The Riches of Power

Criminals

POV Karen

The food here was completely unappetizing and I felt compelled to keep my hands bundled in my lap to avoid touching anything. Calvin had picked up the check and examined it carefully. As I started to stress about how we were actually going to pay for the meal he made a remark "She overcharged us." My curiosity got the best of me and I snatched the paper out of his hands. My eyes scanned over the badly printed symbols. They had charged us for ten meals instead of eight.

"They charge for unfiltered water here?!" whispered almost outraged.

"It's not surprising." Taryn commented.

"Why?" Pieper asked

"Because they kidnapped every innocent soul that was in the neighboring towns, leaving only the evil ones." she said ", and that includes the stingy ones." she added. That comment made me feel more uncomfortable in this town than I had originally bin. 'So every person I see tonight are not innocent.' Wouldn't that include murderers, rapists, and thieves? I find it unnerving that our stingy waitress just might be the nicest woman we'll see in this deserted town.

I had begun to worry about how we were going to pay when Elaina had set down the exact amount of money for what we ordered. We all quickly walked out into the dark. The convenience store, gas station, diner, and hotel seemed to be the only four buildings in this part of the town. They formed a square shape and a single dim yellow light shined at corner of a sidewalk next to an intersection of two roads. The steet light only gave enough light to see the corner of the convenience store and an area of five feet away. I could only make out the outline of the abandoned gas station and the hotel that seemed to be falling apart. The siding of the place was peeling and rotting, lace drapes covered the windows. It really looked like a haunted house.

I cringed when I saw Elaina heading for the old hotel door. We all crammed into the small hallway with yellow designed wall paper and an old dark green carpet was wrinkled over the floor. There was a stairwell opposite the entrance to the building and to the right was a window with metal bars across it. The metallic paint was chipped revealing bits of rust. There was a dusty bell on the counter. There was only one dim light giving off a yellow light. No one sat behind the counter, and I was excited when I got to ring the bell.

After a few minutes of waiting I rang the bell again, then a middle aged man came in. "Yea I heard it the first time." He asked annoyed. "Do you want one room" He asked smirking ,revealing his crooked teeth, as his dark brown eyes scanned our group. His brown hair was slick back and he wore worn grey dress pants and an old supposedly white dress shirt.

"No we would like two." I tried to answer politely, I was getting tired of impolite people tonight. His smirk fell, but his eyes uncomfortably lingered on our small group. He turned around and grabbed two room keys. I took notice that they were on different floors, but I didn't want to interact with this man any more than necessary. I snatched the keys and threw one to Charles. "Boys will go with you to your room." I said as I began my ascent. Our room number was 32.

The room as well as the hallway leading up to the room was just as disgusting. The furniture was covered in a layer of dust and dirt. The wallpaper was of old floral pink and yellow prints. The carpet was stained and the bed spreads had a dirty ugly pale blue pattern. The dresser and nightstands had chips missing from the edges and the television set was so old, I didn't think it would turn on. It was one of those that had the two antennas sticking out.

Laying over the screen of the TV was a faded yellow piece of paper, explaining that there was an outhouse in the back of the building. 'Great' I thought.There were only two beds so we would have to share. I was exhausted and decided that I would rather be asleep and forget everything for a while. Everyone else had begun chatting on different subjects but I simply layed down on top of the comforter and let myself drift asleep.