Hotel at the Edge

Chapter 6: Broken Bones

It took a while to get everything calmed down after frantically getting freed from the wall, their wrist had been broken, that was evident enough by the feeling of liquid fire pouring all around the affected area. It felt swollen and tender, and so very hot. No matter how they tried to hold or position it the pain was still there, even as they tightly held their wrist against their chest. Every movement made them feel the bone grind against muscle while sitting side by side with their new friend, a silence radiating through every moment. 

Considering everything that they had just gone through… it felt a little awkward to be suffering so silently.

But Mari hardly spoke as she tended to their wound, dark thoughts clearly flashing in her eyes as she tore stripes of fabric away from her hand sewed shirt.  It was a stark white, the kind that could usually only be found in the sheets of the housekeepers. There really wasn't anywhere else to find fabric of any kind, so the fact that Mari had been able to get her hands on some let alone sew it into some new clothing was incredibly impressive to them. It made them wonder just how long she had been here, and how she had managed to survive all this time by herself. Had she managed to find even more creatures outside of what they had already found? Was there an outside to this place? Had she gotten closer to figuring out where her room was? 

What secrets did she know about?

“So…” Mari leaned against them casually after securing their makeshift sling around their neck, at least attempting to dispel some of the awkwardness that was now between them. “Do you have a name?” Mari asked curiously, nudging her knee against theirs. 

They sat together, their backs pressed against the walls and their shoulders smooshed together. As if not having some form of bodily contact would make each of them disappear from each other forever. 

“Probably,” They answered with what they hoped was a convincing shrug, honestly they had tried to not think about it all that much. Even though the idea of not exactly knowing did fill them with an insurmountable amount of dread. They didn’t like the possibility of having an identity, of possibly having done things in the past and just... not remembering it.  For all they knew they could be a terrible person, they could committed atrocities like.. well the atrocities that they had seen here. They could have hurt people and never known the contrary of the blood that they possibly could have spilt. “At one point I probably did...” They worried their bottom lip, dread once again pooling in their gut. "I don't remember much from before coming into the hotel, just..just..."

"A weird smell?" Mari seemed to guess, a sympathetic and almost sad look on her face., as if she knew exactly what they were talking about.   

One would have thought that with the presence of being a person there would be relief, considering that they shouldn’t have had to worry about who they were or who they were supposed to try to be. But… they were aware. They were aware that something was missing, and that something was wrong with their head, like going up the stairs and knowing that there should be another step but just having nothing. There were supposed to be things, memories and so much more. Things that had made them happy at one point, and things that defined who they were as a person. With all of that just gone they felt…

Kind of... missing. 

Like looking at a missing person's poster and not even recognizing that's what it was.  

Mari nudged them again, taking their attention away from the rather depressing spiral that they had found themselves in. 

“You look kinda faded,” Mari bluntly observed, eyeing the dry cracks on their lips and around their mouth and the sunken shallowness of their cheeks. “Have you eaten anything lately? Or had anything to drink?” She added, her dark gaze darting up and down the occasional hunger tremors. All of it combined caused a look of worry to overtake her face. 

The mere mention of food and water made a painful spike dart through their stomach. They didn’t know how long they had been there but… it was long enough to be so very hungry and thirsty. Hunger clawed at their stomach, like a vicious beast sinking its claws in and tearing away stripes of flesh. The thirst had dried out their tongue, like a sunbaked earth that was cracking open in wide gnawing chasms of an endless pit in the desert. It made them want to kneel over, and clutch at their stomach from the sheer agony of it. To clutch at their stomach and tear into it, if only to make the pain of it stop. 

Instead they chewed on their bottom lip, almost tasting blood, and looked away.

“Gods!” Mari looked more than a little appalled at the nonverbal answer given to her, her face paling as she looked down at the person beside her. “How long have you been here?!”  

More silence, and then:

“A while… I think.”

For a moment Mari’s mouth opened, as if there were words that she wanted to say but just couldn’t bring herself to say them as bluntly as she had before. Finally she settled on shaking her head, with a look of uncomfortable regret on her face. As if she alone could have solved the hunger that they were facing, even if they hadn’t known that each other had existed until mere moments ago. They didn’t really know how to respond to that kind of look, let alone to the idea that someone would have cared about whether they were hungry or not. The skylights that they had looked through before was kind of bittersweet, but to have someone here who clearly cared about their wellbeing... It was bitter that it needed to happen in the first place, but still sweet that it was happening at all. 

Nice was the word for it. 

Mari turned her gaze from them and to the bag that had been shoved under her feet as a makeshift footrest, digging through it Amari pulled out a couple of granola bars and a thin bottle of water. Both of which they had seen before at the marketplace right next to the receptionists’ desk, they had just never dared to go there. 

At least not while in sight of the receptionists who were there, and they definitely dared to not steal from them. 

“How…” 

Mari grinned ruggedly, the look oddly charming on her face, and merely waved her hand. “I told them to put it on my room tab,” She chortled smugly, “Chances are if I’m going to be here for a while then I should probably rack up a big enough tab so I won't die here.” Her gaze softened a little as she looked at them, “So don’t die either, go ahead and eat. I can always get some more.” 

The granola bars crinkled in their hands, and the bottle of water felt blessedly cool against the warm skin. 

For the second time since they had come to this place, they crammed their face into Amari’s shoulder and they cried again.   

This time for a reason entirely unrelated to the pain in their arm.