Why? Why was it just the Cold Storage that spawned those monsters this time around? Abandoning the lemonade and getting out of the Kitchen with Tray, I tried to go through the possibilities. Nathan, Fera, and Old Man Dom were still on the floors above us, after all. If the monsters on the Second Floor were swarming in once more, then they were already lost.
“What the hell even is that?” Tray screamed as we crashed into the Bar and Restaurant together.
The ones inside yelped as soon as they saw us, losing their calm at our expressions. Carol had only just taken a seat, and already started pushing her chair away to stand up. In a matter of minutes, this room had gone from a safe haven to the worst possible place we could possibly be locked in.
I looked back, only to see that the monsters had started climbing on top of each other again. A heap of melting, slimy mold now inched closer every second, blocking the entire corridor that could have given us access to the Lobby.
“Out!” Ordering the ones inside the Bar and Restaurant, I started moving backwards to the Innkeeper’s Room. “Be quick about it.”
“I’ll get Earnie.”
Tray ran inside as the others ran out. Bella grabbed Carol, pulling her along into the corridor. Poltrick followed, screaming like a child the moment he saw the hulking pass of conjoined creatures with their hands wildly flailing in the air. And finally, the twins followed with Earnest between their arms.
With the help of the dwarf, who got his act together and pulled them forward, they were barely able to escape. Squeezing through the gap between the massive enemy and the little bit of empty space, they made it into the safe zone before that entire corridor was taken by the mold.
Huddled together, all we could do was watch for a moment. The view of the amalgamated beast was disgusting, disturbing, and yet fascinating. I couldn’t get my eyes off as it turned and started crawling closer. Distinguishing the patterns in its body and trying to make out where every monster had melted into one had captured my brain.
CREAAK! THUD!
A loud noise from above us broke me out of the trance and made me turn. We needed to get into the Innkeeper’s Room, and then maybe to the Secret Room from there. That was the furthest we could make it. Relaying that to the others, we started moving with Bella and the twins going first.
CREAAAAAK!
The sound came once more, but closer than before. If the previous one had come from the Second Floor, this one was from the First. I turned to the beast behind us and shot a blast of Magic once, ripping apart some of its closest hands to maintain distance. Then, out of pure curiosity, I looked up to see the wood above our heads cracking into two. It was unable to handle the sheer weight of whatever was above it.
“In! Right now!”
I screamed as I shot the monster behind us once more. By now, the toll of the Magic was starting to show. My hand got more difficult to lift, and pulled me down every time I tried to walk. But there was no time to despair about that. The conjoined body of the mold monsters painted the walls once more as it got smaller.
Bella and I might even have been able to kill it if we worked together, but that was not going to happen. Right now, I was all alone. The elf, meanwhile, opened the door to the Innkeeper’s Room and got in. Following her, the twins pulled the unconscious body of Earnest Blest along.
“Innkeeper!” Poltrick screamed, stretching out his hand.
“I don’t need your he-”
One of the arms of the large monster grabbed my back to teach me a lesson. The tendrils from the mold immediately began to crawl up the dress and reached my neck. And so, I grabbed Poltrick’s hand as shavings from the wood above us began to lightly rain down.
CREEEEEAAAKKKKK!!
The wood gave one last cry of defeat and ripped apart into two.
The dwarf pulled me in, separating me from the moldy hands and throwing me into the Innkeeper’s Room. Catching my breath and turning around in time, I grabbed him in return and tried to do the same.
“No. You get out of here, innkeeper!”
“We’ve got time, so stop trying to be a hero…”
I cried, pulling him inside with all my strength as another heap of mold monsters crashed into the Ground Floor from the First. As they did, some of them fell down on Poltrick’s legs, trapping him on the spot. But some help from one of the twins, and I was able to pull him out before anything worse could happen.
Anything worse than what had already transpired.
The elf moved to the bookshelf door, which was still open, with Carol. But the twins and I could not. Even as the monsters started to groan and squeeze in through the relatively small door, I just pulled Poltrick back and kept looking at the dwarf’s leg.
Or more like the lack of that leg.
Where Gregson’s calves and ankles should have been…was nothing. The part of his body that had vanished into the mold had just, indeed, vanished. Where there would have been bleeding was just a layer of the mold acting like a bandage, sparing us from any potential gory visuals.
“What the-” Poltrick mumbled, looking at his body in shock. “My leg is…”
“Innkeeper, back!”
One of the twins pulled me, and I pulled Poltrick, as another one of the arms lashed towards us. Out of the way, thankfully, we were saved.
“We need to move, Gregson.”
“A-Ay!”
I pulled the dwarf up and helped him hobble along with me, and the twins did the same with Earnest’s body. Together, the remaining five of us got into the Secret Room at the same time. Behind, announced by a massive crash, the walls of the Innkeeper’s Room were torn apart. Both sets of monsters crawled in at once.
Raising my hand, I let out another blast, catching the two creatures at the same time. As the mold flew everywhere and covered the entire room, we all got deeper into the Secret Room and settled down.
For now, we had a moment of peace.
“Wha-!?” Bella’s scream interrupted it, however. Pointing in the direction of the painting of that mountain, she fell down on the round table in shock.
All of us looked up to see what she meant, and I finally saw that thing again. The Ghost of the Northflame Inn. Hovering in front of the painting, she had been intently gazing at it until the elf’s cry made her turn and look at all of us with a sour expression.
