Don't give up on me ✓

[37] Air Cabin Pressure

Chapter 37: Air Cabin Pressure

Please be alive, I thought to myself, Please be alive.

I was wearing a ripped gown in the hallway of a fancy hotel in Paris.  My arms were scratched and bloodied.  My eyes looked like they had seen death tonight.  In a way, they had.

I was terrified the others hadn't made it.  We were so close to not making it either.  I tried not to think of the six demons that came for us in the dead of night.  It created a fear I had never felt before.

I knocked again.  

And Mrs Maythorne opened the door. 

The only woman in the world right now who could make me feel safe.  

Her wig was off and her hair was in a bun. She had a cut on her cheek and dark circles under her eyes. This evening had taken a toll on her too.

She looked at me, at the disheveled mess I was in, and opened the door wider.

"Come inside, my dear. You did well tonight."

I could barely feel my feet move but somehow I was inside.  The door shut behind me and that's when I realized what I had walked into.  

"What the..." I stared around me.

Mrs Maythorne had a luxury suite in the hotel.  Right now, there were twenty children gazing back at me.  They were all dressed in gray with a different number on each of their lapels.

"What is this?" I asked.

They were like kids from The Shining.

"We couldn't leave them behind," Mrs Maythorne answered, "We had to release all the prisoners and these are innocent children. A few couldn't make it."

I walked towards them, children of all ages, some barely old enough to walk, some who should have been in high school with us. They were all frightened and undernourished.

"And they're all special," Mrs Maythorne said compassionately, "Like you."

I couldn't understand why the demons would cruelly trap these innocent children.  As the shock entered my system, I found myself asking:

"How is Jesper?  What happened to Zander and Mohan?  They came with you to the prison, right?"

I was firing questions out of fatigue and desperation.  Please let my family be ok.

"Mohan is taking care of Zander now," Mrs Maythorne said, "He got badly injured in the fight.  Tell Hugo that he is to sleep in your room tonight so that Mohan and Zander can have their space."

"Will Zander be ok?"

"I hope so."

I turned around to ask something else but yellow spots started appearing in my eyes. I felt a pain on the side of my arm and I realized that I had been bitten there last night - the shock of the events had numbed the pain. It came back now. It overwhelmed my senses until suddenly they all disappeared. And I blacked out.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Mrs Maythorne put the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on her door. The cleaning ladies did not come in.

Behind the closed door, her hotel suite had become a sanctuary for twenty-one children. The children were sleeping on the floor, on the bed, under the desk, on the couch. Sheets and pillows were discarded across the room. 

Hugo came in with cartons of food, "OK. Ten baguettes, twenty-five croissants and juice. A lot of juice. The bakers of Paris are very happy with me this morning."