– Work Sucks: Side Story – The Hotel –

         There was chaos in the hallway.  Lights flickered, winds howled, and various furnishings in the halls rapped against whatever surface they could strike.  A lone feline lady, a black furred cat in single piece of custodial gear, rounded the corner, tears glowing against her face. A sudden blast of air launched the stout cat forward and she plopped onto the floor.  On her hands and knees she froze.  The walls, the ceiling, and even the floor, heaved closer together, herself even sinking a bit into it all, as an otherworldly moan slipped by her ears.

         The walls shook. The moan intensified, a voice the feline had never heard before. The winds continued around her without her budging, fearing that attempting to get up would cause herself to get carried away by them. A swirling breeze tried its best to lift her off her paws, and almost succeeded before she braced herself against a fastened chair. It was as if the halls themselves were breathing.

         Guests would have been pouring out by now, demanding to know what the ruckus was all about.  Maybe that would have been enough to save her, but no such thing would happen.  There were no guests here, in this hotel located in the middle of nowhere, where not even another soul worked. The cat was alone, with only this hotel to keep her company.

         Now this thing, this force, was stalking her.  She wanted to cry, and bit her lip even tighter as the air stilled, and the walls and floor settled back down.  Hands shaking, she got to her paws, slowly reaching into the large pocket on her belly for her phone.

         She stared for a moment at her contact list.  Who would she call?  Who could even help at this time?  Who would even believe her?  A sick sound filled her ears.  Something was moving behind her against the wall, maybe even through it, like the sound of a million hands pushing at pulling at putty.  Something wet dripped down onto the floor.

         She caught it pooling up in the corners of her eyes, dripping down like glowing saliva.  The corners of some sort of protrusion poked out from the walls, and with one hand her palm covered her mouth, and with her other, her thumb pressed down on the camera button in time as she turned to face it.

         A large mouth, with big puffy lips, had grown from the wall, right next to the door of her office.  Large teeth and an even larger tongue glistened in the lights.  She became radiated in blue light as the lips parted, emanating from the back of the throat.  She didn't have time to scream as the mouth opened wide and a heaving force of air snatched at the feline.

         A flash of light burst from her phone in the moment she had to snap a single picture.

* * * * *

         "I mean, it doesn't look haunted," Gayle commented as they continued on their hike through the forest.  The tips of his ears brushed against low-hanging leaves as he completely ignored the forest in front of him, his thumb instead guiding the scroll bar on his phone.  He peered through each photo online of the hotel.  His view rested on the photo that kicked off all of this: a single, blurry photo of what appeared to be a mouth warping the sides of a hallway.

         Attempting to load another web page, Gayle raised his phone high, then low again, grumbling to himself.  "We're almost there, right?  Hard to believe a motel of all things would just be in the middle of nowhere, and... great.  Looks like outside the range of any cell towers, too!"

         "Pay attention!" Terra called out from behind, just in time for Gayle to be smacked in the face by a large bundle of leaves stuck to a vine.  Gayle seemed unfazed, more upset by the loss of signal in his phone.  She joined in that slight frustration, now peering over her own phone.  She muttered, "For someone so afraid of walking into quicksand or another plant's mouth you don't really watch where you step."

         "I do!" the rabbit gave a quick retort, spitting out a leaf, "If I look down at my phone I can see where I drop my feet, after all.  That's multitasking!"

         "Besides," Terra said after waiting for Gayle to get leaves out of his ears, "What would the place looking haunted have to do with anything? The article said this was a recent phenomena."  She stared at the same photo Gayle had, which she actually saved to her phone instead.  Mimics were common, even ghosts.  Many animal-kin were open to sharing stories about having survived encounters with both.  This case seemed pretty straightforward, but something really bugged her about this photo in particular.

         Gayle answered, "A good spooky mansion is so cool!  Haunted hallways, possessed furniture and closets, with a group of ghost hunters and an arsenal of rad equipment sure beats the usual monsters we deal with.  I'd rather get sucked into a closet than another vacuum monster or machine."

         "But it could just be a mimic, right?  Or a mold monster that sucks up prey from the walls.  We've seen blobs take the shape of just about anything, too, just to get a snack, so what kind of monsters could be lurking in a big hotel in the middle of a monster-ruled jungle?"

         Gayle pondered, "Is it a hotel?  Those are usually in big cities where people have reason to travel anyways.  I imagine a motel in a the middle of nowhere is a good place to hide from the MCP, or like that one place I bought that haze fruit at.  A place out this far doesn't scream 'hotel' to me."

         Gayle and Terra pushed through thicker and thicker foliage, rows of grass and leaves that stuck straight up but flopped over at the slightest touch. Often with these jungles of various sizes and colors, the flora and fauna could make them feel as they were shrinking, and as they climbed atop a long, flat leaf to cross a section of sticky grass, they sure felt that sensation once again.

         "Careful Gayle!" Terra barked.  Gayle started sliding down another leaf, tipping it enough to cause Terra to slide along with him.  They shot though a large bundle of grass and rolled down onto some soft road as they broke through that section of jungle.

         "A road?" Terra gasped, getting up with Gayle's help.

         "Yeah," Gayle said, poking his toes into a broken section of road, much overtaken by the jungle and ground itself, growing over it, "Material for long hikes when animal-kin would travel by foot.  I don't recall a road out this way, at least not in the map we looked up."

         "Over there!" Terra called out and pointed to a familiar structure at the end of the walkway.  Looming a bit in the distance was the hotel in the photos: a large, rounded rectangle structure five stories tall, surrounded by thick forest.  The trees themselves swirled around the tops of the red building, seeming to cradle the only structure in the entire area.

         "Five stories, here?" Gayle perked up as the structure got closer with each step.  Judging by the windows and an estimation of the size of the place, Gayle imagined about eight to ten rooms per floor, give or take a closet or two.  "Seems like an big place for one person to take care of, all the way out here.  Who'd take care of that on their own?"

         Terra smirked, "Someone as weird as Kaz?"

         Gayle shrugged. "You know, speaking of, how does he even think that by us helping out one person, that's going to help his business at all? Lots of good it did us when we saved that village from Aster. There's no reward, either!"

         Terra smiled just thinking about meeting Aster for the first time.  "We made a friend, didn't we?  Maybe if we can solve what's going on here, we'll meet a new monster we could add to Zeppy.  Of course, if the hotel owner wants them gone.

         The way I look at it, even a small bit of good will get Kaz's business out there in the public.  He's still figuring out what he even wants his company to be, so beyond just selling junk Zeppy sucks up, I imagine he thinks Zeppy can be a place for wayward monsters to go.  Just like him."

         "You're right," Gayle agreed, then turned his thoughts to the possibilities of this adventure, "We're going to get paid to be ghost hunters, anyways!  Maybe we'll get to use some cool tools, or find something possessed we can take back to my lab area and tinker with.  Imagine how powerful a ghost powered vacuum could be to clean up the work-space."

         The two passed under an opening in the hotel's fence.  The welcome sign, dangling from a secured arch, read:

         WELCOME TO THE VELVETEEN EMBRACE

         Gayle snarked, "This isn't like one of ... those kind of hotels, is it?"

         They stood in front of a large red two-section door with gold trim and handles. Terra and Gayle both marveled at the architecture of the place, realizing how old this hotel must have been.  While many new buildings were "grown" with specialized rubbers and plastics, integrating themselves into the environment, older architecture was grown from the environment itself and had much more of an organic shell.  Even older homes and structures were entirely organic, separating animal-kin building types into 3 distinct periods of history.

         Gayle and Terra both pushed into the door, confirming the building fit into that middle model of building molds.  The first thing to spring out to the pair was how little spring there was in the floor, as their paws just sunk into a dark red plush.  The second thing the pair noticed, or at least couldn't avoid, was the hotel's namesake drowning them in motif.

         "Ugh I get enough red being inside monsters all the time," Gayle said. Terra shot him a look.

         "You gotta give this place points for mood, though," Terra added as they made their way towards to lobby, the doors closing behind them, finally locking them into mixture of lights and designs earning the name "Velveteen".

         The walls and ceiling, both a deep enough red on their own, stood out alongside the lively walls, with patterns of different shades of red diamonds printed on them, or woven in.  The lighting helped keep the mood from becoming too overwhelming, and bits of paintings fastened to the walls, plush couches to sit on solidly in place, even large plants of various colors, all worked together to keep the velvet touch of the place from bleeding over everything.

         The lobby opened into a large circular chamber, with various unmanned desks at the back with bells obviously removed from each.  Couches and tables filled up the front of the area with enough space for many guests and luggage among the center.  Between the two counters in the back of the lobby, a large painting hung of an equally large lady, a black cat in a vintage jumpsuit and large poofy hat, quite a luxury item for animal-kin with how often one could lose anything not secured to their suit.

         "Socks would probably dig this place a lot," Gayle's mind wandered, "Maybe this place is just Poly in a bold new form."

         Terra shrugged, her own mind struggling to deal with the loneliness the room exuded. She could just imagine, in its heyday, this room filled to the brim with animal-kin looking to take a break from outside world.  It was like a whole different place here, not even a window to remind themselves of what it looked like outside.

         "Well I'm depressed now," Terra sighed.  They both halted when they realized they weren't alone in this room.  In a "corner" of the room, tucked away and behind what appeared to be a big easel with a paper draped over, a guest glanced around it, making eye contact with Terra before shying away and hiding again.  It was a chameleon lady, swiftly turning red to match both the chair she sat on and her red jumpsuit containing the same diamond pattern as the walls.

         Terra's eyes darted back to look for Gayle as she whispered, "Should we..."

         "HEY!" Gayle slammed his palm down on the desk, near the spot the bell would have been installed, "We'd like a room!"

         There was a sudden commotion.  The clacking of plastic and rubbing of rubber broke the silence from a side hall.  An odd trio, first a lanky goat, followed by a built bear, and then rounding out the group with a short, rotund platypus, entered and swiftly left through the stairway entrance.  Each carried with them a duffel bag over their shoulders and each juggling even more loose equipment in their arms.  Their jumpsuits were matching with each other but unique from the artist's suit, covered in unfamiliar branding.

         Gayle bent over to pick up a small piece of hardware that had dropped to the floor during their shuffle across the room.  It was a lens of some sort, that when he peeked through it turned the room blue.  Terra gave off a subtle glow as he looked her over through the piece of lens, Gayle blurting out a single, "Cool!"

         "Stop that!" Terra motioned him to put it away as someone was approaching from a hallway behind the counters.  Gayle stuffed the lens into a pocket, mentally noting the trio and the need to follow up on what they were up to.

         "Sorry about the wait, darlings," a playful voice entered the room as a feline with ruffled black fur and a tight dress suit walked up to the counter.  She was quick to get to business, "It's nice to meet you both.  Call me Rose if two could.  Rooms are seventy-five prints a night, and forgive me in advance for the limited room service. Checkout is morning the next day unless you pay for an additional night, but honestly just don't make a mess and I don't care when you check out."

         Terra just sorta glanced over to Gayle, motioning to the painting only a feet away with the nameplate "Rosalia Velveteen II" on it.  Gayle tugged at his own collar, not sure how to approach this, and was sort of hoping Terra was going to take over the conversation from here.

         Gayle stammered, "Um, a room, yes!  My uh, friend?  Yes we have been traveling all day and saw this lovely place and thought a room would be lovely tog-"

         Terra stepped on his foot and corrected, "Two rooms please.  We're tired.  A big worm chased us on the way here.  Do you have complimentary breakfast?"

         Rose gladly accepted the one-hundred and fifty prints from the two, starting to rummage through some drawers as she replied, "You bet, but you'll have to cook it yourselves.  Sort of short staffed at the moment.  Names?"

         "Gayle."

         "Terra."

         Taking a moment to eye both Gayle and Terra, Rose disappeared under the counter for a moment and yanked out two pairs of pajamas for the duo. "Complimentary comforts for your stay," she smiled.  The clothing had the same patterns as the clothing worn by the chameleon artist, who had already snuck off with their easel.  "You know, it's okay for you two to be here for the ghost."

         Gayle clammed up, as if trying to come up with an unnecessary story, which Terra didn't bother with, asking, "Were you the one who posted the photos?  What happened after?  Is the ghost still here?"

         Rose tossed each of them their clothing.  For a moment her expression wavered into somberness, saying, "We've gotten some business since I sent that photo to a friend.  I wasn't sure if posting that was the right thing, as I'd hate to put anyone in danger, but if people find a good time trying to hunt down that spirit, well, that can't be a bad thing, can it?

         I reckon it's still around here somewhere, but that can't be the only reason you two came all the way, is it?"  She leaned in a little, waiting a moment as some unseen guest came down through the stairs and into the kitchen area.  Gayle and Terra kept their eyes on their host, much to her relief as the guests slinked out of view.  Rose asked, "Enough about me, though.  What curiosity brings you here?  What are YOU two DYING to see tonight?"

         Gayle and Terra exchanged glances, but Gayle was first to blurt out, "What kind of question is that?"

         Terra, not wanting to be totally embarrassed by Gayle's rudeness, interrupted, "What my associate means is that you're the one that posted about the ghost online and we thought we could help.  We're here on business, nothing more.  We take care of monsters troubling towns, give them a place to stay for a bit, then let them back out into the wild.  We're definitely not exorcists or anything, but most likely this is just a lost and afraid monster."

         "How dull," Rose said as she stared Terra straight in the eye, "Well I haven't much to give in terms of a reward or commission, and I'm not planning on it.  I'm thankful for any help in the matter but no one's had any luck dealing with this little devil.  So let's talk something more fun.  So Terra, what made you come here?  What sort of monster would you hope to find?"

         Terra paused. It was true, this trip wasn't for any sort of financial gain, and other than offering to cover the costs of the nightly stays, Kaz made it clear this was to be a wholly optional trip, leaving it up to Gayle and Terra to collectively decide to scrap it if they weren't feeling it.

         Terra answered after a brief moment, "Even ghosts are just another species of monster, right?  It'd be cool to see a new type of monster like that, or get to know its kind more.  How do they move, or how do they eat?" She stopped herself, recognizing she could just about ramble about monsters as much as Gayle could about machines.  Rose kept staring, so she indulged her, "It's probably just a scared monster who wants out.  I'm sure a little attention and loving care would be enough to get it back to feeling safe again."

         Rose chuckled, swaying over to Gayle with her arms playfully crossed under her on the desk, "What about you, silly rabbit?  What would make you come all the way out here, the middle of nowhere, to see?"

         The question seemed rather oddly prodding for hotel hostess, making Terra more uncomfortable than not.  Gayle didn't seem to pick up on any ill intent, quick to answer, "Well, it'd be cool to see some wild tech, but I guess even if it's a haunted toaster that'd be neat to see!"

         "Well," Rose pressed, "What tech do you usually see?"

         "I guess I end up in a lot of vacuum cleaners," Gayle answered, more than he needed to.

         Rose nodded, not letting that trivia phase her, as she rummaged through a desk drawer, pulling out a stack of plastic cards.  She shuffled them with ease, ruffled them together with the claws on her thumbs, and then splayed them across the table in a ribbon spread.  With one finger she flipped them all in a row.  Two cards were face-up.  With a proud smile, Rose tossed each of those cards to each of the pair of new guests.  She then pointed to a nearby map framed on the wall, pointing each to their rooms in the corner.

         "Floor two, rooms two-oh-five and two-oh-six, are yours," Rose hummed, "Please, listen.  I don't know what this ghost wants, but it will know what you two want.  So enjoy your stay, and be careful about wandering the halls at night.  That's my only warning.  Not like it can be any more dangerous in here than out there, right?"

         "Uh, thanks," somehow both Gayle and Terra synced their gratitude.

