Dawn of Revelation

by A N Sandra

  “I never thought you were!” Sadie told him indignantly. So, few elderly people had been around since Urban Relocation had scooped them into designated locations that she was forgetful of them. She had no idea how old Travis might be. There was no scope of relativity for her to even guess.

  “Is this a bad time to tell you that I have left horse head skeletons all over the area?”

  “You are so amazing!” Sadie reached out to squeeze his arm.

  “Many of them are gently splashed with glow in the dark paint,” Travis took a deep breath of triumph. “They would scare the piss out of you if you saw one in the dark.”

  “Amazing,” Sadie repeated. “I wish you had been on our team in the show.”

  God! You suck!” Annalise slammed her door as she yelled at Maddy who had tried to discreetly tell her not to drink so much. “Not everyone is as effing holy as you!”

  “I’m not mad at you!!” Maddy lost her cool and yelled into the hallway. The scene was for the benefit of the cameras only, Annalise probably never heard Maddy breaking down on the richly patterned carpet under the fluorescent hallway lights because she was already in her room.

  “Shut up, bitch!” Shelta screamed from the cracked door of her room.

  “Good night!” Maddy yelled back. “You evil witch!”

  Everyone involved in the shouting match knew it would end up on television, but no one could stop themselves. Pent up frustration oozed from the closed room doors. The contest that day had been more intense than any other. Molly had managed to convince the general public that the “contestants” of One Tough Customer were at each other’s throats, but that had taken skillful editing. The episode that had been filmed that day had involved rival hot dog carts in a congested area. The building frustration between the two teams exploded as they competed. The front of the house won, but only by thirty-one dollars. The back of the house had been forced to vote off Manalo, a sweet young man who had been holding them all together behind the scenes. But Manalo had played too many people too many different ways, and he had been the main hawker of hot dogs and the back of the house had fired him.

  Maddy entered her room and the landline phone was buzzing. Against her better judgment she picked it up.

  “I am down to my last… my last… whatever!” Annalise shrieked.

  Maddy held the phone well away from her ear but could still hear Annalise.

  “I hate that you all think you’re better than me…. You think you carry my weight! But you don’t! I carry my own damn weight!”

  “I don’t want to argue with you right now,” Maddy snapped back. “Shut up and go take a cold shower.”

  “I’m not a drunk!” Annalise screamed.

  “I never, ever, thought you were,” Maddy said. As if someone had unplugged her rage, she was suddenly ashamed and defeated. Yelling like a white trash meth head over something that could be discussed reasonably in a few hours when everyone calmed down was not the Maddy she wanted to be. Annalise had poured a cocktail instead of a beer in the limo ride back to Hollister Manor, and it scared Maddy because she didn’t want Annalise to be seen as a drunk. Molly had refrained from setting Annalise up as a drunk previously, but Maddy knew the time was coming. Annalise was not clever enough to get herself out of trouble. The contestants had been together in close competition all day, and the change of venue brought out the worst in everybody. Maddy, personally, felt as if her emotions had been rubbed with sandpaper and doused with gasoline. She felt ashamed of things she’d said and done to sell hot dogs, and felt like a total loser, even though the Front of the House had won.

  “You stole the customers I found!”

  “Your customers aren’t yours until they pay you for something!”

  There was an argument somewhere outside the room. Maddy didn’t want to know, but she couldn’t help it. She cracked the door to see Jesus and Billy chest bumping each other. The safe thing to do would be to call security. They might really go at it, any second—

  Billy took a swing at Jesus, who ducked extremely quickly, leaving Billy weaving uncertainly in the air. It was her chance. Maddy put down the phone and ran out to the hallway and grabbed Billy gently. He reeked of bourbon.

  “Hey, baby,” Maddy cooed sweetly to calm his raging inner beast. “It’s okay.”

  “He says I stole his customers,” Billy’s voice was thick.

