by John Wallis
The Owl Couple's Guest House
Everything we had come across so far was odd. In the hotel we came across something that was finally normal. No it wasn't the hotel although its plain reception desk and ordinary fittings did look pretty much like any other hotel. It was the couple behind the desk. As Raheam had said the couple were both owls. Oddly I wasn't worried that they were talking owls. I was worried that they were arguing owls.
“Hello, party of four is it?” One of the Owl's asked.
As soon as he asked the other let out a sigh. “Stuart they're on the list. They booked.”
The first owl used his claw to turn the page on the book in front of him.
“I can't seem to see it Jane dear,” he murmured.
“Stuart you can never see anything.” The other owl stomped across and pecked down on the paper quickly making an annoying tapping sound.
“Oh yes, Jane these are,” Stuart the male owl said looking at the paper. “you're the er..”
“Yes, Yes, they are the unclassified ones,” Jane said. “Should be under the name Akbar.”
“Oh yes you came in on the bus,” Stuart said ticking off the names with a pen hooked under his claw then he paused for a moment before turning to his partner.
“Jane dear can't we get into, well trouble, for holding unclassified people?”
“Stuart don't make me look silly in front of our guest's dear! I took them from Mr Akbar.”
“I wasn't making you look silly. I was just pointing out that...”
“Well I think I will do the thinking don't you Stuart?”
I heard Stuart mutter something under his breath but he finished ticking the names on the list anyway.
“Sounds like you're having a bit of a domestic,” Rob said showing he had the same big mouth as ever.
“They sound like my parents,” Madeline muttered under her breath. I was lucky enough not to have heard my parents argue. My parents did moody silences and time alone but never outright arguments. From what I heard around school that wasn't the same for all parents and I knew it wasn't the case for Madeline. Her parents were in the process of getting a divorce. Although the divorce idea may have been worth mentioning to the owls. They seemed to quarrel constantly.
“Here is the key children. Now nobody knows you're here and as long as it stays that way...” Stuart looked over at Jane for approval before he continued. Jane gave a gentle nod.
“So long as you keep your heads down you are welcome to stay here as long as you need to.”
I thanked the owl and we made our way through the corridor. The same corridor we had made our way through earlier with Edward the man bear. Although then it had been a totally different place in a different time and the hotel had been a mansion covered in cobwebs. Finally we got to the door and the owl began searching through his keys.
The room wasn't bad at all. Dave's older brother had a room at a university that looked similar. There were two sets of bunk beds and a separate small bathroom with a shower cubicle. We made for the beds right away. We took it in turns taking a shower and less than an hour later we were all more than ready for sleep.
I awoke at half one in the morning finding to my surprise that I wasn't the only one awake. Madeline had the bottom bunk of the bunk beds opposite and was as ever sat reading. I decided not to disturb her and to wait for sleep to come again but she had seen me stir.
“What do you think this is?” She asked.
“This hotel?”
“No, this whole thing. The bus, the man bear, everything?”
I thought about this for a while. We must have all considered that it wasn't real. But if it was not real what was it? Where were we?
“Can you remember how this started? The beginning?”
“No, nothing. I remember the bus. I remember the mansion but when I try to think one thing blurs into another.”
“Like a dream,” Madeline interrupted.
“Yeah,” I heard my croaking sleepy voice reply.
It made sense. I couldn’t remember everything clearly. Things ran from one thing to another. No beginning no ending just seemingly endless odd situations.
“So if it's a dream who is dreaming?” Madeline asked sounded somehow both smug and profound.
Again I found myself wondering, thinking, but not understanding. I knew that I was real. But for all I knew the others vanished when my head was turned. It must be the same for them with me. There had not been a moment during the whole time that we had been separated. Which one of us was dreaming of the Duchess and life sized teddy bears? Or was it the Duchess who was dreaming of us? I decided to leave that thought well enough alone.
I then drifted off. I would like to say to sleep but who knows? Maybe really I was tucked up in bed at home all along. I didn't sleep for long. The blackness of sleep was interrupted by swaying lights and the sound of movement. I became aware that everyone around me was awake but nobody was moving. The light that had woke me shone through the windows and to the back wall. I could hear Stuart the owl shouting at us to stay exactly where we were.
“It's the Duchess,” he shouted.
“She's scanning the area for you now. You must all stay calm!”
Simon sighed annoyed at been woken from his sleep.
“I'm not scared of the silly old bat,” Rob croaked but his voice quivered a little as he spoke.
Stuart was scared of the Duchess and not for the first time I wondered what sort of risk the Owl family was running by letting us stay.
We all lay there listening to the siren and watching the search lights in the distance. The Duchess seemed some way off but not far enough away to make it feel safe.
A recorded message kept playing from the Duchess.
“Unclassified beings! If you hear this give yourselves up for classification. The Bloodsuckers have been released.”
After the message came a few seconds of backing music which seemed vaguely familiar.
“That sounds like Christmas music,” Simon said.
“Maybe here Christmas music is a bad thing,” I speculated.
“I'll tell you when Christmas music is a bad thing,” Simon replied before exploding again into another bad temper. “It's a bad thing at four in the morning. That's when it's a really bad thing.”
“She won't give up,” Stuart said moving his head to look at us all the way only an owl could.
“I think she's closing in on you all.”
“Don't you go scaring the children like that,” Jane said appearing in the doorway.
She had carried hot drinks in her wings somehow gripping the mugs with strong claws.
“I was just saying that...”
“Never mind what you were just saying.”
"No dear," Stuart replied. “I do not want to lie to them."
Stuart's words hit me hard. I did not drink much of the horrible tasting hot drink that the owls had made. It took a long time for sleep to find me again but despite the fear I did finally drift off.
