If it weren't for the clock on Nicolas' phone reading 8:45 p.m., he'd likely start to believe that time itself was standing still. Inside the dark hotel room, the only light came from the old lamp, making every passing minute feel like an hour. Kevin had left to get dinner after his and Nicolas’ talk, but ever since he returned, he had been inside the place he called not-so-wonderland, leaving Nicolas, Ash, and Ryan alone in the old hotel room.

  “So, what time do y'all usually sleep?” Ryan asked them, before eating another fork full of hash browns.

  “Well, it’s usually in the a.m.'s when I’m asleep,” Nicolas admitted.

  “Well, I’m taking the couch,” Ash said, laying down on the squishy cushions. “Unless any of you want to fight me for it.”

  “Where am I supposed to sleep then?” Ryan asked.

  “I guess you should figure that out.”

  “I imagine Kevin’s probably taking that bed,” Nicolas said, pointing toward the neatly made bed beside the couch.

  “Where even is Kevin?” Ryan asked, glancing over to the door Kevin had disappeared into. “Is he still in there?”

  “He probably has a bed in there,” Ash suggested, before turning to Nicolas, and asking; “did you see any when you were there?”

  “I-I don’t remember,” Nicolas admitted. He wasn’t really paying attention at that time, so his memory only showed the things he made a mental note of; the candle shining a warm glow onto Kevin's glasses, the details of their chat, and the mirror that looked more like a window without his reflection staring back.

  “Well, I’m sure he’ll show up soon. And if not, one of you could take the bed.” Ash closed their eyes, resting their head on the armrest on the end of the couch like a pillow.

  “Who made you the boss?” Ryan mumbled, but if Ash heard him, they didn't answer.

  Time seemed to stop again as things got quiet once more. Nicolas turned the wick down in the oil lamp, the flame burning out; then he sat down on the armchair beside the couch, and Ryan laid down on the bed.

  Nicolas pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking his messages, but his phone said he had no signal, which Nicolas found odd. He searched for something to do—anything to pass the time—as the phone clock continued forward.

  8:59 p.m.

  10:34 p.m.

  12:02 a.m.

  2:46 a.m.

  The hotel room had become completely silent as Nicolas read. He was reading an ebook he had downloaded a while back, some fantasy story called The Reaper. Nicolas never used to be much of a reader, but that was until Sam had gotten him into it. Nicolas was starting to notice that the love for books was contagious. Nicolas started reading because Sam did, and Sam started reading because his girlfriend, Euphoria did.

  The phone screen was illuminating a white glow onto Nicolas’ face, making the now completely dark hotel room look even darker.

  “Hey,” Ryan’s whispering voice sent a momentary jolt of panic through Nicolas like a jump scare.

  “Dude!” Nicolas whispered loudly, turning his eyes away from the words on his phone. The hotel room was completely dark now, his pupils fully adjusted to the unhealthy amount of light in his eyes. “You scared the crap out of me!”

  “Sorry, I couldn’t sleep,” Ryan replied.

  “It's almost three in the morning,” Nicolas’ heart was beginning to slow now, the moment of fear leaving faster than it had appeared.

  “So, what did Kevin want to talk to you about?” Ryan asked quietly, attempting to start a conversation.

  Nicolas didn’t know if he should tell him. Zander looked so… so human… it felt wrong somehow, as if he were confessing to killing an actual person.

  “Just some stuff about the kako.”

  “What kind of stuff?”

  “Questions like, ‘what caused him to fall off the train.’”

  “What did cause him to fall?”

  Nicolas couldn't see Ryan’s face in the darkness, but he had a feeling he was looking toward Nicolas.

  “The train turned and he just—lost grip I guess,” Nicolas replied, using the same altered version of the story he told before. He swiped down on his phone's screen, touching the flashlight icon.

  “Why’d he want to know?”

  “I’m not sure,” Nicolas replied, remembering the words Kevin had told him.

  You may have very well discovered the secret to destroying them.

  Did Kevin think the kako could be destroyed? Nicolas killed one of them, but that was just one creature.

  “Are you planning on sleeping there?” Ryan asked, his eyes moving from Nicolas’ face, to the small armchair he was sitting on.

  “Probably,” Nicolas replied.

