Hello everyone. I have written here before about my job at Ultima Resort (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8). It has been a little while since I have been inspired to document my job; I haven’t felt like I am making much progress lately and it has been a bit demoralizing. However, two noteworthy events happened recently, so I thought I would chronicle it properly. Hopefully it is a sign of more interesting developments to come.
Every hotel fights a daily battle with insects. Bedbugs in the mattresses, ants in the dining room, roaches in the kitchen. You had to be vigilant, with traps and poisons and cleaning, if you didn’t want to wake up covered in itchy welts. And even if you were assiduous in your efforts, insects and arachnids would still find a way in, it was inevitable. I had been in this business long enough to know that, and to be used to it. I had long ago stopped being squeamish. Still, as I spit toothpaste into the sink and watched a black and yellow spider the size of a bottle cap writhing around in the sticky glob, I had to admit things had gotten a little out of hand, the last few days. I rinsed the struggling arachnid down the drain and changed into my work uniform, shaking moths out of the pockets as I did. I sighed. Normally, I would ask Manny what to do about this, but, as much as I hate to admit it, Al and Vincent had gotten into my head a bit. I couldn’t deny that Manny knew things he shouldn’t. And if he really was making blood sacrifices to… something… I didn’t know what that meant. I had tried asking him about it, in a roundabout way, but Manny was a reticent as ever, so I was hesitant to trust him. Which was a shame, because somehow, he always seemed to have an answer. But then, that was the problem, wasn’t it? I would just have to figure something out on my own.
I emerged into the hallway to find Vincent limping down the hallway, swearing under his breath and scratching at his ankle between steps.
“You doing alright, Vincent?”
“No!” he snapped, rounding on me. “Of course I am not! I am being eaten alive by bedbugs, and when I turned on my bathroom light this morning, the floor was moving!”
“Cockroaches?”
He shook his head,
“Silverfish. A whole carpet of them, just writhing on the floor. I thought our rooms were supposed to be safe. Ish.”
“Well, apparently insects don’t respect the rules.”
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I am itchy and I am miserable. We have to do something.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Call an exterminator?”
“Come on, Vincent,” I sighed. “You’ve been here long enough to know that that isn’t going to work.”
“Well, do you have any other suggestions?”
“Hope that whoever all this is for shows up soon,” I shrugged.
We reached the lobby to find an unbroken train of ant making their way across the tile, from the front door to the dining room. I grabbed the broom from behind the desk and began to sweep them towards the door.
“Why do you even bother?” Vincent asked. “Maybe we should just let the ants have the whole place.”
I didn’t answer. He was frustrated, nothing I said was going to make a difference. I swept the bulk of the ants out the front entrance and turned back to the dining room. We entered to find Manny checking the roach traps down in the corners of the room.
“How are they looking today?” I asked.
He grunted,
“Going to need to lay out more tonight, these are too full.”
“Fantastic.”
“We have to do something about this, Manny. Please, do you have any ideas?” Vincent was beginning to sound desperate. Well, he did seem to have a much more intense reaction to the bedbug bites than the rest of us, so it was understandable.
Manny scratched the back of his neck, absently,
“I mean, we have been trying, Vincent. What would you suggest?”
“I don’t know. You are the one with all the answers, you tell me!” he waited a moment for a response, but when one was not forthcoming, Vincent threw his hands up in the air. “Fine. Whatever. I am going to go put some ice on my bites.”
Then he stormed into the kitchen, leaving Manny and I alone.
“Well, Lucy? What do you think?”
“I don’t know, Manny. Something is different. At first, I was just waiting for a guest to show up, but it has been days now. Maybe something has gone wrong. Or maybe we are supposed to do something, this time. I don’t know.”
Manny nodded thoughtfully,
“I had the same concerns. I was sure the guest would have arrived by now. Instead, it feels like they are trying to force our hands,” Manny frowned and furrowed his brow. “I think… maybe it is time to phone an exterminator.”
Vincent emerged from the kitchen with an icepack pressed to his ankle,
“That is what I was saying!”
“I don’t know… would that even work? We usually can’t get any kind of service here.”
“I understand that, Lucy,” Manny nodded. “But I have a feeling… We have to try something.”
