Love's A Real Thing Right?

Chapter 2: A visit from a ghost of the past

Ace didn't know what to call it, because did his phone battery dying save him from making a mistake by answering Aurora's call, or did it make him lose the love of his life, only time could tell, because he didn't have his charger, all he had was the four walls of the dreary hotel room he was renting.

At the moment Aurora realized his phone was switched off, she sat there phone in hand with the voicemail still playing in the background, their past happiness echoing in the darkness of the room, she thought to herself, when did the happiest, most caring and carefree person she had ever known get so broken and began feeling so hurt without her noticing especially when she was always there beside him. As her thoughts wandered, she slowly laid on the ground, dropping her phone out her hand and as if in sync, at that exact moment, Ace dropped to the bed of his hotel room, his thoughts also wondering.

How does he go one from here, what had he done to the girl of his dreams, did he abandon her? As his thoughts rushed through his head, he looked up at the cheap slowly dimming light above the bed, the sound of the kettle he had heating up whistling, and as the steam popped out of the kettle, so did his anger, and in one fluid motion, he punched the mirror next to him.

As the blood from his fist dripped down the cracks in the mirror, it was as though his life rewound right before him, was it the exponential loss of blood, was it the blood trickling over the millions of little cracks in the mirror that reminded him of the rage he had pent up and how even though he thought he only had small cracks, the sheer multitude made him just as broken as the glass he lashed out at, or was it the fact that maybe if his 8 yr. old self saw him the way he was seeing himself in the mirror he would be sad.

Maybe it was the fact that for the first time in years he recognized himself, a version of himself he thought was long gone. The person he was seeing in the mirror was an angry confused 4yr old still alone, just begging for someone to love him for him, for the confused, sometimes happy him, the imperfect him that tries his hardest.

Ace looked at his bloody fist and slowly closed his eyes, and as his eye lids closed, they squeezed that one tear drop he had been withholding.

As he drifted off to sleep, either due to the blood loss, or the sheer pain he was in, he saw a little boy curled up in a corner, the place was pitch black, and as he etched closer to the child the child turned to him, but Ace could only hear his voice, it whispered " when is the ball of sunshine coming back, were scared here alone in the dark, it's cold and scary"

" Housekeeping", Ace looked around the dark room, " Housekeeping?" he pondered, the there was loud banging, " Housekeeping 101, come on get up already, your 24hrs are almost up".

Ace opens his eyes perplexed by the sudden commotion, his dream completely spilling his mind, "Aurora stop making noise, just 5 more minutes, call John and tell him I'll come into work late today", "Room 101, I don't know any Aurora, but hurry up and open this door let me clean it, you sound like you've had the time of your life drinking, I hope there isn't vomit everywhere."

Ace came to his senses and slowly dragged himself off the bed and to the door, "you old hag, stop making so much noise, it's to damn early for all this commotion." With his bloody hand at the top of the frame of the door he pushes the door open. As he lays his eyes on the housekeeper she says, " keep your jaw closed honey, I know this old hag is a lot cuter than you thought".

She flips her hair and walks into the room expecting a huge mess from the way he sounded, but to her amazement, the room was clean, that was until she caught sight of the bloody mess that was the bed and mirror. She looked at Ace and said, "you better hadn't killed someone here last night, I don't get paid enough to clean that up" while rolling her eyes, he thought she was cute and reminded him of Aurora, so in one fluid step he towered over her and said, " So what if I did miss cute housekeeper", putting his good hand on her shoulder, " what's a cute girl like you gonna do about it", he smirked, and let his hand drop, her flustered red face was enough amusement for him.

As she composed herself, she remarked, " This cute housekeeper has a name, and it's Sylvia, or did all the blood loss from punching the mirror and breaking it into a million pieces make you lose your manners.", tying up her hair in a bun, " it's gonna take forever to clean up all those pieces of glass, do you have anger issues or something honey?, " I mean your fist is pretty busted up, and I can see that through your substitute dressing", as her eyes cast back onto Ace, " so what's your nam....e.." his face looked as though he had seen a ghost, " I wasn't being mean honey, I didn't mean it in a disrespectful way."

" It isn't like that housekee........, I mean Sylv........., Sylvia right." he let out a little chuckle, " I didn't take it as disrespect, I just had a momentary visit by a ghost from the past, anyhow, I'm going now, here's a tip for your troubles miss cute housekeeper, maybe next time you'll get my name." with that Ace grabbed his jacket threw it over his broad shoulders and walked out the door. Sylvia was left speechless, and when she saw how much he tipped her, she wondered who he was, she didn't even mind the extra work of picking up the glass shards and cleaning up the blood.

As he was walking down the stairs he laughed and thought about the first time he met Aurora, it was at his friend's 18th birthday party, and just like that girl just now, she was so full of energy and sass, and as he was reminiscing about Aurora, he reached his car, his head still pounding and clouded, he thought, where to now?