Awake Read online

  “Uh, sorry, I was just checking out the crowd. It’s such a madhouse.”

  “I know, I really want to ask someone what’s going on, but I don’t want to look stupid.”

  “New Yorkers will think we’re stupid no matter what, so we might as well after we’re finished here.”

  “Good point, I guess they’re probably not going to bite, at least.”

  “At least the people in the hotel. Not sure about some of the bums we’ve seen.”

  Ivy laughed, “I know, I feel sorry for the ones in Portland, most of them are just kids, but these guys here all seem to have some scam or another going on.”

  After they finished eating, while the waitress was off running his card, Lee turned to a group of people seated at a nearby table and said “What’s going on here today? The place seems a lot busier than usual.”

  The table completely ignored Lee except for an older man. He sighed, then turned to Lee and said “Writer’s conference today and tomorrow in one of the meeting rooms,” then went back to his conversation.

  “Hey, why didn’t they invite you?” Ivy asked Lee.

  Lee was surprised to remember that he received an invitation to the conference, a month before his diagnosis, just as his condition was starting to degrade. “I guess I was. I remember the invitation a while back, now that I think about it. Maybe that’s why this hotel stuck out to me when I was looking for rooms, come to think of it.” He swept his hand through the air. “I wasn’t planning on going, I never attend those things.”

  “Well, since you ended up here anyway do you want to pop in?”

  “Not really. I left the invitation back home anyhow. And I never responded. Writers can be a bit full of themselves around other writers.”

  “Well, you’re a writer, are you full of yourself when you talk to other authors?”

  “I don’t know. I stopped hanging out with other writers after I figured out how most of them were. I’m friends with a few colleagues online who are cool and don’t act like that.”

  Ivy laughed, “I had no idea. If it’s really that bad I don’t want to go either.”

  “Believe me, it would probably be a boring anyhow. There are a lot of long-winded speeches at those things.”

  “That could be good for you, maybe it would help you sleep?” Ivy said while Lee was taking a drink. He laughed, and painfully snorted some of his drink through his nose.

  “We need a new rule: no jokes while anyone is drinking! I can feel Coke burning in the back of my sinuses,” Lee gasped, wiping his face with a napkin.

  “No deal.”

  The waitress brought his card and receipt back. Lee wrote in a tip, and they left.

  “I still can’t stop thinking about the conference, what if Stephen King is there or something?” Ivy said as they walked through the lobby.

  “I’d be okay with checking it out tomorrow I guess. If they have any big speakers they’d probably be on that day, otherwise people would leave after the first day.”

  “Awesome, that sounds great!” Ivy said, pumping her arm in a cute little cheer.

  “Just don’t leave me for some other, better author,” Lee said as he pushed the button to call an elevator.

  Ivy chuckled. “You know I wouldn’t do that. And who’s a better writer than you, anyway?”

  “Lots of people. But thanks,” he said, chuckling along with her.

  They rode the elevator up to their floor. “We should go out somewhere for dinner, hopefully I’ll be able to get some sleep before then.” He felt bad that he was keeping her from doing the regular touristy things, and it was even worse that she was so damned understanding about it.

  “Sounds good, if you’re up to it. I don’t mind trying the catering’s dinner menu if you’re not.” When they got into their room, Lee collapsed into the bed, realizing just how exhausted he was.

  “Stella just texted me. She and Ben are back down at that pizza place, sure enough,” Ivy said, checking her phone.

  He laughed, “That guy that manages the shop is going to be heartbroken when Ben leaves town. If he ever does, that is—I wouldn’t put it past him to stay here, just for the pizza.”

  Ivy picked Lee’s book up off of the table and read the blurb. “Do you mind if I read this while you rest?” she asked. “It looks really cool, I love werewolves. That other book you brought wasn’t doing it for me.”

  “Go ahead. I haven’t been able to read much lately.”

  He hadn’t thought he’d be able to sleep again, but he surprised himself by dropping off not long after that. He spent an hour in a dreamless sleep, until a sudden loud crashing noise startled him awake.