“Are you sure this is wise…”
The two men’s eyes widened as I spoke, Manny reached up a hand and touched his left ear,
“You have a little something…”
I felt a tickle and reached up, feeling something wriggling on the edge of my ear canal. I pinched it between my fingers and pulled the squirming body from my ear and tossed it to the floor. As I watched the centipede scurry away, I shuddered. A small chuckle echoed in my head.
“Ok, maybe it is time we call a professional.”
Standing by the front desk, I flipped through the phone book, looking for the listings for pest control services. As I reached the appropriate page, a flyer fell from the book. It read: Stephens and Sons Pest Control. Get the bugs out, before you bug out. I put the flyer down on the desk. This seemed to be the service that they wanted us to call, but maybe it would be safer to pick another option. I ran my finger down the page, skimming the other advertisements, and frowned.
“Which once should we call?” Vincent leaned over my shoulder, looking at the page.
“Well,” I shook my head. “Considering they all have the same phone number, I doubt it matters.”
I picked up the flyer and reached for the phone, trying the ignore the sick feeling that I was doing their dirty work. Whyever they wanted Stephens and Sons Exterminators here, I wish they’d just take care of it themselves.
But where would the fun be in that? Al smirked.
I rolled my eyes but didn’t respond. The ringing stopped and a middle-aged woman answered,
“Stephens and Sons pest control. How may I help you?”
“Hello. I work at the Ultima Resort, and we are looking for someone to come out and do an inspection. I think we might have a small infestation.”
“Insects or rodents?”
“Insects, I think,” I hadn’t seen any rodents yet, but still better not to be too certain.
“My boys have some time right now, actually. We could have someone out there today, if that works for you?”
“That’s great,” I gave her the address.
“We’ll see you soon.”
“Thanks very much.”
I hung up the phone to find Vincent staring at me.
“What?”
“This place has an address?”
“Of course, everywhere has an address. It is usually written by the phone, if you need it.”
“Can’t I just remember it?”
“Nah, it changes.”
“That’s not usually how addresses work.”
“You don’t say,” I laughed. “Alright, go out front and keep an eye out for the exterminators, they should be here soon. I am going to go help Manny in the kitchen.”
Vincent smiled, relieved, not to have to deal with the piles of cockroach carcasses.
“Thank you.”
I could tell the bugs were getting to him. I watched him practically sprint out front, and I went to get the vacuum out of the storage closet.
Manny was in the kitchen, sweeping the roaches into piles when I entered. The Chef was there, watching impassively, providing no assistance at all. It was unnerving the way he never blinked, especially when the fly began crawling across his right eye. I shook my head and turned away. I didn’t need to see that.
“These piles ready?” I gestured to the left of the room, where Manny appeared to have finished collecting all the loose bodies.
“Yeah,” he didn’t look up from his sweeping.
“Let me ask you something,” I maneuvered the vacuum into place, but didn’t turn it on, yet. “How did you know we would be able to reach an exterminator?”
“I didn’t know. I just thought it would be worth a try.”
“Why would you think that?”
“I told you, I had a feeling.”
“I know what you said, Manny, but I am honestly not buying it anymore. Vincent is right, you always seem to know more than you should about what is happening in this place. I want to know why.”
“I have been here a long time, Lucy. Eventually, you get a feel for the rhythm of the place.”
“Bullshit. I believed that when I was new, but I have been here awhile now myself, Manny. This place has no rhythm. That is kind of the point. They are trying to break us down, keep us off balance. Except for you, apparently.”
He looked up at me then, holding my eyes for a long moment, his look unreadable.
“What are you trying to say, Lucy?” he asked at last. “Are you asking if I am one of them?”
“No, Manny. I never said that. I am asking how you get your information. Why can’t you just give me a straight answer?”
“Some answers are dangerous. There are things that you are better off not knowing. I am sorry, but you will just have to trust me. Please.”
We stared at each other for a long moment, finally I sighed and switched on the vacuum, ending the conversation.
Well, do you trust him? Al asked, a sneer apparent in his tone.
“Yes,” I mumbled under my breath, Manny wouldn’t hear me over the noise, as long as I was quiet.
Liar. I can tell you have doubts. Who wouldn’t? His knowledge, his blood sacrifices, what else is he hiding from you? What rituals is he conducting in secret to need all that blood?
“Are you going to tell me?”
Perhaps. If you make it worth my while.
“I already told you that I am not interested in playing your games, Al.”