  “You did!” Maddy laughed trying to keep things light so he wouldn’t hit Jesus. She held his arm more firmly, to pull him to his room, sure Jesus would turn the other way and leave them alone. “It was great! We won, remember? He’s just mad he didn’t win—”

  “I’m going to kick both your asses.” Jesus threw himself at Billy’s knees, knocking both Billy and Maddy to the ground.

  “Hey—” Maddy yelled while Jesus kicked Billy in the stomach like a mafia enforcer. “I was getting him back to his room to help you out—”

  “I don’t need your help you thieving bitch.”

  Security came out of the service elevator and pulled Jesus off Billy, carrying Jesus to his room. Maddy straightened herself and helped Billy to his feet, guiding him back to his own room.

  “I’ve been wanting to do you forever,” Billy said, obviously misunderstanding that Maddy was just helping him. Bourbon was oozing from his pores and Maddy wondered if he’d had a whole fifth on the limo ride back to Hollister Manor. “I’m gonna treat you so good—”

  “Um, no you’re not,” Maddy said. “I was helping you out ‘cause you’re my teammate. You need to sleep,”

  “I’ll sleep after we—”

  “No, nighty night.” Maddy patted Billy’s arm and turned to leave, but he grabbed her.

  “Hey—” Billy pulled her into his room and Maddy suddenly found herself pinned against the door, which was now closed, with her on the wrong side of it. Billy was drunk, but he was six inches taller than she was, and eighty pounds heavier. Even though Maddy had been athletic her whole life she was no match for him at all.

  “God, you’re so hot.” Billy was covering her neck and face with boozy smooches and Maddy almost threw up.

  “I don’t want this… No! No! No!”

  Billy didn’t slow down a bit but tore at Maddy’s shirt. With his hands busy, she tried to slide down the door to get away, but his knee pinned her crotch hard against the wood.

  “No! No! No!” Maddy kept yelling at the top her lungs. Someone would hear. The hotel was well insulated but not soundproof by any stretch. Her shirt buttons were torn off and he had his mouth all over her chest. It was the most disgusting thing that had ever happened to her and no one was coming. Her yelling became primal screaming “No! No!”

  “Don’t,” Billy put his hand over her mouth.

  Maddy began to bang her head against the door like a small child. It hurt like hell, but she felt like she was doing something. She also began to bang her feet back against the door, but she had kicked off her shoes the second she got inside her own room and had run into the hall without them.

  Billy picked her up and moved her away from the door with one hand still covering her mouth. She tried biting his hand, but it was harder to do than someone might think—

  Knock, knock, knock.

  “Maddy! Maddy are you in there?” Tilly was outside the room banging on the door.

  Maddy managed to knock a lamp over and hoped that TIlly knew everything wasn’t fine.

  “Maddy!” Tilly kept banging on the door.

  “Ma’am you need to go back to your room,” a security guard was telling Tilly outside the door.

  “My friend is in that room yelling no!” Tilly insisted. “Open that door for me!”

  “Ma’am, you are the only cause of disturbance here,” the security guard said.

  Tilly refused to leave the door and the security guard called for backup to remove Tilly while Maddy struggled underneath Billy on the bed that was too soft to make any noise as she struggled.

  Sheer panic overwhelmed Maddy as she rea
lized the security guards weren’t going to help her at all. They were going to make Tilly go away. The horrible feeling of being trapped beneath a huge boozy, sweaty man was causing her heart to pound faster than it ever had and every part of her felt locked to the bed. Even though she had one hand wildly waving beside her it was pointless to try to hit Billy with it, he was too big.

  He’s drunk and I’m not. I should be thinking now. Think.

  With her free hand she felt along the edge of the table that had held the upset lamp and opened a drawer. A pair of fingernail clippers was inside. They were hard to pick up with her hand at that angle, but finally she managed, and Billy didn’t notice. He was too busy dry humping her to pay attention.

  It took a great concentrated effort to open the fingernail clipper with one hand, but she managed in spite of her situation to open them and used them to take a bite out of Billy’s scratchy red neck.

  “Owwweee!” Billy sat up as fast as a huge drunk man can move. His hand flew to his neck and he had an injured look on his face.

