The Private Plaza was definitely a bigger place than Cassie ever though. The Private Plaza was a five-star hotel. In the front of the building, was a big water fountain shooting waters more than thirty feet into the air. It reminded her of Las Vegas because the waters were being shot into the air in a weird pattern to create a show. Cassie could not resist, so she stepped up to the fountain, took out an American US quarter, closed her eyes and made a wish. She mouthed what her wish was before flipping the coin into the falcon.
Derek came up to her and placed a hand on her right shoulder gently. "So C-Dog, what did you wish for?" His curiosity only got him hit in the back of the head playfully. "Please, I'm curious as to what you wished for. Please, can you tell me? Please?"
Cassie kept on shaking her head. "No, I can't otherwise it won't come true." She just turned away and walked around the fountain. She walked up to the front door of the Private Plaza hotel and looked up. There was a total of sixty-seven floors. This place looked kinda bigger than the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Man, she had a good time at the hotel. That was when she spent a romantic night with a certain boy named Derek, and by romantic she meant that they stayed up all night, eating nothing but chocolate and playing their own pretend gamble games. No love making happened between the two, but Cassie's view of a romantic night is Derek going out of his way to buy her a heart-shaped box of chocolates.
"This place is really big; it must have like a hundred floors or so." Cassie's mouth dropped, licking the inside of her cheeks and lips. "Niko lives here? What the hell man? How can he afford a place like this?"
Derek went on to give a lecture on how Niko studies extinct languages for a living, which Cassie already knew so she rolled her eyes at him. She was not asking a serious question, but a rhetorical question and Derek should've known that. He did know this and answered the question sarcastically.
"Derek man, we should get inside and look for his room." Cassie walked through the doors and held it open for Derek and Omaria. "I'm heading to the elevators, you guys give Niko a buzz that we are here."
"I'll do that," Derek said. "Omaria can translate my sentence to the bellhop for me or something."
Omaria just shrugged. "Sure, why not? I'll just be the translator that is only useful for translating. Let's just get inside and buzz your cousin."
Cassie walked off to the direction in the right while Derek and Omaria walked forward. Derek made it to the front desk and laid his elbows flat down on the desk. He smiled at the bellhop, a young man with a neatly pressed red uniform. He spoke in English, then Omaria translated.
"Hello, I am the cousin of Niko Lowell. I would like you to give him a heads up that I am here."
Omaria translated and the bellhop nodded. He reached over, grabbed a phone, and spoke in Afghanistan native language. Omaria translated to Derek, saying that the bellhop called Niko's apartment room and that his cousin was on his way up. Derek and Omaria left before the bellhop hung up the phone.
Cassie was standing in the hallway filled with elevators. She pressed the call button numerous times, hammering her index finger into the button, burying it into the wall eventually that lit up a yellow-like color.
The arrow pointing upwards lit up brightly, and the doors opened with a ding. She climbed in, waited for Derek and Omaria, but the elevator filled up with four more people, all wearing different sorts of clothes ranging from jeans to khakis, to muscle shirts, to flannels. They wasted no time and pressed the button leading to the fifteenth floor.
Cassie cleared her throat and laced her fingers together in front of her. If there was one thing that Cassie feared, it was crowded elevators. No matter where she was, under no matter what kind of circumstances, she was terrified of crowded elevators. She was always afraid that the people surrounding her would pull out a knife, stab her to death numerous times, and then sell her body on the black market, where it would be bought by necrophiliac cannibals and then dumped into the Atlantic ocean and left to rot in the deepest trench in the world, only to be eaten by a long-lost Megalodon.
She inhaled deeply and hoped that Derek and Omaria would somehow squeeze their way in, but she knew it was impractical because these people brought large suitcases with them, thus making it impossible for them to make room. She felt her heartbeat increase as the elevator doors closed, leaving her inside the elevator with the four strangers. She could feel a lump in her throat as she gulped.
She did not get a good look at any of their faces, thus making them unrecognizable to her. She knew that she hasn't seen them before, but they remind her of those thugs in the pyramid. There was that vibe that made the hairs on her forearms jump up, acting like her spider senses. She kept her eyes on the four men, only occasionally looking at the light near the buttons. She was hoping that she would get to the seventeenth floor quickly. Something hits her to the point where she widens her eyes: she forgot to push the button to the seventeenth floor. Her right hand lunged forward, her index finger slamming into the seventeenth-floor button. As she retracted her hand, her wrist brushed against the man's wrist in front of her. She snatched her hand back, reacting as if she touched lava, and just stared at the napes of the four men.
The elevator doors opened with a ding. The four men stepped out, leaving Cassie all by herself in the elevator. She was traumatized (kinda), and let out a deep sigh of relief. As soon as she was out of this elevator, she was going to buy a chocolate milkshake, and drink like there's no tomorrow. The elevator ascends two more floors and she rushes out, almost bumping into a child with her knee in the process. She moves around the child and rushes down the hallway, sprinting as if her life counted on it. Her eyes moved from left to right, searching for 17Z on the doors. She dodged several people like a football player, not wanting to hurt any innocent people. Then again, the people who attacked her were unlike anybody she has ever encountered, so she was completely unknown who was innocent in this hotel. Either way, she knows that those four people in the elevator were part of that rogue group which meant that they must have intercepted Derek's phone call to Niko, which equals Niko being in danger.
End of the line, she thought as she reached the very end of the hallway and saw a room that read 17Z on the door. She knocks onto the door numerous times, not stopping for anything. She knew that her constant knocking on the door would eventually lead to her knuckles turning red and sore, but constant knocking would start getting annoying for the people inside so they would want to answer the door quickly.
The knocking came to an end, the door opened, and stood in front of her, was a young man with wavy brown hair, hazel-brown eyes, and an oval shaped head. He looked to be like a younger version of Derek, which made sense because Niko is the son of Derek's uncle from his father's side.
Cassie gave a huff of air and smiled. She extended her arms out and embraced Niko in a bear hug. He returned the gesture.
"Hey there Niko, son of Hades…"
Niko snorted. "I see you still like calling me that. You got up here pretty quickly. Where's Derek?"
"They're still down there, but they should be coming up right now. Him and Omaria."
"Omaria as well?" Niko invited Cassie inside. His room consisted of a single bed with white sheets, one window with the curtains opened showing the great view, and the walls painted a tan color. "Make yourself at home."
Cassie went to the fridge, pulled out a carton of milk, and a chocolate Hershey's bar, went to the counter, turning on the blender, and making herself a chocolate milkshake.
"You just took my Hershey's bar without asking," Niko scolded. "That was my last piece of candy."
Cassie looked at him over her shoulder, glaring at him. "I'm sorry. But when you are trapped in a crowded elevator and your heart is racing, and you develop a sudden craving for chocolate, then don't come scolding me for stealing your last chocolate."
She took a gulp of her milkshake.