Maybe not. But surely sometimes it would be worth it. Just a little trade, for our mutual benefit. Don’t you want to know where he gets his information?
“Maybe the devil on his shoulder is more forthcoming than mine,” I snorted.
Then I froze. Al almost seemed to be holding his breath. I raised my eyes to look at Manny, bent over and sweeping roach corpses out from under the elements on the stove. How could I have been so stupid? It was so obvious. I switched off the vacuum and turned back to Manny.
“Hey, Manny, I just have one more question.”
“Maybe we should just focus on our work for now, Lucy…”
He was interrupted by Vincent’s voice outside the door,
“Right this way, I think that we should start in the kitchen.”
“The exterminators are here. Now isn’t the time for a discussion,” Manny ended the conversation.
“We’ll come back to this later,” I promised.
He nodded and we both turned to watch as the door opened. Two men in coveralls and tall boots entered, eyes widening at the sheer number of cockroaches still piled on the floor. There was a definite resemblance between them, both tall and dark haired, with blue eyes and similar features. In fact, they would have been difficult to tell apart, except for the fact that the man on the left was in better shape, and he had styled his hair in a more flattering manner. He recovered from the surprise first,
“Well, it looks like you called us just in time, we’ll have this taken care of for you in no time.”
He had such an easy confidence about him that for a moment, I almost believed him. He smiled broadly and I felt my stomach flip, even in the coveralls, he was extremely handsome. I smiled back in spite of myself. He winked at me and turned to the other man,
“Joey, how about you go get the gear from the truck and I’ll take a look around.”
The man with the beer gut and tousled hair gave him a sour look.
“Trying to avoid doing any of the actual work, as usual, eh? You forgot one thing, though. How am I supposed to carry all that in by myself, Mickey?”
Mickey scowled,
“I’ve told you not to call me that. Micheal will do.”
“What, you too good for a nickname, Mickey?”
I cleared my throat,
“How about I grab a cart and I will help you bring in your gear?”
Joey looked me over, a slight sneer on his lips,
“No offense, but some of this stuff can be pretty heavy, miss.”
“Just let her help, Joe,” Micheal rolled his eyes and turned to Vincent and Manny, “Could you show me where the worst of the infestation is?”
Joe scowled, but turned and headed for the van without any further discussion, so I followed him out to the parking lot with a luggage cart. He walked ahead of me in silence, back stiff, refusing to acknowledge my presence. It gave me plenty of time to watch as the cartoon roach bobbed up and down on the back of his uniform. The little speech bubble read Bugger off. Finally, we reached a van with the same symbol screened on the side and he flung open the door and began loading the luggage cart with gear. Dusters, foamers, a heat gun, a heavy-duty vacuum. As Joe slammed each item down on the cart, I scrambled to reposition them and make more room.
“So…” I made an attempt at conversation. “You two must be the ‘Sons’, right?”
He grunted,
“Kind of, I guess. Me and my twin brother run the business, but since dad died ‘sons’ doesn’t really make sense anymore.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, he got cancer, from the pesticides. Great life we have, huh? It’s probably killing me as we speak, and there isn’t even much money in it. Keep that in mind before you make a play for my brother, huh?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Don’t play dumb. I saw you flirting with him. All the women do. Just remember he is nothing but an exterminator.”
Ok… I definitely didn’t want to be involved in whatever was going on there, so I just smiled stiffly and nodded. He snorted disdainfully and tossed some dust masks down onto the cart and slammed the van door.
“Let’s get back inside. This looks like a big job and the sooner we deal with this, the sooner we can leave. And for future reference, this would have been a lot easier if you’d called us before it got this bad.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Yeah, right.”
He strode off back towards the hotel, leaving me to hurriedly push the cart after him.
Apparently, our infestation was quite bad, because the twins spent the entire day assessing the extent of the problem. By the time they emerged from the final crawlspace that evening and removed their masks, both men were sweaty and exhausted.
“I have to be honest with you,” Micheal wiped his brow with the back of his hand, trying to stop the sweat from dripping into his eyes. “This is probably the worst infestation I have ever seen. You have bedbugs in most of the rooms, roaches in the kitchen, and carpet beetles in all the rugs on the main floor. And those are just the most significant risks to human health. There are several other species present in unusual numbers. Frankly, I should call the health department, but since you are working on treating it…” he smiled ingratiatingly. “Look, the roaches and the bedbugs are the most pressing issue, so I suggest that we treat with pesticides and steam in the infested rooms and the kitchen. Then, we’ll go from there. But unfortunately, it isn’t going to be cheap,” he gave me a sympathetic look.
