Young Writers Society

For the second time today, Taber's smile faded. This was a little disappointing. There wasn't anything remarkable about a mostly empty room, nor the very familiar smell of blood. He was mostly interested in the strange rotting scent, but he couldn't spot anything that might be causing that. Had they come here for nothing?

When he heard a door opening and closing, he whirled around, expecting something interesting. Instead, it was just Bo and Kaelynn coming in. Still, Taber waved and beamed. "Hello!" he said, before looking around. "That's everyone! Pretty ordinary hotel, isn't it?"

Bo did not look happy to find himself in the room, but he stayed close to Kaelynn with his gun still perched in gis fingertips. He wasn’t going to take any chances.

“I wouldn’t call it ordinary. Kaelynn almost got eaten alive upstairs by some shadow blob creatures, so if any of you are wondering what we’re up against, that might be it.”

"I wonder if they're imps," Gabriel absentmindedly commented, currently in the middle of investigating underneath the cushion of an old couch. "They'd be stupid enough to do something like that."

"Imps aren't that stupid," Issac replied.

Gabriel shrugged. "I'm still going with the imps theory. Easy to summon, easy to order around. They've got no backbone and would be the perfect pesky guard dogs-"

"I'm going to go with Issac and say that it wasn't someone's imps," Sebastian interrupted. He looked over at Kaelynn and Bo. While he loved both of his best friends dearly, sometimes they forgot how humans were supposed to react to terrifying situations - namely ones that could get other humans killed.

"I'm glad you guys are alright," he said, giving them what he hoped was a reassuring sort of smile. "That sounds like it was terrifying. We haven't encountered something like that before-"

"I said it was imps!" Gabriel protested, his voice muffled as he peered down in between the cracks of the couch.

"We haven't encountered something like that before," Sebastian continued. He wisely ignored the comment. "But if we stick together, we should be able to fend off any future attacks."

"I like how you blatantly ignored him," Raiden mentioned, pointing to Gabriel. He then decided to help look around for whatever it might have been that they were looking for.
"Speaking of, what are we looking for?"

"Aww, shadowy blobs?" said Taber, going down on his knees and peering under the couch. Nothing but dust, mold, and maybe a dead cockroach or two. "Cute! Not the eating alive part, but otherwise, cute!" On a whim, he grabbed the bottom of the couch and pushed, causing the bottom to rise and the top to lower. He could've sworn he heard some kind of muffled protest, but he was sure it was fine. "Maybe we should look for those imp guys?" he said at last, the underside of the couch now in the evening light streaming from the hole. Nothing of interest. Taber sighed.

"Did you just...Did you just crush Gabriel?" Raiden asked, pointing to the flailing limbs that were beneath the overturned couch.

Taber looked over the back of the couch. Sure enough, Gabriel had been trapped between the cushions and was now failing to pull himself out. "Whoops!" said Taber, walking to the other side of the couch and grabbing one of Gabriel's arms. One pull later, Gabriel was free. "Sorry - I didn't see you there!" Taber continued, giving Gabriel a hug.

“Honestly, how are you all still alive,” Bo muttered. “If there is ANYTHING in this hotel that can eat us I suggest anyone with flesh and bone who wants to stay alive leaves. With me. In whatever vehicle you came in. Now.”

Kaelynn liked that suggestion very much. But there was a small regret with if she did leave. What if there were ghosts? What if she misses the chance to see ghosts and capture it for the world to see? Maybe then her parents will be proud. Her sister, not so much as she didn't care too much about that ghostly stuff. There was an aspiration at stake and Kaelynn didn't want to risk it.

She rubbed her hands on her pants and said, "I have to find ghosts. This place is crawling with weird things, and possibly even ghosts."

Bo let in a deep breath and looked down at Kelynn, tryig to level with her. He put a hand on her shoulder, looking in her eyes.

“Okay. I get it. Ghosts are cool. But do you really want to find one at the cost of your life? If you die, will it really be worth it then?”

"It's worth it," Sebastian quietly said, casting a brief bit noticeable look over at Issac. "I don't know what's here, but I made a promise and I need to fulfill it."

"If I die, then I'll become something I want to be," Kaelynn responded. She then sighed and looked at everyone. "We came here with a reason whether we know it or not." She then looked at Bo. "And yes, you have a reason for believing something bad is going to happen but," pausing, Kaelynn smiled, "that's the whole point of adventuring."

"Chill, Bo, we can always run. Plus, you have a gun, so there's that, and that guy," Raiden pointed to Issac, "broke a window with his bare hand, and we have Taber. And that's like, three out of..." Raiden quickly counted whoever was here, "uhhh...eight people? So...yeah."

Bo could understand them - to a point. A part of them did wonder where there sense of self preservation was, or if they'd lost it completely. How that happened he didn't know, but clearly they had nothing to lose, or something worth risking it all for. Or they were just dumb.

But the quick and immediate disagreements what he believed was his sound reason only made him feel more obligated to stay. Clearly, he was the only one armed - besides the girl with the sickle, who Raiden failed to mention in his list of their defensive assets. And now he couldn't in good conscience just leave knowing there was at least one sort of present danger that they were all going to eagerly seek out.

Bo's expression hardened, and he looked over to Raiden.

"Maybe a few years down the line, when you met me, I knew how to chill. But I'm not gonna chill with ghosts and people eating monsters around," he said quietly, as he slipped his backpack off one shoulder and flipped it around.

"So I'm going to be more than ready," he muttered, as he pulled out parts of a military-grade assault rifle and began to quickly construct the large gun.

Raiden's eyes flashed a bright blue, if only for a split second.
"Bo. I said, we'll be alright," he repeated, though this time he sounded more stern. He quickly masked it with a smile.
"Besides, if something does show up, I bet there's more than one guy here who's hiding some special power."