Page 12 of Brutal Prince

“How bad is the room?” I asked the man.

His eyebrows shot up so high they almost flew off his head. “Very bad.”

“Oh.”

Still with my loyal boys in tow, we arrived at room 23 and groaned when I pushed the door open. The boys glanced inside, without stepping across the threshold and made puking noises.

“Rather you than me,” Darryn quipped.

“This is gonna take me forever,” I cry out as the door slowly closed behind me and Ollie’s leveled voice rang in my mind, “We’ll be right here until you’re done.”

“Where to start?”

The entire room was a pigsty and I hadn’t dared inspect the bathroom. The scent of sex and cum was evident, unsurprisingly, as the king size bed was littered in used condoms and the white sheets smeared in cum. The floor was garnished in red wine stains and brown smears that I really hoped was chocolate, although it sure didn’t smell like it, and vomit. Vomit was also splayed across walls as if I disturbed a power-chuck frenzy. On a small round dining table were needles, white powder sprinkled about, an overflowing ashtray, and bottles of alcohol.

Parked by the floor to ceiling window was a trolley laden in cleaning products, neatly folded clean towels and sheets and those little hotel soaps and shampoo bottles. Next to that was a vacuum. They thought of everything including rubber gloves, thank fuck.

I set to work tending to the stained carpet on my hands and knees, feeling like I was being watched. It was a strange sensation that kept me on edge, searching for a camera or peephole and failing to find either. Maybe it was my paranoia from watching too many thriller movies, because I also half expected a knife wielding psycho to appear from the closet too.

Ollie checked in with me by knocking on the door. “I’m fine,” I answered, “just grateful I’m not working tomorrow, ‘cos it’s gonna take a long time to recover from this.”

An hour and a half later, I peered through the door out onto the hall to find my boys sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall with their eyes closed. So sweet, especially Ollie with his mouth opened a little and his cheeks showing signs of 5’oclock shadow. Except it was way past 5’oclock, almost 2am in fact.

By some miracle and super toxic cleaning products, I managed to get the living area spick and span, making my way into the bathroom.

Expecting the worst, I was pleasantly surprised to find the bathroom free of disgusting human waste. The mirror, toilet bowl and bathroom cabinet was a shimmering scene of cleanliness, which only made my hackles rise. The whole scene seemed staged.

Again, that eerie sensation that I was being watched enveloped me and naturally, I searched for cameras and chuckled at my ridiculousness when I found none.

Feeling triumphant, because let’s face it I killed this cleaning job, I left the hotel room and nudged my boys awake. “No weird shit?” Darryn croaked half asleep.

“Nah. Unless you count the syringes and feces.”

The man at reception checked his watch in a deliberate motion, “You were obviously thorough,” and placed a small ring box on the counter. “A gift for your effort.”

“Oh, thank you,” graciously taking the gift, even though I’m not partial to jewelry. “Are you going to check the room to make sure I cleaned it properly?”

He shook his head. “Not necessary.”

Strange.

Once in the back seat of the car, I opened the ring box. A small cylinder-shaped piece of metal rested on the pristine white display. Curious, I picked it up between my fingers, turning it over to catch the night-lights as we drove along the road. When it dawned in me what it was, I felt the icy claws of panic dig into the back of my neck.

“Is it something you can sell?” Ollie asked, gazing at me in the rear vision mirror.

I shook my head, reaching for my phone to scroll through my contacts. Me: He’s found me out.

They won’t read the message for a few hours, so I had time sit on this realization. One thing can be sure is there won’t be any sleeping tonight.

SIX

Dominus

“Only the best for my sweet,” I chimed, pulling out the chair for my girlfriend to sit at the table in Michelin five star restaurant The Grove. It’s important to take great care of the daughter of the senator, even though that family came from a long line of idiots and drunkards and she was no exception. Marriage, procreation and power are what I’m using her for.

I sat opposite her and ran my eyes over that elegant face and those plump, hyaluronic lips, already wrapped around a wine glass. No surprises there. She left a claret lipstick stain on the glass and I held back a shudder.

“How was your day?” she asked, wiping the lipstick off the glass with her fingers.

---