I tried not to laugh,
“Money is no object, we just need this taken care of, immediately.”
Vincent nodded,
“The bedbugs especially,” he scratched his chest, absently.
Micheal chewed his lip,
“No object, huh?” he considered. “Well, we don’t have any other jobs on right now, if you are willing to pay, we can stay until the treatment is done. I am sure it must not be very pleasant for you all to have to stay here right now, so we can start tonight, treat a few rooms before we turn in.”
“Thank you so much,” Vincent looked like he was about to kiss the man’s feet.
“Joey, did you bring in the steamer?”
“Of course I brought it,” he snapped.
“Alright, well we can start with any rooms that are occupied, and the room we will be staying in, we’ll heat treat for tonight, then we’ll start with the pesticides in the unoccupied rooms. We’ll also lay some traps in the kitchen.”
“That’s perfect, let me just see about getting some rooms for you, and we can start there,” I headed behind the counter and woke the computer to see what room I could assign to them.
As I was entering the information, I heard the sound of heels on the tile and turned to see a young woman in a black and white striped bikini and gold lace-up heels walking in from the pool, drying her long, blond hair as she did. Everyone stopped to stare as she entered. I was mostly surprised by the fact that we didn’t actually have any guests staying here at the moment. Whoever this woman was, I hadn’t seen her arrive, and from the looks of it, Vincent hadn’t seen her either. But her effect on the twins was even more pronounced. Both men stared at her like they had seen a ghost, jaws agape. Once again, Michael recovered himself first.
“Sara? Is that you?”
The woman looked over and smiled.
“Micheal? Joseph? What a surprise to see you both here.”
Joe swallowed hard and ran a hand through his sweaty hair,
“What are you doing here, Sara?”
“What, aren’t you glad to see me, Joey?” she teased, a twinkle in her eye. “I am on vacation. What about you two?”
Michael gestured to his coveralls,
“We are working, I am afraid.”
“Oh, that’s perfect! The bugs here have been driving me insane,” she crossed the lobby and laid a hand on Michael’s arm. “Can you come up to my room. To take a look?”
“Of course,” he stammered, following her as she led him out of the room.
“I’ll join you,” Joe hurried after them.
I finished punching the data into the computer and grabbed the key card.
“Well, you are all in luck,” I kept my voice carefully neutral. “The three of you have adjoining rooms. What are the odds? I’ll help bring up your bags and equipment.”
They took a break for dinner after treating the first few rooms, and ‘Sara’ joined them. From their conversation, I gathered that they had all grown up together, and Sara had even dated Michael, before she left for university and neither of them saw her again. They kept dancing around that last part, but I took it things had ended badly between the three of them. She flirted openly with Michael, but he seemed hesitant to reciprocate. At one point, when he was in the bathroom, she turned her attentions effortlessly to Joe, who seemed much more interested. Nothing good could possibly come from this. After dinner, Sara drifted off and I helped the brothers treat several more rooms and lay roach motels out in the kitchen. Midnight was drawing near when we all went to turn in for, hopefully, the first insect-free sleep I had had in nearly a week. In all the commotion, I hadn’t managed to find a moment alone with Manny, but that could wait for the morning. I locked the door and collapsed into a fitful sleep.
I woke to a tickle on my face. One tickle became dozens and I leapt from the bed, brushing dozens of tiny spiders from my face and clothes.
“Argh,” I danced around, trying to shake the arachnids out of my shirt.
Al’s laughter echoed in my head.
“Did you do this?” I demanded.
I needed to get you up, or we were going to miss all the fun. I want to see how this one plays out.
“What do you mean…”
I was interrupted by a knocking on the door across the hall. I peered through the peephole to see that I was across from the three adjacent doors containing our only other guests. The being that was calling itself ‘Sara’ was in the hallway, wearing diaphanous lingerie that left very little to the imagination. She was knocking gently on one of her neighbors’ doors.
