The Chosen Ones: Red Smoke

by Mitchelly Melo

  "Are you a Chosen One, too?" I asked.

  “I am. I think I'm the oldest of them all. I'm 24 years old.”

  “What can you do?” I asked.

  "Let's just say I'm a little stronger than normal. When I get the chance, I'll show you.”

  “No doubt. He loves to show off," Isys said.

  John smiled, nodding his head.

  "You're just jealous," Zal said, lightly punching John's arm. "But I didn’t come here to talk about your jealousy. Isys, the group is leaving in half an hour, be ready.”

  Isys nodded. After a few minutes asking about me, they said goodbye and went out together.

  “What group?” I said as they left.

  “The group that goes out looking for new clues about the hunter. We don’t want to lose anyone else.”

  “How many were killed?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

  "Five," he answered reluctantly. I could tell he didn’t want me to be scared. “All Chosen Ones.”

  "And you don’t know why they’re the targets?"

  "Not yet," John replied, not looking very hopeful.

  By this time, we were sitting in the armchairs Isys and her friends were in before. After talking about the deaths, we were both thoughtful. I wondered why anyone would do that. What would he gain? What was the plan?

  We sat in silence as a young man stepped out the door behind us. I soon recognized him as the boy I met the day before; his name was Niko. He was incredibly nice to me, always pulling me into another conversation, but something made me think he was like that with everyone. He kept asking me if I was going to live in the hotel, and when I said no, he tried to convince me.

  "John, Zal is taking me with them. Can you believe he finally gave in?” He said looking back as he ran through the hall toward the door. “Hi, Liz! I’m glad you came back!

  Niko kept running until he reached the entrance of the hotel and disappeared between the doors. I smiled and looked at John who was smiling too.

  “What did he mean?” I asked still looking at the door where Niko disappeared.

  "For Niko, going out with the group is the biggest adventure," he said, still smiling. “Even with the circumstances, he thinks it's fun to play the detective.”

  "And why has he never gone?”

  "He's Zal's boyfriend, and he doesn’tlike the idea oftaking him. Niko is not a Chosen One, which makes him more vulnerable out there.”

  "That's understandable," I pondered, thinking about it. "He doesn’t want to take him because if something happened, he wouldn’t stand it. And he'd probably blame himself.”

  "Exactly," John said, standing up. "I’m getting a piece of the cake you brought. We'll see if you’re any good at it. Want a piece?”

  “No, thank you. I'm not hungry. And thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  "I'll be right back," he said smiling, and left in a quick pace.

  I stayed where I was, watching the movement in the entrance of the hotel. Some people were sitting comfortably on the couch in front of the fireplace, talking, but most of them just passed the hall. They were almost all young, since the elders must’ve been working. I was still staring at the door when I saw something unpleasant. Eimée was coming toward me. She had the same angry look as before, which couldn’t be good. She stopped in front of me and stared at me for a few minutes without saying anything. I tried to ignore it, but it was impossible. Her gaze practically burned me.

  "What are you doing here again?" She finally said it. "Is not enough that you were incredibly rude yesterday, leaving like that?"

  I couldn’t believe she came here to continue what she started yesterday. And I really had any idea why she was doing it.

  “What have I done to you? Because you clearly hate me. I'd love to know why.”

  She took another step in what seemed like an attempt to scare me, but failing.

  "Because while you were there in the comfort of your room, in your own home, we were here, in this wrecked place that we got out of pity," she said dryly, pointing her index finger sharply toward me. "We were struggling to survive, to understand this new land, not knowing whether ours had been destroyed or not. But the princess was there, comfortable in her golden cradle.”

  A strange adrenaline went through my body and I felt a wave of anger travel, stopping at my now clenched fists. I couldn’t remember the last time I'd felt angry at anyone. I didn’t use to relate to enough people to have that opportunity.

  "First, that’s ridiculous. It wasn’t my choice if I would live in a house or an abandoned hotel — I stood up to look into her eyes, but I couldn’t help but raise my voice. Second, I suffered too. Despite having an incredible woman raising me, I grew up without my parents and my grandmother went without her husband, so don’t think that the suffering was just between those walls. And third, I'm not to blame for what happened in Pacem, or that you had to come here, but unfortunately it happened. It happened, and I grew up without knowing who I really was, who my parents were, and who my people were. But I intend to change that, and for that to happen, I will spend a lot of time here, whether you like it or not.”

  When I finished speaking, Eimée had a look of regret on her face, which was, strangely, quite satisfying. I spent the last few minutes so focused on her that I didn’t realize there were people staring at us. John was one of them. He was standing in the doorway between the hotel entrance and the hall. He had a strange expression on his face.

  He started walking toward us with the plate still in his hand. When people saw that we were not going to fall to the ground punching each other, they dispersed.

  "Eimée, seriously? Why are you doing this?” John asked with a clear disappointment on his face. "Why are you bothering her again?"

  "And why do you think I bothered her?" Eimée asked, changing her posture slightly, but enough for me to notice.

  "Because I'm not an idiot," he said with a scowl.

