Chapter 9: The Bad Part of Town
"Sir, where are you going?" Carl called out to Gabriel.
"I'm just going for a walk." He replied. Before he fully exited the hotel doors, he asked Carl, "How long do you work here?"
"The whole morning. I only get sleep in the afternoon. Why do you want to know?" Carl answered. Gabriel just shrugged in response and walked out the glass hotel doors. How sad it is to work so long. Carl looked to be in no later than his early twenties and he already worked an unnatural shift. Even though Gabriel did his "job" on a random schedule, he pitied the poor hotel worker.
Gabriel strolled down the sidewalk. It was damp from the recent rainfall. He looked at all the store names. There were a couple of restaurants here and there and many accessory and clothing stores. Gabriel decided to buy a second suit since he'd need to wash his current one at some point during the week. He took out the wad of bills that Selene had given him from his jacket pocket and entered one clothing store.
To his luck, the store sold mostly black or gothic clothes. Some garments looked pretty old fashioned with a modern twist to them. Gabriel found that choosing garments of clothing from this store was much easier than the previous store he had visited. He picked out a long coat, another turtleneck, dark jeans and a couple pairs of socks. He found a hat similar to the one that he used to wear and picked that up, too. When he completed his second suit, he went to the cash register and paid for him.
That whole shopping "experience" didn't seem too eventful until an old woman grabbed the sleeve of his coat. She wore an old black and gray dress and wore a very uniquely designed shawl on her shoulders. Her hair was gray… almost white and it was pulled up in a loose bun.
"Return and only be sent back." The old woman croaked mysteriously. Gabriel gave her a quizzical look, but the old lady didn't seem to want to explain. She let go of him and he rushed out of the store.
Contemplating the old woman's words, he reentered the hotel just to put his new clothes in his room. After that, he exited the hotel again without saying a word to Carl. Besides, the young man looked pretty busy with a couple that was checking out.
Gabriel strolled down the streets for a while. The only new purchase that he didn't put into his hotel room was the new hat that he now wore. He noticed that there wasn't any sun since he arrived there. It reminded him so much of the cloudy day that he met Anna… without the bloodthirsty vampires, though. At the thought of Anna, the song she sang echoed in his mind and he felt a pang of sadness within his heart.
'Anna, how will I ever bring you back?' he thought sorrowfully.
Suddenly, he felt his stomach rumble. That's when he realized that he hadn't eaten since his arrival. He was too caught up in the search for Anna and the questions he ached to be answered that he hadn't realized just how hungry he was until now. He found a small inexpensive fast-food diner and entered. There was a major stench of grease, but Gabriel was too hungry to care. He went right up to the counter and was lucky to find that there was no lineup.
"Hello, sir. Would you like me take your order?" the girl at the counter asked. Gabriel nodded and just asked for the most filling sandwich. The girl recommended an extra-large burger with large fries and a Coke.
"Whatever you got. I'll just take that." Gabriel said in a tone that made him sound like a starving mad-man. The girl gave him a queer look before rushing off to get his order. When she returned, he took the tray of food and gave her the exact amount of money needed.
A while later, Gabriel finished his greasy burger and fries. 'What unhealthy food these times give.' He thought even though it was pretty delicious.
Since he was pretty much full and awake, he decided to take a walk to unfamiliar parts of town. He pretty much only knew a couple of streets. For hours he strolled the sidewalks of the Romanian town that he still had no knowledge of its name… not that he even cared to know.
When nightfall came, Gabriel had already seen half of the town. His next destination was a part of town that he heard most people stayed away from. At least, the people with morals and fear stayed away from it. Gabriel had neither, so he obviously wished to venture there.
'Why's it such a bad part of town?' Gabriel asked himself. 'Nothing could be worse than carnivorous vampires hunting you down… or at least, my job in general.'
At first glance in daylight, the bad part of town looked harmless and abandoned. But when nightfall came, the streets were full of juvenile delinquents, prostitutes and Lord knows what else. Gabriel saw all of the night lurkers there. They were demonic in their own ways. But not by looks, he noted. It was by actions.
As he strolled casually down the bad part of town, many women went up to him and offered their "services". Gabriel was disgusted by such actions. What has our world come to? When had all this come… and how? All these questions flooded through his mind as he saw the people live their nightly lives there. The worst part of it all was that the majority of the people there were young. They've only reached the ages of their early twenties and they strut around doing idiotic and stupid things.
Gabriel sighed in disappointment. He also noticed how large the bad part of town was. It took up a fairly large amount of the town's space. Probably because of all the large nightclubs. Gabriel stopped walking and just stared up at the sky. He found the peaceful moon and just looked at it. He saw Anna's face, yet again.
'This is happening too much. I need you with me, Anna.' Gabriel pleaded, still looking at the moon. The moon seemed to have watchful eyes upon him.
"Hey, you. Why don't you come into this club with me and we can…" the prostitute that spoke was cut off by Gabriel.
"Stay away from me. I don't wish to a part of your immoralities and sins." Gabriel shot at her. The woman looked at him unimpressed and said, "Whatever…" Then she hurried to another man not too far behind Gabriel.
Gabriel watched the prostitute coyly convince the man to follow her into the club. The expression Gabriel wore was clearly of disgust when he saw the man let himself be dragged by his tie. Clearly, there was more evil here than in even Dracula's castle. He was getting annoyed by all the club music, shouting people and sinful night lurkers. He began to walk again to finally exit the bad part of town.
AN: I know, this chapter was short and pretty much meaningless, but it's just one of my views of the sinful world we live in. Personally, I think the world is cursed with all this crap.