Indifference

By Zachary Furr 

 

This story begins with the setting, as a good story should. For audience wants to know where they are going, the picture painting.

Close your eyes, blank the canvas, nothing at all. We will start with a single building, 42 floors, dark gray with a sporadic lighting, two openings that meet the street. An alley that separates the sides building with the others. The street connects to hundreds of other buildings, though they are not as important as the 42nd. 

This hotel was rather unique because it placed a certain importance on all of its tenants as there was a rooftop garden that any and all could visit.

The 42nd is the setting. A hotel with the same name as the floors that it has. The first three floors have the basic amenities of any modern hotel. Pool, hot tub, exercise room, bar, these are the ones that visitors know about. The lobby and the amenities in it, are all brightly lit. A large chandelier was elevated above the front desk, the desk was made out of solid oak and brilliantly polished, three workers maintained the desk and the duties that it entailed at all hours and days. 

The hotel’s restaurant was one of the finest in the city four stars. The Ranch is what it was called. Serving the finest foods this side of the Mississippi River. Anything that could have been made, the chefs did all they could to make the dish as satisfying as possible.

The outside is raining outside. Not a constant downpour, but more of a drizzle. The forecast for this particular day called for a light shower at the start of the evening that was to be followed with thunder and lightning in the later evening with a hard stinging rain.

 

Nice place, huh? Well, we are not talking about the lobby or the restaurant or the pools. We are talking about Riley.

Riley was a man. Riley was 33 years old. He was a confirmed bachelor for all his life. No significant other, no real close friends, his family either abandoned him or had died early on. Riley was not rich, but by no means was he poor. He had accomplished much in his life, and now his life had become stagnant. He had visited the 42nd September 20th through October 22nd. His visit was his only vacation throughout the year. Nearly a month long and always the same time and same hotel for the past three years. This time was his 4th year.

 

September 20th, 6:13 p.m. 

 

Riley stepped foot of the elevator and stepped onto his room floor, the 39th. 3 from the top. He went to room 393. He got out the electric key card and swiped it across the door lock. It open as it always had, he walked in and placed his large suitcase on the table and unpacked it into the dresser and closet. 10 shirts of varying earth tones, 2 pairs of long pants, 2 pairs of shorts, some swim trunks, 8 pairs of socks, 10 underpants, 1 pair of brown shoes, 1 pair of black dress shoes, 5 undershirts, and 2 ties. He then placed the suitcase in the bottom of the closet. He then went to the bathroom and unloaded his amenities: 1 tube of toothpaste, 2 toothbrushes, 1 can of aerosol deodorant, 1 old fashion straight razor, a menthol can of shaving cream, 1 bottle of aftershave, and he laid out 35 que tips in the neatest straightest row possible.

He flopped down on the king-sized bed and stared at the blank white ceiling. His vacation had started and his stagnation had come as a bedfellow. 

 

6:25 p.m. 

 

He laid there for a while before he decided to get up and visit the exercise room and the pool. He changed into his trunks and an undershirt, grabbed a hotel towel and went toward the elevators. He counted the doors down the hallway toward the elevator, before he turned around and went back toward the stairwell. He walked down the 74 flights of stairs, 13 stairs per flight, only one camera on the wall for every six flights to the pool area.

The hot tub was off to the side, twenty feet away from the stainless steel pool. Riley got in and swam 25 laps, he got out and moved into the hot tub, he sat there relaxing for 17 minutes. He got up and took the elevator back to his room to change into some business casual clothes

.

7:09 p.m. 

Riley then went to The Ranch on the second floor. He ordered the shepherd’s pie and a glass of white wine. He was enjoying his own company when a woman happened to notice that he was sitting alone. She made her way toward him and asked if she might join him and offer her company for the evening.

She said that her name was Morgan, and that the restaurant was quite empty and that there are not enough interesting people here. Her skin tight, black dress left little to the imagination, however, her scarf that was wrapped around her neck was encrusted with jewels, that made her sparkle in the bright lights of the Ranch. Her perfume was sweet and intoxicating but not overly so. She was wearing three inch black  heels that shone their shine. Her makeup was lightly placed, but it never went beyond distracting from her natural beauty.  

Riley offered the seat across from him and she sat down. He offered her a menu and Morgan ordered a salad and it was expertly deliver as Riley’s shepherd’s pie came out.

They sat and talked for a while about the rainy weather, the local sports, the different flavors of wine that they enjoyed. The small talk lasted until the question that Morgan had wanted to know finally came up. What was Riley doing in this hotel? She had never seen him before. He gave the reason for his mandatory vacation. A month long paid vacation that he got every year. 6 weeks, he liked taking them all at once, it made work easier. He asked about her livelihood and she said that she was an internet personality. That she had 42,000 subscribers. Her life was based upon the good graces of others. 

Riley was unimpressed, but he did not show it. He rather put on a face that encouraged her to continue to talk about herself. 

Riley had grown bored of the conversation as well as the atmosphere surrounding them. With food and wine consumed he asked that they continue their chats in his room. He placed both of their meals on his room number and left arm in arm with the woman that was slightly taller than him.

 

8:34 p.m.

 

    Riley and Morgan returned to the elevators and went back to the 39th floor, room 3. Riley entered the room first and Morgan followed. Morgan asked if she could use the bathroom and Riley allowed her to. She wentin and Morgan could only hear her from the outside, from what he could hear, it sounded like the stream of urine was coming from a standing position.Riley’s stomach turned over once, he felt sick. That meat pie was coming back up to haunt him. He worked with it and forced it back down. It was too good to waste in the toilet. 

