When Caitlin and Katie reached the elevators, the area was already tightly packed. It took them a while to push their way into the center, and when they did, a part of Caitlin hoped they didn't.
The door of one of the elevators was open, revealing on the glass floor of the elevator a sack of semi-liquid compound. Caitlin could only guess from context clues that this sack used to be a man, but all she could see was blood, flesh, and bones packed into a tiny ball. The smell of blood was thick in the air. Some of the students were already pushing their ways out of the crowd and toward the bathroom. Fair enough.
Katie licked her lips.
"What happened?" Eric demanded as soon as he got into the crowd. Caitlin saw his expression turning as he saw the remains, but he did his best to keep a solid face. A challenging task that he forced himself to accomplish. He turned to the crowd. "Who saw this happen?"
One of the boys stepped forward, still shaking like crazy. "That...that was Ryan! He said he wanted to go downstairs to grab some soda, but after he...he got into the elevator, we heard him screaming! And then...we tried to open the doors, but they just won't budge! When the door finally opened, that's what we saw!"
Honestly, looking at the pile on the ground, Katie suspected if this boy wasn't seen entering the elevator, no one could identify him from the remains.
"Damn it!" Eric swore. That idiot! He explicitly told everyone to stick together! Go downstairs in a haunted hotel knowing a ghost was hiding in the shadows, ready to claim his life? How stupid is that? Some could even argue Ryan had it coming! "Why in the damn world did he do that?"
The boy bit his lips before glancing at Katie. "Ryan saw Katie going downstairs by elevator, so he thought it was safe, but…"
Caitlin could only sigh. This is explicitly why you don't learn from Katie! Katie Lockwood may be the worst role model there is! The worst example possible! If she jumps into a volcano, she's taking the day off! If you jump into a volcano, you're an idiot! If you aren't Katie, don't do what she does!
Eric turned and glanced at Katie. He wasn't exactly sure what happened, of how Katie survived what Ryan didn't. Perhaps this trap in the elevator was designed to target the second rider? Wouldn't be the weirdest thing they have seen.
"From now on, we go down and up via the stairs!" He said loudly, though unnecessarily. After seeing the bloody mess in the elevator, only idiots and Katie would keep on taking them.
The rest of the day went by peacefully, in a surprising and concerning fashion. The students traveled in packs with weapons never leaving their hands or pockets. They took the stairs to the dining hall for dinner, and other than that, they stayed in the rooms and did nothing.
Katie went downstairs a few more times by herself, hoping a monster or something would leap out into the open and bite her head off or something. Upon Caitlin's request, she even found herself a hammer and removed part of the hotel's wall. Caitlin suspected the hotel itself might be the wraith, but if it was, then it was being oddly passive to the tiny bug inside its body that was smashing its insides to bits.
All the while, the hotel employees did nothing. It was as if they couldn't see the weird actions of the students.
And then, as the sun went down, came nightfall.
Some of the girls simply refused to sleep. Close their eyes and they may never open again. But Caitlin insisted, and she had a good reason for it.
"There is no way we can stay awake for five days straight! Even if we somehow manage that, our reflexes and alertness will be nonexistent! At the very least, the lack of sleep will take a toll on us and make us very emotional, and the last thing we need right now is to be exhausted and emotional."
"But what if the wraith finds us at night? We will be defenseless!"
"We are setting up sentries," Caitlin instructed the girls. She and Eric already came up with a plan. "Split into groups of three and rotate. We only have to stay awake for a few hours each and we can still get enough sleep to remain at peak readiness. If anyone has to go to the bathroom, notify the watchers."
In the end, the girls agreed with her proposal. Three of the 16 girls were selected for the first shift. They would stay awake for two hours to make sure the rest of the girls wouldn't get their throats slit in their sleep. After that, they would wake the second rotation before getting a chance to rest.
Of course, the lights would be kept on the entire time. Even if these lights couldn't stop the wraith, they should be enough to give the girls some resemblance of safety.
On the other side, the boys did a similar thing under Eric.
Just like that, under the shining lights across the Suite, the girls got ready for bed. They laid out carpets and sleeping bags on the floor, specifically delivered to them by the hotel employees upon their request. These employees arrived onto the 5th floor in the same elevator where Ryan was turned to sandwich, but as the two employees pushed a cart across the dismembered corpse, the students didn't find a hint of fear on their faces.
Was it because they were the wraiths? Or maybe they were dead all along? Or perhaps their senses were just altered? No one knew.
As all the girls got ready for bed, Katie casually found her way to Caitlin. Caitlin set up her made-shift bed in the corner of one of the bedrooms in the Suite. It wasn't the most exposed location, but it still offered some privacy. The only issue was that Caitlin couldn't easily see the entire Suite from there. Nonetheless, if she started screaming, the entire Suite could hear her.
Katie quietly removed her black jacket, revealing the black tank top below. She sneaked a peek at the biceps on her exposed arms before turning her attention back to Caitlin.
"Really? Here?" Sitting on a sleeping bag on the floor, Caitlin raised her eyebrows, thinking she knew what Katie wanted. "We've got a lot of audiences, and you're not that quiet when you get excited..."
"Don't worry, I bought a gag...wait, no!" Katie replied completely without thinking before suddenly shaking her head. "Come on, Caitlin! Get your head outta the gutter! Do I look like that type of girl?"
