(This is actually a mash up from two dreams I had. So sorry if things seems weird, but I try to fill in the gaps. Enjoy!)

It was a calm day. Even though the sky was dark, we kept it bright inside the motel. My father was fixing some air conditioning boxes at the roof, while me and my mother were serving coffee in the lobby. It wasn't a big motel, but it was enough for the economy to go around. My mother was walking around, pouring coffee to our guests. She passed Mrs. Stone on the way, she knew I liked to pour her the coffee and have a small chat with her. The old couple Mr. and Mrs. Stone basically lived here. Every third week they were here. They lived outside the town, so they thought the motel was a great way to experience the city, instead of driving an hour back and forth from their home. Mr. Stone and my father had a close relationship. Mr. Stone was a very close friend and colleague of my grandfather. Unfortunately, he passed away seven years ago, two years after my grandmother went away. It was a tough time for my father, but my mother kept him happy and spirited. My mother's parents passed away before I was born, so I've only seen pictures of them. These days things were calm, nothing special happened in our town. It was nothing special with our town either, except we were known to have a lot of dark clouds and rainy days. It was so rare with sun here, that people were allowed to take the day off if the sun rose. No one could explain why it was like that, but we who lived here wasn't bothered, and those who were, they moved.

I walked over to Mrs. Stone. She was knitting and watching the news. "Would you like some more coffee?" I asked. She turned to me with a smile.

"Yes dear, that would be nice." I leaned over and poured the coffee into her cup. "Where is your father?" She asked me.

"He's at the roof, fixing the air conditioning." I stopped pouring and straightened up.

"Ah, then I guess that's where my husband is too." She chuckled. "I remember when he and your grandfather used to raise buildings together, they were quite the team. Howard still speaks highly of your grandfather, my dear." I just looked at her knit. There was something peaceful about her tiny and wrinkly hands working away.

"I remember that time my father spilled the paint bucket and both Mr. Stone and grandpa was covered in white paint." I laughed. Mrs. Stone laughed with me.

"Ah yes, those were good times. It's a shame he passed away so early, even for your grandmother. She was such a talented lady, you remind me a lot of her."

"Really? How so?"

"Well, you have similarity in your facial features, and the way you keep your head high all the time, and of course of how determined you are. Yes, your grandmother was quite determined. Many times, she proved us wrong. She was a smart lady too, which I can see in you too. You are quite alike." She looked up at me from her chair and smiled. I smiled back.

"Thank you, Mrs. Stone, that's very kind of you." she looked down at her knitting again and kept working with it. I turned around and walked over to some other guests to fill their coffee cups.

"Olivia, can you brew some more coffee dear?" My mother asked. I nodded and walked over to the reception. I changed the coffee filter and put in some coffee ground. I turned the machine on and let it work its magic. The phone rang and I looked at my mother. She gave me a thumbs up and I picked the phone up.

"Hello! You've reached Sunlight Motel, what can I help you with?" I said with a cheery voice. I usually didn't sound like that, but when I was serving customers, I turned into some other person.

"Hi, this is Samantha Clearance calling, I would like to reserve a room for me and my husband from October 11th to 17th." The woman said.

"Yes, give me a second so I can see if we have any rooms left." This was standard for us to say, so it would sound like a busier motel than it actually was. I opened some files on the computer and found the dates. "Let's see here, we have two rooms available, one on first floor and one on second floor. They are both exactly the same, except the one on second floor has a balcony." I said.

"Hmm, does the second floor one has a view?" She asked.

I had to think for a moment. "Yes, it has a view to a small lake we have here in the park next to the motel." I answered.

"That's great, then we'll take that one."

"Okay, then I only need your contact information. If you're going to cancel the reservation, you must do so three days in advance, so that'll be eight of October." I informed her. She agreed and gave me all the info I needed. Once everything was put into the data, I could send her a reservation email with all the info she needed. "Thank you and have a nice day." I ended the call and my mother walked over to me.

"Nicely done, I think you're getting really good at that." My mother smiled.

"Mom, please, I've done it a thousand times, I'm not under training anymore." I chuckled. She laughed back.

"I know, but I'm your mother, and to me you'll always be my baby." She laughed some more. I shook my head with a smile and saw that the freshly brewed coffee was ready.

"Well, I guess I can live with that." I chuckled. My mother smiled to me.

"Olivia, turn up the volume!" Mrs. Stoned said. I found the remote and turned up the volume. There was a warning on the local NewsChannel.

