Through The Ascension Room***Book One COMPLETE***

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN ~PART FOUR~

CHAPTER

                             Twenty-seven

    I move around the room carefully as to not stir up all the dust that lines every bit of the hotel room. It reeks of stale air and smoke. I don’t think I’ll be able to stay a night here, let alone be in here for more than an hour.

    “Ok now, that is gross,” Tristis says on his way out of the bathroom that has the humming rumble of a fan coming out of it. He flips the light switch and the light goes out along with the sound. He stands for a moment in the doorway of the bathroom, “This place can’t be sanitary.”

    “It’s just for the time being,” Cynthia says through a contorted face as she releases the bed covers from her hands letting them fall flatly back onto the bed coughing up a cloud of dust. The dust particles float and dance in the rays of sunlight coming in through the holes in the window curtains. She pats her hands together to rub something from them.

    The awkward silence that follows, as we all try to find somewhere to settle into in the room, puts me on edge. Cynthia gently lowers herself onto the foot of the bed and sits carefully with her legs crossed, hands placed atop her knees and an intent face scanning the room.

Each second that passes her face grows more and more horrified as she registers the room in its entirety. It’s pretty gross but that doesn’t stop Tristis from sprinting to the bed flinging himself sideways while simultaneously laying outstretched, hands rested behind his head. He lands as a cloud of debris is exploded from the bed.

    “Tris!” Cynthia says hoping to her feet.

“What?” Tristis says through muffled coughs and a smirk firmly planted on his face. I can’t help but smile and chuckle a little.

    “And you,” Cynthia turns to look at me. “What’s at this dinner that has you so interested in it? You can’t keep lying to us and keeping secrets from us. You’ve got a real hot head you know and its gonna get us in trouble if you don’t start trusting us more.”

    Her comment wipes the smile from my face. Whether or not her reaction is over-exaggerated because of Tristis’ playing around, she’s right. I tend to get into trouble when I don’t talk to them about what’s going on. I let out a sigh and realize I might as well let them know.

    I tell them all about Aubri. About how I met her just the night before meeting them and how I hit it off with her. That night in the diner. The date. Everything. Even the warehouse scene that got me in this mess. The police station, Officer Gibson and the interrogation room. (Tristis was more interested in the police breakout then the rest of my story for obvious reasons).

    Talking to Cynthia about my love interests felt weird at first, but got easier as she seemed to be undeterred by it.

    “Back when I was in the cell Valde had said something about her,” I say getting to the important part.

    “About Aubri?” Cynthia asks.

    I nod.

    “What’d he say?” Cynthia asks.

“He said that he was going to finish ‘the job’. The one I was supposed to have completed on my last field test with Hilt. She along with the rest of this timeline was supposed to be destroyed during that test. But for some reason it wasn’t and still exists,” my response is followed by a couple of blank stares, “she’s in danger unless I can do something to save her. Somehow… I just don’t know how yet.”