Wow it's so exciting to start writing a new story. I hope it turns out well! This one is a little more… dark? I'm not sure, you tell me ;-) Here we go.

Chapter 1: Don't wait me up.

Saturday, 6:40 am.

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes, was a white roof with humidity stains in its corners, and a few black spots of God knows what. He was lying down, feeling like he had just finished sweating out a fever, because his forehead was cold and his body, tired. He finally took a glimpse down at himself, and then looked around: nothing seemed familiar; not the bed with beige sheets and flowered cover, or the white and bare dressing table, or the brown carpet. Sitting down, he passed both hands through his hair. No, this wasn't a hangover (he would have easily recognised it); it was something else, like his brain had been drained or… The closet; he fixated his eyes on the wooden door, and everything immediately flowed back to his mind.

But the hotel room was empty; there were no signs of her presence in there anymore, either in drawers, bathroom or closet, like she would have evaporated herself in the air. Perplex, he decided to walk out the door and face the dawn, only to find that the place where he had parked his car, was now empty. Then, he instinctively checked on his pockets: the keys weren't there, and neither his wallet. Cursing, he punched the room's door with a fist, wondering how could someone have dared to steal a master thieve.

(…)

Five days before: Monday, 10:50 pm.

There was a car repair shop on the other side of the avenue; it was closed at this hour, of course. In here, the parking lot of the hotel had only about four or five cars, and that was pretty much everything she could see from her spot: sitting in a step, right under the frame of the door. It was windy, but she never liked to stay inside the room for a very long while: it made her feel kind of trapped. The French fries were good, but she would have liked them to be a little more salty, or less cold. She heard a door being open, somewhere in the corridor, and a few moments later a couple passed walking in front of her, heading to the street. She stared at them until they got lost in the darkness.

Entering to her room, she closed the door behind her, and went straight to a corner of the room:

"Hey, Sugah, yah hungry?"; she let a fry fall inside the plastic container, where a small turtle hurried her way towards its dinner. She watched it eating and chewing for a few moments, and then threw the fries' package to the garbage container. The mirror in front of her reminded her that the good thing about being all alone, like this, was that she could wear shorts and no gloves, if she didn't want to, at least for a while. She sat down in Indian position on the unmade bed and found her purse under the sheets; white bangs covering half of her face, she started to count the money: five, ten, fifteen dollars: it was all she had, and it wouldn't be enough to pay for the room the next day. She closed her eyes and sighed: would she have to do it again?

She stood up, her bare feet feeling the fluffy carpet, and stretched her back and arms. Yes, it was time.

There weren't too many items hanging inside the closet; she grabbed a black mini skirt, a pair of black school-girl stockings, a red and tight turtleneck sweater and black gloves. When everything was on, she stared at her reflection in the mirror again: it wasn't herself anymore; she just had become this girl for a while. The only skin she left exposed were her face's, and a small part of her thighs that the skirt and the stockings left uncovered; yes, men liked that kind of outfits. Then, black eye shadow, mascara, red lipstick. She liked to put no colour on her cheeks, leaving them as pale as they were. With her purse on her hands, she turned towards the turtle:

"Don't wait me up, 'kay?". But then, she realized she hadn't decided the place to go. Clubs always worked, but it always took more time and more flirting, and she really wanted to go to sleep soon. She didn't want to look at herself in the mirror again before leaving the room.

It was even windier than a while ago; good thing that the mini skirt was tight. Walking down the sidewalk, she noticed how different the same street seemed at night; or maybe it was just her.

She walked about five or six blocks, finally reaching the spot she had used a few days ago: next to a park. She was glad to see that there were no other girls around, probably because it was Monday; maybe it was their day off. She wouldn't miss them, or their insults, anyway. She took a deep breathe, placed her hands on her hips, and waited. Cars were passing by very fast; the first time she did this, she could feel that people were staring at her from behind their windows, even though she wouldn't see them. By now, she had gained some kind of resistance to it, almost to the point of not really caring about it.

A blue car slowed down and stopped, right by her side.

"Expensive ride, dark windows, nobody around: guess it's mah lucky day" she thought, smiling falsely.

"Hi, Sugah".

This was a chubby middle aged man, who seemed to be short; he let out a creepy smile when fixated his gaze on her well covered breasts.

"How much?" he barked, licking his upper lip and moustache.

She had to go on with it; she was there already, she couldn't step back.

"We'll discuss that later; Ah assure yah Ah'll worth it".

The man doubted for a couple of seconds, but then took another glimpse at her, smiled, and opened the passengers' door.

She was in there now, there was no way out. There was nobody around, so she just had to do it, and fast. Smiling at him again, she started to take off one of her gloves, but then, it wasn't necessary: the guy, who was almost drooling, extended his right hand and placed it on the exposed part of her leg. She closed her eyes as he fainted.

Trying not to pay attention to her hard breathing, to the pain on her head, to the flashes and memories appearing on her mind, she pushed his body against the driver's door, and then took his wallet: 240 dollars; lucky day, after all. She put the money inside her purse, and jumped out of the car.

The way seemed to be longer that when she went through it, a few minutes ago; she crossed two or three people, but she didn't care, because she just wanted to get to her room and zip her brain until the next day. Her hills were hurting her feet so bad; she hated hills, and she hated that man. She hurried as mush as she could, forcing her legs to go as fast as possible, focusing her mind on them, instead of this guy's life: his dreams, wishes, and most private thoughts; they were all inside of her now.

When she finally got to her room, she let herself fall backwards on the bed, feeling tired, staring with empty eyes the white, stained roof.