Tears On The Snow (A Syndicate Fanfiction)

XXII

A/N: I'm back! That was a hiatus and a half, oh my god. I got super overloaded with work but I'm back now, do not fret. You probably weren't even fretting, but still. Well, um. Sorry, but enjoy the chapter!

Rain's POV:

Tom and I flew back home three days after New Years. Still high off of Holiday cheer, we weren't really sure of what to do that would amount to the heaps of fun we had back in England.  We decided to stay in Long Beach for two days because neither of us had ever been there and it seemed like a pretty city.

So here we were, sitting on the couch, cross legged, and staring at the black screen of the television set. We had recorded a Vlog upon our return and posted it. We should be making more videos but neither of us felt like it. Tom did suggest going to a club or something but then both of us came to a unanimous decision that we didn't really want to.

"So, what do you wanna do?" Tom turned to me. The look I adorned him with was probably not the sweetest.

"I see" he chuckled.

I stared out the window. The cold and snowy weather of England was replaced by the warm and sunny weather of Los Angeles. If you ask me, it was a drastic change but I enjoyed the warm climate, so I didn't mind. It was getting to be evening and the sun was setting behind the hills. We sat in silence until it was pitch black in the apartment (which only took like twenty minutes).

"Okay, let's watch some TV" I said, turning the set on and flicking on the room lights.

Out show didn't get far (we watched the first ten minutes of Downtown Abbey) because the power went out.

"Great. We're back to sitting in the dark" Tom sounded really annoyed.

Our hotel room had automatic blinds that came down when sunset came. This made the room basically black and without the overhead light, you couldn't see an arm length ahead of you. It was so bad that I was sitting right next to Tom and I couldn't see him.

I got up and felt my way to the door. I guided my hand to the deadbolt and door lock and clicked them open. I opened the door, only to be faced with more darkness. The lights throughout the whole hotel were off.

"Tom, look out the window please. Is it the whole block?" I asked, quietly. I heard him shuffle to the window and peer out.

"I can't really see because these curtains are unmovable but it looks like it's only our hotel. There's light outside" Tom mumbled.

I was thrown back into the room by a loud bang that came from downstairs.

"Close the door!" Tom was yelling, he was next to me in two steps.

I dead bolted the door, closing every lock that was on it. My eyes had adjusted to the dark and I could see better now but it was still very hard. 

"What was that?" I whispered, turning my head in Tom's direction.

"I have no idea. Help me lift this curtain" he took my hand and led me to the window.

I grabbed one side and Tom grabbed the other.

"Pull!" Tom exclaimed and I put all my strength into pushing the curtain. We lifted it half way but then it got stuck.

"This is fine. Just leave it. It's light enough" I said, peering out the window. Tom was right, only our hotel was dark. Maybe that's what the noise was. A fuse blew? There was an ambulance and a firetruck at the base of the hotel and I could hear a lot more sirens not to far away. 

"What do you think happened?" I asked.

"I have no idea. Do you think it's in the news yet?" he said, picking up his phone, "Nevermind actually, my phone it's dead"

"Mine's dead too, I was going to charge it after yours" I chuckled. This was starting to look like a scene from a horror movie. Two people, in a dark hotel room, no cell service, strange noises. I laughed to myself, earning a strange glance from Tom.

"We should go down to the lobby and ask about what happened at the front desk. They're bound to have more information than we do at this point in time" Tom said, exiting the room. I followed closely behind him, seeing as I couldn't see much.

The exit sign lit the way for us and we had a long trek down ahead. We were, after all, on the 27th floor.  It was when we reached the 12th floor, we had to stop. Everything ahead was filled with smoke.

"A fire?" I asked.

"No heat and there's no brightness coming from under the door. I think we can safely rule out fire" Tom spoke, slowly. He was hunched down, his left hand extended to his side, not letting me pass in front of him.

"Put your shirt over your nose, stay low and try not to breathe much" he said, "get ready to bolt down the stairs"

Tom did a short three second countdown and we ran down the stairs. Tom skipped two steps at a time but I fell behind because my legs weren't long enough to keep up. Adding to the darkness, there was smoke clouding my vision now and I was risking tumbling down the concrete stairs. However, if I didn't start skipping stairs, I would risk passing out from inhaling to much smoke. So either way, I was going to tumble down the stairs. Next is the question of how? How am I going to fall down in order to no crack my head open. The simple answer? Don't fall down. The complicated answer? Well, I don't really know. Panic was starting to set in and my thoughts were racing.

This is the second time something bad happened to me in a hotel in the past year. That's weird. Hotels must hate me.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. My vision was starting to go blank and I could taste the smoke on my tongue. I probably had forty seconds left. Tops.

"Tom..." I was able to weakly push out but I don't think it got very far.

I felt myself blanking so I sank to the floor against the wall.

To be continued...