Hotel Le Grand

ii

"I can't feel my legs."

"Violet, stop whining."

"But they hurt." Violet groaned, slumping back in her seat. I lifted my head off Levi's shoulder to look at her, "I thought you couldn't feel them."

"Temperance..." Violet warned.

"What? Aren't I ri- OW!" Violet had suddenly reached forwards from the back seat to smack me upside the head. The impact stung, but not as much as me hitting my face on Jared'a shoulder blade beside me. "That's it, you little-" Quickly unbuckling myself, I turned and launched over the seat, grabbing ahold of Violet's naturally bleached blonde hair.

She shrieked, flailing about while Jared and Levi attempted to tear us apart from the middle seats. "BABE, NO!"

"Violet, let go!" Jared yelped, reaching back as far as he could and trying to grasp Violet's shirt.

"Girls! Stop!" Faye screamed loudly, trying to keep her eyes on the road. Beside me, Kayla cowered trying to avoid getting hurt in the midst of the war.

"Stop hitting!"

"You started it!"

"Let go of my hair, Temperance!"

"No!"

The car suddenly swerved to the right and jerked to a violent halt, throwing me off Violet and onto the floor. "GIRLS, WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?" Faye yelled.

"Um," I murmured, climbing back up from the ground. "Girls?"

"I don't need your sass, Temp."

Instead of saying anything else, I nodded and climbed back over the seat, buckling myself again and smiling innocently. Faye glared at us from the drivers seat before turning and getting back on the road. I took out my phone and texted Violet:

This isn't over.

Before I turned my phone back off and leaned against Levi who was staring out the window.

* * *

I fell asleep a little after the text and woke up to Levi shaking my shoulder, "What do you want for lunch?"

Groaning, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sat up, "What time is it?"

"A little after twelve. So your choices are Taco Bell, Zaxby's, and McDonalds."

"Ew. Is there a Subway around?"

"If there was, don't you think I would've mentioned it?"

I shrugged, "I dunno. Maybe you're just mean like that."

Levi rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand, tugging me out of the van and onto the parking lot of the Taco Bell. "I guess we're having Taco Bell then, cause that's where Faye parked."

Nodding, I started to head inside when suddenly a car came out of nowhere, rounding the turn much, much faster than I'd anticipated. My eyes widened and the world seemed to slow around me, but the car alone, seemed to speed up.

"Temperance!" Hands suddenly wrapped around my waist and yanked me to the asphalt; out of the path of the car. I looked up, shocked, and expected to see an alarmed driver looking at us, but that's not what I saw.

The driver looked at me, and smiled. A fear-inducing, evil-riddled smile. That's not what scared me, though. What scared me was that for a split second, I thought I saw his eyes turn gray.

"Oh my god, Tempie. Are you okay? Temp?" Levi was shaking my shoulder, glancing me over in worry. "Temperance!?"

I shook my head and ran a hand through my hair, "Um. Yeah, I'm fine." Pursing my lips, I stood up and looked at the corner the car had vanished around. "That was weird, right?"

Levi threw his hands into the air, "Weird!? Temperance Alice Collins, you almost got hit by a car."

"Well I'm not dead, am I?"

"No! But you could've been!"

I rolled my eyes and walked towards him, standing on my tiptoes to wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down to me. At a mere 5'3, most everyone stood above me, and my boyfriend was no exception as he had an entire foot over me. Burying my face in his neck, I murmured, "I'm okay. Look, no harm no foul."

"I think my heart was harmed. I had a huge heart attack when I saw that car," He groaned.

"You pulled me out of the way, though."

"Thank god."

"Can we get food now?"

He smirked and kissed my lips, "As long as you look before you cross." I rolled my eyes and released my hold on him.

A few hours later, we were all piled up in the van again and Levi was telling everyone about the car while I sat beside him and said nothing.  It's not that I didn't want my friends to know, I just kept thinking about the driver. His haunting smile and gray eyes.

Just like my dream. Minus the talons.

"She's lucky I managed to pull her out of the way," Levi finished with a groan. "Otherwise it'd be a Tempie pancake."

I wrinkles my nose, "Ew."

Kayla poked my shoulder, "You really didn't see the car?"

"Nope. I didn't even see anything."

She leaned back and ran her hand through her long brown hair, "Dang."

"I know," I laughed. "Freaky, right?"

"No kidding," Levi murmured and I kissed his check before turning to Faye. "How long til we get to Hotel Le Grand?"

Faye looked her watch, "Um. About two hours, I think. But with this traffic it might be four."

All of us groaned and leaned back, bracing ourselves for the long ride ahead.