It took a long time to fall asleep after I met
that… woman… Now I need to look for a soul, but I have no idea how I’m supposed
to find one! And judging by what Saki said, I can’t let Cipher know that I’m
looking for one either…
It took
longer for Mabel to wake up than usual. Normally it took her longer to figure
out what to wear than getting out of bed. Her conscious returned slowly, and
once it was there, Mabel fought to fall asleep again; she didn’t want to walk
around this hotel anymore.
She quickly
realized, however, that she couldn’t fall back asleep, and opened her eyes,
only to see a giant sword suspended above her head.
Reacting
quickly, she rolled off the side of her bed and down to the floor, just as the
sword fell and pierced the bed. She recognized the sword too; it was the one
that almost impaled her when she first arrived at the hotel.
The sword
levitated up again, leaving a deep hole in the bed, and aimed itself at Mabel
before hurtling towards her. She dodged out of the way just in time and ran out
the door, not looking to see if the sword was following.
She skidded
to a stop when she reached the lobby and rammed into the back of one of the
couches, flipping her over and making her land on her back on the floor, just
seeing the sword fly past her and getting imbedded into the wall.
“Already
doing some morning gymnastics?” a familiar voice asked. Mabel rose from the
ground and saw that it was indeed Cipher.
“Why was
that sword chasing me?” Mabel questioned, gesturing to the sword.
“Oh, it
still is,” Cipher chuckled, and the sword removed itself from the wall and
started chasing Mabel again. She tried to run, duck and dodge out of the way,
but the sword kept following her. “Don’t you remember? You promised one of the
guests to take care of it. You can’t run from your responsibilities forever.”
“Tell that
to the guy who forced this sword on me!” Mabel yelled before she had an
epiphany.
Just as
that happened, the door opposite the hallway leading to the rooms opened, and
out of it came that Damocles guy, riding his wheelchair.
Thinking
fast, Mabel dashed towards him, sliding to a stop and ducking in front of him,
leading the sword to stab him through the throat.
“Oh! That
was great!” Cipher laughed, applauding wildly. Mabel tried to catch her breath
while staring at the sword, waiting to see if it would chase her again. After a
few seconds, the sword seemed to evaporate, leaving none of it behind. “So, did
that feel good to you?”
“What are
you talking about?” Mabel scoffed. “I was just trying to survive. Plus, he kind
of deserved it, considering it was his fault the sword was chasing me.”
“Hm,
interesting,” Cipher pursed his lips together before returning to his trademark
smirk. “But were your situations really any different? He was willing to
sacrifice you to survive, and vice versa.”
“Well, I
assume he did something to warrant having a giant sword suspended above him,”
Mabel countered.
“And you
don’t believe you have done something to deserve that?” Cipher asked her. Mabel
looked at him with a confused expression; she couldn’t recall doing anything
like that. “On another note; how about some breakfast?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wasn’t totally onboard with following Cipher,
but damnit I’m hungry! I hadn’t even realized I was getting hungry, like I don’t
recall feeling hungry at all while being in this hotel… So this is probably
more of the hotel’s mind games, I guess…
Mabel
reluctantly followed Cipher to the dining room; it looked dusty and decrepit,
like it hadn’t been used in a long time. Cipher turned to her and held up a
hand, signaling her to stop; she obliged.
“Wait
here,” he said and walked through a door, which Mabel assumed led to the
kitchen. He soon returned, carrying a tray with two pairs of standard utensils,
an omelet that looked like it was made of rubber and was flubbing around on the
plate like the fin of a sea lion on land, a bowl filled with a fuzzy, white
substance that seemed to have tiny eyes, and Mabel could even hear noises of
distress coming from whatever it was, and finally two glass… chalices, there
wasn’t another word for it, filled with a bubbling dark orange liquid that
seemed to fizz and overflow the chalices every so often.
“A-am I
supposed to eat that?” Mabel asked, pulling a disgusted face at the tray.
“Um, no,” Cipher responded, sounding
insulted. “This is for me and my sweetheart~” his tone changed instantly to one
of joy and happiness. “I bring him breakfast in bed once in a while; usually
when he’s too sore to get out of bed.” Cipher nodded towards the kitchen door.
“Go in there and find something yourself.”
Mabel
reluctantly stepped inside, finding a dark and dirty kitchen, the air oozing
with smoke to the point that she nearly couldn’t breathe. The chef was standing
in front of an oven, which seemed to be the source of the smoke; the chef
seemed to be a skeleton, missing several bones, including its lower jaw, along
with several ribs and fingers, and wore nothing but a raggedy chef’s hat.
“Um,” Mabel
let out a small cough, hoping and praying that she could get out of this
somewhat unscathed. The skeleton turned around, its hollow eye sockets and
featureless skull staring at her. “Can I… get something to eat?”
The
skeleton pointed to a table, although it was hard to tell since the hand it
used lacked an index finger. The table it pointed to stood in the other end of
the room and seemed to be decked out with different dishes, as well as plates,
bowls, and utensils; it was most likely some sort of buffet for the guests.