“Michael,” she called to him. “Please open the door, I know you are there. Look, I know it hurt you, when I left for university and ghosted you. I shouldn’t have done that, it was immature, but I want to explain what happened. Please, can’t we just talk, in private? I won’t ask to come in, maybe we could just go for a walk. Won’t you at least talk to me, for old time’s sake?”
The door opened a crack and Michael stood in the doorway in boxer shorts, watching her cautiously.
“Look, Sara, I won’t lie and say it wasn’t good to see you again. For years, I wanted nothing more than to see you, to ask you what happened, why you left without a word, but after so long…” he hesitated. “I don’t know that there is anything you could say that would matter.”
“Please, Mike,” she placed a hand on his chest. “You don’t know the whole story. Just come with me, away from him,” she nodded towards Joe’s door, “and I’ll explain everything.”
“Alright, I’ll come with you.” He slipped out of the room and the two of them disappeared down the hall.
I returned to my bed and sat down,
“That is what you woke me up for?”
Patience, it isn’t over yet, Al replied.
I checked my watch, 5:13am. I groaned, I wanted to go back to sleep, but I didn’t like me odds of waking up covered in bug or spiders again. So, I sighed and put on my uniform and began preparing to start my day.
“Alright, what are we waiting for?”
Then I heard knocking again. I returned to the peephole to see that Sara had returned, alone, and she was now knocking on Joe’s door. After a moment, it opened to reveal Joe in sweatpants and a white t-shirt, he smiled when he saw her.
“Sara, I didn’t think you’d come.”
“I almost didn’t. I thought… that you’d be angry with me, after what happened.”
“I could never be angry with you. But why did you leave without a word? Why didn’t you contact me again?”
“You have to understand, Joey. It was a shock, when you sent me those photos, of Michael with that other woman. I was confused, overwhelmed. But when I saw you again today… I understand now that you are the one I was always meant to be with. Will you come with me, we can talk, away from him,” she nodded towards Michael’s door. “Please?”
Joe nodded,
“Lead the way.”
They disappeared the same way she had gone with Michael.
Hurry and follow them, Al advised.
“No chance,” I shook my head. “You aren’t tricking me out into the hall before 6am.”
Relax, I can keep you safe.
“I’m sure you can, but I doubt you will.”
What if I gave you my word, that I won’t let any harm come to you, if you go out there, right now?
“You are really interested in this, aren’t you?”
You’ve seen how quiet it’s been here, lately. I am so bored.
“Alright then, I’ll go. But I want more. I want you to promise me one free question, whatever I want to know, whenever I choose to ask.”
What!? Do you take me for a fool?
“Fine, then. I am going back to bed.”
Wait, wait, wait. Alright, one question. Only one. And in exchange, you can’t interfere with anything that we are about to see.
That condition stuck in my craw a little, but considering how rarely I could even make a difference, I decided it probably wouldn’t matter.
“Alright, done. And you guarantee my safety?”
Yes! Now hurry or we will miss the best part.
I hesitated for just a moment, but finally I unbolted the door and crept quickly down the hall, following the sound of high heels on the tile floor below. I caught up as they disappeared into the kitchen, I crouched down to watch through the window at the pass-through, as she led him across the room to a door at the back that descended to a basement storage cellar.
“We can talk in here,” she whispered, gesturing him towards the door. “No one will find us.”
Joe stepped forward and opened the door, but before he could begin descending the stairs, Sara stepped up behind him and shoved him, hard, from behind. He screamed as he disappeared into the stairwell. She laughed softly,
“Alright, boys, I’ll leave you to talk things out.”
Then she walked away, and the kitchen was empty. I slipped inside and crept up to the open door, making sure she was nowhere close by before I peered inside. My jaw dropped. The light in what had once been the storage room was on, illuminating a transformed space. The small, empty room was covered in golden, sticky material, all over the floor, the walls, and all up the steps. It took me a moment to realize that it was glue. The entire room was a massive roach motel. And stuck in the glue, in the centre of the room, were the two exterminators. They struggled and thrashed in the sticky substance, trying to free themselves.
Appropriate, isn’t it? Al giggled gleefully. I wonder what they’ll do now.
I tried to rise, to go and find a ladder or something that I could push in to help them out, but my limbs froze in place.
Ah, ah, ah, Al tsked. Remember our agreement. No interfering.
“So, what are we going to do, then? Just watch them writhe around in glue? That is your idea of a good time?”
