The train carriage was full of school kids. I sat in a window seat with the hood of my parka pulled up. Someone had left a newspaper on the seat next to me. I picked it up and read it. The train rattled and jounced along and the lines whickered above my head. A girl cried out my name; I looked up, but it must have been some other Ben.
By the time the train reached Richmond Station I was in the classifieds section of the newspaper, which is where people advertise things, in case you didn't know. There were people offering to clean your house and walk your dog and babysit your kids, and a whole column of things called Discrete Escorts with photos of Chinese-looking women in silk pyjamas. An ad near the bottom caught my eye.
AMBROSE MAINTENANCE
THE HANDY MEN
Next to this was a picture of a tiny man carrying an enormous square block. The block had a phone number on it. The little man looked like he was having a great old time carrying this thing that was ten times his own weight.
I tore the ad out of the paper and put it in my jeans pocket.
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...
