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For a long time, they heard nothing. Just the normal protest of a century-old building, settling onto its ancient foundation. There were no voices. No strange noises or sounds. It was as if the hotel knew what they wanted, and was now mocking them. Screwing with their heads.
“I don’t see anything in the mirror,” said Kara.
“It doesn’t happen right away,” Logan replied. “Last night it took a while.”
“How long’s a while?”
He shrugged. “I started first seeing the light around midnight. Didn’t really get bright until one-ish.”
Kara looked at the time. She groaned “Another hour and a half?”
She sighed and stretched out on the bed, spreading her hair out beneath her. Then she closed her eyes. She thought about the mirror, the photograph. The array of ancient objects spread out across Rudolph Northrop’s table — the exact artifacts they’d spread out on room 334’s dresser, right here, right now.
Something’s not right.
Kara couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. But there was definitely—
“Hey,” Logan voice said suddenly. “Weren’t you supposed to charge the backup batteries?”
“I did,” said Jeremy.
“Well then you did a shit job,” Logan scoffed. “Here, look at the charge meters.”
She heard Jeremy shuffle over. He bent to touch a few things, make a few adjustments. Kara opened one eye.
“I don’t know what happened,” Jeremy said. He sounded indignant. He tapped one of the backups with his thumb.
“I do,” said Logan simply. “You fucked up.”
Oh boy.
Jeremy stood up, rising to his full height. He stepped into Logan, who swelled up against him immediately
.
Kara opened her other eye.
“You had one job,” said Logan. “Plug the backups in. That’s all you had to do. Everything else—”
“I DID plug them in!” Jeremy yelled. “And I checked them, too. They were fully charged when we carried them up here. The needles were buried, left-side green.”
“Yeah,” laughed Logan. “And they both happened to drain completely in what… an hour? Come on…”
They were close now, only inches apart. She’d obviously have to do something. Kara ran through different scenarios in her head, trying to find one that assuaged them both without taking either side. She couldn’t find one, so she fell back on good old anger.
“Hey!” she yelled, standing up. “Assholes!”
They both whirled, somewhat astonished. She took the opportunity to step between them.
“The whole time we’ve been here, you’ve done nothing but bicker. It’s sickening. Like babysitting two little kids!”
They both started to say something. She shushed them with two stern looks.
“I’m done with it,” Kara declared, “so both of you get over it already. I’ve had enough of this never-ending dick-measuring contest!”
They looked at her for a moment, then each other. Logan’s mouth curled into a disdainful smirk. “I’d win that contest,” he chuckled.
“Wanna bet?” Jeremy snapped back.
