And There She Comes

Come to think of it, it has been how many days since I sent those invitations away for anyone else alive to come to this place. But rather unfortunately, no one else has come. Not even a single soul has passed by this lonely hotel I call headquarters. Day after day, I feel that the faint gleam of hope starts to flee away.

I got up picking up my plate and walked towards behind the kitchen of the huge dining hall. I washed what I have used and organized them neatly on a cupboard on the side that I grabbed from the mall. I thought that I should at least keep some things on this place organized if I will continue to live here.

The long halls of the dining place screams loneliness and as I take a closer look at the walls, they were also begging to be clean. Since, I have to whole day to myself, the whole week, or even the rest of my lifetime all to myself, I took it upon myself the challenge to tidy up around this place which used to be a restaurant.

I started with the walls and worked my way up to the ceiling taking down cobweb after cobweb. Maybe now I can really say, "started from the bottom now we here." I didn't really care for stains, I just needed the walls to breathe some fresh air free from dust and other specimens. I scrubbed here and there while Alfred was lying peacefully and asleep on the corner.

Quickly wrapping up with the walls I moved to the tables and chairs. They don't have to be perfect, they don't have to be spot free, no one will ever use them aside from me, no one will ever see them except for me, and no one will inspect this dump for a license to operate anyway. I just wiped them down and wiped them clean removing the dust collecting from their surfaces.

Doing this hands-on work ease my mind from thinking a lot of negativities and it kept me distracted from the fact that I am alone and that I may forever be alone. I used to think of that before but never literally. I thought that I would never meet someone that would be stupid enough to share her life with me, I never thought that I would, physically be and literally be a-lone.

As I wipe the last surface there is on the dining hall, I stood proud at the end of it and looking smug with a proud face that I wore as I kept myself in awe with regards to the day's work I have accomplished. As I glanced on the watch on my hand, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't even 1 in the afternoon.

But since I have the cleaning bug on my system, I continued the scrubbing and cleaning on my room. I went on to use the vacuum, changed sheets, beddings, the whole nine and was done before 6 in the evening.

I dove into the pool to rid myself of the filth I was collecting the whole day with my body. It was a tiring day but it was satisfying in a sense. As I rose on the surface of the water, I looked up and saw the moon beginning it's shift above the dark blue sky. It looks magnificent but something was missing.

I climbed up out of the pool and threw a towel around my naked body and made my way into the heart of the hotel's wine cellar. There are hundreds of bottles in stock and they were neatly kept. Since I was feeling a bit celebratory, I picked up a bottle of champagne and a tin can of caviar.

Back on the rooftop where the pool was located, I laid bare under the pale moonlight, a bottle of champagne on one hand and the other was underneath my head. It was a perfectly good day.

May have been from the bottle of champagne or the fatigue from the day's work but I found myself waking up in the middle of the night feeling the freezing wind on my naked body. I must have fallen asleep while I was drinking on the rooftop. I got up to go back down to my room and I was frozen this time not by the wind but by the figure standing right in front of my path. The towel dropped and exposed me and my everything.

I quickly grabbed and covered the lower half of my body in an attempt to hide the smallest dignity that I have left.

"Don't bother. I've already seen it all. You were asleep a long time."

The figure spoke and sent shivers all through out my body. I secretly pinched myself to ensure that I wasn't dreaming. I rubbed my eyes to be sure that the alcohol wasn't just teasing me with hallucinations and all that.

"I'm real as your imagination. Snap out of it."

"Who are you? How?"

"I'm Karen, nice to meet you. Received one of those cards lying around. And I'm here heeding the invitation."

I don't know what came over me, maybe I was so glad, maybe I was so excited, maybe I was overwhelmed but I couldn't control myself and I tackled the lady and grabbed her in a tight embrace.

"Oh hey. Hello. Uhm..."

Tears started to flow from my eyes and the words just came out almost involuntarily. "Thank God, you're here. Thank God you're alive. Thank God. Thank God."

"Whoa. I know I know I know. But can you let me go now? You're poking me with that. Wait? Isn't it getting harder?!!"

I hurriedly let go and abruptly ran downstairs to pick up some clothes.

While I was running she yelled at me "hey nice package by the way."

I felt all the blood came rushing to my head. I was gonna explode from embarrassment. I continued running without even the thought of looking back.

While dressing up, I just realized what miracle just happened today. "Karen huh. It's really a great day."

Hey there!

I don't know why or how you're here but thanks for stumbling into another installment of Earth After Dark. This is still an ongoing project and it will be as long as I can still think of something to post. lol

If you want to jump in into the story just go ahead and read the guidelines and you're good to go : Earth After Dark : The Setting .

For now, I appreciate you being here and as always...

Cheers!!!

References:

Champagne : https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/champagne.htm

Dining Hall : https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/dining-hall-interior-designing-for-hotel-9049297488.html

Towel : https://www.istockphoto.com/search/2/image?phrase=towel+on+floor