This is the full chapter [first part of Idk how many parts], but it's seriously rough with many mistakes and typos. I just wish to share it with you before I post the beautified and final version. If you do not wish to read these types of chapters, comment that you want it stopped, and I'll stop.
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After only a few glasses of wine in a pub, I was dragging myself to my apartment. The weight of my red bag was pulling at my fingers, my red heels chafing against my ankle.
I sighed, a chill travelling down my spine and dabbed my cold nose with the wrist of my blazer, instantly getting attacked by the smell of alcohol. I almost puked. Why did I drink so much?
I exhaled heavily, halting and looked at the sky, running my fingers through my dishevelled hair, the sky was full of stars. The moon was shining amongst the stars.
I didn't realize when the sun drifted and the dark sky took its place.
Not empty at all. A fluttering ache seeped through my heart.
Every shop in that narrow alley was closed and not a sound, apart from the sound of my heels. Only a few people, rushing. Someone might have been waiting for them at home. A wife, a girlfriend, or children.
I sighed, and turned ahead, avoiding looking back, at them rushing.
My family lived far — or perhaps it's better to say, I had chosen to live far from my family.
I cherished the freedom I had achieved at the age of 25. I treasured it, even at the age of 30. The days I spent alone were peaceful.
I had always assumed that was all I needed, but that certainly was not the truth. Along with the satisfaction of freedom, I felt this hole in my heart and nothing seemed to fill it, not even when I figured out what I needed to fill it.
I breathed through my nose, and started dragging myself again. I took the turn when suddenly I felt something under my foot. Soft, disgusting and uncomfortable. [something needs to be added here.]
I looked down, — daze — I shook my head, the daze lifted. There was a rose, its stem crushed under my shoe.
I bent, my foot stumbled, the lines on my pants danced. I shook my head, grasped the flower and picked it up. I stood up. A heavy thrumming daze surged in the center of my head. I blinked hard, settling it down.
I looked at the rose in my hand. Fresh, as if someone had just clipped it off a garden. I could almost inhale its scent, yet if asked what it smelled like, I would not be able to answer.
A strong curiosity struck my mind; I wished to know who it belonged to. For that I looked around, but no one was there.
I devised to walk ahead and see if anyone was there who had dropped that flower.
Looking around, deep into the corners of the alley, I walked ahead. There was no one to be found, but there was something — unusual.
A grand building.
It was never there.
Under the protection of enormous metal gates, it loomed over all the buildings in that alley. I tilted my neck, the tip of it was touching the misty sky. My neck cracked, I whimpered, stumbling onto my feet.
I quickly looked down, stroking the back of my neck and saw something etched in glowing cursive letters, on the head of the first floor. Hotel — THE BOOTH.
I blinked hard to check if what I saw was right.
"The Booth?"
Hotel? There?
I kept staring at the brand of that enormous hotel, that's what they have for a name - a brand, my feet unsteady — I grasped the cold metal bar.
Then, a flash.
White, bright, blinding and foggy.
A numb heartbeat.
Then the fog began to evaporate in thin air. I blinked hard, a wooden counter was glistening against the warm light.
The rest of the white disappeared. A woman was standing right in front of me, behind the counter. In the enormous lobby, the crimson walls, with a deep dullness.
She was looking directly at me, as if through me, smiling, her hands joined on the counter. Her skin was pale white, her lips dark red. She was dressed in flowing red silk, her hair draping down in waves, decorated with a red rose in the right side of her ear.
"Welcome!" She spoke, her voice enticingly sweet. "We've been waiting for you." She continued as she rounded the counter and stood an inch away from me.
"What?" I breathed out and stumbled a step back. A rush coursing through my veins.
"He's waiting for you, mam. Don't make him wait or he might lose his mind." She took my hand and placed a keycard in my palm.
"What?" I yanked my hand from her. The keycard fell on the floor.
"What is happening here?" My words cracked through my throat.
She just smiled at me before she bent down and calmly picked up the card. "You'll understand."
"What will I understand? What the fuck are you talking about? Why am I here? And how– how am I here? What is this place?"
"The place where you can get what you've longed for a long time." She smiled.
I didn't like the feeling of those words. "I want to leave. I don't want anything."
She grasped my hand, and once again placed the keycard in my hand. "You found the rose on the ground. It has chosen you." I just stared at her. She caressed my curled fingers and curled them around the keycard.
I tried releasing myself from her grasp, but neither did her form budge nor did her eyes. Rather she jerked my hand, her grasp tightening on my curled fingers. She smiled wider. "It's our duty to serve whoever gets chosen. You can't defy the choice of the rose." Suddenly, she released my hand. I stumbled. "You've got all your answers. Now hurry. Or else the man you've always wanted will start crying."
I grew silent, my heart racing in my chest and gulped, just staring at her.
"You'll understand once you see it." Her tone softened. She carefully rolled her arm around my arms and gently led me towards the elevator. A few steps on the right of the counter.
"Don't be scared. There's nothing to be scared of." She said as she pressed the button of the elevator. "We do not mean to harm you in any way, but serve you as you deserve."
The doors closed.
The elevator began moving. I stood frozen.
Ping. The elevator doors opened.
Silence.
An empty and quiet corridor was before my eyes, with scarlet walls, molded with gold. It was floored with a carmine thick carpet, illuminated with golden wall lamps.
I stood frozen.
My mind suddenly rushed through everything she had said, everything that had happened before I entered that hotel and everything that I had done that day.
The perfect sequence of the thoughts slowly began to rattle up, my breaths pacing, my pulse rushing and my hands clenching.
I could not grasp any thought, no matter how hard I tried. The thoughts jumbled, I looked all over the elevator, searching for a button down. There was a single ruby button on the right. I pressed it, my head throbbing, hoping to reach down soon.
But the elevator didn't move.
A jolt.
I pressed it again. The elevator did not move.
I pressed it again. "Move, you piece of shit."
And again and again.
Until, I lost the trapped breath in my chest, "Agh, fuck — fuck — fuck." hitting the button with my bag. "Agh."
My palm stung. I brought my hand closer, my bag and the rose with it and opened my palm. Blood was pooling in my palm, darker than the color of my bag and the rose.
I lifted the rose, and saw a thorn stuck in the flesh of my palm. An ache stung my chest. "Why is this happening to me?"
I felt weak to my knees. Everything was so not right.
Suddenly, my mind flashed through glasses of wine I had chugged down in the pub. I couldn't even walk straight home.
The rose made no sense, the hotel, the woman. Nothing did. Which meant — it was a dream.
I exhaled. My chest enlightening, my head slowly returning to normal.
I exhaled one more time, closed my eyes hard and opened them, looking straight. It was a dream, which meant nothing could harm me.
And I could see what she meant.
I stepped out of the elevator, clutching the bag and the rose in my fine hand. I began walking, looking at the paintings on the walls and at the golden refinements at the borders of the walls, glistening under the warm light of the lamps.
They kept on walking, a minute passed the room no. 409. My heart thumped, my skin itching.
I passed by the room no. 500. I needed to know who she was talking about before. But now I did not care. It was a dream, whoever he was did not matter because he could cause no harm to me. But I was intrigued.
My pulse was rushing, I walked by room no. 502.
A few steps and I was standing before the 503.
"Knock three times to let him know it's you. He's been waiting so devotingly. He would be delighted." The woman had suggested.
My pulse rushed at the thought of a man getting excited over my arrival. I stood still before the enormous doors of the room, my chest heavy under the thick silence.
I stared at the door, clutched the keycard in my hand. Then, drew a breath, — knock …. Knock …. Knock.
Silence.
I gazed at the keycard in my hand one last time then swiped it on the lockpad. Beep. Beep Beep.
The sound of the door being unlocked echoed through the corridor. I twisted the door knob, soles of my feet tingling and pushed the doors open. Thud.
Dark and quiet. The room was glistening with dull red light on the ceiling, draped with long red curtains on the large glass windows right in front of me. I looked slightly left, taking a step inside, a dark figure of a muscular man stood up from the bed bench, and walked towards me.
I stopped. I could slightly see his red shirt under the slight glimmer of the light, peak of his pale skin and chest. His each step towards me seemed to heavy the darkness in that room, and sharpen the red.
My heart thumped, my breaths heavier.
The gasp between us evaporated and he stood before me, enormous, looming over me. For a second he said nothing, I could barely see the blade of his jaw, and his lips, his eyes still in the darkness.
Suddenly, he snapped his arm and pressed his palm over the switch behind me, right beside that open door — the red light brightened, and I could finally see him clearly.
I looked up, at his eyes. He was staring at me, icy, quiet and still. He just stared at me with heavy and red eyes —- eyes that seemed hurt, angry and desperate at the same time.
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please do not hate me if I remove a lot of parts from it, it's just a part of writing.
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