         They turned toward the stairs until Rose cleared her throat intentionally.  With the same grin she tended to brandish with new guests, she offered to them, "How about this.  Help me figure out what to do with this ghost, and I'll put in a good word for your business, too.  It's not... like I thought it'd be, and there, I could use the help. Deal?"

         They nodded, fiddling with their key-cards before ascending up the staircase. Rose chuckled to herself under her breath, "Amateurs..." before realizing she had dropped one of her own key-cards.

         The moment her fingertip touched it, the card wiggled.  Instead of shock, only aggravation surge through her body.  Without hesitation she brought a foot down on it.  What did shock her was the card suddenly sprouting ten globby legs and scuttering away before her paws stomped down on top of it.  She tossed a couple cards throwing-star style at it in frustration, the escaping key-card able to twist and deform to dodge each one.

* * * * *

         The hotel layout was pretty simple, with stairs located near the center by the lobby. Despite the first impression of a rectangular building, Gayle and Terra found the building to be C-shaped above the first story. Windows lined a courtyard area built atop the first floor itself, and they could see the east and west wings of the hotel's current and upper floors.  Seen in the the emergency map, stairs were also at the ends of each wing.

         The look of the floor shared the aesthetic of the lobby, and it was easy to imagine the rooms doing the same.  Terra's room was located in the east wing, with Gayle's room right next to hers at the other edge of the same corner.  What must have been managerial or janitorial rooms were tucked into the corners themselves.

         "Second floor's not bad," Terra prompted conversation, "but I wish we had a chance to see what's near here.  I doubt we could get onto the roof but we should look from the top floor later."

         Gayle fumbled with his card, his door beeping but not opening.  He tried again, grumbling, "I don't know if I can be adventurous already after all that hiking, and running, and panicking.  I think I'm gonna collapse in bed for a bit and convince myself it's worth waking back up."

         "Hold it for the second beep," Terra instructed as she opened up her door.  She took a peek in before adding, "You know we can't stay away from trouble, right?  Kaz will be happy with our names getting out there more, and I guess for us, the sooner we get to the bottom of it, the sooner we can go back."

         "Just wish Zeppy would have parked closer," Gayle whined, swinging open his door after a moment, "I'm still putting bets on this being a prank, or at least, a scheme by the owner to get more suckers like us.  I'll catch up with you later."

         "Later, Gayle!"

         With the door shut behind him, Gayle didn't pay much attention to the layout of the hotel room.  Belly first, he flopped onto the queen-sized bed, just short enough for his large feet to hang off the edge.  He didn't care.  The last thoughts in his head wondered, if this was a prank, what sort of device or monster could cause as much trouble as what was being rumored on the 'net.  With the complimentary jumpsuit as a pillow, Gayle swiftly passed out.

* * * * *

         Terra had taken her time changing into the hotel's pajamas, storing her own clothing in the small drawer by the bed.  A single lamp jutted from the wall above the dresser with its pull-cord dangling below.  Ambient light came from soft bulbs in the ceiling, giving the room a cozy, warm feel.  Other than a small desk provided with a pudgy stool, there was the standard closet and bathroom spaces.

         The corners of the room were rounded, and the diamond pattern which adorned the hotel was present here, but patterned to be more subtle with smoothed tips on the diamonds, as if it was trying to bring about a calmer mood, but keep the trademark patterns.  The pajamas Terra was given matched the room more than it matched the halls, and felt as comfortable as the room wanted her to feel.

         "Wish I had brought Lilliput," Terra sighed, getting up beside the bed and stretching.  Other than the nights she got lost and/or passed out in Zeppy, she had gotten so used to falling asleep with Lilliput curled up beside her.  Not concerned that they would get into danger here, she still missed the adorable worm.

         "Right! Fifth floor."  Terra, being honest to herself, was sort of hoping that the first day would be pretty uneventful.  As certain as Gayle was that this was all a prank, Terra was sure it was just a lost monster needing a new home.  Maybe even a family of lost monsters were just caught up in the walls, and she'd get to hug every one of them.

         Making her way to the top floor, Terra appreciated that the halls were as cozy as the room she was staying in.  Between rooms there were light fixtures keeping up the mood of the place, and along the courtyard walls it alternated between soft sitting couches and potted plants, secured in place as everything else was.  The floors were so soft that paw-prints were left in them for a moment before smoothing out.

         Terra walked along the hall, doing her best to gaze out of each window and find a good angle that overlooked the jungle.  Various shades of blue, green, and in between blocked her from seeing too far, and even larger trees reached up into the skies above the horizon.  The sun was rapidly setting, or their planet was just flopping over.

         "We'd need a skyscraper to even see anything," Terra muttered.  She rested on a cushy bench on her knees, pressing into the clear squishy panel that were part of the windows of this world, with both palms.  Not even a monster in view among the trees.  Thinking over it, there weren't many monsters seen at all as they got closer to the place.

         "Great," she huffed, her breath fogging up a bit of the window.  Terra pressed her cheeks up against it, looking down at a familiar site far away in the courtyard.  The artist sat there, alone with a sketchpad, in the corner of the yard.  They seemed to be looking around for something, and finally, glanced up, meeting eyes with Terra's.

         Terra waved.

         The artist ignored her, instead returning to their sketchbook.

         Terra wandered for a bit more, keeping an eye out the windows for any signs of non-animal-kin life.  The place was a bit too quiet for her liking, which upset her because any other time on the job she prayed for quiet.  Terra, now on the third floor and bored enough to want to go hang out with Gayle, placed a single paw on a stair before meeting eyes with the artist once again.

         The artist blushed a moment, averting her eyes as she pushed past Terra into the hallway.  Terra knew to mind her own business, about to head down a floor just as a large chameleon finger tapped on her shoulder.

         "I'm so sorry," the artist squeaked, holding out the sketchbook.  There was Terra's face, penciled roughly on the paper.  Terra didn't know the polite way to react, but an emotion built up inside her and she couldn't help herself.

         Terra giggled, then laughed, immediately catching herself and apologizing, "Oh no I mean... I mean it's..."

         The artist laughed, too.  She smiled, letting Terra hold the doodle.  "It was meant to be goofy, so I'm glad you like it," the artist said.  The drawing was of the moment Terra had her cheek pressed against the window, looking down at the courtyard.  A bit of her tongue poked out from her lips.  Nothing was flattering about this drawing, and Terra loved it.

         "I'm Terra," she introduced herself while handing back the sketchbook.

         "Santina," the chameleon smiled, closing and holding the book close.  She glanced back toward her room, her eyes darting from there to Terra and back in a moment of unfocused thought.  "Say, I'm done having no idea what to draw.  Do you like to drink?"

         "You bet!" Terra exclaimed, following Santina to her room.

* * * * *

         With a soft, comfy thud, Gayle rolled out of bed and onto his butt, the complimentary pajamas landing on his face.

         "Well, that screws up the sleep schedule for the week," he admonished himself.

         A quick change into the velvet jumpsuit later, Gayle was ready for... whatever they needed to do on this trip.  Wasn't like there was a ton to investigate until something happened, and even then, Gayle was pretty sure he had no meaningful way to interact with ghosts or poltergeists.  They brought the usual protective items in compact storage, which was not any part of the hotel's clothing.  Gayle didn't think to bring any weapons as he hadn't a single clue what could be used on a ghost.

         "Butts," Gayle yawned with Terra not answering his knocking on her door. Gayle could go for a kitchen raid at this time but wasn't sure if it was stocked this late.  Time was so hard to tell on a planet that could move at its own mood.  It was clear it was night time, at least.

         Terra wasn't answering her phone the one time Gayle managed to get a signal. Considering Gayle had to fish his phone from his casual outfit he wore on the trip, even if Terra's phone had a signal it wasn't probably on her person.  He decided to leave it behind as well.  This was only going to be for a moment, anyway.  He did remember to take along the lens he found.

         The fifth floor was Gayle's first stop, as he was most likely to give up if he searched the second or third floor and had to climb up after.  Gayle already debated giving up after a few moments not seeing her up there, until a commotion caught his slender ears.

         Approaching the only open door on the floor, Gayle jumped back as a piece of electronics flew out and bounced off the floor.  Shouting followed.

         One high-pitched voice shot out, "Dude be-e-e careful!"

         A deeper, throaty voice shot back, "Can't break a piece of junk already, can I?"

         A third, somehow deeper voice, kept calm and addressed them both, "We got a reading once, we'll get it again.  You know it always goes quiet when new people arrive, right?"

         There was a more calm discussion following from the room that Gayle paid no more attention to.  He was too busy sneaking up to the thrown equipment, some sort of screen with a handle and a battery pack.  It looked hobbled together, it looked busted, it looked like a hunk of junk, and Gayle wanted to touch and fondle every bit of it.

         Gayle gave an audible yelp as a tail came down and smacked his reaching hand.  The platypus from the trio of engineers in the lobby met eye to eye with Gayle, who froze bent over near the busted tool.  As the platypus picked the device up, Gayle creaked out, "O-oh!  This is yours, isn't it?"  He fished out the wayward lens and held it up, ready to spark a following conversation.

         Without a word said the platypus snatched the piece of lens and waddled back into the room, shutting the door afterwards.

         "Cool!" Gayle whispered to himself.

* * * * *

         Santina, laying on her belly and hanging over the bed just near Terra, who sat up against the wall, continued her musings, "...and just like that, nothing.  No inspiration for the past month.  Just me, starring at a blank canvas every evening with another set of paint about to dry up. So nothing too exciting there.  How's your day to day been?"

         Terra let another moment pass for the buzz to die down, then answered sleepily, "Oh, yeah.  Thought I stepped in something recently and it just turned out to be a blob that tried to eat me again.  You know, the usual.  I think my only day to day inspiration is the hope the next belly will be less cramped than the previous one."

         Terra passed the empty cup, compliments of the hotel, to Santina, who tossed it into a bin next to the art easel.  The chameleon flopped back down, letting her scales match the color of the bed sheets enveloping her.  She let out a large burp, Terra attempting to match or beat it but coming up short.

         "Hey," Santina said while continuing to disappear into the color of her covers, "Sometimes I wish I could just get lost in one of my paintings, you know?  Just explore, feel it, get swallowed up by it like you do on a daily basis."

         Terra groaned just thinking about it.  "I became paper once," she added, "Wonder what kind of painting I'd be good for..."  She didn't bother mentioning the time Gayle got turned into a painting himself.

         "I bet you'd make a cute canvas to draw on," Santina thought would be a flattering thing to say and did so without any inhibitions.  They both laughed again, something they had done much that night.

         "Okay," Santina said as she helped Terra up, then wobbled over to the canvas, "You like monsters right?  So I do too but I have a confuss... confession.  Check this stupid shit out."  She revealed the mess of paints and sketches on the canvas, spinning the easel around a bit for Terra to see, which took way more concentration than she was prepared for but somehow managed.

         Terra took her time starring slack jawed at the half-planned painting, before observing, "You draw... mouths?"

         Santina excitedly nodded, spinning easel back.  "Monster mouths," she clarified, "There's something goofy and spooky and kinda cute about them.  I kind of want to capture that and the colors they can be and, well, get lost in them.  Well, not INSIDE the mouths, like you.  I mean like, the colors of it all.  Lose myself in those reds."

         "Red, huh?"

         "Yeah, I think I don't need to explain why I thought I could find some inspiration here.  More than I've drawn in a while so maybe it's working."

         "I wanna find a bed," Terra yawned, about to crawl into Santina's.

         Santina redirected Terra to the door, "You're one floor down, right? Think you can make it on your own?"

         Terra nodded, too tired to say much else, and hugged Santina goodbye.  She made her way to the staircase in the center of the building without much trouble.  The halls were quiet, as would be at this hour, whatever incredibly late hour it could have been.

         "One more day of treating this like a vacation wouldn't hurt anyone," she told herself, prepared for another day of not much happening.  At least it wouldn't involve walking.  Terra had seen so many fantastical creatures over the past few years, but the thought of not getting to see a single monster in this hotel started to disappoint her.

         With her first step on the second floor, a chill shot up Terra's leg.  Something squishy, something wriggling, something alive was underfoot.  Not out of fear, but of concern, she fell back onto the stairs, awkwardly grabbing the railing to keep from falling completely back onto them.

         Where she had stepped, thankfully unharmed, a little creature sat.  The creature was as big as a balled up fist, pyramid shaped, with a feeler or leg on each point of the bottom side of it.  It had a single mouth with puffy lips on one side of the fleshy pyramid, but had an eye near the top point of each side.

         The color of the tripod monster was the only odd thing about it.  Standing out from the hotel, it was an almost white hue of blue, with the lips, eyes, and feelers a darker shade.  It seemed to radiate an aura off of it, and slightly lit up the ground underneath.

         "Cool!" Terra whispered to herself.

* * * * *

         "Oh crap," Gayle said as he stood there, alone, frozen with realization on the steps of the second floor with his hands in the only two pockets of his pajamas.

         No key card.  Oh crap.

         No problem, Gayle thought to himself.  Terra had to be back to her room by now, so she could survive being woken up at whatever hour it was.  If that didn't fix it then a quick trip to the lobby would solve everything and annoy Rose as a bonus.

         A few sets of knocking later, each with more feeling behind them, and nothing. This was her room, right?  Gayle took a look up at the room number, baffled.

         305.

         "Terra?" Gayle squeaked out, wanting to shut out what he was looking at.  All the rooms started with a three, and as he padded around, confirmed his suspicions as he stared out the window with no courtyard on this floor.

         Gayle collected himself, wondering if it being so late had any affect on him.  He was still tired after so much travel to get there, and the worry about being locked out probably added to his carelessness.  No problem. Just needed to go down another floor.

         As soon as Gayle stepped onto the below floor, he ran to the nearest door.  301.

         "What the hell..." he breathed out, walking up to the window and looking over the missing courtyard.  The light was so faint out there, making it appear like only a void was outside.  Gayle wondered, if he opened the window, what would happen, and decided it would be best not to try that out on his own.

         "Hello!?" Gayle called out, caring less by the second if he woke up anyone.  He went down another flight of stairs.  Still the third floor.  Gayle ran back up.  It was the fourth floor, finally.

         "Okay, just had a moment.  Nothing to worry about.  Nothing to pa... ow!"

         Gayle stepped on something oddly shaped as he walked along the fourth story's carpet. Raising his leg up, he plucked off what was now stuck to his foot. A... screw of some sort?  Those engineers were always hauling equipment around, but Gayle would have thought they would have been more careful to not drop stuff in a place filled with a bunch of barefoot creatures.

         There was a slight glow from the chunky screw.  It was a pale blue, with a bit of an otherworldly glow shining off the surface.  Gayle picked up on another glow in the hall and saw a few more bits of pieces just like the screw in his palm.

         At least it used to be in his palm, until it seemed to roll off on its own.  It attracted to another piece on the floor, some rubber and some wire, bundling together and continuing to roll down the hall in a ball of bits.  Gayle didn't feel any wind, so the first assumption was some sort of magnetism.  Gayle was used to making bad assumptions.

         Gayle kept up with the moving parts, padding along the hallway at a brisk pace. Rounding a corner, more bits joined the ball of parts, now slowly growing in size with each new bit it slurped up.  The parts consisted of mostly other bolts, rubber, wiring, and tubing, though each seemed to melt into the rolling pile as they disappeared into it.

         Gayle followed it along another corner.  The ball  picked up speed as it grew in size.  It rolled along at the size of a basketball now, hoovering up more pieces along the way, just snapping right to it from the sides of the hall.  The mess of parts gave off that same eery blue glow, leaving a sort of bio-luminescent trail in its wake which Gayle dodged with each turn around a corner.

         The same right turn, down the hall, for the fourth time.  There was more hallway to run down, and there were more corners to turn around.  The ball had stopped rolling by this point.  Gayle's mind was elsewhere, trying to figure out if this building was really rectangular shaped or C-shaped.  Maybe it was both, since he wasn't quite sure what floor he was on.  The nearest room read "333" on the door.  So did the next one.  So did the one next to that.

