Chapitre 2: Chapter 2: Hotel Melody
Tommy took out a small bag and said:
"Leo, spread the sand around the park. This place will be our cow farm."
Leo took the bag of sand and replied:
"Really? What will you do next when your Ghost Eyes is broken?"
Tommy said:
"We have this kid, he will see that Evil Spirit for us."
Ethan replied with confusion:
"Sorry, but I still don't understand much. What is happening?"
Tommy said with a little haste:
"Just do it, Leo? And Ethan, look out for that bat, I have to get the gatling gun."
Leo flew away and spread sand around the park, there were also grains of sand with blue particles. Ethan listened to Tommy and watched the bat, it was still flying around and hiding behind buildings, Tommy opened the trunk of the car and pulled out an iron floor stored inside and opened the legs, he said:
"How's the situation?"
Ethan replied:
"Uh well, it's flying around the buildings. But, you still haven't explained anything to me?"
Tommy fixed the iron floor firmly and said:
"Oh yeah, sorry. To summarize and specifically explain, me with you and many others can see ghosts. Yeah, don't think it's an ability that only you have."
Tommy pulled out something covered by a cloth, he continued:
"Ghosts are simply the souls of the dead, because they have a lot of things left to do when they are alive, so they stay here forever, they still keep their old habits and don't seem to be aware that they are dead. And that thing, is Evil Spirits, if ghosts are the souls of good people, that thing belongs to bad people, criminals, addicts, suicidal people, etc... And for every ten bad souls, they will merge together into one Evil Spirit, it is that monster. But the problem is that no one yet or I don't know, is that they can see Evil Spirits, because they are invisible to us. That's why I made a special sunglasses to see them. And kid, who would have thought I'd see that special person first."
Tommy opened the trunk to reveal it was an 1876 gatling gun modified to have its own stand and large round magazine. Ethan said with surprise with that machine gun:
"Ahhh, gun? You brought a machine gun to kill it?"
Tommy replied with excitement:
"Yes, only this baby can kill it."
Ethan said with worry:
"But everyone will notice the gunfire and bullets."
Tommy replied:
"Don't worry, special bullets, normal people can't see it."
Then he shouted to Leo:
"Leo! Are you done?!"
Leo replied loudly:
"Done, lure him in!"
Tommy said:
"Ethan, where is it?"
Ethan replied:
"Uhmm, over there! It's flying towards us again."
The bat flew up and down towards Tommy and Ethan. Tommy pointed the gatling gun at the bat and said:
"Oh, come here baby!"
Ethan replied with surprise:
"Oh wait, you're planning to fire in the city?!"
Tommy said:
"Don't worry, this ammo is a psychic bullet, it will disappear and leave no consequences, normal people are also not gonna hurt."
Ethan pointed his hand at the bat and shouted:
"It's over there!"
Tommy pointed the gatling gun at the bat and shouted excitedly:
"Yippee Ki Yay! Motherfucker!"
When the bat flew into the park, Leo immediately scattered the remaining sand to connect them into a spiritual barrier that trapped the bat inside. Tommy immediately fired bullets at the bat, hundreds of bullets flew into it and burned the black smoke. It hurt so much that it flew past them but crashed into the psychic barrier and Tommy continued to fire more bullets into its back. The bat was badly injured, the black smoke slowly faded away and a black coin with two sides of a skull fell to the ground. Leo had opened the bag of sand so that all the sand could get inside the bag. Tommy and Ethan approached the destroyed bat and Tommy picked up the black coin, Ethan said with curiosity:
"What is it?"
Tommy replied:
"The Evil Coin, every Evil Spirits destroyed will drop this, it contains a lot of sin and ten evil souls. It's dangerous. It's dangerous, normal souls just touch it and become a new Evil Spirits right away."
Ethan gulped in fear of what he'd just been through. Leo went to them and said:
"Tommy, everything's settled. Let's go back to the hotel."
Ethan slowly backed down as if he wanted to run away. Tommy laughed and said:
"Hahaha, today is an interesting day. Madam will really like him. Leo, Catch Him!"
Leo instantly knocked Ethan out before he even realized it. Ethan fainted on the ground, Leo said:
"Oh damn it, Tommy. Why I have to listen to You?! Got to bring this kid to Madam? She'll be furious, and I don't want to lose my salary. I need more three hundred years before I can have enough money!"
Tommy replied calmly:
"I'll talk to Madam, and you'll be fine, Leo. Besides, we need more staff for the hotel."
