Chapter 28. Eat up

“Eat up” Boss’ voice could be heard again from a distance before they teleported on the seat around the table.

“That’s better, c’mon eat up you only have less than 2 hours to eat.” Everyone looked at the delicious assortment of food placed on the table their mouth was watering as they stared at it. It was a whole morning and afternoon of no food because they were too tired.

Arthur couldn’t help it anymore and went for the first bite. A gasp could be heard coming from Julie preemptively expecting something to happen to Arthur. However, none of that happened as Arthur began devouring the food. “Delicious!”

Arthur’s one comment prompted everyone else in turn to begin eating. Boss didn’t say a thing the entire time they ate. It wasn’t until after they were done eating and fully relaxed and recovered did Boss finally spoke.

“You may have wondered why I did what I did.” Boss paused for a moment as he scanned the different expressions of the people around him. “It is true, that half of it was because I was bored. The other half was because none of you know anything about how your powers work.”

“I also won’t explain it.” Boss scanned the faces of everyone again, their expressions shows a similar look of annoyance and confusion.

“Why not?” Arthur asked.

“Because it’s better if I just show it.” Boss statement made everyone’s eye focus on him expecting to see some form of demonstration as to what he meant. However, minutes passed by and the patience on their face was growing thin.

“When are you going to show it?” Arthur finally asked his emerald green eyes showed a hint of impatience.

“Hm? I already did.” Boss’ reply made everyone dumbstruck. However, he paid them no mind and continued, “Within the next month after your morning training and before your meditation I will continue to play around with you guys until you understand.” The bright childish smile on Boss face chilled everyone’s spine as they felt as if this next month will be extremely tortuous.

The group finished dinner and walked out of the cafeteria. A ruckus could be heard as a bunch of people both employees and five guests were at the staircase.

“What the hell is with this Inn!” A scarfaced young man shouted, he was getting irritated that he kept getting teleported back to the top of the staircase. “I’m sorry sirs, we don’t even know what is happening.” The employees of the Inn weren’t sure either they were stuck up here too.

“Is this the power of an Exotic?” A guy with glasses asked the two friends with the most knowledge of this matter. “Hm, it should be” A guy with red hair replied. He looked at his friend with magenta eyes and asked, “What do you think, Mason?”

“I think so too, this is probably the power of an Exotic, Riley.”

“Wh-what’re they trying to do? Trap us here?” The scrawny guy started to quiver. He remembered just a few days ago they tried to blackmail the Govenor’s powerful employees and ran away. They took detours on the way to Boulderville hoping that they can throw off anyone who was following them.

“Sh-shut up Sampson. That’s not funny!” The scar faced man’s teeth started to chatter. He remembered that he was the one that did all the blackmailing. If the Governor really followed them and trapped them here, he’s as good as dead.

“No, you shut up, this is all your fault Seth—”

“Now, now guys I doubt it would be them.” The guy with glasses interrupted. He tried to persuade them “If it was them, we’d be dead by now, there would be no reason to trap us.”

“Stop trying to reason this Gerald!” Sampson exploded his body still quivering “It was Seth that did all that! I don’t want to die because of him!” His fingers angrily pointed at the scar faced young man.

The commotion caused another person to walk down. “What’s going on?” A beautiful woman with flowing green hair and yellow eye walked down from the third floor. Her employees were standing there too unsure of what to say.

“Madam Orchid, on the way to the kitchen we seemed to stumble upon an ability that teleports us up here.” An employee responded to answer. “I was going to make sure the guests’ rooms were in order, but it sent me here too.” Another employee added.

“Oh? Where is it?” Orchid asked her interest was intrigued, an ability that could teleport people besides themselves. She wanted to learn it. Her employees shook their head and replied “We don’t know. Anywhere over there?” They pointed in the direction of the group of people in the way.

“Move it, move it.” Orchid started pushing everyone away as she made her way to the front of the group.

Getting shoved out of the way the Seth angrily turned his head and shouted “Who are yo—” The appearance of the woman completely shut him up, no need to mention how beautiful she was, her green hair and yellow eyes were the signs of a Prodigy even he knows that he’s insignificant before her.

“Hm? You say something kid?” Orchid glanced at Seth who was cowering before her. “N-no, sir! I mean mam!” Seth continued to recoil back hiding himself behind his group of friends.

“Hmph, wimp.” Orchid walked past Seth and looked down below. There were no signs of anything that she could see visibly with her eyes.

“It’s Auntie Orchid!” Arthur saw the woman above the staircase before his eye trailed to the group of people standing behind her. “What’s going on?” Arthur asked Shelly and Boss.

With steady steps Orchid made it to the halfway point of the stairs where Boss’ traps were laid. Immediately her next step sent her back to top of the staircase as she looked down.

