Chapter 10: One Step At a Time

He left her apartment early the next morning, having a fresh smell of pheromones on him that no one would be able to pick up unless they had the nose of an animal. He locked the door behind him as he rushed out, leaving Noemie to continue sleeping a little longer, it was seven, so he probably woke up often at six, all fully and neatly dressed in his clothes. 

Noemie unexpectedly woke up at seven thirty, feeling the empty side of the bed, and made no sound as she woke up, just a blank stare at the imprint left by the weight of Gavin's body in the sheets. She slowly slipped out of bed and got changed into something proper for the day, going to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth, her hair slowly getting untangled with her fingers before using a brush. 

A knock came from the door as soon as she went to get a water bottle, she slowly processed the sound and simply went over to the door quickly, not thinking much even though it could've been an intruder. Most humans aren't that bright when they wake up. 

She blinked rapidly in a second, seeing Gavin at the door holding a bag of stuff in one hand, he had just come back from a nearby store. 

"I thought you went to work?" Noemie said as she let him back in. 

He patted her shoulder with his free hand as he slipped his shoes off, bringing the bag to the kitchen. 

"Without spending the morning with you? I'm not a monster."

Two wrapped sandwiches and two muffins, he took them out of the bag and went over to the two cups of coffee by the microwave, putting them next to the food. There were even sunflower seeds which he was slightly unsure what to do with, so he left it open and carefully laid it on its side, convenient for reaching. The woman had barely even noticed the cups of coffee and walked over to the counter where he had placed the food, almost speechless and with a quizzical look. 

"I wanted to make sure you eat; from what I could tell last night, you're a bit of a coffee addict." He grinned at her with a wink. 

The woman broke out of her daze, almost feeling bashful, her eyes having a glint as if she remembered something important. 

"Oh, right. I don't drink it too often." 

"Really?" The man asked as he took a sip of coffee from his cup, cocking an eyebrow up in disbelief. 

"I like the flavor." She started looking through her cabinets and stopped at seeing the one filled with a few stacks of plates. 

She took two out and placed them by the sandwiches, Gavin started unwrapping them while the woman went back to fix her hair in her bathroom mirror before coming back to eat. 

"Hmm, you do have the eyebags as proof for how much you like it." He gently teased her.

"... I've always had these." She took small bites of her sandwich, it had a slice of ham in between that had this same color of flesh. She couldn't help but freeze and look down at it.

"Want to sit and eat instead?" Gavin asked. 

"Sure." Noemie said not paying much attention, she was busy taking the sandwich apart to tear the ham into bite size pieces. Easier to swallow whole without chewing.

"Oh, are you vegetarian? I'm sorry, I should've asked."

"No, it's not that."

Gavin had this look of concern towards her, watching her treat the thin meat like bitter medicine, but chose to stay silent, adjusting his glasses as he stood up, going to rinse his plate in the sink. Noemie gulped her coffee down without enjoying it, and started her usual hunt to collect her items as she rinsed out the cup in the sink as well. 

Purse left on the low table, already has everything, keys were next to it, camera, nowhere to be found, Noemie pauses as she ran into her room, mid-grabbing her phone from the nightstand, she left it at the office again. Her breathing relaxes, she goes back for her purse, slings it onto her shoulder and goes to join Gavin at the entrance area, choosing a pair of shoes to go with her light blue blouse and office pants of the day. Gavin offered to let her use him for stability as she put on a pair, though she declined as they were merely a pair of low-heeled shoes.

"You've been a gentleman all morning." She smiled at him. 

He gave her light smirk as he opened the door and let her walk out first, locking it behind him. 

"It'll be easier if it's real and not just acting, right?" 

He said in a soothing but still professional tone, showing something on his phone screen to her, it must've been something important as the woman took out her phone and started typing whatever he showed her onto his.

He made her smile as they left her apartment together, and she was still delighted to be around him during the daylight as they rode on the bus together. They had never spent time together before, and they only saw each other during their night shifts; it seemed they were both eager to have each other's company in a different setting.