  “Damn!” Maddy couldn’t help but spit out in frustration. She was still stuck under him, but she had her other hand free. With great determination she opened the tiny file out of the finger nail clippers as quickly as she could and used it to stab Billy in the exposed fleshy under part of his forearm while his hand was on his neck.

  “Ahhhh!” Billy groaned and started to reach for her to choke her, but Maddy stabbed toward his eye. She missed and got his cheek, but he roared in pain and threw his head back. Maddy stabbed at his arm again, the only place she could reach, and dug the nail file in and twisted it as hard as she could.

  As Billy tried to stop her he repositioned himself just enough that she pulled her knee up and got it under his crotch. As he tried to reach down to subdue her again she took her tiny “knife” and stabbed at his Adam’s apple. When he squirmed to deal with that, she had enough wiggle room to grab the base of the fallen lamp and smash his face as hard as she could from that angle. He did roll off her then and she ran for the door while he held his neck on the bed.

  “Thank God!” Tilly shrieked when Maddy threw open the door.

  “What the hell!” Maddy screamed at the security guard who was still waiting for backup to remove Tilly. “Why were you leaving me in there to get raped?”

  “Ma’am, you need to calm down,” the security guard said. “There’s no problem here and both of you need to go back to your rooms. You shouldn’t have been in a strange man’s room. I’ve got backup coming to deal with all of this in just a minute, but if you go back to your rooms right now, I’ll overlook this—”

  “Overlook this my ass!” Maddy screamed, adrenaline running through her. She was more furious with the stupid security guard than Billy at that moment. “I didn’t go in a strange man’s room! I was forced into the room of someone I thought I knew and the only reason I’m not getting raped right now is my own damn resourcefulness, not your protection!”

  “You are making a scene and need to get back to your room now,” the security guard told her. “Now!”

  Two more security guards were coming down the hall and Maddy was hopping mad. Literally. She was hopping up and down.

  “I’m calling the cops as soon as I get into my room!” she screamed.

  “Ma’am,” the security guard told her firmly, with a nasty smile. “This is a Hollister property. The police do nothing here without my say so. No one gets raped on any Hollister property. Never. Young women shouldn’t go after men and then try to get them in trouble, which is what you did. It’s what all women do. Get. To. Your. Room.”

  Maddy and Tilly both fled down the hall to their rooms, but the doors wouldn’t open because neither of them had brought key cards into the hall when they left earlier. In the most humiliating moment of Maddy’s life she waited while the security guard came to open first Tilly’s door, and then hers.

  “God!” Maddy swore as she threw herself into the chair by her dresser to use the landline telephone to call 911.

  “I am at Hollister Manor and I was almost just raped—” Maddy started. The line went dead. Unbelievable. It couldn’t be right. She tried 911 again and the line wasn’t answered. A long string of random curse words flew from Maddy’s mouth. There was a knock at the door and Tilly was standing in the hall. Maddy pulled her inside her room.

  “He’s not joking!” Maddy spewed. “911 won’t take my call.”

  “It’s a mistake,” Tilly said. She went to the phone and tried to call 911 with no different result than Maddy had just received. “Oh. Dear. Lord.”

  Both young women slumped in shocked defeat.

  “Let’s just leave,” Maddy finally said. “You can stay, but I never want to see him again as long as I live.”

  “I don’t want to stay either,” Tilly frowned. “I’ll just pack up some stuff and get a bellman.”

  There was nothing Maddy wanted enough to pack, but Tilly had her dressmaking supplies and her sewing machine and Maddy understood that Tilly couldn’t just leave those things there.

  “Hurry,” Maddy said. “I’m done.”

  Both women were too shaken to care that Molly Hollister would ruin their careers. Those careers wouldn’t happen if the vaccination chips killed everyone anyway. To have something to do while Tilly was packing, Maddy began to pack herself.

  “I couldn’t be doing a worse job,” she commented as she looked at the clothes she was wadding up and stuffing in her suitcase, and strangely she didn’t care.

  Her cell phone buzzed, and she picked it up.

  “The jerks won’t send a bellman for our things. They said we aren’t going anywhere!”

