Luxury Hotel Room

*

Yoleta looked at the piles of snow beneath the window. Her temporal watch turned on. The guards in the hotel didn't speak.

She dialed the room phone, and she sat on the bed's gold blankets. Paintings of hundreds of past queens stared back. Each woman resembled a doll version of themselves. Their eyeballs were covered with buttons.

Flint answered his phone. "Did they show?"

"No, and it's been days." She closed her eyes to avoid looking at the paintings.

"Something is wrong," he said. "I've lived through this timeline three times, and Zill always attacks you at the hotel, or at least I think she does."

"I don't remember any of it except for bits and pieces." Her body yanked through time and space, and she stood inside Quig and Grew-Ella's kitchen and watched them.

They were holding a tablet computer in front of them. Their bodies were slowly unfrozen, but they didn't see her.

"Thank you all for finishing the quiz. I checked over the answers and awarded bonus points for anyone who found the added typos in the text," Grew-Ella said.

"We'll give you an extra three days to turn in your short stories, but tomorrow you'll be writing flash fiction. Your story must be up to fifty words." Quig turned off the screen.

"I graded papers this morning, so we have the rest of the day all to ourselves." Grew-Ella wrapped her fingers around his wrist.

"Whatever will we do with our time?" Quig held Grew-Ella close to him, but he jerked his head and squealed. "Don't startle me! Yoleta, how did you break into our apartment?"

"I thought I had camouflage mode on. Must have flicked off," she said.

Quig grimaced. "Why do you have a camouflage mode? Don't spy on us."

"This is an emergency. Chase hasn't shown up. He used your teacher's IDs to apply for an annulment the day before the storm. Everything is fine and magical because I flagged it as fraudulent."

Quig blushed. "Um, we wouldn't qualify for an annulment."

Grew-Ella grabbed Quig's hand. "Our marriage is genuine."

Yoleta raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"We're using our time trapped in the building as an impromptu honeymoon. You're not invited." He pointed to the door.

"The watch picks where I shift," Yoleta said.

Grew-Ella's phone rang, and she trembled as she answered in a stilted voice. "Hello, Chase."

"Gorgeous, you and Quig are not happening," Chase said.

Grew-Ella's face was hard. "You're on speakerphone, and Yoleta is here. Don't say anything personal."

"Chase, I've been looking for you." Yoleta grabbed the phone and handed it back to Grew-Ella.

"We're staying with friends, and you won't find us. Grew-Ella, I ordered you not to tell Quig you loved him," Chase said.

Her hands shook. "No, I told my husband I loved him, which I'm allowed to do after one week."

"Why would it matter if she told Quig? I knew you battered her self-esteem, but what game are you playing? You don't need two sisters in love with you," Yoleta said.

Quig spoke. "I won't tell Yoleta, even though I'm not bound by the contract."

Chase's voice quivered over the phone. "Yes, you are. She isn't allowed to love you because Zill or Vex picks who her husband is."

"No, I'm a broken elite. I'll tell Yoleta that Vex forced Grew-Ella to be engaged to you, but everyone with a brain could figure it out. I texted you a new contract last night."

Chase paused for a moment. "Zill isn't signing. She is the real owner of the contract, and I was forced to co-sign."

"Quig and I will give it to you until Christmas. Stay out of our personal lives, and we'll see you only when guards are at my parent's house." Grew-Ella hung up.

Flint popped in, "The last place Chase was spotted was Vex's second apartment. I think they're staying there." He examined his temporal watch and vanished into the light.

Yoleta's watch lit up, and she was transported. The display words flashed. Cannot locate the criminals; time is in flux. You're on your own.

Chase and Zill had fled before she got to Vex's luxury apartment. She walked around a leather couch. Celebrity memorabilia from Vex's pageants covered the walls.

Yoleta entered the guest bedroom. She rummaged through a box left on the dresser and found rope, a silk mask, and tape.

'What are you planning?' she thought.

After weeks of going between time and space, Yoleta was always one step behind them.

The snow had finally melted into puddles, and trees were chopped and moved.

Madd-Ox had arrived, and she sent him to check on Avery-Joy.

Yoleta opened her eyes and was back at her castle. She rode her crystal elevator to the fourth floor. An image of a dagger slashing at her while she slept on her waterbed interrupted her thoughts.

