Hotel Issues

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Nina Williams watched the clock, the seconds breezed by the minute hand rested neatly at thirty-five the hour hand announced Three. Three forty-five a.m. She couldn't sleep, she had nights like these. Sitting in the lavish penthouse looking at the neon lights of the city blinking, Nina sighed. The dream she just had would wrestle in her brain for the rest of the day.

The same dream for years.

The blue sky above them, the cool breeze from the ocean filling her nose and caressing her skin, seagulls cawed over head. In the distance some sail boats dotted the horizon. In front of her he stood there. Blonde short hair, a weathered but handsome face, the slightest scar on his left cheek, at his collar a perfectly dressed suit and black tie. He stood six feet and four inches, a serious face was usually plastered there but, today he smiled. A smile wouldn't expect from such a serious and dangerous man, wide and white exuding happiness. His smile held her there, the world fell apart everywhere else all that was left was his face and that smile, that beautiful smile.

"You ok, sweetie?" he asked; she felt her heart skip a beat, what was she going to say, how was she going to say it? She tried to talk but, the words got caught in her throat. Her mind raced, so angry, 'move!' she screamed in her mind. The words slowly rolled from her mouth, the hung in the air and danced around, she watched them and demanded them to his ears.

"Of course!" she blurted out, God it was good to see him again. This was all the difference in the world, all the death and pain and killing melted away. All the blood on her hands washed away with that smile and diffused into nothing in the water. He chuckled at her and gestured for her to come closer.

Her body moved slowly as if weighted down but, by God it moved and she would continue forward even if it took forever. He looked away for a moment at the water. Even the back of his head and neck were beautiful, how she missed it, how she just wanted to hold it and press her cheek against it, smell his cologne and even more enjoyable the scent of his skin. She trudge slowly closer, inch by inch. Gravity pushed her down and weights pulled her down but, she kept trying, God she kept trying and he turned back to her but, his face changed, surprise was on his face, he looked passed her. What was it? She turned slowly, to see what was behind her as her head turned she heard him say:

"Anna…"

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

The clock ticked, she stood awake looking at it, the neon lights glowed in the dark. Her heart began to slow to normal again. Richard, the name played in her mind over and over again. It had been too long now. Her father was dead and yet she still wasn't over it. She looked around the penthouse suite, it was lavish. Very few walls, the main hall, living room and kitchen were all out in the open. The main hall way took a step down to lead to the kitchen, adjacent was a door that lead to the bathroom. On the other side a door lead to a main living area. They accommodated her well because her reservation for the other room was accidentally given away.

She felt so alone she sighed. If only she could go back to sleep and relive that moment with he father for longer, on the stand next the couch was a glass of water and two sleeping pills. She could do it, it would put her to sleep but, she hated taking sleeping pills. She didn't even feel awake now, just not in the same dream.

It wasn't cold but, she rubbed her hands on either arm, she stood only in her underwear, her hair fell about her face. Things were different these days; her life wasn't nearly the same. She thought about the dream, always the same beginning always the same end, he'd look pass her and say-

Something fell over in the darkness, her body stood rigid and looked in the direction. Nothing there. The hair on her neck stood up, she glared in the darkness. Calmly she walked over to the area and picked up the bottled water that had fell over and put it back on the table. She rolled her neck slowly and remained cautious. On the other side of the room the refrigerator was cracked open.

"Hm," she moaned to herself and went to the kitchen and closed the door, when she turned back to the main hall, four men in black and black ski-mask stood there. One held her knife in his hand, she frowned, not totally surprised.

"That's my knife" She called, the men began to inch closer quietly, she frowned, and looked over he shoulder, there was a large steak knife in the sink. She pulled it out and held it underhandedly and watched the man come closer. "Fine then."

The four men stalked her, inching closer like lions hunting their next kill. Nina backed up, making sure to keep them in her sight, it wasn't the first time she had been ambushed and probably wouldn't be the last. She suspected something when she got upgraded to this suite but, the question was who sent them? She had plenty of enemies, throughout the years there were more than enough bad blood between her and old clients and people related to marks. There was always the chance they'd find her and retaliate but, she was careful and even more so she was dangerous. Most people were warded off by her ruthlessness.

A billboard adjacent of the building warmly flashed the name of some product, it bathed her in light then faded, bathed, then faded. As the men came closer they entered her bath too, she watched alert, eyes calm from one to the other, to the other, to the other. Silently waiting for them to strike, she gripped the knife unwaveringly and breathed slowly.

