◗ Room Two.
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Agent Effie Hawkins wakes up at the sudden sound of the radio turning on, yet again at two-twenty-five in the morning. She reaches over and hits the off button with a slight groan before looking around the room.
She notices the tv is on in the room so she grabs the remote, shutting it off seeing that it's nothing but static. Effie didn't remember turning it on but then again she was so tired last night it makes since.
Effie is looking around her room slightly as she hears a knock on the door, someone walking in after, "Turndown service?" The maid asks.
"Uh, no." Effie mutters out tiredly.
The woman nods and smiles in response, leaving the room and shutting the door after.
All of a sudden she sees a hallucination of this thing above her that has no face and has rubbery looking skin, a drill-like thing strapped to it's waist.
She jumps up out of bed and runs to the on-suite bathroom before turning the sink on and washing her hands before splashing water on her face.
This Ten Commandments killer case must really be getting to her more than she thought it was. Or maybe this hotel was haunted, the agent may never know.
The radio turns on again and her head snaps to where the radio sits. Yep, this place is definitely haunted.
Effie then turns around and starts slowly walking to the tub, seeing the shower curtain closed completely.
She rips it open to find a male and female having sex against the wall, but they looked like they were rotting.
They held their hand out for her to join them, huge smiles on their faces.
Suddenly Effie gasps and sits up straight in bed, looking around the room confused.
Oh it must have been a dream.
This case has definitely took a toll on her.
Effie sits up in bed completely, her legs off to the side of her bed before she grabs her glass of water off the side table and takes a sip of it. She hears noises coming from around the room and she looks around when she does.
The girl gets up off the bed and walks to where the noise is coming from and she sees her son again, it's her Emmitt.
When he notices her the boy turns around and starts to run out of the room and down the hallway.
"Emmitt!" Effie calls out, chasing after the boy.
She follows him down some stairs, "Emmitt!" She continues to call out.
Effie then gets to the very bottom of the stairs and ends up in the hallways of the hotel somehow.
Still she continued running around yelling her sons name, desperate to hold him again, "Emmitt! Emmitt!"
The agent then ends up in the lobby of the hotel, looking around confusedly and whispering a quiet, "Emmitt?"
Effie ends up standing on the balcony near the bar, staring off at nothing as a sigh escapes her lips. She missed her son so much she can't believe she lost him, it was all her fault.
"Are you looking for someone?" A female voice calls from behind her.
"I guess not." Effie whispers quietly, not looking back at whoever it was.
"This place is bat-shit crazy you know." The woman says, "Weird things go down, especially at night. You look like you could use a drink."
Effie finds herself turning around to look at the woman, so maybe this place was actually haunted. Did she want to drink with this strange woman?
Liz Taylor sits a glass on the bar just in case Effie agrees to have a drink, a smile on the barista's lips.
"Oh, I know that look. Hanging onto your sobriety like it's the last train out of Dodge." The woman says, taking in the agent's appearance as she takes a drag from her cigarette.
"Bring her a ginger ale, Cleopatra." She says referring to Liz.
"The hour between two and three a.m. is always the worst." The mysterious woman finishes.
Effie sits two seats down from the woman, "So I take it you live here?" She asks.
"I do." The woman replies.
"How long?" Effie asks the woman.
"Too long. And I'm not a hooker if that's what you're wondering." The woman says with a slight scoff.
"Uh, I wasn't." The agent replies, "I can't help to wonder how come--"
"How come a girl like me ends up with track marks in her arms living in this dump?" She cuts in before taking another drag of her cigarette.
"That's one way to put it." Effie mutters quietly, shaking her head and taking a sip of her drink.
"Patti Smith said that my poems were like glass shattering. I wrote a song with her and then she wrote me off." The woman said with a laugh.
"Why? Because of the smack?" The agent asks curiously.
"Getting high used to be like how you imagine heaven. Pure light. The perfection of it all, even in me. Then I got lost. I kept trying to climb higher to get closer to that light. Like an endless ladder where all you do is get further and further away." She says, observing the agent sipping her drink next to her.
"There's a part of you that wants to get lost, am I right?" The woman asks.
Effie looks at her with a stoic expression, listening to her words.
"Climb that ladder." The woman whispers, scooting closer to the agent.
"Tell me about your very last drink. What kind of day was it? I like details."
