Chapter 1:
Motel 66 was a trashy, run down place. There were prostitutes working in some of the rooms, while druggies were getting high in others. A rusty, old playground sat out back. It was sun scorched, and looked lonely sitting out there, abandoned and desolate in the setting sun. Reni looked at the swings and knew that there hadn’t been any children there since the place was top notch back in the twenties. With a sigh, she shouldered her bag, took her little brother’s hand, and walked into the building towards the office.
It had taken a long time before the clerk had allowed Reni to rent a room; even then she had to lie. She would have been lucky to get even the broom closet, without telling a fabrication of the truth. She had signed in under the false name of Reni Tylers, supposedly awaiting the arrival of her mother. It was true to a point; she was Reni and her brother’s name was Tyler. The part about their mother wasn’t completely true. They weren’t waiting for her; they were trying to find her.
“We almost there Reni?” Tyler lisped, once they had gotten to their room.
There wasn’t much in the room, a single bed and night stand with a lamp bolted to it, a table and four chairs, and in the corner an air conditioner rattled with a moan. They had passed the bathroom, which was outside in the hallway. It was the cheapest and most basic room she could afford, if she was actually going to pay for it, come morning. “Yea, we should be gettin’ close to the Break now. Don’t worry buddy, we’ll get her back, and then we can be a family again.”
Tyler was seven, and Reni was nearly fourteen. They were too young to be on their own, and Reni was too young to be taking care of herself, let alone a young child. Tyler hadn’t even started first grade when they began tracking their mother and searching for a way to get into the Break. Reni had had to teach Tyler how to read, write, and count as best she could with what little they had, while they traveled from motel to motel and camped out in abandoned warehouses when they couldn’t find a place to stay in. The day they had started, she was no more than twelve and had to drag a crying, screaming five year old along with her. In some ways she was more like his mother than a sister.
She placed her bag down on the bed, and took out the clothes they slept in. “Okay, buddy, I’ll be right back. I want you to stay put, bolt the door, and don’t let anyone in. You got it?” she directed.
He nodded and they changed into their other set of clothes. Tyler handed his jeans and T-shirt to his sister as she opened the door. The laundromat was outside the motel, in its own building; Reni was so tired; she didn’t want to be walking anymore.
Once their clothes were washed and the T-shirts were dry, she went back to the room. “Tyler, I’m back, open the door,” she knocked the secret code, that he had insisted on using. She was pleased to see, that when he opened the door, the chain was still in place.
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Reni looked around the dark room. Something had woken her up. Their jeans were drying on the table in the moonlight. The thin curtains were quivering in the warm breeze while a shadow crept across the floor. She slid out of bed, making sure not to wake her brother, and walked over to the side of the window.
Cautiously, she peeked at the opening from behind the curtains. When she saw that there was no immediate threat, she poked her head outside the window and looked around. Nothing. Reni had checked the window before she went to sleep, of that she was certain. The window had been nailed shut and she remembered asking herself why someone would nail a window closed. Looking around the room, she saw that there were no other windows. Had I imagined the window being nailed? Well, what’s done is done, she thought as she slammed it shut. This time she locked it and tested the window. It was secure.
She had a perfect view of the playground from here, and the neon sign that stood erect beside the slide. For the briefest of moments, Reni could have sworn that the sign was distinctly different. The glowing neon writing no longer said ‘Motel 66, Vacancy’, but ‘Motel 666, No vacancy’ in creepy, red writing that looked like dripping blood. Lying, on the writing was the side profile of a naked woman, who had a swirling devil’s tail, with a pitch fork in the corner.
When Reni blinked the sign was back to its original form, ‘Motel 66, Vacancy’ in glowing blue and green block letters. A horse was running atop the letters with a rope looping around the sign. There was a horse shoe in the corner. I’m just tired, Reni thought with a yawn. She walked to the bed and slipped under the covers. Nothing’s wrong, everything’s fine.
______
Her watch glowed in the dim light; it was nearly four-thirty in the morning. Time to go, she thought. Yawning, she shook her brother. “Come on Tyler, wake up,” he turned his back to her. “Whatever, you have five minutes.”
She got into her jeans and her old T-shirt. They only had room for two different sets of clothes in their one backpack, the ones they slept in and the ones they wore during the day. Quietly, Reni poked her head out the door and looked at the office, which was down the hall. It was an old sleazy motel; the manager worked the night shift because he couldn’t afford to pay his one day worker and his own salary, let alone the salary of another clerk. The clerk, who wouldn’t sell her the room earlier that night, was nowhere to be seen. She smiled when she saw that the manager was sound asleep. Perfect, she closed the door again.
“Come on Tyler it’s time to go, we have to go now!” She gave her brother a strong tap, which got him to his feet quickly, he knew the drill. “The manager is asleep, we can slip out, but then we have to run as fast as we can. We’re going west this time, remember, so we’re goin’ that way,” she pointed to his right.
Reni packed their bag as Tyler changed into his day clothes. She shivered, and warm, weightless fingers trailed down her spine. Turning around, she saw that the window was open again and the stiflingly hot breeze was mixing with the chilled, fake air of the AC. Tyler looked at the window then at his sister. “That was closed before, Reni.”
“I know,” she nodded. “Come on, let’s get out of here, before the manager wakes up, and makes us pay.”
They turned around, and there, standing by the side of the door, was a figure masked in shadows. The only thing that Reni could see was its glowing, turquoise eyes. They were iridescent and looking straight at them from a shroud of black mist. Tyler squeezed his sister’s hand. “I guess we’re here, Ty. We made it to the Break after all.”
