Healing ✔

Chapter 13

Sara

I let Zach guide me but not before exchanging the towel on my head for a scarf. Zach thankfully averts his eye to the ceiling while I tie my scarf on properly which was unnecessary but I was thankful that he respected my needs.

"Follow me and act normal." Zach says as we leave the room together. I notice Zach carrying a backpack which I have never seen before but I don't ask questions and for the first time I see a flash of worry cross his face as he calls for the lift. But only for a brief moment as he turns and smiles to me before the lift doors open.

"We can't stay here anymore." Is all Zach says as we both hurry into the elevator.

I don't ask him how he knows and neither does he choose to elaborate which is fine by me. My brain wasn't programmed for this sort of thing it was best if he kept me in the dark in this very situation.

He swiftly guides me around the hotel and I smile in assurance at the few uniformed employees running errands on the second floor giving quirky looks. Everything seemed to look normal to me, if anything Zach was the one who wasn't acting normal here. His long legs take long strides making me having to put some efforts into keeping up with him.

I however had not felt the intensity of the situation yet as we went from corridor to corridor occasionally reconsidering our tracks and having to head back a different way.

Zach moved faster as we rounded the corner. His grip on my was tight but I didn't dare speak a word out of an unknown fear.

The journey down felt longer than the journey we had taken up to the room.

We pass a few more identical halls that look the same as the last but as soon I recognized this specific corridor I almost sigh in relief feeling that once we were out in the open we won't be so trapped as easy victims anymore.

The statue was actually the thing that had alerted me to know we were almost there as It was one of the first things I had noticed about this hotel and remembered saying Astaghfirullah at the naked statue standing so proudly up on a thick pillar.

Suddenly Zach stops without warning and pulls me back behind the corner we had just come from. I stumble back a little my back hits Zach and I steady myself against the wall as my hand slips out of his which I hadn't noticed he was still holding.

"Do you recognize any of them?" Zach asks as he peaks from above me. I do the same sneaking a look in the direction following Zachs gaze.

A man with a long bushy eyebrows and a permanent frown to his forehead stood reading a leaflet by the main doors. I had never seen him before and the other two men were just looking around rather than chatting. I couldn't see their faces properly but from the backs they didn't look too familiar.

I craned my neck further but it didn't make a difference to my height as I was already standing on tip toes.

Feeling a sense of relief that Zach had misjudged the whole situation I was about to spin around to inform him that he might have gone a bit overboard this time but before that something shiny catches my attention.

A flash of a shiny gold chain.

The one man that was leaning against the reception desk was looking our way. In fact he was looking directly at me almost, through me. Those fierce eyes that were boring into me long before I could even realize. He done the all too familiar pulling his lip ring into his mouth with his teeth and grinned.

Instant flashes of a few memories begin to surface back up from the dark parts of my mind. memories that would only surface at night while I slept and had no control over my subconscious. Flashes of Deep Blue eyes, Of hands, Of long metal scraps.