"It started like most days. It was a multiple homicide in Glassell Park. Six people died. The children and wife had died of asphyxiation and when my team got there we tried to stop the killer and he shot at the father but missed as my team mate Derek killed the Unsub. After that the father of the family killed himself with a gun he had in his drawer while all of us agent's were still in the room. He couldn't live without his family." Effie Hawkins explains to the strange woman, taking a sip of her drink.
The agent sighs before continuing, "I had a son at the time, Emmitt was his name. I didn't make it back home for two days. Then the day I came home me and my friend Spencer went to a carnival to spend time with two of the people I cared most about."
"But my son... Emmitt... I lost him." Effie finishes with a tear slipping from her eye.
The woman puts her hand on the agent's cheek, a sad smile on her face as she looks into her eyes.
Effie sighed and moves away from the woman a bit, shocked by her actions, "I can't afford to get lost." She snaps, getting up and walking away from the woman who sat at the bar.
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"So you were right about our Bel Air victim. He was pumped full of male potency drugs. Near lethal dose. They still have him in an induced coma." Detective Hahn says to the BAU team.
"Something interesting though, both victims had the same text on their cell phone. Each asking the other to meet them at the Bel Air. Only they didn't send them to each other."
"You think a third party spoofed both their numbers?" Agent Hawkins asks.
"Our killer is somewhat tech savvy." The detective says before walking off and leaving the agents.
He comes back by later and looks at Effie, "Effie you have a package."
"A package?" She questions, confused.
"Hotel Cortez. That's where you're staying right?" He says before walking off again.
Agent Effie Hawkins then walks towards the package awaiting her, inspecting it curiously.
She starts to panic, thinking maybe it could be a bomb, "Let's evacuate the building! Get the bomb squad down here!" Effie yells.
The bomb squad arrive and are opening up the package as everyone waits for the worst.
The bomb squad walk down to the agents, "Okay, it's not a bomb."
The team walks back into the room when they say that and look at them, "I mean we can take it outside and detonate it if you want to be safe but you might want to take a look first." The man says.
Effie looks at him confused before walking closer to the box, now curious as to what's inside of it.
"Thanks, Ted." Effie says.
"Yeah." He replies.
When she makes it to the box she looks inside, and in it is the murder weapon from one of the previous murders, blood and all still on the trophy.
"Congratulations." The detective says before chuckling.
"Let's get this down to crime lab, packaging, everything. Let's run this blood too and see if it matches any of our victims." Doctor Reid says.
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Back at the Hotel Cortez Effie walks in to what looks like a party, making her way to the reception desk.
"Hi there, room sixty-four. FBI Agent right?" A man asks her once she gets there.
"Yeah." Effie says, looking at him and the woman who stood beside her.
"Will Drake, new owner." He says, holding his hand out for her to shake.
"Oh, right." She says, shaking his hand with a nervous laugh.
"Claudia Bankson, Vogue Magazine." The woman beside her says.
"Uh, didn't mean to crash the party I'm just looking for my friend, he was supposed to be meeting me here." Effie says, looking around for Spencer.
"Effie!" Spencer's voice calls out, walking up behind her.
She smiles and turns around, hugging her best friend, "How are you Spencer!"
"I'm alright I uh haven't slept much lately but how are you?" He says in a slight whisper.
"Not so great I've been... seeing Emmitt I feel like it's the strain of this case, Spence, I may need to resign for awhile or something and just live here at the Cortez." Effie says with a sigh.
"Come on, let's go." Effie says, leading Spencer to her room.
"This hotel is so amazing and vintage, I like it, and I see why you like it. This would be a good place for you to live. I would totally respect your decision to resign for awhile, actually I think you should and just let us find this killer." Spencer says.
"So what is this a party today?" He questions her.
"It is. And Effie is invited as well as you since you're her guest." Will Drake says.
"Oh, thanks, but we have plans." Effie says with a soft smile at Will, thinking Spencer wouldn't enjoy a party.
"Actually it sounds like fun we can stay instead of our movie marathon if you'd like." Spencer says.
"Really?" She asks him curiously.
"Yeah!" He says with a smile.
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"This is my first fashion show." Effie whispers to Spencer with a giggle.
"Mine too." Spencer replies, smiling at her before watching the fashion show in front of them, mesmerized by the sight of it all.
"I'm afraid we aren't much company compared to what you're used to." Effie says to Claudia.
