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33
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Mort stood in his hotel room, drumming his hands on his thighs. He walked over to the window, hands behind his back, to inspect the scenery. He bent down and looked out the window. The lights of lamp poles illuminated the dark Portuguese city.
He smiled and took the string of the shade. As he touched it, the reflection on the glass of the window changed. Something had moved in the room.
Mort spun around rapidly and looked around. "Hello?" He called.
The sound of a car pulling out in the parking lot was heard. Mort scanned the room once more. Then he looked out of the window again and saw the car leave. "Shit," Mort said aloud. He walked forward, then stopped. Mort picked up a fire poker from the holder that stood next to the fireplace.
He walked down the room slowly and looked around, but saw nothing, turned and cautiously opened up the door of the next room with the end of the fire poker. He turned on the light switch, and looked around, but again saw nothing.
Mort approached another door, and began opening it with the fire poker, but then heard something from the opposite direction suddenly and jumped. He turned to the bathroom, gulped and moved closer.
He saw a figure in the mirror and became scared.
"I know you're in there, shithead!" Mort yelled to the figure. "If you don't come out by the time.. I count to five... I'm gonna come in swingin'," Mort said and studied the figure in the mirror. There was no doubt about it. 'John Shooter' was in his hotel room.
How he had found out that Mort was in Portugal and how he had even managed to get there with his hick money, though, that was a different story. But Mort wasn't really thinking about that at the moment.
He wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. He was so nervous!
"One, two..." Mort began, then ran into the bathroom, swinging his weapon. "Ahhhhhh!" He yelled, thrashing the poker about. He hit something and there was the sound of smashing.
Mort flipped on the bathroom's light switch and examined his victim. "I killed a mirror," Mort said, realizing how foolish he had been. Then there was a noise. John Shooter was in the shower! How dare he try to take a free shower! Mort would show him...
Mort turned to the shower and began attacking again. "Hu.. uh!" He grunted as he smashed his poker through the shower door. He stopped and looked through the broken glass to see if he had killed the man.
But there was no man. He saw a mouse scamper through the tub and felt even more foolish this time.
"And my shower door..," Mort said sadly.
I must be going crazy. How could I have thought that the man would follow me all the way to Portugal? The man was nuts, but not that nuts.
He slid open the busted door, looked down at the mouse and sighed. Mort threw down the poker and grabbed a nearby towel. Then he bent over the tub and took the mouse up in the towel. As he straightened out, there was a crash. Mort looked up, frightened, and saw that part of the broken cabinet had fallen.
Mort scoffed and walked past it, heading into the next room. "I'm not paying for that," Mort said aloud. He walked over to the door of the hotel room, but then paused and went over to the desk that his bag sat upon. He pulled out a tattered packet of cigarettes from his bag and held them for a moment, then replaced them into the bag.
He continued back to the doorway, then stopped and came back to the desk. He grabbed the cigarettes, placed one in his mouth and walked out the hotel room door and into the elevator. He pushed the button and it began to descend.
As the elevator reached its destination and the doors opened, Mort made his way through the lobby and outside into the parking lot.
"I don't care. I'm just gonna smoke. I'm just gonna totally smoke. I'll finish these, go to the store and get a brand new pack, smoke the shit out of that one," Mort said, walking through the parking lot until he reached the end, where there was grass and trees.
Mort bent down, released the mouse from the towel into the trees and struck a match on the ground. He lit the cigarette in his mouth.
Mort took a drag on the cigarette and felt much better. But not for long.