After another ten minutes, the Saffron's bar closed for the night so Darleena and Rowley stumbled their way out and onto the two lobby sofas. How should I take things now? Should I just ask her for her number and call it a night? But she may not want to talk to me once she sobers up. He pauses his thought for a second and shakes his head from side to side. No wait a minute I don't want it to end here. He gnces over at Darleena for a second to see her lying on the other sofa with her legs dangling from the armrest, and one arm dangling off the side. It was like she had been a toy with batteries all this time and now that her batteries had died she wasn't able to move. God damn. She is so attractive. Hold on sec. Now that I have come this far I wonder if she will allow me to kiss her. He starts to turn red. Nah she wouldn't let me. Or would she? Damn it. I don't know what to do. He thinks to himself as he tries to stay sitting up on the other sofa. Trying not to crash, but because of how much he drank he knew that it was only a matter of time before he passed out.

  "I can't believe the bar closed so early. I was really enjoying my time with you." Darleena says as she looks up at the lobby ceiling.

  If that's the case maybe we could spend more time together. I mean who needs a bar to drink? I'm pretty sure I've got a bottle of qume up in my room. "This might sound weird but if you want to continue hanging out and drinking. Then we can do it back in my room as I do have a bottle of qume upstairs," Rowley says. Darleena didn't really know what qume was but from the sound of it, it was like some sort of alcohol so she had no problem going back to his room.

  "Sure. I would love that." Once Darleena says that they both get up and head for the lift. They stood there for thirty seconds or so before they heard a *Ting* and the lift door opened up and they stepped in. Immediately after that Rowley pressed the button to the fourth floor and the button for the fourth floor lit up light blue and the doors closed. As soon as the lift doors close with small a metallic *clink* it ascends to the fourth floor. While in the elevator Darleena's perfume repced the smell of bleach and other cleaning products that were in the air with summer fruits. Damn, she smells good. Rowley thinks to himself now being able to smell her perfume without the smell of smoke from cigarettes and other people's cologne reaching his nose. After a minute they made it to the fourth floor where they stumbled out and walked to his room while they talked to each other. *Beep* was the sound that echoed through the silent hallway of Rowley tapping his key card on the panel to open up his door.

  "Come on in," he says before he takes hold of her hand and slowly guides her to the beige sofa. He then picks up a silver remote for the music pyer and presses the power button. A few seconds after he did that a song by Cir Robinson starts to py which makes him bob his head in rhythm with it. As he is doing so, he gets a sudden urge to go to the bathroom so he says. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom for a second. While I'm in there" -he starts to walk over to the kitchen to grab the bottle of qume, but he bumps into a wall, and falls on his back- "ah fuck!"

  "Are you okay?" Darleena asks as she ughs at him from falling over.

  "Yeah." He uses the wall he bumped into to help him stand up. "I'm fine." Fuck that hurt. He thought as he went over to the fridge. "Like I was saying while" -he opens up the fridge and grabs the bottle of qume- "I'm going to go to the bathroom so while I'm doing that. Why don't you help yourself to the bottle," Rowley says before he hands the bottle to her and goes to the bathroom. Once he is inside the bathroom, he closes the door, locks it, fumbles his way to the toilet, zips down his fly, and starts to urinate while he sings here and there to the song. Meanwhile, Darleena's soft smile had now faded and had turned into a straight face as she just sat there and monitored the room. Only six cameras in this room. Less than the room I'm staying in. Did they know who we were from the beginning and were just pying dumb after all? She pauses and grins. No. That isn't the case. If it was then they would have made their move by now. Should I try and find a better pce to take his heart? She pauses once again. Nah this pce should be fine. They wouldn't suspect anything. No. I can't be certain yet. I need to take a look around. She thinks to herself while her eyes examine her surroundings some more.

  Darleena then picks up the remote for the music pyer and turns it up ever so slightly. She then stands up and moves into the kitchen and starts inspecting discreetly. But she didn't just inspect the kitchen, she did the whole room. The way she moved around the room was elegant like a cat on the prowl. Barely pcing too much pressure on her steps while she re-positioned four of the cameras, and put two items in front of the other two, before going to sit back down and go back into character.

  After five minutes, he had finished using the toilet so he pulled his zipper back up and went to press the button to flush it, but missed it. Gosh, I really must be out of it -he hits the button this time and walks over to the sink- I can't believe that I got this far. He thinks to himself, as he takes a deep breath and then applies strawberry-scented soap to his hands messily. Leading for the soap dispenser to slowly pour the soap onto the cream-white countertop.

