The Hotel at the End of Time

Chapter 11 - Emma attacks.

The streetlight in the parking lot threw deep shadows everywhere. They reminded her of spotlights at a concert. The area was so deserted. The only car nearby was the taxi from earlier. A tiny figure got out and talked to the driver. Emma tried not to let her excitement show. If she signaled the person somehow, got them to understand the situation via hand gestures, maybe they'd call the police. What meant "Help, I'm kidnapped"? Maybe a thumbs down?

Emma squinted, not trusting what her eyes were showing her. The person had short, choppy hair and disheveled clothes. It looked like the crazy woman from the hospital. Almost pretty, if not for the permanent grimace of anger. The woman headed straight for the Wyatts.

Maybe she was in on it.

Not three seconds later, crazy hospital woman was jumping up and down on smoking Wyatt's head.

Maybe she wasn't in on it.

The Wyatt beside her saw the commotion and said, "What the hell?" and lunged out of the car. He tackled the woman to the ground and wrestled with her, trying to punch her skull through the concrete.

Emma watched all of this in horrified silence, pushing herself harder against the back of the door. It was all too much. From outside, she heard the woman yell, "Help me, you lazy bitch!" Emma presumed she, herself, was the lazy bitch in question.

The Green Jacket Wyatt struggled to get to his feet while her Wyatt kept battering at the woman. Emma watched dispassionately, like viewing a tv show. Time slowed to molasses. She was supposed to do something. Fight. Run. Something. Her hand formed itself into the shape of a fist without any conscious thought. Energy poured into her. That bored, dead-eyed monster had hit her four times. Rather than concentrate on her fear, she ruthlessly shut down every part of her mind that was non-essential to the task at hand. The number hammered at her. Each time it did, she lost a little more of herself.

Four.

Thud.

Four times.

Thud.

Four fucking times.

Thud.

The Emma that stepped out of the car was no longer scared. Energy had been flowing into her all day, and it stood as a buffer against the fear. Only anger remained; smoldering, ruthless anger.

She focused and the energy responded, leaping to her control. Her Wyatt raised his fist, but Emma caught it in a ball of energy. It was like stopping a baby from moving their arms. So easy. She pinned his other side and expanded the energy to envelop his head, his torso, and his entire body.

The power. God, so much power. She was unstoppable. She was everything.

It ripped through her like the harsh burn of cheap whiskey. Her Wyatt was trapped. She concentrated and lifted him off the crazy hospital woman who rolled onto her stomach and curled up, protecting her head. Emma rotated the Wyatt to face her. He was immobile, shock and fury evident in his expression. He certainly wasn't bored anymore.

"You are not a nice person, Wyatt." She put every ounce of collected energy into throwing him, and he rocketed through the air as if shot from a catapult. After only a few brief seconds, he became a speck in the sky and dropped over the horizon. She sagged against the SUV as all the power drained from her body.

The other Wyatt got to his feet and rubbed his neck, staring in the direction she had tossed her Wyatt. "What did you do, you dumb bitch?"

Emma was tired of people calling her that.

Crazy woman pushed herself off the pavement, nasty bruises blooming on her face. Blood poured from her nose. She picked up a long metal bar—a tire iron?—and said, "Hey, asshole. Tell Arthur this is from Vain." She swung and connected with the side of his head, like hitting a coconut with a bat. A sickening thunk followed. He dropped like a sack of laundry. Crazy woman wheezed, resting her hands on her knees. Neither of them said anything for several moments.

"I don't know how to drive a car," the woman said.

Despite a lifetime of conversation with other human beings, Emma possessed no experience to draw on that might help her understand how to respond to that statement.

"I enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches," she said. Perhaps they were exchanging random facts. Maybe this was standard kidnapping rescue procedure. Emma felt it best not to disrupt the flow.

"To escape." The woman rolled her eyes. "We can get away in their car, but I don't know how to drive."

"Yes. Right. That makes more sense," Emma said. "The other guy has the keys, and he's inside getting burgers."

"I told you they were coming for you. Why didn't you listen to me? I gave you perfectly clear instructions."

Emma opened her mouth to disagree with the woman's understanding of several words, including 'perfectly', 'clear' and 'instructions', but the woman continued talking.

"There's not much fight left in me." She wiped at the blood pouring from her nose. "Can you throw him away like you did with the other guy?"

Emma's legs wobbled. She was exhausted. Throwing a grown man across half a country with the power of your mind, it turned out, was taxing. "No," she replied. "I don't know how I did that."

They looked at each other for a heartbeat before the crazy woman's eyes snapped to the restaurant. "The last Wyatt is coming back. What are the chances you know karate? Jiu-jitsu?? Even sexy mud wrestling?"

"I don't know any of those things." Emma's stomach knotted. "But he'll have to kill me before I let him drag me back into this car." She surprised herself by saying that; more so because it was true.

Crazy woman smiled, showing blood-stained teeth. "I have a tire iron. We'll be okay."

They stood shoulder to shoulder. By now, Sunglasses had noticed both of them standing by the car.

"Hey!" He jogged towards them, bags flopping at his side. Emma made her hands into fists and held them up. She hoped she'd get at least one decent punch in before he killed her. She hoped her mom would be okay.

Sunglasses picked up speed. With a screech, a cab peeled through the parking lot and crashed into him, sending him flying.

"Pranav!" cheered Crazy woman, punching the air with her fist.

Emma was finding it difficult to keep track of all the people involved in this adventure. On a normal day, she'd be studying, enjoying a glass of wine, some Adele playing in the background. She would not be fighting photocopied kidnappers in a parking lot outside Boston, with a crazy woman as her accomplice. The enormity of the situation came crashing down and panic threatened to overwhelm her again.

Crazy woman ran over to where Sunglasses Wyatt rolled around on the ground. She rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a handful of jingling keys before hurrying to the cab driver's window.

"Pranav, you are the best. This is a great story."

The cab driver shook his head. "I will tell no one. I saw none of this. I am leaving now. Thank you for the generous tip." With that, he rolled up his window and drove off.

"We've gotta move. Here." The woman thrust the keys at Emma and motioned at the SUV. "Let's go."

Emma was exhausted. Her face and chest ached, and she was an emotional wreck. She considered sitting on the curb in the parking lot and waiting for someone to take her somewhere safe. Some of this must have shown on her face and body language because the lunatic woman stopped. For once, her face looked calm.

"I know what you're going through, and I know you're scared, but there are more of them," she said. "They'll never stop."

Three simple words.

Emma got in the car.