We were separated from the rest. It all happened so fast that I could have missed it if I blinked. We were teleported to a city. The whole place was packed with tourists. I even almost lost Ella. The buildings were painted white with glass segmented on the walls. I could see a humongous river passing through the center of the city. The shores were covered with vegetation and harbors.
We moved to a more spacious area and took in a much-needed breath. I said, "With the new situation, I think we should try to communicate with the rest." She pulled out a smartphone from her purse. She called Octaviet and then Darius but none of them picked up. She said, "Their phones are off, or on silent." I said, "Bad for communication but good for them. Only a fool keeps a phone on when on a mission, especially stealth ones." She looked almost as frustrated as me. Unlike other times, I had ever gone for a mission, Calisto hadn't sent a message that would help with the mission on hand.
Ella's phone beeped. Hope. I turned to see the usual message. It was saying, "You're barely confused or scared or both but focus on that later. The only lead we have is that there is a hotel whose present guests have been connected to our latest problem." What problem? "so we hope you can identify and terminate the targets. I have sent a location and its blueprints under this message. Best of luck." So is the whole hotel full of mostri. If so, we have been sent to a death trap. We headed straight for the place.
It was a big white building that made a suit of an 'L'. In the unoccupied rest of the land, there was a big swimming pool with beach chairs near it. The ground was all covered by smooth grass. Ella frowned, "I think I know this place." I teased, "Did they give you food that made you vomit all day." She replied, "I wish." We went into the reception room. The floor was covered with white marble floor with splatters of gold paint imbued into it. The walls were all cream while the ceiling was peach with a design of painting appearing frozen when it was in the middle of dripping.
We walked up to the receptionist. She had dark brown hair and Egyptian skin. She was about 25. She smiled as she greeted, "Welcome, how can I help you?" Ella said, "I and my friend would like to book one room, please." She asked, "Which kind of room would you be able to place in your budget?" Ella removed a credit card, "A middle-class room, please." The lady took the card and gave us our keys. We went directly to our room. The room had brown tiles, one laid-out bed, and a fireplace. The rest was like the rest of the building.
I asked, "One bed." Ella confirmed, "For you. Remember I can levitate in my sleep." A girl entered the room. She had honey brown skin with black braided hair and green eyes. She was wearing a dark purple top and grey leggings. She looked similar to Ella. Maybe they were related. She smiled at Ella, "Cousin, I never knew you were coming to visit." She hugged Ella. Ella replied, "I just got a chance to come here so might as well have taken the chance, Olivia." Olivia said, "Good that you came over. And you brought a friend." I introduced myself, "I am Ephiria. We got assigned to… interview this place."
She volunteered, "I can give you a free tour since it seems Ella has forgotten this place." I nodded, "That would be very helpful." We headed around the whole building until we reached a meeting area. She said, "Here, companies can hold their meetings. Some have even bought shares and now own offices in the upper levels. Though they are only accessible by their owners." We were face to face with big metal double doors. We headed back to our room. She said, "I hope I have given all the info you may need now bye. I have the stuff to do." She exited the room.
I said, "So we're going to the restricted area." Ella said, "Definitely. Restricted always means there is vital information being stored there." We went upstairs straight for the double doors. I checked whether anyone was in the hallway. Ella held out her hands trying to unlock the padlock. She was taking way too much time so I said, "Maybe I should try." I clawed my hands concentrating my light into one long claw. I used it to cut the padlock off. I said, "Let's go." We went into a hallway with multiple storage rooms.
Which one was the right one? On one of the doors was a copper symbol Ω engulfed by 2 octagons. The symbol of the mostri. I pointed, "There." Ella looked where I was pointing and also saw it. She headed for that room. She pulled the knob but of course, it was locked. I melted it and we went in. There was a big brown desk, an office chair, a vent above the desk, a closet, and a cupboard. and a white Apple computer on top of the desk. The computer was off. I turned it on but still needed the password. Ella said, "I will keep watch so just focus on the computer."
I wielded my light to be UV. I held my illuminating palm above the keyboard to see fingerprints. I examined to see which arrangement could make a real word and discovered "Twilight". I typed it in and it worked. There were multiple files so I searched for messages from Twilight. One popped up. It read, "I need you to go and retrieve another potential candidate for being a descendant of Stella. They will be tested to get the actual one. Twilight needs that one for the calamity. So bring anyone with green eyes." Ella's cousin has green eyes. I scrolled down to another message. It read, "The ingredients for the calamity are being set. If we do it right, the sun will rise on a day where there is no chaos." Order's advantage. Who is this descendant? Is that what Calisto meant by the latest problem? I scrolled down but heard someone coming. I looked at Ella and she confirmed it. I closed the application and switched off the computer.
I hid in the cupboard while Ella hid in the closet. The steps came into the room. It was a big shadowy figure but I could make out that he or it was not human. It was on its two feet. It searched for something in the drawer it headed for the door. I released my held-in breath. It was almost out when a phone rang. It stopped and headed for where Ella was hiding. It was too late–we were busted. I jumped out and pushed the cupboard onto the creature.
I blasted the vent open. Ella levitated into it and pulled me in. The thing grabbed my leg. I kicked it with all my might trying to escape it. It let go and I went into the vent. We started crawling without looking back. I could hear the creature breathing in the vents–it was close. That just gave me more motivation to increase my pace. My body was shaking with fear. I pushed forward knowing if I stopped it could get worse. Ella suddenly fell. She had found an exit. I leapt out of the vent and landed on the marble floor.
Good thing I had protected my face or I'd have had a bleeding nose. The rest of my body still throbbed though. I stood up to find myself in a guest room. The mostri growls were heard. Its sandy hand popped out of the vents. I even got more terrified. I ran towards the laundry chute. I opened it and slid into a pile of dirty laundry. Ella followed. We closed it and melted the chute door so that it would harden shut. It took a while for my breathing to settle before I remembered. I rushed out of the room. I said, "We need to find your cousin." She questioned, "What's wrong?" Before I could answer, a girl's scream was heard. I leapt for the window to see Olivia being abducted and put in a van.