Gavin left to go to the funeral house he worked at, Noemie went to her usual building and office, clocking in and walking past everything as usual. Her manager and others talked to her, asking if she was alright to work again, she simply gave them a silent wave and nod, her smile was quickly erased when she entered the building, it thankfully helped her case when most decided not to bother her for the day. Then, as she walked to her table with her desk computer, another coworker walked up to her and asked her if she had seen Lilia.

The woman paused, and then her mouth hung open, eyes blank. 

"No, did she not come back to work?"

"Well, she did yesterday, but after work no one was able to contact her."

The woman stood still, gripping her purse strap with one hand, the other covered her speechless mouth as her eyes reached the ground. The coworker who asked about Lilia slouched her shoulders, worry filling her eyes and mouth chewing on one of her nails. 

"She never answered my calls, and her apartment's been empty." The coworker muttered, looking off to the side. 

Noemie closed her hand into a fist, still holding it up to cover her mouth as she changed her stance, almost wobbling in place. 

"You should call the police if she's been gone that long." The French woman held her hands together and close to her chest, brows knitted. Her face looked as though she was close to breathing rapidly.

The coworker nodded quickly as her eyes travelled elsewhere, then took out her phone as she nodded a quick goodbye to Noemie before walking away. The coworker walked over to a group of people who also looked upset, likely also worried about their missing Lilia, and only Noemie truly knows what happened to her.

Now, it was already clear that Noemie was only acting worried, but it was hard to tell if she actually forgot about how she watched her acquaintance's head get turned into a parfait last night, or if it was such a grotesque moment for her that her sudden flirting with her closest companion that night was her way of coping. It was the first time a hunt had happened so close to her.

Her bag settled down onto the shoulder of her chair, her camera was still left untouched, a wire connecting it to her computer screen as usual, but instead of going to fix photo images and such as usual. She began looking up pictures of women with brown hair in a bun, wearing a trench coat. there were of course multiple of these kinds of photos on the web, and the woman sighed at her naivety, not able to find the one she needed. Her mouse moved to find a photo of a woman with a neat looking hair bun style and clicked to download it.

Then, she typed something else, after discreetly looking around her, pretending to scratch an itch on her shoulders to turn her head side to side. 

'Red Crown Motel' 

The name didn't bring any results she wanted either, there were lists on 'Red Crown Inn', or 'Crown Motel', but nothing about a motel near a forest highway, surrounded by small gambling houses and convenient stores. Noemie searched through the images, anyway, finding a photo of a building with good lighting and downloading it.

After quickly changing to sifting through her emails and lists of tasks for the day, the screen then changed to a map, the whole light green background with blue lines and red dotted lines.

'Bellevue, WA'

The area she looked at was highlighted with a shade of gray and surrounded by red dots, there bold yellow lines, two horizontal and one vertical, she only looked at the areas around or near those lines. It all looked pretty blank. 

There was a notepad somewhere on her desk, the woman pulled it toward her and started writing down things on forest pictures, and ghostly highway photos. 

She went on to do the rest of her tasks after that, getting up and taking her notepad to go show her supervisor, making talks about creating a ghostly scene for the upcoming October.

Some other coworkers would go up to question her about if she heard from Lilia at all, but the introverted woman could only shake her head, giving reasons that she didn't even know the bubbly woman's number. Sometimes her stomach growled while she worked, but she never got anything that would count as a full-grown meal, just coffee and something without meat. 

Noemie would edit photos, work with models for photo ads, create a schedule or list of ideas, talk to the manager, read whatever her emails say, do enough work until it was late into the evening, seven pm. Again, rarely anyone in the office, it got dark rather quickly in that building, Noemie can still navigate dark familiar places with ease. 

She slings her bag over her shoulder after packing away her phone and notepad, turns off her computer, and finally remembers to take her camera with her. 

It has a sling to hang from her neck but still heavy enough that she needs to cradle it in her hands, delicate equipment some of these fancy cameras can be.