  “You can’t even lay down on that thing,” Ryan laughed, sitting up. “Here, this bed’s huge. I’ll take one side, you get the other.”

  “I’m fine here,” Nicolas answered, even though he had to admit; he would definitely rather sleep on the bed. It was one of those lies; the kind he told when he felt like lying hurt less people than the truth did.

  “Get over here,” Ryan ordered him, smiling. “I don’t bite.”

  ***

  When Nicolas awoke, he found himself in complete darkness.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  What time is it?

  He rubbed his eyes before searching his pocket for his phone. As soon as he found it, he pressed the power button, and immediately the bright, headache-inducing light filled his vision, the numbers 9:04 a.m. showing up on the phone screen.

  "Look who's finally awake," Nicolas heard Kevin's voice say through the darkness, reminding him of where they were.

  “Why’s it so dark in here?” he asked, his voice croaking the way voices often did in the mornings.

  “Savin oil,” Kevin responded in that strange accent Nicolas now knew was fake. He swiped down on his phone, tapping on the flashlight icon and activating the tiny white light.

  Ryan and Ash were both awake as well, sitting on the side of the bed.

  “Y’all probably gonna have to hide here for a while,” Kevin continued, moving over to the now flameless lamp, removed the chimney, and stuck another match, touching it to the burned wick and a flame sparked to life. “I went out early this mornin, and they were lurkin everywhere.”

  “Once it’s safer, we could sneak onto another train,” Ryan suggested. “I’ve been doing it for months.”

  “And how has that worked for you?” Ash asked smartly, and when Ryan didn’t reply, they added; “the kako are just going to keep chasing us until we give up.”

  Nicolas thought hard about what they could do. They could only run so far, but if they stayed here, it was only a matter of time before the kako found them.

  What do they even want with me? Is Kevin's theory about Eirini true?

  “Actually, I think I might have something that could help,” Kevin smiled, his eyes locking onto Nicolas’. “I want to show you something.”

  Nicolas sat up, rubbing his sleepy eyes as he set the phone on a small lamp stool beside the bed.

  “What is it?” he asked as he stood up in the dully lit room.

  “You’ll see,” Kevin replied. “Mind followin me?”

  “Sure.”

  Nicolas followed Kevin as he turned around, heading toward the room he’d confessed to the murder of a demon.

  This time, there was no candle lighting the old room. As they stepped through the doorway, the tightly closed walls and the complete lack of light made the room feel like it was drowning him in darkness.

  “What was it you were wanting to show me?” Nicolas asked, glancing around in hopes to see some kind of light.

  “This,” Kevin answered, his accent gone again.

  He was holding something.

  Nicolas thought it was his imagination at first; the glowing outline of a sword could’ve been no more than just phosphenes, those little, momentary bursts of light that sometimes appear when you close your eyes too tightly. But this wasn’t a phosphene, because the glowing outline shifted into a barely visible, red glow, that was getting brighter, and starting to grow, like it was slowly appearing out of the darkness. A warmth radiated off the long, skinny metal like a stove eye coming to life.

  It was a blade.

  “If heat really does kill them, then this should come in handy,” Kevin said with a whisper, handing the handle to Nicolas. It felt heavy, and there was a thick hose or wire hanging from the bottom, weighing it down even more.

  “You built this last night?” Nicolas whispered at last, moving the weapon carefully, little sparks flashing every few seconds like fireflies.

  “Not quite. I was working on a different project at first, but when you told me about how you killed that kako, I made some changes.”

  “Why?” Nicolas asked. One sword isn’t going to kill all of them. Won’t they just keep coming? “Why did you make this?”

  “You’ll understand someday,” Kevin answered, which didn’t feel like an actual answer to Nicolas. “I promise.”

  “How does it work?”

  “See that wire?” Kevin replied, pointing at the thick silver wire hanging from the bottom of the handle.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s connected to a complex set of batteries, so when the power switch is flipped, it sends a powerful current through the metal blade, heating it up like an electric heater.”

  Nicolas searched the side of the handle, before flipping what he hoped was the switch. Seconds after as it clicked down, the heat began to ease off as the handle started to fade away, disappearing into the dark shadows once more.

  “Your friends are probably wondering what’s going on,” Kevin said once the blade had completely disappeared into the darkness.

