1 A Stormy Night

Jess dragged her check-in luggage out of the circus called LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). She should have chosen the San Francisco International Airport than taking the LAX in this hell time of the year to travel.

Getting out of the country two days before Christmas is a suicide mission about to happen, but what could she do. She had to finish collecting all the data of the cultured bacteria in the lab that, she has had meticulously raised before she left the school for the holiday break.

LAX offered more flights that fitted her schedule than San Francisco International Airport, hence she was currently battling in this human zoo where most of the flights were canceled and delayed due to heavy rainfall due to a storm.

She winced and grabbed her shoulder in pain when a man going in the opposite direction bumped her in the crowd. She wanted to turn around to give him a piece of her mind, but the airport crowd is a few steps away from a stampede.

She has no way to catch the man in this chaos if she still wants to get herself out of this mess alive, she thought, as she steadies her feet, trying her best not to get push back.

She exhaled another deep breath to placate her anger by simply using all possible curse words she could think of in all languages she knows for that man at the back of her mind.

"Taxi!"

She literally crossed the street to flag down a taxi that was about to drive away after dropping off some passengers with a mountain of luggage trailing behind them.

'Good luck with that,' she grimaced, thinking of the horde of raging human race from that hell called the airport.

She yanked the door of the taxi before someone could steal it right from her nose, which is not an unusual occurrence in this country. She threw her hand-carry suitcase to the far side of the backseat, while she positions herself in the middle of the seat to be in the direct line of the rearview mirror of the taxi.

"You have escaped unscathed, I see." the taxi driver in his late forties chuckles watching her struggle out of her thick jacket.

"Yeah, I feel like I survived an apocalypse."

"Reward yourself with some nice vodka, child. The radio has been chirping non-stop. They call it the worst in the decade." he chuckled, pointing to the radio that is currently on the news frequency talking about the current bedlam that is happening in the LAX.

Jess looked back from the direction they were from. She congratulated herself for crossing the street and putting herself in danger to get this taxi when she saw two men seizing each other throat fighting for a taxi.

"Where to?"

She took her eyes off to just another poor show of humanity to answer her driver.

"Midland Hotel."

"Huh, you are my third passenger going to that hotel," he commented upon hearing the name of her hotel.

'Great!' she thought. The airline probably sent all their stranded passenger to that hotel. She hopes to whichever God is listening that she will be spared of another misfortune tonight.

She is dead tired. Her soul abandoned her body a long time ago. She just wants a bed and a warm meal for tonight.

It's a good thing she didn't tell her friend that she will be in Shanghai for Christmas. No one will be disappointed that she missed her flight.

She just last minute decided to celebrate her birthday, which happened to be on the same birthday as a child named Jesus, hence her grandmother name her Jess in honor of the kid that was born on the same day as hers.

Her friend was currently in Shanghai, thus on a whim, she chose to be in China for her birthday. She did not pick to celebrate Christmas there because it has an out of the world way of celebrating the yuletide season since nothing would beat how Christmas is celebrated back home. In her country, Christmas unspokenly considered starting on the first day of September.

"Welcome to Midland Hotel."

The girl standing behind the reception desk greeting her cheerfully with her Santa hat bobbing on her head. Jess smiled back at the girl who is about her age.

"Room under the name Jessica Joy Zimmerman."

"Oh, was it really that bad there?" she asked, with the intention to have a friendly conversation, while she checked the computer in front of her for Jess' name.

"If you would ask me to describe it, I would say, it is a zombie apocalypse, but they are breathing alive, with dead eyes and mouth running bad words in every language you could ever recognize."

"That bad huh?"

The receptionist's eyes widened in shock with how she described the scene of the airport.

"Here is your room key, hope you had a good night. You look like you need it." Her gentle smile is full of sympathy.

"Thank you. Happy holidays!" she forced a cheerful smile from her tired body. She watched the receptionist jolted when she heard the simple greetings from her as she made her way to the elevator.

She quietly shakes her head, pushing the number twenty-five on the elevator button. 'Do people seriously forget the simple courtesy of greetings fellow human beings?' She wondered as the elevator machine hummed pulling the metal box to the twenty-fifth floor of this building.

She chuckled softly with the number coincidence. Like the elevator is reminding her that she would be celebrating her birthday on the twenty-fifth day of December on the twenty-fifth floor of this hotel.

Too bad she is just turning twenty-three, it would be hilarious to have a twenty-fifth birthday on the twenty-fifth day of the month, on the twenty-fifth floor of some hotel, she giggles by herself as she gets out of the elevator on her way to her room.

She checked the number printed on the electronic card key, the receptionist handed her. The number 254 was embossed in the black card behind the hotel logo.

When she reached the room with the same number on the door with her card key, she pressed the card to the machine attached to the doorknob to let herself into the highlight of her misfortune for the day!

It comes dripping wet and screaming with a phone in his hand.