The Phoenix Hotel

Chapter 1
The Phoenix Hotel

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Chapter Description: "...don't you think it's a little creepy that some of the past owners of this hotel simply disappeared only a few short years after buying this hotel?" Tom said, sounding a little paranoid.

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[size=4]The Phoenix Hotel[/size]

by Libra

"Honey, this hotel will not come cheap," Tom said to his wife.

"I know, but we have more than enough money now, since we are both now retired." Emily said in her sweetest voice. "I know it’s way out here in middle of nowhere, but it’s perfect to me," said Emily.

"OK, if you like it so much I’ll get the paperwork started on buying it," Tom said reluctantly, "but don’t you think it’s a little creepy that some of the past owners of this hotel simply disappeared only a few short years after buying this hotel?" Tom said, sounding a little paranoid.

"Don’t be silly honey, the police have looked all over this hotel for any clue to those people’s disappearances, and as far they could tell, those people simply left. Country life is not for everyone, dear," Emily said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah," Tom said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "then what happened to them?" Tom said with a worried look.

"Most likely they just went off to live in some other state or left the United States to live somewhere else free of the responsibilities of this hotel," Emily said with an amused expression on her face.

"Besides, before each of those couples left they made improvements to the hotel, almost everything in this hotel is automatic, the heating and cooling system, outside lights, even our food will be delivered. Just think, no more shopping and just look at the little pool in the back. That would be good for adults and children to play in. We can order anything we want over the Internet," she stated with ease.

"Who’s going to come out here?" Tom asked.

"We’ll get a few newlyweds, teens and travelers I imagine." Emily said as she looked over the entertainment area in the front desk area.

"Very well," Tom said as he finally surrendered to his wife’s wishes. She could seduce him when she wanted.

Tom and Emily spent the next few weeks cleaning and fixing the modern hotel. Burned out light bulbs and the occasional squeaky door or two were their only major problems. It was a small hotel with all the modern luxuries you could want.

Tom was making his rounds, insuring that every light had a bulb if it needed it. He was very proud of himself in his work. Unlike his wife, Tom was more of a hands-on type of person. She preferred to hire someone to repair things then fix it herself.

Tom was just halfway down the hallway when he saw a door with a lock. Instead of working some more, Tom made a decision to explore the hotel a little further. Tom stepped down off his ladder to have a quick peek.

Another store room, he thought as he found the key that unlocked the door and switched on the light. It wasn’t a closet after all. It was another hallway to a dead-end with two doors on each side of the hallway just before it ended. A nice full mirror was hanging on the wall where the hallway ended. The carpet was older and more of a faded red than the previous hallway and looked as if no one had been down here in years.

Curious more than anything, Tom quietly stepped forward to see what each of the rooms held inside. One room was a steam room and the other was a sunroom. Tom went into the steam room to have a look around. The controls were located just outside the door, and next to them was a caution sign with suggestions on how long a person should stay in depending on their age and weight.

"Very nice and safe," Tom thought as he fiddled with the controls. There a safety cutoff to insure it didn’t get too hot for too long on each room. The steam room was beautiful with white and blue tile with some kind of boiler in the center of the room protected completely by a wire mesh. The benches were a nice light color of oak and by the looks of one of them were made especially for children. A faint smell of damp air could suntil be detected in the room.

"Great!" he shouted out to the empty room. Tom went on thinking this room would be perfect for losing a few pounds for him and his wife, not to mention the guests would love it.

When he walked across the hall to the sunroom his comment was "Not bad". It wasn’t tiled like the steam room, but it had thick wooden panels with a dark oak color to them. The benches in here were nailed to the wall from underneath, and the panels were in a nice smooth pattern from the benches to the wall. The heat lamps were a little higher than he thought they should be and were protected by the same kind of wire mesh as on the boiler next door.

With the panels and the tile no wonder there was no room for the controls and barely enough room for the light switches. He thought it was odd that the steam room and sunroom could be locked from the outside with a simple metal pin. The door handles were like freezer doors in a restaurant, but with thin long windows in each that went nearly to the floor, giving anyone outside a perfect view inside. If one just jiggled the handle the pin would pop out easily enough. It only went down about 1/4 the way and only fell into place when the door handles were fully pulled out.

Tom looked over the door locks and thought they were to allow heat and steam to escape. He thought it was very handy not have to hold the door open while you clean or let some heat out while you adjust the controls.

