Three Golden Swords

Hotel Crimson

7PM is an even better time to fly around as a fallen angel. The sky grows darker, stars appear brighter and many humans have gone indoors.

"How far are we from the hotel now?" Asked Angela, the handbag dangling in her hands.

Phoebe quickly looked around and checked the map she held. After mumbling some calculations, she answered,

"I think we're 1.56 kilometers from it now and decreasing."

Angela was rather impressed. Although, Phoebe was the top student in her classes before they died.

"Alright, let's land. Quickly. Then we can put on our coats in an alley or something." Said Phoebe.

"Maybe we can land in there." Angela pointed to a short alleyway to her left.

"No. We need to land somewhere long enough. We need at least 5 meters to do so. That one is approximately 3 meters long."

"How did you know that?" Asked Angela.

"Because of this." Phoebe answered, pointing to her head.

Angela was now contemplating why Phoebe wasn't the top student in their whole school (before they died, of course).

Phoebe silently pointed to a longer alleyway and Angela knew she was signaling their landing. They plummeted to the ground and landed nicely despite the width of the alleyway. There was some vegetation here; bushes, grass and vines.

The hotel was on the other side, painted in creamy whites and reds. A big front sign above the glass double doors read

Hotel Crimson

The perfect five-star hotel for you and your family!

After once again checking for any prying eyes, Angela quietly took out the coats and handed one of them to Phoebe.

"Put it on. Then we'll go inside the hotel and book us a place to stay for a bit." Advised Angela.

"Okay."

They wore the coats and made sure their wings were not obviously visible.

Then everything happened at once.

2 bushes on the farther side of the alleyway crinkled and shook. A human-like figure emerged from each bush, but it was hard to see them clearly in the darkness.

"Run." Whispered Angela.

She and sprinted out of the alleyway, taking a left turn with loud footsteps trailing behind her.

Phoebe however, took a right turn with another individual chasing her too.

Angela, unwilling to be separated from her in this vast city, did a U-turn. The footsteps behind her seemed to be growing louder and closer. She could see Phoebe ahead of her in the light of streetlights. She was glancing back at Angela with a look that said 'Get over here! I have a plan!'

But whoever was chasing Phoebe was not interested in her anymore; they had taken a U-turn as well, running straight in Angela's path.

Angela swerved to her right.

The one coming to her front bumped hard into the one who was coming for her back. They laid on the ground for a while before giving up, running to the alleyway they had started the chase in. Angela continued jogging to Phoebe's side but both had slowed down a bit. They were extremely lucky nobody was watching the chase unfold. They slowed down to a walking pace when Phoebe asked

"Who were those people?"

"They weren't people."

"What?"

"Don't you think that could be Sarra and her master? Chasing us again? It all makes sense. We had proof that she was alive, which was obvious since we didn't kill her or something. But she probably came back to her shack and found out that we stole stuff from it. Maybe that's how she found us again."

"How could they have found us just because we stole some stuff from the house? And they didn't have wings."

"Maybe it was part of the illusion. They probably wanted us to think they were humans so we would dumb it down for them and stuff like that. But remember, Sarra and her master don't have wings anyway! It's the reason they wanted to get my pair of wings in the first place."

They made their way to the hotel doors and pushed them open. The indoors of the hotel were elegantly simple yet slightly old-looking, a bit victorian style. Some soft red couches grouped in corners were facing a center desk made of rosewood with a lacquer finish. 2 fancy chandeliers hung from the ceiling on either side of the desk. The concierge itself was painted white with a single red stripe running all the way around the top of the room.

"Are you sure they're not humans?" Whispered Phoebe, sinking into one of the couches.

"Yup." Answered Angela, sitting beside her.

"Oh, all right then." Said Phoebe (literally) shrugging it off thinking that her theory is still better.