There's a nice little hotel, just off the road not far from Cardiff. It's got a timeless quality to it. Conveniently for one Mister Roberts, as he's travelling to visit his dying father. It's a bit understaffed, though. There's only one person working there, a Billis Manager.
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: None of the Torchwood gang make an appearance, it's just Mr. Roberts and Billis in a very creepy hotel.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Billis manages to escape the hotel, leaving all the "regulars" stuck in there.
- Closed Circle: The hotel. Billis mentions he can't use his time master powers to escape.
- Driven to Suicide: Hewel. Unfortunately, the hotel doesn't let people escape that easily.
- Eldritch Location: The hotel. Stuck in constant rain, the clocks don't work properly. Trying to leave will age anyone who tries to death. But the bedsheets always stay fresh.
- Faux Affably Evil: Billis. He tends to the regulars, even reading Grace bedtime stories, but it's his fault they got stuck in the hotel in the first place.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Committee are the ones who got Billis stuck in the hotel, and are therefore responsible for the events of the story, but never put in an appearance.
- Minimalist Cast: Three main characters - Hewel, Billis and Grace, not counting a few minor incidental voices in flashbacks.
- Negative Space Wedgie: The hotel is stuck on an interdimensional fault line. Billis had shown up several years prior to do... something about it (or possibly to it) and wound up more than a little stuck.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Billis mentions Torchwood to Hewel, saying that the hotel would normally be right up their street, and is a little surprised they haven't shown up.
- Terrible Ticking: The tap dripping. And the clock that never quite strikes the hour.
