Chapter 2 (1/2)
Why are you falling into the trap?
“Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Hughes, and I am in charge of the hotel’s room management.” He paused, still smiling gently in a way that bore great resemblance to the tranquility of a still lake surface, before continuing. “I come from the race of invisible people.”
Feisha suddenly remembered an important fact: Today was April Fool’s.
He leveled Hughes with an unimpressed stare, and said, “If there’s an invisible camera behind you, and behind the invisible camera an invisible audience, I just want to say that I’m not that easily fooled. Even if today is April Fool’s, I don’t appreciate being pranked like this.”
Hughes waited silently for him to finish, then smiled. “I understand, I’ll add this tidbit to your profile. May I welcome you to our team now?”
“I haven’t decided if I want to join yet,” Feisha said. This hotel was way too suspicious; the only people who’d want to join must have delusional disorder and maybe a long psychiatric case history.
“That, unfortunately,” Hughes said warmly, “is not up to you.”
Feisha cautiously glared at him. “What do you mean by that?”
“Please hold on for a moment.” Hughes turned around and called out, “Asa!”
Thundering footsteps approached from the hallway directly across from the doors. Feisha’s eyes widened as he watched a slack-jawed, three meter tall giant emerge sluggishly from the hallway. He’s always thought of Yao Ming as a giant, but now he realized that Yao Ming was really a human. At least he didn’t tower over people when he sat down.
“Please allow me to introduce our co-worker, Asakritos. He hails from the Titan race, and is the hotel’s head security guard,” said Hughes.
Feisha watched as an enormous head lowered itself, watching him with eyeballs as big as his fists, then offered a hand.
“Hello, I’m Asakritos, but you can call me Asa.” A storm of spit rained over Feisha as the titan spoke.
Throwing himself at the door, Feisha clawed at the seam in the middle. “I want to go home! This place is too scary, I want to go home go home gohome gohomegohomegohomegohome…”
The door didn’t budge.
Half an hour later saw Feisha huffing and puffing on the ground. He directed his pitiful gaze at the perpetually smiling Hughes and begged, “Can I resign?”
“I think you should have a look outside before making your decision,” Hughes hummed. “Asa, please open the door for us.”
“I have to do this every single year, so annoying…” Asa grumbled under his breath. Despite the grumbling, he complied and pulled open the door bit by bit.
Feisha zipped past Asa in his pursuit of freedom, only to stop dead before the opened doors.
“Holy shit, what is this place!? Where are the roads? Buildings? The city that I was born and raised in?” He looked out into the void of darkness, on the verge of hyperventilation. “You really didn’t need to steal the city even if it’s April Fool’s, right?”
“We didn’t steal the city,” Hughes said, gently. “Don’t worry, your city is still where it originally was.”
Feisha turned around slowly. “So I can take it to mean that the stolen thing is me?”
“We’re hiring you.”
“I want to resign.”
“You will be automatically dismissed after one year.”
“But Tony only stayed for a week.”
“No, Tony stayed for one full year. The flow of time here is different to that of your world.”
Feisha was shocked. “Does this have something to do with that theory about time being an illusion?”
“I’m very impressed with how humans can always find some explanation for any problem they encounter.”
“But definitely not including Noah’s Ark.”
“Yes, that was recorded in the Bible,” Hughes bowed slightly. “If you don’t mind terribly, please allow me to give you a tour of our hotel and perhaps have a coffee on the way.”
Feisha sighed. “I guess, since I have no other option.”
“No, you may choose to go straight to the dining hall.” Hughes glanced at the watch on his wrist. “It’s just that the kitchen only caters to the blood clan right now, who eat raw meat.”
“I really hope that this is an elaborate April Fool’s program. Even getting roped into doing naked pole dancing would be better than this.”
“I actually pole dance naked a lot, you just can’t see it.”
When Feisha looked up, he realized that the person smiling at him a second ago was gone, leaving only a set of clothes floating down the hallway.
“Oh, Hughes sometimes becomes transparent without realizing. He’ll turn back after a while,” Asa explained to a shell shocked Feisha.
“Can you not spit so much while talking?”
“Lots of people have asked me that question, but even after ten years of trying I can only make the spit not smell as bad.”
“Then can you at least give me an umbrella?”
The bar formed a circle. One half was filled with tables and chairs, the other half with display cases. The counter was tucked away in a corner directly opposite the entrance, and had a vast variety of different beverages that filled up the entire glass cabinet. There were drinks of every color of the rainbow, each a rich color that was almost more vibrant than dye. Hanging on top of the counter were rows of different glasses and cups, refracting rays of every color under the lights. Feisha quietly took this information in; this bar sure was well-equipped, even if the actual staff were kind of weird.
Hughes’ body reappeared in his clothes. He directed an apologetic look at Feisha.
“I’m very sorry, occasionally I forget to keep up the human appearance.”
A tall, blond man with handsome features leisurely walked towards them, one hand on his shoulder and the other gently swishing a glass of blood red liquid.
“Mm, I’m already used to it. When it gets really bad it makes me look like I’m taking care of business by myself,” he said while petting Hughes’s head affectionately.
Feisha looked at him, then at Hughes. Even the unseen have got to have genders, right?
“You’re not homophobic, are you?” The blond man raised an eyebrow, piercing blue eyes challenging him to say otherwise.
Feisha felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “N- No.”
“Are you gay?”