Leo looked at Ethan and said:
"Geez, who knew this dude had such unique abilities, I don't have to wear glasses anymore. It's so freaking weird."
Tommy replied:
"Okay, enough bullshit. Help me get him into the back seat, I hope he enjoys this bumpy ride."
A moment later, his eyes slowly opened, Ethan saw the soft and bumpy ground, he immediately sat up and hit his head on the roof of Tommy and Leo's car, he shouted:
"Ow! What the hell?!"
Tommy was driving, he replied:
"Oh, you are awake kid? Sorry our journey is a bit bumpy."
Ethan looked outside and saw them moving in a forest. Ethan sat back in the chair, hugged urn tightly and said with fear:
"Uhh, I just met the two of you a few minutes ago, you guys talking a lot about Evil Spirits and saying I'm a special person who can see them. And now you're kidnapping me because of that? I'm sorry but I'm overloaded with information, but let me go, please!"
Tommy replied cheerfully:
"Oh son, don't worry, we're taking you to a place where someone can explain it all to you."
Ethan said with curiosity:
"Really?"
Leo replied:
"No! he's just saying that so you can relax a bit. He wants you to join us to hunt Evil Spirits."
Ethan shouted in fear:
"Let me out! I don't want to get caught up in this horror movie!"
Leo said:
"Come down mate, if you get out of the car now, you'll be lost in the forest. We're in the Sam Houston National Forest."
Ethan replied with surprise:
"What! Why are we in here?!"
Tommy said:
"We're going to the Melody Hotel, our home. And Ethan, you're going to be a cowboy, your power is chosen to do it."
Ethan replied:
"But I don't want this, I'm not the chosen one or anything. I just want to live peacefully, work hard, buy a house, have a wife and kids, and live to an old age."
Tommy stopped the car and turned to look at Ethan, he said:
"Tell me, do you still have family, relatives, or a home? If you still have them, I promise to take you home and we'll never see each other again."
Ethan was a bit quieter, he had no family now, his last relative was his grandmother who had just passed away. Ethan said with a hint of sadness:
"No, I don't have a home and I don't have a family anymore."
Tommy replied:
"Then do you want to go back to the city? Live the life you always have and live to the old age you want. Or use your power for the better, you know why we hunted Evil Spirits?"
Ethan said with curiosity:
"Why?"
Tommy replied:
"They eat ghosts."
Ethan was surprised by what Tommy said, he said:
"Why do they... eat them?"
Tommy replied:
"Since they also want to go to Heaven, by eating a thousand ghosts they can get there and I won't allow it. The worst part is that even ghosts can't see Evil Spirits like Leo, so there might be more than a dozen people in the stomach of the bat we just killed earlier."
Ethan was afraid of what Tommy had to say, Tommy continued:
"I've killed hundreds of Evil Spirits over the past twenty years and there hasn't been a day that I haven't stopped hunting. And Ethan, do you want to be a modern cowboy, to help us kill Evil Spirits?"
After Tommy's words, Ethan hesitated a bit, he looked at his grandma's urn and then determinedly said:
"I will... join you guys. If I can save everyone from those monsters, I'll help right away."
Tommy smiled slightly and replied:
"Good, but we still have to get approval from Madam."
Tommy started the car and they kept going, Ethan said curiously:
"Madam? Who is that?"
Leo replied:
"She is the manager and owner of the Melody Hotel, the most powerful person in the state of Texas aka the guardian of the Road of Eternal."
Ethan swallowed, he said:
"Really? But why do I need her approval? I've already made my decision."
Leo replied in a frightened voice:
"Madam is the scariest and most terrifying woman in history. She is too perfectionist, always wanting everything to be perfect. I have been her employee for a hundred and forty-one years and have witnessed many of her worst nightmares. Oh the pay cut months! Ahhh! She's going to cut my salary when I keep talking!"
Ethan became even more scared and leaned back in his chair, he shouted:
"Let me out! LET ME OUT!"
Tommy laughed and said excitedly:
"Hahahah, Nope, Too Late! We're at the hotel now!"
Ethan poked his head in the front seat and saw them approaching a hotel deep in the woods, there was a special path that led them there. Outside the hotel looked very old and walled and had bar gates. When they went inside, the bar gate automatically opened as if welcoming them home, Ethan was a little scared so he said:
"Wait, does it have a soul? Why does it automatically open?"
Tommy replied with nonchalance:
"Nah, I just installed the automatic and remote control system for the bar gate. There was one of us inside who opened the door for us."
Tommy drove around a fountain and parked in front of the hotel, he said:
"We're here, let's go."
