When we left George's house it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to eliminate any potential problems. So I wished that no one would notice that George's family had apparently disappeared. I figured that wasn't quite as drastic as having everyone forget about them. That way I still had options.
I wasn't really sure of where we should go next. I had no intention of returning to either of the last two places I'd been, so we needed to find a place to go. It had to be somewhere private but big enough for all, and possibly more, of us. That's when I decided to go to The Sapphire Hotel. This was by far the most opulent and luxurious hotel within a great distance. I'd never set foot in the place, nor had anyone I knew. It was really a place for the rich. I may not have had money, but I was certainly rich with power right now. I also knew that they had a couple of penthouse suites. We could certainly suffer through occupying one of those I thought as a devious smile spread on my face.
I told the others that's where we would go and they were all excited. I was relieved that none of them bothered to ask me how we'd be able to get into the hotel. This told me that they finally understood I could more or less do what I wanted with my power. I figured that I'd be well equipped to handle any problems we might encounter at the hotel.
On our way to the hotel there were more than a few stares, glances and double takes from passersby. One guy even thought he'd be courageous enough to whistle at us. All it took was one stern look from Bozantum to make him move away from us as quickly as he could. Frankly I loved all of this attention. It was exactly what I wanted. Once I was ready to unleash my full plan, that kind of attention would be vital to my success.
We reached The Sapphire Hotel and walked into the lobby as if we'd done so many times before. I couldn't help but notice a few people just outside the hotel and in the hotel lobby itself seemed to spend more time eyeballing us. I had a feeling it was because we weren't dressed in fancy clothes. Sure, I'd made it so that we could go out in public like this, but people still judged each other by the clothing they wore. To these rich people, we must have looked like trash.
But I strode confidently up to the front desk. There was one receptionist, a male who appeared to be in his late 30's, manning the desk. At first he didn't see us as he started at something on the desk that we couldn't see. He shot us a quick glance, looked back down, and then slowly raised his eyes to watch us approach him. "Hi there," I said cheerfully.
"Good evening," said the receptionist. "How can I assist you?" I was hoping to hear sounds of arrogance in his voice, but I did not.
"We would like to check in," I said. "In fact, we're interested in one of the penthouse suites. Do you have one available?"
The receptionist's expression remained unchanged. He was rather stone-faced as a matter of fact. He typed something into the computer in front of him. He looked back at me and said, "Yes, we do." He glanced at the rest of my party. "There are six of you?"
"Right now," I said. "There will be more joining us later."
"How many?" he asked.
"I'm really not sure," I said.
"Very well," he said. "If any more join your party, we require you notify us immediately."
"Gotcha," I said. I was trying to act a little odd in the hope of getting his goat. Still he remained unflappable.
"For how long will you be checking in?" he asked.
I answered, "Well......I'm not really sure. For now let's say a week. That's not a problem, is it?"
He looked back at the computer and typed something else. "No, it does not appear to be at the moment. We shall need a credit card in order to check in."
Now came a chance to use the ring. "Oh, I wish that we could check in without a credit card, that you wouldn't need my name or the name of anyone in my party, and that it wouldn't create any problems for your system," I said.
The receptionist raised an eyebrow at me when I started my sentence. Once I finished he lowered it, looked back at the screen and said, "I see everything is in order. Do you need help with your baggage?"
"Already got rid of it," I said. Again he raised an eyebrow at me. "Sorry, little joke. We don't actually have any. Didn't need any for this trip. Has that ever happened to you before?"
"I cannot say that it has," he answered. "Allow me to get your key cards."
"Say, what are you doing later?" I asked.
"I beg your pardon," he said as he gathered the key cards together.
"We're having a little affair later and I think it would be great if you came and joined us," I explained.
He shook his head. "I am afraid that is out of the question. Staff are not permitted to fraternize with guests," he said.
"Even off duty?" I asked.
"Especially then," he said.
"I see," I said. "Too bad. Thank you for your help!" I took the key cards from him and we headed toward the elevator. We all squeezed into the elevator as best we could. "Now I want everyone to keep their hands to themselves," I teased. That made everyone laugh.
The elevator let us out on a floor that we could only access with our key cards. That's because the elevator opened directly into the penthouse itself. We were all incredibly awed by what was in front of us. Opulent was barely sufficient enough to describe this place. This was like a miniature mansion. Everything was made out of...well I didn't even know what, but it all looked extremely expensive. There was an enormous living room that had multiple couches, tables and large television sets. I could see that there was a large private deck/balcony outside in the distance that appeared to contain both a pool and a hot tub. On either side of the room there was a spiral staircase that led to a second floor that I guessed contained all of the bedrooms. I also noticed an entrance to a kitchen.
"Well, everyone make themselves at home!" I exclaimed.
We spent several minutes exploring the place. It had anything and everything you could possibly want or need. And if you found there was something you needed that the room didn't provide, the hotel staff would get it for you. If only everyone had a chance to live like this, I thought.