she demanded standing closer and closer to him, yet never seeming to actually move.John took a deep breath, “I never expected you to forgive me, I never forgave myself. But you see Clara that is the point there was nothing that could be forgiven. You died because we were all doing something in a place where we knew we should never have been. We had been told by everyone to stay the hell out of Colin House. Yet we were young and thought we had it all figured out.” he sighed, “We were wrong Clara. You died, Lorrie nearly died, and David will carry the scars from that night for the rest of his life. Maybe if we had listened to people and not gone looking for trouble, it might not have found us. But it did.” he turned back to the old woman, “Now I want you to call my sister's room and have her come down here. It's time we were leaving this place.”

 

 

:::Seating herself in the warmth of a leather chair near the window, she readies herself to wait::::

[Degorram]

Degorram dropped from the ceiling where she had been cleaning cobwebs, much to the young woman's surprise. She twitched, startled, and stared at the shapeshifter as Degorram brushed a fine layer of dust off her clothes. "How long have you been up there??"

 

"A few hours," Degorram said simply. "I didn't want to startle you when you first came in, but after you sat down...well, there was no good way to announce my presence. Coughing would have been disastrous up there." She glanced up wearily at the layers of cobwebs that she had yet to even get to and was further convinced that her half-dragon predecessor had been breeding the little monsters for some unusual purpose. Degorram picked up the manuscript from her desk and folded her limbs into the chair, one by one, catlike.

 

"A very interesting premise," she mused to herself as she read through it. The young lady's ears pricked up at this, and she sat straighter, earnestly. "Finish it. Most certainly." And she picked up a rather oversized rubber stamp and slammed it down on the top of the manuscript where it left a huge, sticky green check mark. The shapeshifter blew on it briefly and then handed the papers back over the desk with a sly smile. "Welcome to the Pen, Initiate."

 

OOC: Welcome, welcome, Ellia! Good to have you. : ) You are now a member of the "Initiate" group. If you wish to continue this story, please copy and paste what you have and post it in the Assembly Room.

[Snypiuer]

OOC: I LIKE this story! Only things I can see, are few few misspellings and 1 or 2 grammer errors - no biggie. You kept my interest with hints of the past and I find myself wanting to learn more about that, as well as wanting to see what is to come.

 

Can't wait to read more!

[TLDunn213]

Good opening hook.

Keep going.