Five: Intruder
1013 Words
***Donnie***
When I got to the resort, Lance was waiting at the lobby for me, seated at one of the tables, newspaper in front of him and a cup of coffee at his side. He raised his hand at me and I walked over to where he was, taking the seat opposite him.
"You're late." He said to me in a flat tone. This was normal for him, the rudeness.
"By a minute."
He sipped his coffee. "So you know. That's lovely." He said then closed the newspaper in front of him and met my gaze. I squirmed where I sat.
"I bet Haley -" he paused then sighed. "Your mother, the CEO briefed you about the current situation at hand,yes?"
I nodded at him.
"Good." He said. "The lady is in the hospital. She tried to commit suicide and had the effrontery to smear our white walls with her blood. I still don't get why she would do that here."
"Neither do I . How about the other customers? Have they been briefed about what happened? Did anyone spot anything unusual around here? Something or someone that could have triggered such a reaction from the lady in person?" I asked.
"No, not that I know of. The police is currently investigating the matter and questioning her so by the end of today, we should be able to come up with some reasonable information."
I took out my journal from my pocket alongside my pen and began to take down notes.
"So, we're going to repaint the bathroom walls of room -"
"Room 23."
"Room 23." I repeated as I wrote that down.
"I was also thinking we should make that whole floor out of bound for now and relocate those there to the floor below so as to ease the tension spreading among the tourists and our customers."
"Right. That's a good idea, let's do that."
I wrote that down too. It was surprising to me that a customer would come here and try to take her life; something which was very uncommon at a place like ours.
"Anything else?" I asked
"Reporters were here some few minutes before you walked in asking to see you or your mother, I said you weren't available but we'd get back to them concerning the matter."
I sighed.
"They're acting like sharks at the smell of blood. That's just so sad."
"It is."
"She tried to take her own life, that's supposed to be private but instead, they want to make this about our organization and forget that she's a human being, going through emotional trauma."
Lance didn't answer me,he just sipped his coffee and got up.
"That's all for today then. I'll keep you posted on recent developments in her case and hopefully any changes there in."
"Okay."
He bowed slightly and walked away briskly, not turning to the left or to the right as he went. A lady tried to kill herself. But why?
It had never happened before in our resort. Over 30 years of being operational and not once did a customer try to do something like this so why now?
I took the elevator to Room 23, where the woman was staying. Her room looked pretty normal to me. Clothes arranged neatly, bed laid, the floor had been cleaned so it was probably room service that found her lying in the tub. I went into the bathroom and saw where she had used her blood to scribble on the wall.
It read:
*This is just the beginning.*
The beginning of what? For someone whose life was going to end in this tub there was no way this would have been the beginning but rather an end. Except she wasn't the one who tried to end her life.
I shook my head. Wrist slashers always know what they are doing so it wasn't a possibility. My phone rang again, it was mother.
"Yeah?"
"Updates from your end?"
I stared at the wall and then looked at the window. It was opened.
"Yeah um, she's fine. Heard she's still alive, we want to relocate the occupants of the entire row to the down floor while we sort things out here since the bathroom has been messed up."
"Really? What did she do?"
I reached out to touch the blood on the wall and I realized that it actually stuck to my fingers. I rubbed my fingers against each other, staring at the red substance curiously.
It was still fresh like it had been reapplied again.
Maybe paint?
I stepped back a bit and observed the bathroom some more. The floor was dry, not wet like she had been trying to take a shower. The sink was dry as well. The window was open. I looked at the towel hangers.
No dripping towels. Nothing out of the ordinary. And the blood was still fresh. It was even looking like it was getting redder.
"Donnie? Can you hear me?" My mum asked. I had to get out of here. Maybe talk to Kira and get her opinion on this.
"Mum, I'll call you back okay? There's something I need to do."
And I hung up.
I took the elevator back to the lobby then another to where Kira's office was located. Her door was slightly ajar which means she would be inside.
Good. At least I would hear what her opinion was in this matter and maybe have a basis to ask her out for dinner tonight.
I pushed the door open and shut it gently behind me, trying not to distract her if she was busy. When I turned around, I saw her facing the shelf behind her desk; her back to me.
My voice croaked as I opened my mouth.
"Kira?" I called out to her. She didn't respond at first but turned slowly to look at me.
This wasn't Kira. This was-
"And who are you, pretty boy?" She asked, her green eyes gleaming evilly. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
"You're not Kira."
She smiled. "And neither are you."
- Writer