Tom went back to his duties and later lightly mentioned his find to his wife. After another full week of cleaning and fixing the hotel was ready for guests.

A pair of newlyweds arrived and was gone only after a three-day stay. The loudest group was a group of teens back from a camping trip. They wanted to freshen up and get some rest before they went on home.

Our little hotel had only three to four guests at a time. They came and went like they were never really there. They cleaned the rooms before they left and only left Emily to clean towels and sheets at the worst.

Emily and Tom shifted the workload now and then. Tom would work the front desk at night and Emily took in the morning when the desk was open again for business.

Another slow night was passing by and Tom was sitting in the back room just behind the desk area watching a movie on cable. The back room had all the channels except for the adult entertainment channels. He reasoned he was too old to fully enjoy them anyway and thought it better not to have them with teenagers coming and going.

Tom was about to drift off to sleep when he heard two voices from the front of the hotel. He didn’t notice a car had pulled up. Judging from what he heard it was a teenage girl and her mother fighting over getting lost. Tom smiled as he could guess what happened. The teenage girl must have been driving and took a wrong turn trying to get to the highway. Instead of waking her mother who was taking a catnap in the seat next to her, she drove around until it was too dark to see any signs anymore. The mother awoke in a confused and soon-to-be-mad state. After a few minutes of sharp language they spotted the hotel and decided to spend the night.

"You should have woken me up and asked for directions!" the mother shouted as they entered the doors.

"Mom! It will be alright, we’ll just get there a little later than planned..." The punk looking girl said as she came in right after her mother. Her hair was dyed a good solid black and she had a nose ring on.

"That is your problem, Missy. You never take responsibility for your actions. If you were little more careful with that stuff you were smoking, our house wouldn’t be in ashes now, and we wouldn’t have to be moving halfway across state to live in a new house. Be thankful we have a little money left to start over," the mother said nearly in tears from her stress.

Tom knew better than to say anything until their chat was over. It was best to keep out of people’s way when they are on the warpath.

After signing in and paying for their rooms, the mother ordered her daughter to take their night clothes upstairs.

"Just upstairs to the right," Tom called out as the teenager left.

The mother was crying now, trying to get a hold of herself. Tom took pity on her and suggested she spend some time in the pool or steam room below to relax a little before she went to bed.

"Steam room?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. They are just down the steps, then down the hallway, past the bathrooms and the ice machine. I have to unlock the door to let you in and all I ask is that you lock it before you leave. You can use it free of charge since you only staying for one night," Tom said with a warm smile as he saw her tears fading away.

"Yes. A steam room would relax us," she stated as a matter of fact.

The daughter returned to find out her mother had one more order for her tonight. They could sit quietly in a steam room for a hour or two and in the morning she’d forget her error in judgment for not waking her up.

Not wanting to enrage her mother any further. Missy agreed and they were both back in no time wearing some newly purchased swimsuits and robes.

Tom set the timer for them. According to the chart sign the daughter should be in bed a good 30 minutes before the mother would join her.

"This will be just what you need to get a fresh start again," Tom said as the mother entered the steam room.

"Good night," Tom said as he left and headed off to bed.

**********

"What some mothers allow their children to do..." was Emily first words that morning when Tom awoke and walked down to the steps to see if anything needed to be done.

"That child had her hair dyed black and dressed like that? She didn’t have any shoes to wear either," Emily went on.

"Honey, their house burned down and said they were in between places. You can’t always expect people to be in perfect condition. Besides, it was the daughter’s fault the house burned down," Tom said as he couldn’t get over feeling of amusement from his wife.

"Well, I never saw any little girl like that, black hair and painted nails on her hands and feet," Emily said with little shock.

"Good thing you let them have the steam room for free. The mother left a good tip and told me to tell you thanks for your gift," Emily said she sat back and pick up the large tip.

"Little girl?" thought Tom, but he concluded his wife would demote anyone dressed like that. Tom walked around to grab a drink of juice from the back room when he saw the tip, including the room it was nearly $300.00 altogether.

"Have they left yet?" Tom asked wondering if it wasn’t too late to give back some of the money. It was too much money to leave as a tip.

"Yes, early this morning while you were sleeping. Despite what they looked like they were nice enough," Emily smiled as she put the money below in the safe.

"OK," Tom said as he continued walking. He figured his kindness was rewarded in full now and this would be the first real profit they would have had so far.

