Page 12 of Kings of Desire
I walked out of the room, though this time with slow steps, heading towards a place of no return. Once I passed through that door, my life was going to change, or maybe it already had, ever since I entered this building.
Mystery or glory, moments away from finding out. One thing was certain, Vanya was right about me recognizing the room immediately since a large wooden door was revealing itself to me an inch at a time, as I was heading towards the end of the hallway.
Stopping in front of the room, I reached to touch the old wood carvings that looked like a direct dive into the underworld. It seemed magic, with black and golden gargoyles masterfully sculptured into its surface, watching poor souls, ready to devour them. Everything that Echo City represented, and a little more. The gateway to heaven and hell.
Rise or fall - this was it.
I pushed the door open and stepped into a new world, finding myself in the middle of an imposing room, all pairs of eyes pointing at me.
‘Welcome,’ I didn’t even get to see their faces clearly when a female voice greeted me.
I raised a few shy fingers ‘Hi.’
‘I’m Laura, Vanya usually assigns me to guide newbies around the place’ The woman who greeted me continued, while I kept looking all around me. Maybe around a dozen people, men and women, scattered all over the large hall, some involved in vivid conversations while some just hanging around the place.
‘Bea,’ I smiled... Well, more like just exposed my teeth since a genuine smile was pretty hard to emerge in a situation like this.
‘Come, follow me,’ she walked towards a table where different drinks and snacks were laid out, carefully arranged. ‘Help yourself to whatever you want.’
I’m not sure that was a great idea since at that point I could have eaten the entire contents of the table- plates included.
‘Just a glass of water,’ I reached for the water decanter and poured myself a glass, not entirely ready to stuff my face with all that I could find in front of all these unknown people.
‘They’re not that bad,’ Laura benevolently smiled, looking around her at the other people in the room, then placed a few tiny sandwiches and an apple on a small plate. ‘Let’s sit at that table,’ she gestured towards a small byzantine metal table placed into a secluded corner of the room.
I followed her there, taking the seat next to the window.
‘I come from the same place,’ she nodded, placing the plate in front of me. ‘And I’m never returning there.’ The bitter gaze I know so well flashed through her eyes ‘Eat, they don’t care.’
I wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, maybe some dumb excuse that I ate just before I got here, but she knew. She knewthe hunger. She knew the pain. There was no use in denying, especially since my stomach was one step away from rioting on me.
‘Is it hard?... I mean is it hard doing this job?’ I asked while feasting on the first meal in two days.
‘It was at first. That, until I realized that it’s a lot easier than working for a dusty fist of cents and fearing every second of the day that I wouldn’t be able to afford food or rent.’
‘And do you...you know...step up the game?’ I was ashamed of asking, but I needed to know what was truly going on here.
She paused, raising her eyes to peer straight at me ‘I... I personally don’t, but almost everyone else here does it. Let’s be honest, all the people in this room were hopeless at one point. You don’t end up here otherwise. I guess stepping up the game depends on how desperate you are at the time life opens this door for you.’
A weight was lifted off my chest. There was a chance that I could do this without losing myself. Maybe, in the end, coming here was the best decision.
I didn’t get to fully weigh things up though before I noticed a small red envelope, much similar to the one I received this morning, being slipped underneath the door.
‘Hey, new girl,’ a tall blond man, leaned to pick it up then looked my way.
Was I the new girl!?
‘He’s talking to you,’ Lara chuckled, nudging me to go in his direction. Everything was happening so quickly, that I didn’t even have time to react.
‘Don’t look so surprised, since you’re new around here, we’ll let you have the first letter. We do this with everyone.’
Vanya was right. They did work as a team- a small family. Pretty strange when outside this door it was eat or be eaten by the bigger predator.
With shaking hands, I reached for the letter, slowly opening the envelope. My feet were seconds away from abandoning me and my eyelashes closed, hoping to avoid what had already become unavoidable.
30 minutes speed date - tonight 8 pm
Attractive woman in her twenties
