Finding Grace

Chapter 17

      Jumping into a spare car, Grace decides it's time to leave Bobby's place. She felt restricted in that house, so Bobby gave her a few numbers and a handful of tools to get her started off in her own life.
       She waves bye to Bobby after closing the door and drives off. Bobby taught her all she needed to know to get her life started. Driving, faking identity, how to load a gun, how to make rock salt bullets and all that essential stuff. He was her mentor. She's thankful of him for being there for her when the brothers weren't.
         Blaring Aerosmith, she cruises down the country road. Tapping the wheel and humming along to the song playing. Living life on the country roads and 2 star hotels. Maybe she could settle down and live a normal life.
        She focuses on the road for now. It's the only thing keeping plenty of questions off her mind. She doesn't feel like focusing on anything besides the open road ahead of her. She's just going to see how far this tank of gas will take her.
     
                       • • •

           The car broke down. Luckily she had time to pull over to the edge of the road. Sighing, she lifts up the hood after hopping out of the car. Unluckily, She didn't care to listen to Bobby when he talked cars. She doesn't like to be confined in small places for so long.
          She likes the feeling of being free and spreading her wings in the warm summer air. Being locked up all your childhood might do that to you. Grace is and has always been a free and wild spirit. She needs to run and fly free with not set of rules to guide her.
       Maybe she could just fly. She looks at the passing cars speeding past her. Holding up her thumb, she waits for someone to pull over and help her. Finally, a blue truck pulls over and opens the window to a somewhat handsome man with blue eyes.
      "You need help there?" He asks and Grace nods.
      "Yeah," she ruffles her hair, "my car broke down and I'm not sure how to fix it."
      "Alright," he hops out and walks over to Grace, "Name's Ben, Ben Talyn."
     "Grace," She looks to her hands then to the man, Ben, "Grace Witherspoon."
     "Grace. What a nice name. Now, let's see what we have here."

     After he helps Grace with her car, he takes her to a coffeehouse in the nearest town before leading her off to a motel. Grace turns the key and opens the door to the shabby hotel room. "You're really going to stay in this dump?" Ben mutters and Grace scoffs.
     "Better than nothing," She walks in and sets her things beside the queen sized bed.
     She sheds her jacket as Ben walks in, watching her. "I'm gunna take a nap. You can stay if you'd like." Grace mumbles and climbs into the bed.
      She lays down and faces towards the wall, keeping her eyes closed. She can feel the light footsteps grow closer and closer. She feels his face grow closer to her to the point Grace can feel his breath on her neck. Hissing erupts from the man as he quickly leans in.
      Then his head falls to the floor. Grace, a knife in hand, cut off Ben's head. "Lucky me," she mutters and gets up.
      Now she needs to get rid of him, but how? She grabs a spare blanket from the closet and wraps up the body, and head, in it. Tying it up, she sneaks to the back and tossing the body in the garbage before burning it, just to be safe.
     "Stupid Monsters," she mutters under her breath and heads back inside to get some actual rest.
     Walking into the hotel room, she feels the shift in the environment. Somethings....different. She can feel it but she doesn't know what it is. She brushes it off as much as she can and lays down in the bed.
       Closing her eyes, she waits and slows her breathing so she seems as though she is sleeping. Grace usually can sense whoever or whatever is in my room, but not now. She rolls over, trying to appear as a restless sleeper when the feeling disappears. Odd.
        This has never happened before. No feeling like this has happened before Grace goes to bed. It's never happened in general. Maybe when she was a child but that's it. She feels uncomfortable going to bed because what if it shows up again while she's asleep?
       She lets her body sleep, but keeps her subconscious awake. She hides back in it to view her surroundings. She uses this as her dreamscape instead of actual sleep since it usually leads to nightmares.
      She wanders pasts the memories and people that she's seen. There's no real defining ground or walls since she can still see the surroundings around her in the real world. Here, everything's peaceful and nothing is wrong.