August 26th, 2016

Fluorescent light filled the room. I exhaled as my back ached in the brown leather chair. A whole society lived there. Fuck! I scratched my burning back. No wonder Ash had all those duffle bags and what she wanted to protect. What she had abandoned me for. Did she even know that they were the same product of this world?

Would it make a difference if she did? Rainbow's voice rang in my head.

My gaze scanned the room, but there was no one there.

I tightened my fist. "Where are you?"

Being a good mother. I am watching you like the child of this woman, Shalindi.

"You set me up!"

I did nothing.

"Liar."

I warned you, and you let them go. Isn't this what you wanted, Domenic, freedom?

I bit my lower lip and clenched the paper with my name written on it. A thumping sound of footsteps came from outside before a door creaked open.

I  allowed you to see the truth in the minds of those around you. To be able to see the real way people think. To show you the lies and deceit in those you thought had your back.

You have only been fucking with my head. You all have. If you want to help me, I want out.

What you make of it is up to you, but someone is coming to kill you.

"What?" I took the documents on the table, placed them in the table's drawer, and closed it. My eyes trailed around the room for someplace to hide.

Tick, tock.

Footsteps came to a halt outside the door. There was nothing I could use in the room. Outside the door, a phone rang.

"I am here," the voice said from outside.

Hide by the door, Domenic.

I licked my lips and moved beside the door. My chest tightened. The heavy footsteps outside circled back and forth.

"Everything is fine. The men are taking him for a walk. He shouldn't be here for another three or four hours. We already discussed the house with him, and he was quite happy to explain it to us."

"I told the boss a million times not to use the phones, idiot."

The voice and the thoughts clicked with me. It was the loan shark from the apartment, John. What was he doing here?

"I will give you back a call soon." The door creaked as he pushed it open.

Kill him, Domenic, or he will kill you!

John walked in wearing a brown suit and rubbing his hand on his plump face.

How many people are with him? Was he alone?

I hesitated, and his eyes met mine.

"You —" he said.

I shrieked as I charged him — elbow meeting his stomach. John groaned. As we both went towards the desk, toppling the two brown chairs. Our hands locked as he tried to strike me in the face. I brought down my weight on him to get at his neck. John, however, overpowered me and used his legs to kick me, sending me back. I grunted.

He got off the table, and we stood squaring off each other.

"You're here for the files?" His hand lowered to his waist before his brown eyes shifted behind me.

I followed them, noticing the gun inches away from me. His thoughts had betrayed him, feeding me only information now and then. If I lowered to pick it up, he would rush me. Truth be told, I didn't know how to use it.

Do it now, Domenic, pick it up.

I grabbed the gun in my hand. The weight made my hands drop as I tried to steady it at John. John adjusted his tie and slicked back his black hair with his hand.

Rainbow laughed in my head. Why are you hesitating?

"What files?" I asked.

John slightly stepped forward. His hands raised. "Don't play dumb. You're in this office. You and that woman are wrapped up in this hotel business."

"I thought Eric had worked out a deal with your boss."

John pulled at the drawer of a cabinet. His hand flickered through the files as he scanned through them. "He did but then that lady, Kim, the uptight, glass wearing bitch, came to the boss with an even better offer," John laughed, placing his hand on his head.

"Kim? What did she offer?"

His eyes shifted around the room before his hands shut the first drawer and went down to the second. "She offered P1 citizenship to my boss and his family. Secure some files and get rid of both Eric and you later on."

P1 citizenship? Was that a lie that she made up? Kim was the same as me, and only the elite of the elite could claim a title like that.

John chuckled softly. "As if some gray hair low income jobber like her could have something like that available. I knew she was lying from the time she opened her mouth and the I.D. she had shown was faked. The boss, however, was too much taken in by that lie where he could spend his money in freedom and live in a better environment. Funny right?"

I swallowed my saliva. "Is Eric—"

He pulled another cabinet open that chugged in response. "He is alive. My men are taking him to the hotel. Along with your aunt."

