"Remember, you two, do not leave this hotel room unless we call you," Yuma said in a stern voice.

Rin rolled her eyes and pouted. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. You can leave now."

She wasn't very happy.

Flower, Yuma, Anon, and Kanon were all dressed in civilian clothes. They each had a suitcase, ready to blend into the crowd at the Monterrey International Airport.

It was four in the morning. We had arrived at our hotel room only a few hours ago in the dead of night. It only had two beds, so, of course, Yuma and I were kicked onto the couch and the floor, respectively. I had happily moved to one of the beds when they girls woke up to get ready.

It was here that I listened to the conversation with closed eyes.

"We'll call you with any updates," Kanon said. Her suitcase contained all of her gear. The four of them wore earpieces. Rin and I did not. "Here's the phone. Don't call anyone with it-"

Rin huffed. "You guys are treating me like I've never done this before! I fucking know how this works!" The covers shifted slightly as she sat on the edge of my bed. "Just go."

They watched her frown for a moment. Finally, Flower spoke up. "We'll be back around midnight tonight."

"Alright," Rin responded with a low voice.

"See you then."

I rose a hand sleepily from under the covers to wave. "Bye guys," I muttered, thankful for the opportunity to finally sleep in without that stupid generator.

The four of them disappeared into the hallway.

I sighed, smiling into the soft pillow. My peace lasted only a few seconds. I let out a sharp gasp, more from surprise than pain, as Rin elbowed me in the side.

"If I have to wake up, you do too!" She said grumpily.

"Then maybe you should go to bed." I rolled over. "You sound like you could use some extra sleep."

"How the fuck am I supposed to sleep while they're out there doing who-knows-what?"

"They do it every time you go on missions. They stay at home and they sleep. Because they trust you."

She paused. I rolled onto my back to look at her.

"I'm just saying," I continued. "There's no point in worrying about it until we know something is wrong. So just go lay down and we'll, like, watch TV or something later."

The worst of her anger had ceased, but she wore her frown prominently. "I don't just… watch TV."

"Today you do," I concluded, rolling back over to my side. The disposable phone Kanon had given us sat on the side table between the two double beds. She knew its number. We didn't know theirs. The hotel room was still dark since the sun had not risen yet. In the moonlight, I could see Rin's pale outline sitting on the edge of my bed, her back to me.

After a moment, she wordlessly lied down next to me and closed her eyes.

When we woke up, the sun had risen, and the phone was ringing.

Rin was closest to it. She snatched it from the table and flipped it open. Her eyes were wide as she read the text.

"What's it say?" I asked with alarm. It was still early in the morning. The clock read nine am.

Her eyes scanned the screen. I was about to repeat my question when she finally answered. "Found her this morning. Didn't see the flight she came in on. She's sure to come back tonight. We'll know then," she read.

"Already?" My eyes widened at our luck. If we had been just a few hours late, we would have missed her completely.

Rin nodded, her free hand fiddling with the hem of her shirt in nervousness. "She's here."

I couldn't tell what was going through her head. Fear of Meiko? Worry for our friends? Some combination of both? I didn't know. "And they're just gonna stay at the airport all day?" I asked.

She nodded again. Her eyes were still glued to the screen. She was rereading the message.

In leaned back and let my head fall against the pillow once again. "At least we don't have to do any of the hard work," I joked.

There was no response.

"Rin, they'll be fine."

She stared at the phone.

"Put the phone down. Holding it isn't going to make them text you faster."

She frowned, making no attempt to put it down.

With a sigh, I leaned towards her, grabbing it from her hand. She didn't resist. I set it on the other table, opposite of her, and sat up. The hotel room was made up of two beds, one table between them and another two on either side. On the other wall was a dresser with a small TV resting on it. The bathroom was right next to the front door. We sat on the bed farthest from the front door, right next to the large window revealing the city below us. I remembered London, and how easily I had peered into Meiko's room through the window, with a shiver. I stood and pulled the blinds closed.

"Let's watch TV," I suggested. Rin had still not moved from where she held the phone. "They'll be back later. Maybe we can order some food or something." I walked over to the TV and angled it in the direction of our bed. The remote sat next to it. I grabbed it before crawling back to my spot.