  Eimée's change of posture could be small, but it caught my attention. It happened as soon as John arrived; she took the arms that were folded over her belly and placed them on the side of her body, one hand on the waist. It was as if her body involuntarily invited him to come closer. Suddenly an imaginary lamp lit up above my head. I knew what this was all about, and it might even be about our people, but that’s not all. She was in love with John. An involuntary smile appeared on my lips. I covered my mouth with my hand quickly.

  "And what are you smiling at?" Eimée soon asked, coming back with her expression of fury at me.

  "I just remembered a joke," I said, deliberately increasing my smile.

  She gave me the same look again, looked at John with what now I was sure it was an expression of possession and left with heavy footsteps. So that was it. She thought she had some right on John and somehow I was in the way.

  "I have to ask," I asked, smiling and turning to him. “Can she kill with her eyes? Because that really worried me the other day.”

  "Of course not. And why are you smiling?"

  I stared at him for a few seconds without speaking, still smiling.

  “Because I found out what her problem is, "I said, and sat down again. "It's because of you. She likes you."

  "What?! " John's eyes widened for a second, but then he looked impassive again. “Of course not."

  "It makes perfect sense, John. You were assigned to protect me, and with that, you spent a lot of time with me, you know, being my official stalker and everything. She must think it's more than that and so she's angry with me.”

  "If you think so, why didn’t you say anything in front of her?" He said, sitting up and taking a piece of the cake.

  "Because if she never said anything to you, she’s probably not ready. If I said anything, I would only humiliate her.”

  "That's nice of you." He took another piece of the cake. "But I still don’t think you're right.”

  “Come on!. Why wouldn’t I be? You're great, why wouldn’t she like you?”

  John smiled,
looking embarrassed.

  "What was that expression on your face when you saw me arguing with her?"

  "Pride," he said without looking at me. He stirred the cake nervously with his fork. "I liked seeing you standing up for yourself. Even if you're not a Chosen One, you could be a good warrior.”

  He lifted his face and smiled at me and I smiled back. My eyes stopped on a piece of chocolate frosting that was on his face. John didn’t seem to feel it and I started to laugh.

  "This cake is really delicious," he said.

  "Thank you," I said, still staring at the piece of chocolate. "But that tone of surprise is not very pleasant.”

  John smiled, taking another bite out of the cake.

  “You have a little something…”

  “What?” He asked and started rubbing his face. When a minute had passed and he still hadn’t got it, I leaned over and took out the frosting with my finger. John ran his tongue over the rest, just above his upper lip, and went back to eating. Eimée passed us at the same moment, and she almost started to smoke through her ears. Her face was red. I was slightly embarrassed, but John didn’t care at all.

  We sat there for a while longer, John finished eating his piece of cake and I watched the movement. I saw Eimée watching us sneakily while pretending to talk to some girls. People passing by greeted me with a smile, as if I were just another Pacenian from the hotel. I felt more and more at home between one smile and another. The place and the faces already seemed familiar.

  "I should offer a tour of the hotel. Do you want to know the place?” John said, standing up with his empty plate.

  “Of course.”

  We left the room and started the tour of the old hotel. We started from the kitchen, past a small room that served as a connection to the hotel's recreation area and all the rooms that existed on the first floor, including an office. When we finished, we climbed the majestic stairs to the second floor. We stopped in the fifth room on the right.

  “Why are we stopping?” I asked.

  "It's my room," he said, opening the door.

  The room was huge. The walls of this floor were more preserved. The wallpaper was light in color and the room was unbelievably lit by the large glass window. On the wall to the right was a huge bed of dark, canopied wood. The transparent fabric was light and soft to the touch.

  "This hotel really is beautiful," I said, heading toward the window.

  "It's a little beaten down, but yes," John answered, following me.

  “I don’t know. I think the marks just make it prettier, "I said, touching the soft curtains. "They're part of the history of the place. It made the hotel what it is.”

  John looked at me and raised his eyebrows slightly. He seemed completely comfortable with someone snooping in his room.

  “What?” I asked.

  "Sometimes I don’t believe you're only 18," he said, smiling.

  "Grandma and Emma always say I have an old soul.”

  I paced the room a little more, paying attention to every detail.

  “Should we keep going?” John asked.

  “Come on! I'm in your territory now. Let me enjoy it.”

  He smiled.

  "Are you afraid I'll find something?" I asked.

  “Of course not.” He said as he sat on the bed. “Go ahead.”

  A small heap of books caught my attention, as always, and I went straight to them. Some were of history, others of biology and others fiction. The history one was open and marked on a page.

  "I didn’t know you liked to read," I said, flipping through the books and reading the titles.

  "Of course I do," he replied with a hint of resentment in his voice. "It's not because I'm in another world that I can’t learn.”

  I walked across the room to the bed where John was still sitting. I saw that the nightstand was half open and I walked toward it. I sat down on the bed and began to open it. John stood up, suddenly looking nervous.

  "Liz, don’t..." he began.

  “What? Is there a bomb in here or something?” I said smiling and in a sarcastic tone.

  He opened his mouth to speak again, but said nothing. He sat back on the edge of the bed as I opened the drawer.

