Alienata

Chapter 3

As the round of introductions ends, everyone turns back to eating, occasionally exchanging glances, groaning or rolling their eyes according to how they react to each other. Jenny can’t help looking away from James, who’s smirking, and sighing. On the other hand, Deirdre finds herself attracted by Elliott, which Janey notices since she laughs under her breath.

Meanwhile, Iona and Charlotte want to ease the tension; in particular, the latter suggests singing to get everyone to know each other better. “I’ll start,” she says. “I wrote a song a long time ago, but never got the chance to sing it in front of anyone.” She hesitates as she takes a tiny breath, staring at her now empty dish.

Charlotte takes a quick glance around the table to steady her nerves before beginning to sing. It was a bright, cheery tune, and Lacey couldn’t help but sway along to the music.

Among the autumn leaves we danced
With sun still high and bright
Its dappled golden shades around us
Glimmered in the light

And when the moon did take its place
A wispy, glowing sight
It left a dewy glaze upon
The world, to our delight!

So we, the trav’lers took our chance
And chose to spend the night
Beneath the olden mossy woods
In truth, it felt quite right

The song stops abruptly, and Charlotte frowns.

“I could have sworn that I had another stanza,” she mutters. “Something along the lines of but though the woods seemed safe and warm… or something like that. I can’t remember.”

“Is the song supposed to be based off of something?” asks Deirdre. Charlotte taps her lips impatiently. She looks troubled.

“Yes,” she says quietly. “Yes, it’s supposed to be about the camping trip that I went on with Iona and Janey before we came here, but…I can’t remember what happened. Sorry.”

Deirdre shrugs and turns back to Elliott, apparently untroubled. He whispers something in her ear, and she giggles as he reaches for her hand. The rest of the group continues chatting and laughing and eating as if the forgotten song had never even happened. Lacey is the only one remaining quiet.

The song - why would Charlotte forget the words to her own song?

She picks at her food halfheartedly. It’s beginning to taste like ash in her mouth. She’s just starting to gnaw on a crumbling bit of broccoli when a new voice pipes up at the end of the table.

“Who’s ready for dessert?!” cries a short teenage girl with rainbow-colored hair. She’s heaving a massive apple pie over her head. It’s nearly as big as she is, and it smells of warm cinnamon.

Lacey grins. Emma! She hadn’t seen that girl in ages. When had she gotten here?

She’s about to ask that when Emma, after placing the pie on the table, pulls her aside and greets her with glee. “Lacey! It’s been a long time since we last met! So, tell me. How are you?”

Lacey can barely say a word. She’s excited because the girl she gets along with the most is at the hotel and they surely have a lot of things to say to each other. “I-I think I’m fine, I guess,” is her reply.

“I guess we have a lot of things to tell each other,” says Emma, still smiling and barely restraining herself from blushing, “but what about finishing that apple pie first? I made it with my own hands.”

“That’s impressive!” exclaims Lacey. With that said, the two girls get back to the table and serve each other a slice of apple pie. The way it melts in the mouth, gently caressing the palate, is the best way to finish a delicious meal on a high.

Lacey notices Charlotte is staring at the window. Every few seconds, Charlotte will sort of put her ear up next to the window, like she is listening for something.

Lacey motions to Emma. “Look at her,” she says, gesturing vaguely at Charlotte.

“What’s she doing?”

“I’m not sure. Do you think she’s okay?”

Lacey nervously walks over to Charlotte.

“What are you doing?” she asks quietly.

Charlotte turns to Lacey with a concerned look on her face. “Listen,” she says.

Lacey puts her ear up to the window just as Charlotte has done.

She hears a sort of distant tapping sound. Perhaps, Lacey is thinking, it is the beating of a very distant drum.

Even though she tries to catch that sound, Lacey can’t stay focused on it; worse still, it seems to be fading away among the amazing concert of nature. While Charlotte, resolute to find out where those drum beats come from, keeps following the melody of the percussions, Lacey instead gives up; therefore, she, followed by Emma, gets back to the dining table.

Meanwhile, Iona and Deirdre are staring at each other in a perplexed way, worried about Charlotte and her insistence at finding out what that sound actually is. Still, this isn’t enough to kill the general mood. In fact, Kaylee exclaims, “Guys, I have an idea!”

Everyone turns at her, listening at her with interest. “What about singing? We could pick a song and sing it all together,” she says, catching Harvey’s and Elizabeth’s heartfelt smiles, followed shortly after by Iona’s.

“I love singing!” comments Lacey, driven by enthusiasm, which causes everyone to laugh.

“Me too,” replies Emma, raising her left hand. As Iona and Alex do the same, she’s glad to see that almost everyone wants to enjoy themselves to the fullest extent.

Only Charlotte, who has since returned to the table, defeated, doesn’t feel like singing. Lacey has never seen her so dejected; she glances at her, hoping to obtain a reaction, but to no avail.

“Oh, come on you spoilsport!” cries Janey suddenly. She grabs Charlotte’s guitar from where it had been laying by the windowsill and shoves it into her hands. “If you’re not going to sing, at least play us a little tune. And drop that mopey look on your face. It’s not like anybody’s gone and died here.”

Charlotte gives a tentative smile and plucks out a few chords on the guitar. Janey and Iona hum along as Charlotte continues to strum a relaxing tune. It’s soft and sweet, and Lacey begins to feel herself drifting off to sleep.

When Lacey awakens, the hotel is dark.

“Hello?” she calls. “Charlotte? Emma? Iona?” no one answers, and as her eyes adjust, Lacey begins to make out the shapes of broken plates and toppled chairs around her table. A few lonely beams of moonlight stream through shuttered windows, painting delicate cobwebs with a silvery glow. Lacey wipes her hand across the plate in front of her. Her fingers are covered in a thick layer of dust and grime when she pulls away. She shudders. This wasn’t how the hotel looked at dinner.

She hears a loud sound, like a drum beat, coming from another room.

She walks toward the hall from which it came. “Hello?” she calls.

Another drum beat. And then, singing.

Red flowers are falling softly from a tree by the river
at the little ford below

While the red sun is rising, sweeping away
the light of all old, all from long ago
a new better day is dawning
in the East, the dawn is near

And when our new world is created
we’ll all say ‘for ten thousand years’

The voice is Charlotte’s.

Lacey walks down the aisle, following the sultry but rich voice, but she stumbles upon realizing that the complete darkness and the mess caused in the hotel is making it impossible for her to localize anything, let even anyone.

Dejected, she is about to return to her room when she hears a voice calling insistently her name. “Lacey?” She stops, trying to recall who this voice might belong to; tiredness, however, gets the best of her as she yawns, ready to sleep.

However, she must stay awake. She has to find Charlotte, especially after hearing her sing, before anything else.