Dr. Geoffrey Mc Mannis - Session notes - Patient 13035: Remington Davis - Monday, November 28, 2005

Patient was discovered wandering a vacant field after being missing for almost a week. Employed as a reporter for the Seattle Times; in town for a convention. Supposedly an editor called him and asked him to investigate a story at the address where he was found. His car was found by the side of the road approximately three-quarters of a mile away.

Patient seems lucid and calm most of the time, although he cannot understand why he is here. He claims to have become the living spirit of an establishment called “The Land’s End Hotel and Resort,” which was to be built in the field where he was discovered. Remi (his nickname) believes that he was taken to a point in the past when the hotel had not yet been built by a character called “The McGaa,” whom he describes alternately as a young cherubic boy with a deep voice or an older gentleman with a monocle. He has suggested that this Mc Gaa is actually the Devil, or perhaps one of his minions. Sometimes he also refers to him as “Mr. Dandi.” It is unclear whether this creature is the same or separate from the horned, white haired creature who seems to live in the woods surrounding the hotel.

The Mc Gaa, or Mr. Dandi, told him that he needed his spirit; the hotel he wished to build needed a soul, but it also needed a chronicler; someone to keep track of the stories that would take place there.

The Hotel itself; which Remi sometimes refers to as “Land’s End,” sometimes “Lan Descend,” “Land Descend,” “Loon Sad Hotel,” “Linseed Hotel, Last Resort,” “Lands’ End,” “L’Ensign,” and sometimes even “The McMannis,” began as a small roadside motel that eventually expanded to include an old abandoned mansion that had once served as a brothel. Remi indicates that the hotel is always growing of its own accord. The rooms of the hotel seem to have different themes. Some are designed for certain types of guests, some are named for the prostitutes that once inhabited them, and some seem to defy description. It is strange to hear him speak of it; sometimes he speaks as though the hotel is separate from himself, and sometimes he speaks as though he is the hotel.

Aside from Mr. Dandi, the other major character that appears in Mr. Davis’s stories of the hotel is a young (or apparently young) woman named Sarah. Sarah’s mother Lily gave birth to her after consuming apples from her orchard; which is fertilized by the bodies of those that have died at the hotel. At some points Remi indicates that Sarah is an only child, and at others he indicates that she has a sister named Wanda. There are some Madonna/whore themes surrounding the notion of the sisters; particularly in the Cain/Able comparisons between her and her sister. I have to wonder if Sarah somehow represents either Remi’s mother, a past love, or perhaps both. She is constantly hounded by men; despite her apparent lack of interest, even in those she might be in a relationship with.

Remi can, and often does, name off other members of the staff, including Antonio the bartender, Garret the Station Engineer, Rosa the Maid, and Roland the Bellboy. Some of these characters seem to just support some of the stories, but others appear as integral and sometimes central. There are also some stories indicating that the staff are either culled from an ancient Native American tribe, or selected through a deadly interview process.

There are themes in his tales related to destiny and predetermination. In some he speaks of three women who seem to represent the fates from Greek theatre. The stories of the guests range from macabre stories of murder to ghost stories to charming pieces seemingly designed as character studies. Several of the stories end with disappearances, and many of them involve writers and artists. Books also play a central part in many stories; like many things in the hotel they seem to have minds of their own. There are many stories of romance and lost love; and several center around the hotel’s bar. Supernatural forces are at work in many of his stories; guests are often not of this world, and it seems that people who disappear are actually absorbed in some way or another into the hotel itself. There is mention of the underworld and of creatures living under the hotel’s grounds.

The fascinating aspect of all of these is how intricately connected they all are. Checking into Mr. Davis’s past, it seems that he has tried several times (unsuccessfully) to get works of fiction published. I found a copy of one of his manuscripts, and judging as a layman, it was awful. How he has now managed to develop such a vast and rich storyline with so many connecting threads is a mystery at best. Further investigation into his past to see if any events, locations, people, or themes can be linked to the stories he is now telling, and which he believes to be true, would be most helpful in attempting to determine the exact nature of his affliction.

The only tie to anything from his actual experience I have discovered is the fact that he has, on more than one occasion, referred to the hotel as “The Mc Mannis.” However, upon first hearing my name, Remi seemed shocked, as though he knew the name from somewhere before, so he may believe it to be a coincidence.

Remi has written all of his stories down. In fact, he has been writing furiously since he arrived here. Although the handwriting does not change from one story to another, the voice seems to. Some are composed entirely of dialogue, some are first-person accounts, some are third-person narrations, some seem to be written as screenplays, some are stories within stories, and some are a combination of styles mixed together. One story even incorporates song lyrics. Personal Note: If Mr. Davis ever recovers, he should be encouraged to seek publication for his stories. They’re quite good.

Another interesting topic relates to the relativity of time in Remi’s stories. He indicates that he was taken back to a time before the hotel was built by The Mc Gaa, and was there to witness the years when all that was there was a brothel, through the opening of the hotel, through the present time; when the hotel was big enough to be considered a small city. He believes his memories span from somewhere before the turn of the twentieth century well into the twenty-first century.

Therefore it should have come as a great shock to him when the police woke him, and he found himself standing in the vacant lot where this hotel supposedly should be. Further, investigation of the area revealed no abandoned mansion that once served as a brothel. This type of evidence is often enough to shake people out of their delusions or cause extreme denial of external stimuli. Remington Davis exhibited neither reaction. When told that no evidence of the Hotel could be found, he simply smiled, pointed to his temple, and said, “Of course not. It’s all up here.”