"Yep."
"Come on!" Katie threw her hands up. "I can be very professional if I need to. For example," She scanned the room, where a handful of girls were laying down and trying to sleep. "we both know this night is going to be especially dangerous and there's no way I'm sleeping and putting you at risk. So..."
She sat down on a chair beside Caitlin, pulled out her Knife, and casually slid it into her left thigh. "I'm pulling an all nighter, and something tells me the lack of sleep won't be too much of a problem for me."
Her friend pointed at the gushing wound on her thigh. "And how does that help?"
"It keeps me awake...and brings me a little joy to pass the long, boring night."
"Fine, wake me up when it's time for my shift. And, uh...have fun!"
Caitlin sighed before slowly lying down. As she closed her eyes, she had to admit she was feeling oddly safe for someone in a haunted hotel. It felt good to have her brain shut down, knowing that she was in good care of a woman who would be all too happy to bleed and die for her.
---
Katie pulled the Knife out of her bare thigh for the eighteenth time that night. A small puddle of blood formed under her white socks as the short burst of pain woke her up from whatever drowsiness she once had. Sleep? Who needs that?
Another glance at Caitlin told Katie she was sound asleep. A satisfying sight.
As part of the class, Katie and Caitlin were also given a shift. They were the third shift, having to cover the two-hour period from two o'clock to four o'clock.
Katie looked down at her phone. It was 1 o'clock now, just past midnight. Several hours into the night, Katie has already been, well...let's say she has been having a lot of fun. Her shoes were a distance away, right next to her jeans. Her white socks were stained red, much like the rest of the clothes she had on. Even her tank top was a little soaked wet from her sweat.
She casually ran her fingers across the biceps on her left shoulder. She could feel the strength within these muscles, which was rather odd considering she hasn't spent too much time working out. Instead, her body has been going through what seemed like an automatic process, making her faster and stronger to a point where she could take on weaker supernatural beings with raw physical strength.
Much like everything else in her body, it was a mystery.
The brunette licked her lips. The lights were still on, but the girls on the ground were sleeping like they have never slept for weeks. At the very least, the girls in this bedroom wouldn't wake up in the near future. Even the three watchers in the living room haven't made a sound in the past thirty minutes.
This made Katie smirk inside. They were probably asleep as well. If Caitlin placed her life in their care, then she would be dead before she knew it.
Either way, this also meant she would have this entire time to herself for some...naughty behaviors.
She grabbed onto the Knife once again. Just before she could bring it down, she suddenly stopped herself. They still had to stay here for a few more days. It would be a bit annoying if she made this corner too bloody...with that in mind, she knelt down beside Caitlin and woke her up.
"Caitlin!"
"Yes?" It wasn't a difficult task. Before long, Caitlin's eyes snapped open. Katie saw the relieved look in her eyes as Caitlin saw who woke her up. "Katie, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just need to go to the bathroom." Katie gestured to the side. "If anything happens, just start screaming and I'll be back here before you know it."
"I see." Caitlin didn't have any disagreements. The wraith couldn't snatch her up in a room full of people. The only two times it struck were against students who were alone and trapped. She should be fine for the near future.
Katie stood up and made her way across the field of sleeping girls. She was heading for the bathroom connected to the bedroom, but before she went there, she took a peek outside the bedroom. Just like she imagined, the watchers were all asleep on the job. One of the girls was laying on a sofa. The other was leaning against a table. She didn't see the third girl, but she suspected she was just taking a nap somewhere else.
The brunette shrugged and stepped into the bathroom connected to the bedroom. The first thing she did was turn on the lights. As she reached for her underwear, something wet suddenly landed on her cheek.
Katie reached up and touched her forehead with her finger. A single glance told her it was something red. Something that she just lost a lot of. Blood. Distinctly knowing what happened, she looked up at the ceiling.
Nailed on the ceiling was the bleeding corpse of a girl. Her arms and legs alike were pinned to the bathroom's white ceiling with what Katie could only assume were four giant wooden nails. Her face was purpled, with a horrified twisted look on her face. The killing blow seemed to be a gazing wound across her neck. She bled to death, but somehow, no one heard a sound from her.
Also, now Katie could see a lot of blood in the bathroom. On the floor. On the walls. Even on the toilet. How did she not see those blood when she walked in? Some sort of hallucination, most likely. The same hallucination that made her accidentally take a five-story fall.
If this was anyone else seeing this all of a sudden in the middle of the night, this image alone could make that person be too terrified to walk into a bathroom for an entire year. If the person was any weaker-minded, she would have nightmares for god-knew how long. At the very least she would start screaming and crying and running out of the bathroom with a wet patch on her pants.
Katie's response was simple. Oh, look! A body. Another body. This kill is a little uncreative though. A slit throat? How disappointing. Anyways...what was I here to do again?
The girl proceeded to spend the next twenty minutes entertaining herself with her Knife. Finally, when she finished having her fun, she stepped back out of the bathroom and went back to Caitlin, who was still wide awake.
"So..." Katie finally reported, albeit maybe a bit later than she could've. Then again, she doubted twenty minutes mattered much. It wasn't like the wraith was still in the bathroom after the kill.
"We seem to have a little situation in the bathroom…"