"Oh, please, we're so bored with each other." She says with a scoff, "We need some excitement and we just might get it. Will booked Tristan Duffy for the runway and with him you can always expect something quite unorthodox."
Not long after that the man she was just talking about comes walking down the runway, grabbing a wine glass and drinking from it before tossing it to the side and strutting down the runway.
He then rips his scarf off with a smirk as the music plays and he moves his way down the white carpeted runway. Tristan then wraps it around two girls necks before smirking over at Agent Effie, spinning around and beginning to walk back towards the back again.
On his way through he stops, grabbing some random girl on the right side of the runway and kissing her deeply before the man sitting next to her shoves Tristan off the woman.
Tristan smirks and tries to kiss him next, slapping him hard in the face after before the guy shoves him to the ground. He stares into the eyes of the Countess before standing and blowing air kisses to the guy, walking backstage again as the crowd starts to applaud him.
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While the fashion show was going on Spencer was wondering around the hotel, stumbling upon a stairwell that leads to a white looking room before it leads back to the normal looking halls of the hotel.
Spencer walks down the halls cautiously not sure what he's going to find, not knowing if he's even allowed down here.
He then finds a hidden door in the wall of the hallway, shoving it open afterwards and walking into the retro white room with games and candy and two couches in the center of it.
There's a boy in a black tux with light brown hair stood facing the back wall, not looking Spencer's way.
The boy suddenly turns around when Spencer is completely in the room before saying to him, "What took you so long?"
"Do you remember who I am Emmitt?" Spencer asks the young boy, shocked to see him not knowing if his best friend knows her son is right here in this hotel with her.
"Yes you're my mommy's best friend Spencer." Emmitt says before sitting on one of the leather couches.
Spencer joins the boy on the couch, observing Emmitt and the room around the two of them.
This hotel was full of so many surprises. He had to tell Effie about Emmitt, she'd actually been seeing her son in these halls, she hasn't imagined it!
Spencer couldn't seem to figure out how the boy looks like he never aged a day since that day at the carnival, but he didn't question it, happy to see him.
"Your mom is going to be so happy to see you." Spencer says to the boy, "You can come home with us to Quantico."
"I don't want to go home, I like it here. You can come to visit whenever you want." Emmitt says to Spencer, looking up at him.
Spencer looks around a few before asking the boy, "Can I take a picture?" Before sitting next to him and pulling his phone out to photograph him and the young boy getting up and walking out of the room afterwards then down the halls to find Effie's room again.
When Spence finds her room he plans to tell her about Emmitt, "I saw him, Effie."
"Saw who Spence?" She questions him.
"Emmitt. He's here in the hotel." He replies, a shocked look on his face.
"W-What how could that be true? I mean I thought I've been seeing him but.. are you sure it was him?" Effie asks him, a real look of hope on her face.
"I took a picture with him." Spencer says to her while handing her his phone to show the picture to her.
When she looks at the photo she sees a blurred picture, Spencer looks perfectly fine but the other person is a brown haired blob like whoever it was moved around.
"Damn it he moved too quickly away from me while I was taking the picture it must have blurred I'm so sorry. But I promise you he's here, maybe he'll come to you soon." Spencer said to his best friend.
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Effie walks into the lobby of the hotel on her way to the reception desk, looking for answers about this hotel after Spencer had went back to the police station.
When she gets there she shoves the foldable countertop up getting behind the reception area as she looks at Iris.
"Hey there Effie, rough day? Woah, Cowgirl, we don't allow guests back here." Iris says as Effie stands in front of her now.
"There's not a thing that goes on in this place that you don't know about, which makes you an accessory." Effie says to her as she gets her cuffs out.
"To what?" Iris questions the agent.
"Murder, maybe kidnapping. I'm done playing." Effie yells at her.
"Well aren't you gonna frisk me first?" Iris says with a smirk, obviously not caring too much about the situation at hand.
Effie scoffs and turns her around, handcuffing her as Iris says, "Whew, it's been a long time since anyone spun me around like that. If I was a few years younger I'd even enjoy the cuffs."
"Oh you're not gonna enjoy this, believe me. Until you start telling me everything that's going on in this place." Effie says as she glares at the woman in front of her.
The woman turns around before saying, "You've seen things?"
"You know I have." The agent says to her.
"Look, before you have to explain to somebody what you think you're charging me with why don't you take these bracelets off of me, I'll tell you what you want to know." Iris offers, watching the agent as she debates if she should uncuff the woman before her.
