Frigid Revenge: Day 13

Word Count: 78,034

Summary of Events:

Charlie, Chrissa, and Orelia got talking about their families, with Chrissa being impressed at the size and long history of Charlie and Orelia's compared to her own. Oakley was canvassing the next floor looking for people willing to fight Mr. Meyer when Mr. Meyer caught him in the act; Oakley managed to get Mr. Meyer's knife and win the fistfight handily, but then got knocked unconscious. Charlie, Chrissa, and Orelia were startled by gunshots and Charlie wanted to find out what had happened, but was forced to stay in the room and ponder with her roommates . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

""He wasn't at the point of beating people up very long," Orelia said. "But then again, did he expect this to take this long?"

"You almost kind of think that, like, he'd be willing to stick with this however long it takes," Chrissa said. "You wouldn't think someone who's taking hostages would want to be in and out as fast as they can. You think they'd be cool with sitting around for a long time."

"I do not know that they would enjoy such a thing," Orelia said. "After all, they want their demands met, they don't want to have to deal with these hostages for such a long time."

"I guess so, I don't know," Chrissa said. "Maybe his wanting to be in and out gives credence to the fact that the psychologist they had on the news shortly after this all started speculated that Mr. Meyer was more of a serial killer type. They don't just sit around, they get the killing over with."

"Then why would he take hostages?" Orelia asked.

"They didn't have an answer to that, and neither do I," Chrissa replied.

"He wants to revalidate himself," Charlie said. "He wants to prove to himself that he's a man, as he defines it, still, remember?"

"Right, you'd said that," Chrissa said. "You could say that he's taking hostages for spiritual purposes."

"I do not recall you saying this," Orelia said. "What do you mean?"

"He's the sort of guy who believes that men are tough, that they don't cry, that they remain strong no matter what happens," Charlie replied. "Losing Travis made him cry and do other things he'd consider weak, and even time hasn't made the pain go away, so he's taking hostages to get the recompense he believes he deserves from US Snowboard and the world, as well as using this to prove to himself that he's still a man, even though he did things he doesn't believe a man should do."

"Ah," Orelia said. "I can see that very much. And that ties into Oakley not dying."

"He probably sees Oakley as more of a man than he is," Chrissa said. "I mean, Oakley sure hasn't shown any signs of weakness, and, even though Mr. Meyer hasn't publicly shown weakness–"

"He sounded like he was going to cry in the video," Charlie said. "He probably didn't like that."

"I guess that's true," Chrissa said. "So because Oakley's shown nothing, he sees Oakley as more of a man than he is, and he wants to break Oakley down and show himself to be the superior man to himself as well as Oakley before killing him.""