When Fall arrived downstairs, Ardal wasn’t there. Instead, there was an older girl, probably about seventeen or eighteen years old.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Umm, yeah, actually you can.” He answered. “Do you happen to know where Ardal is? I need to ask him a few questions.”

“He’s in the kitchen finishing up dinner, which, by the way, will be ready in ten minutes.”

“I didn’t really need to know that, but thanks anyway.”

Fall walked into the kitchen, where he saw Ardal chopping up some meat with a large cleaver.

“Hey, you!” Ardal yelled. “You can’t be in here for another ten minutes!”

“Oh, I’m soooo sorry to bother you,” Fall said sarcastically. “But my friend has a question about the living arrangements, and I’m a bit skeptical about client security.”

“Listen up, kid. Don’t you go around playin’ games with me, ya here? Get straight to the point. And if you don’t, let’s just say that the knife over there will have more than just animal blood on it.”

“Okay then,” started Fall, with a little more fear than before. “Ash wanted me to ask where the bathrooms were, and I was wondering why you needed to know our names.”

“Oh, is that all? Well, I’ll tell your friend that there’s an outhouse in the back.”

“That’s okay, I’ll tell her.”

“I find it hard to believe that you’ll be able to tell her anything, because if I recall correctly, dead men don’t speak!” at that point, Ardal lunged at him with the huge cleaver, just missing Fall’s head, but making a big cut on his shoulder that immediately began to bleed heavily.

Wow, he thought. We haven’t even fought for a whole minute, and I’m already on the losing side! Well, I guess I have to put up some kind of fight or I’ll be mauled in seconds.

So Fall crawled over to the knife rack and pulled out a knife. The bad part was that the knife was one of those tiny ones you see by the cheese at fancy parties, and, typical to the way his day had been going, Fall cut himself taking it out.

“Oh, come on!” he yelled. “How is that possible? There isn’t even a blade on this thing!”

Ardal just laughed and walked towards him. “You’re an even worse fighter than I thought. Killing you will be easy.” Then, with Fall unable to defend himself, Ardal kept thrusting the cleaver at him, trying to hit a fatal point. Thankfully, Ardal had left his glasses in the lobby, and he couldn’t see a thing without them. So although Fall got hit multiple times and was positive that he heard his leg crack, nothing was fatal.

Might as well think of something happy, although I’m not quite sure why. Let’s see, what’s something happy to think of? How about that torch falling on Ardal and catching him on fire? Not particularly happy, but funny nonetheless.

So Fall imagined Ardal bursting into flames, and somehow, it actually happened. At that time, Fall had assumed that this was some sort of hallucination. Everything was all a blur after that because he had fainted while trying to walk out.

A few minutes later, Fall woke up to Ash slapping his face.

“What was that for?” he moaned.

“I left you alone for five minutes and look what happened!” she yelled. “You somehow manage to burn down an entire building, nearly get yourself killed, and definitely kill four other people!”

“Four?”

“Yes, there was Ardal, an employee, and an elderly couple that was staying down the hall. Now explain to me how this happened?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Answered Fall weakly. “I was asking Ardal about the bathrooms and everything and then he went all crazy trying to stab me with a cleaver. Oh, there was an outhouse outside.”

“That explains all those cuts, but you still haven’t told me how the hotel caught fire.”

“I really don’t know how that happened. I just sort of imagined it then it happened.”

“Ugh, why do I still hang out with you? Stand up. I’m gonna have to fix you up before we go anywhere.”

“I don’t think I can. I’m pretty sure my leg is broken.”

“At least try. If you fall, I’ll catch you.”

“Fine.” Fall stood up and nearly blacked out again. Thankfully, Ash kept her promise to catch him or she would be dealing with a concussion along with all of Fall’s other injuries.

“Alright. We’ve got a broken leg to fix.” Said Ash. “Fall, I want you to go sit right over there.”

“Umm, I can’t. You know, broken leg, nearly just fainted…”

“Okay. Hold onto my arm and then just sit in the back of the truck.”

“Are you trying to make a fool of me?”

“Do you ever want to use that leg again?”

“Why do I agree to these things?”

“Maybe because if it weren’t for me, you’d still be in that old house crying about your dead parents.”

“Don’t say a word about my parents. I just burned down a building. For all you know, I’m about to do the same to you.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Well, it was worth a shot. Now can we get this over with?”

“Alright.”

Ash helped Fall into the back of the pick-up truck and started stitching up his cuts. “I think I did a pretty good job.” She said as she admired her handiwork.

“It’s great that you fixed that, but what are you going to do about my leg?” Fall asked.

“I’ll just make a splint or something. Maybe I’ll make crutches too.”

“Do you even know how to make either of those?”

“Not really.”

“Do you want to learn how?”

“No. Since I don’t know how to make them I’ll just stop by a pharmacy or somewhere and buy some.”

“But if you don’t fix my leg now, it’ll heal crooked and to get that fixed, you’d have to break it again. Do you really want that to happen?”

“Fine. I guess I could make a splint. I’ve seen it done in movies, and it doesn’t look that hard. Just snap that back in place- ”

“Ahh!”

“Sorry, but it had to be done. Anyway, you snap the bone back into place, put a stick here and here, then tie there. And done!”

The splint that Ash made wasn’t pretty, but it was effective. “Alright, now you’ve got to get into the car.” She said.

“Okay, how do I do this?” Fall asked.

“I don’t know! Just use your powers or whatever to levitate yourself into the car.”

“To tell you the truth, I have no idea how to use this stuff. For all I know, everything I saw in the hotel was a hallucination. It would make sense, seeing as I passed out right after. The only reason I’m doing this is to prove you wrong.” Fall imagined himself floating into the truck, but when he opened his eyes, he was in the same spot he started in. “See?” he said. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Well how are you supposed to get in the car now?”

“You could pick me up and carry me to the car.”

“As I said earlier and about a thousand times before then, why do I still hang out with you.”