Opening her mouth as if screaming once more, she floated forward at full speed. I raised my hand, pissed off at this woman more than enough already. She had caused me to hit my head on the drawer earlier, and now she was interrupting an already headache-inducing chase. Imagining the blast as always, I shot.
As expected, though, it did not damage her at all. Moving straight through her body, it went for the painting. The one that she had been drawn to. At the same time, Carol whimpered as one of the moldy beasts started to make its way into the Secret Room. The Ghost moved through me and towards that monster.
Then, once more, as expected, everything happened at once.
The blast never hit the painting. The moment it got close, a yellow barrier of some sort redirected it upwards, causing the energy to tear through the wooden ceiling. The shining dome of protection around the painting persisted for a few seconds before vanishing.
Behind me, the monster made it through, and the Ghost tried to stop it with her hands raised. Obviously, nothing happened. And because nothing happened, the monster finally tore through the walls of the Secret Room and infiltrated our last haven. I shot another blast, hoping to at least use all of my strength as long as I could. Even though my hand felt like it was begging me to stop.
This second attack reached the monster, but did not tear it apart just yet. Before it could, the white light appeared once more.
Not from the ceiling, not from the Lobby, not from anywhere else in the inn. The light appeared from the south-eastern corner of the Secret Room. From the edge at which the southern and eastern bookshelves met, the light pierced through and engulfed my entire vision. It swallowed the entire inn.
_____________
My next blink was back in the Innkeeper’s Room.
The loop had taken place. I had come right back to what I assumed was the very beginning of that first day once more.
No racing heart, no sweat, no headache asking me to try harder. My hand was back to normal, too. The loop had reset my physical conditions along with the time. The mental toll was still there, obviously. Poltrick’s missing leg still haunted my memories, and so did the overwhelming amount of information I had gained at once. All I had gained was a condition good enough to process it all.
Bella and Trev would be here soon. It hadn’t taken them very long the last time, so they would be here again. They would check up on me and then ask for breakfast. And then I’d have to cook them some. Before all of that, though, something else would happen. I looked in the direction of the Secret Room.
The Ghost would appear.
I stood up and opened the drawer beside the bed. Sure enough, it had the book which had opened the door – The Denied Tale of the Rejected Crustacean. Still as charming a title as ever.
The white cloth appeared at the edge of the bookshelf, and I walked to it. Putting the book in its slot, I waited as the door to the Secret Room opened up. As it did, the Ghost stopped in its tracks. It had realized that something was wrong.
I got into the room and looked at the woman. Still just as regal and intimidating as ever, she looked back at me with what looked like a sense of respect.
“Who are you?” I asked.
She opened her mouth, but no voice came out. She tried to look around, but nothing happened.
“You don’t have any way of talking to me? Who the fuck are you?”
The Ghost’s eyebrows creased, and her expression turned sour. The moment I tried to step forward and assert my point, though, she mumbled something and then shot up. Quite literally, she flew straight up and into the ceiling leading to the First Floor. One question, and she had left me alone.
What a pain in the ass.
I got out of the room, holding my head to calm down. There was so much to consider, and so much to do. So many different things that I needed to jot down and solve to get out of this place. The people all around didn’t make it any easier, either. Like the two who were going to…
Knock?
Why didn’t they? Weren’t they hungry? Weren’t they going to come and ask me for breakfast? They had appeared by now the last time, so had something gone wrong today?
I got out of the Innkeeper’s Room, only to be blessed by a sweet music humming in the air. Slowly making my way through the corridor as the pleasant notes of the piano echoed through the halls of the Northflame Inn, I was hit with the most wondrous smell of onions cooking in butter.
It had worked, hadn’t it?
Before I knew it, a smile had already spread across my face. I looked into the Bar and Restaurant to see Bella sitting and chatting with the twins. They didn’t notice me just yet, but that was fine. I moved past them and reached the Kitchen. The smell completely overtook my senses, and the smile of the chef tossing the vegetables in his pot dazzled my eyes.
“Good morning, innkeeper!” Earnest Blest looked at me. “It’s a fine day, isn’t it?”
“Sure is.” A voice deeper in the Kitchen replied. The brown-haired moe-looking Chief of Staff Operations, Carol Dalesia. In her uniform, she drew some water from the barrels and poured it into a pitcher. “Good morning, innkeeper!”
With the pitcher in hand, she put some wooden cups on a tray and then stepped out of the room. Smile on her face, the girl gave me a short bow and turned towards the Bar and Restaurant.
“Good…morning!”
How could I not be pleased? So much work, and it had actually paid off. I wasn’t sure why, and I didn’t want to question it either, but it made me happy. Nothing could ruin this mood. Nothing could make this morning bad. Not even a grumpy Poltrick Gregson.
“How do you do, innkeeper? Breakfast seems to be going well.”
I turned with a grin, prepared to meet even the dwarf with joy as soon as I heard his voice. Then I turned and looked at him, and the smile disappeared. Poltrick Gregson was still standing at his full height and had a smug, haughty expression on his face as usual.
In the place of the ankle that he had lost, however, was a peg leg. He moved past me without acknowledging it and got into the Bar and Restaurant.
And I was left behind, wondering why such cruelty existed.