He’s slightly testing my patience. The phone rang this morning. I have to answer, no later than 5 rings, no exceptions. I picked it up swiftly, 2 rings in. He tells me that there's a new hire, a bright spirited girl, sweet, who reminded him of cotton candy. Said she’d be arriving any minute and that I needed to train her.

“You can do it. You always do.” He said from the other side of the phone. Reassurance that I’m now sure I need for this caffeine-fueled child that I'm “babysitting”

Sylvia, our new ball of chaos, was no older than 18; she looked about 17 in my opinion. Despite being energy-filled at 6 in the morning, she was sweet like Mr. NoMan had said. He never lied.

The guests of the hotel were asleep, so we sat behind the check-in desk. Sylvia began to quiet shortly, her focus on the sunrise, my morning could return to its peaceful welcome.

“I don’t know how people do it,” Sylvia interrupted, gazing out the window.

“Do what?” I glanced over.

“How do people not look at the sun? Yeah, you could go blind but it's worth it for something so beautiful.”

“Blindness is not worth it. One gaze too long could ruin your life, forever.” I got up and closed the blinds.

“Hey! I was looking at that!”

“And I'm responsible for you if you do something stupid like cause your own blindness.” 

I glanced at the camera in the corner of the room. The red light on the camera flashed one too many times. Mr. NoMan was watching us, watching me. A customer strolled in seconds later, hauling his suitcase like his life depended on it.

“I need a room now! I misread my ticket and my plane doesn’t leave until tomorrow.” Sylvia walked over to me.

“Can I help?” Sylvia asked.

I stepped aside and watched her perfectly execute every detailed instruction I had briefed her on earlier. We have a fast learner on our hands.

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much, you guys are life savers, real life savers.” The man rushed off and the hotel doors shot open after he was out of sight. Through the wooden doors, Xiemna, a friend of mine, emerged.

“Morning Bitch! Oh- Who’s the kid? You have a kid?? I didn’t know you had a kid! How cute!” Xiemena hopped over the check-in desk and threw herself in a chair.

“This is not my child. This is Sylvia, she's my new co-worker.” I sat down.

“Oh. That’s stupid. Guess I'm not enough for the mystery man.”

“You’re not an official worker, you’re lucky he tolerates you.”

“Pfft- I'm not scared of that guy. He’s gonna have to accept me. We’re a package deal.”

“We're really not.”

“Don't be silly, Azzy!”

I ignored her and spun in my chair to look at Sylvia. She was peeking over the check-in desk in utter confusion. I traced her gaze to a wet floor sign that had magically appeared. Mr. NoMan had placed it and no one had even seen him. His timing was impeccable.

“Has that wet floor sign always been there?” Sylvia pointed.

“No. But, I think management wants our attention. Cmon.” I stood swiftly and walked over to the wet floor sign. Sylvia and Ximena followed. Ximena placed her hands in her pockets as she walked around the sign.

“There's no spill..” Ximena looked at me.

“No, but there's a paper.” Sylvia bent down and grabbed a paper from under the wet floor sign.

 The paper read: “This was misplaced. A small mistake on the janitor’s behalf, please return it. All personnel leave the check-in desk and go together. Someone will cover” The handwriting was neat, evenly spaced, no flaws. I groaned. I hated the janitor’s closet. I looked back, Diane, the treasurer for the hotel’s funds waved at me. She was covering for us. I hate that Mr. NoMan never lies.

And so, like the pawns we were, we headed to the janitor’s closet. I lead the way down the quiet halls. My shoes echoed, the clicking bouncing off the walls. Ximena and Diane’s shoes quietly encompassed the sound of mines all the way to the janitor’s closet. 

I turned the doorknob to the closet slowly and pushed the door open. The air from inside breezed out, cold. It was cold, it always was. I bumped into the switch to turn on the light with my shoulder and began to walk to the back of the closet. The room was too big to be a closet.

In the corner of the closet, the camera light flashed one too many times.

As I set the wet floor sign down, the door to the closet slammed shut. 

“Hey! We're in here!” Ximena yelled.

From under our feet, thousands of rats rushed out and piled on top of each other. Their collective squeaks could not silence the screams coming from Sylvia. 

“Azalice!!!” Sylvia clung to me, and I grabbed a broom, defensively holding it as the rats fused into a huge, mega-rat.

“I told you this shit was haunted!” Ximena grabbed a mop bucket, intending to hurl it at the mega rat.

I put my hand on Ximena's shoulder and gently pulled her back as we all backed up into the door. With my free hand, I tried to open the closet door.

It was locked. 

“Damn it. It's locked.”

“What do you mean it's locked!?” Ximena glared at me.

Sylvia's face contorted to pure fear as a rumbling that started small began to grow loud and violent, and under us, the ground began to crack. Before she could even say anything, the ground under us collapsed and we fell through.

We were screaming, falling, and yet I had managed to close my eyes. I drowned out Ximena and Sylvia's screams. A kind of peaceful sense washed over me. Mr. NoMan wouldn't let us die like this.

Opening my eyes we all crashed into a mattress at the bottom of the pit. I bounced off and landed on the ground.

I gained my composure then sat up, my arm aching. “Girls! You ok?”

“I..I think so..” Sylvia stood up, shaking profusely.

“I'm fine.” Ximena fixed her hair and stood, dusting herself off. I rushed over and examined Sylvia and Ximena. No visible scars. 

I groaned as I clutched my arm. I had landed on it wrong. It was somewhat difficult to move. It might've broken.

“Dude, that looks broken. Hold.” Ximena untied the scarf hanging decoratively from her belt loop, and she unfolded it. She made a sling for my arm.

“Can you believe my dad taught me that? And I've got a backup too!” Ximena turned around so we could see the spare scarf in her back pocket.

“Thank you. We have to get out of here.” There was only one “way out”; it was a looming tunnel that was in front of us. It was eerily quiet.

“We walk together, we run together, we fight together.” Ximena nodded at us. Sylvia and I fought back and ventured into the tunnel and its darkness waiting within.