Wings Of Despair - Book 2

Chapter 2

After a whole day of dealing with airports and a 15-hour flight, they finally arrived in the United States. Once they exited the California airport, they were unsure where to go. They trailed away from the busy building for 30 minutes until they were somewhat alone. Yuta summoned her wings, embraced Greg, and took off to find a place to stay. After a flight over bundles of trees in the dark, they found a small town ahead. They landed within its outskirts and made their way towards the town. They read the sign of the place 'Yxes Town'. Greg found it sceptical that every town they arrived at was named the same. He didn't question it however when Yuta followed a pathway towards a 10-levelled building. Once they entered the motel, they were met with a young adult sat at reception. Greg gulped, keeping his gaze towards his feet as Yuta approached the female.

"Welcome. How can I help you?" The female greeted Yuta with a monotone voice.

"Hi. I was wondering if there's any spare rooms for us to stay in?" Yuta questioned, as she gestured towards Greg and herself.

"Let me just check real quick." The young adult nodded, as she glanced towards the monitor and began clacking the keyboard aggressively with her long nails. "We have one room available, if you want that one?"

"Yes, please." Yuta answered as she began to draw her card out. "We'll only be here for a couple of weeks, at best."

"That's fine. If you do stay over the time you've paid, you'll be charged for the extra nights." The woman informed, before she glanced towards her monitor again, loudly chewing her gum.

After Yuta paid, she thanked the woman, taking the card and headed towards the elevator. Greg trailed along, his glance dragged along the mirrors around the small room. Yuta noticed Greg's dawdling, as she took in her casual attire she put on after her shower at Aki's place.

She wore a light blue top with lace on the hems, with a light grey jumper, a dark blue skirt with her sneakers. She had her hair in two small pig tails. Even if she loved her pig tails, she felt like she couldn't glance at her own reflection for too long. Once they arrived to level 8, Yuta walked down the hallway until she found room 10, hesitating to open the door – how the hell was she suppose to open it? Greg grabbed the card from Yuta's hand and placed it on top of the scanner, a small click echoing through the hall as the door opened.

This room was much smaller than the one they stayed at in New Zealand. It had a small kitchen beside the door to the right, with a lounge room right behind it. The bathroom was beside the kitchen with the bedroom on its left. Yuta and Greg placed their bags next to the couch, whilst letting Snab out from her shoulder bag. Snab hissed from the intrusion of its sleep before it slithered towards the couch, curling up and falling back asleep.

Greg noticed the two doors, he decided to explore them. The door with the lock was, of course, the bathroom. Greg then checked out the bedroom, it included one queen sized bed, with two bedside tables and a large window on its left.

"Aw what? There's no balcony." Yuta complained, as she drew the curtains back. "At least we have a nice view... kind of."

Their view was tall buildings, only a slither of sky made its way through the window.

"They probably don't want to deal with people falling over the railing." Greg assumed, before he relaxed and fell onto the bed, bouncing a bit.

Yuta hummed, before she threw off her shoes and crawled onto the bed as well. That was when she noticed the humidity and stuffiness of the room.

"It's so hot!" Yuta began to complain, as she hastily threw her jumper off. "Why is it so hot?! It was cold when we left."

"We're in the northern hemisphere." Greg began to explain, peaking Yuta's interest. "The earth is tilted slightly, we're closest to the sun at the moment whilst the lower half of the earth is the farthest from the sun. That's why it's hotter here and colder there."

Yuta nodded slowly, informing Greg that she didn't understand at all. He shook his head and removed his shoes and socks as well, scooting towards the pillows. Yuta got off the bed and turned up the fan to its highest, as she opened the window and returned to bed.

Yuta sighed. "Much better~."

Greg already felt the sweat stick to his dress pants, so he removed himself from the room and made his way towards his bags. He grabbed a pair of maroon shorts and quickly changed in the living room, stuffing his dress pants back into the bag whilst unbuttoning one of the top buttons of his shirt. He returned to the bedroom and belly flopped onto the bed, letting out a soft 'oomph' from the sudden impact on his chest.

"I feel like I could pass out at any moment." Greg squinted towards Yuta, as jet lag began to settle on the pair.

Yuta hummed, as she tried to find the most comfortable spot to sleep in. Greg started to creep towards Yuta, but she shoved him away, too hot to cuddle. Greg winced back but found her actions reasonable as he laid on his side, trying to fall asleep. He missed having someone cradle him. Yuta finally found a comfortable spot on her stomach, as the pair fell into a light slumber.

Over the night, Yuta kept tossing and turning, before she awoke in the middle of the night. She slightly shivered from the night cold before the heat returned. Yuta sighed and rubbed her face. She glanced towards Greg's distressed face, as she heard him mumble some disturbing sentences. This had been happening for over two weeks. Yuta knew Greg was having one too many nightmares. Some nights it sounded like Greg was being strangled or choked, whilst other nights would be small snippets of a conversation, before it returned to Greg whining and wincing. Yuta was glad he slept-talked, otherwise she would have assumed Greg was completely fine. Yuta will confront him soon, but now wasn't the time.

Her throat began to scream at her every time she swallowed, she slightly coughed from how dry it was. She placed her palm on top of Greg's bundle of hair, ruffling it before she got up. She emerged to the kitchen and grabbed a glass, filling it with water in a nearby sink before consuming it. She filled the cup once again before returning to the bedroom, placing the cup onto her bedside table, and crawled back on the bed.

Greg was now shivering, breathing heavily. Yuta scooted next to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, tucking him against herself as she began to hum. She did this every time she noticed Greg was in discomfort. It doesn't seem to work most of the time, but it made her feel better to try than to leave him suffering. However, she did feel bad that she couldn't help him properly. She wasn't a guardian; she wasn't sure what was best for Greg. Her humming concluded, as she buried her face into Greg's slightly oily hair and fell asleep to his hitched, uneven breathing.