The mother of the former teenager was now on the highway driving as her little girl slept in the passenger seat next to her. When they both noticed the changes, the mother had grabbed and held her teenage daughter in the steam room until she had her little angel back in both mind and body. She didn’t remember the comment made by Tom that night until her daughter was getting noticeably younger.

"A fresh start and free of charge," she thought. She smiled a little more as her car changed lanes.

"This time," she thought "I’ll raise her better and with the extra money her daughter earned over dozens of temporary summer jobs, we can have a better life this time for the both of us." She was now a single young mother with a 7-year-old daughter to look after. Her only regret was she didn’t know how to get back to the hotel just in case. She had gotten lost again and only found her way out when she rechecked the map. This time would be the second and last chance to raise her daughter right. She could take on her daughter’s identity and claim her little girl was born in a hotel and that no birth records existed. She could never afford to stay in one place too long until now and all their other records were lost in their moving around.

As far anyone could have guessed, the mother left her daughter to fend for herself and her child. The last known records of the mother were that she bought a one-way bus ticket to New York and never came back. All her credit cards were cancelled and her bank accounts were empty. Only her daughter and her little girl now existed albeit with a little more money than usual in these cases.

Tom checked the steam room and found it in order, but discovered the teenager had left her nose ring on the floor. With disgust, Tom picked it up and tossed it in the trash as he passed the nearest trashcan on his way. He suntil couldn’t figure out why anyone did that to their own bodies.

"Hey Hon, you want to take a quick break in the steam room for little while?" Tom said as he approached the front desk.

"Well...OK. I’ll just put this ’temporarily gone’ sign here and desk and run upstairs to get my bathing suit." Emily said she placed the sign and started to walk around the desk.

"How about in our birthday suits instead?" Tom suggested.

"Tom! What if someone walks in on us?" Emily asked with a stern look.

"Grab some towels and I’ll lock the door behind us just in case. No one can wander in on us then and we’ll be dry when we dress again," Tom said with a grin. With hallway door locked no one could walk in on them or see them from the outside and the door opened from the inside only now.

It was refreshing and relaxing sitting in the steam room. After they had their short visit they both looked a lot healthier and younger, some wrinkles and even a few pounds seemed to be removed here and there as they sat next to each other.

"That’s long enough. I’d love to spend some more time in here, but we have a hotel to run," Emily said as she got up to leave.

"OK, you’re right, can’t be too lazy these days," Tom said as he turned off the controls. Both of them had noticed small improvements in each other’s bodies. They kissed briefly and then dressed.

No one was upstairs waiting and it would be hours later before anyone showed up that day. A man with an odd type of Halloween watch and his wife stayed only one night and left. By his looks alone, Tom figured he’d been traveling for a while now.

Tom was good with faces, as he could almost remember every face that came in. He rented out two rooms for one night to a couple of teenage boys and girls on their way up north to ski somewhere.

The teens even rented out the steam and sunrooms for a little while. Tom couldn’t believe that he had misjudged how tall the younger boy was and how short the other girl was before now. High heels could explain the girl’s apparent drop in height, but the boy’s was a mystery. They came up from the stairs to join their friends by the pool. The couple by the pool was too busy necking to notice anything. He hadn’t noticed before they were now holding hands.

They had only spent a short time away from their friends and with the baggy clothes they wore only someone with sharp or undistracted eyes would have noticed any changes.

Thinking he was losing his edge, Tom went to the back room behind the desk and left his book there to watch a movie.

The summer days wore on and few people showed up now. The little hotel was only for lost and or very tired travelers.

It wasn’t until Tom and Emily’s second visit to the steam room that they really noticed the changes. This time they spent a longer time in the steam and found their faces changed. Their hair had more color again and their faces were younger, more distinct features.

Amazed, Emily and Tom talked for over an hour outside the steam room with towels around their bodies.

"How can it be Tom? The fountain of youth in our hotel." Emily asked in great disbelief.

"I don’t know. Emily, I have noticed some changes in people when they came back from these rooms. Remember that mother and daughter that left the big tip? Was the daughter a teenager?" Tom asked now thinking back to all the little odd changes in people.

"No, The mother was little young but not that young and the daughter was a little girl like I said before." Emily said as she admired her now-younger hands.

"Oh my lord" Tom said he looked into the steam room, under his very nose was modern-day fountain of youth.

"What do you think the sunroom does?" Emily asked with hopeful smile.

"I’ll be right back- don’t go into the sunroom yet. I have an idea. " Tom said as he left the hallway.

