Trapped

26.

I stormed out of the hospital and into the streets. I was mad at everything, if that was even possible. None of my friends wanted to come with me, not even my best friend. I wanted to prove them wrong, I wanted to find Erin as soon as possible so that I could come back as a hero and bring Erin with me. Then I could laugh in all their faces for not believing in me.

Once I calmed myself down I realized that I had no idea where Florendale was or how I would get there. I looked around and searched for anything in town that could help me. My eyes landed on a library, they must have computers I could use or at least a map of this world. I ran towards it and burst through the doors. I went to the counter and asked the lady if they had any computers I could use. She told me that I had to pay to use the internet and that it was one bardon-coin per hour. I dug around in my pants pocket and pulled out a coin with a five on that I had left from this morning. I assumed it was a bardon-coin and gave it to her. "I won't be longer than an hour," I said and she nodded.

She took it and gave me back four coins with the number one and told me that she would come call me when my hour was over. Then she gave me the password and I walked over to the computer. It was an old box computer, it was light blue and the keyboard was just a plain white colour.

I used the search engine that it opened up when I clicked on the internet shortcut and typed in, 'Directions to Florendale'. I asked the lady if she had any paper and a pen and she handed it to me and said it would cost an extra coin. I gave her another bardon-coin and went back to the desk. I wrote down the directions on the front of the paper and tried to draw the road on the back. Then I searched 'busses to Florendale' hoping that there would be one.

Sure enough there was a bus that left from BardonVille every weekday at 4 pm. I glanced at the time on the computer and discovered that it was 1:34 PM. Then I searched for the location of the bus stop and the ticket prices, which was 15 Bardon-coin per ticket. Once I had all the information I needed -including where the Prince lived, how to get to the Palace and how to fight a dragon- I logged off and returned to the front desk.

"What day is it today?" I asked the lady behind the counter and she told me that it was a thursday. I thanked her and left. Then I went back to the pub where I earned some money this morning and went to speak to the same man that hired me that morning.

"Hello," I said to him while he was wiping the countertop with a wet cloth. His golden blonde hair was tied back into the ever popular 'man bun' and the sleeves of his blue button-up shirt were rolled up exposing his sleeve tatoo on his right arm. He looked up and when his dark blue eyes landed on me he smiled. He was definitely a few years older than I was, but he was still young. I guessed him to be about twenty-four.

"Well hey, what's up?" He said with a grin.

"Uhm... well, I know you already helped me out earlier, but I need some more money to buy a bus ticket and I was wondering if maybe you had anything else that I could help you with, please," I said desperately and gave him my best puppy dog face.

"What happened to the money I gave you this morning?" He asked and raised an eyebrow at me.

"I- uh.. I spent it on food, I only have three coins left," I said and I could feel a shy blush creep onto my face.

"You spent 57 bardon-coin on food? Why do I find that hard to believe?" He said and then he laughed.

"Well, I wasn't just buying food for myself, I had to feed six people." I defended.

"Look I'm sorry okay but, there's nothing I can do for you. I already gave you more than you deserved this morning and that came out of my paycheck. I thought it would help you enough," he said and started wiping the countertop again.