Meena was a little sad that she hadn't touched Adam yet. As weird as that sounded. But if he had a natural-born power like his sister, Meena really wanted to have it in her repertoire! He was smart to deny her handshake.
"Niko and Meena," the sister repeated to herself. "You probably know our names already, but this is Adam and I'm Aida."
"Great. They know our names now." Adam rolled his eyes. "Why are they even here?"
Aida shrugged. "Mutual goals? They need a place to stay. We are staying... in a place. More or less." She flinched as she looked around at the walls that were growing some sort of.. mold? Moss? General grossness. "Power in numbers and all that, right?"
Adam shook his head. "Wrong. So wrong. They're just burdens. It'll be harder to run if they're with us and food will cost more and this guy can't even be seen in public." He threw an arm up at Niko, who glared back in return.
Meena wanted to stand up for herself at the least, but also didn't want to get in the middle of their sibling squabbles. And anyway, he was completely right about Niko.
Aida stepped closer to Meena with a wicked smile on her face and clung to her arm like a fangirl. "But this one is the answer to all of our problems!" she claimed excitedly.
Adam's eye twitched at the same time Meena's did. He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. I'll humor you. How is she the answer to--"
He was interrupted by the sound of glass breaking from down the hall in a different room. It sounded like something large had broken, not like a small cup or ornament. Everyone froze and focused on the open hotel room door. 'Shit,' everyone thought simultaneously.
"It's Chronos!" Adam whisper-yelled and not even a second later, a small metal canister was hurled into the room, rolling across the dirty carpet. It landed in the corner, next to the chair that Niko was sitting in. Which, unfortunately, happened to be near the only window in this room. Some kind of smoke began pouring out of it. Niko leapt up and stumbled away from the canister.
Meena covered her nose and mouth immediately and looked at Aida in panic. There must be another out of this room. Right? Aida reached out and picked up a duffel bag, then took hold of Adam's arm.
"Take Niko!" Aida yelled to Meena, then fell through the floor with Adam.
Yup, that's right. FELL THROUGH THE FLOOR.
Meena shook her head to clear her instant shock and grabbed a coughing Niko's arm. Just as men in black combat outfits holding guns showed up at the doorway, Meena imitated Aida and felt her body fall through the ground. It was a strange sensation and it almost felt like gravity was hitting her extra hard. She also felt as if she was holding Niko's weight as well as her own. They fell through the ceiling onto the ground of the hotel's second level. The impact hurt Meena's legs and ankles a bit, as much as falling eight feet while holding a large man would normally hurt. But after a moment, Meena shook it off and dropped again, onto the ground level this time. Niko and Meena groaned simultaneously. Meena threw an incredulous look at him. Why was he groaning?! He didn't even do anything! They heard yells coming from the stairwell and footsteps began pounding down. Meena quickly stood up from her crouching-in-pain position and winced, but pulled Niko's arm as she walked through the wall that she knew would lead into the back alleyway that they entered from. Her legs did not feel up to running after that.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Adam and Aida were waiting anxiously in the alley for them. Adam was holding the heavy duffel bag now and he was searching in all directions purposefully. Which was weird because it was just an alley. Just a brick wall in front of them and the brick wall of the hotel behind them. What was there to see here?
"This way!" he yelled and took off to the left, towards a residential area.
They were pretty deep in a maze of apartment back alleys when Aida suddenly realized where Adam was taking them. She groaned while running. "Aw, man! Not to HER!" she complained breathily.
Adam laughed dryly. "Got any better ideas?"
Niko and Meena looked at each other nervously. Where the heck were they going now?
After a few minutes, the residential area gave way to larger alleys behind small businesses where dumpsters were kept. Niko's nose wrinkled in disgust and Meena rolled her eyes at the spoiled princess.
"Have you ever even taken the trash out yourself?" she asked her thought aloud to him in a not-so-well-hidden condescending tone.
Niko scoffed in offense. "Of course I...!! ...Haven't, actually. No. Crap." He pouted with his eyebrows furrowed.
"Are you even an adult?!" Adam's lip lifted up in disdain at Niko.
"Shut up you overgrown toddlers," Aida spat nonchalantly. "We're here. Sadly."
The back door that they stopped in front of was surprisingly clean compared to literally every other door in this alley. It was painted black and a curtain of beads hung from the frame above it. There was a strange symbol painted in red on the doorway that just looked like a series of lines and swirls forming a circle to Meena.
Aida began to waltz forward confidently and smacked her face right into the door. "Ah, hell!" she yelled, holding her nose. A small trail of blood dripped from the now reddened nose. "I forgot she did this shit," Aida gestured towards the symbol on the door with the arm that wasn't holding her bleeding face. The symbol had glowed faintly for a moment, then returned to its normal paint.
Adam sighed and shook his head in embarrassment at his sister, then stepped forward to knock on the door.
It was answered instantly. The door swung open and nobody was standing there. Meena, confused, tried to peer inside to see who answered but didn't see anyone. Also the light was very dim in there. Aida and Adam didn't seem fazed, though, and pushed past the beads to enter the bizarre building. Meena and Niko looked at each other and Meena shrugged, following them in. When Niko made it inside, the door swiftly swung shut behind him. He yelped and jumped away from the haunted door. Aida and Adam snorted in an attempt to try to hold in their laughter at him.
There were no electric lights in this hallway. The only light came from wall-mounted candlesticks. The carpet was a black velvet and the walls were black as well but more red symbols had been painted almost everywhere. Meena desperately wanted to turn around and walk right back out. She was getting murderous voodoo vibes and wasn't about to be fighting off some crazy spirits or something. But her legs were shaking and on the verge of giving out so she was forced to put her trust into the golden-haired siblings. She sighed and continued to follow them into the crazy house.