Tom was back with a small houseplant in his arms to find his wife was not in the hallway. Doing a quick check in the sunroom and then looking into the steam room, Tom called into the foggy room.

"Coming" she said, as her figure loomed out of the steam. She had gone back in to get a few more wrinkles removed.

"OK. Let’s see what happens..." Tom said as he placed the houseplant in the sunroom and then stepped out and worked the controls.

The plant grew and grew then went brown all over before the safety cutoff went into effect.

"It makes people older," Emily said as she took a full step back. Tom couldn’t blame her. "It was better to be closer to the crib than the grave," he thought.

"What do we do now?" Emily asked looking from the rooms to Tom.

"Business as usual..." Tom said.

"Shouldn’t we tell someone?" Emily said with concern.

"Why? Can you imagine what would happen? We’d have too many people coming here and then the government or someone would take it away from us in time." Tom said, thinking it over.

"We just can’t forget about it." Emily said and wondering if Tom was just going to lock the door and throw away the key.

"No, but we have to be careful. Before now, only one other person beside us noticed the changes and I doubt we’ll see her again." Tom said as he shut off the lights and power to both rooms. Tom had left the hallway, forgetting to lock the door as they walked out.

"For tonight, we just have to think this over. You’ve got work tomorrow and I should be at the desk now. For now, the steam room and sunroom are off limits to everyone." Tom said as he climbed the stairs with greater ease.

After a quick good night, Emily went to bed and Tom sat down at his desk feeling better than he had in years.

Hours passed and it was suntil another hour before Tom joined her in bed. Tom turned to watch some TV in the back room. Actually, Emily wasn’t sleeping, as she had been sitting up in bed admiring her younger body. "This was good," she thought "just a little younger, and I’ll be beautiful again."

She made up her mind to sneak down the stairs and make her way back to the steam room. It was easier then she thought, as Tom wasn’t at the front desk. She felt like a cat as she walked down the carpeted stairs. The hotel had an amazing effect on sounds when no guests were in it. Every sound seemed to echo louder than normal.

Emily opened the door to the hall and grinned as she imagined the look on Tom’s face when she would visit him in a little while. The steam door nearly gave her a heart attack. The metal pin had banged on the door from its chain when she opened it. She quickly took it and placed it in its holder above the handle. Emily shut the door from the inside after she did a quick set on the controls, she didn’t bother setting the shut-off timer.

Years were taken away over the next hour. She lost all her few remaining wrinkles and her body went through a change unlike anyone seen. Years of fat melted away and her body became lean and perfect. It was 45 minutes later when she was a young woman again. She decided to leave before she ended up on the wrong side of puberty.

However, when she leaned her weight on the door, it didn’t open. She tried again and again, but it suntil didn’t move. She looked out the door only to see the pin was blocking the handle from moving. A few more years were taken away. In a panic, she banged on the glass and finally rattled the handle enough for the pin to fall out of place. She fell through the doorway in great relief.

She lost her cover with the top part of her robe and pair of young teenage breasts dangle down from the open part. Scared, Emily ran from the hallway and was caught by Tom as he rounded the corner, who was looking for her after discovering his wife was not in bed.

He caught her in his arms and for a full minute, she was in a state of shock. "Her teenage feelings must have gotten the better of her," he thought as he stared at her face, then her exposed body.

Calming down, she confessed and then cried a great deal. Tom had to half-carry his now-young wife to bed where she fell asleep with her robe suntil on.

Tom slipped back down the stairs and all the way back to the steam room. He only meant to come down to shut it off and gather her clothes, but seeing the steam room again, instead Tom stepped in after stripping off his clothes. He stood by the door and kept his hand and a little weight on the handle. Tom could be out of the room in a flash. He saw his body below his neck become strong and young again. Tom wished he could see the changes taking place in his face. As he stepped out of the steam room, Tom figured he was a young man now.

For the first time in a long time, he admired his arms and body. He was still older than Emily but close enough to her age now. Tom looked like he could order a drink in any bar, while Emily only appeared old enough to drive a car.

It was a nice surprise for Emily when she awoke that morning. They made love before she went to the desk. Tom, feeling rested and full of energy, spent that morning by the pool. Emily watched him nearly all day with lust. When they first married, she was in for the money more than anything, but she never got a chance to see him in his prime.

Emily and Tom filled every night with passionate lovemaking over the next week. They both decided they keep their new bodies and Tom had the idea that to keep the hotel, they were going to be its inheritors, and his grandfather (his old ID) had left the place to them.

