Chapter 14: Unexpected additions

"Oh, of course, so far the only pain she has caused me is the trauma of this nightmare career."

He chuckled with her as they walked up the stairs, back out the door to see the desk person was back from his little errand, waiting for them outside the door. 

"Here, I hope the melatonin helps." He said as he handed her a small plastic jar, the pills rattling inside as the woman looked around to see Roman calmly standing next to Gavin, arms crossed, but not as disturbed as before. 

"Thank you, I hope you have a safe night shift." 

He waved a hand in front of him, brushing it off. 

"I'll be fine, this place has its benefits."

Sometimes disturbing visitors come at night, whenever the woman isn't around the area, we like to watch and see what happens from afar. The desk person has a gun hidden underneath, and the guards could always use fresh meat, some patrons don't like people who have been in the freezer too long, it doesn't make them feel as special and the flavor isn't the same.

The others also waived him goodnight as Noemie went up to Roman, holding her camera and the sleeping aid. 

"I suppose there's nothing else I need, and you?" 

He hummed, looking to Gavin, and then eyeing Everett. The tall man pushed up his glasses and put a hand on Everett's back, beginning to walk back to their room and looking over his shoulder at the two, beckoning them to follow.  

Roman sighed. 

"I guess he wants to look at the photos you took at work." He blurted out, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as they went after them. She simply hummed, not saying anything and avoiding the desk person's gaze. 

Down the hall, all of the doors were the same as the ones down the hall of their room. Tags hung on each of the doorknobs just like the others, 'do not disturb'.... Wait, did I mention that before? I probably didn't, it's a small but very important detail, normally very few rooms will have 'do not disturb' signs hanging from the doorknobs, and there are very few cars in the parking lot to amount to nearly all the rooms being locked and occupied. I guess that was a very important detail I should've mentioned, oh well. 

The two men had a room like an exact copy to Noemie and Roman's, mirrored, the same two beds and an oddly angled chair, no tv just like theirs. 

"I know we're not allowed to take photos or make calls or anything, but you should definitely take a picture of this place, Noemie." Gavin looked over his shoulder at her as he adjusted the curtains, making sure there was no one on the other side. "It's a mix of modern and old."

It was tempting, Noemie considered old style interiors to be far more beautiful than modern ones, but looking down at her camera, she shook her head as Everett could be seen replaying the recent memory of the smiling lady in his head, giving her that same concerned look as before. 

"We have more important tasks right now; did he already inform you?" She turned to Roman expectantly. 

He nodded, staying close to her as he watched Gavin easily get comfortable in the room, sitting at the edge of one of the beds and crossing one leg over the other, patting the spot next to him. Everett drifted his gaze between them in confusion. 

"Tasks? Informed? Informed him of what?"

"That we are planning to quit." Gavin said blankly as Noemie walked over and sat beside him, Roman urged the nervous and confused man to sit down on the opposite bed. 

The European man jolted in surprise, staring at Gavin with wide eyes. Roman sat next to him, also with a leg crossed over the other. 

Noemie breathed in and out, pursing her lips as she looked at Gavin, pondering her words. 

"Of course, if we simply tell the manager upright, she'll kill and then carve us, for she trusts no one to simply walk free of this place, knowing its secret. That's why we had planned to stay the night, to have an excuse to look around this place, perhaps for an office she may have here, and maybe a computer with information on all of us." 

Everett still looked bewildered, Roman finally reacted with wide eyes, but not at surprise, it was slight nervousness. 

"Yeah, it was just an easy plan to explore this place for now." Gavin cut in, leaning forward as he put an arm around Noemie. "We originally had it to just be the two of us, but then you two decided to cut in, so here we are!" 

Silence filled the room, Noemie didn't like the silence of the two men in front of her, fiddling with the camera in her hands. 

"I understand if this may upset you, but I promised I would not let anyone get hurt during this attempt. If you're worried about getting in trouble-" 

"You're just telling us now?" Roman tilted his head at them, sitting up straight. "When did you two decide act?" 

Noemie's mouth hung open in pause, Gavin could feel the tensions enter her shoulders underneath his arm as she was about to nervously answer before he cut her off.

"Last night!"

The woman internally cringed as her eyes shut and she lifted a palm up to her face. Gavin looked unashamed as they two people in front of them now reacted even more confused. 

