here, are you?” He said as he pointed towards the end of the street. “There’s only one hotel in Novati, but that’s probably too expensive for you to go to. Your best option is that hostel right around the corner.”
Biting back a snarky remark, she thanked him and continued on her way. The faded neon sign that read “Hostel by the Harbor”, ironic given its location, hung over the low roofs above her. As Sapphire approached the building, she started to notice the smaller details: the walls that were covered with old paper advertisements, torn off at the edges, the sense of loneliness the building gave off, being the only building with light shining through among the ancient houses that were shut with metal gates and closed curtains.
She opened the door to the hostel, which was messily decorated with an assortment of bells and chimes.
The front desk clerk, who was snoring behind the counter with his forehead resting on the table, immediately perked up at the sound of the ringing.
“Welcome, how ya doin’!” The clerk’s eyes shone behind the mess of his hair as he spoke to Sapphire. “It has been a while since our last customer, would you like a place to stay?”
She nodded, not wanting to speak to him. Not minding her silence, he hummed to himself happily as he pulled open the door behind him and went into a dimly lit room. His footsteps grew softer and softer as he walked further away.
With nothing left to do except to wait in silence for him to return, Sapphire sat down on the creaking sofa behind her, the dark brown leather already stripped away and scarred from age. She stretched out her limbs, which were sore and tired from today’s encounters. Those drunk workers really wore her out, mentally and physically as she tried to hide from the stalker.
Sapphire crossed her arms and dipped her head down, plagued with anxious thoughts. How is my family reacting to me running away? How far away is the stalker? How has one of my family’s employees already caught up to me, when I’ve only been here for a week or so? How will I survive-
“Uh, hey.”
Sapphire’s eyes snapped open, and she stood up reflexively and knocked the sofa into the wall, ready to fight. All of her tiredness melted away in an instant as she focused once more, a behavior that was drilled into her head by her family. The clerk standing in front of her jumped back, surprised by her sudden movements.
“I got your key.” The clerk said nervously as he handed a rusted key to Sapphire.
“Th-Thanks.” She snatched the key out of his hand and quickly made her way up the stairs in an attempt to conceal her red flushed face, embarrassed from the trail of drool going down my chin, which she wiped off quickly. After a few seconds of walking down a small hallway, Sapphire approached and opened the door to her room. She quickly covered her nose in disgust as the overwhelming smell of some dilapidated mold washed over her.
Sapphire entered the room, furnished with a torn carpet, a bedside table leaning against the dirty bed that was missing half a leg, and a dent in the wall in the shape of said table. Some sinister green and yellow pulp sat in the far corner of the room, which she suspected to be the source of the smell. Too tired to care now, she promptly collapsed on the bed, which made a loud creaking noise. The protests of her muscles, which she had ignored while focusing on the numerous escapades she faced throughout the day, were finally silenced.
Without another thought, Sapphire Anaroth drifted off to sleep.
~~~~~~~~
“Please! I didn’t do anything!”
“Yes you did, you’re hiding a runaway!”
The yelling downstairs continued, faintly masked by the gentle rain outside. Sapphire quickly identified the pleading voice as the clerk and assumed the second voice as the stalker, judging by his aggressive tone. She rose from the bed quietly and put on my shoes. After checking her belongings one last time, she snuck out of the room which glowed blue under the moon in the midnight sky.
“Y-you mean the guest that arrived today?” The voice of the terrified clerk cried out as she approached the stairway leading down to the small entrance room.
“Yes!” The rougher voice yelled. “Where is she!?”
“The guest rooms are over there!” Sapphire could somehow feel the unsighted finger of the hotel clerk pointing towards her direction. She immediately turned to run, knowing that he would be right behind her. Sure enough, a moment later, a large silhouette of a man appeared on the wall, who was quickly making his way up the stairs.
Sapphire stepped back into her room, which was the fourth room down the hall, and shut the door as quickly and as quietly as she could. She formed an impromptu plan, as she held in her heavy breaths from bursting out. She was not well rested yet and she could still feel the soreness in her muscles, so she was in no position to fight him. The only options were to either hide or run, and since there weren’t any sizable furniture in the room, that left her with one option.
Sapphire snuck towards the shut window as the door down the hall creaked open. She pushed the window open. The little drops of rain sunk into her hair, as she looked down on the street a few meters below, which was nothing she couldn’t handle, as there were small footholds outside the window for her to hang on to.
The second door closed, and the footsteps grew closer. In the silence, she could hear his hand grip the handle, the individual mechanisms creaking.
Wooooosh
A strong and loud gust of wind blew down the empty street below. At the same time, the creaking of the door came to a stop. Sapphire blinked, wondering what happened. Did something reveal to him her position? Then it clicked in her head: none of the other windows were open -- only the one in her room was.
Heavy footsteps quickly began to thud down the hallway. Left with no option, Sapphire jumped out of the window immediately without preparation and fell awkwardly onto the ground below her. She clenched her teeth as her bones shook from the impact of the fall, leaving her ankles, which took the brute force of the fall, in sharp pain. Sapphire started running immediately, but because of her injury, she was barely halfway across the street when she heard the boots of the stalker stomping closer and closer behind her.
As he chased after Sapphire, the shadowy mists sprung onto his palms, forming two sizable daggers. They were strangely similar to Sapphire’s, but they kept growing, exceeding the sizes of her previous dull sparring swords, and transformed themselves into deadly longswords. Her eyes widened, his goal is to capture her, not kill her, isn’t it? So why is he using lethal weapons?
She ignored the pain in her sprained ankle and tried to put some distance between them, but it was no use. When Sapphire turned around the second time, he was right behind her with the swords in his hands, which were already high above her and in motion for a downwards strike. Sapphire threw herself to the side as the tip of the blade tore through her jacket, ripping through the rough fabric.
As she regained her footing, she started to hear other people chattering. The older buildings at the end of the street were brightened with the dull yellow light of street lamps, where a crowd wandered about in the narrow street. A good sign. She could definitely hide amongst them.
Sapphire made a split-second choice -- she could not risk another attack from him. It was not guaranteed that he won’t land his strike on her the next time. So, she came up with an alternative plan - one that was so risky, it could cost everything if she messed it up, but it was the only plausible option she could come up with.
Sapphire began channelling her magic as she continued running. The mist slowly stirred, crawling its way onto her arm.
Just a little more… she thought to herself as she pressured her feet to run faster, the pain steadily worsening as she hiked up the unsteady slopes of the muddy road, ever so slippery as it faced the constant battering of the rain.
Without looking back, she could feel him closing in on her as the hair on her arms spiked up in a dreaded anticipation. Judging by the sounds of his footsteps, he