Chapter Nineteen: The Hotel Hersey

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Lauren came closer to Edward of the past, with a familiar smile. "Hey there Eddy, have you finally clam down?". She asked only to meet with a blank stare, lost in thought, tracing her face. "I am sorry, do I know you?", Edward said with a confused tone, understandable he didn't bother to give it care or thought before speaking. This answer came as a surprise to the foolish and naïve girl and then followed the panic, after seeing no signs of jest from Edward's expression.

She stepped back, turning to Reality. "What's going on? Why is he saying that?", She asked, with panic in her voice.

"Too bad, was it not. You, staring at an unfamiliar familiar face. While she revels in horror, not understanding what she had done. How foolish, trusting them, for your and her's didn't amount to shit. Pulling the strings till the point where they lost control", I said while Edward stood beside me, staring back at her with a heavy heart.

"Edward has agreed, to help us of his own volition", Reality stated calmly. "What do you mean, that's not what I…", she suddenly felt quite as her hair took on a radiant glow, and Genesis took hold of her body.

Her eyes opened and she looked at him. "I will take it from here, go now. Gemini is waiting for you", Genesis acclaimed and Reality nodded and disappeared, leaving behind Young Edward and the mother of all beginning to converse and plan for the future.

"Ah, this gives "selling your body" a whole new meaning. Becoming a vessel meant letting the Entity use your person to enact their will. On the other hand, an eternal vessel meant letting the Entity inhabit your mind and body, willingly giving away your person to them, becoming their puppet. But if there is a need for an eternal vessel, that means somehow the physical body of that Entity has been destroyed" I explained, and the thought made amused me.

Then the time came to a halt for young Edward and the scenery changed to a burnt and ruined city. Ash and soot covered every inch of the town, and the sky clouded, while the morning dew settled in. In the midst of it, all stood an alone monolith.

Mahogany-colored walls and a glass dome reaching for the sky of the Hotel Hersey. A rectangular prison that acted as The humble aboard for the prince of the Abyss, the habitant of the bottomless pit, the king of the lotus plage, the Prince Abaddon, and some from his legions of lotus demons.

As the dust flew by us, we sat back in our chairs, with a look of melancholy plastered on our faces, in the silence of an empty city. "You know, I preferred you as a puppet. Without any sympathy or moral. Disregarding the lives around you. Maybe you thought it was all fake, all a mare dream? But then nothing was crueler than what you did to that poor child. Made him see his parents gutted like pigs and his sister being chewed on, only to reduce him to an emotional wreck of a pawn", I said, while my eyes went to the creature of hellfire, walking towards the school where the child was asleep.

"But worst was yet to come", I ended with.

Casper,

The sunlight was bright, I couldn't properly make out where I was. My whole body was pushed back against the wall. I tried moving out of it, pulling away from the heavy blanket. I freed myself and fell to the floor. My body felt like it was tied to bricks, moving so slowly.

Pushing myself up, I came to set up and stared forward at everything else. All of the city was black and broken down. The first thought that came to my mind was of my mom and dad, I was not sure what had happened to them, but I missed them so much. Felt pain in my chest, tears pouring down my cheeks as I could not contemplate death yet.

I felt lost and helpless, quietly sitting there, not wanting to move at all. Cathy was still, maybe alive? But before I could ponder on it more, something pushed me forward and I fell onto my hands.

I quickly looked back and saw no one. It felt different than before when something was pulling me. Then this was followed by my elbows moving from underneath me, causing me to hit my head on the floor. "Ouch!", I yelped, my back straightened itself up and my legs picked me up.

disoriented, I felt unable to balance myself properly. I was there, standing not out of my own will. "What is going on?", I asked in a panicked voice but no one answered. I looked down at my legs, as I began to walk, moving towards the stairs.

I was not the one moving them, they were moving on their own. "Stop, where are you taking me?", I asked, while something inside my skin had gripped them and there was no one visible to answer.

