On Christmas Eve I went into the bathroom and found Sophie there brushing her teeth. She saw me, spat out, and started to leave.
"Sophie."
"What?"
"Want to brush our teeth together?" I cringed at the way it sounded. We hadn't brushed our teeth together in years.
"I want to leave, Ben." She just stood there, looking down at the rim of the bath-tub. She still had her toothbrush in her hand. Did she mean she wanted to leave the bathroom? If so I wasn't stopping her.
"Ben, I want to leave. And I want you to come with me."
"Leave? The hotel?" It was as if she'd asked me to leave the earth. "Sophie, come on."
She didn't look up from the rim of the bath-tub. It was like she was waiting for something to be over, like an injection.
I didn't like this talk of leaving the hotel so I changed the subject. I said the first thing that came into my head. "Who was that guy?"
"What guy?"
Oops.
Her eyes blazed. "So you followed me hey? Hey?" She pushed me in the chest. I lost my balance and almost fell into the bathtub.
"I didn't follow you! I just -"
She tried to get past me, but I was blocking her.
"Get out of my way," she said, without looking up.
"I love you."
She stopped trying to push past me. We just stood there for a moment, both of us breathing hard. Water plinked from the tap. Then she ducked under my arm and ran out of the bathroom.
YOU ARE READING
Hotel Ambrose
FantasyTwo runaway children steal a baby and attempt to raise it themselves in the world's most haunted hotel. To Ben and Sophie the abandoned hotel seems like the perfect place to hide. No adult will ever find them there. Within its strange walls they ca...