    Morgan came out, and Riley brushed past her to reach the toilet and he felt the wetness of her freshly washed hands. He closed the door quickly and  knelt by the toilet and then he saw the yellow stained water. The meat really did  almost come to say hello again. Riley pushed back from the disgusting hole and went over the sink and saw the finely laid out amenities and saw the perfect razor that he kept for shaving. The straight razor was perfect for him because it was three inches of perfection that was so sharp that at rest it could split hairs. Riley placed that perfection in the right pants  pocket behind his back. He washed his face and dried and some color returned. He flushed the toilet and exited the bathroom.

    Morgan had gotten on the king bed and sprawled her lithe body out so that her front was facing the bathroom and laying on her left side  with her head propped up on her left arm and her right leg pulled up over her pelvic area, allowing that tight black dress to almost be too revealing toward her assets. 

He went next to her and sat on the bed next to her and she sat up and started to peck on his cheeks and moved down toward his neck. She started to unbutton his shirt and moved closer to him and place his right hand on her left thigh and she nibbled on his ear. 

Riley started to feel sick again as he caressed her leg and it seemed like the lust was almost something that he could drown in if it was not for the revulsion that he now felt. He tried to give in to let this nightmare wash over him, however, the stagnation would not let him. He quickly grew bored of the situation. Something in him made its way out and he became a bit more aggressive in his approach. He placed both his hands on her and Riley began to rub his hands up and down her backside. He allowed his more primitive nature to come out. His shirt came off and her skirt went up and his hand slipped under her dress and his revulsion went through the roof as he felt something that wasn’t supposed to be a part of a normal lady. A thought crossed his mind as the primitive went away and the apathy came out.

The unfeeling side that Riley had controlled so well over the years the past 4 years to the date and these vacations were the way that he shut himself off to the world. 

He continued to kiss “her” and grabbed her extra attachments with his left hand and “she” groaned in a sort of pleasure mixed with pain. Riley pulled hard on them and then he pulled away from her but still maintained his firm grasp on “her”. 

Riley reached behind his back and pulled out his razor, and keeping it behind his back until Morgan reached a throw of ecstasy. In a motion as quick as the lightining strike outside, Riley whipped out his razor, and sliced off the extra appendage. 

Morgan’s face went from one of extreme pleasure to one of terrified pain and agony. Blood billowed out of him. He found that standing was not an option for the pain was too terrible. He was letting out a silent scream as the pain took over

Riley looked at the useless flesh that was in his left hand and threw it against the window. The splat of the useless flesh was heard and the fear only increase in Morgan’s eyes, and only widened more as he saw what Riley was doing. 

Riley was getting off the bed and pulled Morgan with no gentleness and toss him into the bathtub. Riley muttered something under his breath about it always being a transvestite. His tone was angry and more dangerous, and yet still completely calm to the situation that was he was doing. 

Morgan hit the tub hard and blood flowed out of him faster. Riley left Morgan and went back to the bedroom and changed out of his now bloody shirt and pants, and was down to his underpants and he went back into the bathroom to see the now recently deceased Morgan taking up room in his bathtub.

Riley made sure that the Morgan was really dead by slapping the deceased flesh. Nothing. The eyes were wide with terror and empty. Riley picked up the deceased, pale body and wrapped him up in the bed sheet. He folded the corners together, and it formed into a makeshift bag. Riley hoisted the bag and went to the bedroom door that lead out to the hallway. 

Riley simply set foot outside of the door, he cared not that anyone should see a half naked man carrying around a bundled of sheets that were stained red and leaking a thick liquid substance. He walked the 84 steps to the elevator and took it up to the garden level. 3 floors up, 6 steps into the garden lobby, 22 steps to the outside, a bolt of lightning ripped through the sky and a downpour began. Riley sighed and pushed the door open and walked out to the nearest edge of the building, 14 steps through the heavy downpour, he came to the tall fence that surrounded the rooftop and with a mighty heave, he tossed the sheets with the corpse off the roof down a side of the building that had no opening. The body scrape the side of the building before falling into the alley between the buildings. 

He breathed a sigh of relief, he went back to the lobby and walked down the six flights of stairs back to floor thirty-nine. His footprints were red and wet, his trail could have been followed by a blind man. The hallway of his room floor was no different, blood stained the floor and a red scrape could be seen on one of the walls.

 

9:16 p.m.

 

    Riley re-entered his room and surveyed the area that was his room. There was a large concentration of blood on the bed, between the bed and the bathroom, in the bathroom, and between the bed and the front door. Blood ran down the window, from the splat that happened after the throw, toward the useless flesh beneath the window. Riley stripped off the last of his clothing and stepped into the blood soaked tub and showered to cleanse himself. Thunder could still be heard outside. He rinsed and ruined three whole towels red. 

    He used his last towel to dry himself off and went back into the bedroom. He put on some clean clothes, being careful to avoid stepping or placing his clean clothes in the pools of congenial matter. 

Riley packed his suitcase back up this time he didn’t worry about what happened to his stuff. blood soaked items filled and lined his suitcase, all neatly placed in it.

Riley checked himself in the mirror and satisfied with himself. He picked up his suitcase, and with the indifference that now ran rampant throughout his system, walked out the door, down the hall, down the elevator to the lobby, went to the front desk and settled up his bill, said that Morgan was still using the room and that they should not disturbed her for a few days as she was deathly sick. He paid for the rest of the week as well as placing five hundred dollars on the tab for the Ranch so that she could order whatever she wanted. 

 

9:58 p.m.

 

38 steps to the first set of front doors, 4 more to the outer door, Riley turned right, into the rain he went, 12 steps and he stopped in front of the dark alley. He peered into the darkness and thought that he could almost see the misshapen lump of a liar, reaching out to him as if accusing him of a more drastic crime, a small cat darted out of the darkness carrying  what looked to be a finger. Riley straightened himself. He turned around 30 steps to the road and hailed a taxi in the rainstorm and Riley left the 42nd.