The Hunger

The Encounter

Michael was content that it was just a nightmare, a terrible nightmare that chilled him to the spine. For a brief moment, he forgot all the applause that once rang in his ears when he was lying on the floor choking on his vomit and blood. In a couple of minutes, the horror of the night before he lost consciousness started devouring him from inside. The uncertainty of the situation was much more terrifying than the job itself.

He didn't know for how many hours or days he was there lying on the mattress, imprisoned in those nightmares, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Michael began noticing the room which seemed like a first-class suite of the hotel. Everything except the bed and the digital clock was removed from the space. A big window was there at one end of the bed from which sunlight was pouring down on the bed. He was intrigued to seek the view of the outside. The hotel was situated in the centre, on the top of the hills, within the walls. There were numerous villas on the upper portion of the terraced hill and small cabins on the outskirts. There was some kind of hierarchy present there which showed a glimpse of the relativity of wealth. Michael's perception of poverty started eroding. He always believed that wealth generates power which leads to nothing but satisfaction but it was not the case. There was stratification within wealth, which was now noticeable to him. Even with that stratification, there prevailed some sort of serenity in the air.

The monstrous wall was visible with all its gates and heavily guarded outposts. Beyond the wall, everything seemed hazy to him. It was like, the wall filtered all those mists of chaos and violence which flooded beyond it. It filtered the air contaminated with the smell of rotting corpses, the wails of a mother losing her child, the screams of a father who had to poison his entire family due to unendurable sufferings and many more torments. Deep and sudden despair started devouring him from inside.

"Are you Michael?", a voice reverberated in that empty chamber.

Michael was startled as he didn't notice anyone coming inside. Soon, he realised that he was too drenched in his introspection as well as assessment of the surroundings that he ignored the person coming into his room. There was a girl in her early twenties who was standing there with a tray full of bread and two boiled eggs. She came up beside the bed and laid down the tray on the bed. Michael noticed that she was too shy to make eye contact. She stood there for a while, expecting some sort of interaction and then decided to leave him with the food.

"Yes, I'm Michael. Who are you?", Michael prevented her from going out.

She turned around and with her eyes stuck on the ground answered.

" My name is Anna. I'm an attendant at this hotel. Mister Joseph sent me to ask if you want anything."

She reminded Michael of someone. Someone who he lost in the abyss of the past. Someone Michael adored. Someone Michael loved.