He peered out of the window in the corner of the room, a bright summers day was staring right back at him in full view, a busy section of the main road was below, surrounded by people, everyday people doing what they do best, living out their everyday lives: walking, driving, talking, eating, shopping. He looked around at everything that he could see, an old couple walking past the groceries on the opposite side of the road, a stray cat climbing up a tree in the nearby park, a man walking out of a bank, making his way to the café that was only a few shops across the road.
He took a brief second from looking outside to check his watch, 11:17am, it was still early. He put his arm back down and continued with what he was doing, he kept on looking at everyone he could see, he studied their faces, wanting to know if there was anyone that he could recognised, his eyes, focusing so hard on what was in front of them that they could burn a hole in the glass window and anything that got in their way.
It felt like he had been there all morning, sitting on the only chair that was in his room, he took his mind off the outside world for a minute and sat back in his seat, he took a huge breath of air, filling his lungs and took out a sigh of relief. He looked at his watch again, 11:19am, he had only been in this room for three hours and already he was feeling paranoid, well, he had a good reason to be, after everything that happened to him in the past 24 hours, he wasn’t expecting to end up in this situation, although he should have been prepared for such a moment like this, he still didn’t quite think that it would happen.
He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind, eradicating all the thoughts and flashbacks that he was having, every single moment of the event he blocked from his mind, he knew that he couldn’t erase everything that had happened from his thoughts but he still tried, but the more he did the more that it kept coming back, the shooting, the screaming, the running, how the whole plan just collapsed into itself and everything went so wrong in such a short amount of time.
He opened his eyes again, he took another breath of air and pushed it out, he leaned over to the window again and had a look, he knew that he couldn’t be seen by anyone but his nerves were starting to get the better of him and his mind began to wonder, would he eventually be found? How long could he stay hidden in this room? He had to keep on checking, he had to see if there was anyone who would be finding him, anyone who me might recognise, to either help him or to kill him. He knew that there was more of a chance of someone coming to kill him than to help him, he had to keep a low profile, even being by the window alone was too risky for him, if he was even recognised by someone his life would be at risk.
He quickly closed the curtain to the window, and turned to face the door, then he turned round and in a split second he opened it again, he thought that if the curtain stayed closed that it would give him away, if it was the only closed window this side of the hotel building then it would look suspicious. All these thoughts were rushing through his mind, what if this happened, what if that happened, what would he do if they did find him? Would he just accept his fate or would he challenge death and fight.
He stood up and slowly walked away from the corner of the room where he had been sitting and moved over to the bed that was positioned on the other side of the room, he carefully sat down, making minimal noise, keeping all ears open to any unusual sounds, anything at all. The room itself was empty and lifeless, you wouldn’t think that someone was staying there as it looked like it had just been cleaned, the room wasn’t anything special, it had a typical bed, it had a desk in one corner of the room with the chair and the only window in the room, the bed had a wardrobe next to it and at the end of the room was the smallest toilet and shower room you could ever imagine. He paid for the one day, he needed to stay somewhere, he knew that he couldn’t go home, or to anyone’s place, he had to stay and not be with anyone, he had to stay out of sight and think of what to do next. He didn’t know how long he would be in this place, a week or two, a few days maybe…possibly only a few hours. He didn’t want to think about that though, right now he could only think of what to do next, it wasn’t like he could just leave and go somewhere else, his best option was to stay put in this room, he couldn’t be seen by anyone, not even people who worked here, but if he was to wait here for a long period of time he knew that he would have to get food, he checked his jeans and after fumbling around he found a handful of tenners, he relaxed again, he put them back and slumped back onto the bed, he stared at the ceiling, it was pale white, like the whole of the room, with various dirt marks on it, scattered all around, he could almost make a dot-to-dot out of it with his eyes, moving from one dirt spot to the next, counting each one.
Suddenly he got up, he paused for a minute, he made no noise, he turned to look at the door again, he jumped up to his feet and listened…silence. He wasn’t convinced though, he had sat up for a reason, he had heard something, he was alert, like a rabbit, his ears were picking up something faint from outside the room. His pupils widened, his heart was beating at twice the speed it already was, he had to breath quicker to catch up with his heart, he legs began to shake, he felt like he was about to collapse but he couldn’t move, this single sound had spooked him and he didn’t know how to react to it. He couldn’t think what it was, he knew that it came from within the hotel, it wasn’t from his floor, he was five floors above the ground, he was certain that it came from near the stairs that led to the bottom floor.
He took in several deep breaths, placed his hand inside his inner jacket pocket and counted in his head to three, 1....2.......he paused, panic had now set in and was taking over control, a bigger inhalation of air burst into his lungs as he closed his eyes and finished counting......3! he then instantly drew out a gun and darted towards the door, he didn’t open it, instead he just stood next to it, he peered through the hole in the door, he had a good view of the whole floor, he had the room right at the end, both the lift and the stairs were at the other end of the floor. There was nothing there, he couldn’t see anyone, it all went quiet again, it seemed that it was just nothing to worry about, but he couldn’t take any chances. He took his eyes away from the peephole and sat down by the door, he hung his head and clutched onto his gun, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his spare hand, he tried to catch his breath, he wasn’t prepared for all of this, he didn’t think that his job would end up like this, running and hiding for his life.
He felt that this was the end of the line; how ever hard he could try he knew that this would be the last moment of his life, he didn’t want to think about it but he knew the truth, he couldn’t deny the fact that he couldn’t defend himself, that he would die like this. He closed his eyes and once again he tried to clear his mind, he didn’t want to think about anything, anything at all.
He eventually opened his eyes again and stood up, he yawned and stretched his arms above his head, he suddenly realised that he had to check something, he walked over to the shower room door, opened it and looked inside, the eyes of a young teenage girl were looking back at him, tied up and gagged with tape around her mouth, slumped in the corner next to the shower. She was ok, he had to make sure that his hostage was fine, he said nothing to her as he slowly turned around and closed the door. By this point he was calm, the nerves had decreased and, for the first time, he gave a smile, a tiny glimpse of relief. He sat back down onto the seat in the corner of the room and turned to face the window again, he peered out of it, a bright summers day was staring right back at him.
