I just cannot focus so this is a sneak peak, please do not judge it… I write like how I feel so if it is horrid blame the day not me. Just kidding you can blame me for it!
His face is riddled with the effects of a gnarly nightmare, I can see it in the way his lip curls down and his body shakes in fear.
I contemplate leaving him; I've woken Gale up from a nightmare or two. It's never a good wake up.
Gale used to jump up, thrashing around in the bed waving an invisible knife at me. He always felt bad and apologized. I can still feel the way his hands would massage my back in gentle circles and the way his finger would delicately trace out 'I love you' between my shoulder blades.
He never meant to scare me; he only wanted to protect me. It was the little things like walking on the side of the sidewalk closest to the street or following me to the bathroom in the middle of the night because he was afraid some bad guy was going to grab me in our bathroom. He was so afraid that one day I was just going to disappear like everyone else did.
Something gets me to tap Marvel; it's almost against my will as I lean over and give him a small shove on the arm. He doesn't wake up and I find myself hitting him again and again with more and more intensity each time.
"Marvel, Marvel wake up." I hiss. He starts awake, sitting up inhumanely quickly before he hops out of the jeep like nothing even happened.
I look at him quizzically but say nothing of it, Gale never liked talking about his nightmares and I doubt Marvel is any different.
"This where we're staying?" he moans sleepily as he stretches out, yawning as he looks up at me expectantly.
"Yeah, not much of a place to stay is it?" I joke trying to lighten the mood in my mind. He grins lopsidedly at me before grabbing the duffel out of the back of the jeep, tossing me my own small bag.
"It's an adventure princess, embrace it." he remarks snidely, dodging a small pebble I lob at him. I am no princess.
"Damn you Marvel." I groan, walking quickly across the cracked parking lot to catch up to him.
The musty air of the hotel lobby hits me like a train and I nearly gag on the stench of old mothballs and long overdue trash.
"God." I hear Marvel whisper under his breath as he looks around the dirty place. I'm pretty sure the place hasn't had a good deep clean in at least the past two decades.
"Who dere?" a man's scruffy voice calls out from a tiny 'office' in the back. Judging by the size I would say it was meant to be a janitorial closet.
He comes out and I wish I could reverse time, go back out and keep driving straight by this place altogether.
By the looks of it the older man is half drunk and high of some sort of drug. He's deathly skinny and his eyes are hollow like some sort of monster you see on Halloween. Instinctively I take a step behind Marvel forcing him in front of me.
"Hey—" he takes a moment to look at the name badge on the man's chest "Rick, we'd like a room, preferably a clean one with no bed bugs." he smirks sarcastically.
'Rick' doesn't get his humor and nods slightly, fumbling through a set of keys until he finds a nice one, handing it to us without any further words and loping back into his office.
"Doesn't he need our information or something?" I whisper to Marvel as soon as Rick is out of earshot.
"Just keep walking Katniss." he whispers back, dragging me along out of the lobby and past the elevator.
"That was the elevator" I hiss trying to drag him back to the hallway where the elevator sits vacant.
"Rule number one in sketchy hotels, never trust the elevators" Marvel rattles off taking me to the stairs. My night just keeps getting better and better: first a dump for a hotel and then walking up three flights of stairs. God help me.
We get to 3B and just as I expected dust covers every surface.
"Marvel, it's filthy" I hiss at him as if he's going to magically change the way everything looks.
"Suck it up princess, it's only for a night." he throws his bag down on the bed, his eyes widening as we both realize the same thing at the same time.
"Oh God." I whisper, my hand covering my mouth.
Ok, so I sat down to do this and I just wasn't feeling it. This is a longish sneak peek of the next chapter. I will make up for it I promise you that.
I am so sorry for the long delay; you know how I hate making you all wait. I've been so busy lately and I miss you guys!
So if you would be so kind as to leave a review… how are you? Tell me how you are doing AND which story you want me to update tomorrow…
Together We Stand
Or
Walk with Me.
As Always, Love to All,
Dedicated