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I surveyed the small room, noting with glee the single bed on the plush carpeting. I wasn’t ready to face my parents yet. I didn’t think I would ever be ready. The room was simple: a desk, leather chair, mini-fridge, microwave, and a bathroom. The plainness of the room did not deter me as it would’ve my parents. I much preferred this lightly furnished room than the elaborate designs back at the resort.

This hotel, I knew, was part of a chain owned by my dear parents. I hadn’t been to this specific one, but I had been to one similar.

Daddy called this his “dump”. The employees were his “dumpers”, and the guests were the “garbage”. My dad was a very eloquent man, mind you.

Throwing myself onto the quilted bed, I allowed my mind to think over everything that had happened. Those thoughts only brought tiny pinpricks of terror, all surrounding six certain men. What happened to them? I had jumped to the conclusion that they wanted nothing to do with me, but what if I was wrong? What if they had been hurt? Or died?

What if they were still trapped beneath the resort?

If that was the case, then that would make me a shitty friend. Friends don’t let friends get trapped beneath resorts. Wasn’t that common sense?

Groaning, I pulled at my greasy hair in anger and frustration.

I didn’t want to think about the guys. Either option was not pleasant. I would much prefer the guys to have decided that they hated me than for them to still be trapped. I would have even preferred for them to decide that Elena would be better suited as their sister that wasn’t a sister instead of me.

Anything was better than the alternative.

Muffling my scream with a pillow, I emptied my mind. It was easier that way.

I didn’t want to feel the pain.

I did, however, want to feel the water from a shower. How to get there...?

* * *

“Fucking shit.Damn dick sucking bitch. Fuck.”

Trying to move in a wheelchair is difficult to say the least. Trying to move in a wheelchair in the middle of the night is damn near impossible.

After many new bruises and curse words - and one near death experience involving a pool - I made my way to the back of the hotel.

I hadn’t had a direction in mind when I began my aimless wander. I just wanted to get out. Out of the room, out of my head, out of my life. Somehow, my feet (wheels) found themselves at the back lot of the hotel, next to an abandoned basketball court and a play-set.

It was creepy back here so late. The crescent moon provided very little light. But the air was refreshing, and the pungent smell of lilacs made me sigh in relief. Anything, and I meant anything, was better than staying in the stuffy confines of that room.

That was, of course, until a twig snapped in the distance.

I froze, hands clenched over top of my wheels. I may have been a speed demon, but damn it, there were too many walls for me not to hit at least one of them if I had to escape.

Now, you might think that it was completely idiotic to go outside when there was a mysterious virus or drug or whatever. In my defense, I hadn’t expected anything to be inside the gates of the hotel.

And, to be completely honest, I never really planned through my decisions until after I was dealing with the consequences. It’s only then that I would look back and realize that I had messed the fuck up.

Healthy, I know.

Slowly, as to not to alert whoever was here with me that I was retreating, I wheeled myself backwards. Of course, an ear-splitting squeak erupted from the chair.

Of course.

Because things couldn’t just go smoothly for once, could it? Get it? Smoothly? Because of the chair...oh, never mind.

Maybe whoever was here, whoever was lurking in the shadows of the swing-set, wouldn’t see me. Maybe I could escape back through the door unnoticed.

Just as I thought this, a small figure hurled at me, hissing.

I squeaked, a decidedly pathetic attempt at a scream if I wanted someone to hear me, and used my arms as a protective shield for my face.

The fur ball jumped onto my lap and-