Torment In Time

Chapter 1

December 24th, 2009

She looked out to the night sky and realized that she had never experienced weather quite like this in Georgia before. From the inside of the vehicle the hail sounded like gunfire, and her car was the target. The rain was pouring so fast that the window wipers seemed as though they were going to give in due to exhaustion, and so did she. It had been a long night and getting off the highway felt almost impossible at this point, but eventually through the fog she saw an exit.

She slipped off the highway and began looking for the nearest sign of civilization. Her eyes burned from tiredness and her stomach growled from hunger. The roads were dangerously icy and even though she wasn't thinking clearly about certain things she knew when it was time to call it a night. Finally she saw lights in the distance and she pulled over into what looked to be like a deserted gas station. From the moment she stepped out of her car the smell of urine hit her like a slap in the face. She paused taking in everything around her and then began walking to the entrance. As she approached she could hear the shuffling of some sort of animal in the dumpsters beside the gas station, presumably a rat and the squeaking of the rusty automatic door which was opening before her. The gas station was shockingly well lit inside, but in this case light was a disadvantage. She could tell from the coat of dust on the counter and shelves and the crust of dirt on the floor that either no one had been around here for a long time or who ever is just doesn't care about hygiene. She grabbed a few questionable looking energy bars and a bottle of water off the shelf and placed them on the counter. There was no one there.

"Hello, is anyone here" she said hoarsely and then began trying to clear her throat. There was no response. She called out again, but this time heard a faint noise. She leaned over the counter and to her surprise found a man lying on the floor below. The man was lying on his stomach with his arms outstretched, lightly snoring and drooling on the floor.

"Hey dude are you OK?" she shouted in his direction a little bit frustrated and jealous at the thought of him being able to sleep.

His eyes began opening slowly then closed again, he repeated this a couple more times trying to adjust his eyes to the bright lights. Eventually the man picked himself up off of the floor and stumbled slightly forwards. He quickly grabbed the edge of the counter and relied on this to keep him stable and looked at the woman standing in front of him. The woman was tall and slender, wearing a blue floral blouse and a pair of high waisted jeans which complemented her figure perfectly, but was a ridiculous choice of clothing for the weather they were having. Her long brunette hair was wet and tossed due to the wind and rain, and from his point of view she looked like the kind of woman to have a real natural beauty, but was hidden behind  too much makeup such as the mascara running down her cheeks.

"Oh sorry ma'am I just closed my eyes for a minute, didn't expect to see anyone around here especially this time of night" he said flabbergasted which confirmed how isolated the area really was.

The woman knew exactly why he was so tired as she smelled the pot coming from the backroom behind him, but decided to keep her nose out of his problems as she had more than enough of them herself.

"It's alright, i'm actually looking for a place to sleep tonight do you know if there's any motels around here?" she asked hoping that there was because she couldn't drive any longer.

"Eh yeah there's one about two miles down the road from here you cant miss it, but you can stay here if you want cause a pretty girl like you shouldn't be alone on Christmas Eve" he replied with a glare that never left her face.

She considered it for a minute, all the while knowing that she's not the type of girl who'd sleep with a total stranger out of revenge, no matter how much she wanted to get back at her boyfriend. She looked back at the man standing in front of her waiting for an answer. She looked him up and down from his checkered shirt with his badge pinned on it that read 'Brad Gibson employee" to his unshaven stubble, his eyes that were enveloped by dark circles and his dirty longish blonde hair that was gelled to perfection.

"Sorry Brad I can't i'm with someone, but thanks for the motel" she said hoping that he believed her when she told him that she was in a relationship, because at the moment she didn't. She watched his facial expression change to slight disappointment as she fought the grin off her own face. Having a man desire her was something she had not had in a long time, and it felt good. The woman then placed the money on the counter, grabbed the items and strutted confidently out of the store.

The rain was not easing up and she knew that she had to find the motel before the roads flooded. Her car was parked at the opposite end of the gas station and she wondered why it didn't occur to her to park her car closer to the entrance. There were no cars or people around for miles. apart from Brad's, but for some unknown reason she sensed that she was not alone. After sprinting to her car she tried to get it open, but her efforts seemed pointless as her keys were mangled in a heap of key-rings that she swore she'd get rid of the last time this had happened. Finally after what felt like hours rather than minutes the car unlocked and she climbed in. She started the car, revved the engine and floored the accelerator. The wheels spun wildly without any movement of the vehicle, then suddenly released as she tore out of her position and onto the main road heading in the direction of the motel.

The road was long, covered in potholes and the odd bit of roadkill. She tried to focus and stay alert. A cup of strong black coffee was exactly what she needed as the energy bars were futile presumably due to them being expired. This was not where she wanted to be. All she wanted was to be at home in Georgia again and have everything back to normal. She tried to repress thinking about her boyfriend James because it only made her feel exasperated. They had only been together for nearly five and a half months but she loved him more than anything. So finding other women's underwear hidden around their house and pictures of naked women was absolutely devastating. At first she didn't want to believe that he was cheating on her although it was obviously true no matter how much he denied it. Well no more, she had to get away from it all to think and driving always helped, but now she'd had enough for one day as she pulled into the motel parking lot.

Relief washed over her as she walked up to the reception desk of the motel. There sat an overweight terribly aged Hispanic women behind the desk with her legs up.

" I need a room for the night" she said desperately.

"Do you have a name and $120" the woman asked delighted to make some money.

"Yeah Alex Parker and you can't seriously be charging $120 for one night" Parker replied astonished by her ridiculous price.

"Well it is Christmas Eve and that bumps the price up, if you don't like it go someplace else" The woman said condescendingly knowing that Parker had no other options as there were no more motels for miles.

Parker placed the money on the desk and waited for the room key. The smell of sweat, smoke and alcohol emanated from the masculine appearing woman, but at this stage she didn't care all she wanted was a bed and that's exactly what Parker got and more in room 109.