"Why?"

"You think that I am a fool? That I wouldn't catch on? What's it worth and who really benefits from this? What exactly is in that hotel?"

Two loud clicks came behind me as two men stood with guns pointed at me. John continued as normal, searching around the room.

Rainbow laughed in my ears. I told you to kill him, didn't I?

"Well then, Mr. Foster, would you mind telling me about the hotel files and why a man like Eric is willing to help you?"

I exhaled. "It's not what you think. The information you want is in the second drawer on the table."

John stopped and walked over to the table. He pulled open the drawer and placed everything inside on the table. A smile appeared on his face as he saw my photo. "So this is what Eric has been up to."

"Hernando, Mayor Hernado." John's face turned pale for a moment as he held it up. He was quiet as he was visibly reading the documents. From the corner of my eye, I gazed at the two young men holding small handheld guns at me.

"Ah, fuck, I knew that there was far more to this that met the eye," John said. His face turned to me. "Don't you want to see where this goes and how this ends? We can go to the hotel together."

"Tell your men to lower their guns," I said.

John gazed at me. He nodded his head towards them. Their guns lowered to the ground, and as I lowered mine, the men rushed me. I released one shot from the weapon as it fell from my hand, hitting the table before they tackled me to the ground. The men unleashed a tirade of profanity towards me as their fists pummeled me, and, despite my struggle, I was pinned to the ground.

"Shit, take him into the car," John huffed.

Another older man came through the door as they forcibly took me up.

"Everything is fine," John said to the man, taking up the gun on the ground in one hand and holding the papers in the other.

"We have to go; the police."

"Yeah," John said as he pushed me through the door. "When we find out everything here and how much is involved, we can get rid of all of them. Then I can be the new boss."

John kept close by my side as they led me out of Eric's office at gunpoint. The door opened to the parking lot and traffic a distance away honked their horns. They took me into an old blue van parked outside. I saw no one in sight, no one I could call to. The van's doors shut as two of the younger men sat behind with me.

I warned you again, and you didn't listen, Domenic, naughty child.

The man pulled out a bag. I pushed myself away, and the other young man pointed his gun at me.

"Stick out your hands," the man said. "I can't believe John wants to kill the boss after all this. What if it goes wrong?"

I stuck out my hand, and the man wrapped it tightly with a cloth before placing a blue bag over my head. I saw nothing but darkness as the van began to drive, bumping up and down. A cascade of the men's malevolent thoughts played in my head.

"If John could turn on the boss, could he easily turn on me?"

"Is it worth the money?"

"P1 citizenship, here I come."

"I will be the boss after it is all done."

Rainbow laughed at it all.

#

When the van door opened, they grabbed both of my hands and dragged me out. The waves smashed against the shore. The two men clutched me tightly between them as I walked. In the darkness, I stumbled. In front of me, raucous laughter and behind vehicles' horns blew. If I shouted, they would probably shoot me. They wouldn't bring me here to die with a police station nearby. As they took me up a flight of steps, I remembered the hotel was in a tourist area where most of the people spoke Haratian. Why bring us here then? No voices whispered in my head from them. Like a switch, Rainbow had turned it off.

Men's feet clattered outside the van upon the rock and debris. I swallowed my saliva. My body fell to the ground as they propped me on my knees. They took off the mask on my face, and my eyes opened to an obscene amount of bright light. I squinted as my eyes adjusted, finding myself in a shambled bedroom of the hotel. The waves crashed onto the beach outside as I read the strange markings carved frantically all over the walls and the ceiling repeatedly in what appeared to be spray paint.

The Wiles of the Wicked Woman

From her mouth she brings forth vanity and...

errors, she seeks continually to sharpen her words

And mockingly she flatters/deals smoothly

she insults altogether with lips of perversity

her heart establishes recklessness

and her kidneys ...

