I arrived at my hostel in Rome after an interesting ordeal getting there but even though I was the first one in the room, I didn’t have the first choice for bunks. One bunk was reserved for a particular guest. (PS: I didn’t mind this)
She arrived moments later, slender and tall with long grey hair and a duffel bag. She appeared to be in her late thirties. I said hello, she smiled back and then we began to chat a little. She asked where I was from and what I was doing in Rome. I replied and then asked her the same.
‘I’m from Rome’ she said, and as if she had read my mind, she added ‘I don’t have a house here. I just move from hostel to hostel. This one is my favorite’
Hmm, interesting…
She began to unpack the contents of her bag unto the bed and I couldn’t help but notice the numerous rolls of thin wires. It seemed they were the only things inside the bag. I wasn’t bothered by this, in fact I didn’t think anything of it.
I didn’t think anything of it until she said ‘I don’t want you to be scared because of the wires’
‘Why would I be scared?’ I think to myself? Just as soon as I thought that, I began to see why I should indeed be scared!
What if the wires were meant for strangling people? What if she had some kind of arrangement with this hostel for an endless supply of tourist, you know, like Sweeney Todd and the Baker? Maybe that’s why this was her favorite hostel…
I did my best to hide my apprehension. ‘What are they for?’ I asked
‘I use them to make jewelries’
Was she a Jeweler like Sweeney Todd was a barber?
I might have changed hostels if I hadn’t been stranded, of course, now I realize that I could have. Anyway, I decided the next best thing to do was to keep awake all night in order to save guard my life. That plan turned out to be fruitless as I slept soundly until the next morning.
I awoke at 6 am to find her bed empty. She was gone and her wires too.