"Last, night?" Roman repeated back slowly, and the woman painfully nodded, her palm still on her face. 

Gavin shrugged, rubbing Noemie's arm up and down as he continued to answer for both of them. 

"Was it sudden? Sure. Do we have a surefire plan?" He made a chuckling sound, his mouth closed, the sound resonating from his throat. "Not exactly, but better to die trying than live like we're stuck, right?" 

"You sound more convinced than when I was telling you about this last night." The woman through him a deadpan glance, still not choosing to remove his arm from her shoulder, probably because she wasn't really annoyed about his sudden change of heart. It was more like she was asking to better confirm his resolve. 

"Wait, hold on now-is that the real reason you came back down to the locker room? Not just for your lost item?" Everett asked. 

"Well, partially for this, and also,,," Noemie shifted her eyes over to Roman. "Yes, I was trying to explore the building more, but clearly all the rooms are locked, and I have no knowledge of lockpicking." 

Everett shuddered as he looked down, interlocking his hands together as he rested his arms in his lap. 

"I'm going to guess that meeting with the manager was not planned?" 

This had the other men to respond in surprise, both flinching at the name 'manager'. 

"I did leave an item behind as an excuse to leave the room and search the place, I did not expect to see her, but I would not think of it as a bad thing." 

"She tried to choke you?" Everett retorted, flabbergasted. 

Gavin looked to inspect her neck, brushing her hair out of the way as Noemie tried to calm everyone. 

"She was not trying to choke me; it was her way of keeping me in place, to frighten me. She has many tactics like those." 

Roman sighed heavily, gathering everyone's attention; he looked at Noemie's neck that was blank of any bruises to insinuate any choking, to the man sitting next to her with still a suspicious gaze, and then to the nervous man beside him, crossing his arms in thinking. 

"We're all off to a great start clearly." He said sarcastically. "Noemie, why do you talk like you know the manager?" 

The woman looked down, avoiding everyone's eyes. 

"It's not something I'm proud of, so for now I'll say that I know a lot about her, her tells and habits, and her murderous tendencies." 

Roman hummed in understanding as he listened intently, then pointed his eyes at the others. 

"Gavin, you're a mortician, so you have access to a cremation machine too, right?" 

The man smirked in curious surprise, cocking an eyebrow behind his glasses at the man. 

"I do, why?"

"Just in case." Roman muttered mostly to himself, then turned his attention to Everett, who stuttered. 

"... I'm a security guard during the day." 

He hummed. "That's nice, but I don't think much muscle can help us, considering what I've seen her do." 

"I also used to study computer science!" Everett eagerly made known, quickly clamping his mouth, he was probably a little excited to bring that up, like no one has ever asked him about it before. 

"Oh, perfect, can you take care of the manager's devices if we manage to find any?" 

He looked unsure of himself again. "Devices, as in..." 

Noemie cut in, easing him to speak by coaxing him gently, getting an idea of what Roman was inferring. 

"Just in case if we find any listening devices, cameras we can take without notice, perhaps if she ever loses her phone, or better yet, a laptop that may have files on our bank and personal information. Would you be able to delete evidence about us from any of her devices?" She asked him softly. 

He looked at her keenly. 

"Yes! I'm pretty sure I could, if you wanted me to transfer anything, that would require some things, but deleting is easy." 

"Perfect!" Roman lightly clapped his hands together. "Noemie is the only one who seems to know something about our boss, so she can observe and shadow her." He looked to the woman for confirmation. 

She nodded, confident. "I can distract her or learn where her office may be, and hope I come upon any smart devices." 

"I'll take care of the information on those devices." Everett added on in careful learning, putting a hand on his chin. 

"And I'm guessing I'll be taking care of bigger evidence?" Gavin finished off, cocking his head to the side. "Like maybe anyone who got in our way, or the boss herself. I guess I can try to sneak an unregistered body into the morgue, some coworkers owe me a few favors." He said lowly, causing the others in the room to eye him cautiously. 

Noemie removed his arm from around her shoulder, about to scoot away before he defended himself to her quickly. 

"It's for good reasons! Normal reasons! I didn't blackmail anyone!" He said as he held her hand, looking her in the eye. 