Tom eventually made a deal with a man to get some new identification and went into the town to pay him off. Payment was always first and the details came later. Tom had told Emily he would be gone for three nights at the least.

Emily got restless and decided to have a little fun on the second night. A teenaged boy had gotten lost and stopped to rent a room. Emily asked him to visit the steam room first before he went to his room. For Emily this wouldn’t be the first time she cheated a little on Tom.

She barely set the timer and steam to low when she suggested the idea she could join him. "No more than 5 minutes," she told herself after she stripped off her clothes. Seeing a boyhood fantasy unfold in front of his eyes, the teenage boy undressed quickly. She was beautiful and with her boss away, there was little chance of getting caught.

It was quick and exhausting for him for some reason. "The heat of the steam room must be the cause," he thought as he did his best. Emily quietly got up and left the room. At most, she might have lost a year. In a few minutes, that teenage boy would lose more. Emily placed the pin in the door and turned up the steam with her other hand.

She was happy that he was still lying on his towel on the steam room floor. It gave her a perfect view of him. She watched with delight as he became steadily younger. It wasn’t until he was a little 10-year-old boy that he got up and wondered how everything had gotten so big. He barely had memories of his teenage days now. He tried to leave the steam room and rammed the door once with his body before he broke down crying. He was trapped and she had lured him to his doom.

The 8-year-old boy now stood staring in awe at the nude teenage girl standing in front of the glass door. He covered himself with his hands to hide his dwindling boyhood.

"No bragging to your friends about me," Emily stated as she watched him become younger and younger.

Minutes passed and he was 5-years-old again. Emily nearly opened the door at that point. He was cute and like a little angel. He dropped his hands away then look around and at his own body.

Now at 3-4 years old she giggled as he began to play with himself using right hand.

"Boys will be boys." she laughed.

Emily opened the door at that point and took his free hand. She shut off the steam but left the power on to the room and sat down on the floor with the little boy. He preferred to touch her breast than play with himself for now. His touches were wonderful and light.

"Such soft hands you have," Emily said as she squeezed his sides. He laughed a little at her now-ticklish touch. Looking at his once-proud manhood, Emily giggled as she took it in between her fingers. She never had children of her own or any little brothers. She never felt a penis so soft and limp or seen one so small before.

The now-toddler giggled out loud at her touch to such a sensitive place.

"That little thing gave me pleasure just minutes before," she thought as withdrew her fingers. Looking into his innocent eyes, she felt relieved, as he would have no memories of them together.

For now, he was her little plaything to do anything she wanted. Taking him in her arms, she decided to see what he would do now. He laid his head on her breast after a second and then touched her other nipple with a passive look.

Emily could guess that little toddler had a vague memory about sucking on his mommy’s nipple once.

Emily held him in different positions getting a feel for his weight. After she tired of holding him and examining his little fingers, toes and such she opened the door and pushed the little tot back in.

Slowly she turned up the steam level. It took a lot longer to notice any change. Gradually, he became shorter and chubby all around. His little legs could barely hold up his body now.

He fell on his butt then crawled up to the glass. "Just a little younger," she thought.

Emily stepped in and took the little baby in her arms. "Light as a feather now," she thought. His instincts kick in when she held him close to her breast. He sucked a little bit on her nipple, and then fell asleep. Now holding a newborn baby boy, Emily left the room and shut all the power off.

After getting dressed and wrapping the newborn in an old small blanket, Emily drove the former teenager’s car to the house just up the road across the river bridge. She knew a priest of the local church lived here and judging from the light inside he was still up. Parking the car far up the side of the road, she left the newborn on the doorstep and rang the bell. She made a mad dash for the car and was driving away out of sight by the time the door fully open.

The priest was confused for a second to find a newborn left on his doorstep. He looked around for any signs of the parents, but only saw a pair of taillights too far away now to get any details. He phoned the police after he sat the newborn on his sofa and sat back in his chair wondering why his parents would abandon him.

Emily parked the car on a steep hill and put it into drive after she got out. The car rolled down the hill and straight into the river. Anyone would figure the kid washed away in the current. It was a long walk back to the hotel and she ducked into the bushes when she saw a cop car fly by at top speed with its lights and siren on. She was lucky as she arrived back at the hotel, not a single person was waiting for her.

