Chapter Text
“Can you turn that song off?” Alex demanded impatiently, rolling on her side to glare at Tobin. The older girl was lying in the other bed, blasting some alt rock song out of her phone. It wasn’t that the song sucked, but the season premiere of Say Yes To The Dress was on. Alex would be damned if she couldn’t hear it.
“There are more important things in life than your reality TV.” Tobin answered impassively, but turned the music off. Alex grinned and turned the volume up on her TV proudly. Sometimes Tobin wondered why she did what she did. The smug grin on Alex’s face made her want to wake the whole hotel up with the song.
Tobin begrudgingly watched the show as well. Even though she acted like she was above the trashy shows Alex loved, she couldn’t help but get into them once they started.
“I liked the really long dress. You know, the one with the lace all down the front.” Alex explained. “I hope she picks that one.”
“Same.” Tobin agreed, nodding. She tried to appear not into the show, but with the knowing look Alex shot her, Tobin was failing in that department.
Just as they were about to hear the girl say yes to the dress, the TV flickered and went out. Static overtook the channel and emitted a sound that grated against Alex’s nerves. She covered her ears and groaned. “What the hell?”
Tobin flicked off the TV to avoid the noise. She raised her eyebrows curiously. “That was weird, huh?”
“Does she say yes?” Alex shouted at the broken appliance.
“Al, I don’t think it’s gonna answer.”
Alex groaned and buried her head in a pillow. Tobin stared the TV for a while longer. “That’s weird though. It’s satellite TV. Hey, Al, I’m going to call Kelley and see if she’s having trouble too.”
“Go ahead.” Alex said, pulling her pink blankets over her body. The whole fact that she was missing SYTTD was making her feel defeated and completely invalid as a human. It was somewhat entertaining to Tobin. “I might as well nap if we’ve got nothing else to do.”
Tobin reached for her cell phone, but that wasn’t working either. The Wifi was non existent and her data didn’t seem to want to work either. At that second, the light they had on in the bathroom flickered and blew out, and Tobin could hear a shout of shock from the other side of the wall. Alex jumped and Tobin felt her heart jolt.
A couple seconds later, Tobin heard a knock on the wall followed by shout. “It’s Ashlyn! Did your stuff turn off?”
First she tried to turn the TV on, but when they wouldn’t work, Tobin knocked back. “Yeah man, come over here!”
She went to the door and opened it, waiting for Ashlyn. Ashlyn came in with Kling following, a robe wrapped around her and her hair still wet. Kling frowned. “My hair-dryer stopped working.”
Alex snickered.
“Come in.” Tobin welcomed the pair inside of the quaint hotel room. “Kling, you can borrow a pair of my sweats if you want to.”
Kling nodded gratefully, and Tobin continued. “Something must be wrong with the hotel. The Wifi isn’t working, and now the normal power seems to be slowly turning off everywhere. It’s probably just an electrical thing.”
“I wonder if other buildings are experiencing it.” Kling wondered aloud.
“It’s not like we can check anywhere else.” Ashlyn grumbled. “My phone won’t work. I need to get Ali.”
“I’ll come with.” Tobin volunteered. “I want to make sure Kelley’s not starting a riot.”
Kling and Alex hung back while Tobin and Ashlyn got ready to leave. Alex reminded them to try and find out what the problem was, and to pick up candles or flashlights if they could find them. Ashlyn shot her a thumbs up and nodded. “No problem, Ash and Toby are on the case.”
As they left the room, Tobin worked her best glare on Ashlyn. “Don’t call me Toby.”
Ashlyn just laughed. She shut the hotel door behind them and headed down the hallway towards Ali’s room. Ashlyn had the number memorized, but Tobin didn’t remember what Kelley’s room number was.
“Dude.” Tobin nudged Ashlyn as her phone vibrated. “My phone’s working again.”
“Power outage must be over.” Ashlyn hummed.
“She’s in the lobby. Kelley.” Tobin told Ashlyn. “You go ahead to Ali. I’m gonna figure out what caused this.”
“Does it matter?” Ashlyn asked.
Tobin shrugged. “Not really. But I’m curious.”
***
Tobin found Kelley arguing with the woman at the front desk. Kelley was waving her hands like a madwoman and cutting the woman off. Tobin jogged over and wrapped her hands around Kelley’s arms, tugging her back. “I apologize for whatever she’s doing.”
Both the woman and Kelley scoffed. Tobin tugged Kelley over to one of the leather sofas and pushed her down. “What were you fighting about?”
“She won’t tell me why I can’t leave the hotel. Apparently they’re going on a back-up generator, but that doesn’t explain our involuntary lockdown. Tobin, they’re keeping us here against our will.”
Tobin snorted. “And yelling at her was going to help?”
“Something has to be wrong. This is like, state-wide. All through California, power is going out.”
“Something probably got tangled up and they’ll figure it out.” Tobin assured Kelley. “Nothing bad is happening, Kel. And if something is, we’re safer here.”
Kelley frowned, the freckles on her forehead bunching together. As she was about to speak, hopefully to agree with Tobin, there was a scream from outside. The woman at the front desk immediately dropped behind the desk and Tobin instinctively pulled Kelley to the floor. Peeking around the couch, Tobin saw a middle-aged woman running down the street, only to trip and collapse to the sidewalk.
Tobin sprung into action, running towards the door. It was locked, and there was no obvious way for her to get through the heavy glass doors. So all Tobin could do was press her hands against the glass and watch as the woman got to her feet, kicked off her heels, and continued to run. Kelley came up behind Tobin. “What the f--”
A gray creature ran past the doors. It was hunched over, clothes torn. Its jaw was missing and brown blood oozed down the ripped white shirt. Tobin felt herself lurch like she was about to vomit. All the breath in Kelley’s lungs expelled in a sudden gasp.
“Kel, get back.” Tobin shoved Kelley backwards and they stumbled away from the glass. “Something bad is happening, Kelley.”
The woman at the front desk slowly got back up and watched as the gray-skinned beast sauntered around for a few seconds before emitting a nails-on-chalkboard wail and taking off again. Kelley glared at the lady. “You need to tell the patrons here about that. Explain why we’re locked in.”
The woman just nodded. Tobin laced her fingers together with Kelley, her blood cold and her knees shaking with fear. “We’ve gotta… We’ve gotta get the team together.”
“Yeah.” Kelley’s gaze landed on Tobin’s face. Both their expressions reflected pure fear. Kelley gave Tobin’s hand a gentle tug and the pair ran towards the stairs like they were sprinting for their lives.
“Kelley, what do you think that was?” Tobin asked as they took the stairs two at a time.
Kelley was silent for a full flight before finally choking out, “I don’t know. But… But it’s probably not good.”
Tobin couldn’t argue with that.