Alone
--closed thread for @ofbeatrizflores --
The hospital and its ground weren’t small by any means. The buildings were quite large and there was still more room yet to be filled by other survivors who may yet find this safe haven. Despite all of that space waiting to be filled, there were times when it was impossible to be alone.
Seth supposed there was a benefit to this. No one would have to face the terrors of this world alone here at Crescent Hospital. But there were times, like this moment, when Seth would give anything just to be alone; even though being completely alone utterly terrified him.
Being alone forced him to confront the things he had done and the things he regretted. All those times when he would’ve, could’ve, should’ve done something different. All those regrets had driven him to the bottle in the days before Crescent Hospital and if he hadn’t been found and brought here, those regrets probably would’ve killed him too. But facing those regrets kept him humble, or so he thought. Or, and this might be the more accurate reason, it was a way of punishing himself for surviving.
But today, he wasn’t going to get a chance to self-punish himself because when he thought he was alone, someone else was already there.
“Ah, Beatriz,” he said. “I didn’t realise you were using this room.” This room being one of the many empty rooms that used to house the hospital’s in-patients. He tried to give her a smile but it felt fake for him to wear it so he discarded it nearly as quickly as it had appeared. “My mistake. I’ll leave you alone now.”