A World of Grime

FIGHT FIGHT FIG-

The air was much crisper than before, sending small shivers down Manuel's back with every step. It was either that, or the icy stare Oscar was giving him. Manuel finally sighed, looking at him. "What?"
"What? WHAT!?" Oscar exploded. "You are SUCH a DICK sometimes!" pushing Manuel, he walked ahead in a huff.
"What did I do?" Oscar turned around with the fury of a thousand suns.
"The better question here is what Didn't you do! You threw his papers on the floor, was constantly making fun of him, and never gave him even a SINGLE CHANCE!" Manuel huffed, rolling his eyes. "Oh yeah, roll your eyes like you always do when you know you're in the wrong." Oscar turned away, and walked off once again.
"He was giving me bad vibes..." Manuel murmured, and Oscar was forced to turn once again.
"'Bad vibes' Jesus, you sound like a witch doctor. I knew him, and he doesn't seem all that bad, what gives you these 'bad vibes' anyway!"
"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact he tried to LOCK US IN A ROOM!"
"Ugh, he was scared! He didn't know who'd randomly arrived in his home!"
"HE'S BAD NEWS!"
"WHY!?"
"THE PLACE SMELT OF BLOOD, OKAY?!" Manuel screamed into the air, covering his face with his hands. "IT SMELT OF BLOOD AND I PANICKED. I JUST-" he lowered his head into his hands more, before taking a deep breath. "I just don't want you to be lulled into a false sense of security, okay? I don't want that for anyone!" He scratched his arm with the tip of his nails.
"What do you mean it smelt of blood? I didn't smell anything..." his eyes widened. "I didn't smell anything. All I could smell was..." Manuel finished it.
"Bleach. Hydrogen peroxide to be precise."
"How do you-"
"I use it in cleaning cuts sometimes." Oscar instinctively flinched. "But it was old. The place could've been bloody months ago..."
"or he was just cleaning the place?"
"Yeah... yeah you're probably right."
"anyway," Oscar stretched out, vocalising, "It's best we find a place to stay, any shacks around?" Manuel shook his head. "Then... Where do we sleep?"
"In there!" Manuel extended his hand out to point at the bright red building to their right. Out the front, there was a wooden sign that simply said in bold white letters 'INN' and that was all. "Creative name to be sure." he chuckled, before pressing through, opening the door.

On the inside, the air was a faint lavender-like smell, some music playing from a radio in the corner. At the back of the thin reception, a tall lanky man stood staring over notes, before looking up to see the two walking up. His voice was wispy and quick.
"How long?" Manuel looked up, and tilted his head. "How. Long?"
"Oh! Just the night."
"Travellers?" He squinted at them, and Oscar just nodded. "Fine, what've you got for it?" Manuel simply brought out his wind-up torch, winding it to show its power and that it works, and placed it on the desk. "Hmm, I can give you a night for that." The man smiled, showing a pair of crooked partially brown sets of teeth behind, and Oscar squirmed behind Manuel, getting jittery.
"You know what? How about we make it 3 nights for the torch, I know how worthwhile it is."
"Make it two torches, and I'll give you 5 nights."
"5?" The man nodded. "Make it 7. One week." He sighed.
"Fine, you got a deal, where's the other torch?" Manuel slipped it out of Oscars pocket, placing it on the table. "Have a nice rest." The man smiled once again, handing over a set of keys. Manuel nodded, bringing Oscar in and moving toward the number on the keys. When they finally ended up at door 15, he fiddled with the keys, and jostled until he heard a faint click, pushing it open.
The room was nothing to gawk at, it was quite average in fact, a regular dark blue finish to everything, and a bed with extra covers. The bathroom was clean, albeit a little too clean, the bleach smell burning their noses every time they opened the door to it. There wasn't much of a kitchen, but there was a gas cooker and a kettle, so there was at least something to use. Manuel brought out his notepad and pen, checking everything for any grime or dirt, whereas Oscar emptied his bag out, searching for something, bringing out his rations, water, sleeping bag, 'beer goggles', before finally asking. "Hey, where's my torch?"
"Huh? Oh, I gave it to the receptionist. Or was he the owner?" Manuel shrugged it off, continuing his check-up.
"Wait, so I'm never getting it back? You're never getting it back?" Manuel looked back over.
"We'll get it back at the end of the week, trust me. In the meantime!" he reached into his bag, bringing out a new set of torches. "Having a light is probably better than not, I'd say." he chuckled, before returning again to the final parts of the check-up, and putting away his notepad. "hungry?" Oscar nodded, and Manuel got to work, grabbing out his next set of rations for the food.
"You know, you don't have to be nice to me now just because you were a dick back there."
"I know, but-"
"Yeah yeah, 'Karma', I know." Oscar sighed, flopping onto the bed, and Manuel looked back.
"I was gonna say 'but I wanted to apologise' but sure, we'll go with that." Oscar just stared up, spaced out.