Chapter one- The Dark Hotel
Wren's P.O.V
I awake to a dark room. A hotel room in fact. It's completely dark, I try to turn on the lamp beside me. It doesn't work, so I get up and decide to try and find the lobby.
Opening the door I find the whole floor is dark. A few lights are dim and spark as they try to function properly. There is a strange feeling coming from behind me, it's almost as if some... thing is watching me. I try to ignore it and continue to try and find the way down, or at least to the lobby.
I soon learn the hotel is circular. It makes me take rounded turns down the long hallway. It's quite a large hotel.
I hear footsteps behind me and turn around. There's nothing there except the flickering light and total darkness. I turn around and continue walking, only to hear the footsteps again! By now I'm beginning to panic a little bit. I walk faster and get into a run as the footsteps get louder and faster behind me.
Oh my god! Holy crap! I think in my head. What'll happen if I get caught?! More questions run through my head.
After running in a complete circle- I see no elevator! But as I look around with the footsteps in the background, I see the exit, the stairs. The stairs are concrete and are hard and cold on my bare feet. I soon forget about that, and focus on running down five whole flights of stairs.
Once I get in the lobby, I see it's dark, too. There's no one at the front desk, only a large spot of shiny, red blood. Cold hands grab me from behind and pull me back. I feel stale, cold breath on my ear. The voice that speaks is deep and a little intimidating.
"Found you. Now let's put an end to our little game of tag." it says.
The pain that enters my body is excruciating. Feeling my stomach where the pain is coming from- there's a small point sticking out, it's sharp. And that's when the blood drips and stains my shirt red. The asshole STABBED me!
I fall to the ground on my knees with a thud. The knife is still sticks through my stomach, and as I fall backwards from my knees the knife drives through me even farther. I try to cry out in pain but blood has filled my mouth and all that comes out is a gurgling sound. And that's when the dark room goes completely black.
***
I wake up to find myself almost swimming in my bedsheets. I'm drenched in a cold sweat. Gross. I can barely breathe from the shock of the nightmare. But I can't stay in bed all day. So I get up and grab some clothes for the day.
I walk across the hall to the bathroom and close the door. A shower should be just what I need to calm down. I set the clothes down on the toilet lid, turn on the water to as hot as it'll go, take off my pyjama shirt and shorts, and step into the glass tube-like thing. The hot water feels really nice as it washes all that sweat away.
Once I've finished, I get out and wrap a soft, fuzzy towel around my body. I wipe some fog away from the mirror and just look at my features for a while. What am I even doing with my life? I pretend to be someone I'm not at school and home. At school I just pretend to be the pretty and popular girl. And at home I pretend to be the most perfect and flawless child.
But really, when I normally now a days dress in bright colours, I would usually dress in black, or darker colours. My parents didn't like them and they told me to get rid of them. But seriously though, they're just at the back of my closet. Everyone thinks I'm an obedient child who would never do anything wrong. But that's not true either, I sneak out sometimes and walk to the hill at the nearby park as an example. I'd look at the stars and remember my best friend Jack; oh how I miss him. He was the one who truly understood me for who I was, in my eyes. We were like the dynamic duo.
While staring at myself, I look at my deep, blue-green eyes, and brown hair with a natural red tinge. Probably the only reason the popular girls wan to be my friends; just how rare my features are.
Whatever though, I can't be late for breakfast. I brush out the tangled, and thick mess I call hair; and put it into a braid over my shoulder while I pin my long bangs back. I brush some thin, black eyeliner onto my eyelids and get dressed. Today I'm wearing a navy blue tank top and light grey jeans.
Now that I've finished, I run down the stairs and into the kitchen. My mother is cooking eggs and sausages with some toast. My father sits at the table, reading the newspaper and drinking his coffee. "Good morning!" I say to them both and grab a plate of food. Eat it quickly since I know the girls'll be here any time to pick me up.
"You shouldn't eat so fast, Wren," mom states, "you'll get a stomach ache and won't be able to go to school,"
"I know mom. And don't worry, I'll be fine," I say.
Because I ate the food so quickly, I finish quicker. I put my plate and utensils into dishwasher and run back upstairs to brush my teeth. I reach the bathroom for the second time that day.
I look back in the mirror and grab my toothbrush. I feel my head get light and that's when the memories wash over my vision. Memories of Jack and I playing as little kids. The memories flash by of the year that we were in second grade. Us playing on the jungle jim at school. Us making sandcastles at the beach. Playing tag. But then, the pleasant memories end and skip to when we were nine, the day Jack came to school with one eye completely gone and a scar on the other. Everyone screamed in terror of him,but then just laughed at the hideous scars. I tried to protect him, it didn't help him for what happened the next day... he never came back.
