Hotel Selten

Unexpected Acquaintances

In front of Ophelia was a man standing tall with dark skin wearing a blue sleeveless and jeans. A sling bag was strapped on his torso as he was just looking at her judgmentally. “This is our place. So, f**k off and find another place to dwell in, you don’t know what I am capable of.” He threatens her as she looks at his back, “Or what WE are capable of Caldwell, you always leave us behind.” Even though it’s dark, she can see a woman with brunette straight hair, just like hers, but she has blunt bangs instead of her side bangs. “Is this your visitor, Clad?” A man emerges from his side that is almost the same size as him. He has coily red hair and his skin is in a bit yellowish tone.

“Nope, I didn’t even know this little girl.” Blaise approaches them, “Hey! You don’t mess with Ophelia or us.” Caldwell laughs as he just passes by him, bumping his shoulder. “Don’t act like gangster on us, we are not as weak as you think,” Blaise said as Thilda emerges from the other side of the store. “Are you talking with your imaginary friends again, Bl—Woah, who are these guys?” She said as she hides her left hand which is a blade. “We are the one that needs to ask that, who are you guys? And, you guys look awful, to be honest.”

“Woah, Woah, you guys are the awful-looking ones. You think you look punk on that s**t?” Ernest said as he chomps on the pork and beans that he just opened. “Now, you are the ones who are brave when you guys are the invaders here.” The redhead said as the brunette girl looks at them, “If you are not gonna left this place, we should force you then.” She points upward with her index finger when in a sudden a small fire was floating above it, she smirks as they all got amazed. “You guys have crazy stuff too!?” Ernest said as he extends his hand on them as the girl turns around. She saw the can of peas behind her was shaking as it suddenly moves quickly towards Ernest. She set aside in fear as Caldwell catches her. 

Now, the three were shock and confused. Miss Eve pushes the others aside as she presents herself to them. “I see that we have found some people that might need our help and we might ask for help.” She smiles sweetly as the girl with her magic of fire reaches a stick and lits up the tip. “I am Miss Eve, an owner of a hotel where I tend people with magic, supernatural abilities, and incredible powers. These people in front of you are residents of it.” She smiles at them as she reaches her arm to Peony and Melvin. “If you have a hotel, why are you here in this abandoned convenience store? Like, that doesn’t add up you know, you are just making yourselves look like you’re on crack.” 

“Hey, be careful with your words, Miss Show Off! You haven’t heard us yet, without us, this grocery store wouldn’t exist or even the other parts of Paris this day!” Peony said as Thilda holds her off and pulls her beside her. “Your existence doesn’t add up and changes anything.” The man beside Caldwell said that made the rest of the three chuckles. “Then, we’ll show you how can we change your breathing to none then,” Thilda said as Peony holds her off. “Cut it off, no one will talk back to them. Talking back will worsen things.” 

“But, Miss Eve. We can’t let these individuals just boss us around, we literally saved the world from almost being into ashes twice. I am gonna be honest, these fools hurt my ego and I am not gonna let that pass.” Hugo said as Ophelia holds him off. “Being mad is not the solution here, Hugo.” She looks at the three in front of them, “If you don’t believe us, just let us rest here for the night. We will venture tomorrow for other places we can live on until our next trip.” The three looks at each other and looked at them, before Caldwell even can talk, a voice emerges from their side.

“Yoooo, are those the heroes that the news has been buffering about?” A chubby male approached them while he took off the cap and his mouth gape. He has long wavy black hair and glasses. “Holy s**t! They are! I recognize that man, yes, you are that guy that has a green katana right?” He points at Adam who was shocked as he looks around him. “I-I… You mean… This?” In his palm emerges his leaf katana as he pats the girl beside Caldwell in amusement, “This is so cool! Haven’t you guys recognized them? Roche? Caldwell? Eshne? Come on! You, Esh, you are always on f*******: and Twitter, it’s impossible you haven’t seen any posts about these mysterious heroes of France!”

He approached Adam as he shook his hands, “I am Diether. If you are gonna ask what can I do, look!” He holds an empty can of corn beef and suddenly he disappeared. “Where did he go!?” Peony exclaimed as Eshne picks up an extra can of corn beef on the floor. “Hey!” A voice emerged from the can. “Woah, that’s cool!” Peony grabs the can as she looks at it on all sides. Suddenly, a big man appeared before her, “Tada! Isn’t it cool!? You know, when I heard of you guys, I never felt so accepted in my whole life and my loneliness faded away. I thought me and Eshne was the only one with weird things about ourselves. Then, we met Caldwell and Roche, it felt we had a purpose. We tried to fight that canine stuff and that wasp thingy that attacked the city. I didn’t even know you guys were already here!” 

