Hotel at the Edge

Sweltering Questions

"Mari why is it do you think that we don't remember anything before all this?" They asked as they sat on one of the crates, while the person in question laid sprawled out on the cot with her arm thrown over her face. Sweat trickled down their face, as they attempted to cool themselves off by tugging at the middle of their shirt creating a fake breeze. "Do you think that our morality was weighed the moment we stepped through those doors, and we were judged negatively?"

They hadn't meant to word it so ominously, it was just that now that they were no longer tired and now that they'd had time to think... They wanted answers.

And being bored only added onto those questions that just kept piling and piling.

It was ungodly hot in the cramped little closet and they had cracked the door open just enough that they felt comfortable doing. They couldn't risk having the door open if one of the housekeepers happened to pass by and catch them, or if some other unknown entity that was ten times worse would get them and do who knows what to them. It was better to be safe than sorry, as Mari had told them when they had complained about the heat for the hundredth time. She was right, but it didn't make damp sweatiness anymore comfortable to either of them.

Without the ever present tiredness that had been with them before, questions bubbled up like a beaker held over a searing hot flame. Along with the added bonus of the fact the from the other side of the door they could just barely feel and hear the blessedly cool air conditioner, just so slightly out of reach from them.

It was a fucking temptation is what it was.

"Always asking the hard shit huh?" Mari grumbled as strings of her choppily cut hair stuck to her flushed forehead, she seemed determined to lay where she was comfortably or not. "I dunno, maybe or maybe not." She muttered sourly, as she attempted to blow the sweat stuck fringe from her forehead.

She didn't seem entirely too pleased about the topic of their question.

"Hey Mari..." They began softly.

Mari's eyebrow twitched under the arms she had folded over her face, and her fingers twitched as the beaded sweat rolled down the sides of her neck.

"Yes?" She asked with borderline gritted teeth, another drop of sweat rolling down her temple.

"Do you think that we're evil or deser-"

Mari's bolted up from where she had been laying, a surprising big movement for someone so moist and sweaty. "Nope!" She declared with a rather pointed glare right back at them, as her sweat soaked hair flopped in front of her eyes. "We are not going there! Not today, and not in my closet. No more questions for today!" She growled poking them past the makeshift cast they had on their arm. "I know, it's hot in here and you're bored. I'm hot and bored too, but no more questions today. Got it?"

Soundlessly they nodded their head, still a little taken aback by just how quickly Mari had moved to shut them up.

Getting up Mari stretched her limbs out, before making a beeline for the crowded wall of things that was hanging there. Things like an electrical cable, a set of bolt cutters, and some screwdrivers along with other useless junk that had been neatly sorted into boxes upon boxes.

That and hidden behind a white dingy cloth was...

A pole?

Mari seized a long pole with a crescent like metal circle that looked as if it had been snapped in the middle. Little dangly bits of thick string clung to the half-circle shape, fraying into a mess of fuzzy string that smelled absolutely awful, like a mixture of fish guts, burnt hair and... and chlorine. They had no idea, how Mari managed to hold it close to herself without retching up everything that she had eaten in the last decade.

"What's that for?" They asked eyeing the long pole that had been hanging on the wall like it might bite them. With that kind of smell, it wasn't exactly an unfounded fear of theirs's. "It smells like-"

"The pool?" Mari interrupted with an almost vicious grin that split her face like a gash, playfully she pointed the thing at them pretending like she was going to poke them with it. "It's the old pool net, I stole it."

As if that had answered any of their questions.

"I was going to say," As they swatted the foul smelling thing away from them, almost unwilling to even touch the accursed thing. "That it smells absolutely awful, and you are a fucking menace for having it in here. How did you even manage to steal it?"

The pool net made a dull thud as Mari rested it against the wall, her hand twitched as they voiced their question and for a moment just the slightest moment a dark look gathered in her eyes like storm clouds on the verge of showering everything in sight. Her finders twitched, as she filed her nails into the palms of her hands. It was almost unnerving how quickly she went from grinning and joking with them, to looking like she was a few steps away from committing crimes that didn't have names yet.

Just as quickly as it came, it was gone. Leaving them holding their breath in wait for something that would never happen.

"I said no more questions!" Mari scolded playfully, the darkness that had been present in her eyes gone as if it had never been there to begin with.

They weren't sure if that was a good or a bad thing, all things considered. They hadn't forgotten what Mari had said about killing the engineer, even if they hadn't voiced it yet.

"But to answer your question..." Mari smirked as she held the broken pool net like a spear. "We're going to go fishing!"