Texas out of Texas, part II. (2/2)

inside the hotel there are six strangers.

DeShawn White, a gentleman on his mid-forties with a white head. he is wearing a suit and contact lenses. he has a distinctive facial structure. 

Martha Wayne, an elderly lady pushing eighty. she has short gray hair. she wears big and thick contact lenses. her face a map marked by wrinkles. she is a lady of few words. with minimal movement she shows her intentions on her body language.

Victor Sal Gacey, a man struggling on his fifties. he is overweight. he is wearing shorts and a plain tight shirt. he has messy short hair. partially shaved face. there is something about him that screams creeper.

Rosario Lopez, a thirty-four-year-old pre-school teacher. she has short black hair. sunglasses shaped like a heart. a thick sweater. lose jeans. brown eyes.

and finally, there is Jose Lopez. a ten-years old boy. he keeps calling Rosario his aunt with his eyes fixated on the floor. he trembles and looks fearful.

all those are the people who also found themselves stuck in the hotel. Texas walks around the place trying to find a clerk or any other kind of employee, but there is no one else. all six of them suspect that something has to be greatly wrong about that place. but they all keep silent as they fear who may answer back once they ask.

all six of them go around rooms. they observe every corner of the hotel. there is no sign of life aside from them. they all fear for the worse. the entrance door is stuck. it won't open no matter how hard they try.

Rosario tries to stay together with the child. Victor approaches her offering his help. Rosario asks him politely to stay away. Victor smirks in a twisted way as he stays away, but not far enough as he keeps observing the mother and child.

Martha sits in a corner. she starts to read a book. she smiles peacefully. she recalls her days of youth and vigor. she laughs peacefully. there is something adorable about her. she seems harmless and fragile. the old lady asks for help getting some water.

DeShawn doesn't trust any of them. he keeps himself away from them. he only observes the actions and vocabulary of each of them. there is something off about the place. all of them found themselves in there for no reason. 

Helen thinks about the hundreds of possibilities of why she was chosen. she then thinks about the possible secrets that hide in plain sight. there has to be a secret to why she is there. there are so many things that she doesn't know.

"Is anyone else hungry?" asks Victor with a creepy smile.

no one else dares to speak up, but they all are feeling hungry. then there is a voice coming from nowhere inviting them all to the kitchen.

they follow the voice through some corridors. finally, they get to the dining table. the wooden table is long and has a rounded form. it somehow looks familiar to Texas. each of them takes a seat close to a plate with their names written on them.

they look at some strange yellow envelop. there is a question mark written on it. they all open the envelop ready to face their worse sins. all of them are surprised and shock. none of them dares to speak out. they prefer to keep it to themselves.

then out of nowhere Tezca Tlipoca comes forward wearing an elegant suit. he takes the most important seat. he looks around at the faces present tonight.

"Hello mortals. I had opened my home for sinners to come and have some sort of banquet on their name. one of them will be our chosen one. one particular name. the others won't make it far after tonight. it will be some sort of game." said Tezca smiling.

all of them are looking at the evil figure standing in front of them. none of them dares to move or talk against him. there is something about him that provokes fear. it is unclear what is going to take place tonight. but it would be massive and abhorrent for sure.

"I am your Host Tezca, and the game will be fun for sure." said Tezca smiling.

each of them has a question. all of them wonders why is that they were chosen? what is the purpose of the game? what will be of the winner or the loser? do they even have a choice to reject the notion of a game?

it seems like the game is simple and forward. tonight, their sins would be expose leaving their soul on the nude. each of them is given the choice of suicide or taking part on the game. there is not in between in this case. no middle ground.

DeShawn approaches Helen with the clear intention of working together. DeShawn comes with the idea of a partnership. Helen mostly rejects his offer. before it becomes too awkward DeShaw stands back. he decides to speak with other people.

an alarm sounds. maids come in and leave with the empty plates. then in a blink Tezca was gone for the night. they may not see him. but it is clear that he can see them. there are more plates full of food. it all looks juicy and nice.

"We should be mindful of what we eat." comments Helen scare.

"Don't worry its fine." yields Victor.

Helen stopped eating after taking some bites from a turkey leg. Deshawn was eating some sort of soup with mushrooms and spinach. Martha is taking bites from some bread. Rosario eats some food. she tells her nephew to take some home. they put some food inside of a bag in front of others. Victor keeps eating and eating desperately.

the maids come with the dessert. Rosario is full. but she takes a dessert either way. she wants to take it home. then some gas comes out of the dessert. it melts her hands. there is nothing she can do to stop it. she stands up screaming. she runs. then her whole body catches fire as she runs in circles. it didn't take long for the first body to fall.

"The food is to be taken by those who are hungry. not those who are full. a thief taken out. now there are only five of you left. " Yields a voice out of nowhere.

most of them react in shock and fear. the exception is Victor who keeps eating. he doesn't care about anything else but eating. he keeps eating peacefully. he is so hungry.

Jose yields scare. he leaves the dining room. he hides somewhere in the hotel. Martha goes after the child worry for the child. the old lady is concern for the safety of a child. even when the old lady is far you can hear her gentle voice.

DeShawn stands behind Texas. he taps her shoulder. she turns around. she isn't sure if she should trust him or not. none of them seems trustworthy.

"Hello. I am detective Deshawn White. I notice that from all the people in here. you seem like the only person I can trust." said Deshawn with a smile.

"What is that you need?" asks Helen tired.

