38 hours ago… …..

  Jacob walked around the motel still searching for the mystery door. He pokes his head into the bar and hears Izzy ughing. ‘Don't want her to think I am getting jealous,’ he thinks to himself, but he is jealous, but less of a green-skinned monster and more of a nagging feeling in his spleen. He stops at the reception desk, and Sue is on duty again.

  “Have you seen any strange doors?” he asks her, trying not to remember she was wearing a diaper when she helped him find a costume.

  “No?” she asks, confused and a little concerned for Jacob’s sanity. ”All the doors I have seen are as normal as they get around here.”

  “Thanks, keep an eye out, let me know,” he says with a smile, but inside he wants to know everything. Is it for medical reasons? Is it because her job makes it hard to go to the bathroom? Is it because she likes them? Why would anyone want to wear them voluntarily?

  His smile sted too long as he stared at her bnkly, lost in his thoughts. “Did you need anything else?” she asks now more concerned for his sanity.

  “Uh, no thanks,” he says, turning red and turning around and walking out into the parking lot. “Why am I looking for the door anyway? It's definitely not my job,” he mutters to the nothing that can hear him. Except one thing that can hear is a small door behind a low shrubbery with two yellowish humanoid eyes looking out of the slightly open door.

  ‘Oh yes, don't look for meeeee!!!!!’ It thinks and considers moving, but no one has found it, and it is tired. ‘Might be a good time to nap.’

  Jacob returns to his room and sits down at the desk and hits the power button. The computer loads quickly. The keyboard and mouse felt good in his hands, like a gunslinger must have felt in the Old West. He clicks on the icon for his favorite game, Turbo Gunner. The fast-paced first-person shooter sucks him in, and he is soon lost in the combat. He looks away from the screen, and 5 hours have passed. He picks up his phone—no messages from Izzy. “That’s weird,’ he thinks, the tiny monster of jealousy now a little bigger, and types, “Hey, where did you go?” He hits send and distracts himself with more video games.

  The first time he met LittleTerror was when he was going over a rge cliff, falling a hundred feet to get the literal drop on a pyer, and his character was sniped from halfway across the map.

  He grunts with annoyance, ‘So much for that streak.’ He respawns and gets back into the action. He is inside a 4-story building, running into a bathroom to look inside the tub and through the window. LittleTerror takes him out.

  Inside the bunker, there are no visible windows. He is safe here, right? The bullet races through the long hallway that runs the length of the redoubt boom, and he respawns.

  Inside the McFloppy's restaurant. This one is Jacob's fault, all that gss. It was just too easy to pass up boom respawn.

  Again and again and again, the first 5 times were a coincidence, but after the 10th time, he needed a break. Make that 11 times. He cringes. He checks the clock, and it's almost midnight. One more time…

  At the reception desk, Sue is ughing. “What a noob,” she says and waits to kill the cocky pyer again. “Think you can move into my region and become the top dog? I don't think so,” she says with a smirk.

  He looks up from the game; it is now almost midnight. There is a knock at the door. Jacob rushes to answer it, thinking it must be Izzy; instead, it is a worn-out-looking, fox-eared girl. “Hey, Izzy said to drop this off when we had a chance, and now I have a chance.” She hands the cake to Jacob, who goes to ask a question, but she runs off.

  “Hey, thanks. Have you seen Izzy?” he calls after her. However, she can't hear him; she is running and going fast. Heading away from the motel. She makes yip noises as the air gets hazy around her, and she reforms into a rge, faintly glowing fox. She is soon hidden in the tall grasses. Jacob blinks and closes the door. He sits down, cuts a slice of cake, and takes a bite. He pauses.

  “This cake is as good as sex,” he mumbles. He checks his phone—no messages. He devours the rest of the slice and checks his phone again. He sees the time is 12:20 and gives up. He takes the short walk to the bar.

  “Hello, Jacob, Did you come to try out the special bathroom? You look like a fellow who needs more protein in his diet,” the cat giggles evilly to itself.

  “Did you know the fox-eared girl is a kitsune?” Jacob asks.

  “Yeah, she is something like that. It's so hard not to hold it against her. Foxes are fiendishly close to being a dog. But she makes a hell of a waitress,” he grins, “but that’s not why you’re here.”

  “No, I came to ask about Izzy; she hasn't come back to the room yet.” He sits down, looking at the notifications on his phone; still nothing.

  “I don’t know what you want from me. She left here with Doctor Blob,“ he says and begins cleaning the bar. “She is your mate; maybe you should go find her. Ask reception where his room is.”

  “Nah, I will just go to bed; she will turn up when she’s ready.” He gets up and waves over his shoulder. “Thanks, Cat.”

  He slips back into gaming mode, but each time he respawns within a minute, LittleTerror has shot him down, usually from across the map. After an hour of this, he shuts off the computer and lies in bed looking bnkly at the ceiling. He closes his eyes and opens them immediately after. “Fuck it,” he says and puts on his shoes again.

  Jacob returns to the reception and hits the little bell. Sue jumps and looks up. “Oh, it’s you. You’re up te. What can I do for you?”