  “What was that?” he asked, sitting up.

  “What was what?” Ivy said, looking up from her book to give him a puzzled look.

  “I thought I heard a loud sound.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t hear anything sweetie,” she said.

  He knew it would be futile to try to go back to sleep after that, but he tried anyway. He gave up after an hour, sitting up next to Ivy and turning on the television.

  Lee was watching the national news when there was a knock on the door. Ivy was so absorbed in the book that she didn’t even seem to notice it, so Lee got up to answer it. He thought at the last minute that it might be the demon, but by then the door was already opening.

  It was Ben and Stella. “Hey man, what are you guys up to?” Ben said. He walked around Lee and into the room without invitation. Stella followed, and Lee closed the door behind them, shrugging.

  “Not much, just hanging out and resting,” Lee said, happy to see his friend. The room was a bit crowded with four people in it, but he didn’t mind.

  “We brought you some of the pizza that we couldn’t finish,” Ben said, holding up a takeout box and putting it into Lee and Ivy’s mini fridge.

  “Uh, thanks dude,” Lee said.

  “How’s your day been?” Ivy said, putting her book down.

  “Pretty cool. After we ate lunch we walked around and ended up finding this cool park that was completely packed with people,” Stella said.

  “Chelsea Park,” Ben said. “I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of it before on TV or something.”

  “Nice, I swear I’ve heard of it before too. I didn’t realize it was in the area,” Lee said.

  “Yep. Oh yeah, and we found out a fun fact: Nicola Tesla spent his last years living in this hotel and died here, Stella and I found a plaque that tells you about it.”

  Lee’s eyebrows rose. “Are you serious? Where was the plaque?”

  “On the outside of the building, I can show you next time we go out.”

  “Speaking of which,” Ivy said, “Lee and I wanted to go out with you guys to dinner, what sounds good?”

  “We should go to a vegetarian restaurant, we haven’t been to one the entire time,” Stella said.

  “I…guess I could find something I could eat there,” Ben said hesitantly.

  Ivy looked at Lee, and he nodded. “Well it looks like everyone is fine with that, I’ll try and find a decent one,” she said, grabbing the computer off the nightstand.

  “Yes!” Stella said, waving her hands in a cheer. “I’m going to go take a shower and get ready, make sure you find a good place. And not one where we’re going to have to wait forever for a table.”

  Ben and Stella went to leave. “See you guys in a bit,” Ben said as he walked out.

  Lee got up and started going through his luggage for fresh clothes. “I’m going to take a shower too, come to think of it,” he said. “Damn, I need to do laundry soon. I’m starting to run out of clean clothes.

  “I’d join you, but I want to find a place to eat first,” Ivy said. “I’ll just take a shower after you.”

  “Fine, your loss,” Lee said, winking at her, and heading into the bathroom.

  As he showered, he slowly eased the temperature on the shower up in increments until it was almost completely on hot. He felt the exhaustion flow out of him
as he breathed in the steamy air. He sank to the floor of the shower, sitting cross-legged in the cramped space. After a few minutes of sitting under the nearly-scalding water, he almost felt normal.

  He was still sitting on the floor of the shower, almost falling asleep, when he heard the bathroom door open and Ivy come in. “You were in here so long that I thought I’d join you after all,” she said, slipping quickly out of her clothes. “Why are you sitting on the floor?”

  “Just relaxing. I used to this back when I was in high school, before school each day,” he said, standing up. “Sometimes I’d even fall asleep for a few minutes.”

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know,” Ivy said. “Do you not want me to join you?”

  “Of course I want you to join me, I’m not dead. Get in here already.” She did.

  After they were done showering, among other things, Lee let Ivy use the sink first to brush her teeth and do her hair. She was done quickly; one of the things Lee loved most about her was that she didn’t spend a ton of time on her hair.

  Finally getting the sink to himself, he brushed his teeth and shaved, aware that he still looked sickly but still doing his best to make himself presentable. “What restaurant did you end up finding?” he asked as he was cleaning the sink.