  "Shit," he says in response to the mess he made. He then grabs some tissue, wipes the soap up, and throws the tissue into the small bin like he was shooting a three-pointer, and doing a little air fist bump when it went in. Once he does that he pulls the thin sliver lever up that was on the faucet to turn it on and he washes his hands. While he was washing his hands he wondered if he should go for the kiss or not. He then thinks that if he did go ahead and kiss her, he felt like in a way he would be taking advantage of her, as she was blind. Plus he knew that if she hadn't drank as much as she did, there would be no chance that he would have gotten this far. But at the same time. If she wasn't interested, then she would have ended their conversation as soon as possible and went on with her night in peace. "But who would turn down free drinks," he says while in a mist of a chuckle. He then unlocks the door and opens it to see Darleena happily swaying while humming to music which makes him pull a drunken smile.

  "I can see why you were singing this song. It's very catchy," Darleena says with the bottle in her right hand.

  "I know right? It really is. I tell you Cir Robinson is just one of the best singers and guitar pyers out there. I don't know how he does it," Rowley says back while he sits down beside her, takes the bottle from her, and takes a long sip from it. They spoke drunkenly to each other about random nonsense as they passed the bottle back and forth from each other until the bottle was finished. After a little while of them talking they both went quiet. It wasn't an awkward quiet but it was more like Rowley didn't really have the capacity to form another conversation with her so he just decided to stay quiet and listen to music. Five songs went by and he was really starting to feel tired. Each blink he did took him longer to open his eyes back up to complete the action. To him it felt like any time he closed his eyes to blink, someone would try to keep them closed. Was he about to fall asleep? I guess him falling asleep wouldn't be bad for me as it would be easier to take his heart. But if he falls asleep I wouldn't get his heart at its best. I've got it. With the way he is, if I were to say I’m going to leave then maybe he would wake up. She thought.

  "I guess I should get going." Hearing Darleena say this, the tiredness he felt disappeared. He looks at the time on his watch to see that it was four in the morning. Crap. That was fast. I thought it had only turned two. Wait second did she say she was going to leave? She starts putting on her bck boots which had taken off earlier on. I can't let our time end like this. Maybe I should ask for a kiss now before she leaves. "What's wrong?" Darleena asks with an innocent smile as she notices that he is thinking really hard about something.

  "W-W-Well I was just wondering. A-A-And." He pauses to take a deep breath. "Well okay, fuck. Look. I mean. Aaaaaaah."

  "It's okay. It's okay. take your time," Darleena says after giggling at him stumbling over his words.

  "I think you are a nice girl. A-A-And I had a good time talking with you and I-I-I was wondering. I-I-If it was alright that I kissed you goodnight?" As soon as he asked if it was okay for him to kiss her, he shut his eyes closed while his face got redder and redder each second Darleena didn't say anything. Darleena stayed silent for a good minute, pretending to be shocked by his question but she wasn't. She was more focused on the sound of his heart. To her, His heart was now beating really fast to the point it sounded like someone was banging on a door aggressively. Wait, I should have just done it when I walked her to the lift. But wouldn't that be a little weird? If only I could take back what I said. He thinks as he still waits for her to respond.

  This is the perfect time for me to take his heart. She thinks to herself while trying to not reveal a sinister smile. "Sure I wouldn't mind you kissing me," as soon as Darleena answers his question, Rowley opens his eyes slowly to see her cheeks were just barely red. He was taken back a little as he was expecting her to be more nervous and fidgety, especially with how long they were taking to kiss. But it was the complete opposite. She was composed. Seeming ready for what was going to happen next. The redness in her cheeks had disappeared and had gone back to the default pale colour. How is she so calm about this situation? Has she kissed a lot of people in the past? He thinks to himself, making himself get more and more nervous. Because he was taking so long she opened up her eyes and asked him. "What's the matter?"

  "N-N-Nothing, Sorry." He pauses and takes another deep breath. "Just a little nervous," Rowley says before he lets out a small chuckle.

  Did I give something away? Nah that can't be. What should I do? That's it. I'll pretend that I'm upset that he lied about wanting to kiss me. "I see. No, it's fine, I get it." She starts to get up. "I thought that maybe we could be a thing as during our time together I realised that I really like you. And I thought that you liked me too but..."

  "But."

  "I guess I was wrong." She stands up. "You were just lying about wanting to kiss me weren't you?" Darleena says with fake tears in her eyes, trying to seem convincing before she takes three steps and continues what she has to say. "If you're just going to py with my feelings then I should just go."