It would be morning by the time anyone discovered the car in the river. Emily quickly moved the former teenager’s clothes into Tom’s closet and she would tell him that she bought him some clothes for him. Removing the teenager’s wallet from the shorts, she took all the money out and put it in the safe and burned all his ID cards in a trashcan out back. Emily went back to the steam room and hallway and did a quick check. Everything looked untouched and unused now. There wasn’t even another person around anymore to brag about it now.

She flipped the "Closed" sign and turned off all lights only minutes before a local cop pulled up to ask questions. The cop tapped sharply on the glass and soon left after no one answered. Judging from his expression, it didn’t look like he’d be back any time soon, since with no lights on or cars parked around, the hotel was vacant-looking. A jogger found the teenager’s car that morning. The car was pulled out and towed away. Judging from the angle it went in, the person was driving past the hotel heading in the direction of the highway. Most likely driving too fast he or she jumped the curve then ended up in the river.

It was about noon when a cop came in the hotel to ask Emily if she saw anything strange last night. "No one came or rented any rooms," she said as she showed him the guest sign-in book. According to the logbook, not a single soul had come in the past two days.

After a few general questions, the cop decided to leave. "OK, have a nice day," was the cop’s only comment as he left. For him, it was a dead end lead.

Tom arrived home the next day to announce that everything was going well. Their new papers would be ready soon and the man would come out tomorrow to get the details on each of them.

Emily was asleep in bed. Her working the night and day shift three nights in a row had exhausted her and Tom went down to the steam room to give it a good cleaning. Recent guests did track some minor mud and dirt. After the changing the water, it was then that Tom found a high school ring in the water that pooled around the boiler protective mesh.

Tom remembered a news story on the radio, but had almost ignored it on his way back about a missing teenager. The ring was from the same high school name and a personal message with the missing teenager’s name was on the inside of the ring.

Tom checked the newspaper and confirmed what he believed to be true. The front-page story was about a missing teen and there was a side story about a newborn being left on priest’s doorstop the same night.

In the past of their earlier years of marriage he had suspected Emily of cheating, but had no proof until now. "What would her excuse be?" he thought, "The teen attempted to rape her?" He laughed a little bit at this. Emily was a loose girl in the old days and she could seduce almost anyone when she had her eyes set on you.

As he flipped the ring over and over in his fingers he formulated a plan.

That night, Emily did her slow strip for Tom like always and just before they got in bed.

"Honey! You look younger than before," Tom said as he pulled the sheets to hide his body.

"How much?" Emily said now worried Tom was rejecting her because she was too young.

"Hard to say really, but you look like you’re 14-years-old now. You didn’t spend more than five minutes in the steam room since I was gone?" Tom asked as he got from the bed and watch his wife face turn to horror. Tom spent a few minutes in the sunroom to build his height and weight. So she actually thought she had gotten younger and smaller.

"Maybe a extra minute or two. I just went in there to maintain my age," Emily said as she looked at how tall Tom was now. She felt a little small at that point. He was wearing pants, but had no shirt on and seemed bigger.

"I can’t make love to you now. I feel guilty having sex with someone so young in body. I might feel different in the morning," Tom said as he put on his shirt and turned the TV on.

"I’ll be right back..." were Emily’s only words as she left the room. Tom followed only a minute after her. This time he left the door to the rooms unlocked on purpose. Peeking around corners to make sure she was way ahead of him, Tom waited until he heard her quick footsteps fade away and doors shut before he went on.

As the hotel was now closed and with curtains in place, no one could see Emily from the outside as she walked down to the hallways clad only in her black underwear.

Tom followed and waited as he heard the sunroom door open and close before he entered the last hallway. He turned up the power on the sunroom lights slowly and waited for a good 10 minutes to pass before he turned them back down. He had barely had time to get around the corner to hide when Emily open the door to have a look at her body.

He heard a few sounds of Emily being angry with herself from just around the corner before he heard the other door shut to the steam room.

"Yes!" he whispered as placed the pin on the door handle and looked in. Like the sunroom controls he slowly turned the steam up. Emily had a hard time seeing her body after a little while. Once Emily felt her body become closer to a teenager’s body she got up only to find the door wouldn’t open.

"What the hell?" she asked herself.

Looking out she saw Tom holding the pin in place with his right arm.

"The joke is over, Tom. Let me out now." Emily pleaded as she became 15-years-old.

Each had to shout to hear the other.

"No." Tom said as he smiled.

"Tom! Let me out NOW!" Emily shouted in fury. She lost another year and really was 14-years-old.

"No Emily, I can’t." Tom said as he casually put his left hand in his pocket.