Finally deciding she should she unlocked the cuffs before removing them from the older woman's wrists, retiring the cuffs to her belt after she does.
"There's just one thing you gotta do."
"What?" Effie asks her, eyeing her suspiciously.
"Ask nice." The stubborn woman says, crossing her arms, "And buy a lady a drink."
So Effie follows her to Liz's bar where she was now making their drinks for them before handing them the two drinks.
"So that's your thing? You need to be talked into drinking?" The older woman asks the agent.
Effie shoves the drink away as she glares at the woman coldly.
"Cut the crap, ask me what you really want to know."
"I want to know what's going on in this place." Effie says as she looks at Iris.
"Well, if you want to know what this place is about, you have to know about the man who built it -- James Patrick March. He put every atom of evil in his being into building this hotel. March was a self-made man -- oil, coal. But he was new money, shunned by the elites of East Coast society." Iris starts off.
"So he came west, to a land where pedigree meant little if you had a lot of dough. Here he would build a monument to excess and opulence, where he could satisfy his own peculiar appetites. He was a design freak -- Art Deco, self-taught. He tried to get Julia Morgan to come and build a place for him, but she demanded that he pay his workers fair wages, so he told her to stuff it." She continues as Effie listens, interested in the history of this strange place.
"He wasn't just building the finest hotel Los Angeles had ever seen, it was a perfectly designed torture chamber. An engineered alibi, secret chutes and rooms to hide and dispose of the bodies. Hallways with no exits. Walls were lined with asbestos so they could mute the screams. People walked in, just vanished. 'No body, No crime,' he would say. March had a wife, they say he forced her to watch the torture. No one knows how many died. Rumor has it he averaged three a week. It was a lot more if he went on a bender."
"His loyal minion, Mrs Evers, the laundress. She said she could get a stain out of anything for Mr March using a secret ingredient -- love. He was sloppy with his wet work out in the world. They say somebody turned him in, no one knows who, but I'm betting on the wife. With him gone she got everything, all those millions."
Effie suddenly starts clapping her hands, "You're in the wrong profession, you should be writing for the movies."
"Ain't a movie, this place is the real deal. If you want to know what's really going on here you're gonna have to expand your thinking a bit."
"Well, I've worked every kind of crime, robbery, homicide, assault. Not one of them were committed by a ghoul or a ghost. People do enough damage without help from the afterlife." The agent says before standing.
"Put it on her tab," Effie says to Liz as she walks out of the bar.
"That was his office. The room you're staying in, sixty-four. If this building has a heart, it's black as the ace of spades, and you're sleeping in it." Iris says to the girl as she's walking off.
Effie shook her head before heading out of the hotel, making her way back to the police station so she could meet up with her team again.
Once she gets there detective Andy Hahn walks up to her, "I've got the lab results on that bloody award. It's what Reid thought -- DNA matches our first victim, Martin Gamboa, our blogger. Wrote for that site Gold Derby, now we've got our murder weapon."
"Yeah, and maybe a motive." The agent says.
"What's this?" Hahn asks, looking at the board Effie had put together.
"You ever hear of James Patrick March? Oilman?"
"No." The detective replies.
"He made a killing during the Great Depression, built a hotel here. Might have been a serial killer. Before he topped himself the police were trying to connect him to a bunch of unsolved murders. They couldn't do it, but I think somebody else did." Effie says.
"What are you talking about?" Detective Hahn questions, confused by what the agent is trying to get at.
"It's a pattern, Andy."
"A pattern?"
"Yeah, dead thief, cut off his hands. Thou Shalt Not Steal. Illegals, looking for work on a Sunday, Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery. Thou Shalt Not Worship False Idols. And the Rylance Twins, most people thought their parent's boating accident was an accident but maybe our killer knew better. Maybe the rumors were true -- they offed mommy and daddy. Honor Thy Father And Thy Mother."
"The Ten Commandments?" Andy Hahn asks her, "You're saying someone's picked up where this March guy left off?"
"Maybe."
"I don't know, Hawkins. Holy shit. The hotel he built -- that's were you're living now." He says, looking at the file.
"Yes." She says to him before getting up and heading back home to her room in the Hotel Cortez.
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This was a bit longer one!
But we got to see some
of the Origins of the
Hotel Cortez and
James Patrick
March.
I hope you all
enjoyed!
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