  “What the hell?” Maddy flew out of her room with her key card in her hand and banged on Tilly’s door.

  “They can’t keep us here.”

  Tilly answered her door.

  “I think they’re trying.”

  The security guard who had refused to help Maddy was strutting down the hall toward them. Both women froze with hatred and disgust.

  “Little ladies, you need to quit disturbing everyone’s peace and get to bed. You spent the day filming and I know you are pretty crazy right now. Get to bed.”

  “No, we’re leaving,” Tilly said loudly.

  “No, you’re not,” the security guard wore a very smug grin. “I can Taser you and put you back in your room, or you can just go, but I’m tired of your crazy lies.”

  Maddy couldn’t believe no one else had come out of their rooms in all the commotion that had happened since she had first tried to stop Billy and Jesus from getting into a fight. If every contestant came out of their rooms now… security would have to let them go.

  “I’m not lying,” Maddy said bravely. “You are a terrible person and I’m going to get you in big trouble at the fir—”

  Bam. Maddy was on the floor. Tilly drooped to check on her, but the guard firmly put his hand on Tilly’s shoulder.

  “You are going to your room now,” he told her.

  For the first time Tilly understood that he was wearing a gun. What kind of hotel security wears guns? she thought to herself. None. None do. This is really bad.

  “I need to go in her room with her and make sure she’s okay,” Tilly insisted. “I mean it.”

  “No, you’re going to your room and she’s going to hers and you are both going to stay out of trouble and rest up tomorrow. Molly Hollister herself said that everyone is to relax tomorrow because you’re going to be shooting two shows a week for the next few weeks. It’s my job to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

  Tilly turned on her heel and went back in her room, angry but determined to text Daniel and have him figure out a way for her and Maddy to just leave. Shaking, Tilly pulled her cell phone close and discovered that it didn’t work.

  “Oh, my God!” Tilly fumed. “They got Moxie to turn me off!” It made sense when she thought about it. Moxie, her cell carrier, was owned by a Hollister affiliated company. Molly had always had her numbe
r. Maybe Molly hadn’t gotten it from Rodney’s records the first time she’d called her.

  Tilly was so angry that she wanted to break something, but she remembered that in Maddy’s room was the other phone that Dan had given her that probably couldn’t be traced to her and should work. When Maddy woke up Tilly would go to her room and they would call Dan. Tilly looked at all her things, hastily packed, and set them by the door so they would be easy for the bellman to deal with.

  She decided to take a long shower while she waited for Maddy to wake up.

  Maddy.” Knock knock knock. “Maddy.”

  No answer. Tilly stood outside Maddy’s door worried, but there was nothing to do since she couldn’t call security or 911. No one else had come out of their rooms and by now Tilly was worried about involving them in this mess. They were mostly pitted against each other as the show came closer to the end, and there were only four weeks to go. Everyone left was mentally spending ten million dollars.

  “There’s nothing to do about this right now,” Tilly told herself out loud. “I’ll try in fifteen minutes.”

  In fifteen minutes Maddy, looking like she had barely survived a rape attempt and a Tasering, answered her room door wordlessly. She stepped back to let Tilly in the room.

  “Where is it?” Tilly was trying not to make Maddy feel worse, but she was frantic. Even more maddening was that somewhere Molly Hollister had employees who were watching the cameras in the room (there were two and Tilly had known just where they were, although they were moved every time the Crackhouse employees went to film One Tough Customer. Tilly knew the right thing to do was to methodically search for the cameras and make sure not to get caught on the contraband phone in front of them, but she was frothing mad. She had to calm down or things would get worse, but she didn’t see how.

  There was a bottle of wine on Maddy’s dressing table. Tilly opened it, poured herself a glass after getting Maddy one, and then calmly hunted for the cameras in the usual sorts of spots. One was cleverly sewn into the lining of the floor length drapes, one was overlooking the bed behind the dressing table mirror, and the third that Tilly hadn’t been sure existed, was in the smoke alarm, which Tilly destroyed with gusto.