"Why Tom?" Emily asked, now in tears.

Tom pulled out a high school ring from his left pocket and tapped it once on the thick glass. He held the ring as steadily as possible as his hands shook in anger.

"Please Tom, I promise I’ll never do it again," Emily begged as her underwear slipped down her legs and her breasts became gradually became a preteen’s.

"I know you won’t and I’m going to make sure you don’t ever again." Tom smiled as he watched her remaining maturity leave her body.

He nearly opened the door when she was 10-years-old again. She looked so innocent and helpless. Her eyes stopped Tom; though they were full of tears, he could still see her anger at him in them. Emily’s body had lost all its teenage appearance- she now looked nothing more than a mad little girl.

He was glad when her eyes lost the anger and gradually took on a confused look. Emily was now a sweet little girl that only watched the man behind the glass. Tom took his hand off the pin as he removed it and knew she was too small now to reach the handle anyway.

He turned down the steam too so he could watch it happen more slowly. Her little body became bony and thin as she hit 7-years-old. Then she started to take on a chubby look. Her only concern now was drawing pictures in the steamed-up window.

"She must be around 5-years-old now," is what Tom figured.

"Don’t worry sweet pea. Daddy will let you out just before you hit the diaper stage," Tom called as he watched her lose another year. She looked up to listen to him.

Emily was 4-years-old when Tom opened the door and took his former wife out. The little girl was happy to be in such strong arms and not to be alone anymore.

"You’re such a big girl. I bet you can go to the potty all by yourself," Tom said as he held her in his arms. Tom didn’t want to spend any time changing diapers. Being so shy and now innocent, Emily shook her head up and down in reply. Poor little Emily was now naked and confused and only found comfort in her new daddy’s arms as she played with her fingers.

Tom dressed her in her old shirt and let her sleep with him that night. "Hopefully she wasn’t a bed-wetter," he thought as they drifted off to sleep. Tom awoke to sounds of cartoons that morning. Emily had awoken ahead of him and now sat on the floor watching cartoons with her full attention. Tom had never seen cartoons like this. They had more details and were a lot more interactive, he thought as Emily watched Dora the Explorer. She soon picked up the "We did it" dance in no time and did it when Dora did.

"Emily." Tom spoke quietly to her. Emily turned her head to look at him.

"I’m hungry, Daddy" said Emily as she stood up and walk over to the side of the bed still dressed only in a T-shirt. She was like a little angel now to him. Her voice was sweet and soft as a child’s could be. Her face was so innocent and free of all worries.

"OK, let’s get you some breakfast," Tom said as he took her hand and lead her down the steps. To Emily point of view she had awoken in a better world. Morning cereal was even better then anything she could remember having. Emily has also become very untrusting toward anyone but Tom. Emily had hidden behind a chair as a guest came in that day. She only knew Tom for now and didn’t trust anyone else.

As her daddy and the strange man talked over details, Emily listened from a distance. She had only picked up and remembered a few things in the conversation. She learned that this place was her home and her mommy left her and daddy a long time ago.

After a handshake and a final payment, the stranger left with a smile as he counted his money. By this time tomorrow, he would enter Tom and Emily into the records as the inheritors of the hotel. Once again it appeared to change owners.

Tom closed the hotel and shut all curtains then he and Emily played in the pool. They spent the rest of the day in the pool with little Emily in her birthday suit. With help from her daddy, she could float on her back and do a dog paddle. When they were too tired to play anymore, they settled down for a afternoon nap. Still naked in his arms, he gently rubbed her back as she drifted off to sleep.

Tom hired a young cute teenage girl named Courtney from town to take care of guests, while he looked after Emily. Emily took after her daddy more than anything. She was a little tomboy now and rarely played with dolls. When she attended preschool Tom dressed her in shorts instead of dresses. Emily had a late start in summer preschool, but she was one of smartest they had seen in years. In a strange way, Tom still loved her and had a promise to keep; "in sickness or health and until death do us part" kept him in taking care of Emily.

It turned out he liked having Emily as a daughter than a wife and she soon became daddy’s little girl. Because of Emily, Courtney began to spend time with her daddy as they played by the pool. It was only a short year later that they married against Courtney’s mother’s wishes. However, even that soon changed when she learned that her daughter had married a nice guy with a lot of money. With no worries about money and new step-granddaughter to baby-sit, Courtney mother decided to welcome Tom with open arms into their family.

