Where? Part 1

"But Mum!!!" Chloe whined, screwing up her face and balling her hands into fists, preparing, in essence, for a temper tantrum that she knew would have no effect but to make her mother more adamant. "I don't want to go!!" Her lower lip stuck out in a pout, and her cheekbones spotted pink with embarrassment that she was going to get angry over such a little thing again. You see, Chloe wasn't a young girl of five or six with certain prejudices against family members or travel. Chloe was a fifteen year old girl that just HATED the hotel that, regardless of how late it was when they got there, they always stopped at and stayed the night.

"We're going, Chloe, and that's final." Janet instructed. "Now, go and pack. We're going for four days." Janet, Chloe's mother, had grown acclimatised to the whining of her eldest daughter, and knew now that it was the girl's way of getting attention, and Janet just didn't have time for that. She had three children, she kept telling herself, not just the one. She turned away from folding her own clothes into a suitcase for a moment to call to her other two children up the stairs. "Christopher, Lisa, are you nearly ready?" That, in her mind, closed the conversation. They were ALL going, and there wasn't going to be any arguing or disputing over that fact.

When Janet turned back to her packing, she found all of her things on the couch, still in the neat piles it had been put in. She glanced over at Chloe, who was looking away, innocently (way too innocently) and listening to her iPod. Sighing resignedly, Janet re-packed the piles, shooting glances at Chloe that said 'get yourself in gear before I hit you' every so often. Zipping her case up, Janet strode over to Chloe and pulled the white earphones carelessly out of her daughter's ears. "Watch it, Mum, I only bought these last week!" Chloe exclaimed, eyes suddenly intent on winding the wires meticulously around the body of the iPod as Janet's eyes bored into the top of her head. "Chloe, you're going to get your stuff ready or you're staying with your Grandma Gerraty."

Chloe bounded out of the armchair immediately. If there was a place she hated more than that hotel, it was her Grandma Gerraty's house. She wouldn't tell anyone why she hated the places, or what it was about Grandma Gerraty's house that made her refuse to even step onto the path leading up to her house. She refused to be made a fool of, more than anything, which was why she kept her opinions to herself, simply sticking to the tried and tested 'I hate it'. Running up the stairs, her feet hitting the carpeted flooring muffled the sound of her muttering.

Half an hour later, and they were all in the car. Cases and bags had been strategically arranged in the boot of the car, and incessant questions had been asked as to the contents of the bags before Janet slipped into the passenger seat in the front of the car. "Ready, love?" Patrick, her husband, asked, jovially, seemingly oblivious to the atmosphere of annoyance that was radiating from Chloe, who had confined herself to the smallest part of the car, as far away as possible from her two younger siblings, who seemed extremely overly excited to be going on a trip. At twelve and seven, they had slightly more reason to be hyperactive, but Chloe didn't remember being that bad when she was their age. "Will you two just keep still? I'm trying to relax here!" She whined, batting away a soft toy that had accidentally been thrown her way, out of one of the games that Christopher was playing with Lisa in order to entertain her, although he would have much preferred to read.

Driving from Manchester to Exeter was no mean feat, especially with such conflicting personalities in such a small space, and tempers grew short, angry words flew around the car like balls in a bad juggling act, but Patrick still seemed not to notice them. It was his theory that, if one person in the family was happy, they were all happy.... Pity it wasn't him that had the ability to make everyone happy - that lay with Chloe - if she was quiet, everyone else was perfectly content. Sadly enough, being a teenager, Chloe was more than happy to ruin the silence until, at last, even the patient Patrick had had enough. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER WORD OUT OF ANYONE UNTIL WE STOP TONIGHT, IS THAT CLEAR?" He boomed, his eyes never leaving the road, the exertion from shouting making him swerve slightly before adjusting the wheel.

Immediately, four sets of eyes found their shoes to be bizarrely appealing, and silence reigned. The silence was so loud, though, that after a few miles, Patrick leaned over and switched the radio on. He muttered to himself, no longer angry, more irritated that he'd lost his temper, because that was something he hated doing.

Darkness fell, and Patrick finally pulled up outside the hotel. True to form, Chloe shivered and turned her music up louder, shaking her head as her mother turned round in her seat to tell everyone to get out of the car. Christopher softly shook Lisa awake, and then the two younger children jumped out of the car, following their father who, as usual, had completely ignored Chloe and her 'cries for help', as he assumed they were. "Chloe, get out of the car right now!" Janet demanded, narrowing her eyes at her eldest daughter. "There's nothing wrong with this place, you're just being awkward. Get out and help your father with the bags."

It took around five minutes, but finally Chloe pulled herself bodily out of the car, sighing as she turned her iPod off and stuck it into her jeans pocket. "I hate this place." She grumbled, taking two holdalls out of her dad's hands.

Reluctantly, she started off across the car park, trailing behind everyone else in order to avoid that..... thing.... whatever it was, that was lurking around the hotel. She shivered and bit her lip as an ominous presence surrounded her, and she hurried to catch up with her parents and siblings. "Come on, it's cold, hurry up." She instructed, pushing between her mother and father in her haste to try to escape whatever it was that had just tried to envelope her. Little did she know that that was just the beginning.