Hotel at the Edge

Chapter 7: Mari's Abode

"Come on," Mari gently nudged them as they tiredly slumped against her, she knew that they were tired. The way that they looked at her without even understanding, trying their hardest to blink words and thoughts told her that after eating what little she had... they needed sleep, and desperately at that. It wouldn't do to have them start hallucinating on top of everything else. "We can't stay here, soon enough we'll be in the housekeepers' way." Mari knew well enough what would happen if the human brain didn't get enough sleep, and there was no telling how long this unnamed person had been here. And if they had staved off sleep the entire time that they had been here, well it wouldn't exactly be good for them. She'd rather avoid their brain trying to eat itself if she could, and other much more horrible things that could happen to someone who had sleep deprivation psychosis.  

Their head slumped in a tired nod, and Mari had to nudge them a little rougher just to get them going. They needed rest, their broken arm needed some time to heal. They needed to leave...

Now. 

"Come on," Mari coaxed again, hooking their good arm over her shoulder, finally able to get them moving towards a single direct. Their feet occasionally scuffled along the ground, and they definitely would have fallen flat on their face had her iron grip not been holding them up. "I know a place where you can sleep." She assured, "It's much more comfortable than sleeping on a hallway floor, and..and..." She swallowed thickly, she needed to keep them safe and completely out of harm's way if she could. She needed to do her best, and to actually succeed this time. "Once you're all comfortable I'll tell you about some of the things I've seen here, it might be a bit more than what you've seen. Since you're new and all." Mari chattered on and on, practically dragging the other person down intersecting hallways and rapidly changed directions. 

She was certain that they were asleep, or in the very least almost unconscious enough to not be able to answer back. At least until...

"Have you seen the pool creature?" 

The question was so soft that Mari almost missed it entirely. But it was that one question that made a blaze of hope burst inside of her, like a tub of gasoline being thrown a lit match. Questions were good, questions meant curiosity, and curiosity meant a drive to in the very least survive to see something new. Mari had seen plenty of people who had no drive for anything, no curiosity, no anger, not even any kind of sadness for what they had forgotten. Those kinds of people didn't last too long in face of the creatures that lived here. Many of them just waited for their end no matter how she tried to help, some of them were just reckless. Trying to get into rooms that didn't belong to them, or attempting to take things too obviously. So this.. this was good. She would take anything over the blanket numbness that seemed to envelope many of the present and past guests that came to this hell-hole of a hotel.  

Mari readjusted her grip on the other person, "I've seen some of it," She finally answered, the memories of the creature raising goosebumps along her arms and the back of her neck. "It's big, bigger than you would even think. The pool is too, I took the pool net and tried to measure it once. It's deeper than any kind of pool that I've ever seen." She remembered the last time she had been in that pool room, the feeling of the heavy metal net in her hands and of sweat soaking through her shirt rolling down her back as terror had gripped her heart. "I'll tell you more once we get out of the halls." She instead said, this wasn't exactly the place to tell such stories, especially stories that anyone.. or anything could hear her. It wasn't wise to gloat or relish in such things, getting too cocky would be an end that she did not want to meet. 

The person she was carrying wriggled a little, "Where are we going?" They finally asked, at least attempting to sound more awake and alert as they propped their head up on her shoulder.