  I took the items one by one. A flashlight, a notepad, a pen, and finally, at the bottom of the drawer, a picture. A picture of me. I looked up at him as soon as I picked it up. He had a look of shame on his face. In the photo I was smiling, with my hair tied in a ponytail and wearing an apron, so I must’ve been at Joe's. The picture had been taken from far away and was slightly out of focus.

  "Why is there a picture of me here?"

  "Since I didn’t know you, before I started to watch you, we took your picture for identification."

  It made sense, I thought. So why did he look so embarrassed?

  "And why did you keep it?" I asked.

  John was looking down in silence. But when he opened his mouth to speak, a sharp scream came from below and arrived where we were with the same intensity. We got out of bed at once and prepared to run, but as soon as I took the first step John pulled my arm, bringing me to him. I just stared at his face without speaking. A moment later we were at the entrance of the hotel. John took a few moments to hold my hand and look me in the eyes, but then let go.

  We entered the large main hall which was fuller than I had ever seen and the people made room for us to pass, as if they couldn’t stay there any longer. People were in pairs, or alone, but they all had tears on their faces. As soon as I saw them, I had a bad feeling in my stomach. A knot that appeared out of nowhere. Something bad had happened. John and I walked to the circle of people around the big sofa. We cleared the way and found Niko dead.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I looked at John, speechless. He kept staring at the body sprawled on the couch with his mouth half-open, clearly in shock. Zal was kneeling on the edge of the sofa with his head on Niko's chest. He had his eyes closed and his arms around Niko's body with all his might. His joints were turning white. I looked around and saw that everyone shared my expression of fear. Niko's skin was extremely white, but with black lines on his skin. They seemed to go around every vein in his body.

  I saw Isys sitting in the same armchair in the back of the room, crying and staring into the nothing. I turned to John so we could talk to her, but he was still motionless beside me, staring at the corpse on the couch.

  I touched his arm and called his name, which brought him back to reality.

  "We should talk to Isys," I said quietly.

  “Okay.”

  We went to her, who continued crying, but now noticed our presence. We waited for her to say something, but she remained silent, tears still falling. I felt a strange urge to hold her. Strangely, I didn’t resist the impulse and went ahead. I knelt to stay the same height as her and hugged her tightly. Isys returned the hug and collapsed in tears. We stayed like that for a while. I ran my hand gently on her back as she sobbed and her face sank deeper and deeper into my shoulder.

  Sometime later, when Isys finally calmed down, I let her go. John, who had been distracted by my strange act, looked at me in surprise. Even I was surprised. I don’t go around hugging people. I sat down in the armchair next to hers, hoping she would say something.

  "Isys, what happened?" John asked when she was calmer.

  "He ..." she tried to speak, but choked and sobbed again.

  "Isys, if you don’t want to talk, it's okay. We can wait.” I comforted her.

  "No, I'm fine," she said as she wiped away the tears. “He was bored, said it wasn’t as fun as he thought.”

  “Niko?” John asked.

  "Yes. We were visiting all the places where we found the bodies. When we got to the last one, he said he'd wait in the car. We did the usual; looked for something that we didn’t see before, talked to some people, all that. When we finished, we went to a diner nearby to buy food and when we got back to the car Niko wasn’t there. Zal started freaking out, so we began to look for him. I decided to go
back to where we were, in case he’d come back to look for us. And I found him. On the floor, already dead.”

  Isys burst into tears and I took her hand. It wouldn’t give her much comfort, but at least she would know she wasn’t alone. I felt sick, as if I could vomit at any moment. Niko left a few hours ago, happy and smiling as always, and now his dead body was on the couch. He was really dead. Someone really killed that nice, happy guy. I couldn’t believe it.

  "John, you should go talk to Zal," I said, shifting my attention to the mountain above Niko's body. He hadn’t moved an inch.

  "I..." John looked at his friend and looked uncertain.

  “What’s the problem?” I asked.

  "I don’t know what to do," he said, looking lost. "I've never seen Zal like this. I don’t want to make things worse.”

  “Get him out of there. It won’t help to stay there like that,” I said.

  John hesitated for a minute, pacing back and forth, but then nodded and went to Zal. After watching John walk as slowly as possible and touching Zal's shoulder after hesitating about three times, I turned my attention to Isys.

  "Isys, do you want to go to your room?"

  She sobbed, wiped away a tear, and nodded.

  "Yes” Isys replied. “Thanks.”

  We left the room, Isys still with her hand in mine, and went upstairs. I looked at John before I left. He was trying to convince Zal to get off of Niko's body and from where I was, didn’t seem to be working. We climbed the stairs and entered Isys' room, the first on the right. Inside was almost the same as John's, with the exception of a few decorations and many high heels. She sat on the bed, looking at me but not really seeing me.

  “Do you need something?” I asked, leaning against the door.

  "Can you stay here until I fall asleep?"

  “Of course.”

  I sat in a chair by the window while Isys lay on the bed. She sobbed for a few minutes, stopping gradually until she finally fell asleep. I closed the curtains and left. I went straight down to the main hall looking for John. I didn’t know what to do in such a situation and he certainly could tell me. I saw him sitting with his head down where we were before and I went straight to him.