“Thanks,”
Mabel said before heading over to the table. The skeleton chef returned to its
cooking, which seemed to alternate between stirring a boiling pot and staring
into the smoking oven.
Mabel took
a look at the different foods on the table; most of them looked delicious,
except for the fact that they all seemed to be alive in much the same way that
Cipher’s food had. With everything that happened at this hotel, it wouldn’t be
a big leap to assume that some kind of magic gave the food life, even the vegan
dishes. It seemed the guests at the hotel were so sadistic that they took joy
in eating things that were still alive and could possibly feel pain.
She tried
to focus on the food that didn’t seem to be moving, but not only were there
very few of those, but those that were, looked gross and unnatural compared to
the living food.
She decided
that, at the end of the day, she would rather eat something gross over
something that was still alive, and picked up an empty bowl and filled it with
a thick, red, bubbling soup from a pot on the table. Despite the way the soup
was bubbling, almost as if it was boiling hot, no steam or heat emitted from
the liquid. Holding her bowl in one hand and picking up a spoon in the other,
Mabel walked back to the dining area, and sat down at the table.
Taking her
first, hesitant spoonful of the soup, she was relieved that it didn’t taste as
gross as it looked; it had a very drab, boring taste, kinda like oatmeal made
with water instead of milk, and way too much water at that. The consistency was
definitely the worst part, as the thick liquid was difficult to swallow.
After Mabel
was about halfway done with the bowl, she started to feel sleepy, which was
definitely odd since she had just been asleep. Eating another spoonful of the
soup, Mabel encountered something hard in the liquid and spat it out; it looked
like a piece of bone.
The
realization that this could be related to the chef’s lack of bones, almost made
Mabel throw up; almost, but instead she just spat out her soup.
Trying to
get the idea of having eaten human bones out of her head, Mabel didn’t notice
herself getting more and more sleepy, until she fainted headfirst into the
bowl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My head hurts… my stomach too… Ergh, and I have
a horrible taste in my mouth… What happened?
The last
thing Mabel remembered was when she ate breakfast… She found a piece of bone in
her soup, and then… Her food must have been drugged, but why? The thought that
maybe the chef wasn’t the only donator to the hotel’s meals crossed her.
She was inside
a dark room, confined to a soft armchair by metal bracers extending from the
chair; there was one around her neck, one resting on her forehead to keep her
head in place, one around each of her wrists, ankles, shins, and the back of
her elbows, and finally one around her stomach. It was nearly impossible to
move because of these confinements.
Aside from
the chair Mabel was sitting in, the room seemed empty, but then again, without
the ability to move her neck, Mabel couldn’t get a good look at the room. As
her eyes adjusted to the darkness however, she could make out several mirrors
of different sizes standing and hanging around the room, each of their
reflective surface pointed in Mabel’s direction.
But as her
eyes adapted to the darkness, she saw something else; at first she could only
make out one big eye, staring at her from behind from behind one of the
mirrors. As her vision adapted more, she almost began to wish she could go back
to sitting blindly in the dark. The creature had black, veiny skin, it’s face
only had one giant eye in the middle, along with a hognose bat-like nose. From
its neck, multiple short, thick tendrils were sprawling, as if feeling through
the air. Finally, it didn’t seem to have a body, its head was just balancing on
a pair of thin, bony arms that ended in clawed hands.
“Who are
you?” Mabel asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking. The monster
approached her. It jumped up and rested one of its hands on her lap for
support. The other hand gently petted Mabel on the head, and she was forced to look at this thing.
“You… have
beautiful eyes…” a raspy, echoing voice emitted from the room. Out of her
peripheral vision, Mabel could see the reflections in the mirrors change, but
she couldn’t get a good enough look to see what they changed into.
The hand on
her head left its place, and the creature waddled away from Mabel, only to
bounce back on one arm, carrying a jar filled with eyes in the other.
“No…” Mabel
sobbed, tears streaming down her face as she realized what the monster wanted
to do. The creature sat the jar down and returned to its former place balancing
on Mabel’s lap, using its free hand to dry Mabel’s tears.
She shut
her eyes, but opened them again when she heard a loud bang, followed by the
creature’s weight lifted from her lap, and the sound of a mirror shattering. In
front of her stood Saki, having seemingly punched the creature into one of the
mirrors; none of the mirrors seemed to show any reflection now.
“At first,
I was just gonna let Eye-See do what they do,” Saki said, freeing Mabel from
her restraints through brute force. “But then I realized, you wouldn’t be able
to locate my soul if you’re blind. I mean, maybe you could, but it would take
way too long.”
“So are you
going to help me?” Mabel asked, rubbing her limbs as they were freed, trying to
regain some blood circulation.
“Oh no,”
Saki shook her head and gave Mabel a stern look. “This is a one-time thing. From
now on, you’re on your own.”
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