The Way Inn - Will Wiles

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ENCORE AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE KITSCHIES

'The Way Inn' takes the polished surfaces of modern life, the branded coffee and the free wifi, and twists them into a nightmare.

The Way Inn is a global chain of identikit mid-budget hotels, and Neil Double is a valued member of its loyalty scheme. Neil is a professional conference-goer, a man who will attend trade fairs, expos and conventions so you don't have to. This life of anonymised, budget travel would be hell for most, but it's a kind of paradise for Neil, who has turned his incognito professional life into a toxic personal philosophy.

But Neil is about to change. In a brand new Way Inn in an airport hinterland, he meets a woman - a woman he has seen before in bizarre and unsettling circumstances. She hints at being in possession of an astonishing truth about this mundane world. And then she disappears. Fascinated, and with his professional life unravelling, Neil tries to find the woman again. In doing so he is drawn into the appalling secret that lurks behind the fake smiles and muzak of the hotel.