         Gayle went to kick the pile of parts out of frustration, whiffing as it rolled to the side, appearing as it had dodged the rabbit's foot.  Something whipped out of the pile, just barely missing Gayle's leg as he yelped out and jumped back against a door frame.  His hand grasped the handle and started yanking it, the door itself bulging out as Gayle pulled, but refused to open.  The thing that had tried to strike him rose in the air and then relaxed itself.  It was a... cord?

         A cord and an electrical plug, to be precise.  The ball of parts was no longer a ball.  It had formed into the shape of a strange yet familiar device. The body, or bucket, of the device was pyramid shaped, with three ball-wheels at the bottom of each bottom-most corner it rested on. One side of the pyramid, which was most likely the front, jetted out a wide yet short hose, and attached to that hose was a tri-corner funnel, with the point of the tri-shape at the bottom like a chin. The funnel around its lips was a bit wide and bulged out like cheeks. On the other two sides of its three-sided body, vents, or buttons, and other patterns, lined it.

         Gayle chuckled. It was just a vacuum cleaner.  He had seen plenty of these, and often stood too close, as he was doing at that moment.  He'd never had seen one with that sort of design, or capable of self repair or healing like this one.  He bit his lip to keep himself from making any expressions.  Inside he was debating if he should let his curiosity get the better of him, or wisely listen to the other voice in his head saying to get away from it.

         Gayle wanted to touch it, to see how it was moving on its own.  He wanted to dismantle it, and see what tech gave it the ability to pull itself together like this.  It had to be magnets.  It always was magnets. He wanted to tear this machine apart and see every wire crisscrossing through the machines body.  Gayle didn't consider the danger he was in.

         The machine picked up on Gayle's malice.  At the top of its head, two eyes popped up, ghostly, blank, but staring somehow at Gayle and with a rubber scowl.  Gayle hesitated at the sight of it staring back.  This vacuum cleaner was only a few feet high, certainly not big enough to...

         Gayle reminded himself that a machine the size of a tennis ball was strong enough to suck in most animal-kin.  Of freaking course, there was a small uvula handing down in the back of the funnel where it connected to the throat-like hose.

         Gayle stepped back, almost in apology, unsure what to say to it.  He forgot his place.  He didn't pay any attention to what was happening around him this whole time and certainly didn't think that this had anything to do with WHY they even came to this hotel in the middle of nowhere. He was subconsciously patting down every pocket of his pajamas.  No phone on him, and that was all his fault.

         Continuing to back away, Gayle braced himself as he shuddered from a sudden chill. A noise was filling his ears, a constant, low but discernible whirl of air flowing by his ears that felt distant even as it grew louder. As his ears flapped down in front of his face, Gayle realized it was the sound of this vacuum powering up, somehow.  The noise was still nowhere near him, but he knew it was coming from the device.  There was a hum of machinery coming to life around the small cleaner.  The machine's whining matched his own.

         Gayle's cheek fur was pulling from his face.  His heels were lifting up as much as he tried to back away, pushing back with all his might using the balls of his feet.  His pajamas fluttered to life as much as all the fur on his body, and every inch of fur pointed toward that petite vacuum cleaner.  At first he was stumbling closer to the vacuum cleaner as the suction guided him, but with enough fearful composure, the rabbit was able to lean back and begin stepping in the other direction.

         Gayle had made some distance between him and the glowing machine.  He weighed his options.  Go for a full run and hope it didn't sweep him off his feet, or manage a lunge for the machine and give it that good kick he missed earlier.  Screw it.  Gayle was going to go for the default way out, the cowardly option.  He turned, and leaned as far forward as he could, treading away, and every new step was like going up the tallest hill, but at least it was progress.

         The vacuum had a good sense of timing, and ceased its sucking just long enough for Gayle to fall forward and land on his face with a satisfying smack. It didn't wait a second longer to start hoovering up again, lowering its neck and funnel toward the ground and focusing all of its petite energy on the tall rabbit.

         Gayle dug his fingers into the plush carpet but as much as could expend the energy to grab for the ground, there was not much to actually hold onto.  He was sliding back, and quickly, toward the pyramid-shaped cleaner.   Gayle attempted to roll to the side to get out of the jet-stream of air being sucked into it.  He was so caught in the middle of it, like an undertow, that he was centered just as fast as he could roll away.

         The green rabbit scrambled up on all fours and attempted again to make headway against the suction.  He quickly failed, sliding back as his fingers and toes pressed against the floor in resistance, but forward progress was not his goal.  All he needed was just one moment of both feet on the ground, and when he felt himself dig in as much as he could, the rabbit bounded to the side, latching onto the corner of one of the hallway couches by a window.

         Doing this sacrificed the ability of his paws to touch the ground at all, as they now became locked in the air toward the center of the vacuum's funnel.  He gave out a prolonged grunt as he pulled himself up over the couch, using every bit of his muscle, or what little muscle he had, to pull himself closer to the window itself.  His feet, still locked together, pointed at the vacuum cleaner, but his hands were just close enough to the window to grab onto a latch.  Doing so ratcheted up his body even more into the air, crying out some more as his grip had to be even tighter on even less stuff to hang onto.

         "Open up!" Gayle strained as every attempt to twist and turn his body to get enough momentum on the latch wasn't enough.  He wasn't even sure he could open the window at this point, and doubted he could get out. He could see nothing out there, just a dark, empty void.  Opening the windows at this point could even suck him out into a much worse fate.

         Gayle let out an exhaustive sigh, dropping down and being carried back by the winds, returning to hanging onto the edge of the couch.  This pull wasn't giving up, and neither was the power supply to the cleaner.  Another chill coursed through Gayle, this time from the bottoms of his feet as they touched up against the vacuum's funnel.  It was inching closer, and the vacuum pulling harder, with each moment.  Gayle was going to get sucked in, he realized, feeling himself being pulled closer, his pajama pant legs flapping wildly as they stretched over his paws.  His toes attempted to hook against the sides of the funnel to push back, but instead the intense suction just drew both feet right into its rubber maw.

         "Screw it!" Gayle exclaimed, proudly doing what he should have been doing in the first place and kicking the vacuum with a heel right into its small uvula.

         Gayle tried to shut out the terrifying whine of the vacuum as it reeled back in shock and tumbled back down the hall.  The vacuum suction stopped immediately and Gayle hopped right up, ready to bound off to safety. But he couldn't do it.  Everything was telling him to run, to get the hell out of there before the little vacuum started back up.  Instead he felt bad, and looked back at the little machine.

         It was crying?

         "Oh come on!" Gayle hollered at it, "You started it!"  He was ready to start up another kick, but didn't want to risk getting any closer.  He was still in range to be caught by the winds if the vacuum picked up again.  Even at such a small size, the tiniest vacuums were capable of sucking in large animal-kin and monsters. Some devices, as Gayle found out recently, pushed this to an even farther extreme that covered miles.  Even if he ran, he was probably too close.

         The little ghostly vacuum cleaner sniffed a bit.  Its crying had calmed.  Gayle could clearly hear the rolling of familiar wheels.  He heard the same otherworldly breathing that filled the halls.  Something was approaching.  A large shadow, from the barely lit hall now, with a familiar silhouette, rolled up next to the smaller vacuum.  The new device, a much larger device, lowered its neck and nuzzled the smaller cleaner.

         Gayle gulped, then whimpered, "You gotta be kidding me."

         It was not quite the same vacuum, but did share almost the same body, or bucket type, that the smaller vacuum had.  The main difference was its size, almost four times wider and taller than its weaker counterpart. Instead of the short hose and wide funnel, a long, wide rubber hose protruded from the front, hanging and slithering around the ground like a snake.  Perhaps being the vacuum's trunk was a better way to put it, as it shared the ghostly and angry eyes of its smaller kin, but on the bucket itself.

         "Your brat started it!" Gayle snapped, which he immediately regretted.  He dropped to the floor as the vacuum kicked in, immediately sucking him in close.  As the rabbit slid closer, the vacuum stopped hoovering in air and let Gayle finish sliding nearby.  Not giving him a chance to resist, its long rubber hose slithered all around his body, coiling tight so the rabbit couldn't budge.

* * * * *

         Terra sat on the stairs as she played with the little creature.  She giggled as its tiny lips pecked at her ankles and it tried to climb up her leg.  She pushed it back away with a free foot only for it to latch onto the other pant cuff and start gumming at it, as if it wanted to try and swallow her pant leg.  "Settle down," Terra laughed during the playful order.  She pushed it away with both hands, then patted it on the head, as if to say goodbye or that playtime was over.  

         The tri-pod creature pattered around in a circle, then shook its head.  It immediately ran back up to Terra as she stood up, dodging underfoot to get back in her way.  Terra's heart could melt at the site of it looking up at her, the little creature almost at a stage of whimpering.  

         Terra knelt, petting it again and reassuring, "You run off.  I really need to get to sleep.  It's really late!"

         The creature smooched at her hand.  It was quite clingy, and seemed to sucker itself against her palm for a moment until popping off.  It kept making a smooching motion at her even as she rose up again to walk off.  Terra was good at ignoring overly needy monsters.

         She stopped herself and glanced back as another sound sprung from the monster. It was heaving!  Its cheeks flushed and puffed up, its mouth puckered up even more in a great strain, and little grunting noises, as cute as they were, followed in quick succession.

         Terra, transfixed, watched to let nature take its course.  Something slimy, and covered in saliva, slipped from its lips after they widened almost as big as its own body.  Any other animal-kin would cringe at such a sight.  Terra smiled, then caught herself, perplexed.  What popped out of the creature was another version of itself.

         The canine disappointingly patted herself down for her phone, knowing just as well she left it back in her room.  Socks would have loved to get evidence of a new monster, or some sort of reference to draw from. Terra wasn't even kidding herself.  She wished to capture this little critter for her own memories.  This kind of self-duplicating wasn't unknown in the world of monster study, but it sure was uncommon!  She wanted to rush back to her room.  Even Kaz would kill to see this, and he was too cowardly a lion to hurt a bloat-fly.

         Terra's excited expression mellowed out as she realized there were now eight of these critters, and they were already in the process of coughing out eight more.  Those sixteen quickly spit out sixteen more, and those thirty-two were quick to start doubling again.  Terra steadily backed away.  They were going to completely block the hall, and stairway down, at this point.  Terra was losing count, and patience.  She would much rather leave this newly found mess to the hotel staff and get some rest herself.

         Terra's tail was no longer wagging in excitement over her new friend.  Or friends.

         Maybe she would rather call for help, instead.  They were all staring in her direction as their multiplying completed.  There had to be over two hundred of the critters clogging up the halls, smooshing each other, climbing over one another, tripping over each other.  They all chittered together.  It wasn't a cacophony of excitement, which Terra would have found somehow adorable.  This was a unison of the same pitch and same monstrous voice, aimed in Terra's direction.  It was one voice, and still many.

         "Okay going to bed now!" Terra reassured herself, picking up the pace as she walked backwards, now turning in the right direction and hastening her steps.  She didn't need to look back.  The noises the little creatures made echoed with each other, but again, was not a cacophony of random sounds but instead sounds that coordinated with each other. She could hear them slosh and tumble over their bodies, almost fill up the entire width and height of the hall as they pushed forward toward her.  They kept up in their chase, and Terra kept up in her run.

         Terra had enough foresight to dive into her pockets for her room key, letting out all of her pent up terror as she held it tight against her door, waiting for that second beep which now took an eternity.  As soon as the door beeped a second time she rushed in, slamming the door behind her, diving onto the bed as a wave of tiny monsters splashed against her door.  A haunting wail rang out in unison from just outside, and her door bulged inward, with the faces of many tiny monsters screaming for her.

         Terra was shaking.  She never shook, at least, she told herself that.  The canine's teeth chattered for a moment until she bundled all her covers together and hugged tight into them, almost burying her head into them.  She wished she hadn't done what she did next.

         Her eyes peeked out over the covers when a familiar cooing sound reached her ears.  A single monster sat at the edge of the bed.  It was smiling.  It hopped closer to her, and resumed nipping at her pant cuff.  Terra resisted every single urge she naturally had as an animal-kin to bop it with something.

         She heard a PLOP, followed by another.  The plopping turned into a stream as more and more of the little critters poured in through the bottom of the door.  Terra was certain there wasn't any wiggle room to get in, but Terra also knew such assumptions were meaningless when it came to monsters like these.  The floor was rapidly filling up with tiny monsters, all of the same size, exact shapes, and synchronized sounds.  They filled up the room to the edge of her bed.  Terra was certain she'd drown if she fell in.

         Her phone was still in her original clothing, tucked away in the desk that was now possibly shut away under the pool of monsters.

         Terra tried to joke to them, or maybe just herself, "At least you guys are fans, so you wouldn't want to lose me by eating me, would ya?" She had backed up against the back of the bed at this point, but there was nowhere to go.

         The monsters in her room had not peeped a single peep since they filed in.  Slowly they all, in unison (which Terra really hated seeing every time) turned to face the corner of the room.  A flow of the little critters started disappearing into the corner, as if something was drawing them in.  More got flushed away, until Terra could finally make out what was happening in that corner.

         One of the monsters started inhaling them all back in.  It was the only monster to cannibalize itself, and it continued to do so, now taking in more and more with each gulp.  That single monster grew rapidly with each smaller monster sucked in, and was keeping up the pace in pulling in the rest.  Terra could feel herself getting caught up in the monster's inhaling, struggling to hug to the covers in her arms, and soon needing to grasp onto the bed to keep from being swept away herself.  Her legs dangled off the side of the bed as she held on, not wanting to look at what was happening as the monster continued to hoover itself in.  The last monster, the one hanging onto her pant cuff, finally got sucked away and the winds died down.

         Terra lost the comforting covers but she didn't need them anymore.  No amount of comfort could settle her down with her new roommate in the room.  The army of small monsters, all the same size and shape, had now been replaced with a single monster of the same shape, at least, that oozed in the side of the room to the right of Terra's bed.  Quite fat, quite heavy, and quite slow moving, it was the same as all the other monsters, but its size betrayed its cuteness.  It stared at Terra with the same loving look.

         The canine wished she could find it as cute as before.  She wanted to say something to judge its intentions, but it answered for her.  A large squishy tongue rolled out and lapped at her face.  The tongue was so large it instead lapped at her whole body.  She sunk, almost entirely, into the tongue as if she was getting sucked against it, and as the monster reeled it back in Terra could feel her square frame being pulled in with it.

         Not wanting to be monster chow, Terra pushed against its body and lips, her fingers, toes, palms and soles, sinking deep into its body and lips.  She felt enveloped by monsters flesh as she lingered close to the monster's mouth and was able to struggle enough to keep from being slurped inside its maw.  The monster smiled.  It was just saying hello, Terra told herself.

         The gargantuan critter smile wide with an open maw.  All Terra could see was a fleshy and glistening mouth, with an enormous uvula dangling in the back against the light of her room's lamp.  The tongue was still somewhat blue and the rest of the mouth a lighter shade of it with that glistening ghostly glow from earlier.  As the mouth breathed in Terra pushed away against the natural suction force it caused. Another breath pulled her closer with her paws slipping onto the bottom lip again.  

         The tongue lashed out once more at her, this time completely smothering her against the bed.  She pushed back all she could against it but it flattened over the canine and completely engulfed every inch of her, her fingers sinking deep into it as she was almost hugging back against it.  She gave a muffled cry underneath, and forced herself to try and think about what was happening.

         This felt real, as real as any other monster that had toyed with her the same way before.  She expected a certain warmth in such a situation.  That warmth wasn't coming, nor was it cold.  That unsettled her the most. It was as if nothing was there but she still felt it all around her.