Just wait. If they work together, they can figure out a way out. Let’s see if they can manage it.
With a sigh, I turned back to the scene below.
“What are you doing down here?” Michael demanded.
Joe turned, noticing his brother for the first time.
“I should be asking you the same. What is going on here?”
“Sara lured us both here, into this giant glue trap. Don’t ask me how she set it up. The real question is, how are we going to get out. I think if we cooperate, we might be able to get free and…”
“You came down here with her?” Joe interrupted. “Why?”
“Now doesn’t really seem like the time to be discussing that, does it?”
“I need to know what the two of you were doing here, Mickey.”
“Michael,” he forced through gritted teeth. “Are you sure you want to do this right now, Joey?”
“Obviously.”
“She wanted to talk. I bet you can guess what she had to say, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb now, bro. You started this. Apparently, you started this years ago.”
“What?”
“Come on, she told me what you did, you little shit. You sent her photos of me with another girl. That’s why she left, without even saying goodbye. And you must have faked them, because I never cheated on Sara.”
“Maybe not, but you didn’t deserve her, either.”
“Didn’t deserve her? But you did, huh?”
“Yes! She was meant to be with me. I was just trying to show her that! But no, you were the handsome one, the one the girls wanted. She never even really looked at me,” Joe was shouting, now. “And you know what really isn’t fair?” He paused and took a deep breath, “No, you know what, maybe you are right, maybe now isn’t the time for this.”
“Oh no, I think we should get this all out in the open. Tell me. No more secrets.”
“You want the whole truth, then? Fine. Fine. What isn’t fair is that you were the smart one, too! You and Sara were going to go off to that university together and leave me behind. Leave me to work this shitty exterminator job, and take care of mom, all alone! How was that right? Why shouldn’t I try to stop you?”
“Stop me?” Michael managed to turn his head for a better look at his brother. “There was nothing to stop; I didn’t even get accepted to university.”
“Of course you did!” Joe blurted. “You got accepted. But I got to the letter first, and I burned it. I wasn’t about to be left behind.”
“Wait, you burned it? How… how could you do that? You knew how much going to school meant to me. How could you?”
“How could I? How could you!” Joe shouted. “How could you even think of abandoning me? Do you have any idea what it’s like being the loser twin? Constantly being asked why you aren’t more like your brother? Always being told what a success he is going to be? Of course you don’t. We were supposed to be the same! Equal. It isn’t fair that you were always better.”
“So, you sabotaged me? Made sure I could never succeed without you? Never have a life beyond you?”
“Yes! You belong here, stuck with me! You don’t get to have anything that I can’t!”
“Joe, that’s insane. We are separate people; we are allowed to live our own lives.”
“No! No. I won’t let you leave me behind. I need to have everything you have!”
Michael was stunned into silence for a long moment, then he took a deep breath,
“Alright, Joe. Alright, I understand. We can talk about all this more, later. But first, we need to get out of this glue, ok? If we can pull each other out, leapfrog over each other, we can make our way up the stairs and out, then go get help, ok?”
“Then… you understand? You’ll stay with me?”
“Of course, Joe. How can I not? You are my brother.”
Joe smiled,
“Good, ok. See, I knew you would understand. Give me your hand.”
For an hour, they painstakingly dragged each other through the glue, inching first to the stairs, then up them. As they approached, I drew back from the kitchen and watched from the dining room, so I didn’t interfere. Finally, they arrived at the threshold and Michael stepped onto clean ground. Joe, stuck in the glue on the final step, reached out his hand to his brother,
“We made it, Mike. Just pull me out and we are home free. We can deal with Sara, together.”
Michael stared down at his brother, but he began to reach out his hand, but he hesitated. At that moment, Sara returned to the kitchen, carrying one of their pesticide sprayers.
“Don’t do it, Mike,” she said softly.
“Sara? Why are you doing this? What is going on?”
“I’m sorry for all this, but you needed to see it, Mike. Who he really is. You know he’ll never stop. He will keep ruining your life, forever. You have to let him go,” she pressed the wand from the pesticide dispenser into his hand. “You have to make sure he can’t hurt you anymore. Then we can have the life we should have had, if not for him.”
Michael’s hand trembled, making the wand shake. He didn’t move.
“Mike, come on, don’t listen to her, you need to help me. I’m your brother, remember?”
