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Three small knocks on the hotel room door sounded her presence. The smooth surface emitted a hollow sound; it stood arrogantly between Jasmine and the man she thought was inside. Tentatively, she stood and waited a little longer. Raising a hand to her curled hair, she delicately felt for imperfections. She bounced and pronged it with her fingers, and looked around nervously to check, again, that she was alone. The red, worn carpet trailed off into shadow, and the wallpaper, at first glance blooming with colour, peeled quietly at the edges.<\/p>\n
She tried once more. Her nails scratched the wood veneer and she jolted at the sound. Biting her lip, she wavered a little: her loose fist swayed in the air, unsure whether to land on the wood or settle back into the normal shape of itself. She felt her eyes become hot and wet. Blinking, heavily, they betrayed her confidence and a glistening tear escaped quickly down her cheek \u201cHe\u2019s not coming, you know.\u201dJasmine jolted and looked around: a woman, not particularly out of the ordinary, stood in front her.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSorry? Do I know you?\u201d Jasmine\u2019s head shot up; prongs of curls darted in front of her eyes, and she reached to push them back. There was no way\u2026 did she know her from somewhere? From work? Jasmine quickly ran through her week: she couldn\u2019t recall her face from the doctor\u2019s surgery she was in charge of. She definitely didn\u2019t know her in any other way.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t know me, love.\u201d The woman said, quietly. \u201cJust like he doesn\u2019t know you.\u201d She would leave now, she told herself. Tilting her chin upwards, and inhaling sharply through her nose, she strode away, towards the shadows at the end of the hallway. Walking with pace and purpose, she dragged her nails along the wallpaper, red and yellow blooms disintegrating easily under her light scratch.<\/p>\n She did not look back from the shadows, but turned, defiantly, into the dark.<\/p>\n E.R.Mottram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three small knocks on the hotel room door sounded her presence. The smooth surface emitted a hollow sound; it stood arrogantly between Jasmine and the man she thought was inside. Tentatively, she stood and waited a little longer. Raising a hand to her curled hair, she delicately felt for imperfections. She bounced and pronged it with her fingers, and looked around nervously to check, again, that she was alone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freedomhost.co.uk\/GD1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTom had told her to be there at 9.00pm, sharp. He was always very direct with her.Her eyes flickered down the hallway, left and right. He said he wouldn\u2019t do this to her, not again. She opened her clutch, grabbed her phone and checked her messages: nothing new. The same instruction glared at her: \u201cI\u2019ll be in R45. Waiting for you. Get here soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMrs Monday\u2019s sea green eyes set amidst a strikingly red bob. \u201cNo, you don\u2019t know me, love. I saw you. I\u2019m on my way down, but you look \u2013 you look\u2026 I knew you weren\u2019t yourself.\u201d
\nJasmine touched her cheek: felt it burning on her skin of her fingers. She scanned her eyes over the woman, \u201cI\u2019m not sure what this looks like, but I\u2019m OK. My friend\u2019s not\u2026 he\u2019s not in.\u201d
\n\u201cHmmm. No, he\u2019s not. He probably never will be,\u201d she said, cocking her head to one side and examining Jasmine\u2019s face. \u201cIs it Tom you\u2019re waiting for?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWisps of soft hair sat dutifully around the lady\u2019s cheeks. She had an older face, lined with years of burden and secrets. A playful smile crept across her face.
\n\u201cI\u2019m going on my way now, lovely. As you should. There\u2019s nothing for you in there.\u201d
\nJasmine gripped her bag a bit harder, felt herself become unsteady.
\nHow foolish, she thought. She felt utterly stupid to be here, again, waiting for him. In that moment, a fierce anger bubbled inside her belly. Her brow narrowed and her teeth pulled against the inside of her lip.<\/p>\n