She put a hand up to cover her mouth as she stared at him with squinted eyes, glancing at Roman from the corner of her eye. 

"I'm beginning to understand what you mean?" 

Roman quickly threw his hands out in front of him, a body language that normally meant, 'I told you'. 

"But I still want to believe he's a nice person for now, we're all trapped in the same situation." 

Roman huffed as Gavin smiled at him. 

"And..." She added in, but the two were already having a stare-off, only Everett was paying attention as she had another question for their plan. 

"Should we be worried about our coworkers?"

"They might die, or live, who knows?" Gavin shrugged. "I don't see a reason to worry about them."

Noemie pondered something to herself, her lips stayed shut as her hands gripped her camera tightly. 

"Should we at least talk to the other coworkers before we do anything for now? We can ask them about their encounters with her, or how they can help."

"If they wanted to." Gavin interjected. 

"Noemie." Roman said in a sympathetic but warning tone. "Don't do that to yourself. No, we're not getting anyone else involved in this, too many people will make it more difficult to manage." He shook his head.

She hummed in agreement, much to Gavin's pleasure. He didn't normally like many people, and he knew that merely brought up the idea for some kind of benefit or to avoid trouble, not because she genuinely cared about others.

Her eyebags were very prominent and she was slightly holding herself, the frown of her face looked so natural as she exhibited a feeling of guilt, looking off to the side. Roman couldn't think of a response, mouth hung open and looking away as Gavin brushed a hand through the back of her hair.

"You two should go back to your own rooms for now, if we talk any longer, it'll definitely look suspicious." Everett brought up, clearing his throat softly.

Roman firmly stood up, just as the others had already nodded, Gavin stared up at him with a raised eyebrow and gave an amused look, seeing the man staring and looking down at him. 

"We got it, but can you do something to make sure his loose mouth doesn't get us in trouble?" He pointed down at Gavin, looking to Everett expectantly. 

Gavin looked at him like a smug cat.

"I warn you to sleep with one eye open, boy." Roman huffed.

Everett didn't know how to respond, not understanding why the red-haired man seemed to dislike Gavin so much. Noemie sighed, having enough of this, aside from this night, there have been a few times where the smug man with the morbid humor, and the quiet red-haired man have bumped shoulders and she luckily walked away from it. Perhaps this was one of the many things she grew tired of dealing with, adding to her list of reasons to quit, and unfortunately for the woman, she will have to deal with a mass amount of this if she wants help in leaving. 

"Alright, we should go now." She stood up, preparing to stand in-between them. 

Gavin happily stood up, hands in his pockets.

"Goodnight to both of you." He then turned his head to the woman, eyes on Roman and then shifting to her. "Sweet dreams." He put a hand on the back of her head and kissed her on the nose. 

Roman gently took her hand, picked up her camera for her, and they walked out of the room together as he tried to ignore looking at Gavin in the eyes.

The woman made no resistance, not like he was forcefully grabbing her, it seemed more like a gentle tug and the woman simply went with it, having no energy to negotiate, not that there was a problem, she was probably glad he made an immediate decision, and she could sooner sleep. It was like an eyeroll of a reaction. Gavin just shrugged as he remained standing in his spot, waving a goodnight to Noemie when she turned back to say goodnight to him and Everett. 

Everett scratched his head; this was the first time he witnessed the relationship between Gavin and Noemie and was even more confused when the tall man was still smiling after Roman walked away holding her hand. He turned to him and gave him a questionable look. So many questions racked his face. 

"What, is your relationship with Noemie exactly?"

"If she needs me, she'd let me know, until then, Roman needs her for now." Gavin casually said. "As long as she's not alone." 

The blonde man just rubbed the back of his neck, taking out his three items out of his pocket, putting them on his bed, and heading to the bathroom for a routine shower.

The man at the desk didn't seem to bat an eye as he noticed the pair returning to their own room, continuing to write something in his notebook as Noemie seemed to be walking calmly alongside him just fine. The red-haired man was also still carrying her camera for her, accidentally pressed some buttons and woke up the screen, noticing the photo taken of the back of her head. The sling attached to the camera shown prominently wrapped and fitted to her neck like one of those chokers, but the excess being held back by the lady's hand that just barely got into the frame, sharp nails, makes it look like a leash.