The stairs were dimly lit by the rising sun, it felt really scary at the time. I tried my best not to fall while coming down to where the classes were. I could recognize this was my school, but I was not from this floor. This was where the older kids would come. The light was coming from the windows of the classes, liting the hallway.

Then my legs stopped when I came in front of a lady standing there. She was wearing a black coat and had red hair. But half of her face was wrapped in a bandage. She had a large box of donuts, eating out of a box from her other hand. Putting the last piece of mouth she threw the box behind her, while she kept looking at me.

Clearing her mouth, she cleared her throat before speaking. "Anomaly, I was looking for you", she said, putting her hand in her coat pocket and pulling out something. She then brought it up to her mouth, skunking her teeth into her thumb, making it bleed. Pulling back her hand, she flipped the cap of a lighter. and she pressed her bleeding thump on the lighter and pointed it at me.

All the while I stared in confusion, I felt a tug on my arm. Looking at it, black water poured out of my arm and shot out, going through the classroom door. I looked back and saw a spark come out of the lighters, turning into a mote of fire and a lot of it, hurdling toward me. I felt the heat as it came closer, so much bright that I instinctively closed my eyes. But in nick of time, the black water pulled me inside the classroom.

A loud rumble followed behind me while I fell onto my side and looked back in the hallway, seeing it destroyed. Smoke rose with the floor completely eviscerated. Then I looked at her, she came inside the classroom.

"Who...Why are you...", I tried speaking, but I came to a stop when she pointed the lighter at me again. "Why are you running from me? and who is the child?", she asked as if expecting me to nine-year-old to answer. I didn't understand what she meant, but my body moved, standing back up against my will.

"Wait...stop", I could only say that much before I saw another spark before it grew into a massive mote of fire. Quickly my body moved and this time I allowed it to do whatever it wanted. I ran into the window that lead into the hallway. The fire touched my back, it was warm but it didn't hurt. While I covered my face with my arms as I broke through the window.

As soon as landed, my body kept running. Suddenly I became aware of her coming into the hallway, without me looking back. Then I leaped up in the air, while another mote of fire came from behind me. Black water came out from both of my arms and slammed against the floor, breaking through it and pulling me down.

...

I felt the heat as the fire went over me, slightly singeing my hair. The black water came back to my arm and I was left on the floor. It had become obvious by now, that I had to run away before that lady could find me. I got up and turned around to leave. But I stopped as I saw two people stumbling through the hallway at me.

They were not wearing anything, their skin was gray and their face was not right looking. It was long and wide. and with empty eye sockets. The in the front opened his mouth, which was lined with rows of sharp teeth. Without even breathing in, he scream so loud that I had shut my ears with my hands, while a cloud of weird bugs flew out of his mouth towards me.

Among the confusion of hundreds of these winged bugs touching me all over my body. I watched as he bent forward, his back cracked and pair of insect-like wings came out. His figure became hazy as he launched himself off the ground right at me.

At that moment my eyes held open on their own and I didn't blink as my arms moved. Black water poured out and collected into a form of a hand and strangely it looked like still water. Bashing the man into the wall and with a sick splosh, the man's flimsy body broke through the wall of a classroom. Quickly the black water retreated into my arm, I stared at the blood and chunks.

It reminded me of my mom and dad, causing my body to revolt and snap me out of it. The feeling came back to my stomach and it started to burn. At that point, I had lost all care for the bugs crawling around me. As I turned my head around to one that was way in the back, zipping through the air towards me, getting suddenly too close and scaring me.

My hand moved upward as I fell backward, as black water collected into my hand and slammed the man into the roof. I didn't do anything, but my hand moved...he fell apart...his head fell into my lap. My throat started burning as the smell hit me... And there were so many bugs flying out of his terrified-looking face... I finally tasted the stomach bile in my mouth. I quickly turned around tossing the head away from me and I threw up... after a few seconds of coughing and throwing up what little I had inside me.