  “This place called Nocturna, a few miles away,” Ivy called back from the room. “They don’t take reservations so we should be able to get a seat. From what I read online it’s about a 45 minute wait, but that’s not bad by New York standards for a decent place, right?”

  “Sounds good, they’d just better have something palatable for me.”

  “Oh, I’m sure they will. They have a pretty diverse menu. There were a few dishes that were mostly potatoes and cheese, I’m sure you can live with that.”

  His stomach grumbled. “Me too.”

  When they were almost ready to leave, Ivy sent Stella a message to see if they were ready to go. Unsurprisingly, Stella shot back a text saying that she needed at least fifteen more minutes.

  “Tell her fine, but that we’re starting the time now and we’re meeting in fifteen minutes exactly,” Lee said when Ivy relayed the message. Ivy laughed and typed it out.

  A minute later she got an answer back. “She says we’re rushing her, but okay,” Ivy said.

  Fifteen minutes later exactly, Lee and Ivy were in the hallway. It was another couple of minutes, but Stella and Ben came out soon enough, dressed and ready to go. Stella looked as good as always, despite her protests of not having enough time to get ready.

  “You guys didn’t have to rush me,” Stella said

  “I know, but look how it helped get you ready so much faster than usual,” Ivy said. She gave Stella a playful poke in the ribs. Stella jumped back and shrieked, then burst into giggles.

  “No tickling, we had an agreement at the start of the trip!” Stella exclaimed when she stopped laughing.

  “She’s super ticklish,” Ben whispered to Lee.

  “I gathered that,” Lee whispered back.

  They got on the elevator. “So what restaurant did you find, Ivy?” Stella whispered as they descended, as the elevator was crowded.

  “A place called Nocturna,” Ivy said.

  “Vegetarian, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “Sounds mysterious,” Stella said. For some reason the word “mysterious” filled Lee with dread.

  When they got onto the street there were several cabs in front of the hotel waiting for customers from the convention, so they found a ride right away.

  “Where to?” the Hispanic driver asked when they were all in.

  “Do you know where Nocturna is?” Lee asked from the back.

  The man laughed. “I’ve been doing this for twenty years, of course I know where it is. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” He pulled the cab out into traffic.

  “So what kind of dishes does the place have?” Stella asked as they made their way to the restaurant.

  “A lot of tofu dishes, and mushroom ones too. Also ones with potatoes and cheese and stuff,” Ivy said

  “Awesome. It’s been a while since I’ve had good tofu.”

  As they drove towards the restaurant, Lee noticed that there was a red light glaring off of every building they passed. Looking about, he couldn’t find where the glow was coming from. The fact that he couldn’t locate the source made him distinctly uneasy, his discomfort increasing until he trembled with fear.

  23

  They arrived at the restaurant within the promised fifteen minutes. Lee had a suspicion that if he’d had a stopwatch it would have been fifteen on the dot—the driver was good. Ben paid the bill before Lee had the chance to, and they got out.

  The restaurant was in the ground floor of a stately brick building, that was around ten stories tall. Bright neon lights above the door spelled out the restaurant’s name, and more framed the windows. It had a very new-age feel, and as Lee held the door open for the others, he hoped that the food didn’t turn out to be some strange experimental crap.

  The inside of the restaurant was much more conservative than the outside. Indeed, the décor was almost plain, save for potted plants in almost every available piece of space not occupied by tables. The ceiling, walls and floor were all wooden, giving the place a green on brown color scheme. It reminded Lee of a forest.

  There was a crowd waiting in the entryway for tables, but it didn’t look like the wait would be quite as long as the 45 minute one they had expected. Lee went up to the hostess and put the group on the waiting list. The girls managed to find some space at one of the benches in the waiting area, and Lee and Ben stood next to them.

  After half an hour of idle chat, while the patrons in front of them were seated group by group, the hostess came up to them and said “If you guys want to come with me, we can seat you now.” They gladly went along, and were taken to a nice table in the middle of the restaurant.

