*Hello everyone long time no see. well I have had a lack of inspiration for the last few months and suddenly it came to me. it was a bleary day after christmas when my cousin was playing this game hotel dusk and said i should try it. so now im in possession of her game and am whooping her but at it. off subject. this kyle hyde guy seemed like the perfect character to write from the POV of....so this is my newest submission.*
A Different Time of Day
I thought it was pretty amusing when Ed sent me to a hotel by the name of Hotel Dawn. I'd already been sent to a dump called Hotel Dusk, and Dawn wasn't really much better. What is it with times of day as names and crappy service? The lobby was all done up in a pea green wallpaper that was peeling absolutely everywhere. The front desk was....what the hell I can't even call it a front desk, it was a table with a phone on it and a bell with a little sign saying "if you REALLY need help, ring". So if it could wait, are we just supposed to stand there until it can't? I found it to be even more amusing that the room number I was given was 217, which (have you any idea of my past) is a mildy significant room number to me. I spent many a minute sneaking around a room 217.
The girl at the front desk couldn't have cared less that I wanted to stay there. Stupid dame. She kept snapping a wad of bubble gum and chewing it like a cow. "How bout room 217, Mr..?"
"Hyde." I mumbled as I walked away with my key.
The room across from me was emitting strange noises that sounded like heavy metal...or whatever that type of music is called. Heavy glass? Heavy lead? I rolled my eyes, I knew the type of kid staying in there. He'll be blonde, messy hair, staying with a girl. He'll wear jeans, worn, torn at the knees and some white t-shirt that he's been wearing for 5 days. yup, I know the type.
*-----*
1 star, was all I could give Hotel Dawn after inspecting my room. The bed was...lumpy- which I didn't care for, even if a beds a bed. The toilet was so friggin dirty I could have shot myself in the foot. There wasn't a tv, and none of the lights worked. The only reason it managed a star was because it had a mildly decent arm chair (which I planned to sleep in) and a fast food joint across the street so I wouldn't have to risk their room service.
As I headed out of my room with the intent of snatching myself a grease smothered burger, Mr. Room-Across-From-Me and his lady friend stepped out into the hall. My hunch was correct, he was exactly what I had thought. And though my thoughts on the girl were never mentioned, I was right about her too. She was a short brunnette with eyes that had seen to much money and were obviously not happy with the hotel.
"Simon, why the heck are we here? There's a Holiday Inn two miles down the interstate, there is NO harm in staying there, it's not like we're gonna break up if the floors are clean."
"Aw come on Katrina! Ain't THAT bad here!" He smiled a way-whitened-to-bright-to-be smile at her...she stopped complaining.
"Yo." I quickened my pace to catch up to them. If there was one thing I learned from Hotel Dusk it was that everyone in one of these nasty little hell holes becomes pretty darn close over night. If I played the cards right, I'd know their whole life stories by the time we made it to the stairs (if the cracked, moldy things could be called stairs.)
The girl turned and faced me with a small smile, welcoming me to walk with them through her eyes.
"Who are you" was all I got from the Simon guy.
"Hyde, Kyle Hyde. You?"
"Katrina Shaund," still smiling, "and my boyfriend, Simon Rivers."
The Simon Rivers kid looked at me warily. Sure, I'm not exactly the best dressed man in the county, and I do have a bit of a shady look to my person, but its not like I was pushin drugs at him or pullin the trigger on his girl. So how was I offending him? Not a clue.
"We're goin' over to the fast food place over there." Her short finger pointed due east. "Neon lights, soft drinks, calorie packed burgers- my kind of place. Beats the rat infested cuisine of this place." She poked Simon in the side and smirked. He just winced...obviously pained by my presence.
"Kat...don't even..."
"Wanna come with?? Three is company!!!"
Simon deflated in apparent agony. what the hell had I done to this guy? Like, seriously! Even people who knew me didn't react like this...and i had a lot of enemies. But through all my thoughts of what I had and hadn't done I guess I accepted the stranger's invitation. And by the time my mind focused on the task at hand (getting to the food place and keeping up conversation) I had already made it to the front entrance of Hotel Dawn and informed the couple that I was a traveling salesman on "vacation" (I guess my subconcious mind can lie just like my concious one.)
We jogged across the road, entered the restuarant and ordered, taking a seat at a table near the front windows, overlooking the interstate. Simon didn't talk much, but Kat was running at the mouth. She had just graduated high school, and this was her last "free" summer. She and Simon were spending the week together at Hotel Dawn before she returned home to spend what was left of her time with her 'rents. "Yea, and then it's hello college!"
"Ah," I said contently leaning the chair back on two legs and closing my eyes. "College was good times...the parties, the drinking, the dames..." I trailed off with the memories swirling like dust in the sunlight.
"But unlike some" Simon growled, indicating that I was the "some" "Katrina here is going to college for an education and not to get laid by the nearest frat boy."
She nodded and smiled at Simon, taking his hand affectinatly.
I think I gagged.
*-----*
The next morning found me hunched over the morning newspaper with a glass o' scotch in one hand and a room key in the other. Guys like Simon make me drink earlier than I would usually start out. It's usually 7 at night when i finally resort to the devil's temptation....but that Simon guy, he just drove me up the wall. I couldn't get his eyes out of my head, those deep blue eyes which seemed so framiliar...yet so distant in my memory. there was something there, something I knew. And I wasn't going to rest until i figured out what it was...or so I planned...