“You know what you should remember, Mike? How many girlfriends have ghosted you in the years since I left? How many jobs never returned your calls? How many apartments did you try to rent, but they always fell through? Well, now you finally know why. As long as he is alive, he is a millstone around your neck.”
Michael’s grip tightened around the wand, and he stared down at his brother for a long, tense moment.
“You know something, Joe?” he finally asked. “You say you should have everything that I have, and I agree with you.”
He reached his empty hand out and grabbed his brother’s. Joe smiled and opened his mouth to reply, but Michael jammed the pesticide sprayer in, instead.
“Well, now you have a traitorous brother, too. So, we are finally even,” he pressed down on the trigger, dispensing poison down his brother’s throat. He didn’t let go until Joe stopped moving. Finally, he dropped the wand and turned back to Sara. She put a hand to his cheek and smiled.
“You did it. How does it feel?”
“I… I killed him,” he gasped. “I can’t believe that I… I shouldn’t have…”
“Shh, it’s alright,” she put a hand softly on his shoulder. “It had to be done. You know that. Now, kiss me and I will make everything alright. You’ll see.”
Hesitantly, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, seeming to deflate and slump into her as he did. As he crumpled, she pressed herself closer and closer to him, until finally, she vanished entirely, and he stumbled forward a step. When he looked up, his eyes were black as ink, in the fluorescent light of the kitchen. He swung the door to the cellar shut and grabbed one of the roach traps off the floor. Inspecting it, he plucked a roach from the glue and tossed it in his mouth. As he chewed, he turned over to my hiding place by the pass-through window. He smiled, a cockroach leg stuck between his teeth.
“Well, it is finally my turn to go out and see the world. Look me up on the outside, if either of you ever get out of here, huh?”
With a final small wave, he walked out.
When Manny entered the dining room, I was sitting at one of the tables, eating ice cream straight from the carton. It wasn’t the healthiest breakfast, but I had had a rough morning.
“Where are the exterminators?” he asked.
“One of them is gone. One is glued to the cellar stairs,” I shrugged. “He’s dead. I am hoping the glue will take care of itself, because I have no idea how we are ever going to remove it.”
Manny nodded, mostly unphased.
“Alright, I’ll go take a look.”
“Wait, Manny, we never got a chance to finish our conversation, yesterday.”
He paused and turned back,
“There is nothing to discuss. There are some things I just can’t say.”
“Well, how about just one, easy question, then?” I leaned back in my chair. “I just want to know the name of your demon.”
“What?” he played at confusion, but the beat of hesitation before he responded told me everything I needed to know.
“You know, the one that talks to you, in your head. What do you call them?”
Manny pressed his hands over his eyes, then sank into a chair.
“You too, then?”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“When did it happen?”
“It’s been… awhile. It started the day the thief died, impaled on that tree. You remember?”
“I do. I had hoped you would avoid this fate. Perhaps that was foolish of me,” he shook his head. “I’m sorry I kept it from you. It was to protect you. The more you talk to them, the more you think about them, the easier it is for them to get in. Just knowing it is possible for them to get inside your head is a sort of… mind virus. It’s like telling someone not to think about their tongue. Suddenly that is all you can think about. It makes you vulnerable. But I suppose there is no point hiding it now. From you, anyway. You haven’t said anything about this to Vincent, have you?”
I shook my head.
“Good. Probably best to keep it that way. But between us, no more secrets. Mine calls herself Gemory. I mostly call her Gem.”
“And she asks you for blood sacrifices, for information?”
Manny nodded,
“She says that blood has power, though she refuses to tell me what she does with that power. I give her different amounts, depending on the importance of my question. I try not to do it too often. Does yours…?”
“Ask for blood? No, Al is more into favors. He wants me to do things for him. Seems to mostly be for his entertainment, but it is a bit hard to tell, I have mostly refused, so far.”
“Probably for the best.”
“But I imagine the end goal is the same?”
“To claim my body and leave this place? Yes, I imagine it is.”
“Have you been able to learn much about them, what they are?”
“No, the price for that is more blood than I am able to lose. You?”
“Not yet, but I am working on it.”
“Well, let me know if you learn anything helpful,” Manny slapped his thighs and rose. “In the meantime, nothing has really changed. We need to prepare for the next set of guests, right?”
I nodded and stood, as well. It was time to get back to work.