XVII

"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO US!" I shouted when I reached her. I can no longer stop myself. I need to release all this pent-up anger inside of me. I tried to nab her face but my hands fell short when two of the white-robed people held both of my arms. Their grip is strong, like well-trained men, and they are now carrying me up in the air in no time.

"HOW CAN YOU DO THESE PEOPLE?!" I am still shouting and being hysterical. I lost everyone. I lost my mom. I lost my friends. And there is no assurance of me waking up anymore.

"How can you do this?" I cried and I felt the two men put me on the ground. I knelt in front of them, "Please get me back, my mom."

I beg.

"Please find a way for me to wake up."

"Please tell me that this is not real."

"Please tell me that the ghosts are lying."

I bowed my head in front of them and kissed the white stone and cold floor.

"Please stop sacrificing people's lives," I begged. Hoping that this would warm their hearts. I finally admit that I and Harris have no power over 12 of them. So all we can do now is to surrender.

"Please..." I pleaded while I was still crying, "get us out of here."

I can't see them but I know that they are surrounding me now. Are they killing me, too? Just like what they did with Steven? Harris should run now.

I should tell Harris to run.

"Jane, you're bleeding," I heard a man say. I am surprised. I look up and see that I have indeed scratched Jane's cheeks and now her once kind face oozes with blood. Jane is not looking at me but she is staring at Harris who is standing from a distance. She wipes the blood off her face as she utters the words, "Stand up."

She looks down to find me and continues, "Follow me." She turns her back on us and starts to walk away.

What is going on?

I slowly stood up but I almost lost my footing because of the sharp pain in my side. Immediately, I saw two hands supporting me. Harris held my arms.

I look behind us and see that it is now a man who is carrying Steven's body. Clueless, I looked at Harris. What is going on? Are they not going to kill us?

He looks at me with the same puzzled face as I have. "Let's just follow her," I hear him say.

We followed the twelve people walking through darkened hallways. Our shoes and feet clanking on the bloody red carpet floors. We turned around from one corner to another until we reached a large wooden door.

One of the 12 people opens the door and we go inside it. It is a huge medieval library that has a huge window on the side and a wooden table in the center. The lights here are also turned off and the moon still provides illumination for us all. Slowly, they take off their robes. I see Jane walk towards the table where a mess of books lies on top. She takes a book and looks at me.

"This is the record room of the entire hotel. It holds all the possible answers to our questions."

"Our questions?" I asked her. "What do you mean our questions?"

She slowly walks towards me. "Yes, our questions."

"Did you not instigate this?"

"What power do I have?" She looked at me straight into my eyes. Under that white coat, she is still wearing her uniform just like the other 12. "What power do we have? We are mere humans like you."

I took the book from her hand. It is a red leather book that has tape in front of it with the numbers 2002.

"What's this?"

"That's the only book that spoke of Erebus," one of the women employees spoke up and came to us.

"Erebus?"

"The name of the Shadow Soul Eater of this hotel," Jane says.

I opened up a book and skimmed across it.

"So you are saying?"

"We have no control over this, like you. We have been finding ways to kill or make the monsters stop, but all of it is not successful."

"BUT YOU SACRIFICED STEVEN FOR GOODNESS' SAKE!" I shouted at them.

"We did-"

"DON'T YOU DARE MAKE A FOOL OF US? WE SAW IT!"

"Your friend jumped there on his own," She cuts me off.

"And yet you didn't help him?! What kind of people are you?!"

She grabs the book from my hand and desperately turns its page until she reaches one and gives the book back to me. "The way to satisfy the shadow is to sacrifice the last soul."

"We thought he was the last survivor, so we had no other choice."

"What about you? Aren't you survivors, too?"

"We are tied to this hotel," a black man joins us and scans the notebook again. "We are not allowed to help you or else... we will not be able to wake up." He gives the notebook back to me.

"All of us are trying to stay alive till morning," Jane says. "That has been the basic rule in this hotel."

"Does this happen often?" I asked. There must be something that has happened like this before, right?

"No, The last time Erebus has randomly appeared for the past few years, according to the book. No one can predict when he comes."

"It seems like when he gets hungry, he just appears out of nowhere and causes a major disturbance by melting everything in this world to black and drinking the souls of its victims," another one of the 12 says.

"Did you guys know about this?" I asked.

"No, we don't," Jane replies, "All of us here are the ones who have been hired recently. When the havoc started, some of us tried escaping but it was no luck. I remembered this place so I went in and tried to look for any information about the monster."

"But you said you've worked here for a while now when my mom and I arrived in this place earlier."

"I was just being sarcastic," Jane alibis, "I got reprimanded because I couldn't handle customer service in the real world and this has been my punishment. I didn't know that this would happen."

"So what are you planning to do now?"

"We will have to wait for the sunrise," the woman says, "I think it's already 4 at dawn in the real world now. There is only a matter of time left until we can wake up."

We all grew silent. So all we have to do now is wait?

If we wake up, this will happen again because we can't kill the monster.

"LIGHT!" Jane screams as she trots towards the table. "The shadow is attracted to light. That is why he doesn't go to dark places!"

I looked at Harris. It had been his idea to turn the lights off. Was it luck? Or is he a genius?

He looks at me, shocked, too.

"And it might be its' greatest weakness, too!" Jane exclaims. "He dissipates in the morning!"

An idea came to me. What if... we produce a great light at night? What will happen?

"FIRE!" Jane and I exclaim at the same time while looking at each other.

Fire is the light that burns. This might be it.