"Rosario. the woman who just died was wanted for the kidnapping of a child. I had been on her trail since the beginning. now that she is gone. I need your help finding the child and keeping him safe from the others." said DeShawn with a forced smile.

the two of them go around looking for the child. the hotel has around five floors. there are about 1800 rooms. Helen and DeShawn go upstairs. they move slowly. there are some strange noises as they look all around the second floor.

DeShawn takes a pistol out. he is nervous. he arrested Rosario years ago for a similar crime and now she had done it again. DeShawn is sweating nervously. DeShawn yields the child's real name, "Alberto." without receiving an answer.

DeShawn turns to Helen. he asks for help. they keep moving around. there are empty rooms with nothing abnormal. but there are some with strange things. one had a skull on the bed and bones around the floor. there are other strange things.

they return to the stairs. they keep moving upstairs. then there is a brutal graphic scream similar to an animal getting slaughter. both Helen and DeShawn react in fear. then they run upstairs nervously. they arrive all the way to the fifth floor.

then the two of them look at Martha and Victor outside of room 136. the two are arguing as they get more physical and less verbal. then Martha and Victor nervously turn to DeShawn who is clearly holding a gun. they blame each other.

Helen and DeShawn get inside of room 136. there is water on the floor. they get closer to the bathroom. they couldn't dare to get inside. they saw a small body in the bathtub submerge in water and blood. the two of them get out of the room.

Helen walks around feeling greatly affected. her vision gets blurry. she can't hear a single word as she feels like losing consciousness out of shock.

on the other hand, DeShawn throws up. he feels disgusted by what he saw. he walks towards the only two possible suspects. he aims at Victor. the man swears that the culprit was the innocent looking old lady. 

DeShawn yields furiously asking for the truth. he can't contain the rage he is feeling. it is affecting him greatly. once more he has failed to rescue a soul. he feels awful. DeShawn can't believe the amount of monster walking free on the streets. he feels the need to take action and judgement upon the guilty.

Victor is on his knees. he swears to be innocent for once.  DeShawn doesn't know who to trust or what to do. there are two highly suspicious people in front of him. either of them could be the murderer. but his money is on the creep.

"Stop. you don't have to do this. we can find another solution to the problem at our hands if we work together." said Helen as she touches his hand with her left hand. with her right hand she grabs the pistol. she tries to convince him.

the lights go off. there is a scream. when the lights go back on. Helen falls off the stairs. it seems like someone pushed her. she falls and moves violently in the air. then in the fall she breaks her neck. her body lies warm on the first floor.

DeShawn looks at a news article mentioning Helen as the prime suspect on the construction of a skyscraper with questionable materials, same materials that were the cause for the skyscraper falling into pieces and costing about one hundred lives.

it seems like not even Helen was safe. now there are only 3 people left. and any of them could be an extremely dangerous individual. DeShawn needs to be careful.

a voice coming from a microphone invites the three of them to attend the gran inauguration party for the Hotel's renovation. it will take place in the dance hall. the three of them decided to follow the directions. they walked in the direction without saying a single word to each other as it felt unnecessary. they had better things to do.

finally, they get to the entrance of the dance hall. as they walk inside, they all look at a projector playing some video. in the video is visible how Alfredo Summers used to brutally bully and torment his fellow classmates. the video ends.

then DeShawn looks around the walls. there are posters, pictures, news articles, and more things alike everywhere. in every corner. the news articles described Victor Sal Gacey as a child predator. and there are some posters about Martha. apparently, she is a wanted murderer who has murdered children in hospitals. she poisons the kids.

DeShawn pulls out his pistol one final time. he aims at both of them. it is obvious that either of those monsters killed the boy. they are real monsters. the world could survive just fine without either of them. DeShawn screams in frustration.

DeShawn closes his eyes. tears keep coming out. he feels immense pain. he then opens his eyes as he remembers an accident of the past. an accident that has haunt him. an incident so atrocious DeShawn wishes to erase. he then feels like he has run out of time. he aims at Martha first. he pulls the trigger blowing off her brains. the old lady falls dead on the ground shaking abruptly. DeShawn keeps shooting at the corpse out of resentment.

DeShawn then aims at Victor who is holding a knife. it is just the two of them left to fight to the death until the fittest survives. 

Victor runs towards him. DeShawn shoots without aiming. two of the bullets hit Victor right on the genitals. he screams furiously as he stabs DeShawn. he keeps stabbing him. DeShawn shoots multiple times at the mass of malice. he shoots.

Victor finally falls on the ground. whatever is left of his genitals hangs on the air. he tries to push it back to its place. he then cries silently as he dies bleeding out. Victor died with horror painted on his face.

DeShawn stands holding the pistol. he was stabbed around six times. the knife was still hanging from his abdomen. the knife was nailed to his flesh. DeShawn feels cold. he trembles as he falls on his knees. tears come from his face.

"I can save you." said Tezca as he approaches from behind.

"No. thanks. this is the less I deserve for my sins. at least I can rest knowing that I found a somewhat satisfactory redemption." whispers Deshawn.

there is a newspaper standing in front of him. the headline is, "Cop kills kid by accident in a Mexican standoff chasing after gangsters." then a final memory comes to him. he was the one who accidently pushed Helen off the stairs.

"Maybe this was the right punishment for my sins." said DeShawn as he dies on his knees. there was some sort of peace drawn on his face.

"Another failure I see." yields Tezca.

and like that volume Zero ends.