... in perversity they are touched and

her hands go down to the Pit

her feet go down to do evil

and to walk in guilt of transgression

foundations of darkness...

many are the transgressions in her skirts

... eminence of night

and her coverings ...

her covers are deep darkness of twilight

and her ornaments are touched with ruin

her couches are beds of the Pit

from the low places of the Pit

from her night huts are beds of darkness

and in the midst of night are her tents

from the foundations of deep darkness she pitches dwelling and she abides in tents

of Silence

in the midst of everlasting fires, not in the midst

of all luminaries is her inheritance

she is the beginning of all the ways of perversity

Alas, ruin belongs to all who possess her

and destruction to all that takes hold of her

for her ways are ways of death

and her paths are paths of sin

her tracks are strayings of perversity

and her byways are wrongdoings of transgression

her gates are gates of death

at the entrance of her house she steps into Sheol

all who enter, they will not return

and behold all her inheritors go down to the Pit

and she lies in wait in the secret places

near every corner...

in the broad places of the city she covers herself

and in the gates of the city she stations herself

and she has no repose from walking continually

her eyes glance here and there

and her eyelids she lifts wantonly

to look at a righteous man and trip him up

and a mighty man she causes him to stumble

upright men to pervert their way and

prevents the righteous elect from keeping the

commandment

the sustained ones to cause to be foolish with

wantonness and those who walk straight to alter

their custom

to cause the meek ones to rebel from God

and to turn their steps from the ways of

righteousness

to bring insolence to their hearts

so that they are not ordered on the paths of righteousness

to lead humanity astray into the ways of the Pit

and to seduce with smooth talk the sons of man

4Q184

"You brought them both here?" Kim's voice trailed as her clunking heels came to a halt. "What's up with this room?"

"Just some scribbled unintelligible words. You have to make good on your claim first," John said.

I turned my head to see John standing beside her. A cigarette in her mouth and scorn in her eyes. Kim's black hair was in an afro, wild and free. She wore a short brown dress and her trademark black high heels. Eric stood opposite me, a blue mattress behind him. His mouth gagged and hands bound.

In contrast, he had on blue boxers and a white vest. The hairs on his chest and armpits were peaking through. He heaved as his eyes frantically looked about—seven men surrounded us.

Kim adjusted her glasses. "I thought you were professionals, no questions asked, your boss—"

"My boss isn't here," John said, snatching the cigarette from her mouth.

"What the fuck?" Kim said.

John drew his gun and placed it at her head.

"Is he going to kill me?" Kim stumbled back. "Your—"

John held Kim by the neck. "You're all here to tell me why you want this place so bad and who makes me the best offer will live."

"I offered P1 citizenship," Kim stuttered. "I can get you all citizenship."

"You think I wouldn't recognize forgery? You can only trick idiots with that." John's gun clicked. "That's all you have to offer?"

"All I've to offer?" Kim's eyes blinked a few times. "Wait, I can offer you half, no—most of the sale of the building."

John flung her to his left side. Her shoes clanked on the ground. "And what about you, Mr. Foster? Do you intend to beat that offer?"

"He can't offer you anything!" Kim shouted, her back now against the faded yellow wall. "It's not trickery. I have connections to someone that works in the department."

Andrew?

John smirked. "He can't?" He stepped forward. "Isn't he the true owner of this property, Eric?"

Eric's voice mumbled inaudible words.

John pointed his free hand at the man behind Eric. The young blond man took the gag from around Eric's mouth.

"Well then, Mr. Eric, do you have an offer to make for me? Seeing that your interest was for the mayor of this city."

"The Mayor?"

"Hernando?"

"The boss and now this. Is John mad?"

The men's thoughts showed the wavering feeling in their hearts, which appeared slightly on their faces.

"If you know all of that, then why? Why would you go through all of this knowing the end result? Are you just that stupid?" Eric said. "They wouldn't dare harm me. I will get out of this situation." Eric coughed. "Your boss and I —"

The blond man behind Eric struck his back with his foot. Eric tumbled to the ground with a grunt. The blond man's thoughts and actions conflicted. He was afraid of this whole thing going wrong, but John stood with a smile, pleased to see what looked like his man taking his side.

