She stared out the window as the car drove past houses and street signs and then past the cities limits. She and her parents were on a trip to Las Vegas, her parents had actually been kind enough to take her there for her seventeenth birthday. She had her headphones in with the music turned up all the way, any other day this would piss her parents off, but luckily today they were all silent in the car. She sighed and tapped the window with one finger, carelessly reading some road signs as they drove. Next to one of those road signs she saw a tall, lanky figure standing further out in the forest. She blinked and it was gone, so that was when she decided that she needed to get some rest. She shut her eyes and curled her legs up to touch her chest, a tiny snore already coming from her mouth. She wasn't exactly sure when she had fallen asleep, but before she knew it she was being yanked out of unconsciousness and yelled at. She ripped her headphones out of her ears to listen to her parents who were staring at her.
"Lauren, we're here." Her mother said, holding Lauren's bag in one hand.
Lauren yawned and got out of the car, taking the bag from her mother and looking up at the tall building that was presumably the hotel they would be staying in. Her mother and father had walked ahead of her and went inside, checking into a room and impatiently waiting for her to follow after them, which she did so. Once in the suite, she sat her bag on the bed and looked over at her parents who were speaking quietly to each other, she looked right past them though, out the open window. In the distance she saw that figure again, of course though, she blinked and it was gone. She then decided that she was still groggy from waking up about a minute ago. She was stretching when her parents handed her a $100 bill and smiled very lightly. "We're going to go out for a bit, I assume you'll be fine with this until we get back?" Her mother asked, she blinked when her father chuckled to himself. She took the money and nodded, turning away to put it in her wallet, out of the corner of her eye she noticed that they hadn't even brought their bags in, and when turning back to ask them about it, they were gone. She huffed in annoyance and went to follow them, she went to the lobby and outside, and the car she had arrived in was already speeding off, showing no signs of coming back.
It took her a long minute for her brain to register what had just happened, but when she did she began to tremble. D-Did they...just l-leave me? She asked herself. She shook off the thought and walked back inside, walking up to the counter. "E-Excuse me, how long is room 12A booked for?" She asked the women sitting at a computer. There was a moment of hesitance and then a calm reply. "One day." And her fear re-arose. Her parents had told her that they would be staying for a week. She was certain now that they had abandoned her there. She gulped and began to shake more, but smiled at the women. "T-Thank you." And she walked off and back to room 12A. She slammed the door hard behind her and slid down in, into fetal position. Tears began to fall from her eyes. What am I going to do? She asked herself, I only have $100...that won't last me two days even! Her inward panic made her cry even more and out of the corner of her eye she saw that figure again in the open window, a little bit closer this time. It was blurred from all her tears, so she threw it off as nothing and from all her crying, she quickly lost energy, and she fell asleep.
A loud bang at the door behind her awoke her with a jolt and she jumped up. "Miss! It's time to check out!" It was that women's voice again. She sighed and opened the door. "Ok, I'm all packed." She replied, moving back to grab her bag and shutting the door behind her, handing off the key to the women. She left the hotel without another word, as to prevent herself from crying again.
Lauren walked down the street from the hotel, paying no attention to anything else, she was lost in her little world. She was snapped out of that daze by a sharp pain in her side and the feeling of being shoved to the ground. She looked up and saw a man holding a knife, he was trying to rip her bag out of her grip but she had an iron hold on it. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME." She screeched, trying to draw some sort of attention to the scene, no one seemed to care though. Her efforts were useless when he used the knife to cut her hand, making her yelp in pain and release the bag. She watched helplessly as he ran off with it, giving her the middle finger as he did so.
