• I'd never really been to Las Vegas, not in my current life. I'm not so sure I ever will again though. The place is scummy. Bright lights, flashy costumes, and it all amounts to one giant tourist trade. I was there doing my job, you know, keeping people from screwing themselves into a life of damnation. Same old same old. That's when things get ugly though.
    I arrived early morning sometime in March. Luckily for me the dry desert air was no problem, it was raining amazingly enough. The small droplets gathered on the window of the taxi I sat comfortably in as it screeched to a halt, and when I say screech I mean it, the breaks on that monster were terrible. Taking my cue from the deathtrap i exited the vehicle, handed the aging taxi driver a Benjamin and stepped on the the glistening sidewalk. Around that time I was going through a bit of a phase. I wore old concert tees and a simple pair of jeans, sneakers, and maybe styled my hair. This time it was a gray 'Stones tee and a pair of light blue jeans that were torn at the knees. My hair was styled into unusually pointy spikes but the rain had prevented it from keeping it's form. So my hair stuck to my forehead, wet from the rain and sticky from the massive amounts of gel i regularly applied.
    The hotel I stood in front of fit the personality of Vegas, bright neon lights that spelled out 'GAMBLING GODDESS HOTEL', classy. There was a small sign next to it depicting what seemed to be the gambling goddess. Looked more like a drunken Athena if you ask me. Stepping inside, the surprises only continued, the place was a full course meal of cheese. There were large, and rather vibrant, silk plants on either side of the door, mirrored ceilings, in fact if it weren't for the silk flowers and carpet (which was and unattractive shade of purple) I would say that the whole entire lobby were one giant fun house, mirrors as far as the eye could see.
    Gamblers eyed me as I passed, the goo on my forehead grew solid as it began to dry, plastering down my hair. With little difficulty i made it to the front counter where a horribly cheerful man greeted me. "Hello! Are you interested in staying the night here? The weather is awfully strange outside but it seems like-" he stopped as he peered past me and towards the entrance where a, and believe me when I say this, true goddess stepped through the doors. My partner in crime, Heather.
    Now Heather is one of those girls who should be in a bad teen movie. She's gorgeous, but doesn't show it, she's pretty simple. Go figure, since she is an earth goddess. Heather has a basic frame, though she is small and has a pixie-like face with inhumanly blue eyes now covered by brown contacts. Her dark brown hair hung in a wet mess over her shoulders in intricate braids that fell just past her chest. Her eyes scanned the room through thick rimmed glasses that seemed like they were meant for the elderly, and then her eyes fell on me.
    I'm not one to mess with things i shouldn't, especially not the higher ups, but I couldn't resist watching the way her clothes moved as they clung to her petite body. She didn't seem to notice. She stepped beside me and glanced at the man at the front desk, "Room for two, under the name of Peters." she smiled sweetly as she brushed one of her braids off of her shoulder. I watched as the man fumbled through the doors behind him. What a sap.
    After a while he reappeared holding a shiny pair of keys, how old school. Regardless Heather swiped them from the mans hands as he explained our arrangements and she gave him one last dazzling smile before she turned away. She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and dragged me to the reflective doors of the elevator. As she pushed the "UP" button and stepped back I watched our reflections and noticed how much of a height difference there was. She stood there at a little over five feet and I stood there at a massive six foot plus. The differences didn't stop there, my now dry blond hair stood out in contrast to her deep chocolate brown hair that still stuck to the sides of her face as well and let's not forget the obvious gender difference. The elevator chimed, bringing me out from my trance and once again she took hold of my collar and pulled me aboard the also hideously purple inside of the elevator.
    The silence disturbed me but I found myself entranced by our contrasting beings once again on the reflection of the inside of the doors. I watched silently as Heather's reflection shuffled silently in the small place, her eyes working it's way around the small box. For a short moment her eyes flicked towards me but looked in another direction just as fast. There was a steady rise and then the short rise and fall as it reached our floor, lucky number seven.