"I am the boss." John paced between us, his hands swaying in the air. "You see what happens when you speak out against me? I am the one in charge and only those with something of true value to offer me will walk out of here alive."

A stabbing pain tore into my back. I heaved. My body shook, and sweat fell from my forehead.

You need my help. Don't you? No one here can help you. No one here can save you, only me. Let go of your past, burden, and dependency on this world. Let them all die so you can live.

I bit my lip, sensing the emulating greed coming from John's mind. He was like a beast that could not be sated; in the end, he wanted to kill us. He wanted to kill us all.

John made his way back to me and crouched, looking me in the eye. "This is what I want. First, I want about eighty percent of this hotel and then I will put credit on your heads. Twenty-five thousand a person and then finally, you, Eric, explain to me what's so important about this place? Why does the mayor have interest in it and in these two?"

Eric chuckled. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me," John said.

"We believe there is a gate here to another universe."

John laughed in response, slapping his hand on his pants. The other men joined in, with Kim's eyes lingering on the escape. He got up and circled Eric. "What sort of shit is that, old man? I am talking about value."

Eric's face remained stern as the blond-haired man jerked him up by his head. Eric spat on the ground. "It's not a joke."

Kim's hand lowered to her heels. The eyes of the men fell on Eric, with most of them holding a look of disbelief.

"We just don't understand how it works. Do you know why this place is closed?"

"I don't know, isn't it just poor management?" John replied, his head turned to Eric.

"No," Eric said.

"I remember," the blond man behind Eric said. "Wasn't this the place of the infamous shooting? Where everyone in the hotel ended up dying?"

"Those people didn't die." Eric wiggled his restricted body. "We believe they went to the next side. My wife and his father were one of them ten years ago."

My father?

Eric continued, "When we entered the hotel, it was empty and clean as if no one was here to begin with."

John's phone rang. Ignoring it, he shouted, "Old man, that doesn't tell me anything! I don't believe that nonsense you're making it up. I expected some sorta pile of cash, gold, maybe diamonds to be here, some secret we could use, but this nonsense!?"

"John," the man beside me said. "We should hurry this up, the boss —"

"I am the boss!" John shouted towards the man.

There was a clunk on the ground, and, like a blur, my aunt disappeared out of the room.

"Fucking hell, get her!" John pointed at the two closest men at the door with his gun. The men ran towards the door, and their feet thundered down the hall.

"That girl is the least of your problems," Eric said.

John walked up to Eric and stopped. "Oh, and who is? You, after spewing so much lunatic shit." He spat on the ground in front of him before smacking him in the face.

Eric kept an unrelenting gaze on him. His face had the imprint of the mark. "You sure know how to create enemies with your misguided greed." John sneered and held Eric up by the collar, but Eric continued, undeterred. "With your boss and now with the mayor. If any of you others had your head on. You should either stop him or get out of here while you can."

John threw Eric down on the ground. "No one followed us here, old man; this place is in shambles and we made sure we weren't watched coming in. Just tell me what I want to know, give me a cut, and we will be gone."

"Didn't you say it yourself? It's in the mayor's interest. You don't think he knows by now?" Eric said as he got himself back up.

The surrounding men muttered loudly.

Eric continued, "If I were you, I would leave now. Hernado isn't a forgiving man."

The lanky man beside me bolted through the door. "Sorry John, I can't. I have a family."

"Wait, you coward!" John shouted, raising his gun, but the man did not turn back. "Fuck!"

My eyes scanned the room, noticing the remaining four men in doubt. How do I get out of here? I fidgeted with my arm, but my restraints pierced into my skin.

John pushed his gun onto Eric's head. "Bastard, I should shoot you."

"And then what happens from there? You won't have anything to work with. No money and you would be hunted the rest of your life for killing a P2. Your boss knew better than to interfere with Hernando's interest."

"I am —"

"You're no boss. You can't even keep your men in check." Eric's eyes shifted behind John and pointed with his chin. "Hurry up and untie us."