         The photos from the morning flashed in her head.  Was this monster born from the same phenomena?  Why would this monster be related to the reported haunting of the hotel?  It was all Terra could do to keep calm.  To re-contextualize the situation was her goal for the moment.  The tongue folded back in, Terra prepared to keep away from it.  She was able to stay out of the maw for now.  She thought again about the critter.  Was this the same ghost, or a new one?

         What bothered her about the photograph snuck back into her mind.  If the owner had snapped the photo in the first place, was she even able to get away from it, if the ghost was this forceful?  What happened after Rose encountered the ghost?

         Terra flipped over onto her stomach, now staring down off the edge of the bed to the cleared floors.  She could make a run for the bathroom now, hide, or go for her clothing in the drawer, grab the phone, and call for help.  Gayle was probably fast asleep, and the shelter of the bathroom would be enough for her.  Maybe she could...

         Terra was reminded of the monster's habit of sucking on her pants cuffs, only because that feeling returned with one-hundred times the force on both of her feet.  Her legs were locked together, and as she whipped her head back, she saw her pajama legging tugged on at full power by the large set of the monster's lips sucking on her ankles.  There wasn't even time to grasp to the bed as her thighs slid along the bottom lips and disappeared inside, her tail and rump quickly following.

         A single kiss turned out to be super effective against the mutt as she was quickly sucked between the lips like a single noodle of spaghetti.  Growls mixed with frustrated whimpers of panic as more and more of her torso slipped inside the mouth and she was up to her armpits in monster lips.  She felt an incredible sucking at the back of her head as the lips enveloped her head and pillowed all over her face.  Her arms shot out for anything to grab onto, even if she needed to cling to the lips herself.  The last thing her fingers could think to do was clench to the bottom lip and hold on for as long as they could.  Even then, they began to slip back and out of sight from the room.

         Inside the mouth, Terra could still see thanks to the blue glow the creature gave off.  Confined in this wet and closed-off space, the glow turned Terra blue and her pajamas, now becoming soaked in ghostly saliva, a shade of purple.  The tongue cupped around her and guided her.  She once again felt herself sinking in the immense softness of it, but it was still doing its job as the mouth-filling muscle, scooping and pushing her back toward the creature's throat.

         Ducking to the side was her first instinct, but the tongue was ready for that, scooping her up some more and tossing her deeper back.  Terra could already feel herself sinking, with a combination of gravity and pulsing muscle sucking her down.  With nothing left to reach for, Terra shot her arms up and clung tight to the monster's uvula.

         A guttural noise vibrated all around the dog.  It wasn't a fan of Terra's new handhold, but it also wasn't giving up its attempts at swallowing her.  The uvula stretched with each passing second as Terra held tight, but each passing second pulled her down farther into the throat.  She felt around with her paws in hopes of finding any sort of purchase.  Instead the throat muscles constricted tighter around her legs and torso.  With another prolonged swallow, her hands slipped from the monster's uvula, and she quickly disappeared down the throat, the last view of her hands wriggling about as they vanished into the belly.

* * * * *

         Only Gayle's head and paws were free from the rubber hose's coiling, and they could barely move an inch with how well the vacuum cleaner had constricted around him.  He could breathe fine, quickly learning that the goal of the possessed shop vac was not to asphyxiate, but instead, hold him tight.  "Watch it!" Gayle yelped as the tip of the hose loomed over his head, and the vacuum powered up.  A suction strong enough to decapitate Gayle started up, and though he slipped just a couple inches closer, the rabbit was held tight enough to keep from being slurped up.  All it would take would be the coils to loosen just a bit and he'd go flying down the rubber hose.

         Nearby, the smaller cleaner watched.  This was just torture now.  Maybe repayment for that earlier kick.  He thought about trying to kick the bigger once instead.  With his paws still free to wiggle about, they brushed against something, and gave him an idea.

         With total control over the situation, the hose did loosen its hold, but just a little.  It wasn't enough to let go and send Gayle right in.  Worse he still felt the incredible pull around his face and head, with each floppy ear flapping wildly and about to fly right off the top.  He slipped just a bit closer after every second, with the threat of a head-first trip becoming more of a promise as his head started to enter the hose.

         Gayle waited for his chance.  The coil loosened completely, ready to let Gayle get sucked right in, but he didn't budge much after that.  Gayle had tied up his feet in the longer cord of the larger vacuum, just in time to anchor him from disappearing into the hose.  The whining of winds and motor halted while the vacuum thrashed about to get the rabbit free, and in its coiled mess of hose, got itself tied up on its own.

         The smaller vacuum rolled out of the way as Gayle tumbled out of the snake-like grip and jumped up without a moment's hesitation.  He booked it, without taking a single look back, sure that the larger vac was ticked off even more.  He flew down the central steps with one hand on the rail, making his way to the second floor.

         Gayle's hope that he had made any progress was certainly dashed on his trip down the stairs.  Ready to land his paws on the carpet of the lower floor, a force stopped them from descending and instead pulled them right back up.  The rabbits pajamas were no longer fluttering due to the pace of the descent, but instead madly flapped as gale-force winds lifted him up the staircase.  

         He held onto the railing with both hands, and his legs shot almost straight up.  The pull was intense and his grip tried to match that intensity.  He felt pretty anchored at the moment, which gave way to curses of frustration as, still locked to the railing, Gayle slid upwards along it like a track.  He felt himself twist around, disoriented, still locked in the upwards airflow, as he curved around the back side of the stairs and up to the previous floor.  Now back in the wind tunnel with the vacuum cleaner, Gayle leveled out and resumed being sucked horizontally.

         The walls, floor, and ceiling all heaved inwards as if the place was collapsing, and Gayle's legs were strictly locked back in the direction of the peeved vacuum cleaners.  The large one's hose was completely extended, its hose flaring wide as so much air was pouring inside of it.  If a vacuum could let loose a motherly fury, Gayle was surely experiencing it.

         Climbing down the rail was next to impossible with the amount of wind swirling through the hotel.  His body wavered with every twist of the air, doing its best to rip him from his railing hold.  He'd kick his legs but they'd snap right back.  At times he'd wave widely in all directions, but would always snap back to point right at the shop vac's raging hose.  With no way to get out of the force of suction, Gayle's lost grip was on schedule as the rabbit tumbled back down the hallway.

         Gayle wailed out in panic as he was rapidly approaching the pair of vacuums.  He'd slide, tumble, and bounce up, with barely any sense of direction to guide him.  For a moment he hooked himself on a lighting fixture, letting out some cries of “No-no-no!”  With feet locked in the air and the winds buffeting his entire body, the hold didn't last long.  He attempted some more holds on the couches, and finally, the last armrest before he'd reach the vacuum, but his grip could only hang on for a moment by himself.

         Gayle's pant legs were stretched to their limits as his feet were dangling near the entrance to the vacuum's hose.  His pajamas were pulled so tight Gayle was certain that they were going to be ripped off if he could hang on any more.  The vacuum had an almost supernatural power, winning with Gayle's last grip being torn from the couch. Effortlessly his legs slurped deep into the hose.  Not wanting to let the bigger vacuum win here, as his tail and torso swiftly followed, Gayle braced his arms to the side in an effort to catch his armpits against the rim of the hose.

         It worked, but now Gayle's entirely body vibrated with the suction of the hose whirring past his whole body.  The rubber hose heaved in an out around his frame, and the vacuum's force was concentrated entirely around him.  Gayle felt like he could start stretching with the vacuum pulled at his toes as much as it was.  His legs bounced side to side from within the shop vac's rubber trunk, vibrating with the straining hose.

         Gayle's arms couldn't keep up the fight, and the rest of his torso was sucked inside the rubber throat.  Without any energy in his upper body, Gayle's last bit of strength rest in his fingers, which gripped the lip of the cleaner.  The air continued to get sucked down past his body, Gayle burying his face in the side of the rubber to keep from being blinded by the winds.

         His fingers gave out, too.  Gayle quickly slid through the rubber hose, not going without a fight.  He pushed and tried to ball up to clog it, and at times, with his frame clearly pushing out from within the hose, could slow his descent.  The vacuum's hose was fairly strong, and any resistance from Gayle quickly died down, with him sliding deeper into darkness as he was completely sucked inside the vacuum's bucket.

         Gayle pushed around with hands and feet, his impressions raising up against the vacuum's body on the outside, but whatever material the device was made out of, it pushed back and wore him out.  Gayle was certain he'd be trapped here forever, or until Terra or the hotel's host could find him.  The place he was trapped was neither warm nor cold, but soon a warmth did find him.  Gayle felt something seeping in from outside.  It was the warmth of the morning sun.  Soon, more than warmth poured in.

         The sunlight was seeping through the vacuum itself, and its body grew translucent with more sunlight enveloping it.  Gayle could see the whole hallway now. He could see the smaller vacuum staring back, fading away in more light.  A final flash of light enveloped the area as the sun still rose, and after a moment of confusion, Gayle realized he was on the ground, alone, still balled up.

         He rose to his feet, rubbing his eyes and fixing his hair and pajamas.  Maybe it was shock, or just the long night, but Gayle didn't feel a tinge of panic anymore.  His vision focused, and a familiar number was just beside him.  Terra's room.

         With an ear to her door, and not a word, Gayle just heard snoring.  She must have been out cold.  With further listening, it felt pretty close, as if she was passed out near the door.  Gayle wondered what she had encountered over the night, but the need for sleep was quickly overtaking him.

         Gayle shot awake for just a moment.  He could have sworn, out of the corner of the eye, he saw something crawl into view from under his own door.  He rubbed his eyes again.  A huge, yet sleepy, sigh of relief rumbled out of him.  It was his key-card.  He must have dropped it over the course of events of the night.

         One beep, then two, and then three seconds later, Gayle collapsed face first in his bed, using his original clothes as a pillow.  His key card crawled up his body and tucked itself into the pockets of his pajamas.

* * * * *

         Gayle awoke in a puddle of drool-drenched clothing, his head almost face down on his makeshift pillow.  There was a slapping on his door, as Terra stood outside, knocking on it with the palm of her hand.  "I can't find the owner!" he heard through the doorway.

         There was a certain comfort to not having to debate if what happened the night before was real or not.  Of course it was real.  The soreness surging through his body proved it.  His arms still ached from all the holding on he was forced to do last night, and his whole body still felt stretched from being caught inside that vacuum's suction for so long.  He could easily drift back to sleep.  He sure wanted to.

         Gayle stretched out and snatched up his phone, transitioning from a yawn to a frustrated sigh as he saw the time.  Pocketing the mostly useless device, he stumbled over the door to great his coworker.  Terra paced around outside, wide awake and plastered with concern.  Gayle glanced past her through the windows.  Night time already.

         "What's wrong?" Gayle asked to Terra's dismay.

         Terra practically yanked him into the hallway.  She repeated herself, "I can't find Rose.  I can't find anyone else, either.  For lack of a better term, this place turned into a ghost town."

         Gayle chuckled, "Maybe we're the only ones alive and everyone we've seen so far was eaten by the hotel years ago.  That'd be pretty fun, wouldn't it?"

         The canine paced around again, looking up, then looking to the stairs, her mind wandering to the artist she spent time with just a floor above. "That'd suck," she said, "and be pretty boring!  How can you be making jokes anyways?  What time did you get back last night?  Did you see the same monsters?"

         Gayle selectively answered, "I passed out when the sun came up.  If you mean monsters, there was a couple weird vacuum cleaner things I got sucked into.  You know, the usual."

         "Yeah. Ended up inside another monster, myself.  The... usual.  Wait, you don't think it was weird, do you?"

         "Of course it was weird!  That was definitely a ghost thing.  Usually they're just monster spirits, or floating balloon things that harass us. That seemed oddly specific that we'd just end up in the stuff we normally get hoovered up by, isn't it?"

         Terra paused, glancing back up to the ceiling.  It slightly bulged down, usually a sign of someone walking above in a multi-story building.  Terra was certain whose footsteps those could be.  "Hey, I need to check up on someone that I met.  Could you continue the search for the owner since I didn't have any luck?"

         Gayle patted his foot, curious about Terra's plans for the evening.  "We get gobbled by ghosts on the first night, and our first instinct is to split up?"

         "Okay when you put it that way it sounds bad, and it is, but I just need to check if someone is okay before we resume any sort of investigation." She entertained the thought about having Gayle come along, then immediately suggested, "How about this, snooze a bit more or wait here, and when I text you let's meet down in the lobby and we can start searching for Rose."

         "Sure," Gayle agreed, lying.  Terra was quick to run up the stairs of the center staircase, but Gayle had other plans, walking up the steps at the end of the east corridor, making his way to the fifth floor, like last night.  If Terra had someone she could bug, then Gayle had his own group of weirdos to investigate in the meantime.

         All the while, during his walk down the hallways, Gayle watched closely at the windows.  Nothing but jet black waited outside.  It was as if the world no longer existed beyond the courtyard below.  No hint of jungle poked through the darkness, and no lights or planets shown in the sky.  As Gayle looked away, a streak flew across the sky.  He shrugged it off as lightning, but in the corner of his eyes, he caught what looked like a row of pointy teeth piercing the darkness before it faded back into nothing.

         "I hate this," Gayle muttered.

         Gayle wondered what sort of hassle he'd run into tonight.  He was quick to get into a defensive posture as the site of a plastic bolt entered his view. Just like last night, the lone piece of a broken device just sat there in the halls, waiting for him to stumble on it.  This piece was darker, a deep green, that gave off no glow.  Picking it up, Gayle wondered what sort of sinister device it could belong to, and how long before it assembled itself into a bigger cleaner ready to consume him whole and-

         A door shot open, just missing Gayle's nose.  The piece of machinery flew from his hands in his own moment of panic, and an otherworldly yelp escaped Gayle's lips.  The rabbit scrambled back for something to hold onto, wrapping his hands around a nearby plant, ready for the worst.  His ears perked up, ready to hear the haunted whirring yet again.  Instead they heard laughing.

         "Get in here," a deep voice rumbled in Gayle's head.  The bear from the electronic-carrying trio reached out a paw, helping the rabbit up, then lead him into their hotel room.  "You and your partner really gave us some entertainment last night," he smirked, pushing Gayle into the room and quickly shutting the door.

         "Whoa!" Gayle exclaimed, almost running around the room like a kid in a candy store for the first time.  The two-bed hotel room hardly resembled a traditional stay.  The beds were pushed aside in the corner, covered with duffel bags and electronics instead.  The bags were now being used the hold empty soda pop bottles as all of their previous contents were scattered among the desks and chairs in the room.  The platypus was tucked away in a corner, typing in a laptop, while the goat was monitoring the main station, which was a collection of 5 monitors with multiple screens on each.

         "This is," Gayle stammered, "This is the hotel!  You're monitoring us?"

         "Well not you, particularly," the goat chimed in, "We're just doing what ghost documenters do: looking for proof of paranormal activity to add to the collective archives.  We got cameras on each floor, running every night.  Don't worry, not in any rooms or other personal spaces."

         The bear, his grumbly snout very close to Gayle's own, leaning down a little to meet him eye-to-eye, warned, "And this is without permission. So we're going to hope, if you're as much a nerd about this stuff as we are, you're going to keep quiet about it.  Got it?"

         "Y-yeah!" Gayle nodded, "But, where's the ghost hunting stuff?  The infrared, the capture devices, or the night vision?  These all just look like regular cameras."

         "They are," the platypus replied, then went back to tapping away on the keyboard.

         The goat rummaged through a pile of data cards, continuing as they found a particular one and inserted it into the largest computer drive on the desk, "The great thing about most ghosts is that they don't really bother hiding, so we don't have to bother, in return, with that complicated shit.  Saves money for pop, too!"  The goat cracked open another soda.

         "Check this out," the bear pointed to the main monitor.  On it, from a camera hidden in the corner of the hall, was shown a video of Gayle pacing down the third-floor, chasing bits of electronic pieces that later formed the vacuum cleaner that almost got him.  The bear motioned for Gayle to keep watching, and he could see himself walk back into view, chasing a larger ball of electronics, but this time coming from the opposite direction.

