bladesworn's Storytime the first

[bladesworn]

Nan continues to insist. The only way they stand a chance is together.
Pablo considers and finally yields. He hands Nan the fire axe and tells her to keep an eye out, and to cover him if trouble arrives.

It's never easy. They'll wait for the lights, move quick, head straight to the janitor's closet, and head right back.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan takes the axe and Pablo checks the peephole.
He says it looks like the light is back on in the hallway.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan and Pablo step out into the hallway again.
Pablo freezes. Nan keeps the fire axe firmly in-hand.
The hall light hasn't come back on. It looks like a standing light is lit, however -- though it's not standing anymore.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan quickly asks Pablo if the things are injured by the light, or if they just avoid it.
He says as far as he knows they just avoid it, and if they stay...

...but Pablo doesn't finish his sentence.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan spins around, her axe at the ready, and instinctively sidesteps.

At the end of the hall, a slouched figure rests motionless against the wall.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan asks Pablo if he knows what's going on. Pablo quickly answers no. He says he doesn't recognize the man at the end of the hall.

He asks Nan what they should do -- if they're going to get him or leave him, and who should do what.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan tells Pablo to keep watch at the edge of the light. She keeps the axe and approaches the slumped figure slowly.

She calls out, but there's no response.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan nudges the fallen figure on the ground, hoping for a response. He groans slightly.
Nan nudges again...

 

[bladesworn]

Nan grabs the man's feet and quickly turns around.
A tall, dark figure is standing just in front of the light. Vaguely silhouetted, Nan can't quite make it out.

Pablo shouts angrily. He tells Nan to hurry and get the man into the room. He'll hold this thing off.
He yells at the figure. He tells it to stay away.
Pablo says he is not afraid to die anymore.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan hurries to the door, wanting to drop the unconscious figure off to safety first.
But just when a confrontation seems unavoidable, the tall figure steps out of the light, disappearing back into the darkness beyond.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan makes sure Henry is breathing all right, then turns to Pablo and, scared by recent events, demands to know more about the monsters and the lights.

Pablo's voice is very quiet. He says he doesn't know why they are still alive.
Nan asks again, if it's true that those things don't enter the light.
Pablo says that thing was not like the others.

He says that was the Padre.
And he's never seen the Padre just... leave.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan asks about Pablo, wanting to take the opportunity to learn what she can. Pablo says he was told to come in as the janitor here -- thus, why he has the key to the closet. But he didn't even get to meet the manager before he found himself trapped here, just like Nan.

Nan asks about the Padre, how he knows its name.
Pablo says that thing may not have a name. It's some... thing that's dressed up like a Padre, so that's what he calls it. And it's not usually the type to leave.
He says in his time here he's also seen a few other beings that stood out from uninvited husks, those knotted masses of blackened flesh. He picked up the names from Alan, another he found trapped here, who had been here far longer.
There's something... a man in a black robe. Alan called it the Pilgrim. And something he always called the Beast -- but Pablo says he never saw it.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan asks what happened to Alan. Pablo gets very quiet and says the Pilgrim carved him apart.

Nan ponders quietly a moment and shows Pablo the cross-shaped pendant and alarm clock, but they mean nothing to Pablo.

Finally, she asks if he's tried breaking a window to escape.
He says yes, the first thing everyone tries is to go out the doors and windows. But they'll always just end up back in the hotel. The only windows that lead anywhere are the ones that open to the courtyard, and Alan said that's where the Beast sleeps.

 

[bladesworn]

Something rattles behind the dresser.

 

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Nan and Pablo back away to the opposite side of the room, and Pablo scoops up the axe, holding it at the ready.

The faint, almost metallic clattering noise continues, intermittently. It doesn't seem to be growing louder.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan asks if Pablo has ever tried killing these things.
He says yes. It seems the uninvited things can die, just like anyone. But he's not sure about the others -- the Padre, the Pilgrim...

He slowly, cautiously approaches behind the dresser.

There is a rat in the hole, again.
...and something else.

 

[bladesworn]

The rat quickly scurries away into the darkness, knocking something clattering onto the floor of Room 117.

Pablo picks up the CANNED BEANS.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan thanks Pablo for helping her out there. It was very brave. Pablo is modest over his involvement. It was mostly her doing.

Nan gives Henry a brief look over, but he has no visible wounds she can discern.

Pablo seems to be having trouble getting the can open. He mentions that the can-opener is in the Janitor's closet. Still.

 

[bladesworn]

Nan doesn't have her usual tools. They were lost along with her flashlight when she re-entered the hotel.

Nan's not particularly hungry, but Pablo says he is. He hasn't eaten in two days or more, by his count, though again he admits he has a poor grasp of how time passes here.

On that note, Nan asks if Pablo has any plans for escape. He says he's given it some thought but has been busy enough just trying to stay alive that he doesn't have a plan yet. All he knows is the front door is out of the question.

 

[bladesworn]

I believe an Anon from the board put it best:

"Axe the can a question. Then axe the alarm clock a couple of questions as well."