I don't have a white horse, but you can come along for the ride.

[leverage_hitter]

Who: Eliot Spencer
When: Late evening, arriving at the Hotel.
Where: The lobby.
What: Eliot hates surprises...

Comments

[torchwood_doc]

Owen Harper had been dodging up and down the staircase for rather longer than he liked (or had intended to),in an attempt to find the medical unit so he could add to the small kit he always carried in his back pack. The Hotel was clearly in the mood for playing silly buggers and his frustration with it was rising by the minute.

He'd just given the wall a swift kick, when he heard voices and realised there was someone in the Lobby, turning around he watched as a member of the Hotel staff did its usual disappearing trick.

"They do that a lot," he said, walking towards the new arrival.

[leverage_hitter]

"I don't like it," he growled automatically. Then he turned to get a good look at the new voice. Nobody he knew. Didn't appear to be a threat. Then again, in a situation like this, everyone was a threat. He shoved the credit card receipt into his jacket pocket.

"What the hell is going on here?"

[torchwood_doc]

Owen snorted. "Good question. Probably get a slightly different answer, depending on who you ask. Me? I'd say we're just lab rats, trapped in a very comfortable maze."

Watching idly as the man put his card and receipt away, he nodded in their general direction. "You didn't have to do that, everything's free around here." Smirking, he added, "It probably just wanted your signature, for some weird reason- there do seem to be rules it follows." Not that he knew what they were!

[leverage_hitter]

Eliot didn't have the slightest idea what the man was talking about, but the words 'lab rats' and 'maze' made his blood run cold. He'd met more than a few people who enjoyed watching helpless people dance for their amusement, but he had usually been at least aware of who was playing the music.

"How can everything be free? And what do you mean we're trapped? My car's right outside..." Running away wasn't his favorite tactic, but he knew the value of fleeing a situation in which the deck was stacked against him.

[torchwood_doc]

"The Hotel controls everything, so if it's a someone- or whoever is using it is, then, yeah, probably." Someone! if it did turn out to be strangleable, whoever, or whatever it was, he'd be at the front of the queue ready and very willing to administer revenge.

"How long?" For a moment he faultered, time passed and you didn't think about how much had gone. There were none of the usual ways of counting the days, weeks, whatever. "Maybe couple of years," he replied, thinking back in an attempt to work it out.

[leverage_hitter]

If there was a someone, Eliot would conceded Owen's place in line ahead of him. He was perfectly okay with line jumping everyone else, though.

"Years? Years?" He just couldn't get his head around the idea. How could anyone stay in captivity -- even plush captivity like this -- for that long and not be stark, raving mad? Then again, maybe they all were. He sure as hell felt a psychotic break coming on. "Why aren't people looking for you? Cops, relatives, your Torchwood whatever..? How can people be missing for years and not be noticed?"

[torchwood_doc]

"I don't think they are aware that you're missing. Yeah, I know, no idea how, but what I do know, is that there are people here I know, who come from later in time and they weren't aware I was gone. In fact they know what eventually happens to me." Pausing, he blinked, realising how mad that sounded, oddly he had accepted it up to that point, having to say it out loud, suddenly made it sound... unbelievable!

[leverage_hitter]

"I think the scariest thing here is that I'm starting to believe you..." That, and the 'I-fell-asleep-at-the-wheel-and-crashed-now-I'm-concussed' theory was sounding better and better. He really needed to look into that MRI when he got home. When.

He ran a hand over his face and groaned. "This is way above my pay grade."