Waiting by Erin Dennington ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 47 Stella's mind floated above the bed and she ended up staring down at herself from up above. "So that's what I look like when I am sleeping," she thought. "Interesting." She traveled around the room and found that she could enter through objects and yet still touch things, but it was as if she were reaching through water. She could "breathe," in a sense, hear, taste, and see things, but it was like doing it in a dream. Everything was so murky and far away that she didn't feel a real strong cause and effect relationship. She grew quickly bored of her travels around the room and yearned to go exploring. Wondering if she was dreaming, she entered the hallway and began wandering around it, dropping in on people's rooms and lives, listening to conversations, but unable to participate in anything. It was as if she were invisible. She took great amusement out of entering people's rooms as they were drinking or snacking, thinking how it could be a new diet -- she could experience the bad stuff without having to consume it herself. She overheard the conversation between two room service guys, who were chatting about the customers' generosity and wacky personalities. It made her laugh out loud when she heard about her neighbor, a woman who ordered room service food brought up for her pet schnauzer every evening. One of the guys complained about a time when the woman had demanded they take the food back, that it couldn't possibly be food fit for a purebred. When the man brought ground beef mixed with nuts and rice (his own dinner), the woman had claimed that it was the brand he should've brought in the first place and refused to give him any tip. Stella never stayed in one area long enough to grow bored. It was the equivalent of channel surfing; as soon as a conversation changed, she drifted away. Pretty soon she was away from the few people that were out in the walking area and roaming hallways that were empty of even light. Rounding an undistinguishable hallway, she found herself near the staff only area, so she floated up to the ceiling and turned around. When she turned around, she couldn't remember which way she had come; there were no identifying marks on the walls as far as she could tell. She chose the right hallway, thinking that it was the way of righteousness and surely it could be the way of the right direction. The hallway stretched ahead of her, dark and long. After travelling down the hallway for what felt like 15 minutes, she realized that she couldn't find the elevator or the fire stairs and wondered how she had gotten so hopelessly lost in the hotel's halls. Stella was being pursued. Once she rationalized that, if she could be invisible, which she'd always held to be an impossibility, then anyone could be invisible, she quickly grew afraid. She couldn't see her pursuer, but she could hear the footsteps that were gaining on her. Yet she didn't dare look over her shoulder, knowing that if she did, she would regret the glimpse she'd catch. She didn't know how she knew that, but she did. It was as if, along with the ability to be invisible, she was granted a power to sense things that she had never before sensed in her life. Rounding another corner, she saw the elevator and raced toward it, pushing its button repeatedly. Panting for breath, she caught a glimpse of movement in the hallway behind her and she closed her eyes. A shadow darted around the corner and started heading towards her. Opening them again, she saw an empty hallway. She cocked her head to the side and listened. All she could hear was her breathing and the arrival of the elevator. As she entered and turned around, she forced her gaze to the area immediately in front of the elevator. There was no one there, but she could see a trail of dead insects lying on the floor, culminating about 4 feet behind where she had been standing. It was only after the doors shut that she realized she had reacted the way she would have if she were not having an out-of-body experience. It was only then that she felt a strong pull tugging her back to her hotel room and she found herself pulled through the doors of the elevator. She could feel the walls zooming past her and realized she must be traveling at a great speed; when she entered her room, she had to close her eyes in order not to feel dizzy upon re-entering her body. Rubbing her forehead, she realized that the pain had miraculously disappeared. It was the first time a migraine had disappeared without the use of medicine. Groaning softly, she opened her eyes and saw the puzzled gaze of her parents and sister. They were dressed in nice clothes and waiting expectantly for her. They were looking at her as if she had suddenly sprouted horns in the middle of her forehead, and she half-reached up check when she realized that she must have been thrashing around in her pain-induced sleep. Perhaps she had even talked, a phenomenon that she had never experienced while sleeping, but she had never experienced the quick dissipation of her pain before. Perhaps there was something in the air that was a curative effect. "It's 4:45," her father said. "Are you still up for this interview?" Stella slowed stood up, testing each limb before resting any weight on it. She nodded in reply and reached out for the phone he held towards her. "Just give me a minute to get myself ready," she said, and her family left the room, headed out into the hallway, where she could hear their voices through the door. Suddenly chilled, she shivered and started punching in the numbers that were on the card Davis had given her. Her fingers were ice cold and she rubbed them briskly, holding the phone between her chin and shoulder. The phone rang once and then went dead. Jiggling the phone in her hand, she hit redial but the same thing happened. As she watched in horror, a cloud of insects flew out of the base of the phone and swarmed around her, sluggishly circling and crawling around her at a distance of three feet. It was as if a wall of air separated her from them. She screamed and her dad rushed back into the room. By the time he had opened the door, however, the insects were gone. He halted a couple steps away from the bed on which Stella sat and gaped at her. Stella's right palm, the hand she'd used to hold the base of the phone, was glowing. 22:29 - 11.13.02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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