         The bear explained, "We can't videotape what visual distortions you see, but looks like this critter lead you around quite a bit before getting to the main show, huh?"  Next up on the video feed was Gayle hanging on to the couch as an assembled vacuum-ghost was in the middle of sucking him closer.  The rabbit never considered how goofy it looked, with the trio of friends laughing as Gayle's cheeks bellowed in the wind.

         The goat skipped ahead to a cut of Gayle reaching the floor below, only the get whisked away back up the stairs a moment after.  The next video showed what happened to Terra the previous night, with a torrent of tiny monsters flowing through the hall, and eventually knocking out the camera.  "We still need to put that one back up, but we're too chicken to go out right now," the goat said.

         Gayle asked, "Why are you showing me this, anyways?"

         "Because you don't belong here," the platypus coldly interjected.

         Before Gayle could protest, the bear brandished an electronic wand device connected to a small handheld screen, running it up and down his sides.  A howling sound crackled from the monitor in the handheld machine, the bear shaking his head and commenting, "You're covered in ghost, man.  My friend's right.  Where's your equipment? Where's your scientific method with this?  You're just going to show up, offer yourselves up as ghost chow, and do it again the next night?  You're out of your league without a plan."

         "We like to wing it," Gayle proudly declared.

         The bear growled, "You're going to wing it into the next dimension if you remain careless."

         Gayle wished to further antagonize the group, or boast about all the other trouble he got into working on Zeppy, or do anything to rebuke them and their smug attitudes, but he was still tired from the previous night. "Maybe I should go meet up with my coworker..."

         "You should," the bear said as he lead him out of their hotel room, "and listen, we just hate seeing amateurs getting caught up in this stuff.  You could really be in danger if you poke around where you shouldn't."

         "Well, thanks for the concerns, I guess."

         "Listen," the ghost hunter said with both paws on the rabbit's shoulders, "If you want to help, talk some sense into the owner of this place then get out of here.  She doesn't understand what's going on as much as you guys do, and if she keeps this up it's going to end up with guests disappearing."

         "Wait, what?"

         There was a commotion erupting from the bear's hotel room, with his partners calling him to come back in.  Before he turned away, he gave one last piece of advice to Gayle, "Whatever you do, if you see a source of blue light, stay away, or if you can, hang on until morning, got it?"

         Before Gayle could nod, uncertain if he understood, the door slammed shut.  He weighed the worth of pounding on the door and bugging them further, but his attention drifted down the corridor to the stairs at the end of the east wing.  A tall, thin, figure rose up along the stairs. Five sets of eyes gazed back at him.  Five sets of legs carried it up the stairs.  Five mouths smiled at Gayle.  The being pressed up against the door at the end of the hall, and oozed through it, leaving the rabbit to his lonesome again.

         "Oh right, the lobby," he reminded himself, and took off.

* * * * *

         "...It moved?" Terra responded, joining Santina in the corner of her own hotel room, both huddled around the work on Santina's latest canvas.  It was a painting of frustration, multiple colors, unfinished monsters.  A disgruntled smile of a monster making up the landscape of the painting.  It was both a place and a creature, captured in abstract shapes of paint competing with one another.

         "I hate this painting," Santina grumbled to Terra, running her fingers along the saturated acrylics, "but I needed to crap this one out if I'm going to get anything done.  You ever just need to let something out in frustration, like a muffled yell, but inside your own work?"

         Terra chuckled nervously, "Oh yeah I yell all the time from inside my work. Okay, but seriously, what do you mean it moved last night?"

         Santina gently grabbed Terra's right wrist, running her hands along her own down the painting.  "I did this," she described, "then it like... tried to kiss my hand back.  It was really weird, like the lips of it were protruding from the painting itself.  Like it was trying to... chomp at my hand!"

         Terra's laughter stopped abruptly, painfully shown to be masking something to Santina. The chameleon's eyes darted over to the canine, who readily avoided making contact like dodging an attack.  Terra cleared her throat, taking both of her new friend's hands and guiding her away from the painting, across from the lone bed, between the painting in the back of the room and the only door out of there.

         "Terra," the artist calmly yet sternly said, stopping herself from being pulled along by her friend, "If something's wrong you can tell me.  This weird stuff started happening last night, right?  You can tell me, it looks like you seen some crazy shit, huh?"

         Santina wrapped her hands around Terra's as she deflected, "Well we were both drinking, and..."

         "Nuh-uh," Santina stopped her right there, "You saw something, and we both know there were weird rumors to begin with about this place.  So you either saw something, or you know what's happening, and you're going to tell me, right?"

         Terra let out a frustrated whimper and nodded, "You know, Santina, it's just that I hate that I totally believe you on the whole painting thing. It's more like, I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay after us both being kinda sloshed last night, and now that you are and telling me about this painting weirdness, I'd like to get as far away from it before, well..."

         Her eyes were still avoiding the chameleon's, as hard as that was.  They locked to the painting, which as if on cue, the colors fudged themselves a bit. On any other night Terra would have disregarded it.  After the events of the last night, Terra's paws were ready to bolt out of there.

         "Ah, I get it," Santina giggled, "It's acting funny, isn't it?" As Santina said that, Terra pulled her new friend a bit closer, as if to silently tell her to leave, right then.  "Hey Terra, it's cute you wanna protect me, but I think I can handle my own art-"

         The chameleon's eyes easily gazed toward her work-in-progress.  Ready to be in awe of her work coming to life, it was a bit more than she was prepared to handle.  Practically falling into Terra's lap, she stumbled back onto Terra's feet, tripping them both up and sending them to the plush carpet below.  The mouth of her painting was practically staring back, having protruded more with its colorful lips, a giant smirk opening, stretching the canvas from frame to frame, distorting the artwork and acrylics making up its canvas.

         The painting breathed in just a moment, with breath powerful enough to slide the two animal-kin closer along the floor.  As they slid closer, Terra felt the squeeze of Santina's tail wrapping around her waist as tight as their arms were wrapping around each other.  The work of art then bellowed out a long, drawn-out cry, sending the pair, huddled in each others arms, back across the room, pressing them deep into the soft walls of the room and holding them in place with air pressure.

         "That's wild!" the chameleon lady laughed as the air pushed them deep into the walls.  Terra, with cheeks blown wide open from the wind, stared deep into the colorful maw of the painting, filled with its own inner workings going more deeper than the one-inch canvas could allow.  She wanted, with every muscle in her body, to reach for the door, but the air bellowing out was not allowing them much movement.

         The painting finished its breath outwards, leaving the two to slide back down besides each other on the floor.  Santina's tail was not wrapped as tightly, worrying Terra about what could be coming next.  Terra heavily suggested, yanking on the artist's arms, "We can discuss the finer points of your art in the morning, but for now, let's scram, okay?"  

         Santina shook her head up and down eagerly.  The painting was more eager to not let them leave.  The lips stretched to the limits of the canvas as it opened its mouth open wide, and the wall behind the two heaved in, as if pushing them off.  Air rushed around the room in a chaotic torrent, swirling inward down the painting's "throat". Bits of painting supplies and clothing scattered along the room, along with the works in progress of a handful of sketches, danced to life in the air before swirling into the acrylic maw.

         Terra and Santina were sliding rapidly toward the bed, caught in the swirl of rushing air that circled the painting like a drain.  Terra squeaked out a gasp of panic when she no longer felt her friend's tail clinging to her.  Santina, closer and perhaps more of the target of her own painting, was pulled away from Terra's lap and into the air. Terra's own fingers did their best to cling to the chameleon's, but Santina's two-toed feet quickly swung behind her back into the air despite her anchor.

         Most of the belongings in the room had been sucked into the painting's maw.  All that was left were the two animal-kin caught in the maelstrom and getting closer.  Terra instinctively fell to her back propping up her paws and letting them smack against the bed.  Santina whipped up higher over the bed as Terra tried her best to pull her back down into a hug, but the winds were not letting go.  The chameleon's tail wrapped tightly into itself, as if winding itself up in panic as she was caught directly in the intake of air.

         "You're used to this, aren't you!?" Santina cried out, picking up on the calmness in Terra's face as she tried to hang onto her.  The artist's grip flew out of Terra's, Santina grabbing to the edge of the bed like hanging off the edge of a soft cliff.

         Terra grunted as she dove to the side of the bed to keep from being sucked over like Santina.  She could feel the winds doing their best to tug at her clothing and fur in order to lift her up.  Terra kept herself down as best she could, and balled herself up near Santina in an attempt to stay aerodynamic.  "Unfortunately!" the canine finally answered back over the sounds of howling wind.

         The covers of the bed were already yanked into the swirling maw, leaving the bed bare to anything else to hang onto.  Chameleons, more than many animal-kin, were pretty good at hanging on to the environment, but the squishy bed made it easy for Santina's fingers to unceremoniously slip off.  She yelped as he felt her grip slide down the mattress, and was certain she'd go flying in until Terra's left hand made a last second save.

         Terra was pulled up sideways along the bed, left arm and left leg dangling over toward the vacuuming painting, her right hand and right foot lodging themselves into the sides of the bed.  The strain was incredible, and Santina picked up on this with Terra's painful grunts.  The chameleon held to Terra's single hand with both of her own, and at this point was lifted completely off the bed by the winds.

         "I never asked you what you did for a living!" Santina shouted, "I feel pretty bad about that!  I just got so caught up in wanting to blab about art, I forgot to ask more about you!"

         "Why..." Terra grunted again as she felt herself getting pulled harder up over the bedside, "Why are you telling me this?"  Her ears smacked against her face, her hair and floppy ears obscuring the scene as she also felt Santina's grip leaving hers.  She heard laughter belting out of the chameleon.  "Why are you doing that! Come on, climb up!"

         Santina gave one last shout out to Terra, "I guess I'm getting my wish!" Santina flew from Terra's grip.  The shock of it caused Terra to flip up over the bed.  She scrambled against the surface to hang on, being pulled across it, all while watching her friend get directly sucked into the painted maw.

         Terra watched in horror as Santina slid deeper and deeper down an acrylic throat, grasping for anything to hang on to as she was sucked out of view. She missed catching the lips of the painting, sliding deeper with each second, and slipped easily down the oozing tunnel into a swirl of colors and then darkness.

         Terra was spared as the lips of the painting shut tight.  Content, the painting's animated state settled, and in its colorful landscape, Terra spotted a familiar friend trapped among the many colors, sketches, and paint. Santina was now part of her own works, her body matching the colors that surrounded her.

         With a gulp, and no time to admire the art, Terra ran out of the room.  She hoped Gayle had already made his way to the lobby.  She bounded down the hall, ignoring the hotel's attempts to mock her as she approached the stairs.  The walls were now lined with portraits, all of Santina, her eyes following Terra with each step.  She was smiling in each portrait.  Terra kept staring straight ahead, teeth clenched.

* * * * *

         Terra stood alone, almost as expected, in the center of the main lobby.  She scorned as softly as she could, "Gayle!  I know we didn't agree on any sort of time but I could REALLY use you here right now!" Her tail wagged about with an intense anxiety she hadn't felt in a long time.  She paced about the room, almost wanting to kick something in frustration and anticipation, all the while the painting of Rosalia watched her every move.  Terra's inherent kindness prevented her from tearing it down, as much as she wished to indulge her angry inner voices.

         With a strong desire to get out of view of the towering painting, Terra leaned up against the main counter with her back to it, elbows "resting" on it as much as she could despite the circumstances.  A rustling of papers and unknown objects shocked her from behind, as well as a thud, and familiar cursing.  "Gayle!?"

         Her best friend and coworker rubbed his head as he rose up from behind the counter. Terra's scowl intensified as she rushed over, peering over the counter to see the piles of folders and key cards scattered around his fuzzy feet.  "You couldn't even wait for me to start snooping through her stuff," she huffed.

         Gayle explained while fixing his hair and ears, "Hey, I had enough time to get something to eat while waiting, and let me assure you, their complimentary food sucks.  My exploration was also a bust.  Just some geeky voyeurs that make me look restrained when it comes to tech.  So I figured, with no other clues to go on, why not just assume that the owner isn't telling us something?"

         "Of course she's not!" Terra exclaimed, keeping her voice somewhat low, "She wanted us to help find out what's going on, so she wouldn't have any more idea than we would!  You were supposed to text me when you got down here."

         “No, you were supposed to text me.”  Gayle casually leaned up on the counter, placing a set of folders featuring a couple relevant numbers, "My room, your room, and the ghost peepers' room.  Want to know what they have in common?  Also, why are you whispering?  If the owner finds us then we'll just interrogate her.  Or are you more afraid the ghosts will find us here?  Or, let's just think about this, the owner IS a ghost and will try to eat us?  Yeah, I'm kinda leaning on that hypothesis and..."

         "Gayle!" Terra snarled as she yanked his collar, "Santina, the artist we saw a couple nights ago... a friend, got inhaled by one of her own pieces of art!  We gotta rescue her before..."

         The rabbit brushed her paws away, going back to his folders, "Before she wakes up in her room the next morning like we did?  You ended up in the belly of a monster and you turned out alright, right?"

         "Yeah but this is different, she..."

         "Yeah?"

         "Yeah okay it's the same thing."

         "Good!" Gayle smiled, patting the desk in a not-so-subtle attempt to steer the conversation back to ghost conspiracies.  The last words of the ghost-watching trio came to mind in that instant, giving the rabbit pause, and he returned to the subject of Terra's friend in another attempt to calm her mind.  Depending on the answer, he wasn't so sure it would have the desired effect.  "So, uh, she didn't get sucked into any blue lights, did she?"

         "No, why?"

         Gayle let out a breath of relief and fiddled with the folders again, a bit more excitedly.  "Great!  Well I think that's great!  I just know the three weirdos on the top floor told me the blue light is bad, so uh, great to hear she's not gone or anything!  Well maybe she is and we just don't have a full understanding yet of what's going on.  Oh, but let's not think about that."

         Terra's scowl returned, "Yes, let's."  She pulled back her hands, ready to yank Gayle over the counter, and inquired, "So, folders. What's the deal there?  Since you're stealing stuff, find anything interesting?"

         "Hey, not stealing!  These are our records anyways, and that's the point. They're empty."  He flipped open each of them, revealing literally nothing inside.  Terra's instinct was to assume this had been a hotel that caught up with the times but not a computer was in sight, and in hindsight, she remembered the owner didn't so much as write down a single thing when they got their rooms.

         "I'll admit, that's a little suspicious," Terra agreed as she fished out her own key-card out.  She  flipped the card over and around for a bit.  "I guess it's not common for room cards to have a number on them, right?"

         Gayle shrugged, feeling around his pockets for his own card.  He abruptly dropped down to his knees, scrambling around and fishing through all the cards that had dropped by him on the floor.  "Ugh, I must have dropped it down here.  Of course you say that right as it would become a huge problem."

         Terra chuckled, "Well if you need to you can crash in my room.  I doubt we'll be able to find the owner at this hour anyways.  Unless you're up for combing around the first floor for her office, maybe if she's a ghost, she'll find us."

         Gayle tossed a few cards aside, now sitting cross-legged in defeat.

         "Oh, there it is!" Terra pointed out, "Stuck on your back.  Good job managing that."

         "Is it even mine?" Gayle asked, groping around his own back with both arms. Terra let out a squeaky gasp as Gayle seemingly couldn't find it clinging to him.  "What, where is it?"

         "It's, it's..." Terra stammered, her finger wildly pointing around Gayle's body.  The card had moved, on its own, across Gayle's pajamas, deftly dodging each grab with his fingers.  The rabbit could now feel it moving around his back, with something that felt like little legs.