They opened the door and got out of the car, only now Ethan got a better look at the car, it was a classic, 1960 Chevrolet Caprice car. Ethan said:
"Wow! I've never seen a classic car like this."
Tommy replied:
"It was my grandfather's, then my father's, and now it's mine."
Ethan looked around, to his left were five garages and to his right was the road leading to the back of the hotel. Then Ethan looked up at the hotel, it was very dark inside and only a blue candle flickered. Hotel Melody had tenth floors but he didn't know how many rooms, the style of the hotel is very classic, like a European mansion in the 20s of the twentieth century with white paint, white column structure and delicate floral carvings, two stone lion statues atop the roofs, brown-framed windows and flanked by ornamental shrubs and flowers leading to the steps to the hotel door. There were very few trees around the hotel to serve the beautiful landscape and it seemed that the hotel was easy to notice from a distance. Ethan said with amazement:
"Woah! I never thought there would be a magnificent hotel in this forest."
Leo replied:
"We know, we know. Come on mate, Madam is waiting for you."
Ethan quickly followed Leo and Tommy, he said:
"Wait for me, but how did Madam know I was coming?"
Tommy replied:
"She's the owner of the hotel, and no ghost or anyone has entered the hotel without her knowledge."
They went up the steps and stood at the door, Tommy said with welcome:
"Welcome to Hotel Melody."
Tommy opened the door and they went inside. Then he closed the door and they were standing inside a dark room, they could see each other's eyes clearly. Ethan said with confusion:
"What's wrong? Power outage?"
Tommy replied:
"Oh no, at night we have to turn off the lights. And see her, our receptionist."
Ethan looked straight ahead and saw a blue candle flickering, then the shadow of a girl appeared with gloom and horror all around. Ethan was about to scream but suddenly a monkey jumped down and covered his mouth, Ethan said:
"What the hell?!"
Tommy replied calmly:
"Oh, it's my monkey, Charlie."
Tommy whistled and Charlie the monkey left Ethan then jumped up and sat on Tommy's right shoulder, he gave it a piece of chestnut. The other girl said:
"Geez Tommy, Leo. Can't the two of you be quiet when you get home?"
Ethan got a better look at the girl, she was around 20 years old, she had short black hair, brown eyes and wore a suit, her belt buckle was the eye with a coin inside the pupil. She continued:
"So this is the new guy you phoned me about? How suck can he be?"
They approached her, and Tommy replied:
"Hey hey hey, don't say that. Few people have special abilities like him, we'll need him. Ah, what Madam says?"
She said coldly:
"Just take him up to her, she's waiting."
Ethan looked at her, she glanced at him and said:
"Hey mate, try to survive."
Ethan replied:
"Uhh, yes, thanks. Sorry to be rude, my name is Ethan Vend."
Ethan raised his hand to shake hands with her, but she said coldly:
"Cleran Blueheart, just remember that and don't need an introduction, leave that to Madam."
Ethan trembled at Cleran's every word. Tommy said happily:
"All right, all right, stop scaring him. I'll take him to Madam. Leo, put the car in the garage and clean the pool. I'll take Ethan first and then I'll get some coffee."
Cleran and Leo said with boredom:
"Yes sir."
Then Tommy and Ethan got into the elevator to go up to the tenth floor, Madam's floor. Ethan looked a little worried because he was about to meet Madam, Tommy understood that, he looked at Ethan's urn of his grandmother ashes and said:
"Hey, what is it? You've been hugging it since we first met."
Ethan replied:
"Uhh, ah. This is the urn of my grandmother's ashes, she passed away a few hours ago. I want to keep it."
Tommy said:
"Didn't you see her soul?"
Ethan replied:
"No, that's strange. I think she'll follow me when she's passed away."
Tommy said:
"Don't worry kid, maybe that's fine. She's already gone to Heaven, a happier place for her."
Ethan said:
"Yeah, thank you."
They were silent for a while, and when they reached the ninth floor, Tommy continued:
"Hey, don't worry when you meet Madam. Be honest and trust all the answers in your heart."
Ethan replied with more ease:
"Thanks for the advice. I'll follow that, no need to worry about everything."
They arrived on the tenth floor, the floor of Madam's office. And the elevator took them into her room, a very dark room that couldn't be seen at all. A woman was sitting in a recliner at the far end of the room, with smoke rising and behind her an eye-shaped window. She said calmly:
"Greetings, Ethan Vend."
Ethan gulped at that woman, she was Madam.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone