A VERY DARK tale (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 11

     April 21, 1963. Dallas, Texas.

     The airplane landed with a slight impact on the ground. I clutched my hands into the seat holding myself in place, and when I felt the speed slow down, I relaxed and sat back waiting for the flight attendant's next instructions.

Overall, I felt stiff and suspicious. The smell that couldn't stop hunting me anywhere I go was so strong in this small space of airplane first class cabin, that I had to request a glass of Scotch to cope with my paranoia, somehow. During the flight, I went to the lavatory three times and sniffed the hell out of my clothes making sure that the smell wasn't coming off me. And it wasn't. That basically left me with one question swirling in my head: Where the hell it was coming from, then?

The men that sat across the room three seats away from me? Maybe. Maybe not.

Before to leave the plane, I made a mental note to watch them, because even my sleepy subconsciousness felt disturbed. Once to come across the smell is an accident, twice - is a coincidence, but thee times – is a consistent pattern. And of course, as I made my way out of the gates being on alert hyper aware of my surroundings, the smell vanished, and my sense of danger blurred up.

After arriving at the hotel, I went to the reception desk to check in. The meeting was set up at two in the afternoon, after what I planned to head to Louisiana to find Dwight and Georgia. My mind was only scarcely gliding by the subject of my principal business in Dallas. I wasn't even going to pause to take a break in between my missions.

When the receptionist gave me the key from my suit, a bellboy came and took my small luggage from me. The boy looked not more than fifteen, so I smiled kindly at him and started following him to the elevators. Once we crossed the lobby, a reek of rusty metal hit me hard. I glanced to my right and found a man in a smart suit sitting in the armchair filling something out. The man didn't look like one of those I noticed in the airplane, but my awareness returned as if my body just received a shock therapy. There was some kind of thing about that guy that made me wary. If the other time, I felt uncertainty and irritation that was tightly entwined into the paranoia of me being stalked, then, this time, I felt pure fear.

Snapping out of observing the man, I continued strolling by the hallway clutching tighter to the case in my hands. The bellboy pressed the button to call the elevator once glancing my way. I reached where he stood and sighed thinking about quitting this job. There were too many odd things going on around me for my liking, and my tolerance of a nagging feeling of being watched was from scratch. I inhaled deeply in taking a new portion of hotel air noticing that the reek lessened in this part of the hall. The elevator dinged announcing its arrival. The boy sent me a small smile, but as our eyes met, his gaze traveled somewhere past me that made me peek behind my shoulder as well.

The man in a smart suit that only a minute ago had been sitting in the lobby armchair was casually strolling our way. My heart froze and then started pounding fast as I watched him approaching us. His hair was dark and carefully combed that sharpened his facial features giving him a serious look. His eyes were the same shade of brown as of Mr. Palus, seeming bottomless and frightening. I gulped when noticed his lips stretching into a smile. His expression transformed to a welcoming and our glances fully connected.

"Ma'am," the voice came from my left. I turned my head to the sound and saw the bellboy gesturing me inside the elevator. I nodded and strode in, but once I turned around to face the front I met a smile of the stranger again.

"Good morning," he directed at me.

Involuntarily, I stepped to the wall wanting some space between us and forced a smile. "Good morning," I answered feeling the cage moving up.