"This is a warning to all residents in town, get inside your home, lock all doors and seal all windows. We are currently under some mob attack. According to information we've received they took over the police first. They are not carrying any guns, but are to be considered dangerous. We don't know how many they are, all we know is lock yourself inside your home and don't open to anyone." The news anchor suddenly looks up, we can hear rumbling and yelling in the background. "Run! Hide!" The camera goes dark and it's complete silence. I look at mom.

"Everyone go to your room, lock the door and don't open to anyone!" Mom yells. Our guests start running around, trying to frantically get to their room. "Olivia, help Mrs. Stone to her room, I'll find your father." She said and ran outside. I ran over to Mrs. Stone and helped her up.

"Come Mrs. Stone, we have to get you to your room." I said and I pulled her out of her chair.

"What of my husband?" She asked.

"Mom will get him, just please follow me." I said. We walked as fast as her legs could go. Luckily, she had her room in the first floor, so we didn't have to climb any stairs. We got to their room and she found her room key. She unlocked the door and I helped her to her bed. "Now stay here please." Just as I was to leave I noticed red lights outside. I walked over to the window and saw a building on fire. I closed the curtains and ran out of the room. I ran outside and up to the roof. "Mom!" I yelled out.

"Olivia! Get to your room, we'll get Mr. Stone to his room. Hide! Don't come out, we'll be with you shortly." She yelled back. I didn't want to leave them, but I knew they would be fine. I ran down and into the motel again. I ran up the stairs all the way to the top floor and into my room. I locked the door behind me and tried to catch my breath. I saw the red light again outside. I walked over to the window and saw another building on fire. My heart was pounding. I saw people running in the streets, being chased. I saw people lay on the ground, with blood beneath them. I couldn't understand how something like this could happen in this small town. Suddenly I saw a group of people walk towards the motel. I gulped and remembered my family. I stood still, just staring at them coming closer. I didn't know what to do, my family was probably still out there. And then I remembered the master key. The key to unlock all the rooms. If they got a hold of it, then people hiding in their rooms would be pointless. I walked a bit back and forth, convincing myself to get the key.

I ran out of the room and downstairs. As I came to the first floor I saw Mr. Stone, my mother and father on their knees in the lobby. I stopped and hid behind the corner of the stairs. I peeked and looked at them. There were seven people surrounding them.

"Where is the master key?" A man asked. He was wearing a black hoodie and was carrying a big knife. None of the people were wearing masks or covering their face. I still couldn't recognise any of them. The man slapped my father in the face. A man behind him pulled his head back so he looked at the man with the knife. My heart was pumping. "Where is the master key?" He asked again.

"There is no master key, I don't know what you're talking about." My father was stalling.

The man grabbed my mother by the hair and pulled her in front of my father. She screamed in pain. I wanted to run to them, but I couldn't. "Let's try this, if you don't tell me where the key is, I'll slit her throat in front of you." He threatened.

"No! Stop! What do you want with the key?" My father asked frantically.

"We need some new recruits and a motel is a nice place to look. More people here to pick from. We've already been at the schools that's here, but too many of them are scared. We can't have that." He chuckled.

"What did you do to them?" He asked.

"We killed them of course." The guys laughed. I felt my stomach twist. "So, I'll ask one last time, or this lady is dead." It was complete silence. It felt like the time stopped. The man placed the knife by her throat and my mom squealed. "It's dripping." He warned my father.

"Ok! It's in the reception, but I don't know where, my daughter used it last time." He said. He pushed my mother to the floor and my father threw himself on her, to comfort her.

"Check the reception." The man commanded. Three men went to the reception and started to scramble the whole place apart. I just looked at my parents with tears in my eyes. Suddenly my mother noticed me and her eyes widened. The signed me to run, but I couldn't. I was too worried, too scared. Suddenly I see Mrs. Stone slowly walking towards them, no one had noticed her yet.

"Mrs. Stone, no." I whispered, but she couldn't hear me. As they were busy with the reception I snuck around the corner on all four and crawled towards her. I was behind one of the sofas there as suddenly Mrs. Stone stopped right next to the sofa I hid behind.

"Howard?" She asked worried. I held a hand in front of my mouth. She stood still.

"What the?" A man gasped. I heard footsteps come closer. I tried to stay as close to the sofa as I could. They grabbed Mrs. Stone, she dropped her purse and pulled her to the others. "Kill her, she's of no use." I heard Mrs. Stone scream and a thump. I heard Mr. Stone cry out. "Him too." Suddenly silence. I felt tears ran down my cheek. "Found the key yet?"

