Chapter XIV

"Sora, I'm sorry for what happened," Nema says. She leans back in her office chair and slumps, growling in anger at her employee's madness. "Usually the staff makes sure not to drag outsiders into the hotel. Now I'm going to get swamped with police and reporters again."

"Why do you allow them to do it," the office visitor asks, scratching his head in confusion, "can you give me an answer?"

"Sora, it keeps them happy and working harder than ever to take care of issues that arise."

"They tried to kill that guy! You hear me, Nema? They tried to kill him!"

"Usually they just kill staff members."

"What?"

"Yeah, but using outsiders, I wonder if they've gone beyond their interest in the work?"

"'I wonder if they've gone beyond…' Nema! They're mad! They believe the book is something real! That it actually happened! That they too can become like the narrator!"

"I wonder how long the clock's hands have been circling the times of Nigh?"

"I've got a question."

"Shoot."

"How long has this 'role-playing' been going on?"

"Ever since I installed copies into this place."

"Years please."

"I was eighteen when I took this place over, gave this place a good book at 25…7 years."

"Seven years? How old are you?"

"32, I'll be 33 next year."

"You've allowed your staff to 'role-play' for 7 years?"

"It's not really a long time."

"'Not a long time?' It's gone on long enough from what I've seen. In fact, it shouldn't have started."

The hotel owner stands up quickly, making her customer step back from surprise. "Look, I run this place. It's not easy, how the last owner did it is beyond me."

"He probably didn't let the staff feed on unhealthy fantasies to keep the place going."

"Shut up!" Nema screams. She watches Sora's mouth shut and instead return an angry look. "This is my place to run! I saved your butt than let you die outside! I helped keep you here than go to jail! You belong to me just like all of those that live here! Until you pay your debt you can't say one bad thing about me! Now get out, or I'll move you to Floor 3, just like Leia!"

The hotel owner's visitor turns around to exit, but he stops to look back at a sour host. Sora turns the handle, opens it slowly and exits into the lobby. He looks around, seeing no other guests in the area. Staff members with mad looks stare at him. The lonely guest outside Nema's office room turns right to face a door that's only a few feet from his location and enters through it into Fungi Paradise's stairwell. Not caring to question the strange cleanliness around him, he stomps up to floor two.

"I don't get it!" Sora screams, he stops once on level two for his floor and grabs the railing with his right hand. "Why would she allow her staff to go mad with this book? The whole idea screams trouble," he snarls and slams the railing with a fist just as the door to Floor 2 opens up. "She's making trouble and barley blinks an eye! She stabs her maid and puts 'her' there…"

"Sora, what's going on?" a familiar voice asks.

The spouter turns, seeing his neighbor, Rye is standing in front of him. "Oh, hey, I guess you didn't hear about what happened last night."

"No, I didn't."

"Leia, a staff member of Nema's, tried to kill someone last night that she brought here."

"What?"

"She tricked the guy into coming back with her so they'd have someone for acting out a scene from Orel Myshton's 'Climatic Glory.'"

"That's messed up, but then again, that all happened during The End of Nigh too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, during the events, people held small performances for those that wanted to see it on stage. When movies came around, some made pictures based on the work, an utter mess those days."

"What happened with the performances and pictures?"

"The pictures were burned and the performances were stopped by the government."

"I can't believe history is repeating itself here just like then."

The neighbor begins to chuckle, but stops once he notices. "Sorry, but what's happening here is small fries and different then what happened in The Ending of Nigh."

"How much of a difference?"

"Well, let's just say its much different. Look, I don't think you could handle what I learned about The Ending of Nigh. Its full of so much information that I don't think you could understand it all."

"I've handle what you told me."

"I gave you the short version, perhaps one day when you grow some more, I can tell you more about it, but for now its best you don't know."

"The water was turning my insides, making me sick, knowledge and desires continued to fill me."

"There you go again."

"Sorry."

"Just stop!"

"It's not that easy!"

"No, you can. All it takes is determination."

"I've read so much of that work, it's coming back too easy."

"That's the problem with garbage, a disaster, a fear, anything negative can just come back, but you have to not let it become part of you. You have to get rid of it, someway, somehow."

"What would you recommend?"

Rye dips his head, thinking and sticks his hands in his pockets. When he does so his fingers feel his lighter and an idea hits him. "We're going to burn yours and my copy, that way neither one of us has to read it."

"She'll make us pay for it?"

"Not if we do it quietly and in a place she won't suspect."

"Where will we take our copies?"

The spouter's neighbor's head looks up at the third floor landing. "Up there."

Sora frowns, but remembers the hotel owner didn't take his metal arrow head. "Let's go."