  "No wait." He grabs her arm to stop her from walking away. "I do like you and I do want to kiss you. I'm sorry I was just nervous but." He turns her around and takes a deep breath. "Here I go. " He says before he closes his eyes and slowly leans in for the kiss. I can't believe it. I'm actually about to have my first kiss. Maybe I could actually get id if I py my cards right. Those guys are going to be so jealous when I tell them how well things went. Wait a second, why am I thinking about them when I have her right in front of me? I'm such an idiot.

  "La skcr zee skcr zee ta beam skcrheart."

  What did- *bluck* Before Rowley could finish his thought he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He tries to open his eyes but before he can open them fully he spews a ton of blood from his mouth and from the hole that was in his chest where his heart used to be. He then colpses and starts to form a puddle of his blood. While he lies there dead, Darleena stands over him. Her eyes glowing magenta, and his heart was now coated with weird magenta-coloured symbols on it. Even though it had just been ripped out of his body, it didn't spew any blood but it was beating slower than it was before.

  "It's not the same" -her eyes stop glowing- "why was his heart so different?" She asks herself quietly. After pondering on that thought while looking at his heart, she turns her eyes to stare at Rowley's dead body with a cold stare. Not a care in the world that she had taken his life. "Oh well." She pauses and looks at his heartbeat in the palm of her right hand. "I guess I will just add you to my collection." She says out loud before she pockets his heart into her pocket. Time to clean up this mess. "La skcr zee skcr zee ta beam skcrclone," she says, finishing her spell with a sharp click to her tongue. A second ter her eyes glow magenta for a second before she makes a copy of herself. Her clone had all the same attributes as her. To her hair, to her height, to even the way both of them breathed. They were in complete sync. The clone then took three steps back and got down on her right knee. She then puts her arm on top of it and tilts her head down in respect. "You know what to do."

  "Yes, core." The clone replies before standing back up and walking over to Rowley's corpse, bends down, and puts her right pale hand on his forehead. "La skcr zee skcr zee ta beam memory skcrtrace." The clone's eyes and hand then glow magenta while Darleena watches over her. After thirty seconds the clone's inner right hand stops glowing. "La skcr zee skcr zee ta beam skcrcopy." The clone then says which makes the clone's body glow and start to morph into a copy of Rowley. Five seconds ter the clone had finished transforming. "It is done core," it says with the only difference being that the hole that was Rowley's corpse wasn't on the clone.

  "Good. I'll leave the rest of the cleaning to you," Darleena says before she picks up her walking cane, leaves the room, and starts to head to her room. There are a lot of things I still don't get. Why do people like to do this thing called kissing? I don't get it. There are no benefits at all from doing so. She stops in her tracks and puts her fingers on her soft lips. Maybe people do it because of love, but what is that? I don't get it at all. She thinks to herself before continuing to walk down the hall.

  Back in Darleena's hotel room, a man in his mid-thirties sat nervously on a beige sofa. Despite the air conditioning running at full bst, small beads of sweat still formed on his face. Meanwhile, a younger woman bit her perstemed fingernails as she sat by the sink in the kitchen. As they both sat in silence, listening to the ticking of the clock, their anxiety increased. Each tick seemed to be heavy and rough. It was like a firm strong finger was tapping on their hearts, waiting for their gss hearts to shatter, The man was immacutely groomed with dyed bck short hair, hazel eyes, and bck-framed gsses. He wore a crisp white shirt with a thin line of bck running down the centre where the white buttons were, paired with bck fancy shoes. On the other hand, the woman had blonde puffy hair, freckles, and sage-coloured eyes. She wore a charming white old-fashioned dress that had small yellow polka dots and she was wearing bck dress shoes.

  After a while, the woman gets up from her seat and heads to the kitchen to get herself a gss of water, hoping to calm her nerves. Her footsteps echo through the room with each step. She turns the cog for cold water clockwise, and seconds ter, the water flows out of the faucet. Filling up her small gss cup. While the water flows into the cup, the man bites his fingernails on his right hand, starting with his thumb and going all the way down to his pinkie. He bit them to the point where there was nothing left. If any hotel staff were to see him do this, they would think of him like a dog getting every bit of meat off a bone. As soon as finished swallowing the fingernail on his pinkie he moves on to bite the fingernails on his left hand.

  "I, I... I don't think I can handle this." She slopes slowly down to the cold tiled ground. "W-what are we going to do?" Nona asks. Her asking stops the man from biting his nail on his index finger. He opens his mouth, about to utter the start of his sentence but stops as he doesn't really know what to say to help calm her down.

  "I can't believe we did what we did. Just, Just to survive," she says in a terrified tone while she sits on the kitchen floor. Her back leaning against lower kitchen cabinets and hands covering her face as her brain brings the memory of Darleena's carnage.