Apparently nothing melts a heart like a child can, as Courtney’s mother bathed Emily and dressed her for bed. She simply adored having a little girl to take care of again.

Tom closed the hotel to public and made it a private hotel for parents with trouble teens and to people that were looking for a way to become young again. After disclosures and legal papers were signed when they first arrived, most left very happy. Tom smiled back as he remembered a former teen now a 10-year-old boy begging for his mother let him change back. The former teen had a small problem with weed and it was a habit he picked up from his girlfriend. As a little 10-year-old he would have no chance with her anymore and it would be quite a while before he would be getting more weed.

Emily spent the next two years as a 4-year-old girl thanks to her family’s 5-minute visit every year in the steam room. She was only allowed to grow up a little at a time when she stopped wetting the bed and learned to master her temper. Her stepmother stopped using the steam room after she woke up with morning sickness one day. Emily was happy when her daddy told her she have a new little brother or sister soon.

Not wanting to suffer the full nine months being pregnant, Courtney convinced Tom to let her use the sunroom a few brief times. Within 3 months, she was at full term and went to labor at the front desk area soon afterwards. A former customer and doctor was called in to help Courtney deliver her baby. Tom and little Emily waited in the lobby has sounds of labor was taking place in the back room. After a sound of slap and small cry was heard they both were invited in. Doctor’s two-person staff had already prepared the newborn and had him wrapped in a blanket.

"It’s a boy!" Doctor exclaimed as they entered.

Emily approached with fear and amazement. Her stepmother looked very tired and happy.

"Honey, do you want to get your strength back?" Tom asked in a whisper with concern. She was a young woman but her first childbirth was still hard on her.

"No, I’ll be fine and I’d like just like to sleep now." she whispered back.

Emily was busy staring at her little baby brother. He looked so tiny and she thought his face was little funny looking.

After Courtney recovered, she was happy to see that Emily had now become her little helper instead of her daddy’s for once.

Emily had played with her own baby dolls, but she now preferred to watch the real thing. Emily watched with a puzzled look as Courtney breastfed her baby brother. Later on she unleashed her almost never-ending questions about taking care of babies. She also loved to catch glimpses of his little body at bath times and when her Mommy dressed him. Emily was overjoyed when finally got to hold her brother in her arms while her parents carefully watched.

Years went by in the hotel and Emily and Tommy Jr. grew up in a loving and strict environment. Emily and Tommy Jr. were sent off to private schools in the fall but returned on holidays and all of summer. Both had maintained high grades and preferred to help out at home than go to school now.

Emily grew into a cute and beautiful preteen girl on verge of becoming a teen. Courtney explained the birds and bees to her after her first period.

Little Tommy Jr. had only had one treatment of steam room in his life so far. He had gotten into some trouble when bugging his sister too much. With his 7-year-old mind still intact, he was forced to become a 1-year-old baby for a whole week that one summer. To his embarrassment, his sister looked after him most of the time.

After that he feared causing or getting into any trouble, but was bold enough to get into some minor trouble as long his parents didn’t find out later. Both children were well behaved and loved their parents with all their heart.

The children were unofficial employees of the family hotel. They wore little uniforms that had the phoenix logo on the back and they worked alongside their parents at times.

It took a while for each child to understand fully why the hotel had mean-looking teens one day and next day had children their age. Some of these children were bad in Emily and her brother’s opinion. Emily once heard one girl about 11-years-old cuss out at her mother in a fit of rage over something. Emily ran away when she watched the mother throw her daughter over her knee and give her a sound spanking. Her daddy or mother had never spanked her and seeing it was too terrible to watch. The day after there was no sign of the girl anymore. There was a woman in the room that look like the mother, but she was too young and had a 3-year-old little girl dressed in a diaper and a frilly dress.

Tommy Jr. had pushed a little boy down once after he was trying to break a window to get out of the hotel. Tommy warned the kid to stop with no luck. The boy was two years older, but Tommy Jr. was stronger and to his amazement the boy only sat there and cried his eyes out until his mother came and scolded him with words about running away again. Tommy was relieved when the mother thanked him for finding her little boy.

It wasn’t until they both were teens that they inherited the hotel. Their parents only stayed on to insure everything ran smoothly and that there was no trouble. They had only old people and children to deal with most of the time. Both of the siblings had a key to each room below. Each understood the motto to the hotel and were sure to keep it in the family for a long time to come.

"A chance to get a fresh start again" was the motto in gold letters just under every phoenix logo in the hotel.

The End.

 

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