  “Can you help me find out where Dr. Blob’s room is?” he asks.

  “Uh, yeah, second floor, 206,” she says, shifting in her seat. The blobby had discovered online shopping the 2nd day of his stay at the ranch. Why he needs 200 extra bouncy balls, she has no clue, but it's her job to make sure they make it to his room.

  “Thanks, Sue,” he says and stops at the foot of the elevator.

  ‘Do I go and knock on the door…?’ He shakes his head. ‘She probably is just sleeping or sleeping with it…’ He lets out a small groan, the little jealousy monster growing bigger, but also simple concern: what if this blob person is dangerous? What if he has killed her?.

  He is ready to hit the button and head up there and confront the pair. But he chickens out. It's a sad walk back to the motel room. His head is down. ‘Something is wrong.’ The phrase keeps looping in his head. “No way I can sleep; might as well get killed again.” He sits on the uncomfortable desk chair and starts pying again.

  The in-game map is sprawling, and the steady stream of bodies are piling up around him from his shotgun when a notification pops up. “LittleTerror wants to be friends.” He hits accept.

  “Tag” Sue’s messages and clicks, putting a bullet through Jacob’s character. “Better luck next time,” she texts and ughs in the reception alone.

  Jacob stands up and goes to reception. He is tired of stressing over her being gone. He storms into the elevator, not looking at the receptionist.

  He rides to the second floor, walks down the hall, and knocks on the door to Doctor Blob's. There is no response. “Hey Izzy, are you ok?” He asks through the door. He waits and knocks louder.

  “Izzy, something feels wrong; I just want to know if you're ok,” he shouts. But there's no answer.

  He walks back to the second-floor lounge and out the porch door. The pool area is lit up with the lifeguards pying some sort of drinking game in the kidney pool.

  “Hey, have you guys seen Izzy?” He asks down.

  “Nah, bro, saw her yesterday, though.” The images of Izzy sucking on him fshing through his mind, he starts to get aroused, and another lifeguard notices.

  “What's that all about, bro?” he asks

  “Nothing,” he answers too quickly.

  Another lifeguard swims over and looks at his face closely. “Someone’s got the hots for the new girl.”

  Jacob turns away. ‘I don’t have time for this,’ he says and walks to Dr. Blob’s outside door. He grabs the handle and turns, but it's locked. He cups his hands around his face to block out the light from the pool area and now can see inside the room. There, floating naked inside the kids swimming pool, curled up in a fetal position, is the naked, not breathing Izzy.

  “What the hell? It’s killing her!” Jacob shouts and sms on the door with his fist. His fist bounces off harmlessly. He looks around and grabs a themed chair and swings it at the gss window, and it bounces off, nding in the pool below.

  “Hey, watch what you’re doing, bro,” one of the lifeguards shouts.

  “Izzy’s in trouble,” he shouts.

  “Go see Sue; she can get security to open the room.” The lifeguard shouts back, “Nothing we can do.”

  He runs down to reception. “Sue, some slime thing is trying to kill Izzy. Call security,” he shouts. From 3 feet away from her.

  “Calm down, Jacob; let me call the boss,” she says comfortingly. ”I am sure everything is ok.”

  Jack Harrington storms out of the elevator wearing only a pair of shorts and is followed by his two bodyguards, both wearing colrs, one with a leash trailing behind him.

  “What's the problem? I was in the middle of something,” he barks.

  “Some slime thing is killing Izzy,” Jacob shouts at the man.

  “Sue, look up Izzy’s monitor,” he commands.

  “Sir, it says she isn't breathing and there is no heart rate, but she has 104% blood oxygen.” She states matter-of-factly, meanwhile Jacob is about to pull his hair out.

  “Well, there you go, Jacob. Go to bed and get some sleep,” he offers warmly.

  “Her heart has stopped. What are you talking about? How am I supposed to go to bed? She’s dead!” he says, approaching the hairy, bare-chested man.

  “She is fine, Jacob; don't push my patience,” he warns. The bodyguard named Trevor moves closer, his leash still dragging behind him.

  “She isn't breathing,” he yells and reaches out to shake him. “You must know not breathing is a serious medical problem. Are you all insane?”

  ‘Don't do it, Jacob.’ Sue yells in her head. She reaches over the counter to pull him back.

  Jacob's middle finger brushes a single hair on the side of Jack Harrington's chest, and the bodyguards tackle him to the ground.

  “Boys, be nice; he is upset. She is fine, Jacob. As long as her blood oxygen level is high, she is alive and well. Go to sleep; she will be there in the morning, or worst case, the next morning.” Jack says soothingly as he smooths his chest hair down where Jacob had touched him. “But I think tonight you’re going to need a babysitter.”

  “Her heart isn't beating,” Jacob says weakly, the smell of baby oil and sweat strong from the bodyguards. Trevor has tangled himself in his leash and is struggling to effectively hold him down.

  “Take him to the nursery; Audrey can deal with him,” the stern man says. “Sue, send up a pizza. All this conflict has made me hungry.”

  The bodyguards carry a kicking and yelling Jacob down to Audrey's ir.