CONTENT WARNING- Mild Violence, and Sexual Harrasment 

Chapter Three - Bar 

They all slept in late that morning. Celes was surprised that she managed to sleep til 9 in the morning…she only knew that from the weird little electronic box that Lloyd and Cieria called an ‘alarm clock’. This was all too confusing..oh to be home again. In her regular world. Where there weren’t any ‘alarm clocks’ or ‘cars’. Oh well. Both Edgar and Locke sat eagerly in front of the ‘television’, which had started playing some news report. Celes watched as a man in a tuxedo cleared his throat and drawled on about the weather…and something about murder. 

Celes closed her eyes and sighed. She was wasting time. She ended up walking over to the washroom and taking a nice long shower- a cold shower. It took her about 45 minutes to scrub all the dirt and grime built up from the last few days, and when she came out, she was clean. Scrubbed raw, but clean.

She dried her hair, hesitantly put back on her still dirty clothes, and came out. 

“I sure hope you didn’t waste all the hot water,” Edgar said, staring at her now pink skin..it wasn’t her fault that stupid scrubby thing was so…abrasive. “Don’t worry, your majesty, I took a cold shower..” she said, stealing one of the untouched pillows from one of the boys’ beds. The pillow was made of a soft silk, and it felt…so nice against her raw exfoliated skin. 

“What to do now…” Locke mumbled, looking away from the television for what felt like the first time this morning. Locke rubbed his eyes..they felt- sore. He looked over at Celes, which to his dismay, was a slightly bright pink-ish color… 

“Well, we could go and almost get run over by cars again,” Celes mumbled, her voice muffled by the pillow pressed into her face.  

Lloyd was rustling through something…the wooden drawers. In the nightstand, he found various writing utensils, complete with paper, envelopes, and pens adorned with the hotel name. By the writing supplies, he spotted a colorful flyer. He carefully picked it up, and flipped through the pages, looking at the destinations advertised inside the book. “There’s a restaurant, a cafe…and a bar…” he mumbled, tossing the book-flyer thing on the bed. 

“I’ll go to the bar, please,” Locke quietly said as he stood up and looked around the room, bored out of his mind. He let himself flop onto the soft hotel bed, staring up at the pasty ceiling. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Celes set down the pillow, and went to a little table, sifting through its contents. 

Celes spotted…some packets of coffee…she needed that…sugar packets…and some soap bars. Yum.  She slowly picked up the coffee packet, which had instructions on the back. She studied them, then meticulously followed them to a tee, and thus, a cup of steaming coffee. She reluctantly added a packet of sugar, and then helped herself to the coffee,  and gagged. The coffee tasted horrible, yet she enjoyed the buzz of caffeine as it filled her body. 

She noticed Locke staring at her- more the coffee as she slowly walked over to the other side of the hotel room. 

She was bored. 

She moved the curtains, finding an enormous window hidden behind them. She gasped in astonishment..the sight was beautiful. They were up really high- she could see the tops of the seemingly endlessly high buildings, and far down below, she could see the bustling life of the city. 

“Skyscrapers.” Cieria said, which caused Celes to jump slightly, previously unaware of her presence. Cieria sighed. 

She was probably never getting back to her real home…but this place was close enough.. She wondered why she was all the sudden so home-sick and what not. It’s not like she really wanted to have to face the wrath of her mother.

“Seriously, I’m thinking about going to that bar,” Locke slightly whined, sounding incredibly bored. “But, I’d give anything to get out of this place!” he finished, staring at Celes. 

Suddenly Edgar- who had been missing for the past hour- emerged from the washroom. His hair was meticulously pulled back into a ponytail, and he was smiling. Yep, he definitely used up all the hot water. “The only reason I stepped out of there was because…the water ran cold.” Edgar said, frowning. “So…actually…what are we doing today?” Locke asked, letting himself collapse onto the few blankets strewn across the floor. 

Celes had to smile at the sight…Locke had wrapped the blanket…or rolled it up around his body so many times…he kind of looked like a sushi roll. He was staring up at the ceiling frowning. They sat there for a while, saying nothing, but after a few more comments about boredom, they had all finally left the room. They all piled into the elevator- in which they spent way too much time trying to figure out how to get back to the lobby in- and waited. Why again had they ignored Cieria and Lloyd? They were there, but they didn’t listen to anything they had said about the elevator…

Finally, they were in the lobby. Edgar had never wanted to rush out of a building so much. Well, he’d never actually wanted to rush out of a building before. They literally wandered around the city, confused and slightly dazed by the enormous crowd that pushed them around the street…and Edgar counted about 5 times when someone had said something about their outfits…and…cosplay? 

