The Hotel Cortez - Do Not Disturb

Epilogue

Sometimes we just can't be the people we once were.
You can't live your life trying to go back, trying to live in a world that doesn't exist anymore.

You have to just do what feels right.

For me, that was going home.
Not to the coven, not to the swamp, not to New York....

To The Cortez.

Because that's where I belonged.
With The Countess.
With Liz.
With Iris.
With Tristan.
With Ms Evers.
With all the people who checked in and never checked out.

With James Patrick March.

I was home.

The world kept rolling on without me. And I stayed in this strange place. This place where time meant nothing and everything was warped.
A different reality where I felt truly welcomed. My life was like one strange Rocky Horror Picture Show extract.
Like one long Siouxsie And The Banshees music video.

In a place where it was always night.

I walked through the Cortez, long black dress and long black hair to contrast my cold pale skin. A smirk was permanently painted onto my crimson lips.
James was busy working and I was utterly bored.
I floated through the halls like a ghost until I reached the elevator. Perhaps I could find Iris or Liz, perhaps they would entertain me.
The elevator went down, all eyes on me. It was times like this I wished Elizabeth wasn't dead so that her and I could go outside into the world and actually do something.
Oh well. What will be will be.
The elevator jolted to a holt and I glided out, making my way over to Iris and Liz. Iris was sat at the bar, minding her own business while Liz tended to a middle aged woman with long dark hair. I sat at the bar, asking Liz if she could serve me a drink that I'd grown to rather enjoy called 'Death In The Afternoon'.
She passed me the drink with a smile. Everything seemed to be looking up.

The woman beside me pulled out a pack of cigarettes and, with a gruff voice said, "You got a light?"
I knew that voice. It was so familiar. Somewhere hidden in the depths of memory, I knew this woman. I turned to look at her, hoping for clarification.

My crystal blue eyes widened.

"Mother?"