“Why are you guys even here? I feel all of the things are happening here were because of you guys.” Roche said as Thilda sighs, “Well, you can blame us, partially. Without us attacking Asante, he couldn’t have been released these creatures.” Blaise raises his hand at shoulder level, “Nope, nope. It’s all his fault. And, he would release those creatures, not now, but soon as they achieve all of the evil things they have been dreaming for.” The lady moves forward once more, “The reason why we are here is we are trying to get back to him and the organization he is in. Yes, we have a hotel, that’s true. And that hotel was been attacked a lot of times, in my whole life, there will be no decade without them destroying our happiness, taking some of the residences or even killing them if we fought back.”

“Woah, that’s cool! I mean, being attacked is not cool, who would want someone attacking their home? What I mean is those are cool, what is this organization and who is Asante? I honestly have so many questions right now but I don’t want you guys to fear me. Right now I am having my high school flashbacks of when I met my idols. I don’t want to remember it anymore, ugh.” The lady giggles, “A night isn’t gonna cover that all, I bet you guys are already tired. We are all too, we just got out from the recent laboratory and research facility of Asante. Which we finally killed him, at last.” 

“If he is already killed, why are you guys still in here?” Caldwell asked as Miss Eve sighs, “He is just the smaller villain in this journey. The one we are for is the general in Rennes. We decided to train and rest before traveling there.” Blaise draws his tablet as he tries to press the screen with the flashlight between his middle and ring finger. “It’s not just an easy journey and fight. It’s harder than Asante’s crazy experiments. He has a full army and he might draw Asante’s aces too. Since he works for them, anyway.” 

“So, you are traveling here in France for revenge for ruining your lives in the hotel?” Caldwell said as Miss Eve nods, “We are not the only ones, the Martin Mansion, the only place I know where others that are just like us live in. Where some of these people here came from. They are getting attacked too. We don’t know how many are suffering because of their greedy desires and intentions. Our goal will help us and the others too. Maybe the whole world too, we don’t know what are in the minds of these people. With Asante being careless and not caring about a city being torn into ashes and debris. It just concludes that they will not care if the world destruct on its own because of their plans, which we still don’t know. You see, we will just stay here for a couple of days and we will travel to a place where we might meet our fates, whether it’s victory or our own death.” 

“Well, we might just slack off here until the authorities seized us, Caldwell, you wanna help these strangers?” Eshne looks at him which he sighed, “I mean, it’s interesting, to be frank. It’s crazy too. And our powers and abilities are just being used minimally, so, I mean, why not use them to battle bad guys? That seems lit, right?” He looks at his friends as they agree with him with their own ways to express it. “Yeah! I will be able to kick some balls!” Diether said as he punches the air, trying to imitate a fighting scenario. “Maybe Thilda and Blaise can help you with that. Let’s have some training tomorrow, how about that?” The four looked at each other as they seem to be agreeing about it. “It’s getting boring here so, why not?” They all decided to take a rest and talk about everything tomorrow. 

It was a messy morning as Ophelia looks outside, everything was real, the mess outside says it all. She didn’t know that she will be living in a livable space in a middle of a giant mess. “They are already starting clearing things,” Roche said as he enters their temporary home. “As soon as everyone is awake and have eaten, we will have our training and these four can show off what they can do,” Thilda said as she yawns and stretches her body. “Diether was super excited that he woke up earlier at 4 in the morning, now he is dozing off once more.” Eshne giggles as it made those who are awake up smile and giggle. “Wake up, fanboy.” She said as she shakes Diether. “Huh, what? The training already started?” 

Eshne laughs, “No, but it will start if you sleep more.” He quickly goes up as he prepares that made Thilda giggle. “Everyone take their favorite meal and stuff yourself up before you get beaten.” “What?” Diether looks at them as Eshne and Thilda laugh. “Good morning, Miss Eve.” Ophelia greeted as the lady approaches them. “I am surprised that they didn’t cut the water yet. I got a nice bath.” “Uhm… I collected water Miss and stuff some on the water tank below the convenience store.” Miss Eve smiles, “Why, thank you.” She pats her shoulder as she left and gets some food to eat. 

“So, your power is about water?” Ophelia nods, “I am still a beginner about it. I haven’t discovered it until I stumbled upon the hotel.” Eshne nods, “That hotel seems interesting.” Thilda joins the conversation, “You are welcome to the hotel when we come back if we will be able to.” Ophelia nudged her with her elbow as Thilda just shook her head. Minutes later, she shouted across the store, “Everyone, outside!” They went outside as they started their training. Ophelia looks at the horizon, seeing every damage inflicted in Paris even from her standpoint. Suddenly, she froze and squints her eyes.

“JP?”