The Orbist

Chapter 30

 Everyone woke up at different times. I, for one, probably woke up the latest. The first thing I saw when I escaped the realm of sleepy land was everyone putting on their shoes, with their things packed. Not saying a word, I quickly hopped out of bed and joined them. We all left the room, walked across the hallway, and downstairs, with all our things in our grasp. It remained silent until we reached the first floor when Bryan said:

    "I'm hungry, can we go to the breakfast room?"

    "It's not called a breakfast room, numb-skull." Levi rolled her eyes.

    "Whatev's." Bryan shrugged. "I still wanna go. C'mon, Ralph, it's free!"

 He continued to plead until Ralph exasperatedly exclaimed-

    "Yeah, okay, yeah. Yeah, sure, it's free." He ran his fingers through his hair in exhaustion and annoyance.

 Bryan cheered, and ran towards the "breakfast room", inviting us to come along. I think all of us rolled our eyes, but we decided we were hungry as well, so we joined him.

 I grabbed a plastic bowl and pulled the old machine's lever for Fruity Loops to start pouring out. I looked around. There was a blond kid who was maybe 12 years old eating Cheerios next to his mother enjoying a fruit salad, a large redhead lady in a passionate argument with her even larger sister, an old lady, and a maybe twenty year old with glasses and scruffy hair, playing with a Rubiks cube and a middle aged man all sitting down. The man, maybe 35, stood up from his table and slowly walked over to me with an unchanging expression on his face. He stared at my face, or half my face, until I turned to him and introduced my grey eyes to his dull-orange, which is a pretty strange eye-color.

    "Can I help you?"

    "A letter...from Mr. Mac." He responded unemotionally, and held out an envelope, not even breaking his gaze with me. It was clear this man was under some sort of spell. How long was he waiting at that table for me? Did they do this to a random citizen in every nearby hotel or motel, all holding the same letter? A better question was why would the leader of the Ecators want to tell me something? Was I that important?

 I held out my hand, and he numbly dropped the envelope in my palm. Then he walked back to his table like freaking Frankenstein.

 Creeped out, I walked to my group sitting at the table with my bowl of Fruit Loops and sat with them. Under the table, I cautiously opened the envelope to find a folded sheet of paper inside. I opened the paper and carefully began to read it's ten bold words.

Ignorance is bliss.

So I'll help you reach the truth.

 I reread the words several times, not sure if I understood. I couldn't speak to the group about it because they would get freaked out and no good outcomes would result from that. Why did Mr. Mac take the time to personally write me that message? Was it just as a gag to scare me, because if it was, it didn't work. I crumpled up the paper, dropped it to the floor, and joined in on the group's conversations. In about half an hour we were done, and we left the table, tucking our chairs in. We were about to leave when the twelve year old blond kid shrieked.

 We ran back to find him pointing at the man who gave me the letter, sitting at his table. His throat was deeply slit by his plastic knife which was now covered in bright red blood. He was writing something on the napkin with all the blood spilling out of his neck.

    "Stop!" I yelled in horror, but it was too late. His head's weight overcame his bloody thin neck, and his lifeless head hit the table, next to the napkin. On it in sloppy handwriting was written-

C.K HAS NO SWAG

 C.K. As in Cayson Kindell. Mr. Mac used an innocent man's life as a play toy to convey a childish message. I shuddered and stifled my tears. The rest of the group looked at the man in disgust and sadness.

    "What a psycho!" Bryan mumbled. The others looked like they agreed. That was except for Elian. He observed the body curiously, then glanced at me quickly. I turned away.

    "Let's go." Barry mumbled. "I think I need to puke."

 We all left the hotel in shock, and began to walk on foot. I kept my distance from the group to avoid conversation. 

    "So where do we go now?" Bryan asked.

    "I guess we'll see." Ralph replied, looking at a soda can from across the street. "Do any of you gentlemen-" His eyes captured Levi "-and ladies want to see if I can levitate that can from all the way over here?"

 Everyone grinned in response, which basically meant "yes". Ralph stared at it and held his hand up to his forehead. Everyone rolled his eyes at Ralph's attempt at dramatic effect.

    "And... wuzzah!" The can flew above a house, and dropped on it's roof, until it rolled back down on the ground. Levi clapped sarcastically.

    "Give me a break." Ralph mumbled. "I'm not Jean Gray." Half of us didn't get the reference. (I did though.)

 We continued walking until Bryan started to complain because he needed to spit out "liquid waste from my wicked waist", which is basically his stupid way of saying he needed to pee. We found a classy restaurant and let him go inside to pee there. As the whole group waited and talked, I was sitting down on the sidewalk looking at a leaf I found earlier.

    "Nice leaf." Elian's voice startled me over my left shoulder.

    "Thanks." I fake-smiled in response.

    "Y'know what I can't stop thinking about? What does C.K stand for?"

 I shrugged, trying not to look at him sitting down next to me.

    "Cocoa Puffs?"

    "That's C.P."

    "Burger King?"

    "That's B.K."

    "Hmm.. well then how about..." He turned to me. "Cayson Kin-"

    "Seriously, Elian, back off." I chipped in coldy.

    "Dude, you're hiding something, and I know it." He shot back, and pointed to the group talking. "They might be oblivious to the truth, but I'm not so easy to fool. Was that guy's death the result of an Ecator's actions?"

 Not an Ecator. The Ecator. The king of 'em all. But I couldn't say that. I couldn't say that it was Mr. Mac.

    "It was Mr. Mac." I blurted out. I looked at Elian, and he had the exact look on his face I thought he would have. He stood up.

    "You've got to be kidding me...Mr. Mac?! You've got to be... oh my god, you're serious." He scratched his cheek, his jaw hanging. "Dude...Mr. Mac is like...a god."

    "And apparently is aware of the term 'swag'." I sighed, standing up to match his eye-contact.

    "But how do you know it was him?"

    "He used the dead guy as a puppet to give me a letter. It was something about me being ignorant, and that he would show me the truth."

    "And you didn't tell us?!" He replied furiously.

    "I didn't want you guys to freak out." I confessed. "I thought it could have just been to scare us."

 Elian gave out a half-hearted laugh and slowly slid down the restaurant outer wall to the ground.

    "We're dead." He insinuated, his eyes wide with his sudden realization. "You can't beat Mr. Mac...you can't."

 He stood up and looked at my worried face, and I could see he was about to cry. His hands turned to fists and he pressed his right one against his lips.

    "No one has ever beaten him, man." He continued, trying his best not to to break out into tears. "How are we supposed to?"