12. Motel Savior
1006 Words
The first thing Harley did was call her landlord. She broke her lease, saying that her mom was terminally ill and she had to move in to take care of her. While she didn’t like to lie—she was also not that good at it—she thought it was the lesser of two evils. She was being threatened by a demon to be turned into a slave. Her landlord surely would understand if he knew what she was going through.
The second thing she did was run through her house and gather every last thing she needed. Thankfully she didn’t have that many sentimental things. All she had that she couldn’t bare to part with was a gold tin that once held cigars. She’d been lugging the thing around since she was a toddler. It was the only thing she’d been allowed to have when she was with her family.
Clothes, money, food…she packed it all up in a small backpack. The furniture could be replaced and so could the dish ware. With her whole life on her back, she stood at her front door and looked once more at the home she was living.
It had never been that much. When she moved here, she had paved a future for herself. It was all falling apart around her. Her best friend and cousin had lied about her and had almost gotten her killed. And a demon wanted her soul. She could have never guessed that escaping the Hell that was her childhood would end up with her running into another sort of Hell.
She sighed and turned away, her eyes filling with tears. She had to go. She wasn’t safe here anymore.
Leaving her apartment was surreal. She tried to ignore the plummeting feeling in her stomach as she walked down the stairs for the last time. When she made it to the lobby, she glanced at the stairs with a deep sadness she didn’t know she’d held for this place. Each step of the way out the door felt like pulling a tooth. And she knew this wouldn’t be the end of the pain. Down the road, the pain would come back like an infection to the wound of the pulled tooth.
Even when the wound was healed, she remembered this place—it would be like she was missing something.
She made it out of the front doors. Every step she took it felt like her feet were dragging through quicksand. She found her beaten up little red car which had slowly turned into a dull orange over the years since it was manufactured. She threw what little belongings she was taking with her into the backseat and jumped into the driver’s seat.
She started the car. The smell of the old engine burned her nose for a second before the car warmed up. It lurched forward as she drove down the street toward the bank, but it soon found its rhythm. She pulled into the ATM and withdrew all the money she’d been saving for the past few years. It wasn’t a lot. However, it was enough to get her by for a few weeks hopefully. She would be in another state, one far away from here, by that time. Getting a job would be the hardest part, but she’d made it with less.
She’d been homeless and completely broke when she left her parent’s house. That had been the hardest challenge to get through in her life. If she could survive that, she could make it through this.
***
The long winding road seemed to go on endlessly. Night had fallen fast. She couldn’t go to sleep though. She was driving in the middle of nowhere with stretches of land going on forever. The last town she’d passed had been over an hour ago.
Her eyes slid close. The wheel slipped from her hand. The car went to the left. She jerked upright as she almost swerved off the road. Quickly, she righted the steering wheel and the car sharply turned straight again.
“Holy fuck.” She gasped as she stared wide-eyed at the road. The lines were starting to blur and she wondered if she would have to pull off to the side.
Her stomach twisted as she thought about sleeping in her car in the middle of nowhere. There was no telling who would stumble upon her. She’d seen enough horror movies to know she’d be prime pickings for any sick f**k looking to become the next big serial killer.
She didn’t have to make that decision though.
A few miles later when she thought she was going to actually pass out at the wheel this time, a neon sign came to her rescue. The large sign was for a motel in conjunction with a casino a few miles further out.
“Thank God,” she said. She ignored the way her chest ached when she said God. That hopefully didn’t have anything to do with the demon Silas.
She pushed the thought away as she pulled into the parking lot. The lights along the outside of the rooms were dull as if the lightbulbs hadn’t been changed since the building had been built. Which seemed like to be in the 80s.
Her car made it to the front of the building when it died.
“Are you serious?” She slammed her hand on the dash a couple times to let out her frustration.
The car made a pitiful path toward an empty spot where she finally stopped it and put it into park. She didn’t know if she should be thankful it had died in front of the motel and not on the highway. She was still pissed it had croaked in the first place.
After letting out her anger, she stepped out. The wind whistled and blew her hair back out of her face. She struggled to get into a pony tail as she walked toward the office marked by another neon sign.
- Writer
