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“So what are we supposed to do?”
Despite being in their private wing of the hotel, behind a closed door, with another closed door at the end of the hallway, Barbie still whispered in a rough voice, glancing back towards the door that would lead him to the rest of the house.
Even as he asked, Julia paced before the window, one arm crossed over her chest, cradling the other elbow in her hand so that her curled fingers pressed against her lips after she’s risen from the laptop where she’s been doing a little bit of research. The connection is always spotty up there in the mountains, and it often hated the VPN she used to try and obscure their tracks should Dawn and her minions have the means of tracing them by computer, she had no plans on making it easy.
And oddly the research had not only turned up a bit on this Duke Crocker, including his previous ownership of a restaurant and issues with the local police, but also hints of what it may be that he planned to talk to them about. Searching “Overlook” plus “Maine” came up with a lot of websites and links, and stories that were about as believable as the official story of Chester’s Mill, and a lot of speculation sites that might come a whole lot closer just as the ones about the Dome did.
It’s kind of amazing actually to read over some of the sites, seeing how much they got right and wondering who might be disregarding their agreement with the government and actually putting the truth out their under the guise of wild hair and flailing gestures.
It was as disconcerting as it was comforting to Julia. Even if Barbie wasn’t nearly as comfortable and he was letting that be known now.
“You signed the contract, Barbie. What were the provisions about guests?”
“There… wasn’t one? I was just told that it would be us and Jackie here and that there wouldn’t be any other guests as the hotel is always shut down during the winter, despite the modern abilities to get up here in the past few years. In fact, that is what he said. I never thought anyone would just come visit. Jackie’s a recluse supposedly and none of the people we would want here would come here.”
Not like Joe was just going to come wandering up to the door or anything.
“So, we’re not breaking the rules if he’s here.”
Barbie just stared at her, folding his arms over his chest, legs braced shoulder width apart, jaw moving as he tried to find words, and tried to censor himself before he said something wrong.
“It’s not the rules, Julia.” He paused, considering that before sighing. “Okay, I’m glad you’re right and we’re not breaking any rules but… You’re not worried about what he said? That this stranger came in here, and knows us and has some kind of secret to reveal?”
And then, because he can’t help but to put it out there.
“What if she sent him?”
“Is that’s the case, then we have to suspect Jackie too,” she pointed out. “And I don’t think Jackie is a concern. Though,” she said, holding up one hand. “I admit, that she could be duped in this like us.”
“Exactly,” he said, nodding because he’s glad she is seeing this from his side of things. “Though…” He glanced around as if someone was listening, and given his words, he might think there is. “Would the house let someone working for Dawn in this place after it giving us a home for the winter?”
Julia couldn’t have looked more bemused if she tried. It showed in her bright eyes, the smile on her face that twitched as she tried hard not to laugh. It was cruel, all things considered, but it’s not laughing at him but the very idea of what he’s put forward.
“The house, Barbie?”
“Well, fine, it’s a hotel, but you knew what I meant about this place.”
“Oh, I knew what you meant, I’m just trying to get past that you’re asking me if I think not only is the house sentient, but does it approve of his Duke guy.”
Still they spoke in low tones despite the closed doors, though if Barbie is right about the Overlook then what good would it do but to keep Jackie and Duke from hearing them? Though when you’re talking about others, it is a good idea to keep one’s tones down.
“We literally are on the run from an alien queen whose people held us captive in a giant bubble. We have traveled through a hole in a cave to other places, and had our minds twisted to believe and accept so much, and a sentient hotel that can drive a person mad is hard for you to accept?”
There isn’t anything in his tones that is angry or even as if he’s trying to deride what she thinks. Literally he’s trying to make a case as to why he is open to the secrets of the hotel, and accepting they could be true. In truth, there is almost a pleading to his tones, puppy dog eyes and sincere earnestness to his expression.
Silence reigned for a long time, just the wind buffeting against the window. When they were in that wing, it was easy to pretend that they were alone in the house, and nothing outside of this room existed but themselves.
In some ways it was creepy to Barbie in that it was almost as if they were trapped inside a bubble once more. In other ways it was comforting. Barbie liked to believe with that silence that if anyone tried to sneak in, to try and find them in that wing, they could hear them coming. He just let himself ignore the truth that the Dome had descended in a matter of seconds, and by the time they might hear anything in the hotel it might already be too late.
“I’m not buying into a sentient hotel,” Julia said, shaking her head to keep him from going on. “But I will buy that there is more about the Overlook than a normal hotel, and in that… Maybe it does choose people or not. Somehow. So if we buy into that,” she says, making him flinch at the way she words it. “Then we accept either that the house would do something to either keep him out, or will drive him out. If we’ve trusted the hotel for us to be safe and protected from Dawn during this,” she said, her hand coming to rest on her stomach that had yet to begin showing the growing life within. “Then we accept he isn’t with Dawn.”
“We accept that, then we have to at least consider this news he has for us might help us rather than hurt us.”
Julia frowns slightly. “So if you thought the house didn’t like him, then we weren’t going to hear him out?”
Barbie shook his head then, nearly grinning at her. “Oh no. I planned to hear him out. I just had to figure out if I trust him to cook for us. I mean, there’s promise in having someone that wants to be in the kitchen cook, and another in trusting him not to poison us.”
Julia’s jaw literally dropped. “You thought he was going to poison us?”
“What? A stranger that came in out of nowhere poisoning us is unbelievable?”
“No, that you were going to eat his cooking anyway, though you worried he might poison us.”
He shrugged, looking away sheepishly. “Well, neither of us cook, and Jackie’s brilliant with pot brownies, but that’s about it.”
“You thought… he would… poison us and yet…”
“I spent weeks scrounging for food and I have a whole pantry, and no idea really how to use it. Of course I was going to try it.”
Julia just gaped at the man she loved, the father of their child, facing his reality that he was willing to risk poisoning himself for good food.
“Turn around and down to the kitchen. Now. I want to hear what Duke has to say but tomorrow? You’re learning to cook,” she said, already brushing past him and jerking open the door. “Now.”