“Boss! This is your fault!” Arthur noticed what had just occurred and realized that Boss may have forgotten to turn off his teleporting thing he used on them. “Turn it off!” He stated bluntly. Boss only looked at him with a grin. He then pointed at Orchid who walking down the steps again. “Just watch.”

Everyone below looked up as they saw Orchid slowly stop before the halfway point to the first trap. She closed her eyes seemingly in a deep state of meditation as her body relaxed.

Her body moved as she turned to the spot where there was no invisible teleporting barrier and began to walk down the stairs slowly. Every step was firm and precise as she continued to shuffle left and right as she went down. It was the same twist and turns they had taken to get to the Cafeteria.

Less a minute had passed by the time she made it down the staircase and out of the trap Boss had made. She continued to walk with her eyes closed before bumping into Michael.

“Uh, Auntie Orchid” Michael spoke to the woman who was opening her eyes. He expected that she would walk around him, not directly bump into him. “Oh, sorry I didn’t sense you there.” Orchid replied as her eyes got adjusted to the bright lights within the Inn.

“Oh, it’s you kids.” She saw the group who was standing before her with a bewilder look on their face. “Wow! Auntie Orchid how did you do that?” Arthur exclaimed he didn’t expect what took them thirty minutes of trial and error only took one real try from Orchid.

“Hm? Oh that, I just sensed it.” Her reply made the group of four glance at Boss. Was this what he wanted them to be able to do?

Orchid then looked back up at the staircase and walked into one of the teleporting barriers around her. Immediately she returned to the second floor staring down at the group looking up at her.

“Interesting…” She then looked at the people and employees crowding around her, they wanted to know if she had figured it out. She nodded her head and then began to think about what to do next. Should she have a marker on the ground telling them where to step?

Boss noticed the weird look on Orchid’s face as thought about her plan. Boss shook his head and waved his hand. The invisible teleporting barrier he placed around the place vanished.

“Hm?” Orchid who was still lost in thought immediately noticed that the invisible teleporting barriers were gone. It must’ve been when I made it down to the bottom, it disappeared because I cleared it!! Orchid thought to herself, she believed she had passed some sort of trial.

Orchid began to descend the steps again all the way to the group below. Everyone looked at what she had done and decided to follow closely. However, they soon realized whatever barrier that kept teleporting them back up disappeared.

Mason and his friends scurried towards the cafeteria to have their dinner. Whereas the employees immediately got back to work, especially now that their Madam was standing at the floor talking to Arthur and friends. The employees took a mental note of these young kids and reminded themselves to take great care of them.

Orchid walked towards the group and scanned the three little kids and their young adult companions “Did you kids just finished eating dinner?” she asked.

“Yes, Auntie Orchid! Your kitchen made really good food!” Arthur replied causing Orchid to nod her head in delight. “You kids went to my Gran’s place a few days ago, how’s my future husband? Orchid paused. “Oh, and Roselyn too, I guess.”

Orchid immediately noticed the strange look on the people’s face as it wasn’t at all what she had expected. She knows Gran and Roselyn the best, they wouldn’t have been mean to the kids.

“What’s wrong?” Orchid could only ask. However, no one in the group spoke up. Orchid could only ask “Did Pebble and Cobble bully you?” Another drawn out silence as the group could only avoid eye contact and keep their head down.

Sensing something was incredibly wrong with their behavior, she immediately noticed they weren’t angry about going to Gran’s place, rather they had a sad look unsure of what to say.

“Alright, now I’m starting to get angry.” Orchid’s voice made everyone look at each other before Julie decided to speak up. “Auntie Orchid, let’s go sit down somewhere first.” Orchid saw the look on Julie’s face and walked them up to her room on the third floor.

It was an enormous beautiful room with shimmering white walls and tiles. There was a living room, an office, and a bed and bathroom. However, no one had time to marvel at the beautiful room as they made it into her office.

“Talk”

Orchid’s voice was slightly impatient as she waited for Julie to tell her what happened.

Sigh

Julie tried to maintain her calm and slowly began to speak. She narrated the beginning of when they went to visit Gran and what happened the following day.

The moment she mentioned that Roselyn suffered immense pain and was struggling with conflicting internal energy. A terrifying force of presence fell upon the room as if hidden beneath the serious look on Orchid’s face contained immense anger.

Everyone was dripping with sweat as Julie struggled to continue. Julie eventually finished stating that Roselyn was stable however, she was unconscious.

Time ticked by slowly as the room became eerily quiet. No one uttered a sound as they waited for Orchid’s response.

The wooden chair scraped against the floor as she stood up. The look on Orchid’s face was still the same as she looked at Julie. “Thank you, Julie, for telling me.” She then looked at the other four “Thank you all for helping Roselyn and worrying about me.”

Orchid walked over to the door and stood in front of the entrance, her back towards them “Go back to what you were doing, I’ll be okay.”

Moments later, her entire body vanished before their very eyes.

She had teleported.