    This time Heather allowed me to guide myself out of the elevator, so I stuck my hands in my pockets and kept my pace leisurely as i watched her back as we moved to our room. I had just noticed that we'd been silent to each other since we'd gotten on the elevator, either this was really bad or i did something really bad, and trust me it takes a lot to get this girl going.
    Despite the silence we made it, and not a problem so far, lucky us.
    A jingle of keys, a small 'click' and the twist of a knob led us to a fairly unattractive room. A light switch near the door turned on the ceiling fixture to reveal a royal blue shag carpet accented by a golden area rug that sat beneath a queen sized bed, a couch and some hotel necessities. "Wait... One bed?" I asked as i listened to the bathroom door shut behind Heather. I heard the squeak of a faucet and the sudden rush of the shower head which quickly melted together with the rain beating the window. Feeling defeated I plopped myself down on the bed and peered around at the rest of the room.
    After looking around again the room was half decent. The wallpaper was a mix of dark blues and light blues which looked nice with the gold colored molding. I sat adjacent to a television set that sat in the middle of an enormous royal blue dresser/closet combo. There were small intricate carvings on the knobs of the drawers that were painted gold, to match the molding presumably. Next to the bed I found the standard lamp and telephone bolted to the night stand. Going with the Egyptian color palate the stand was gold and the lamp and phone were dark blue. I pulled open the drawer and noticed that there was a pair of pens and a notepad, also standard to any hotel. I sighed and flopped backwards and rested my arms behind my head to relax. My eyes had just closed as I heard the shower shut off.
    My body shot up as the door to the bathroom door opened, "Get out of my bed Darien." Heather mumbled as I listened to her shuffle over and weigh down one side of the bed. I cracked open one eye and peered at her back, her body was wrapped in a towel, as far as i could tell that was it, but chances were that she had a long tank top on underneath all that hair. Her dark hair wrapped around her shoulders and some ran down her back, still wet. She smelled faintly of roses, I wasn't sure if that was just her or the hotel lotion she was currently applying to her arms.
    "Did you hear me? Get out." her body twisted to face me, she took off her contacts because what I was staring into were two intensely blue eyes. I closed my eyes and smirked defiantly as I felt her weight shift and felt the blankets tug around me. Opening my eyes again I noticed two things, Heather was lying beneath the sheets now and her towel was discarded at the foot of the bed. In reaction to this sight I fell out of bed with an audible 'thud'. I heard her snicker and mumble sleepily "Now that your out of bed go back downstairs and get our luggage, you did bring changes of clothes right?" she ordered as she shifted to face me, with me sitting on the ground we were at eye level as she scooted to the side of the bed I recently left open.
    "Boss says we have a few things we need to take care of so we'll be here a while." Damn. Like I knew that, I didn't pack any other outfits, of course, but regardless I stood and made my way for the door, avoiding disturbing my partner and searching for the keys. "The keys are on the counter of the bathroom." I peered around the doorway and sure enough the shiny keys lay on the counter next to one of the gold faucet sinks. I grabbed them and slipped them into my pockets, "Thanks." I mumbled and reached for the door. "Wait," I heard call from the bed, I turned around to face Heather, who was sitting up, clutching the sheets to her small body. "I packed a bag for you too, it's in a light blue backpack, my things are in a gray and white checkered duffel bag. Oh and I need one of those keys." she gestured towards my pocket.
    I pulled the ring from my pocket and turned a key out of it to toss to Heather who stepped out of bed and was standing withing catching distance, still keeping the sheet around her body. I notice that she did have that light tank on as I tossed her the key. As she caught it she added "Turn the light off when you go ok?" I nodded and turned to leave. I flicked the light switch down as I slipped the key back in my pocket and opened the door. I heard a faint sigh as I closed the door behind me, I suppose Heather was getting a much needed rest. I looked around as I recalled the route we used to get to our room for a moment then turned towards a faint chime that sounded like the elevator. In my search for the elevator I found time to reevaluate my situation and recall what exactly got me here in the first place.

