Kain Locke
"What is this floor?" I grumbled, glancing around at the cobwebs that hang around the brown dirty ceilings,
"Where we will be staying till the destroyed one gets reconstructed." Bella answered with a choked laughter beside me.
"And that's what I meant by unfairness… Why does he get to stay there and us here? Judging by how grand that floor is, I can only imagine the huge sum spent on making it look that extravagant. Half.. no, a quarter of it would have taken this floor a long way." an angry beta retorted past me and I glanced at Bella who laughed at him and whispered close to my ear.
"The other guy agreed with you."
I merely rolled my eyes at her, "I wasn't retorting, not that whatever they did is any of my concerns, but this place could've been better. That's all."
"Don't tell me you're scared of spiders? Or wait.. what if they're hiding under your bed.. A lot of them, like the insects in the movie 'The mummy'."
"Eww. That's gross." I reached out my bandaged arm to push her away, but she jumped back in time with another laugh, holding her stomach as she did.
"What if there is a ghost?"
I pursed my lips together, deciding to stop moving so I can shot her a glare, and when she was done laughing and saw me standing,
She dramatically tiptoed to stand behind me and peeked over my shoulder, her eyes darting toward the hallway, "Why did you stop?"
I gave her a dry look. "You're the one who said spiders, or ghosts might be here. So you go first."
She scoffed. "Please. If something jumps out, at least you can hit it. What am I supposed to do? Scream?"
"That might actually work."
She gasped, clutching her chest like I'd wounded her. "You think my voice is that powerful?"
Shaking my head. "More like ear-piercing." I said, as I started moving again, she wouldn't mind spending the night right here.
She caught up quickly and swatted my arm, making me wince. "Hey! You know I'm injured."
"Oops," she said, not sounding sorry at all. "Maybe if you stopped being mean, I'd be nicer."
We reached the end of the hall, where several doors lined the wall. Bella scanned the paper in her hand. "Alright, room assignments… You're in…" She squinted, then grinned. "Oh, this is going to be fun."
I frowned. "What?"
She pointed at the last door on the right. "That one."
I sighed and pushed it open. The room was just as bad as I'd expected. The walls were cracked, the ceiling had water stains, and the bed… Well, calling it a bed was generous. Because the mattress was thin and lumpy, like it had seen better days. It definitely has.
Bella whistled. "Woah… this is cozy."
I shot her a look. "You want to switch?"
She laughed. "No way. Mine actually has a window."
I dropped my bag onto the mattress, dust rising from the impact.
Great. Just great.
Bella leaned against the doorframe. "Well, on the bright side, no spiders." she said observing every corner.
I glanced at the other corner of the room, where there was another bed, no better looking than mine, "A roommate?" I asked to confirm whether it's really it, considering the previous one accommodated a total of four, me included.
"Umm… yeah, there's actually a lot of space to spare here, so it'd be a waste grouping roommates like on the top floor. And.. Your roommate should be coming in soon." She answered and I nodded,
Surely, good stuff is always the hardest to find, and the bad stuff? They're like a pie falling from the sky.
I exhaled slowly. "Thank you for your help today though." I couldn't have done most of the things I did easily without her help.
She flashed a satisfied smile, the one that makes me want to take back my thanks and chase her out of this room already, "Well you should say thank you, it's not as easy being your 'free' guide." She said with an eye roll. "And.. good luck, Locke. I'm going to my 'windowed' room now." she emphasized.
I almost laugh, a window in an underground? Really? Find something better.
I rolled my eyes as she slipped out, leaving me alone in this mess.
I sat on the bed, feeling it creak under my weight. I don't even weigh much!
Everything here sucks! Well except for my luggage that was sitting there, and when I rushed over to search it, my communicator was in there.
A great relief indeed.
****
The rest of the day was easy and when the roommate who turned out to be an Omega came in, his presence was just like every typical new roommate.
We exchanged greetings, and aside from him being cautious of me, there's nothing out of ordinary that happened.
Bread and soda was distributed for dinner, which I technically didn't need, because I had one before the attack. Therefore, it was kept on the table beside the bed.
I couldn't help thinking back to Brian. I miss him so much I wish to see him as soon as possible, I can't even imagine his sulking face because I wasn't there when he needed me, or how sad he must've been for abandoning him.
My heart clenched as I shut my eyes, exhaling to keep calm.
There's also Alec. I don't know him much, but I couldn't help but hope he's fine, and woke up well.
The rest of the night went seemingly well, and aside from the dust that has me sneezing now and then, I could say it wasn't bad, at least a ghost didn't come crawling from under the bed to strangle the life out of me.
And I might have opened my eyes a hundred times during the night. Even the tiniest scratch would have me tossing and turning.
My roommate? Well, he should have the record for the longest hours of sleep through chaos.
After what felt like eternity, the dawn broke, or I thought but was due to the jingle of the bell coming from the hallway.
"What is it?" Groaned my Omega roommate, lazily sprawled in the bed.
I stood up all at once, putting a pullover on my shirt and entered into my boots, tying the knots right after.
"All members should come out now, there's an announcement." A loud voice said from the outside and that seemed to register as he rubbed his eyes slowly and yawned, getting off the bed.
There were also sounds of an iron door opening from the hallway.
Therefore, I walked out of the room to see a lot of people were already out there waiting. .
I recognized the beta holding the bell immediately, he was one of the instructors on the platform I had fought ken.
"Is every single one of you out here?" He asked again in a very loud voice, his eyes scanning every direction.
The people went into murmur immediately, it was like that for a while before they came to the conclusion, "No…" it was cut short by the sounds of door opening.
"Sorry, I got locked in the bathroom." Said my Omega roommate with a good amount of redness on his face and the very tip of his ears.
And that did earn him scowls and mocking laughter.
"Is anybody still in there?" The instructor asked once again. And when no one answered, he nodded and stepped to the middle.
"It seems like this is all of us here. And since it's like that, then I will go into the announcement. As you've all witnessed the havoc caused by the nightbeasts last night. We lost a lot of important and strong members. And there's still some wounded, who are yet to recover, so we're vulnerable as we are. And lingering for now will not be any different from suicide, at least with the current situation and the cause of the attack still unknown."
He paused to take a breath, then he continued, "Our annual holiday, which was supposed to be a month to this time…" he trailed off, taking a quick glance at the tablet in his hand. "I was told to announce that it'll commence starting from today. So every Omega and beta has been granted a seven day holiday in our usual hotel."
"And during this time, we'll be able to investigate and of course reconstruct the run down first floor which was our cover."
The people erupted into cheers almost immediately, and some whistled.
But all of it tuned down when the Beta instructor waved his hands to keep them quiet.
They did.
"Lastly, as you know, everyone of you should get to the ship in time before it moves, or whomever was left behind will have to deal with the consequences themselves."