XVIII

"Jane! We need to burn the hotel!" I tell her with my voice ringing in the air. I can also tell a sign of relief from Jane's face as her eyes brighten and a genuine smile gently forms on her lips. That's it. Maybe this is the way out.

I start to feel giddy as I feel a slight ray of hope brim in my heart once again. This could be it, right?

"We should create a plan now! Where can we find fire hazards?" I go to Harris, "Harris, we can finally leave this place!" I hug him in delight. "We can finally escape this nightmare."

"Yeah," I hear him say as his eyes gleam under the moonlight. Finally, we can now go.

I go back to Jane to ask more questions.

I hold her hands while I look at her eyes, "Jane. We can finally wake up! Tell me, what should we do? What's the plan? You guys know how this place works. Tell me so we can leave this place."

I am desperate. And I feel that all of us here are, too. But suddenly, Jane's eyes avoid my gaze and look down at the floor. She bites her lower lip as she gently lets go of my hand. What surprises me more are the words that come out of her mouth next, "I'm sorry, Amy. I don't think we can help you with that."

What? I feel like a bucket of cold water has been poured on me. "Why? What do you mean? Aren't we getting out of this nightmare together?"

"I'm sorry," she looks down and turns her back on me. "You see, all of us employees are now bound to this hotel since we are employed. We have already promised our souls to The Passion House and there's no way we can turn our backs from it. Although we want to help you, guys," She looks at Harris and me, "We can't actively participate, especially if it is a plan against our jobs," She says in a low and sad voice.

I feel two hands rest on my shoulders. I look up and I see Harris. Harris, are we just going to let this opportunity slip away?

"So you mean..."

"Yes... If we want to wake up, we should not do anything to destroy what Erebus is up to," Jane's fellow coworkers start to move and gather behind her, "If we want to survive... we should not help you." I can feel the pain in the words she has uttered. "It's either your lives... or ours."

I look at every single one of them in disbelief. That's understandable that they would not dare risk their lives for us because... who are we, right? Of course, for them, their lives are important.

"This is so unfair," is all I can mutter. It feels like the entire management of the hotel is playing with us as if we are some pieces of a game that they can manipulate. I eventually find myself squatting on the floor. It is either our lives or theirs. It is two vs. twelve.

"Fire is the primary weakness of Erebus, right?" I hear Harris speak behind me. I look up at him. He looks serious as he looks at the twelve.

"We suspect, yes," We hear Jane reply. A slight smile slowly creeps on Harris' face.

"Okay," He says as he goes down and picks me up. Carrying me like a bride he continues, "You deal with your lives while Amy and I will do anything to survive." I can't seem to get my gaze away from him. He looks so serious and desperate. Me in his arms and his current stature makes me think that... damn, he's so hot. I feel my blood rush to my cheeks as this man who's carrying me speaks further, "You can try to stop us but we are not dying here." This is not the time to admire him, Amy. He turns away from them and begrudgingly walks to the door. He opens it and before we can go out, we hear one of them say,

"There's no escape from here," was a man's voice, "We won't let you get away!"

Oh right. It is two vs. twelve now.

Harris closes the door with a Bang! He then puts me down and faced me to him. He raises his hands and caresses my right cheek. He looks straight to my eyes as if he bears his soul in me, "I won't let anything bad happen to you. I already lost a lot of people. I don't want to lose you, too." He pulls me into a hug, burying me in his arms. "I don't want to lose you, too, Amy."

My heart clenches for the man in front of me. He has lost his friends tonight. He has lost his family. I hug him back as my hand wrinkles the side of his shirt. I can feel his fears as I am afraid, too. What will happen to us?

"You have to promise me that you will survive, Amy," I hear him whisper in my ear. I freeze.

"I don't know, Harris," I tell him truthfully because, to be honest, no one is going to help us right now and there are 12 people out there who will do anything so we cannot leave this place alive.

"You have to. Please," I hear him, "Just please, lie to me for once."

"Okay. I promise."

He lets go of me and I can now see his face smiling with some tears in his eyes. I reach out to wipe away the tears from it as he snorts out some soft laughter.

"Why are you laughing?"

"I kinda feel overwhelmed right now," he says, "I feel sad because everyone's dead but at the same time, relieved because the two of us still have a chance to leave this place."

I look at him puzzled.

"Let's go, Amy. We still have our lives to keep," he takes my hand as he drags me out of there.

"So, What do we do?"

"We have to find a way to burn this hotel."

"And that is?"

He pauses for some time. After a while, we have reached the lobby. The exit door is again wide open, luring us to go out but reminding us that even if it is there, it is useless and that we are trapped here for death.

I feel him drag me on the left side of the room, into a hallway, and eventually, I see a wide-open room of three floors that has a piano in the middle.

We are in the restaurant. I look at the man beside me and I see the determination in his eyes.

"What are we doing here?"

I feel my heart clenches as I am reminded of my mom and the nice dinner we had last night. It feels like it has been a long time since it only happened yesterday. Damn.

"To burn this hotel," I hear Harris speak from a distance. "We will have to go to the kitchen and make a bomb."

We stop at a large two gray metal doors. "We can do this, Amy."

And we boldly open it up.

"Who's there?!" a man shouts.

A knife flies towards us. Good thing that Harris is fast to his reflexes and he has pulled me towards him or else, the knife must have borne itself on me, and be the cause of my death.