I paused and stared at the puddle I had made, suddenly nausea settled in and I felt tired... Unable to breathe properly, I dropped to my side...slowly fell into sleep.

...

This part was difficult to explain, but I was awake while I was sleeping. It was not dark but bright, It was bright everywhere around me as I floated through it. Other than me, in a very far distance was a black something. It had no shape nor a size either, well not that I could not tell from where I was. I didn't mind, the quiet and the peace was wonderful. But I woke up eventually, as soon as I blinked within the white, I came into a nurse's office.

...

Terrified, I grabbed the sheets covering me and took a second to calm myself down while seeing the curtains drawn around me. Soon enough I heard a doorstep approaching me and then the lady pulled the curtain apart. I freaked out and jumped off the bed, but crumbled down on the floor. I had no strength whatsoever, and I felt it so strongly, the hungry, so hungry, enough for me not to see properly.

"Hey listen, I am not going to hurt you anymore. So come back onto the bed", the lady said and I turned to her from the floor of the doctor's office. In her hand, she had a present box. "I brought you something, maybe you are hungry", she said with a stern face while she placed the box on the bed. I grabbed onto the edge of the bed and pulled myself up to my feet.

I stared at the opened box, a bunch of frosted covered cupcakes, neatly lined in the box. I didn't give it another thought and started with my hand, scooping up tiny cakes and stuffing them in my mouth. She didn't say a word, while I went quickly going through everything in the box, sitting there quietly on the stool.

...

The box was left with crumbs and I was not sure about the taste. The hunger was not gone, but I was satisfied for the time being. Then I looked at the lady and she smiled, "Can you tell me your name?", she asked me, and me not wanting to get her mad, quickly responded to her. "My name is Casper. I am nine years old", I replied just as my mother told me.

"Nice to meet you, Casper, My name is Jacki. Sorry for scaring you earlier, I was checking if you had "it".", she explained. "I had what?", I asked and she leaned in, "A very super-secret Superpower". "What?", I replied.

"You see, your sister, Cathy has been taken by a bad monster and he is hiding her in his secret layer, and only you can save her, Casper", she said and I almost jumped off the bed. "Cathy is alright, then, we have to go save her", I said quickly. "Hole on a minute", she said, "Casper, first you need to understand what is inside of you", pointing at my chest with her finger.

I reflexively looked down at my chest. "You have an anomaly inside of you, it is very powerful and will protect you and will only listen to you", she explained and looked back at her. "Anmoly, is she making black water come out of me", I said back.

She sighed, "Well close enough. Yes, you can tell her that you want to save your sister and it will help you. Although it can not speak to you", Miss Jacki explained and I nodded. "I want to save Cathy!", I declared, and Immediately in response, my arm snapped behind me.

Black water shot out and stuck onto the office's window. I looked back at Miss Jacki. "Don't worry, I will meet you at the monster's layer, anomaly will take you there", she said and then Anmoly pulled me through the window and out on the ground.

My body on its own rolled through rubble across the ground and then landed on my feet. The outside was just how saw from the roof, everything broken and burnt. A blacken mist startled through the city in front of me and the sky was covered with gray clouds stretching through the sky.

Quickly I began to run into the mist, straight ahead. "Where are you going!", I yelled as picked up an unnatural speed, not knowing how. Then suddenly squatted and then jumped with black water shooting out of my feet like a jet. Meanwhile, I kept screaming throughout the experience, while flying through the air and soot-filled mist.

Black water burst out of my arms and turned into wide thin sheets. Quickly both of my arms started flapping and I started flying through the air. The fast wind hit my face, it wasn't before I came above the cleaner air, seeing everything destroyed as far as my eyes could reach.

Among the rocks and burnt buildings were only one that was standing fine and pretty and the one I recognize. I had heard of it, it was a very popular hotel, I think its name was Hersey.