Prologue/Chapter1. My useless life

------------- A page from a personal diary---------------

Author - unknown

Earthland, May 20, year – 1321 …

'In the horrible hour of the dark times… You will come! You'll lead the way, you'll light the passage! You are the last hope of this dying world…'

Chapter1. My useless life

Nowadays, somewhere on Earth

'Ann, hello! Can you hear me? Ann! Wake up Ann!!! Ann!!!' - Still half asleep I felt that somebody was shaking me by the shoulder.

'And a good morning to you too, Martha' - I mumbled while turning my head over towards the bucket.

'WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU THINKING FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE?' - Seems Martha was furious. – 'Sleeping in the workplace isn't such a good idea, you know that, right? Oh and look at yourself! How come you didn't manage to get home last night again?'

'Mmmphhh.' – I finally opened my eyes and saw my best friend Martha in all her glory. Vivid, tall, redheaded girl was standing above me. Martha was one of those people whom I could completely trust and rely on. Since I can remember myself we've been best friends forever and I hope it will always be like that too.

'Did you miss the last train and studied in this storage?' - She crouched down and started to gather my things.

'Yeah... I worked till the midnight.' – I took a deep breath and pulling myself together rose up and sat down on a cold, tiled floor. For a while we both were silent. My poor jacket which I used as my bedding was crumpled from every angle. Due to the fact that I've spent the rest of the night in this tiny room my head was aching and I was getting pins and needles all over my body. In addition to everything else some awfully familiar melody kept repeating in my head. I tried to remember anything from my dream but only felt dizzy and gave up.

Meanwhile Martha packed the last notebook in my backpack and looked at me: – 'But, Annabelle, this is the room for cleaning equipment!'

I felt ashamed and looked down: 'It's alright. Nobody uses it anyway.'

Martha lowered her voice: 'What about Aunty Mary? Does she know where you were?'

(For the record: Aunty Mary is an elegant lady in her mid-fifties. She is quite intelligent and sensitive person, whose behavior and a perfect sense of occasion always inspires confidence and respect. She told me that all members of her family had died as well as mine. That is why she brought me to her home from the orphanage and raised me as her own child. My Aunty is the only family I have in this world. I love her so much! I am really grateful to her for such state of things. Aunty says the past should remain in the past, in order to survive in this life you just have to keep moving forward no matter what. My wish is to repay for all her kindness to me. That is the main reason why I am working so hard these days.)

'Don't worry. Told her that I'll be at your place.'

Martha reproachfully looked at me: 'But you actually could come to my place. We are not strangers after all!'

By the time I wanted to apologize and give a reasonable explanation when I getting up from the floor accidentally had knocked standing by bunch of push brooms and they collapsed with a deafening bang. The stunning sound wave skirled the storage and then rushed further along the lobby of the Grand Hotel: 'Oh boy...'

'Gosh! Annabelle, you're such a troublemaker! Why didn't you call me instead and…' - She hasn't finished her speech as a familiar, sharp and piercing scream was heard from the corridor: 'ANNABELLE JONES!!! I assume this is all your doing!!!'

I am so dead right now… - My heart sank to my stomach. I rose up as quickly as I could. Mr. Wilson, the head manager of the Grand Hotel is a pretty nasty person with a high self-esteem, whose opinion is usually based on his arrogance and pedantry towards the entire community of life, calls out for me!!!

'Ohh No!? What do I do, Martha?' - I panicked: 'Why did he call out for me exactly?'

'Because you are the one who's a trouble-maker here.'

'Hey…..! By the way how did you find me here?'

'GPS location! Shhshh! He's coming. Calm down!'- She said quietly as the manager walked into the room.

'Good morning sir!' - We faked our smiles in unison.

'ANNABELLE! You should look directly into my face when I'm talking to you!' - Mr. Wilson was angry as usual. Reluctantly I raised my eyes, in a hope he hasn't noticed that I had spent here a whole night.

'What is going on here?' – He was examining me from toe to crown. I prepared myself for the biggest punishment of my life, when Mr. Wilson unexpectedly to everyone said:

'Do you know that The Grand Hotel has very strict rules towards the outfit of their staff?'

'Yes, sir, I understand… whaaat?!...'- Instantly, I've noticed that my shoes weren't mine at all! No way! Why I am wearing two different shoes?!

Mr. Wilson continued to criticize me: 'Your shoes! It must be black or white, no more and no less! Haven't you decided yet? Or maybe you're pretending to be a zebra? Why does it have different colors?'

'I'm so sorry, sir. It won't happen again, I promise you!' – My voice was shaking.

'It was the last warning for you, young lady, take this into consideration: such place as Grand Hotel doesn't need employees who can't even handle their shoes! Now go and change!' - as soon as he finished this sentence, a life-saving sound of breaking glass came out from the next room and Mr. Wilson immediately headed to investigate it.

'Yes, I am so sorry!' - I repeated to him once more. For a few moments or so, Martha and I were staring at each other with white faces, trembling, as we couldn't get over it. Then Martha first broke the silence: 'Phew… That was close. And he even didn't notice that it isn't your shift!'

I started to whine: 'And really what happened to my shoes? Why am I so absent-minded lately?'

'It is because you've overloaded yourself with the work, girl! You're still a high school student, remember that? You should take a break some time too.'

'Yeah … wait… studies… Professor Wright! Lecture! 9 a.m!. I'm gonna be late! I'm gonna go, Martha! See you!!!'

'Hey, I haven't finished talking to you yet! And, Ann! Just be careful out there!'

'Catch up with you later!' – I was in a real hurry and rushed to school.

On my way there different thoughts were crossing my mind:

'Undoubtedly, I can't remember what had happened to my shoes. Perhaps, it is someone's bad joke? And that stupid melody, which I keep hearing … ohhhh… Waah, what is going on with me? I am so tired… Maybe Martha is right and I should have some break from the part-time jobs. Or maybe everything is happening because of a long and cold winter? Well, the winter definitely has the first place in the list of things I dislike the most. Of course, what else to expect from life in a small, landlocked country where the annual amount of the bright days never exceeds 30. What do I do with the rest 335 gloomy days? And today is such a day. Monday, December 21. Judging by this morning the day will be complicated. Augh... And it is only 8.37 a.m…'

Oh well, let me introduce myself:

Name – Annabelle Jones, age -17 years old, family background - Aunty Mary is my guardian and the only my family, occupation – high school student of St. Patrick's gymnasium and a part-timer of the Grand Hotel, personal statement - the most ordinary, average and unremarkable person with brown-gold hair and blue eyes among the majority of human beings on the Earth. Bonus features: shy, fragile and clumsy. They say far from perfect I was destined to exist in permanent shadows of our society if it weren't for that peculiar incident that erupted in my life on December 21 – exactly in the day of the winter solstice.

So here begins my story...