         "Gayle!" Terra called out, tossing her own card aside as it had sprung multiple legs and started scuttling up her arm.  The card ran up the side of counter, and joined a swarm of other cards that had now jumped to life and climbed all over Gayle's one-piece suit.  In a panic the rabbit smacked them off, sometimes needing to rip them right from his clothes.  They were quick and relentless, sticking awkwardly to the rabbits clothing and fur.  He could feel each pair of legs cling and climb all over him and it was doing a great job freaking him out.

         The "cards" had lost all feeling of rigidity and stuck tighter to the rabbit, more and more piling on and forming a layer of goo around him.  His left foot made a sick plop as it struggled to pull off of the ground, now completely wrapped in more cards as they suctioned themselves against his body, forming a vacuum seal.  More of Gayle was being covered up by the cards as they hopped up and covered his legs, starting to glow brighter with their ghostly aura.

         Gayle's legs could hardly budge now.  He was becoming mummified with each passing second, and more cards burst from boxes and joined their fellow sticky tape forms, wrapping around the rabbit's slender body.  Gayle reached out for Terra, but his arm locked up as they were swarming with such precision over every extremity and sealing him faster.

         Terra backed away, aghast, and further upset as she saw the eyes of Rosalia's painting locked down on her.  Gayle was in a muffled panic as there was hardly any red or green left to poke out from under his ghostly wrappings.  Terra, spying the ancient safety standards of the building, noticed the fire extinguisher from under the painting.  She took a gamble, unsure which era the device came from or if it even worked, and yanked it from the wall.

         "Please be up to code!" Terra braced herself, pointing the nozzle of the cylindrical device at an almost completely immobilized Gayle.  There were two common types of extinguishers in the world, and often used interchangeably by businesses.  Older models relied on the tried-and-true method of robbing fire of all the oxygen around it. Some modern ones went a bit further and actually applied something to the fire.  Terra hoped for the former, squeezing down on the handle.

         Gayle's mummified form was instantly broken, as every card freaked out at the same moment and like confetti popped off of him.  The cards hung in the air for just a second before all swirling together in a vortex toward the extinguisher's nozzle as it sucked them in.  Gayle, also caught in its suction, pushed back on his tip-toes before flying toward Terra.  With the last ghost card pulled in, the extinguisher flew out of her arms as Gayle landed on her.

         "Well that sucked!" Gayle said without even thinking, his arms wrapped around Terra's.

         Bodies frozen, they both watched as the fire extinguisher propped itself on its own and lifted off the floor, as if a string was pulling it.  The guise of the red device melted away and then expanded as a bubble, until three rows of blank eyes with a wide grin opened up on its face.  Two little nubs hung from the side like little arms dangling free.

         The ghost belched loudly and continuously to expel all the air it had inhaled, sending Gayle and Terra's ears flopping back away from their dumbfounded expressions.  With another prolonged burp, an entire belly's worth of ghost cards flew out and oozed together to form a second ghost, one that was more rectangular shaped, and the same color as the key cards.

         The ghostly duo rose together towards the ceiling, laughing, in tones the pair of animal-kin had never heard before.  The paranormal mimics pressed into the ceiling, sinking into it, and vanishing out of sight.

         "Of course," Gayle huffed, "It wasn't ever just a single ghost."

         Terra wanted to give chase up the stairs, but was more willing to wait for her friend to regain his breath.  She let out a tired breath herself, as something else caught her attention, "Yeah, and it's not over. Looks like the owner was here the whole time."

         Eyes fixed on the biggest attraction in the lobby, the painting, Gayle and Terra scooted back on their butts as far away from it as they could, soon pressing up against a couch across a couple fastened chairs, where the artist had worked a few days back.  The canvas oozed out tar-like paint onto the floor as a figure reached out from within the frame of the canvas.  Rosalia's image grew larger as more of her arms and torso pulled themselves out, like it was a great muck she was crawling herself out of.  Her sharp fangs glowed in the red light of the lobby lighting, her blue eyes now purple in that red glow. Rosalia's upper form braced itself against the floor as her cold eyes locked on the two guests cowering in the corner of the room.  She practically filled the whole lobby now, having stretched and filled out the room.

         "Of freaking course!" Gayle shouted as he almost shot up from his seat, Terra desperately clawing at him to get back, "Way to make us think you were one of us, but we're just food to you, aren't we? Or just entertainment!"

         Terra did her best to scramble up to Gayle and try to yank him back, but Rosalia's painted form wasn't having any of it.  The black cat's large mouth opened wide with a sinister hiss.  A heavy wind flowed out, carrying Gayle and Terra back in each others arm to the corner of the room. Her snarls filled the entire lobby with a throbbing echo, and each breath out pushed the pair of animal-kin deeper into a couch's cushions.

         It was Terra's time to chime in, "Give back Santina you showboating spirit! I've dealt with monsters hundreds of times your size and they were scarier than your little ... show!"  Terra was lying.  She was almost as terrified as Gayle, trying to put on an act as big as his.

         Hugging each other was the only thing the pair could think to do as their haunted host grinned.  The giant protruding painting of Rosalia lowered itself, its chin sunk to the floor with its mouth opening wider.  As if a welcoming carpet was rolling out, the tongue cupped and lowered itself and the throat beckoned wide.  The ghostly feline breathed in an otherworldly breath.

         Terra and Gayle cried out almost in unison, letting go of each other in order to hang onto something themselves.  Their holds on the couch were short lived, with Gayle soaring atop a table and grabbing hold, and Terra flying up over a chair, able to sink her claws onto the top of it. Their legs kicked back behind them in the brief moment they had to try and get away, but paws soon locked in the direction of Rosalia's glowing maw.

         "The blue light!" Gayle warned, turning his head to confirm the worst possible situation.  The room's lighting pulsated with purple now as the light emanated from Rosalia's endless throat.  Gayle was certain if they got sucked in, they wouldn't end up in a ghost's belly, but instead, the ghost's own dimension.  Fixated on their possible fate, Gayle didn't give attention to his grip, fingertips slipping from the rounded edges of the tabletop.  The rabbit was quickly sucked back in the airflow, whimpering out for help as he soared over Terra.  His coworker was quick to kick up her legs, just in reach of Gayle's hands as he gripped to her paws, clenching his fingers onto her toes in a last second anchor.

         Gayle's body lowered to the ground with the help of gravity, but only for a moment as the winds lifted him back up and pointing deep into Rosalia's maw. "Teamwork!" Gayle joked as his secured his grip on Terra's paws.

         "Teamwork I guess!" she replied back, "We worked together to piss her off!  I was wondering how I'd die but getting sucked into an inn's painting wasn't the way I'd imagine it!"

         "How were you imagining it?  Why were you imagining it!?"

         "Oh, you know!  Just the inevitable workplace mishap with a friendly monster. Or accidentally trampled by Aster.  How about you?"

         "Terra I could really go for not answering that!"  Gayle didn't want to tell her but he could feel his own grip slipping some more.  There was nothing left to hang onto between Terra and the painting, and Rosalia's humongous form was doing a great job at pulling the two in. "Terra," Gayle strained himself to say as his own hold faltered by the second, "Please just promise me... you'll make sure I can somehow haunt Kaz instead!"

         The rabbit cried out as he lost his hold, leaving Terra's paws to swing up without him anchored to them.  Terra cried out as well, with her grip failing as equally fast, letting go to follow him.  They soared back toward their haunted host, immediately enveloped in the uneasy warmth of her mouth.  Terra could do the only thing she could think of, to hang onto Gayle's legs, returning the favor.  She was so caught up in the moment that she didn't even question how she was able to hang onto Gayle when he had been sucked in first.

         "This is great footage!" the platypus belted out, with a camera in both hands.  He was floating in the air, with a harness tied to a rope, connected to a suction cup device stuck to a nearby wall.  The platypus was completely airborne, yet safe, filming the entire incident on his own with the camera zoomed in right down Rosalia's throat, capturing Terra and Gayle in the shot.

         The bear, wielding his own weight and leverage to keep from being dragged in with Gayle and Terra, had snatched both of Gayle's arms and held on as a new anchor.  The rabbit and canine were pressed into the ghost painting's cheek, the full force of her breath still trying to pull them in, but the bear easily held them back.

         The goat was doing his small yet important part, acting as a jack with feet on the bottom lip, and hands on the top, to keep the painting's chompers from coming down on them.  Gayle was pretty sure that particular step wasn't necessary, and the goat felt that too, but it was nice to think he was helping.

         "Look who else I found!" the goat declared, motioning one thumb back before resuming his anti-chomp duties.

         The ghost-hunting trio had brought with them a familiar figure.  Rose herself, in her usual inn-keeping attire, slid out from a hallway, having poked enough in to be dragged closer by the painting's vacuum. With one arm at the back of the goat, and the other clinging to bear, she held on between them, doing her best to not kick Gayle in the face.

         "Wow, that's terribly tacky!" she exclaimed, "To use my own relative as a cheap scare?  I'm almost disgusted, you guys, this was the one thing that was off limits!"  She reached up and smacked Rosalia's nose, losing her own balance and being carried into the painting's mouth.  She grabbed to Terra's shoulders, her own legs now kicking up behind her, joining in the chain of animal-kin.

         "The blue light!" Gayle yelled, "Something's dangerous about this one. You guys have to pull us out now!"

         "Oh yeah that's your fault, probably," Rose smirked, seemingly unworried.

         "What!?" Gayle and Terra both shouted back.

         "Yeah, yeah," Rose explained, "It's kinda hard to explain hanging on like this, but this ghost kind of just... gives people the fright they want to see.  I'm assuming someone was scared of paintings or had them on the mind, and another got this blue light nonsense in their head, and looks like it combined into this big abomination which, I'd like to remind my friend here of, was NEVER supposed to happen!  Grand-mama would roll in her grave if she saw herself being used as a cheap attraction!"

         "Wait, why are you talking like that?" Gayle strained further to hang onto the bear's grip, "Maybe this would be easier if we weren't hanging on like a bunch of weirdos in this thing's mouth!"

         Terra pressed further, "Why are you talking like you made a deal with them!?"

         Rose confessed, "Because I did.  They kept acting up like this, and I thought this whole time it would attract a ton of business but instead just a bunch of ghosts moved in and became a hassle all on their own.  I know..."  Rose paused herself for a moment as she slipped down Terra's back, now hanging onto her waist, her own paws starting to kick themselves deeper in Rosalia's throat.  She finished, "I know this won't mean much but I'm still lost at what to do!  I can't have guests stay if these ghosts won't give them an evening of peace!"

         "Why'd you even think that was a good idea!?" Gayle hollered back.

         Rose explained, slipping farther down Terra's legs with each passing sentence, "This place was abandoned before Rosalia passed.  I thought I could..." Rose grasped now to Terra's ankles, now having to shout to cover the distance, "I thought if I could spark a rumor of this place, we'd give a reason for people to come!"

         "Weirdos, wrap it up!" the bear snarled at them all, struggling to not get pulled in himself.

         "I mean it kind of worked," Terra chimed in, "I don't know if this hotel is for us anymore!  This might seem wild, but why not keep it as a hotel for ghosts?  People would come from all over to check it out, and you get to keep your grandmother's hotel running!"

         Gayle laughed. Of course Terra would suggest that.  Kaz must have been really rubbing off on her if a ghost hotel was the first thing to spring to mind.  Gayle just prayed Kaz would never rub off on him.

         The hotel's new owner gave a lot of quiet thought to the idea, slipping further down Terra's paws in the process.  The ghost hunters grew tired of the waiting, the goat and the platypus having headed back to their rooms, and the bear just leaving Gayle to grip to the side of the painterly feline's mouth while he went out for a smoke.  The painting itself was in its own state of suspended animation, despite the constant airflow rushing into the back of its maw.

         "Okay," Rose finally pepped up, "That's going to be a lot of dedication, but I think I can make it work!  See you two tomorrow!"  Rose let go, against Gayle and Terra's audible protests, sliding off into the blue light.  After a few moments the painting had stopping trying to inhale Gayle and Terra, letting them roll out of its mouth before the fake Rosalia slinked back into the frame, resuming its still creepy watch over the lobby.

         "I don't have my key card anymore," Terra said.

         "Oh boy," Gayle muttered.

* * * * *

         Morning came with Gayle collapsed on a couch, Terra below him on the floor, sunk into it a bit with just as much comfort.  "Hey sleepy head," a welcomed voice greeted Terra awake, with a two-toed foot prodding at her side.

         "Hey Santina," Terra yawned with a lazy stretch, suddenly springing awake from the sight of her friend's return.  Santina carried with her all of her painting tools and easel, folded up and stashed in carrying equipment.  She could easily handle carrying it all in its compressed state.  Terra asked, "You okay?"

         Santina yanked up her last bag over her shoulders.  The sounds of a hundred small containers of paint and brushes could be heard rolling around inside. "I'm fine," Santina said with her usual warm smile, "Last night was quite a trip.  Just like I wanted, I got to see what it was like to be a part of my own paintings.  It was... kind of messy and kind of a nightmare?  Anyways, I gotta get back to my main studio. Rose said the stay was on the house, so I can splurge a little more on supplies on the way home.  You cool, Terra?"

         "Yeah, just glad you're okay."

         "Cool!  Now give me your phone number, you nerd."

         The morning continued, Gayle and Terra turning in their complimentary clothing and returning to their exploratory jumpsuits, having found new key cards mysteriously left out on the counter addressed to each of them. They waited in the lobby for Rose to return.  Terra was off in the corner, texting back and forth with her new friend, while Gayle was approached by the ghost-monitoring trio.

         "Your friend signed these release forms, so can you..." the platypus instructed, getting his papers snatched by Gayle as he quickly signed them with the caring of an afterthought.  "Cool, thanks!" The platypus waddled off, the goat in tow, carrying a bunch of equipment with him.

         Gayle asked, "So what was the deal with you guys and Rose last night?"

         The goat responded before getting too far away, "We convinced ourselves we needed to show Rose the footage, especially after all the trouble you guys got in.  We might like chasing weird stuff, but we got a little concerned with how much weird stuff liked chasing you two."

         "You're not a ghost hunter, are you?" the bear asked as he sat across from Gayle, "So why bother coming?"

         "Just another scheme from my boss," Gayle shrugged, shuffling around in his seat.  He yanked out his phone, showing the bear a picture of Zeppy, adding, "See this nightmare?  That's my workplace.  I'm stuck putting together junk that this thing sucks up, and was hoping I'd get to see some cool ghost busting equipment.  You know, for ideas of what to make?  Instead, well, it was just cameras.  Oh, and vacuums.  I build a lot of those, turns out."

         The bear chuckled, laughs booming out from within his belly, "You're overthinking, man.  We're not ghost 'hunters', per se.  These things have much a right to live here as any other monster.  As you or me do.  But, hmm..."  The bear pulled out a card and gave it to Gayle.  "Visual documentation is important, and so are reliable tools for ghost tracking.  If you guys give a good price, maybe we can work out a deal.  Some shared knowledge and tech.  Cool?"

         "Yeah, cool."  Gayle revealed he had kept the platypus' pen, and scribbled something to a piece of paper, which he handed the bear. "Honestly it's best if you contact Kaz, and give him what you want built.  He's way better at negotiating prices than I am.  Who knows, maybe working on cameras and stuff, documentation or whatever, would be good for Terra's monitoring, and good for our place." Gayle shook hands with the bear, and the trio was on their way.

         "This is a nice pen," Gayle nodded, pocketing it.

         "I can't believe we brought nothing on a ghost hunting trip," Gayle said as Terra sat by him.  Terra didn't have much to add, tapping away on her phone with Gayle doing the same.

         Rose walked up to the counter, just as she had done on the first evening, greeting them as they walked up, "I'm sorry about all... this, that happened.  Last night, those three gentlemen showed me what the ghosts were doing to the guests.  I didn't think they'd go that far. Maybe a jump scare here or there, or a silly noise, but I should have known a ghost monster is still a monster after all, and that comes with, well, let's say monster-ly habits."

