“We offer our deepest apologies,” pressing her head into her shoulders, the girl rustled her fingers on the keyboard. “But we really can’t help you.” There are no available rooms. Annelle, in helpless anger, grabbed the key to the boss’s room from the tabletop. A few hours ago, her reservation for two rooms was confirmed. The end of the business trip, she relaxed. And of course, according to the law of meanness, it was her apartment in the “standard” category that was immediately flooded by some idiot. Yes, so thoroughly that it leaked two floors below. There was no point in expecting that in the near future they would clear up the consequences of the trouble caused by the problematic guest. “Come up to your room,” Annel handed the key to the boss. — I'll try to call other hotels. “We’ll spend the night in the same room,” he headed towards the elevator, taking her suitcase for company. She was left blinking her eyes in confusion with her outstretched hand, in which she still held
New homeThere is a sea of trees around. They dived into this sea and sailed for an eternity on their iron chariot in anticipation that one day the long-awaited shore would loom on the horizon. Sometimes an island of light could be seen in the distance, to which they quickly approached. But all that was visible to the eye was another meadow stretching for tens of kilometers, flooded with sunlight. For a brief moment, they were overcome by warmth, and then it dissolved, as soon as they again drowned in the shadows under the crowns of a palisade of centuries-old pines and spruces.- What fresh air here! — Kayla said enthusiastically, enjoying the breeze coming from the half-open window. She gracefully tucked a strand of resin that had escaped from her hair behind her ear and turned to her daughter, who was sitting in the back seat. Her face lit up with a smile: “Lia, isn’t this a wonderful place?”- It couldn’t be more wonderful. It’s reminiscent of a hackneyed opening to a horror fil
“It’s somehow strange.”The staircase leading to the second floor is located just opposite the entrance. And facing a crossroads: what to explore first - Leah began to rise again. If the house had a standard layout, then the living rooms were on the second floor, and in this case the first floor would have to wait.Five closed doors plunged her into a slight stupor, since from the outside the house looked much more modest, but the very next minute, remembering the bathrooms, storage rooms and dressing rooms, she exhaled with relief. Knowing her mother, Leah could already be preparing for the assignment: cleaning the entire floor herself. However, there is a significant difference between five rooms and two or three.Opening the nearest door, she saw a narrow staircase, apparently leading to a lonely turret. The dark corridor ended with another closed door.Succumbing to curiosity, Leah climbed the groaning steps and pulled the handle.Closed.She squatted down, leaned forward, touchin
Pulling the back of her slip-on onto her heel, Leah awkwardly galloped on one leg to the front door and, finally taking off her shoes, impatiently ran out onto the porch. A quietly humming car was already waiting in front of the house, driven by a sleep-deprived father. He yawned sleepily and didn't even try to cover his mouth with his hand.- Why so early? “Normal people sleep until ten in the morning,” Leah wheezed displeasedly, plopping down in the back seat. - And I’m not averse to it until noon.“Who gets up early,” Marcus began.“He’s annoying everyone,” Leah finished and immediately heard an approving chuckle.In their family, only the mother was an early bird, rising, if not with the first rays of the sun, then certainly no later than seven in the morning. Of course, she tried not to make noise for the first two hours after waking up. But, starting from nine in the morning, her “turbo cleaning lady” mode turned on: the vacuum cleaner roared, the coffee grinder rattled, and thi
For some time, Leah wandered around the shelves, looking at the used book books full of multi-colored spines: some pretty shabby, with wrinkled or even torn corners, others practically new. And there were even ones that had never been opened, with a crunchy sound pleasant to the ear, as soon as she tried to leaf through one of these.“Your coffee,” Yuna announced in a playfully formal tone, lowering a tall glass goblet onto a special wooden stand. — I hope you like the latte?“Cappuccino, mochaccino, latte, glace - yes, I’m practically omnivorous in the coffee variety,” she walked up to the table and, trying not to make noise, carefully pushed back the chair. The seat turned out to be really soft, and the freshly brewed coffee was so aromatic that it instantly stupefied her.—Where did you move from?- Is it written on my face: “not from here”?— Не совсем, — коротко усмехнулась Юна. — Я живу в доме напротив, поэтому видела, как вы въезжали.— Так мы соседи... Ты дочь Хьюго Бьёрка?—
Opera HouseIt may be strange to meet in one day, out of forty thousand people, precisely those two who lived in neighboring houses. To some, this might even seem suspicious: deserving of special attention and some caution in communication. However, it’s not that Leah didn’t fall into the number of suspicious paranoids; now she was rather barely worried about the very fact of the existence of a new acquaintance, not to mention his proximity and obvious desire to get closer.After she got out of the water, the air temperature seemed to drop by ten degrees. Sharp, angry gusts of wind forced her to shiver from the cold: they pierced through her long summer cardigan with a large knit, blew their cool breath on the wet fabric of jeans and slip-ons - they did everything to make her teeth beat out the ragged tap dance.Wrapping herself tighter in her jacket, Leah ran up the stairs, leaving behind her a trail of wet sole impressions and damp sand on the steps. She tried to keep her mouth slig
“The main cultural center of our region,” Neil straightened up and placed a couple of cans of soda and a large bar of milk chocolate with berry crumbs on the tabletop. He looked at Leah and explained with a playful smile: “Roughly speaking, the first four floors are divided into two huge halls: on the right is the theater, on the left is the opera.” Are any of these things of interest?- Not really. Have you worked here before?- Yeah, I worked part-time in the summer.- And no one cares that you steal from the local cafe? And anyway, no locks... You must have very lenient laws.- How to say. Compared to other countries, our crime rate is much lower. Robberies are so rare that many people, especially in the provinces, don't even lock their front doors. Violence and murder are also infrequent phenomena. True, sometimes people go missing, but you saw it yourself - around the forest, the sea. Either they drowned or were chewed up by wild animals. Usually someone finds the remains of bodi
Chapter 4. The neighbor's catThe door bell rang loudly behind her, and two pairs of eyes immediately fixed their gaze on Leah: Yuna was sitting in the center of the room at the table, bending deeply over sheets of tables; and a stocky girl with short-cropped hair froze near the shelves on the first floor.The visitor's interest quickly waned, and she again switched to the book she was holding in her hands, while the good-naturedly smiling shop worker hurried to clear the table of papers.“Hello,” Leah pulled out the chair next to Yuna and tiredly plopped down on it.“I already thought that you wouldn’t come today either.”- Yes, it somehow got twisted. Mom took me shopping - I needed to replenish my wardrobe with warm clothes. Yesterday I simply didn’t have the strength to crawl here.— Did you have fun shopping?— Do I look like a happy person? Leah grinned in obvious amazement, barely able to stop herself from gushing about the hardships she'd had to go through over the past two da