"No, there's nothing here."

"Too bad, I was hoping we could keep the lady." I heard my mother scream and then some kind of choking. I placed my head on the floor to peek under the sofa. I was about to scream when I saw my mother laying on the floor with her throat cut. She was choking on her own blood with my father crying over her. "Now, where is the fucking key?" The man yelled. My father didn't answer, he was too broken. I suddenly notice a key by the opening of Mrs. Stone's purse. I notice it's the master key. I couldn't understand how Mrs. Stone had the master key. I had to grab it. I crawled a little closer and held an eye on the men standing around my father. I reached carefully forward and grabbed the key. As I pulled it out it made a small sound and I had to quickly let it go and retrieve my hand. I looked underneath the sofa. It didn't seem like they heard me. I reached forward again and finally got the key. "He's not going to talk, kill him and let's find his daughter." They grabbed my father's head and pulled him up.

"No! You'll never find her! And you'll never find the key!" My father yelled. He tried to fight back. I saw him punch his way through, but it didn't take long until they held him down and quickly cut his throat. I turned around and held in front of my mouth. I had to scream, my body was cramping up, sadness filled my body.

"Alright guys, we need to spread out and find the girl. Someone look through the reception again, maybe some info on their computer." I had to get away before they started to spread out. I crawled towards the stairs quickly. As I was closing in on the stairs I knocked over a vase by a table. They all turned around and stared at me. I jumped up and ran towards the stairs. "Get her!" The man with the knife yelled. I ran as fast as I could up the stairs. As I reached the top floor I ran into my room and locked the door behind me. I scanned the room for a place to hide. I went straight for the window. Right below the window was a very small balcony. There was no door to it, so no one would really check under the window outside. I opened the window and climbed outside. I almost closed the window fully so I wouldn't be locked outside. I sat down and pinned myself to the wall.

I heard my door being slammed on. They were trying to breach the door. I heard the door broke down and they were inside the room. "Find her." A guy said. I heard they walked around, passing the window multiple times.

I heard they left the room. I waited another minute to make sure they were gone. I peeked up and looked through the window. I breathed out and opened the window. I climbed inside and snuck towards the broken door. I peeked out. I was grabbed by my hair and pulled to the side. I screamed and tried to kick. A man let go of my hair and grabbed my arms, while another guy grabbed my legs. I kicked and yelled, but they carried me down to the reception. "We found her!" The guy holding my arms said. I fought as hard as I could until they just let go of me and I landed on my back on the floor. They had let me go a couple of meters away from my parents. I looked at them and I couldn't hold back my tears. They ran down my cheeks. I placed a hand in front of my mouth.

"So, you're their daughter." The man with the knife smiled. I looked at him, felt anger, but I couldn't show it, I was too mournful. "You're young, how old are you?" The men were kind of spread out around me, but they were all staring at me. The man kneeled down and grabbed my chin. He forced me to look at him. "Answer me sweetie."

I just stared at him. I could see in his dark brown eyes he knew he had full control of everything. "It's the key you want." I lightly barked at him. The man smirked.

"You have bigger balls than your parents, I admire that, but being tough now isn't going to save you. So why don't you be a good girl and tell me your age." He held more tightly on my chin and pulled me a little closer. "Now."

I knew I wouldn't get out of this. Perhaps if a played along, they would be gentler with me. "I'm 26." I whispered. The man seemed pleased.

"That wasn't so hard." He let go of my chin. "And such a perfect age. Tell me, do you believe in God?" He asked. I was taken by surprise. Why would he ask me that? I noticed the other men around us started to scatter and leave the lobby.

I gulped. "No." I answered. I didn't know if it was the right one, but it was the truth. My mother and father were religious, always thanking God for letting them have this motel, but I never believed in him, and my family respected that.

The man smirked even more. "What if I held this knife against your throat, telling you you're going to die." He placed the knife against my throat and I could feel it go inside my skin.

"It wouldn't change a thing. God won't save me, the only thing that's going to change it is you." I answered quickly. He removed the knife. I placed a hand on my throat and felt my blood. I looked at him, wondering what he wanted.

"You're a clever girl too, I like that very much. Now, before anything else, where is the key?" He asked. I felt the key in my back pocket.

"How should I know, I have nothing to do with this motel." He quickly slapped me. A burning sensation spread on my left cheek.

"Don't be fucking stupid, we know you work here. Now tell me where the key is."