Clear vision returns and I know the flashback is now over. I just continue with what I was doing- brushing my teeth. I just still can't believe I haven't seen him in almost nine years since I'll be eighteen in a few weeks. Kinda funny though how I'm one of the most popular girls in school, yet out of all the guys who've asked me out, I've always said no.
I finish and head back downstairs to wait for my ride. About ten minutes later I hear one of them honking their car's horn for me to get my ass out there. I quickly say goodbye to my parents, grab my bag, put on my shoes, and head out the door to the waiting convertible. "Hey girls!" I say in a voice that's WAY too perky in my books.
They say a greeting in their high pitched, perky voices as I get in the stupid, pink car. And kids at school think I seem to LIKE these people? Actually, I'm not even gonna question it.
We drive to school and I try to look happy as the girls: Bea, Jeanie, Tessa, Crystal (the head girl, more or less), as we exit the car. We walk onto the football field and five off of the team come running up to us. Four of them are all of the girls' boyfriends. There's Drake Bea's boyfriend, Pat who's Jeanie's boyfriend, Chris Tessa's boyfriend, and then there's Crystal's boyfriend Harley; he's probably the best looking one on the team, only the best for the schools' oh so most popular girl.
But there's also the newest boy who's tried to get me to out with him- Craig. He's a nice boy and all, but I'm not interested in these boys... at all. Yet I can't quite seem to find the reason.
Craig stops right in front of me, "hey," he says.
"Hi," I say and just give one of my 'popular girl' smiles.
We all go and sit on the outdoor, wooden bleachers and we chat. The pre-summer sun feels good on my pale skin. The weird thing about my skin is that it's regularly pale,but seems somewhat grey at the same time. They all keep talking through my thoughts, sometimes I wish they would just SHUT UP! The struggles...
The ringing of the bell couldn't come soon enough. Good, now I won't have to listen to them talk anymore. I jump up and walk at a quick pace to my history class with Mrs. McKay.
I walk through the classroom door and sit at my chosen desk. At the back left corner of the room, the only reason I sit there is because I don't need any extra attention. The room was practically empty when I got in, but it slowly fills as students take their seats.
Mrs. McKay walks from her desk to the front of the room.
I sit as she gives a twenty minute, ever so boring lecture about the French Revolution. I can't wait till I graduate in a few months. I'll be out of this boring old place, but where would I go after that? College? Maybe.
"Wren!" the words break up all of my thoughts and I blink as I come back out of them. I look at Mrs. McKay since she's the one who called me. "Are you paying ANY attention?" she asks.
"Sorry ma'am," I say,"it'll never happen again,"
She finishes the lesson and hands everyone a worksheet. "This is to be done by the end of class," she says, "and if you really want, you can listen to music on those blasted phones of yours," she sits down without another word.
I pull out my iPhone and put the earbuds in my ears. I turn on my play list, all Metallica, Escape The Fate, and other rock bands. Not as cool as you thought I may have been.
I really don't like this class. If no one's realized, Mrs. MaKay's kind of a 'B' word. I blast the music and finish the assignment in about ten minutes. I look at the clock at the front of the room to tell the time. Dammit, still about twenty minutes left. I'm a good worker, and sometimes that has it's own perks. But then again, when you finish that quickly and have that much time left, it sucks.
I just decide to listen to my music and sketch an art assignment due next week. I finish the outline in just enough time before class ends. Good thing I have art next so the drawing doesn't get squished. But it's too bad I've finished everything for art class other than this.
I stare down at my artwork. It looks pretty good so far, even without the colours since I don't just carry them around with me. It's a drawing of a little boy and girl sitting on a hill with their backs turned to the observer. It's what I've scavenged from a memory of me and Jack. A day when we were seven and went to the park and played all day there. At the end of the day we sat on the hill and watched the sunset.
The bell goes, telling us we've got five minutes to to out next class. Mine's art, and I'm quite glad about that. Also I've got my assignment almost done early.
I get up and walk quickly to art class. I try to avoid bumping into every, single one of the seven hundred other kids in my school. I reach the art classroom and take my seat. I pull out my sketch and use the pencil crayons to shade and colour the picture. This seems like this is going to be a pretty good day.
***
The day actually went by pretty quickly. After art, it all seemed to go by in a fast blur. When the girls offered to drive me home I politely said no. I explained it's a nice day, and I'll just enjoy the sunlight.
You've really gotta love the heat of where I live. It's normally really hot just before and in the summers. As I walk though, I feel a strange presence behind me again. I look back and find nothing again so I just continue walking home.