Sanction

Escape

Narration: Alyssa

I gathered up my belongings into my backpack and headed out the front door. I couldn't stand living with him anymore, the verbal abuse, and his lack of responsibility. My boyfriend, well, ex boyfriend now I guess, he is Jake. We were high school sweethearts, perfect visually and romantically. We were even voted "most likely to get married" in the yearbook. Married, my ass. It all changed when college started up, even though we still saw each other nearly every day. It was too good to be true and these last few months have especially proved that. I began getting these "night thoughts" that it wasn't such a great idea living with him in the same household now. All of the things that I didn't realise earlier were put before me, and I couldn't easily escape them. Soon, those night thoughts carried over until the morning. And that is when I decided it was time. I'm lucky that I was able to slip out of bed without Jake noticing. I got into my car and sped off to the bank to get money out of an ATM. It was 3am.

What the hell am I doing? I don't have anywhere to go. That isn't going to stop me though. I'll sleep in my car if I have to. There was a corner market open still so I stocked up on junk food and water for my road trip off to nowhere.

I drove throughout the rest of the night, the morning, until the afternoon.

By about 10am the next day I was exhausted, and my car was nearing an empty tank. Great. At the last minute I pulled off the freeway and into this little town and parked at the first gas station I found. I got out of my car and sluggishly set the nozzle into the gas tank, leaning up against my car. I remembered I had a granola bar in my hoodie pocket, so I unwrapped it and took a big bite out of it.

"You on vacation?" A voice interrupted next to me that startled me into a standing position. I glanced wide-eyed, partly because I was stunned, partly because I didn't want to appear as fatigued, at the direction of the voice. A middle aged woman was leaning against her minivan just as I had been-before she spooked me.

"Uh, yeah, something like that," my feet shuffled under me nervously trying to think of any excuse. "Going on a road trip. How did you guess?"

"Out of state plates." She pointed to my back bumper. Oh shit, I hadn't realised I ventured out of Nevada. "California is beautiful, I'm sure you'll love it."

I forced a smile. "Thanks, hey can you give me a few pointers to a place to eat and rest?" I desperately needed a real bed before I pass out and crash, and some decent food.

"There is a Holiday Inn not far from here actually, take that road down there and make the first left. There's also a string of restaurants just across the street from it. You look like you've been driving all night!"

"I have," the smile left my face. My excuse was starting to fail, and I could tell she picked up on it. "Thank you."

"No problem sweetheart, maybe I'll run into you again if you plan on stickin' around." I didn't plan on that at all. I can't stay in a small town where people can find me. She smiled once more, then turned to pay for her gas, and drove off.

When I was finished I got back in my car and pulled out my phone, which I haven't checked since the day before. There were several messages loading, and I saw one pop up from Jake. Make that three. Including a few missed calls. I rolled my eyes and threw it onto the passenger seat. One good thing about using cash is it can't be traced like my Debit card can. I hope it can last me long enough to get me to a safe spot.

I pulled into a parking space into the nearly empty lot of the hotel. This town is very small, more of a "passing through" area. I can't imagine anyone actually living here. I popped the trunk, grabbed my makeshift luggage I threw together last minute, and trudged up to the hotel.

There was nobody at the front desk. Or any desk, actually. Anywhere. A tiny bell sat on the desk. I dinged it and waited a few minutes, still nothing. "Oooook" I exhaled. Just as I was picking up my backpack to leave, a short, lanky man stepped up behind the desk.

"Checking in?" His voice was high pitched and he had a strange expression on his face, as if he was surprised that somebody would be checking in.

"Uh, yes please. Just for one night."

No more words were spoken, I was handed a single room key. I walked down a deep hallway and set my bags up to the assigned room. Nothing elaborate, it was generic, but all I cared about was laying down on an actual bed and falling fast asleep. In all of my clothes, I fell onto it on my stomach, and didn't wake up until the next morning.

The next thing I remember is a faint knock on the door. "Housekeeping?"

I immediately sprung onto my feet and pranced to the door. "Uh, not today, thank you." I didn't really want to see anyone, or have anyone see me. On my way back to the bed I passed by the mirror and glanced at my reflection. I looked like hell. Scrounging through my bag, I pulled out my makeup and a new set of clothes. I pulled on an old baggy Metallica shirt I got years ago, and some black skinnies. My hands were so shaky it was nearly impossible to put on my makeup. "That'll do I guess." I put all my stuff back in my bag, picked it up and headed out to the lobby.

There was a new person behind the counter, a lady this time. "Checking out?" She questioned.

"Yes." I fidgeted with my wallet and pulled out the amount on the bill.

That was that, I walked out to my car, put my bag in the passenger seat and pulled out of the nearly empty parking lot.

"I don't know where the hell I'm going." I whispered to myself. It was great to get a good nights rest after driving so much. Here I am again, driving off to nowhere. I don't even care or want to know what is going on back at home. I happily left it behind me. Pantera came on the radio, followed by Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. This calmed me down a bit, enough to forget about what was going on until I reached a fork in the road.

The sign pointed to Los Angeles. I've always wanted to visit here, what a strange way to knock this off my bucket list. Without a second to think, I turned onto the road and sure enough was on my way to a big city. "Nobody would be able to find me here." What a relief.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well there's something, working on the next few chapters. I hope it's going ok so far!