Returning Red

#15: Hide and Hunt.

there were never butterflies, just fires.

Isabella

"--Yes, I confirm it. Okay, bye," I say as I cut the phone call. 

I have this unusual thrill inside me. I pull the key card for our room from my back pocket and open the door. I stick it in its pocket and the room is resplendent with all the lights turned on and the sunshine dynamism taking over the entire suite. I rush to the closet and search for my laptop bag. I stuff the brown notebook, my pen, and the files that I brought from Safford into it. 

I close my closet but I open it again because I notice something odd. My laptop bag was supposed to be horizontal, but it's perpendicularly standing. It would've somehow made sense if I'd left it vertical and found it horizontal, I would've assumed it might have slipped. But how did it stand up? 

I push the clothes on the hanger to the other side and see that the gift sketch and the two small boxes—the pendant, and the watch are moved too. Because I seemingly remember I'd kept the sketch at the bottom, and then the watch box on top of it, and then the small pendant box on top of the watch box. And now, the watch box is above the pendant box. 

Somebody has moved it all. Someone was here. 

I turn around eyeing the other things. My OCD senses kick in when I notice how the alarm clock on my side table is facing the lamp instead of the bed. The bed is untouched but the pillows are offhand and the carpet in front of the side table is not aligned. My car key on the side table has vanished. The resort staff won't steal my car keys. With Jason as the owner, they'd be really dumb to steal the keys with all the CCTV cameras around--

My eyes widen as it hits me. I quickly turn back to the closet and pull the first drawer and search the sides and under my carefully arranged undergarments. My last bottle of pills is missing. My breathing changes as I tell myself I'm not searching properly and that the pills are just right there but, they're missing.  

I had not popped a pill. I just needed to know somewhere in my head that I had at least one precautionary set so I would have my peace of mind. But now that I have nothing, I begin to tense more. I'm angrier, restive, and irritated. I hate how my sprightly attitude has suddenly become volatile. 

I grab my phone and pull the key card as I let the room door shut behind me and run down to the cafe. I literally run six floors down because I'm too impatient to wait for the lift. I can feel my chest ebbing and beating rapidly. I rush into the cafe and I search for May. She's sitting with Liam, Jason, and Julie as I run toward her. 

"What's up? Where were you?" She asked me as she saw me run to her. I was gasping for air. 

"Therapy," I mutter, trying to bring back my breathing pace to normalcy. "May--did you lend our room key to anyone?" 

I leaned on my knee as I waited for her answer. I glanced at Liam and Jason who seemed happy and clueless. Jason gave me a glass of water and I mouthed a 'thank you' to him, grabbing it and gulping it entirely. I intentionally ignore Julie because I don't want to look at her. 

"Oh, right, Austin had borrowed it today morning. He said the housekeeping didn't have the key to our suite and they wanted to clean but couldn't get in so I gave it to him. He did return it though, why? Is your key not working?" She said frowning and I closed my eyes, stopping myself from strangling her. 

"May," I gripe at her, "Housekeeping has one key card that acts as a master key to open all the other rooms. They don't need different keys." 

"What?" She frowns even more.