"Why would I give you the key? You'll just kill them all."

"This isn't about killing, it's about finding the right one. Now, hand me the key before you make me regret hurting you."

We just looked at each other. I reached into my back pocket and handed him the key. He smiled, leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "Good girl." He whispered. I felt a shiver down my spine. He stood up. "I got the key, search the whole motel." He threw the key to another guy and they all disappeared. He held his hand to me. I grabbed it and he helped me up. "Now let's find out what your role is going to be." He smirked. I was confused, role? He grabbed my arm and placed the knife against my skin.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Stand still, or I'll get a bigger bite than I should." My eyes widened and before I could react he cut off a small piece of my flesh. I screamed in pain and fell to my knees. Blood ran down my arm and made a small pool on the ground. The man was just staring at the piece of flesh. It was so painful. "Hmm, interesting." He found a small scarf in his back pocket and handed it to me. I couldn't grab it, I was too focused on my open wound. He sighed, bent down and tightened it around my wound. He placed the piece of flesh in a small pouch. I was staring at my arm. The scarf turned red. The man grabbed me and forced me to stand up. "I'll take this one to the transporter, you guys continue the search." The man said to the guys looking through the reception.

He pulled me with him out of the motel. I tried to fight back, but when I resisted he grabbed over my wound. "I rather not hurt you." He said, squeezing my wound. My body bent down in pain, but he kept dragging me up. We walked towards a small truck. As he opened the back doors, there were a couple of young people sitting inside. They were all crying. "Go inside." He commanded. I turned to him.

"Please, let me just stay outside, I'm feeling very lightheaded." I asked him nicely. I tried to show him that I only wanted to breathe some fresh air. He stared at me. We just looked at each other for a moment before he closed the doors to the truck. I breathed out in relief. "Thank you." I sat down at the ground, closing my eyes and just breathing slowly.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." He walked away. I knew I could run, but I was too light headed to stand up.

A tall man walked over to me. We got eye contact right away and I couldn't help to notice his dark brown eyes. He kneeled down in front of me. "Everything will be okay." He said and held his hand out. "Give me your arm." I held out my arm and he took off the scarf around my wound. It stung as he took it off. He found some bandage in his pocket and carefully wrapped it around my arm. "This should keep it better." For some reason it became total silence around me, it was like I had lost my hearing. The man moved his eyes from my wound, up my arm and to meet my eyes.

"Thank you." I whispered. He gave me a small smile before letting me go. He stood up and looked down at me.

"Stay strong, we'll meet again." He said before turning around and walked away. I looked at him until he was out of sight. When I couldn't see him anymore all the sounds around me slowly came back. I looked at my arm and I noticed I didn't feel as much pain as I did before. I was confused, but for some reason I felt better.

Around the corner of the truck came the man who had dragged me here. He seemed pleased with seeing me still sit here. "It's time to leave, get in the truck." He said and opened the doors. I stood up and crawled inside. After me came four more young people. They closed the doors and everything became dark. The engine of the truck started and the truck moved. One of the people inside lit a lighter. I recognised his face.

"John?" I asked. His eyes met mine. He was just as surprised as me.

"Olivia?" He whispered. I nodded and he crawled over to me. We stared at each other before he hugged me tightly. I felt tears form in my eyes as I heard him sob.

He let go of me and he was wiping his tears. "I don't understand what's going on. They suddenly came running into the shop, killed my father and took me with them. Who are they?" He sounded as confused as I was. He lit his lighter again.

"They killed my parents too, and I even think they killed everyone at the motel." I whispered with a lump in my throat. "I've never heard of anything like this before, I don't understand what they want."

"They said something about recruiting, but for what I don't know." He said and sat down next to me. From the light of his lighter I could see tear filled faces. "I saw them kill Robbie when they pulled me to this truck."

"Robbie? The eight year old orphan?" I asked surprised. John nodded slowly. "He never hurt a fly. How could they?" I remember Robbie used to deliver the local newspaper to all residents in our tiny city. My mother would always invite him inside to get something to eat and drink. Mom and dad had long spoken about adopting him, but they didn't have the financial support to do it.

"Where do you think they're taking us? And what do you think they'll do?" John asked.

"I don't know." I said. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. "All I know is that we have to stay strong." I whispered.

"Promise not to leave me, Olivia." John whispered under his breath.

"I promise I'll do my very best." He placed his head on my shoulder and breathed slowly. His lighter was no longer lit and all I could hear was the crying of the people around me and the truck moving.