She nodded a hello and goodbye to the janitor on her way out; he wore headphones that were probably playing loud music so as to drown out the miserable world.

The bus she took as usual took her to the place closest to the area that led to the motel on the other side of the woods, and then the walking trail that would lead to the doors. 

A strong looking figure was standing there near the doors to the lobby, wide shoulders and hair in a curly looking ponytail, a sweater vest and suit pants. Roman wore this outfit a lot, seeing as he was a teacher. 

Noemie quizzically walked up to him and then eased the tension in her shoulder as she began to recognize him, from the dark to the light from the glass doors illuminating his facial features. He was easily recognizable among the others, while almost all of her male coworkers had light facial hair, save for Alonzo, Roman was the one with the strong jawline, hair always pulled back.

"Good evening, Roman." She greeted him as she walked past him to the doors, about to walkthrough before he stopped her.  

"Why were you with that guy last night? Did he do anything to you?" He asked in a hushed tone.

She frowned at him. 

"Who? Gavin? He offered to walk with me, we explored a bit of the city together, and he took me home."

There was a shaking in the man's eyes and voice. 

"You let him see where you lived?"

"I invited him to stay the night." The woman said boldly. "It's okay, he didn't hurt me. There's nothing for you to be concerned about." 

His shoulders were tense while the woman stepped closer to him, changing her expression to a more sympathetic one. "Is there something worrying you?"

The strong man put a hand on her back, like he wanted to usher her inside quickly before any lurking cannibals of the night came by; not that me or the others would let them hurt her. As he pushed opened one of the glass doors, his eyebrows were knitted while he looked away for a minute. They walked inside and greeted the worker at the desk as usual, he looked like a new face, they each showed their motel worker cards to the desk person and he let them pass, Roman's hand that radiated warmth was still firm on her back. It moved to hold her shoulder as they walked down the dark hallway passed the heavy "Employees only" door, he whispered as he held her close while they walked down the low stairs.

"I'll be honest with you, I don't think that man with the glasses is a good guy, he's snarky and laughs in uncomfortable situations." 

"I don't see how him being snarky means he's untrustworthy. He can be rude, but everyone copes differently in this place." Noemie whispered back. 

"People like him have always disturbed me."

The woman fell silent, going through a process of denial.

"No, no he is a nice person, you should see how he is during the day-" 

"He acts differently, doesn't he?"

"No not really, just nicer." 

"Do you believe that?" 

She falls silent again, I can imagine her mouth hanging open as she finds another excuse for Gavin's actions but finding nothing to say.

Roman gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze in the dark, it was difficult to see but it was there. He's always been protective of the ones he cares about, even his students despite the kids not knowing.

They got to the door to the locker room and Roman paused before opening the door, letting go of her shoulder and saying with the most serious tone, "Please don't let your guard down so easily, that's how I ended up here."

He opened the door as he continued to look at her, watching as the light from the locker room illuminated her face, her face that was revealed to be pensively thinking. 

"Alonzo is naive and a puppy, Everett reminds of all those people who freeze in fear instead of run, and Gavin, I don't know what to make of him, I never know what's on his mind." 

"Why don't you ask me then?"

The two turned their heads to the voice in front of them, the door shutting behind and further emphasizing the silence and the presence of the three people in that locker room. 

Gavin was leaning against one of the walls of lockers, already with the chef coat on and tightly buttoned over his day clothes, his arms were crossed, and his head tilted. Clearly, he was being playful as his eyelids were half closed, there was a mischievous grin on his face, like a cheshire cat waiting to answer a question.

"Go on, ask me what's on my mind." He flicked his nose up in Roman's direction. 

Roman silently seethed at the sight of him, which was a surprise since he usually hid a lot of his emotions pretty well ever since he worked at the restaurant, the lady beside him subtly shook her head as she walked over to her locker, pulling her coat out and putting her things in. She left the boys to their argument as she buttoned the white and slightly blood-stained coat over her day clothes, reading the letter left in her locker for the new order of the night.