9 The nightmare continues...

As the days passed, the government reinforced security. A curfew system was put in place for the whole country, whereby people were not to be found on the streets after 10pm. Shops had to close down and police patrols would arrest anyone out after the said time.

Even though the curfew said 10pm, the streets would be already nearly empty by eight. Primary and secondary schools ended early to allow children to go home safe and sound, and at least one policeman could be found in every school bus. Kaleb had mentioned that he was quite impressed by the efforts of the government to ensure people’s safety, but how effective would that be? We all hoped it would be enough, but would it?

With all the problems and stress, tourists were starting to get angry, some even sad, that their holidays were being spoiled. The hotel where Kaleb was staying was very well known for being highly competitive on the market. The management, worried about the hotel’s reputation and the client’s well-being and happiness, had decided to organise a special night. After all, business is business. Dance shows, comedy shows, karaoke and dance floor to get the clients to relax and enjoy a little bit, and make them forget the danger reigning outside. All was set for a beautiful night.

Kaleb invited us over, and to avoid that we come and go in the middle of the night, and because of the curfew, invited us to stay the night at the hotel until the next morning. Chris, Ryan, Kayra, Rebekah, maya and I, and Jace, who got permission from his foster parents if and only if we don’t step out of the hotel during the night. He promised them to stay indoors and also brought in his sister Aayat, who spent the last few days home out of fear.

We packed our bags, with a change of clothes for the next day and the night, our toothbrushes and toothpastes, laptops, playing cards, phones and chargers. We also brought a few snacks, in case the night was not as exciting as expected. The idea was to have a chill, stress free night together as a family.

We left my apartment at 5pm, hoping to make it to the hotel before dark. When we reached, we went straight to the hotel room. We found out the hotel had an indoor swimming pool, and luckily, we all brought our swimsuits as we planned to go swimming to the nearby pool the next day. After about 2 hours of enjoying the pool’s cool water, we went back to the room, had a shower and got ready for dinner.

Dinner started at 7:30pm but we reached at about 8:30pm. There was a beautiful buffet, with an Indian section, a western section, and a Chinese section. Kaleb and I, of course, enjoyed the Indian section along with Jace and Aayat. Chris, Maya and Rebekah decided to go for Chinese while Ryan and Kayra went for burgers in the western section.

We did take some fries for everyone though. After a very satisfying dinner, we went for chocolate mousse, brownies and ice cream in the dessert area. We decided to not take too much time so we wouldn’t miss the beginning of the show.

No need to say we were ready to enjoy to the maximum, with perfect seats right in the front row. The show had a mix of Latin and Chinese dance shows, and a bit of African too. I was definitely very interested in the Latin show, since I was a Latin and contemporary dancer. I was also quite impressed by Aayat’s interest for Latin dance. She had mentioned once that she would love to learn dance, especially ballroom dance. Jace, Kaleb, Kayra and I then went for karaoke. Aayat also joined us; singing was one of her passions-I could find a little me within Aayat’s personality.

Finally, when all of that was over, we enjoyed the dance floor. Me, along with all the girls, took our shoes off and danced to our heart’s content. We spent that night as the carefree and bold youths that we used to be back then. Little did we know that this was the last normal, carefree night we would have spent together. Our lives were about to change in such a drastic way, that this would’ve been the beginning of the journey that led us to where we are today.