‘This isn’t good…’
Luckily, Vandal returned sooner than later without so much as attracting the Umbra’s attention; however, that thing was lurking around the entrance meaning we were going to have to find a new way out of here.
I looked about to see that there was an emergency side exit, but I wasn’t too sure how electricity – if any – worked here and the last thing we needed was triggering a fire alarm.
One Umbra was enough.
“What are we going to now?” Nu whispered as she peeked out once more.
“If you’re going to heal us, we still need to get water,” I replied quietly as I heard something topple over from the lobby.
“I’ve found water,” Vandal stated as he gestured to the room a short distance down the hall. “It was in this porcelain bowl and it there seems to be enough of it.”
I glanced in the indicated direction before seeing the latrine sign. “No offense, but I’m not using toilet water. It’s not exactly, you know, sanitary.” My attention then went back to the front of the hotel. “There might be some bottles up there in the snack bar or maybe a master key for us to get into one of the rooms.”
“But how are we going to get any of that with that thing roaming about?”
I bit my lip as I looked at Vandal then towards the front of the hotel. “Working on it…” I replied as I eased up to peek around the corner.
I didn’t have eyes on the Umbra but it was quiet enough to guess that the thing had ventured a bit deeper into the hotel. Giving it about another thirty seconds, I then eased my way up to the desk to check out the small cooler section at the far end of the counter.
I counted five bottles of water before poking my head back around the corner, holding two of them up. Tossing them over, I doubled back for the others prior to noticing a numbered key hanging off the hook. It gave me old timey vibes though I noted that it was much cleaner than what the rest of the desk had been – almost like it had been conveniently placed. Grabbing the last of the bottles, I glanced at the spoiling food that was still sitting in their plastic bins.
I doubted that we'd find any edible food in this place.
My phone buzzing startled me enough to have one of the bottles hit the floor.
‘Shit…shit…shit…’ I slowly looked over my shoulder to see the black mound rounding the corner before one of the golden eyes shifted to my position. “You two…” I whispered as I started backing towards my company. “…start moving.”
“There you are~” Its voice was like nails on a chalkboard as it crawled forward. “I thought I smelled you. You were hiding from me~” It smiled, flashing yellowed fangs before not one but two tongues snaked out of its mouth as I took a step back. “No escaping this time, reaper~”
Dodging just one was hard enough if you weren’t prepared. I couldn’t just take my eyes off this thing. The slightest misstep could lead to error – death. Even more, I wasn’t in a state that I could run.
One of the tongues shifted before shooting forward, making me drop to the floor to avoid being hit. I hurled one of the water bottles at the second before rolling out the way as the first stabbed down into the tiled floor where I had once been. I got to my feet before the second tried to impale me as well.
Throwing the last bottle I had to deter the tongue, I looked about quickly to find something else to use before a snarl sent a shiver up my spine from how close it was.
My attention snapped back towards the Umbra before stumbling back as two of the tongues snaked towards me but that wasn’t the unnerving part. A third tongue slid from hiding to sway in front of my face, giving me a generous display of its fangs and putrid breath.
I forgot just how fast and quiet these things could be.
“Jayden!”
Those eerie eyes shifted from me towards the source of sound. “Oh? There are others~” I scrambled to my feet before having one of the tongues snag me by the waist as another barreled past me to get to the girl.
“Nu, run!”
ns 15.158.61.54da2