What the hell was cosplay?

It was nighttime when they finally found the bar. 

How were they supposed to find the Hilton Hotel place again?

Multiple people were spread across the bar, all mingling, and all some degree of drunk. Edgar had run off immediately to flirt with a group of girls, and Locke…well…Celes had no idea where Locke had gone. Actually, besides Edgar, Celes didn’t know where anyone had gone.  

She nervously bit her bottom lip as she cruised through the bar, hoping for a familiar face. There was none. It would be fine. She found herself ordering a ‘margarita’, whatever the hell that was…before long, she found herself in a slight drunken stupor, and she hated to admit it, but she was actually enjoying the chaos. Every single detail seemed to be amplified, from the loud music, to the chatter of the mingling people. 

She left her ‘margarita’ at the bar, and wandered around for a bit, slightly bored. When she came back to the bar, she paid no mind to the questioning looks the bartender gave her when she finished the thing. 

She felt…woozy. 

The world seemed to spin around her, and she felt like she was going to throw up. She put a shaky smile on her face, and wandered out of the bar, ignoring Locke as he questiongly eyed her. 

Wait, I was looking for him, wasn’t I…

It didn’t matter. 

She found herself outside, and she enjoyed the cool air, even if the world was still spinning. Celes walked around the small area, the moonlight being her only source of light- other than the occasional street lamp. 

Something felt…off…but what? 

Suddenly she felt something grab her, and clamp a hand over her mouth, preventing her from screaming. 

She bit his hand, but the man didn’t react. Instead, he hit her on the head, knocking her out as he dragged her somewhere. She also heard the sound of a sword clattering to the ground. 

Dammit. 

 When she woke up, she was pinned against a wall, the man creepily staring right at her. 

“So pretty…such beautiful eyes,” the man said in a gruff voice, as he stroked her hair softly. 

“Don’t touch me, you son of a bi-” the man brought his hand to her throat, choking her. She let out a stifled sob- her neck hurt so much- she had lost the ability to breathe….

“Be a good girl,” he said, as he ripped her shirt, revealing an inch more of cleavage. His eyes filled with…wanting…the world spinning even faster from the loss of oxygen. He bent his head down and…licked her neck, biting a part of it. She tried to squirm out of his grip, but that failed. His hips grinded against hers as he finally let his hand go off of her neck, allowing her to breathe again.

As she was gasping in big gulps of air, she felt his lips crashing against hers, his tongue invading her mouth. 

“Such soft lips,” he practically moaned into her mouth. 

Anger pulsed through her body, but she was about to give up as she heard a very familiar voice ring through the air. 

“Drop. The. Girl.” Locke growled. His dagger was held tightly in his left hand, ready to stab the man. He immediately turned around, releasing Celes, shock in his eyes. The shock then turned to rage as he sneered at Locke, “What the hell do you think you’re doing out here….do tell me, what’s with the clothes?” 

“Hey, I love my clothes!” he called to the man. He grunted before turning back to Celes, and Locke watched as he picked her off the ground by the nape of her shirt. She started to choke. That was it. He felt himself running towards the man, rage glinting in his eyes as he thrust the dagger deep into the man’s stomach, causing him to drop Celes, and slightly crumple over. “Alright old man, let’s get this over with,” Locke seethed, taking his dagger out of the man’s stomach. 

Celes managed to drag herself to her sword, which she spotted lying on the empty road before her. She hastily grabbed it, and then sighed, allowing herself to relax. She looked over.  The man screeched something unintelligible before bringing back his fist and slamming it into Locke’s cheek. He tasted blood as he lifted his dagger- he was already damn ready to stab the man again.  

Celes saw dark spots in her vision as she hoisted her body to turn towards the fight.

 She weakly watched as there was some stabbing, before her vision went entirely black. Celes embraced the darkness, and the last things she heard were a sickening crunch, another stab, and the soft thud of a body.

He was dead…probably. Locke glanced at the man one last time before running over to Celes, hunching over her body. She was crumpled up, and unconscious. He mumbled a curse under his breath as he lightly touched her arm, and began to shake her. He held his breath as he watched and waited. She violently twitched, and then she was awake. She blinked a few times before sitting up again, and then blinking again. “Celes…I’m so sorry- he’s gone now…that’s great, right?” is all he could say.