The Unrelenting

IV

January 2, 2017 

No matter how many times I asked to go swimming, Hagan's answer never changed from a 'no'. He eventually threatened to tie me up and gag me, which quickly shut me up; Hagan doesn't bluff. Apparently, it was more important to search for supplies. Mom and Sebastian were told to search the hotel kitchen for food, and Hagan and I were to check and see if any of the unlocked rooms held any supplies. We had searched all but one room in the entire hotel and only managed to find a little bit of food. The last room was the room that was supposed to be occupied, and I really didn't want to go in. Hagan, however, thought this room might hold the most supplies. So here I was, holding a gun that I wasn't even sure could kill a Moroi, about to pass through the door I might never walk out of again.

Needless to say, I would much rather be at the pool right now.

"Maybe we should just leave it alone." I didn't think this was a good idea. We virtually had no plan, let alone a backup plan incase things turned sour.

"There might be supplies." Searching for supplies had pretty much became our main goal for every day. Each meal we count the remaining food, each time we fill up the car we double check the gas cans, and we are constantly searching for water – no matter how much we have at the time. It was annoying, having to repeat the same routine multiple times a day, but it was smart. We couldn't risk running out of anything.

I went through the trouble of creating a new card for this specific room, but the door was already slightly ajar. A sense of dread consumed me; no sane person would leave their door open at a time like this. Whatever was in there, could not be pretty.

Hagan slowly pushed the door open – he insisted on entering first, and I wasn't about to complain. The first thing I noticed, much like the hotel lobby, was the strong stench clinging to the walls. Only this time, it wasn't a pleasant smell like chlorine – it was the smell of death. I gagged at the smell of rotting flesh, attempting to block out the stench with the sleeve of my shirt. The room had two double beds, a sofa that I had no doubt was a pull-out-couch, and a large television placed by the giant window. Overall, the room was much nicer than the one we were staying in.

Looking around the room, however, all I could see was red. There was a time when I decided to cook Hagan a birthday dinner several years ago, and I accidently sliced my hand instead of the carrots. It seemed as if it would never stop bleeding, and there was so much blood I was genuinely worried. But this – this was different. There was no longer carpet on the floor, just a wide sea of red so thick it looked like you could drown in it.

I couldn't count the bodies – I didn't want to. I didn't want to see what they looked like, if they were young or old. I kept my eyes locked on Hagan's broad back, praying that he wouldn't want to search for anything of value. I tried to block out the sight around me, but Hagan was several steps ahead and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make my peripheral vision go away.

Suddenly the broad back I was watching turned into a chest that was steadily getting closer. I kept my eyes in the same spot, too afraid that I would see an image I would never be able to forget if I moved.

"Close your eyes." Immediately my eyes obeyed, and my face was buried in a strong chest. My eyes were squeezed tight – as if the tighter I squeezed them, the more I would wake up and find out this was all a dream. A nightmare that would go away as soon as I opened my eyes – but I was already awake, and the reality of this new and unfamiliar world slammed into me all at once. I knew that, once I opened my eyes, I couldn't just go back to living my simple life no matter how much I wished for that to come true. The emotions flooded in so quickly that it became difficult to decipher what exactly I was feeling; the mixture raging inside me so fiercely that I began to feel sick. My eyes and my nose began to tingle from the onslaught of emotions, and I clenched my jaw in an attempt to keep from crying out.