  “Yeah,” Nicolas agreed.

  If Nicolas knew Ash, which he did, then they were probably wondering what Kevin was up to; and to be quite honest, Nicolas was too. He moved the blade even more carefully now in the complete darkness, worried he'd hit something with it by accident.

  Could I even use this? He remembered the feeling he felt when he watched Zander die in front of him—the feeling of guilt he felt when he admitted to Kevin that he was the one who did it. Could I really kill another one?

  Kevin took the handle from him, then opened the door as he set the strange sword down on what used to be a sink top.

  “Thank you for your help, Nicolas.”

  What does that mean?

  Nicolas decided it was probably pointless to ask, since if Nicolas had learned anything, it's that no one really seems to be in the answering mood. So instead, Nicolas replied with a “you’re welcome,” before turning around, and stepping back through the doorway again, where the lamp illuminated the darkness with a dull, warm light.

  "They have returned!" Ryan exclaimed, talking as if he were from one of the old fantasy novels Nicolas read a few months back.

  "About time too," Ash added, rolling their eyes at Ryan. "This dude was starting to drive me insane."

  "Hard to tell with you," Ryan replied with a small cackle, and Ash shot him a look Nicolas could only barely see in the lamp light.

  "I've got some food in the cabinets there if any of y'all are hungry," Kevin said, pointing at the cabinets on the far end of the room. His strange accent sounding obviously fake now. “I don’t know if y'all will eat any of it, but ya free to whatever you want.”

  “Alright, thank you Kevin,” Ash replied. Nicolas wondered if even they knew that Kevin’s accent wasn’t real. Surely they did, right?

  However, that wasn’t the only question on Nicolas’ mind, nor was it the biggest. Instead, the biggest question was, why is he using a fake accent in the first place?

  A question that Nicolas had a funny feeling he’d never get the answer to.

  ***

  Once again, time seemed to be at a standstill.

  When Nicolas looked at his phone, the time was 9:21 p.m., and his battery was at 39%. They’d been inside the pitch-black hotel room all day, with barely any light whatsoever. Nicolas had turned off the phone’s flashlight hours ago to save battery life, and with Kevin trying to save oil, it was like living in a bat cave. His phone clock became his only sense of time, because even his own internal clock was behind, as if the constant darkness had slowed it down.

  Ash and Ryan continued to argue the way they had been doing, and Kevin stayed mostly in his ‘workshop.’

  Nicolas hadn’t done anything throughout the day. And as the clock ticked closer and closer to midnight, he wondered how long he’d be able to handle the darkness. He was drowning in it; it was suffocating him, and his eyes were starting to see lights where there weren’t any.

  I’ve got to get out of here, Nicolas thought to himself.

  And just like that, the plan began to form.

  I could sneak out while everyone's asleep, go for a quick walk, then come back.

  He knew it was a bad idea. With how Kevin described it outside, it seemed like the kako were roaming everywhere, meaning going outside by himself, where no one knew where he was going, was probably the most outrageous idea he’d thought of.

  Maybe the kako are asleep, he wondered. Do they even sleep?

  Nicolas pondered these questions and thoughts as it got later; and as the time hit 2:54 a.m., when he asked himself another question; one that seemed impossible to answer.

  What would I lose if they caught me?

  Nicolas glanced around the dark, empty room, then whispered in Ash’s direction; “Ash, you awake?”

  After a few moments of silence, he turned his gaze to where Ryan lay, beside him. “Ryan?” he whispered, but just like before, there was no answer.

  Nicolas slipped out of bed, his feet lightly touching the hotel room floor, and began quietly tip-toeing through the dark hotel room. The place was so quiet that when one of Nicolas’ knees popped from standing, he was almost convinced someone could’ve heard it.

  Don’t be ridiculous, he thought to himself.

  Then, his fingers carefully wrapped around the metal door handle, and he twisted as slowly as he could, pausing at every noise it made.

  Until finally, the door opened.

  The fresh air hit him like a tidal wave, flooding his body in a cool, but not cold wind, and even from here, Seattle sparkled in the night like glitter.

  Then, Nicolas inhaled a breath of clean, mold-free air, and stepped out into the almost blue-tented moonlight.