         "Uh," Gayle rose a finger.

         "Yes, your nights are absolutely free."  Gayle and Terra both sighed in relief.  Gayle pondered if they should still tell Kaz they paid for each night on their own.

         Gayle pocketed the money returned to each of them and inquired, "This has been bugging me for a while now.  Why a hotel, all the way out here?"

         "It wasn't always in such an isolated spot," Rose sighed, fishing through some files, and showing the pair an older photograph of the area. The photo was taken from the roof, showing an inn surrounded by buildings suspended in the air by various balloons and devices. "There was a city here, a nomadic city, like many are, before the jungle took over the area.  My grandmother thought the city finally found a home, and offered to be the first to permanently build a place for animal-kin to stay.

         After the hotel was established, the forest unexpectedly grew faster than anticipated.  No one wanted to invest in the area, and simply moved on, leaving this place behind.  It did try to stay in business for a bit, but I didn't get to help out much before the place closed.  I only knew of work in a casino before coming here so the thought of having my own place was a bit of naive fun."

         She continued, unprovoked, "When I first encountered the ghosts, they showed me a hotel bustling with life.  Ghost life, maybe, but still!  I realized they were just showing me what I wanted, and I thought, if I brought in guests, they'd want to stay and see stuff they wanted to see.  Turns out it wasn't that simple, and it could manifest in weird ways.  Either that or your two are just wrecked by anxiety and the ghosts played off that."

         Gayle and Terra gulped, and said nothing.

         "The ghost hotel angle sounds exciting," Rose said as she playfully bit at her fist in thought, "You guys were the first visitors anyways, I mean you and the ones who just left, and this wasn't about making money.  I don't know if this is what my dear grandmother would want, but Rosalia was always more about show than profits.  Actually, that probably explains why she went out of business so fast!"

         Rose laughed, not in a forced way, but still in a way that didn't make Gayle and Terra feel comfortable laughing with.  "Maybe if things pick up, I can still live up to my promise to you two.  You guys came here for your own reasons, ended up getting in way more trouble than any of the other residents, and now I can't really offer anything in return."

         "It's fine!" Terra chimed in, cheerfully, "I met a new drinking partner!"

         Gayle blinked, then added, not really wanting to address that, "Um, I think we got some business out of it, at the end of the day!  If things pick up, uh, when you get famous for your ghost hotel, just mention it's like the famous Zeppy, holder of so many unique monsters!"  Kaz would love this.  Gayle felt even more hollow.

         "Deal," Rose smiled, shaking each of their hands.  Somewhat somber, she turned away to return to her chambers, giving a final farewell, "I wish you two the best.  Things may have gotten rough, but I hope you two get to actually relax a bit once you get back to your regular lives."

         The two parting animal-kin bit their lips hard against that statement, and gave their own farewells.  Rose left them alone, to leave on their own, and return to their daily lives of... getting inhaled by machines and munched on by monsters.  Totally different than their hotel ghost adventure.

         As Terra and Gayle opened the doors to leave the hotel, hopefully to never return, an unknown voice had the last say.  As if on the wind itself, through the open door, the duo heard, "Hope you had a good stay!"   The voice was elderly, and carried with it a kindness the pair was not used to.  Despite their instincts to keep going, Gayle and Terra looked back across the empty lobby, with only the painting of Rosalia Velveteen the Second gazing their way.

- Work Sucks: Side Story – The Paperweight –

         Gayle stared at the box for longer than he needed to, sitting cross legged and contemplative.  I'm wasting a lot of time thinking about what I already know will happen if I attempt to open this box, he thought, but continued to sit there and zone out.

         I'm okay with this.

         It was a slow day, much slower than usual.  There was no morning encounter with one of Terra's monsters, no surprise emergencies caused by Kaz, and no sudden encounters with Socks.  Only the piles of junk Zeppy had scarfed up surrounded Gayle and kept him company.  Just another day on the job with a gadget or two to fix up, and then, this box.  A box with no buttons.

         Certainly Gayle was no stranger to devices like these.  Press a button on a weird looking cylinder, and get sucked into the tornado it spawns.  Toss a little sphere at someone (or drop it on his own foot, as Gayle had) and they get sucked right into it.  Gayle knew he was going to end up in this stupid little box, and for now he puzzled over how that may happen.

         There were hardly any patterns on this thing, nor any places to jam a screwdriver or two (his favorite method of “fixing” something). Gayle wondered if it was some sort of vortex weaponry, or maybe even a travel device.  At this point in his career, Gayle didn't put it past the box to open some sort of hell dimension if he just dripped a little of his blood on it.

         The box was smooth on the corners.  The color of it was a shiny pearl, with two circles, one on each opposing side, a darker shade and slightly raised up, but not buttons themselves.  Despite Gayle's curiosity there was only one thing he didn't try.  It was the end of the day and the last thing he wanted to find out the hard way was...

         “HEY Gayle!” Kaz blurted out, having snuck up right behind the rabbit.

         Kaz watched in awe as Gayle jumped right up in pure shock.  Legs locked, Gayle's feet planted firmly in the squishy floor, while his hands fumbled and launched the cube straight up.  Without even a glance at the box, both arms swung forward and clasped tightly to it, each palm pressing into a circle.

         Gayle was ready for death as some sort of tingling feeling shot through his body, starting at his palms and ending in his soles.  His whole body felt numb for just one moment, and for that moment, a sudden peace overcame Gayle as he closed his eyes and thought, Finally... free, as I always imagined I would be.  Killed by Kaz.

         Then Kaz patted him in the back, shocking him back to his body and he fumbled with the box yet again, glaring at the purple lion while settling down. Three beeps came from the box but Gayle hadn't cared to notice.

         “Quitting time!” Kaz smiled, as awkward as ever, and then eyed the box, “Oooo, what's that?  Can we sell it?”

         Gayle shrugged, tossing his boss the unknown device, “It's a paperweight.  Night, Kaz.”  The rabbit shook out his arms and legs to get the rest of that feeling out of his body, and trotted off as Kaz perplexed over what he had said.  Various swears filled the air as Gayle stumbled into another pile of junk.  Kaz kept his focus on his new toy.

         Kaz' eyes lit up.  “A paperweight, how genius!” he exclaimed and ran back to his office for the night.

–

         Kaz stared, as intensely as Gayle was earlier, at his fancy new paperweight.  It made total sense, with how much his chair snored, to keep his files held down out in the open instead of safely in a desk drawer, or the shelves behind him in his office.  That way, people could see the insurance papers Kaz continually procrastinated on for his employees, and think he was doing a real hard job filling them out.

         ~BEEP~

         It had done this once every few moments or so at first, but then, coincidentally as Gayle had fled further and further away from work, it had slowed down quite a bit.  Even so, it was even more annoying being spread out as much as it was, and Kaz didn't think any amount of paper weighting was worth the occasional startle.  Kaz startled easily.

         “How am I supposed to get any sleep tonight if that keeps beeping?” Kaz pondered to himself and his chair, who kept trying to wrap its flippers around him for bedtime.  Kaz was too busy leaning forward and fiddling with the box.  Out of options, Kaz smacked it.

         “Oh!” Kaz smiled.  On top of the cube a little button popped up.  It must have been stuck or something, and without a second's thought Kaz' pudgy fingertip pushed down on it.  It beeped loudly for five seconds, annoying both Kaz and the chair until it completely ceased.

         The box rumbled next, for just a moment, before the box tipped over on its back, and on the front a new circle opened.  A jet black hole, accompanied by a slight whooshing sound of air rushing into the front.

         Kaz, chair, and the interior of Zeppy were fine.  Kaz shrugged and finally sunk into the belly of his greatest companion, ready for bed with a comforted look on his face.  “Wonderful,” he yawned, “It triples as a white noise machine and dehumidifier!”  Kaz, and his best chair in the world, started snoozing.

–

         Gayle tossed and turned in his bed, continually wrapping himself in his sheets as he failed at falling asleep.  Why did I even bother to try and get to bed this early, he thought to himself as he grabbed his phone, reminding himself of the message Terra left.  Oh yeah.  In the morning they were going to get breakfast from a new joint that just opened up last week.

         >:| i can'f fall asleep : he texted to his coworker, who must have been fast asleep herself.  The prospect of berry pancakes did encourage him to keep trying.  If all else failed, every respectable breakfast bar had unlimited coffee to drink.

         It's just stuffy in here.  Gayle tossed the covers aside and stood up, wearing his cozy pajama-like jumpsuit, which was as comfortable as it was bright pink.  It almost glowed a little in the moonlight.  Socks made it for him, and he wasn't shy about telling them how cute it was.

         Gayle approached the window, realizing it was unusually bright out for being the dead of night.  Clade must have flown too close to a new moon, which beat always flying too close to another sun.  It was nice outside, and he only had to leave the window open a slight crack to fill the room with the chilled air.

         He was certain he'd get comfortable now, but somehow it eluded him after tucking himself under the covers.  Like a stomach sickness stirring within him, a feeling crept outward through his body.  He tried ignoring but it wasn't doing him any favors.  Gayle shot up into a sitting position on his bed, almost feeling himself tumble out of it onto the cluttered floor.

         I better not be getting sick.  I don't feel like throwing up...

         Like waves from a shore the feeling came and went.  At first it was slight.  Each time it intensified Gayle felt compelled to move off the edge of his bed.  It really did feel like a tide had yanked at him.  At first he'd feel just his fur getting tugged at, and other times he almost slid completely off.  The strangest moment came when his legs just lifted up in front of him, as if something was pulling up his paws until he could drop them back down.

         Gayle then sighed.  He remembered this feeling from earlier today, when he grabbed the box.  His ears were now waving in front of his face, hair motioning like he was caught in a current underwater.  Maybe it would pass.  Gayle frowned, this better pass...

         The knew better. It wasn't going to pass.  Too tired to actually sigh, he mentally did.

         With feet firmly planted Gayle stood straight up.  This wasn't by choice.  Gayle had meant to just push against the tugging feeling but instead it helped tip him forward and out of bed.  That pit in his stomach was tighter now, a dark matter wanting to move far away somewhere.  That “somewhere” is what troubled Gayle the most.

         He struggled to sit back down and even barely brushed his bushy tail against the bed before it was pulled away.  Lifting up his arms, which took more effort than he expected, he noticed his pajama cuffs and fur on his hands fluttering about like they were in a breeze.

         His arms shot out as if something grabbed them, and he struggled even more to pull them back and regain control.  Toes firmly planted, his hips fought against him just as hard.  Then it was one leg, and then the other. Finally that feeling claimed his entire body and a sort of weightlessness took hold.

         His instinct guided him to reach out for the covers and grasp tight.  His paws slid back as far as they could without lifting up, and any slack on the covers pulled tight.    He dug his toes in, as animal-kin do when they're being sucked toward something, attempting to climb along the covers back to his bed.

         Gayle could finally hear it, a faint whirring noise filling his ears as the pull strengthened.  It couldn't be.  What was sucking him in?  Everything in the room was still as night.  His monster plushes, the clothing strewn about, and the random bits of electronics he toyed with all were secure.

         His paws scraped the floor with their toe-tips as his heels lifted up into the air. Legs were locked in, floating behind him toward the window. Something had to be outside, pulling at him, but nothing was there, and the window remained barely cracked.

         Gayle swayed from side to side.  The feeling in his body intensified but the room remained eerily quiet, outside of the gentle whirring in his mind he wasn't even sure was real.  Maybe he had fallen asleep.  Maybe this was just another dumb dream in a sea of bad dreams Gayle always had. At least this one wasn't about work.  With déjà vu overcoming him as much as this force, he could have sworn he once had a dream exactly like this.

         Gayle remained puzzled as he kept hold of his covers, and continued to after they ripped from under his bed.  They dragged along the ground, unaffected by whatever force had grabbed Gayle, and while he fell to the floor, slowly, being dragged along himself by that force, nothing else in the room was dragging along with.

         His body floated up and plopped against the wall with the window, letting him sink into the rubbery surface.  From outside the apartment a stranger looked up at his window and the impression of a noodly rabbit pushed out from within.  All of his clothing and fur fluttered toward the opening in the window.  Just like a movie he saw once about space travelers seeing if they could get some fresh air outside.

         It ended badly for them.

         That stupid box!  It was the most obvious conclusion to make.  It must have altered his body so that even the slightest breeze could lift him up. Pressure differences from outside were known to suck people out of their homes without any warning, so if that box had changed the make-up of Gayle's body, this slight opening was enough to sweep him up and out.

         Gayle shifted around, still sucked against the wall and trying to not get himself pinched when he finally made his move.  It took a lot of effort, more than he wanted to spend, to get his arms up high enough but when he did, and shut that window, he collapsed right on the floor.

         The stranger outside shrugged and moved on.  The distraction was enough for a monster to catch up to him and launched its blobbish body, maw agape, at its target.

         “That... was dumb,” Gayle huffed while trying to get a sense of balance again. It wasn't coming back.  The pit in his stomach was still there.  The sense of weightlessness and the tide of the atmosphere remained.  His body was confused and began sliding in random directions.  He'd lift up and fall gently down, then suddenly jolt to the side.  Gayle would slide around the room toward his door, as if this force was still trying to find an exit, and then he slid back to the window again after bouncing right into it.

         Gayle attempted to get up.  His bare feet squished down into the floor but couldn't get a proper purchase, hands grasping and pushing into the rubbery surfaces of the apartment as he tumbled around.  Gayle realized he didn't know what “up” was at the moment, dumbfounded as he glanced at his bed on that... wall?

         At this point Gayle finally got his bearings as he realized he was tumbling along the wall of his apartment.  Various shouts could be heard muffled by the wall from his neighbor.  He wasn't sure what he knocked off but a crash followed by more expletives tuned him in to the chaos. Something paddled against his butt from beyond the wall.  Soon there was a ring and shouting coming from his door.

         “Sorry!” Gayle exclaimed.  He liked this neighbor for once and regretted that this may be the first time he was causing trouble for them.  The door being locked snuffed out any chance of them coming in to yell at and/or rescue him.

         Better call Terra, the rabbit's next thought was as he slid closer to his bed and nightstand.  Gayle was so disoriented, and so upset with his current situation, he wasn't paying any attention to where he was currently sliding.   After a swipe or two for his phone, and a final miss knocking it down between the nightstand and his bed, Gayle saw the open vent he was being pulled towards in the corner of his eye.

         Vent covers weren't a common thing in building design.  Vents, taking after the organic design philosophies of most architects, looking to emulate how organic and living the rest of the world was, were more like, appropriately, throat holes.

         With all of his fur and clothing fluttering in the direction of the vent, Gayle clawed as much as he could to the walls of his apartment, in any hope he'd find something to cling to.  Buildings, as squishy as they were, were pretty useless to hang onto, as much as they would be if they were just as solid.

         Gayle rolled onto his back, just in time for his calves to slip down the opening of the vent.  He straightened up as his thighs slurped right in, and laughed at how quickly he prepared himself for it.  This was work instinct kicking in, the amount of small passages that took him all over Zeppy were just as embarrassingly tight as this silly vent was.

         His torso quickly disappearing into the wall, Gayle spaced out his arms as far as he could.  It gave him a few moments of resistance, though hardly any time to catch his breath.  If anything the force was trying even harder to pull at him, Gayle could see as the entire area around the vent dipped inward.

         The rabbit's arms gave out and slipped in, easily.  With the space around the vent still sucked in a couple sets of furry fingers clung to the rim, one by one slipping off until the hands slid entirely into the vents airway.  From Gayle's perspective, the little bits of his room he could see quickly vanished as the “throat-hole” of the vent closed up and took him quite deep.