"Oh shit," I said in surprise as I channel surfed. "They have the good cable. We can rent stuff. What do you want to watch?"

She glanced towards the TV. "I know nothing about cable. It's all up to you."

"You ever watch horror movies?" I asked with a grin.

"No. I don't watch any movies."

"We can rent the new It movie."

"What's that?" The further into our conversation, the more relaxed she seemed to become.

"It's about this demonic clown guy. This is the remake of a movie made a while ago and they're both based on this book by a famous horror writer."

With a sigh, she leaned back, laying on the pillow next to me. "Clowns? Really?"

"Yeah. It's fucking terrifying."

She snickered. "Sounds lame."

"I bet we can't make it through the first ten minutes without you shitting yourself."

A laugh escaped her lips. "Hah! Have you met me?"

I considered her words. "You're right. Five minutes."

She crossed her arms defensively. "Len, I have been in real life horror movies. I don't get scared."

"Have any of your contracts put you in a room with a shapeshifting clown named Pennywise?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He shapeshifts? Oh lord." She laughed again. "This is gonna be good."

"We're watching it," I told her, clicking on the rental. It loaded, beginning to download the movie.

"Fine," she said, lying back again. "Have you seen it?"

"I've seen the original," I admitted. "But not this one."

"I bet you will be the one shitting your pants in the first five minutes."

"Rin, before I met you guys, the only thing I ever watched was horror movies. Nothing scares me anymore."

"Just put it on," she said. "We'll see who's the bigger wimp."

The movie was terrifying and we were both wimps.

In the first scene with Pennywise in the sewer, Rin furrowed her brow. "He's… he's pretty creepy."

"That whole eye thing he does," I said. "With, like, one eye at the camera? They're uneven. I don't like it."

The end of the scene left us both wide-eyed and terrified.

"That was not how I remembered that ending," I said.

Rin had pulled her knees into her chest.

"Blanket?" I asked, offering her the other side of the comforter I was under.

"Yeah," she said, her eyes still on the screen. "Yeah, I'll take that."

At the library scene, Rin hid behind the covers. "The fucking old lady in the back is watching him do you see her she's staring so creepily-" Her entire face was behind the covers except for her eyes, poking out from her shield curiously. "Don't you fucking dare follow that balloon Ben I swear to God-"

The movie was scary, but Rin's reactions were much more entertaining.

"I hate this," she said with a laugh.

A few seconds later, at another scare, she hid once again.

I couldn't help but laugh at her. "Still lame?"

"Fuck you." She had ceased to be a person and was now a tall lump in the blanket.

The phone sat on the side table, completely forgotten.

The sky was dark once again when the phone finally rang.

We had been in the middle of another horror movie, after we took our break at the conclusion of IT with a comedy and had prepared ourselves for another screamer, when the screen lit up.

I grabbed it.

"What's it say?" Rin asked next to me. We had ordered food from the lobby several times throughout the day. Our dishes sat on the table between the two rooms. Those cooks downstairs were good.

"Fairbanks, Alaska," I read. "That's it."

Rin dropped her gaze to the blankets. "Makes sense. Most people probably think she was in Canada, like we did. But Alaska-"

"We need to get ready," I said, throwing the blanket off of me. "They'll be back any minute and I have a feeling we're getting on a plane tonight."

She groaned. "I'm getting sick of all this flying."

"Yeah," I agreed. "It sucks."

"And we're gonna fly right over home, too."

"Yeah."

Rin sighed, glancing at the paused movie once more, before following my actions. "Just… just turn all the lights on. I don't wanna deal with that fucking clown jumping out at me from a corner or something."

I snickered, crossing the room to flick the light switch up.


Just a quick little intermission chapter. Before things get a little crazy. I'll be double uploading these chapters since I haven't updated in a while and this one was pretty short.

College started and I had absolutely no free time anymore so I've been forced to resort to writing my fics on my phone. That's why I've been more inactive :(

I'll try my best to keep up, though! I promise!

Thanks for reading :)