  “Can I start you all of with something to drink?” the hostess asked when they were seated and she’d poured them water.

  “Ivy, do you want to split a bottle of red?” Stella asked.

  “Sure.”

  “We’ll get a bottle of red wine and two glasses for us,” Stella said to the waitress.

  “I’ll take a Nocturna Delirium,” Ben said, looking at the drink menu.

  Lee didn’t feel like drinking so he asked for a cranberry juice. The hostess nodded and walked off, saying “Your waitress will be right back with the drinks.”

  “Wow Ivy, you made an awesome pick on the restaurant!” Stella said as she looked over the menu. “Everything on here looks awesome.”

  “Speak for yourself, I thought I was fine with this place, but suddenly all I can think of is a good steak,” Ben said.

  “Oh shut up, there’s lots of stuff you can eat on here. Why don’t you try the vegetarian shepherd’s pie?” Stella said.

  “’Made with lambless lamb,’” Ben read from the menu. “Sure, that sounds natural.”

  “Meh, it doesn’t sound too awful,” Lee said optimistically. “I think I’m going to get that. I love regular shepherd’s pie, and if the ‘lambless lamb’ isn’t good I’ll just eat around it.”

  “You’re not helping me,” Ben grumbled. “We meat eaters need to stick together.”

  “I’m going to get the grilled tofu delight,” Stella said over Ben. “And we should get the stuffed shitake mushrooms for an appetizer, Ben. I know you like stuffed mushrooms, and they aren’t any different for vegetarians. What are you getting Ivy?’

  “I’m thinking the vegetable and mushroom wrap, it sounds good. I’m with you on those shitake mushrooms as an appetizer,” Ivyagreed. “Does that sound good to you, Lee?”

  “Sure.”

  “Crap,” Ben said, pulling a face. “I just noticed the twice baked potatoes, they actually look pretty decent. I’m not sure about the vegetarian bacon in them, though.”

  “You’ll be fine, take a walk on the wild side,” Stella teased.

  T
he waitress came back with their drinks. She uncorked the bottle of wine and poured some for Ivy and Stella into fine crystal wine glasses before taking their order. Lee made sure that they got two plates of the stuffed mushrooms, doubtful that one plate would be enough for the table. When she’d taken all their orders, the waitress thanked them and hurried off, plainly busy.

  “Well I’m excited,” Stella said after the waitress left. “I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favorite places so far.”

  “It had really good reviews from customers on Yelp, I couldn’t find a better rated vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan,” Ivy said.

  “Well I hope that the food is as good as the reviews said,” Ben said, his attitude with the restaurant having clearly improved after downing the first half of his beer.

  “It certainly smells good in here,” Lee said. The restaurant smelled like freshly-grilled vegetables and bread, hot from the oven.

  After about ten minutes the waitress returned to the table with two large plates of stuffed mushrooms and four small plates, one for each of them. She set them down delicately, warning them “Watch out for the mushrooms, they’re hot!”

  “Thanks, it looks great,” Lee said, but the waitress was already heading off to service other tables.

  “Wow, that was really fast,” Ivy said. “Hopefully we’ll have enough time to finish this before the food comes out.”

  “We will if we work quickly,” Ben said, piling stuffed mushrooms onto the plate the waitress had given him.

  Lee ate several of the mushrooms. They were very good, perhaps the best yet. As he finished his tenth mushroom he realized that he had to take a piss, and stood up to go find the bathroom. “Hurry sweetie, at this rate we’ll be done with the main course by the time you get back,” Ivy said.

  The bathrooms weren’t readily visible from the table, so Lee stopped a waiter near the rear of the restaurant and asked where the bathrooms were.

  “Through that door and down the hall,” the man said, pointing to a door fifteen feet away from them.

  “Thanks man.”

  “No problem,” the waiter said, and hurried off. All of the workers seemed to be almost running about; it was no wonder the service was so quick.