

He woke up with a start. The alarm was sounding its shrill and mechanical whine in a rhythmic repetition and his attempts to silent it were clumsy and unfruitful. He slid his legs out of bed in frustration and wiped the final whispers of dreams from the lenses of his eyes before picking up the small black box. He examined it carefully before finding the off button. 
This was a strange place. A place he had never been before. He arrived in darkness last night and didn't fully grasp how different this place was from his bedroom at home. 
Only now did the staleness of the hotel room sink in on him. The room was still almost completely dark. A streak of bright light burned through the middle of the room like a white hot laser cutting through the fog. He remembered closing the blackout curtains to get some peace from the blinking vacancy sign.
As he took in a deep breath the stench of the hotel room rang within him. It was painfully obvious for him that a thousand people shared the bed he now sought refuge in. A thousand people had laid their head on the same pillow, had twisted the same knobs, had sat on the same toilet seat.
The wretched efficiency of it all made his stomach churn with disgust. 
He thought for a minute and decided that it was hunger making the noise in his core, not disgust. The hunger was so severe it took a minute to distinguish it from sickness. His mouth filled with sour tasting saliva as he realized that it had been twenty four hours since food last touched his lips.
Though he was still fighting the sensations of a thousand people's ghosts writhing up against his skin, he threw on the same clothes he wore last night and headed down to the lobby for something to eat.
As efficient as the place seemed to be, with hardly an inch of space wasted, the location of the free breakfast was incredibly difficult to deduce.
After a minute of useless searching he gave up and headed for the front desk.
Excuse me, he said.
With her eyes still on the task at her fingertips the hostess asked, yes?
Where is the breakfast bar?
That way. She said with an nearly imperceptible flip of her forehead in a direction that could have meant either directly in front of her or directly behind her.
Could you point it out?
She let a sigh escape her lips and looked up to meet his gaze. That way, she repeated, but this time pointed with her thumb to a room behind where she was standing. 
The blueness of her eyes took him by surprise. He had never seen eyes so blue. He chuckle to himself wondering if they were so blue because of the ice in her heart. 
Thank you he said, and then adjourned to the best tasting toast he had eaten in ages.

