Saturday, December 28
Kate's alarm went off at 4:00 AM. She drug Amelia out of bed and they hopped back in Kate's car for the last part of the journey. They drove for 8 hours and arrived at 12:00 in the afternoon. Kate parked the car on the Nevada parking lot of the El Royale- they had made it to their destination.
Amelia immediately noticed how run down the place looked, it was abandoned like a ghost town. Kate threw the doors open and gestured Amelia to follow her. It made Amelia uneasy how comfortable Kate was at the El Royale. The old man she had mentioned was sitting behind the receptionist desk.
"Mr. Bishop, it's good to see you again. Do you remember who I am?" Kate smiled at the elderly man with thick white hair and circle wire made glasses. He wore a white button down with a lavender bow tie and matching suspenders accompanied with khakis. Mighty well dressed man to live in an abandoned hotel. Amelia thought.
"Well I'll be damned, Kate Miller look at you! I haven't seen you in almost 6 years!" Mr. Bishop exclaimed. Walking around from the desk to give Kate a long awaited hug.
Kate flashed him one small smile and he handed her a ring of keys. She look at Amelia with a raised eyebrow jingling the keys "shall we Amelia?" Amelia trusted Kate but the way she was able to so easily get the keys to the entire hotel made her a little uneasy- like she needed to look over her shoulder every few minutes.
Kate and Amelia walked through the El Royale showing her all the rooms and some of which still had blood stains from the terrifying shit that went down here. Amelia was starting to quickly understand why Atticus would want to forget that he grew up here. What creeped Amelia out the most was if you went in the back hallway all the mirrors in the rooms were two way mirrors.
The hallway lights were almost all blown out and they came upon a room where the two mirror was shattered. Kate told stories of each room so Amelia had a good understanding of Link's childhood.
"That one right there, one of the biggest drug rings his parents were apart of went down in that room- the night began with 19 of em, only 3 came out without their head being blown to bits." Kate said horrified, she knew the stories so well they haunted her practically the same.
They continued walking and then Kate led her outside so they could physically go in the rooms. She unlocked a door that had an A scratched into it. She swung the door open and for the first time in the whole tour- Kate didn't have words to tell the story.
"This was Atty's room." She croaked out before tears spilled out her eyes. The room had dark wooden floors that were aged and scratched, the bed was broken and the closet door threatened to fall out the ceiling. The fan turned but creaked and shook violently every time it did. There was a rug so covered in dust if you touched it you'd probably be covered in dust, and Amelia made her way to the dresser that looked if you breathed on it, it would collapse.
She found a small note folded on the dresser, Kate was outside trying to compose herself and Amelia unfolded the note. She began to read and as she did her heart broke for the man she loved.
"Dear Future Atticus Matthew Hartford,
I'm writing this to you when I am 10 years old. Mommy and Daddy are dead, they're gone and we are all alone in the world. Yes they weren't the greatest parents, always high or drunk or making deals they couldn't get out of but it was comfort to know they were at least in the world with me. I bet when you read this you are a successful man because you made it out of the El Royale, you didn't stay here. You have made a name for yourself in the world and you have everything you never had before. I bet you have a girlfriend and she's pretty and smart. Funny and kind, she had brown hair and eyes like the ocean, hopefully she has a dimple when she smiles like you. Hopefully she comforts you at night while you dream of the memories here, hopefully she doesn't judge you because you don't know how to love , or to be loved, hopefully one day you get to walk her out a church as husband and wife. But what I hope most future Atticus is that you heal, you heal from the nightmares and fears of those people coming back, you heal from your childhood deprived of love, and you move on and make a name. Most of all I hope you never look back to the days we spent here in the El Royale, watching the people come in and out, watching people's lives be taken from them, from watching mommy and daddy die in front of us. I hope you leave and you do great things and you forget where you came from.
-Atticus Matthew Hartford (age 10, written in the El Royale hotel on the border of Nevada and California)
Meanwhile Jack Burns along with 6 other men and one woman he held hostage threw the doors of the El Royale open. He walked up to Mr. Bishop and quickly took the gun he held in his hand and smacked the old man across the head enough to knock him out for a while. Then he began to look- for Amelia.
YOU ARE READING
Life Will Out
FanfictionAmelia Shepherd is living in Seattle, Washington with her brother Derek Shepherd. She has many friends and is fresh out of a relationship with Owen Hunt. She isn't looking for new love right now..... or is she?
