Apocalypse Hotel

Apocalypse Hotel

Through all of this chaos unfolding, there is a hotel in Ikebukuro. A hotel open to those seeking shelter. Frankly, it looked like it had seen better days. Not many people remembered it ever being here. Who made this place? (Well, made isn’t accurate. It was just taken over.) No one asked any questions. The police did nothing about it. Why did they care? The world as they knew it was going to Hell anyway. More people were getting sick each day. It looked like it was getting worse.

With no end in sight, where were they going to turn? Some started to flee the country. It’s crazy the number of people were leaving their homes. And it’s only getting bigger. But if they can’t leave the country, what was there left? Where were they going to go?

People started coming to this hotel. They didn’t know why. Not all of the hotel’s lights were on. No signs to draw people in. Nothing about the hotel stood out. Still, people found it and came inside. No one was turned away. Nobody asked any questions. They go in and they stay.

Does anyone try to leave? No one can be certain. Everyone goes in, but no one goes out. But why is that? Nobody has asked questions. They probably didn’t think about it.

Everyone is leaving their homes to either flee the country or come to this hotel.

Here are some of their stories.

I:

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Huh?” He looked down at his girlfriend in his arms. She had a confused look on her face. He smiled and shook his head.

“Nothing. Just a stupid little story I heard long ago.”

“What kind of story?”

“It’s nothing.”

She looked up at him with doe eyes. Yatabe sighed. How was she able to get him to yield like this? He had her attention now. She probably wouldn’t let it go until something else distracted her. Where was he going to begin with this?

Yatabe wrapped his arm around her.

“I was thinking about my old man and my old lady,” he said.

“Which one was which?” his girlfriend asked.

“The old lady was the angel.”

“Ooo! Did she fall in love with the bad boy?”

“Yeah.” Yatabe looked out the window. It’s been raining more often these days.

“So is this a love story?” his girlfriend asked.

“Sort of,” he said. “It’s not a happy one.”

“Aww, why is that?”

He frowned. “They just burned out too soon.”

“What happened to them?”

He was going to have to tell her the whole story, wasn’t he? Yatabe hadn’t really believed in love. There wasn’t a love story that he witnessed that ended up well. Even his last relationship didn’t last long and she was ordered to love him by Izaya. He wasn’t sure about this current girlfriend.

“Do you believe in love?” Yatabe asked.

“Huh?”

“Do you?”

“I guess…”

Yatabe shook his head. His girlfriend frowned. She wouldn’t get it. Still, they might as well keep going down this rabbit hole.

“Well, I don’t,” he confessed. The young man didn’t want to look down at his girlfriend’s face. Instead, Yatabe looked out the window. It had only been ten minutes and the rain got heavier. When did that happen? The young man pushed that thought out of his head.

“My old man and my old lady ended up fighting all the time,” he admitted.

“Oh no,” his girlfriend said. “I’m so sorry.” He shook his head.

“Don’t be. It was better that he left.” Yatabe held her tighter in his arms. “I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t be like my old man.”

“What happened to the angel and the devil?”

“They fell in love, had a kid, and lived together. However, the love burned out. The angel and the devil kept fighting. Things turned violent. The devil hit the angel and she kicked him out. It was just the angel and her son.”

His girlfriend rested her head on his chest. “I want to write you a better love story.” Yatabe didn’t say anything. He heard her say this before. The young man already knew what was going to happen next.

He didn’t have the heart to tell her.

II:

“I don’t like salad or eye contact.”

Walker lifted his head. “Huh?”

The gothic Lolita shook her head. She clutched a black teddy bear to her chest. The otaku tilted his head. He didn’t know who this girl was. She was the one who came up to him. Walker never had any interest in 3D girls.

“I don’t like salad or eye contact,” the girl said again.

“Okay… that was random. Why are you telling me this?” Walker asked. The loli goth kept her eyes on her bear.

“I think you are cute,” she said. It looked like she was talking to the bear and not him.

“Thank you?” Walker said with an eyebrow raise. He just came down to the hotel café for some juice. He hadn’t planned on running into this nutjob. Where did she even come from?

That wasn’t the only weird thing she said to him.

“There’s a shadowy figure who always watches me in my room.”

“Uh-huh…” To his disappointment, there was no one else around. Where did the staff go? There weren’t even any guests walking by either. Walker didn’t know what to make of this situation. The girl lifted her head, but not to look at him. He got a better look at her profile. She didn’t look too bad. Still, Walker wasn’t interested.

“I’ve always felt a presence in my room,” she went on. “Last night, I heard the shuffling of feet in the dark.” The otaku tilted his head.

“You sure that someone else wasn’t in the room with you?” he asked. He heard the stories of other guests and staff sneaking into rooms while people were sound asleep in them. Some kind of funny while others were downright creepy. Walker was lucky never to have experienced something like that. The loli goth shook her head as she held her teddy bear closer to her chest. Walker decided to humor her for a bit.

“Okay, how can you tell?” he asked. The loli goth stiffened straight.

“I woke up three nights ago to someone in the room with me,” she said. “At first, I thought I was dreaming. It was like someone was trying to sneak into my room as quietly as possible.” She shivered as she spoke.

“I opened my eyes and looked around in the dark. At first, I couldn’t see anyone. Maybe I was dreaming. That’s when I heard it again. I looked over to the bathroom. There was a tall shadowy figure standing in the doorway.”

“Did he say anything?” Walker asked. The woman shook her head.

“He was a shadow figure. He didn’t have a mouth.”

“So… what was he doing? Was he just standing there, watching you?”

“Yes.” She pressed her lips together. The whole time, this woman wouldn’t make eye contact with Walker. He couldn’t figure it out.

“Did you try reporting it to someone?” he asked.

“No one would believe me! They won’t listen.” She held the teddy bear tighter to her chest. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid that I will be killed and nobody will notice.”

Hearing her say that convinced Walker to leave the hotel for good that very night.