The first man leapt forward and Nina quickly readjusted, she duck under his arm as he came around for a bunch and stabbed the knife into his back. He yelped and stumbled forward into the large window, she retracted the knife only a little blood dripped off the knife, the knife was too dull, it would cause pain but, unless she hit some vital parts nothing would happen. A second man punched forward and she sidestepped sending his fist in air, effortlessly she caught his muscular arm between her arm and force is forward cracking it loudly and his scream gurgled up after. Swiftly she added a palm up into his nose smashing his face back causing him to stumble back. The third man was hit by the falling second and the fourth tackled Nina onto the floor. His weight was greater than his but, she used the momentum of their fall to send him over her head, lying on his back heads touching lightly.

She reached and encircled his arm complicatedly, she pulled trying to break it but, another masked man was tearing towards her, she swept him off his feet with a accurate kick but, lost the first man's arm. Rapidly he was on his feet and her as well, for a few seconds he boxed at her but, she evaded, her skin was scratched but, she ignored it.

She smiled.

There was still a pleasure in this kind of thing, in breaking a man down into a pile of broken bones and wills. Between the slits that allowed them to see she could see fear, not the natural fear one has in battle, the one that propels you forward and demands success but, the one that breaks you into a thousand pieces before you hit the ground. The kind of fear that grips your heart and makes it burn. It was a fun game but, she was tired of it, she had a job to do in the morning, this would be the end for these men.

She took a step back up one step up into the main area. The four men gathered again cut, bruising, broken. They limped towards her like wounded animals who couldn't get enough of the slaughter, their weakness aroused her, last round.

Two of them jumped forward at the same time, she was caught between them as they rained punches sloppily towards her, some landed but, she could feel no pain in this state. Thinking with a superior and sound mind, she elbowed one in the stomach and took his head under her arm and fall to the ground as her foot came slamming up into the others groin.

The man under her arm was defeated, the sheer blow of his face hitting the floor with the force of falling and Nina's weight his face was shattered completely. He was knocked out before the pain registered, the second man, still reeling from his compacted groin, found himself with Nina's heel in his face. She was up in a flash and sustained a forceful punch in the face from one of the remaining two.

She stumbled back, right into the arms another man, she wriggled trying to free herself but, his grip was too strong. The ski masked puncher came out of the darkness, this time with a pipe, it looked harshly metal, rusted and deadly. She frowned to herself, pain was part of the game, she just had to accept it sometimes. He swung strongly with all his being and it landed perfectly onto her left leg. She screamed harshly as the pain detonated in her leg and then radiated into the rest of her body. He reared back with the pipe again, determined to knock her leg off its socket, Nina pushed with all her might back, pushing the man holding her into the wall. The pipe swung but, missed by inches, she leapt off the ground and wrapped her legs around his neck. She tightened her grip, the pain in her leg searing, it was surely broken but, she pushed hard against his neck, he flailed the pipe but, she twisted her leg roughly, feeling pain so strongly but, also taking the utmost pleasure in feeling his neck snap in two.

Before he hit the ground she was dislodged from her captors arms, she delivered three sharp blows and then forced his face into the wall with such force that it dented. She released him and he stood briefly like a puppet just released from its strings, before falling to the floor.

One more.

She turned and he was coming at her, she saw the knife on the floor between them, ignoring her leg she dived forward head first and grabbed it, flipping onto her feet and slashing his thigh. The momentum from his run and the sudden stop from the pain pushed him onto the hard wood floor., he moaned as he writhed. Nina cracked her neck and walked over to him, she looked into his eyes as the fear drowned his thoughts, strangling him.

She straddled him momentarily then plunged the knife into his neck. The blood spurted briefly as he gargled in pain, slapping her about the face and hair. She frowned, she never got used to that sensation. She stood, still half naked, cut and broken, she flipped her hair as she surveyed the carnage, satisfied. She threw the knife onto the floor, her prints were everywhere, there was no way of just walking out tomorrow morning.

She grabbed her own leg and snapped it back into position, she gritted her teeth has the pain rushed to her head but, vanished.

She sighed, thinking about her dream again, she was so far from that place. The blue skies, the blue sea and his face replaced with a million cried for help and bloody bodies strewn across perfectly buffed floors.