The Hotel Mariposa is a 2022 short story written by David Barnett, published by Titan Books as part of the anthology Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey. It follows the crew of a supernatural documentary series who get more than they bargained for when they attempt to film a piece at an abandoned, supposedly haunted hotel.
Plot[]
Cade and Carol, producers and stars of the Netflix paranormal documentary series American Spook-Chasers, face the prospect of their show being cancelled due to declining viewing figures. Desperate for a knockout episode that will recapture their audience, they decide to travel to the abandoned Hotel Mariposa in rural New England, hoping the building's notorious reputation as a hotpsot of hauntings and strange occurrences will give them what they need. Arriving at the derelict hotel with their stoner cameraman Ben, Carol gives the others a brief rundown of some of the disturbing events that have supposedly taken place there. These include a man who almost starved to death after getting lost for days in the building's corridors, a woman who nearly drowned after claiming the hotel pool became so vast she could not find the sides, and a gruesome mass murder in 1967 that finally saw the hotel close down.
Unknown to the trio, their arrival is witnessed by a lone Yautja named Hin'tui, who has come to the hotel to hunt. The Yautja are also aware of the bizarre nature of the building, leading them to christen it Gorath Pun'tila or "the place where nothing is at it seems". Built in an ancient impact crater, the hotel sits atop an undiscovered alien spacecraft and its cargo of Xenomorph Eggs, Eggs that occasionally hatch as the systems keeping them dormant begin to fail. The ship's damaged gravity drive also causes spatial distortions in the building, and it is these that have led to many of the strange events reported there. The distortions also make the site a highly prized hunting ground amongst the Yautja, its unpredictability adding an extra level of challenge. Having detected the hatching of an Egg, Hin'tui is now here to hunt the Xenomorph he hopes will spawn, armed only with his Wristblades and a Sword to test his hand-to-hand skills.
Unaware of the danger they are in, Cade, Carol and Ben continue to explore the hotel, finding little evidence of the supernatural occurrences they seek. However, whilst sharing a drink with Cade in the hotel bar, Carol experiences a vivid hallucination of her mother, who abandoned her as a child, and later has another revealing Cade is having an affair with a young production assistant they occasionally hire. She confronts him over his infidelity, but they are interrupted by Ben's screams. Rushing to find him slumped in the bathroom, he tells them he was attacked by "hands" and blacked out, but Cade and Carol privately pass it off as a side-effect of his drug abuse.
However, the following morning, Cade and Carol find Ben lying dead in bed, a hole punched in his chest. Carol attempts to call 911, but discovers her cellphone is no longer working. When she and Cade try returning to their own room, the two find the hotel's corridors have somehow changed and they are now lost. Carol heads in the direction she thinks will lead her to the lobby, but finds only more corridors stretching into infinity, and worse still manages to lose all trace of Cade. She wanders alone until Cade's screams suddenly lead her back to him, and she finds him traumatized by an encounter with Hin'tui. Together the pair try to escape the building by breaking a window, but when the glass shatters it reveals only a solid brick wall behind. They are then confronted by the Xenomorph born from Ben, which quickly kills Cade before it is in turn attacked by Hin'tui, who wounds it and drives it away. Taking a moment to regard a stunned Carol, Hin'tui spares her when he discovers she is pregnant, imparting this information to her with simple gestures.
Despite his reluctance to kill her, Hin'tui has no compunctions against using Carol as bait to lure the Xenomoprh out, and so sets her running down the hotel's corridors. However, he develops a sense of kinship when the malfunctioning gravity drive grants him access to Carol's memories of being abandoned by her mother, an event that mirrors his own childhood. Thus, when the Xenomorph attacks again, Hin'tui saves Carol's life, overpowering and mortally wounding the creature, disappointed by the ease with which he is able to do so. As the creature lays dying, Hin'tui invites Carol to deliver the finishing blow with his Sword, and she obliges him.
Afterwards, outside the hotel, Hin'tui takes advantage of the effects of the gravity drive and takes Carol's hand, sharing with her a vision of their mothers, both individuals finding some measure of peace with their abandonment. Parting ways, a newly emboldened Carol drives away from the Hotel Mariposa in her car as she sees Hin'tui's ship depart for the stars behind her.
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