She walked into her bedroom. Lace curtains waved, but no one hid behind the sheer material.

The closet wasn't originally part of her room. She performed a wall run, and her fingers dug into the ledge, pulling herself up with her body weight. Her furious eyes took surveillance as she crouched on top of her closet roof.

Startled by the noise, the men emerged with daggers in their hands.

Yoleta swung down and kicked the two muscular men in their heads before climbing up again. She whipped out her laser gun, hidden in her pocket. Her strong fingers pulled the trigger and fired on them, hitting them and burning their exposed flesh.

Trent tore the stiff plastic mask off his face and fled down the stairs.

The other assassin climbed up.

She punched him four times, knocked him off, and shot him with a laser gun. Being festive, she hogtied him with seven yards of red Christmas ribbon and brown twine from her holiday closet.

One of her drivers and two guards brought the bruised man and delivered him right outside Sean-Mack's bedroom with a Christmas card.

*

Dear Sean-Mack,

You violated our blood contract, and I informed the media, but there might be a place for Junior in my administration when I win.

Yours Truly,

Yoleta

*

Her guards lunged at Sean-Mack from their hiding places and dragged him off. A tiny scream left his quivering lips.

Grew-Ella's and Quig's Kitchen, Start of Christmas Break

*

Quig and Grew-Ella grabbed a sack of gifts by the door before heading to the station wagon, drove to The Salad Princess, and took the elevator.

They discarded their gifts on a table. Fairy lights and glowing ivy reflected on the tiled floor of the upper level.

Grew-Ella sat on a red velvet couch that ran the length of the wall, waiting for others to arrive, but Quig stood.

Nurse Ruby and Dot ran to them.

"We're leaving early," Dot said.

Ruby snorted. "All the parties I have attended in your kingdom are full of drama, including our wedding. Everyone from the Moth Kingdom has nothing better to do. I'll panic if we don't leave."

Dot clutched her wife's hand. "Workhouse board members are running around with postcards threatening each other. We're going to make popcorn balls with Snake Boy."

"Are you coming to spend Christmas with me and Grew-Ella? Karen invited you," Quig said.

"No, I'm surprising, Dad." Dot jumped up and down.

"We invited him to have New Year's breakfast with us at the apartment." Grew-Ella guessed who he is," Quig said.

"Dad has been sad lately." Dot hugged her brother.

She and Ruby left.

Quig spoke to Grew-Ella. "We should leave too."

Dean Frog Burton waved at them as his date headed out the door.

"Why are you leaving?" Dean Frog asked his date.

Her graying hair flowed over her shoulders as she talked. "Because you spend more time flirting with your ex-wife than paying attention to me. I caught you slobbering all over each other in the hatcheck room."

"You saw us?" he asked.

"Yup, and there will be no second date. She is scary, but she has my vote because Junior is annoying. He dresses like a college student." The woman stomped toward the stairway exit, slamming it behind her.

Dean Frog waved at Grew-Ella and Quig. "Save me. Betsy can keep Yoleta entertained for so long before Yoleta and I end up in the hatcheck room again, or worse, she sings karaoke. Why do I host these parties?"

"Because you love us," Grew-Ella said warmly.

"Yes, I adore you all," Dean Frog said.

A muscular board member exited the bathroom. "Frog, why are faculty and staff bringing their brats?"

Dean Frog Burton rolled his eyes and poked at the man's shoulder. "Stop whining and hang out in the adult karaoke room."

"I hate karaoke." The man's hand reached out. "Professor Grew-Ella, I love all the articles Avery-Joy wrote about you and your husband."

She bolted from the couch and shook his hand. "Thanks."

"Make out in front of me," the man said.

"No, and no." Grew-Ella stood beside Quig and glared at the hulking man.

He turned to Quig and grinned. "How am I going to know you're in love if I don't witness it?"

"Buy a paper or search the blogs." Quig stood by Grew-Ella's side and moaned to himself.

"Stop bothering them, you creep." Yoleta ran from behind, and she reached for a laser gun.

Three other workhouse board members flung themselves on the man, rolled onto the ground, and punched him.

One of his assailants yanked his hair. "Tell your buddy, Trent, I'm going to use him as a pincushion for my grandmother's and mother's murders." He fled the room, leaving the other men to punch each other.

Yoleta slid her laser gun from its holster and shot them. She pried them off the large man, her muscles aching.