The heartstopper

Chapter 30

That night, the hotel power went out. The day had been hot and muggy and the sky was clear until after dinner when the storm clouds blew over the city of Paris. The power only flickered for a minute before the generator turned on, the lights following. The hotel had a large and powerful generator that had worked for many years and should have lasted for many years to come, which is why it was odd when eventually that too went out.

Because the storm clouds had taken over the sky, the hotel was very dark, the only light sources being from phones and the odd strike of lightning that would come every ten to fifteen seconds. Most people were in their proper hotel rooms as it happened, there were some who were lucky, like Tara, Darcy who had Darcy's fairy lights still strung across their room. They were battery-powered so until they died, they had light.

Imogen was still not with them, they assumed that she would wait until the power turned back on instead of walking the halls in the dark. They could always text her later in case she wanted them to go find her, not wanting to walk alone in the dark, in a strange hotel when there was a murderer on the loose.

Elle wasn't in her room as she was with Isaac, Tao, Charlie and Nick, hanging out in the boy's room. Tara and Darcy were invited but decided to stay behind, their room was only down the hall anyway.

In room 414, they played a few rounds of Pictionary as the thunder roared and the rain came crashing down against the building. They were pointing their phone lights at the sheet of paper while one person drew what looked like a bug of some sort, maybe an ant? They had begun to all shout out possible answers.

"Bug?"

"Ant?"

"Beetle?"

"Insect?"

"Spider?"

"Centipede!"

The timer soon ran out after a bunch of incorrect guesses.

"No," Tao groaned, placing his head in the palm of his hand.

"What was it? A type of bug, right?" Elle questioned, turning her head to see the drawing at a different angle.

"It was supposed to be a train," He muttered, taking a better look at his drawing himself.

"It's probably just the lighting," Nick attempted to reassure him, also taking another look at the apparent 'train'.

"Then why does it have eyes?" Asked Charlie, looking confused at the 'train'.

"They were meant to be headlights!" Tao exclaimed in response, before he grabbed the drawing and crumpled it up, not letting them critic his art skills any further,

"I don't think trains have legs," Isaac piped in.

"Yeah, have you ever seen a train before?" Elle laughed.

"Yes, I think..."

"Who's next?" Nick questioned, placing his phone to shine upwards into the room.

"Maybe we should switch to a different game," Charlie offered.

"One where no one has to draw," Isaac added.

"We could play charades, I can show off my acting skills," Tao said, shimmying his arms.

Elle laughed at her friend, "No one wants to see that, Tao," At this, Tao let out a sound of offence.

"Rude!" He gasped, rolling the 'R'.

They did end up playing charades. Like they had to do while playing Pictionary, they went to split up into two teams of two and one solo team. Nick and Charlie were a team and Elle and Tao, Elle commenting that Tao "Needed all the help he could get", Isaac was fine with being on his own during Pictionary, but when it came to charades, he volunteered to sit this one out.

"An old man!" Elle shouted at Tao's act.

"A Zamboni?" Charlie questioned as Nick acted out something else.

Everyone would blame it on the lack of electricity but they were all failing miserably at charades.

It was only half-past eight when Tara and Darcy decided to joined them.

"Don't walk the halls, it's horrifying," Tara informed the others, sitting down with her friends. Of course, they'd still have to walk back to their rooms by ten but they'd hope that the power would be back on by then.

"The moment we left our room, the security guard turned the corner with his bright flashlight and scared the crap out of me," Darcy recounted. Darcy paused before remembering something. "Oh, damn, I forgot to turn off my fairy lights," She hissed in annoyance. They had already left them on the entire night of Tara's party so the batteries were probably running low.

"Well, are you going to go turn them off?" Tara asked, knowing the answer already.

"I would, but my heart is still pounding from the security guard," She excused. Besides, she could always steal the batteries from their room's TV remote. "But seriously, has anyone questioned if he's the killer? I mean someone on the inside?"

"There are plenty of security guards all throughout the hotel," Nick pointed out.

"Plus, I don't think he was in the hotel until after the murders had already begun," Elle added.

"Okay, but the guy must have an accomplice,"

"Why are we assuming it's a guy?" Tao questioned.

"Because-" Darcy paused, "Because, if I was the murderer, I'd have already killed as many people as possible, only a man would be too much of a pussy to do so," Darcy shrugged.

"Well, at least we know Darcy is in the clear," Elle stifled a laugh. "She's also got a point,"

"See, men are pussys,"

"Based on the books I've read, that's completely true," Isaac nodded in agreement.

"Could we please have a night where we don't talk about murder?" Tara asked. Especially in the middle of a blackout. It was not setting the night up for success, based off of every horror movie ever.

There was a crackle of thunder, making them all jump with a yelp.

"Maybe if we all head back to our room where we have our lights," Darcy inputted. When she and Tara were in their room it was much calmer with the lights to light up the room.

"Sure," They all agreed.

"Have either of you two been in contact with Imogen tonight?" Elle asked her friends from Higgs.

"No..." Darcy dragged on.

"I can message her," Tara offered, picking up her phone and typing into their group chat with the whole Paris squad so that they could all see when she'd reply.