"What—" John said, but before he finished, the blond man beside Eric connected his fist to his face. John's blood sprayed like a mist in the air. His body sank, and the gun dropped from his hand. He moaned and cursed as he held his nose.

What was going on?

The other men looked on but did nothing as the blond-haired man untied Eric.

"What are you doing?" one man finally muttered.

"My job," the blond head man replied, his voice thick with a hint of a Haratian accent. He turned to the others with a grim expression. "Unless you want to cross Hernando." His hand pointed outside the window. "There are snipers there. Do you want to die for this loser?"

Some men trembled as their voices lowered, muttering, posturing, and shifting away from the windows.

Eric stood up, unwrapping the last piece of rope from himself. "I thought your boss, and I had come to an understanding, but it seems I underestimated that woman a bit. Leave and get back to your boss before you get dragged into this mess. Tell him it was a misunderstanding and that the woman was trying to undermine Eric. There are no papers to grant him what he wants."

The blond man nodded.

The other men fled from the room as John moaned and rolled on the ground. "You bastard! How dare you, Philip?"

"How dare I?" Philip shrugged. "How dare you! I warned you before about this. Not to follow through, but you had to get greedy. It's always about you, this and that. I didn't think hitting someone could feel so good."

Eric sat on the bed and rubbed his neck, his head lowered to the ground. "What does Hernando want us to do now?"

"You were sloppy Eric. No loose ends."

I grinded on my teeth. No voices came from the two. What were they thinking? Should I say something?

Philip walked towards John. He pulled a knife from his pants. In the sparse light coming from outside, it glimmered. He bent down to him. "I warned you." Philip held John's mouth as he protested. The knife fell on John's throat. John garbled words as he fought back. He grabbed for the knife, but Philip continued stabbing him repeatedly until John's hand slumped and his body convulsed.

Philip got up, pushing John's hands away. Blood smeared his black shirt. His eyes met mine.

I wouldn't be next. I got up to run, but a knife whizzed inches past my head, causing me to stop. It collided with the wall and clanked as it fell to the ground.

"If you try to run, Domenic, I might have to kill you."

I turned to see Philip with his gun lowered to the ground, cleaning the blood off his face. Eric sat on the bed silently.

"Sit down and wait for the rest to bring back your aunt," Philip said.

I stumbled back and tripped over my legs. I fell to the ground with a loud thud. My eyes laid on the door.

"Do what he says, Domenic," Eric whispered.

"I'm sure it shouldn't take too long. It's not like she could escape the building." Philip touched his shoulder. "Ah, and don't worry, Eric. Those men are with us, too."

"Are there really snipers outside?" Eric questioned.

"No, I had to say something to get them out, but they won't get far."

"What about the screams?"

"Already taken care of." Philip stood above me. A tattoo of two guns ran down his shoulder. "The police will deal with that and them. No loose ends."

"Eric, what's going on?" I asked, my heart thumping in my chest.

Rainbow chuckled in my head as Kim was dragged in, flanked by the two men. Her body had cuts and bruises and clothes torn in some places.

He looked up at the ceiling. "Answers, Domenic, we need to know what happened that day. I need to know what this world really is."

They threw Kim onto the floor. Her head bent to the ground. She sobbed, and it echoed on the walls as I forced myself back to my feet.

"What happened to my family? Don't you want to know what happened to your father? Let's solve this whole mystery with this last step."

Philip stepped forward. With her last bit of strength, she pleaded. The gun fired. Kim's body collapsed like a mannequin losing its strings. Philip kicked her three times before placing a final round in her head. My body shook, and my breathing increased as her lifeless, cold eyes met mine. Crimson red oozed from her head, forming puddles on the floor. Philip stepped into it without a second thought.

"This is how this will all go, Domenic," Eric rubbed his chin. "You take your share and none of this ever happened. Nod once if you understood."

Philip pointed his gun at me while the other men watched on.

"Nod once, Domenic," Eric repeated in a deeper tone.

I swallowed my saliva and nodded.