Hotel Selten

Learning New Things

“Hey, Ophelia, you coming?” 

Ophelia looked at them as she looks back where she saw the familiar figure before, but now it was gone. She scratched her eyes as she blinks to confirm everything she saw and tried to find a figure that resembles Johannes. Unfortunately, she can’t find any. “Ophelia?” Thilda called again as she looks at her, “Y-yes!” She glances one more time as she approaches them. They took their places as Thilda took the center where they are circled in. “Be vigilant of anything suspicious, we don’t want to be ambushed or even caught by any of the authorities here. Above all of that, do your best shot and take this time to discover some side of your abilities that you haven’t harness yet. Blaise, are you done yet making improvised dummies?”

“Yep!” Melvin helped him to set up the dummies that were made of spare planks or even some that were scavenged on a nearby area that was an obliterated boutique. “Melvin found these mannequins in that area over there and with his all-powerful strength, we retrieve three of those. Though, one of them was just half body…” He approached her as he looks at the dummies. “It’s fine, as long you can punch it and it doesn’t punch back, it’s a valid dummy.” She looks at the others, “We are all familiar with each other except Caldwell, Eshne, Roche, and Diether. Can you please demonstrate your abilities?”

Caldwell removes his gloves as he approaches one of the dummies. “Hey, the girl with water stuff, can you get this dummy wet?” He looked at Ophelia who was shocked at first, “Uhm… I don’t really create water but… Sure.” She extends her hand sideways and clenches her fist as some of the bottles of water explodes which startled them for a bit. She opens her palm as water floats out of the store they are sheltering on. She then splashed it to the dummy, “There you go.” “I was hoping not to waste our resources but… Oh well.” Caldwell touched the soaked wooden dummy as they all got amazed when the water started to freeze all the way through.

“I can freeze objects, well wet or soaked solid objects. I can freeze any liquid too and also, I can make some ice droplets to the air but that’s another day to explain.” He puts his gloves on again as he came back to his place earlier. “Contradicting his ability, I have the fire one. I can control it so I don’t have to wear gloves.” “I—” “Just shush, man Elsa.” Eshne approaches the frozen dummy as the fire was hovering above her palm as she points it on the dummy. It melted the ice and the water started to boil as her hands inch closer. Suddenly, the dummy was set on fire that Ophelia was forced to splash it again with the remaining water. 

Eshne brushed her hands, “I will not do anything dumb with my abilities, I know it can literally obliterate a city.” She smiles as she returned to her seat that was debris from a building. “Roche?” Thilda said as he walks up to a dummy. He raises his arm with his fist clenched as it transformed into a rocky one. He punches the dummy as it breaks into pieces and falls. “That’s all I can do, punch things. Maybe bang things.” He shrugs as he came back to his own space. “Heck yeah! Another one of the biggest men!” Melvin said as he punches the right side of his chest. “Biggest man? Why are you thin as hell?” 

Melvin was a little bit offended and his answer to that was him carrying big debris. He approached huge foundation debris nearby as he carries it with one hand. “That’s the biggest irony of his life,” Thilda said as Melvin drops the debris back to its original place. “You are like Hulk! But not green and… A little bit less muscular.” Diether said as the poor guy sighs, “Do I look malnourished to you guys?” Eshne looks at him, “Well, just thin. Be thankful you aren’t because it seems you are going there.” 

“Before things get worse, let’s stop this sidetrack. Diether.” The optimistic and enthusiastic boy stands as he stopped in front of the dummy, “Since you already showed us somewhat you can do, is there anything you can add?” She said while she leans on the wall of the convenience store. “Well, I can be turned into weapons, honestly. But when I do, uhh… I get dizzy and I can still feel pain.” Blaise approached him as he hands him a knife, “Can you turn into a knife?” He nods as he touches it and his eyes squint. Suddenly, a resounding sound of metal and plastic was heard. Blaise kneeled as he reaches the new extra knife on the ground. 

“That was a bad fall, my back hurts now. Maybe next time hold my body?” Blaise looks at him like a knife as he smirks and looks at everyone while chuckling. “This is cool!” He swings it in the air. “Oh god I think I am gonna puke later…” Diether said as Blaise stops, “If I pierced you on someone, would you able to see their guts?” He looks at the knife, “Well, I can only see pitch black with a hint of red the last time Eshne used me like a machete.” Ernest bursts into laughter, “Oh god, I can’t imagine being a weapon and being used on those experiments of Asante. Some of them don’t have red blood you know.” 