         While the tight air duct conformed around Gayle with every passing second, he thought about the only other time he almost got sucked into one of these. The apartment's air conditioning malfunctioned and reversed, sucking in multiple residents.  Gayle was pretty used to finding a place to hang onto, but was giddy he managed to snag a copy of some of the security footage that night, thanks to his apartment's bad router security.

         It felt like FOREVER being pulled through the venting in the walls.  Soon the rabbit plopped down into the main hallway on the first floor.  The janitor was there, tapping a paw right by Gayle's snout as he collapsed on the ground.  The basset hound stood there in light blue overalls, his eyes piercing uncomfortably into Gayle.

         Gayle felt lively enough to get to his own feet.  Better a vent than a monster's throat, and even gave him time to relax on his way down.  This was the first floor of the U-shaped apartment building, and while Gayle was glad to be on solid ground again, he wasn't quite sure why he was so forcefully brought down here.

         The janitor grumbled, provoking a response from Gayle, “I know you may have some questions,” he started, “but boy am I glad to see you. How'd you know where I was... whoa!”  He stumbled in a different direction, first being pulled back so hard against the hall's walls he felt like he was going to sink deep into them.

         The janitor growled, “Half this building knows where the hell you were.  The way you were hollering the entire time playing in the walls?  You know there's a door, right?  Were you locked in?  You could have just called and spared me the complaints!”

         Gayle nodded respectfully as his plopped off of the wall and stumbled around with the numbness teasing at his entire body.  “Sorry,” he hesitated, “Whatever's going on right now is kinda confusing so could I please just get back to my room?”

         The hound leaned into Gayle, keeping him from moving around with a well placed elbow. “How about instead you tell me what this 'whatever' is so I can decided if I have to call the MCP or not?” he barked, releasing Gayle from his elbow lock.

         Gayle almost tripped right into the janitor but they just stepped aside, letting him fall to the ground and slide away.  This guy was familiar with Gayle, after all, and knew of the little gadgets he'd make as well as the side affects they'd cause.  So watching a rabbit tumble randomly across the floor, grab onto a sofa, lift his paws straight up into the air, twirl around, and then just land on his own two feet like nothing happened was just another day to the hound.

         “Never-mind, you're just a danger to yourself, aren't ya?”

         The janitor shrugged and begun padding off.  He paid no further attention to the confusing rabbit and made his way to a side door in the halls.  He pushed open the door and glanced around at the little alcove where the walkway to his break area led.

         To Gayle, it might as well have been like swinging open an airlock.  The moment a clear path to the outside had been open every bit of fur and clothing on Gayle flapped as if he'd had stepped into a wind tunnel.  He should have braced himself against the sofa when he saw the janitor taking his leave, but instead his fingers could only hang onto the plush chair for a short while before slipping off.

         He swung his arms around like a madman trying to find anything to hang onto.  Like sliding through oil his paws slipped quick easily across the floor before lifting right into the air.  This force didn't want him to have a single chance to grab onto anything and seemed to be aiming him in a straight line to whatever led outside first.  The janitor coming in for the night and propping open the door must have been what pulled him through the ducts in the first place, and now that it was opened again there was nothing keeping him from being sucked out.

         Thankfully the janitor was right there by the wide-open door, and pudgy enough for Gayle to get a pretty solid grip on.  “Close it close it close it!” the rabbit panicked, swinging around and outside into the alcove as he anchored to the basset hound.  Gayle flapped around like a ribbon caught in a breeze.  His hold on the hound was the only thing from keeping him from entering the atmosphere, or so Gayle feared.

         “What the heck are you...”

         Gayle interrupted, “Listen okay I have no clue where this wants to take me but we're almost outside and I really don't want to find out and...”  He stopped as he realized he was dragging the hound along with him.  His own legs were wildly kicking about in the air, paws swinging all over, and the suction force only got stronger now that he was fully outside.

         The janitor's own heels slid along the ground, with gravity still on his side and keeping him from taking flight.  Unfortunately they dug in quite well as they scrapped along the janitor's own personal garden.  Flowers and well-tilled veggies kicked up as Gayle dragged him right through the middle of it.  Eyes locked to his own, the janitor's teeth shone through the growing snarl.

         “I'm not sure what to...” Gayle could only get out before the hound reached up for his neck and held tight to his collar, “Okay I see your upset but this is way out of my...”  The janitor's growl deepened.

         They slid through a small parking area for bikes and scooters behind the apartments.  The janitor hooked up against a bike rack and dug his paws under a bar, adding, “You're going to pay for the garden, or else your other ear is going to get a matching scar.”

         Gayle scoffed, “Okay dude you're being a bit unreasonable.”  Gayle, clasping his hands to the hound's wrists as they reached for his neck, recalled the time he borrowed the janitor's shop vac for a work experiment, resulting in the janitor losing most of his office. Maybe he wasn't being too unreasonable, Gayle would have thought, until the hound just let him go.

         “WHAT the heck man!” Gayle shouted while flying back.  He grabbed to the handles of a nearby scooter, dragging it along instead, gritting his teeth to the uncomfortable sounds as it banged and clanged against other vehicles.

         “That's.  My. Scooter.” the janitor calmly informed him, a wave of murderous intent radiating out.  Gayle decided it was best to just give up and float away.  His lifetime friend did not give chase.

–

         Gayle huffed, just watching the city pass him by, ignoring the stares of the occasional night owl gawking in his direction.  Not... actual night owls.  Okay, maybe one or two.

         He had managed to get a grip on a rail here and there, but holding on was useless on his own.  His arms were tired enough already, and the sparse evening population did little to assist.  Most thought a monster attack was underway, hiding at the first site of a struggling animal-kin.  The MCP, as always, was useless.

         At least if this was a monster attack, it'd be over by now.  It was only a matter of time before he'd hit the walls of the city, and probably would go right up and over them.  He peered a distance away.  Naw, it was simpler than that.  A door to the outside was wide open and waiting for him.

         Suddenly, a hand reached up.  Then another.  Two pairs of pinkish-white claws held onto the rabbit, from a couple sitting on a park bench, underneath the combined light of the moon and a broken lamp.  A rat and mouse couple gave him a look he hardly knew.  They were concerned for him!

         “Dude are you okay?” the rat piped up, wearing a rather punk-styled jumpsuit. The nearby mouse wore a very similar one, but cut off (or appearing torn off) at the knees.  They each wore matching spiked collars, and matching piercings Gayle would die to have on their large pinkish ears.

         “Yeah,” the mouse whimpered, suddenly losing focus and becoming lost in their own narrative, “I read about this online!  I know of this technology, enough to snatch anyone off the streets when they get too... wise?”

         “No no guys I just need a little help hanging on.  I'm tired and got a little too caught up on work and...”

         “The man's got you, hasn't he?  You learned too much, so they turned on … the HARVESTER!?”

         “What!?” Gayle asked, perplexed by multiple things going on here.  The couple was hardly trying to help, his body pulled farther away as the mouse fell to his side and started laughing.  The rat wasn't even trying to keep his claws around Gayle, and was more likely... feeling the rabbit's arms?

         “Ah crap you two are high as hell, aren't you,” Gayle whimpered as he pulled them both off the bench.  The mouse hugged to his partner's legs, still laughing.  The rat joined in laughing and gave up completely, letting Gayle float on down the street.  Gayle watched on as the couple ignored him and started making out.

         Gayle just crossed his arms and soared feet-first through the open door, where the forest gladly accepted him.

–

         Gayle wished he get used to this.  Not the constant flight through the jungle, but the vines he was able to hang onto.  Multiple attempts were made to secure himself by tying the vines together and to the ground, but he could never quite reach the ground, and spent way too much energy just hanging on instead.

         The last vine broke, sending Gayle back on his journey with a bundle of vines in his arms.  He contemplated making a lasso out of them but that seemed like way too much work.  He found these moments of weightless soaring to be a good time to rest his arms, and ready up for another fruitless attempt later.

         It was pretty impressive the amount of times Gayle would just float by a tree without any hope to hang onto it.  Perhaps that was for the best, as Gayle also imagined the amount of times he could have snapped himself in half smacking into a tree at full speed.  This force was pretty considerate and well meaning with his safety.

         Zeppy loomed in the distance.  This whole time the rabbit was pointed in its direction, and was just waiting for the moment he'd be yanked above the trees toward it.  Thinking about the inevitability of his journey ending, one thought popped into Gayle's mind that chilled him to the bone: Wait, what hole am I going to end up going down to end up inside Zeppy!?

         The thought was enough to kick his animal-kin instincts back into overdrive and he flailed his arms toward the foliage below him.  Able to hook onto a loose root that was jetting up from a tree, he tried again and again to kick his legs down and hook his paws onto something.  For a moment his toes grasped to the soil until his legs were yanked back up and stayed there.

         The root Gayle hung onto was in bad shape.  There were signs it had been uprooted, having been grabbed onto before, as his fingers fit into similar grooves where he grasped.  Someone was already here!  But where?

         Gayle's ears perked up as he heard a familiar sound, the whooshing of air that came with a hungry monster's inhale.  Even his clothing was flapping in a new direction now, and for once, instead of despair, it gave him hope.

         As Gayle's grip steadily slipped down the root, Gayle saw a group of three other animal-kin not too far away, having their own similar adventure.  A giant orange worm peeked out from the muck, its bright and toothless maw wide open and sucking in as hard as it could toward the group. Gayle couldn't be happier to see a monster this close.

         Intentionally letting himself fly, Gayle got a better look at the trio as he soared closer.  A pink goat, golden lion, and blue bear were hanging onto whatever they could as the worm kept sucking them towards it.  The goat and bear were able to hang onto similar roots, and the lion hugged as tight as they could to the goat.  They wore matching velvet jumpsuits, common for groups who wanted to stick together in their travels.

         It's gotta work, Gayle confidently thought as the worm's breath tugged at his body.  Surely the rabbit was changing trajectory and this was his chance to have a real anchor.  If this didn't work, at least he'd have company inside the belly of an underground friend.  Gayle could... work out the details after.

         The rabbit missed the lion anchor, but as the bear's legs swung up they were just in range.  Gayle grappled to the bear's pudgy paws, sinking his fingers in for a tight grip.  The group eyed him, annoyed, to which Gayle shook it off with, “Wow, talk about a close call!  I came on by to help you guys but looks like I'm the one needing saving!”

         He could imagine the trombone music play in his head with that acting.

         Gayle managed a faked laugh but the trio was too concerned with their own well being. The goat lost his own grip, sending him and the lion closer.  First the goat was able to grab onto Gayle's ankles, and the lion wrapped around the tree the bear was hanging onto.

         “Well if you're going to help then don't let go!” the lion ordered, staring at Gayle.  While the lion positioned himself to help up the chain of animal-kin, he kept his eyes locked on Gayle.  Not out of concern for his safety, but to better make sure his goat pal was also secure. His steely gaze quickly shifted to utter disbelief.

         No no no! The rabbit didn't say a word but was crying out in his mind.  A commotion broke out between the three friends as they all adjusted to what was happening.  Gayle was simply pointing away from the worm, the goat forced to hang onto Gayle's legs to the side now, like hanging off of some handle bars.  The bear was caught between Gayle's hold and his lion friend's hands, while the lion could barely wrap his legs around the tree.

         “Unhook yourself!” the bear snapped at the lion, “He said he's going to help.  He's pulling us out of here!”

         The lion let himself get pulled out, locking his fingers to the bear's, with the goat still somehow clinging to Gayle.  Gayle kept his mouth shut.  At first the tug of war continued between the worm's pull and this abstract force yanking Gayle away, but it was clear the abstract force was winning.  The lion's paws no longer pointed in the direction of the worm, and soon it wasn't even close enough to get them.

         “Wait guys!” Gayle yelped as normal gravity took hold over the three strangers. The goat let go, and the bear was yanked out of the rabbit's hands as the lion pulled him into a hug.

         The goat was the only one to run after Gayle as he floated away from the trio.  “Hold up!” he called out to Gayle.

         Gayle smiled for once, reaching his hands out to the goat, ready to be saved. Instead, the goat gave him a high five and waved goodbye.  “We get it!” the goat repeated, “You know there's no time for goodbyes. You're off to save another group in trouble!  We'll always remember your kindness, even if it means never getting to know who you were. Take care, good friend.  Take care!”

         By the end of that speech Gayle was clearly on his way.  The trio had grouped up and all waved.  Gayle tucked his arms in once more and pouted.

         “Well, guess this is it,” Gayle sighed.  Zeppy was closer than ever, and Gayle could feel this tremendous pit in his stomach yanking him upwards at an alarming rate.  He glanced down, one last time, to the ground he was leaving.  Instead he just saw a bunch of slimy orange.

         A giant, rapidly approaching orange maw greeted him, from the worm that BURST through the jungle and aimed right for the rabbit.  With a bit of an inhale and a giant mouth chomping down on him, Gayle was swallowed by the worm.

         A powerful gulp pulled him down, deep inside a warm throat that seemed to go on forever.  Each gulp was stronger that the last, and every muscle within that worm did its best to hang onto Gayle.  Doing its best was not enough.  The worm started to fall back down to Clade's surface. Gayle wasn't.

         He didn't imagine he'd ever be in this situation, but all he could think to do was find a way to stay stuck in the worm's throat.  Of course, so coated in saliva now, Gayle easily slipped right out and the throat's muscles could do very little to pull him back in.

         The worm's mouth clenched as tight as it could, and with Gayle pressing against them from the inside, this was the last hope he had to stay in.  The cool air of the outside welcomed Gayle as he slipped right through the lips and back into the night sky.

         Feeling nothing else, Gayle took in the view.  From the wandering elder monsters in the distance, to the cozy bundles of towns caught between deadly swamps and jungles, it almost looked... beautiful.  The glow of the moon was almost enough to make Gayle's heart glow along with it. Almost.

         A trail of spit was all that connected the rabbit and the worm as it plummeted down to the forest.  As Gayle smacked against the side of Zeppy and slid alongside its back, Gayle let out a tremendous sigh.  The blow hole. Thank goodness it was going to be the blowhole.

–

         Gayle had been sucked towards Kaz's office so many times now that he recalled every laborious twist and turn.  A right here, a couple lefts, and now a long slide through a tight tunnel before the final stretch.  Getting pulled closer by Kaz's chair's snoring was a much more fun way to travel, and it didn't come with the exhaustion of flying non-stop from the town.

         And BOY were Gayle's arms tired.

         Entering the office, Gayle couldn't muster an ounce of strength to grab onto anything.  He bounced off a couple walls and continued circling around the room like getting closer to a windy drain.  He didn't bother clinging to the bookshelf.  Kaz' desk was too close to the source of the suction, and the last thing he wanted to do was grab Kaz and drag him in with him.

         Gayle was too upset getting the answer as to why he ended up on this impromptu work trip.  Using his eyes to burn a hole through it, Gayle couldn't believe the device he found was appropriated as a paperweight.  A black hole was practically open in the side of it, and Gayle felt every single molecule in his body getting sucked right towards it.

         Gayle only had the strength for one last thing.  Kaz had woken, sleepily moving his eyes around to follow his employee being slurped in a circular motion into the box.  Gayle felt every moment as his body stretched and swirled into the black hole.  The last thing to get sucked in was Gayle's right arm, presenting a rather appropriate gesture to his boss as he disappeared.

         Kaz chuckled. He'd of course let that slide.

–

         “Well, I at least figured out how to get you out,” Kaz said to himself after an hour of poking at the box.  The jesterly lion sat up on his chair, quite proud he didn't end up getting sucked in too, and then rushed to stifle as giggle.

         Snoring filled the air.  “I guess we can figure out what to do in the morning, after you get some sleep, buddy.”

         Kaz sunk back into his chair, and soon drifted off to sleep as well.  On the desk, next to an open and empty cube, rested a green and pink cube just about the same size.  Tucked between his own set of paws was Gayle's face, snoring as he slept.