On the Run [Work in Progress]

Chapter 1 - The Looming Storm

Kris peeked out through the blinds, careful to make sure he wasn't parting them too much as he gazed out through the snowscape of the motel's parking lot. Everything outside was still and quiet. As pretty as it looked, it was also an unwelcoming sight.

"See anything interesting?" His companion called out from behind him. Kris looked back after a few more seconds of looking through and silently shook his head in denial.

Sara had been lounging across the whole of the king-sized bed, spreading herself as wide as possible in the small space afforded to her. Her red hair was spread out like a flame over the sheets, covering her eyes and half her sharp face.

She tossed Kris a handful of quarters she'd pulled from the pocket of her jeans, all of them bundled together inside a few dirty and crumpled dollar bills. She didn't spare Kris so much as a glance in his direction.

"Wah – Oh!" Kris fumbled, just barely snatching the bundle of money from the air. He turned his attention up to her, wondering what range of emotions were going on behind the mass of red hair.

"Go across and get us something to warm up with, would you? Coffee. Black, with no sugar." She sat up a little and finally looked toward Kris, her sharp face dark under the scant lighting of the cramped room. To him it seemed more like a glare as she briefly studied his disheveled appearance.

"And if they don't have coffee?" asked Kris, staring at her with one hand on the chilled doorknob once he'd made his way to the door. He looked more like a dark mass than a person, a wool beanie covering the top of his head and heavy black denim jacket dominating his upper body.

Her head turned a little – just a slight way downwards. She pressed the back of her hand up to her mouth and stifled a yawn, but still managed to glare at him with a dangerous look half-hidden by rogue locks of hair. Besides an audible sigh following her yawn, she maintained a steadfast silence and refused to speak up.

"Alright! Alright..." Kris huddled tighter into his own black coat and twisted the knob until the latch audibly clanked open. "I get it. I'm going." Kris whispered more to himself now, but a glance back just before he shut the door behind him revealed the Sara had heard those parting words. He traded the warm stuffiness of the bedroom for the frozen freedom of the outside world, already wishing to be back inside despite knowing that, at the moment, it wasn't his place to be in there.

The sunlight's reflection from the paper white snow created a blinding hellscape that forced Kris to seek shelter under the shadows of his arms. A biting cold already threatened to freeze the extremities of his fingers and the tip of his nose. Kris took two careful steps over the ice and squinted past the bright snow, across the parking lot, to the manager's office of the arguably cramped motel.

He used the word 'cramped' lightly. The number of cars, or lack thereof, would have clued anyone into believing that the motel didn't get many visitors. That much, from Kris's short experience, was at least true. The claustrophobic impression he got from the place stemmed from the layout of the buildings. With only a single entrance and exit, the motel created its own impromptu room, caked in snow and ice. It was a tightly packed wall of brown doors and cloudy windows – as boring an inconspicuous as a place could get.

It was Sara who insisted on stopping here. All Kris could really do was look around with a small frown twisting his lips, his dissent to her choice better kept close to his heart.

The vending machines were all tucked away to the farthest corner of the motel from their bedroom, inside a little alcove carved into the side of the building right beside the main lobby, all covered in about just as much snow as the rest of the outside world was.