“Well, I will be fainting in a minute of battle since my body bangs on everything.” He said as he finally switches back to his normal form, appearing in front of Blaise. “I am surprised you are still alive.” Thilda said as he looks at her, “I rarely turn into something that is a weapon. I mostly use this to sneak on places. I can absolutely die when being used a lot as a weapon, ya know. And, also, I can be a g*n, it’s just a weird experience for me. I wouldn’t talk about it though. And my back is hurting right now.” He said as he caresses his back and went to his place in the circle. 

“So, since we are already familiar with them, I might recommend Caldwell going with Ophelia as much as they can. Since Ophelia’s abilities can greatly help him, just be careful getting wet and getting in contact with him. Those don’t sum up well.” She explained as she looks at Caldwell, “Roche can be with Melvin if they want to or he can stick with Arabella, Hugo, and Ernest since they don’t have a primary defensive weapon or power to defend themselves. Include Diether with that in case they need an emergency weapon, for emergency purposes only. Since Blaise is on his way to create some new weapons for the three and anyone who can’t hold their enemies with just their abilities and powers.” She last looked at Eshne, “You can go with anyone if you want, but I recommend not going with Ophelia since she will just contradict your ability. Unless your hand can make the water she gather boil to cook some enemies, but not for dinner. Is that all clear?” 

They all nod and agree, “With that, you guys can start training. I will be accompanying Hugo and Blaise to scavenge or even find a whole hardware and electronics shop.” Miss Eve said as she approached the two who are standing next to each other. Thilda nods as she looks at everyone, “You heard Miss Eve, we’ll start.” And with that, she started partnering with people and tried to harness partner attacks and defends using both of their abilities in one shot. 

After two hours of straight just training with dummies and within themselves, they called it training and made them have their own breaks. Ophelia sat alone near the counter on the floor as she eats a steamed hot dog sandwich. “Gladly that there are some hot dogs in the freezer of this store and some buns in the cupboards too!” Diether said as he sat down in front of her, leaning on the shelves full of hygiene products. “I am craving tacos right now, but I guess hot dogs will do with this situation.” He said as he bites his food. Ophelia suddenly froze and whispered, “Tacos…” 

“Yeah, they are delicious, right? They are like a gift in heavens!” He talked as Ophelia was in deep thinking. ‘Tacos… Tacos… Fish… Tacos…’ She suddenly vaguely remember something, in front of her was an unfamiliar woman. In front of her were two tacos on a plate, the woman in front of her giggles as she seems was talking. ‘What are these memories… For all these years, I only remembered them by now… Why… Why now…? Why just now?’ She said as another memory appears, in front of her instead of the woman earlier, it was a man in a hoodie. He was serious and talking too. ‘Are these my parents?’ Her headaches as she holds her forehead. 

“Hey, are you okay?” As she snaps back to reality, she looked at Diether who was concernedly looking at her. “I-I… I am fine…” She said as she takes the second bite on her hot dog. “You surely aren’t fine, Ophelia. I feel you didn’t listen to me earlier. Do you hate tacos? I am sorry if I brought it up.” She shook her head as a no while she chews on her food slowly and still looking in a different direction. “I don’t hate them… I think… I love them…” She gulped her food and takes another bite. “What do you mean, what’s with the hesitation?” It made the brunette girl sighs as she rests her head on her clenched fist that was on her leg.

“I haven’t told this to anyone yet until now… Well… You know, when I was like… 13 years old… I was surprised when I saw an unfamiliar-looking woman that was my grandmother. That is the only memory I have. I don’t know why, if something happened and it made me have some amnesia or something, I should have remembered it at least 4 years ago. Since I went to the hotel, I started to remember things. The first one was a plane crash… It was vague, but I know it’s something. Then it continues when a thing was spoken and I was just left staring at the air, trying to get all of the pieces together. Everything is still vague.” She sighs as she looks at her food.

“That’s a long time to cope up with amnesia. Scientists might even pile on you if they knew that it took you 4 years to at least remember something.” Diether said as he finishes his hot dog. “It’s 5 years. 5 years of not knowing who really I am. My grandmother said my parents died in an accident when I was young and she couldn’t be bothered to even say their names. That time in the hospital, she explained why I was there. I was involved in a school bus crash, she needs to transfer me to another school to prevent it from happening again. I don’t know, I feel everything I remember is all lies. My brain hurts so much.” She massages her temple as she groans. 

“That might be a hard thing to go through.” She sighs as she takes another bite out of her food. “I can’t even imagine how did I survive my first week in my grandma’s went, well at least in my perspective where I literally can’t remember anything before I was awake in that hospital bed.” Diether sighs, “One day, you will be able to remember everything about you. Maybe something in your past can help whatever you are having problems with.” 

“She can, no one is stopping her now.”