    Sundays have always been bad days for me, too much work to be done. This time it was a meeting with Andres and his bunch. I never liked them much, too wild for my tastes and that's saying something. Anyway they were hanging around all week waiting for a meeting with the big guy, my boss, when this whole fiasco began. Andre walked up to me with this wicked grin on his face, "Today's the big day bud." he grinned, something was definitely up. "Big day for what?" I asked glaring at him with the least amount of hatred as possible. "The day you finally go back to Hell?" I snorted, that really got him, his expression turned sour and you could practically see the laser beams shooting out of his eyes they were so intense. "Ha ha," he laughed flatly, "You know what i meant, Today's the day that we finalize the project, you know, top secret stuff that even I don't know about." he tugged at the jacket of his suit, he was better dressed than me by a lot, I hadn't even thought to dress for the occasion. He's such a suck up. "I thought you were just the guy who took notes." I replied, watching a car pull up outside the building. Andres followed my gaze and murmured, "Not for long I'm not. Unlike you, my position is important and I'm just one step away from inheriting a lot of money and power." his eerie smile returned as the car door opened to reveal two well-aged men, also in suits, with just as fake of smiles on their faces as Andres. Andres stood beside me as he fixed his suit and pushed back the wild red curls on his head. From the side the shorter man resembled a hawk, fierce eyes the color of tainted money, and a hooked nose that complimented his broad build. He was overall a well put together man, but he was greedy and sneaky. Not one to be trusted, and that smile made him all the more suspicious, in truth we hated each other. We've been fighting each other financially, physically, and mentally since god knows when. His bunch had always seemed a little shady, not like the mafia. More like, made a deal with the devil shady. Aside from their oblivious appearances they're not ones to mess with. The elderly men passed through revolving doors as their bodyguards followed behind. Those two weren't run of the mill brunos either, they were pro wrestler big. I mean it, broad shoulders, suits stretched around their muscular bodies, and the trunk-like necks that their type are notorious for. Their get ups were basic. Suit and tie though their color palates varied from white to black, microphone in one of their ears, I wondered if they were talking to each other but quickly doubted it. Dark sunglasses covered their eyes and rested on the bridge of their wide noses, hair shaved in standard army buzz cut. Scary dudes, I must admit. Well hey, that's what they're paid for I suppose. I eyed the pair, they could have been twins I suppose, buy you can never be too sure with these guys, they're so generic it's a bit sickening to watch as their movements were almost synchronized as they moved forward.
    Their mouths were set in a no-nonsense grimace, this was serious s**t and here I was standing dumbfounded in a band tee and ripped jeans.
    "Mr.Godfrey. Such a pleasure to see you today." Andres smiled as he extended a hand out towards my boss. Mr.Godfrey's grip tightened on the handle of the cane he leaned on. The cane was for show mostly, it was made of a dark wood and had many interesting and intricate carvings around the bottom. Many of it was in some language even I didn't know. His misty blue eyes narrowed as he eyed Andre's shaking hand. "Weak." he murmured as his flowing white beard rippled at the movement of his lips. "Retract your hand from this man!" the other gentleman barked, Andre immediately obeyed, of course. "Could you be dumber? I swear if I hadn't worked with you for years I'd swear you were retarded!" sheesh, tell him how you really feel. "Mr. Deyhill." I nodded towards the second aging man. Benjamin Deyhill was a serious businessman, everything and everyone in his life is part of some giant scheme, if it weren't for the fact that he was married to a long time sweetheart I would have assumed that that poor girl was part of one of his plots too. Andres whimpered silently as the two men passed us, then the guards, and then we fell into place behind them, shuffling in line towards the elevators.

    Ding.
    My attention snapped back to the present as I whipped my head to the left to watch as an elderly couple in hideous Hawaiian print shirts emerged from the purple death box that was the elevator. I smiled politely at the couple as I walked quickly to the doors, I received a rather appalled look form the two, old people are so kind these days. I reached for the door as it started to close, stopping it in one quick motion. I slipped my body inside and eyed the circular lights of he buttons that indicated which floors you could be taken to, which turned out to be a surprising 42 floors. I pressed the button marked "L" assuming it meant lobby, but what else could it stand for in a hotel?