Abih

[Octopia]

XVIII

I blindly bustled through the crowd, wondering if Zara was telling the truth, but if she wasn’t, then why did Lehe fall? I crossed my arms and kept walking until I reached some one who wouldn’t move out of the way. I looked up to see who it it was and found, to my dismay, that it was Saja.
‘Hi!’ she said.
‘Hi.’
‘Um. . . sorry about Nojt and your phone. He didn’t even tell me why he wanted it.’
I shrugged. ‘I’ve got it here if he still wants it.’
‘No, no, it’s alright. You look like you need some down time. Maybe you should go to your room. I’ll see you later!’
I nodded then headed toward my room.
‘Oh, and by the way, Abih,’ she called back, ‘I think you left your backpack at the Hotel!’
True, I thought, I did leave that there, didn’t I. Ugh, I’ll get it tomorrow.
I flopped down on my bed, suddenly exhausted, then realised that I had done this exact same thing in the Hotel two days ago, on the 31st of July, 2018.
That was the last thought I can remember thinking before I fell into a deep sleep.

[Octopia]

IXX

I woke up the next day and, feeling well refreshed, checked the time.
‘Ten o’clock!’ I exclaimed, ‘that means I was sleeping for a solid fifteen hours!’
My tummy grumbled, and I suddenly remembered that the last time I had eaten was an early lunch yesterday.
I hurriedly changed from one black hoodie to another, then ran through the empty hall to the eating room. I hurried over to the table, and just managed to get the last piece of steak and mushroom pie before Tama did.
For a moment, as we both reached for it, our hands met, but he jerked back suddenly.
‘No, sorry, you can have it. I’ve already had five.’
I laughed and shook my head as I walked away, then sat down in a corner to eat my pie.
After breakfast (and yes, I did have more than just one piece of pie) I walked up to Majy and said, ‘Hey Majy! Saja reminded me yesterday that I left my backpack at the Hotel, so I’m just popping over to get that quickly.’
Majy nodded. ‘Ok. Don’t use your powers though, eh.’ I nodded then headed for the door.
As I walked down the road toward the Hotel, I found myself, ironically, whistling ‘The chances of anything coming from Mars’ from War of the Worlds, only in our situation it was more like ‘The chances of anything coming from Hars, are a million to one they say,’ except no one actually said that the chances were a million to one.
I walked into the Hotel lift and pressed the button that would take me to level 9.
Three long minutes later the elevator chimed and the door opened. Finally! I walked along the hall, knowing exactly where to go, then stopped at door 193 and opened it. It still had the same gross Hotel-y smell that it always had had.
Weird, I thought, I’m sure I left my backpack on my bed, but it’s not there! I looked around the room but couldn’t see it anywhere, so I started looking in the obscure places like in, on, or behind the dresser, because the lady who came in to tidy sometimes put it there, but it wasn’t. I looked other places, too, and thought I’d just look under the bed before going down to ask the managers if it had been moved.
I was just standing up From looking under the bed when I saw a flicker in the corner of my eye. I looked up and there was my backpack, sitting on the window seat!
I went over to grab it, but my hand had only just touched it when there was a hard THWOK! on the back of my head, and I blacked out.