I N V A D E R S **also being trashed and rewritten soon**

||Chapter 9 - Room 307||

  "Those who are dead, are not dead//They're just living in my head, oh//And since I fell for that spell//I am living there as well, oh ." 

~42, Coldplay

  ☽☓☾  

Stella

As I walked into the room, the smell was thick in the air. I felt like I had just inhaled a rotting wool blanket that was now stuffing itself inside my lungs, slowly suffocating me. 

I thought the scent had been living human, but this smell was decaying flesh. I looked around, and then I saw it. I gagged and nearly threw up. 

Nauseous and dizzy, I ran out of the room screaming. 

The image of bloody, rotting hands with flecked pink nail polish sticking out from under a pile of rubble was ingrained into my mind. It was something I could never un-see, no matter how much I wanted to. 

I ran to the end of the hall and collapsed on the ground, head between my knees. Haunting thoughts started to plague me. 

What if we really were alone? 

What if they just killed everybody and left me and Winston die slowly?

What if my family has come to the same fate as those people?

My shoulders began to shake as I sobbed.  I put my hands on my temples, trying to shake the image of the bloody hands out of head. My subconscious noticed Winston plop beside me and attempt to lend comfort, but I didn't acknowledge him. He said nothing, only awkwardly placed an arm around me. 

We sat like this for a long time until I calmed down a little. 

"Winston?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry, I should have listened to you."

"There you go again, apologizing for nothing."

I sniffed and giggled softly as he smiled and helped me off the ground.

I was suddenly overcome with emotion, I grabbed Winston and squeezed him in a fierce hug,"Thanks." I mumbled into his chest.

He slowly hugged me back, "How do you say it... uh... you are... welcome?"  

"Yes." I laughed and stepped away from him, "Let's be done searching for today." I added as I turned to leave.

"Just wait a second." He protested,"I...found this in one of the hands." 

I turned back around curiously. Winston was holding out a small piece of paper. I took it from him and tried to ignore the dark brown splatter on the corner. The small message on the crumpled paper read:

Read between the lines.

My brow furrowed as I tried to decipher what it meant, "Read between the lines," I read aloud, "hm..."

"It could mean nothing." Winston said, uncannily echoing my thought process. 

"No, I think it's something... it's a puzzle piece, but to what puzzle I have no idea." I mused, still studying the note.

The handwriting was sloppy, it seemed like a man's, considering the angles of the letters were sharp and blocky, not smooth and rounded like a woman's might be. The paper was lined, so it came from a notebook. I wondered if that notebook would have any other clues and if it were still in the hotel.