Mystery Noir

Down Below Part 2

I could drive through the night, I had done it a couple times, but after a couple long days on the road, I could tell I needed an actual sleep and not a cat nap in my back seat for thirty minutes. When the next road sign indicated a motel as the sun was setting, I turned off the highway and followed the road into the small truck stop town.

"I need to sleep. If we get on the road early enough, we should be there by the afternoon anyways." I offered as an explanation when Penny yawned and looked out the window as the car slowed down.

Penny nodded to me and shrugged. "Beats you putting us into a ditch because you fall asleep."

She didn't offer to drive, not that I minded, a sleep in a real bed would be nice and as much as I was relaxing around her, I wasn't trusting enough to fall asleep in a car being driven by a virtual stranger. It would have been an awkward conversation of me saying no in a way that would probably offend her.

It wasn't a chain motel, but the place looked clean enough and it had an attached all night diner that would deliver an order to a room for an extra tip. Plus, the clerk was a relatively normal seeming middle aged woman who said she managed the place and verified that all the rooms had clean sheets, dead bolts and working showers.

Penny was standing by the car, awkwardly hugging her bag to her chest and watching me as I approached. She looked hesitant, almost shy about something, and I could see an argument in her eyes building, her jaw setting stubbornly.

"Here. We're side by side on the second floor. Have to have a key card to access the stairwell. Probably the safest we'll get." I offered her the envelope with her room key before turning to my car and pulling out my two bags, locking the doors and starting toward the back entrance to the building. The building had an older feel to it, the carpet was brown, and the walls were wood paneled, but the air smelled fresh enough, the hallways were clean and quiet, well-lit even.

Normal.

Penny fell in silently behind me and it wasn't until we were opening our respective doors that she gave me a cautious look and offered. "Thanks. What time tomorrow?"

"Dawn?" I hoped I would get in a couple hours of research before passing out, but I knew that I would not be sleeping in. I rarely did. The sun seemed to like waking me up, even when I was tired.

She nodded and slipped into her room, leaving me to turn into mine. I locked my door before looking around the room. I had splurged, if only for Penny's sake, these two rooms were deluxe queen rooms with jacuzzi tubs, snack bars and supposedly name brand toiletries. I didn't hear the girl from the other room, though I hoped that merely meant that the walls were well insulated.

First thing I did was treat myself to a long hot shower, change into comfortable clothing, then pull out my computer and notebook. I had been chatting via text and email with Ver and Enzo, picking their brains on what they knew about subterranean monsters as I did my own research into various cartels, human trafficking rings and the more human monsters of the world.

I must have been working for a couple hours when I heard a knock at my door, which prompted me to grab my long hunting knife, unsheathing it as I walked to the door and paused to look through the viewing hole.

Standing there, with what appeared to be a pizza box, a couple brown paper bags and a six pack of beer, was Penny. Her hair was loose now, and she appeared to have changed as well, biting her lip and muttering silently to herself.

I opened the door, hiding the knife behind it as I glanced up and down the hallway before looking at her. "Hey."

"So, I'm not a complete fuck up and I do have some money and seeing as how you bought lunch and gas and paid for my room, I figured I could get supper. I hope you like pepperoni, it's safe. And I got fried zucchini sticks and jalapeño poppers and... beer." She was rambling and continued to talk as I stepped to the side and waved her into my room. I slid the knife back into its sheath and placed it carefully on the table in front of me as I watched her.

"Sounds great. Thanks. But you didn't... " I trailed off as she put the Pizza boxes down and picked up my notebook that I had left on the table. She glanced at my computer screen, where I had been reading a legend about man eating monsters that Enzo had sent me.

Penny frowned, before carefully picking up a beer and cracking it open, raising one brow. "My grandmother told me that I would come across a great warrior. A fighter of those we've forgotten to believe in. Do you hunt all the creatures that are not human?"

"No. I don't hunt. I try to help save people before it's too late." I offered, knowing just how lame that explanation sounded. "Sometimes that means I have to fight monsters, be they human or nonhuman."

There was a look of relief that crossed Penny's face, before the girl offered me a firm smile and turned to sit down on the couch, carefully setting my notes to the top of the table as she opened up the food boxes.

I watched her grab a piece of pizza and take a bite, before taking a drink of her beer. Her eyes read the brief synopsis on the screen before turning to look at me. "We're too far south for Windigo, probably. They're more associated with the cold. But it could be Caddaja. Or it could be one of the monsters that you settlers brought over. I don't have stuff in books, but I know a lot of the stories, they were passed down from my ancestors. Some people think that all the stories, they're just lessons to teach us things, and some of them are. They have morals and all those things, but other ones... other ones are our histories, surviving against those that have hunted us."

I sat down beside her, closed my computer and grabbed a slice of pizza, before flipping through a couple pages on my notebook. "Ok. I'll tell you what I know about where we're going, and you tell me what you know. Then you can tell me where I can hopefully find the mom and child."

"We." Penny grinned and shook her head. "I wanna help. I know better than you what it all means. But... I want to help."

I frowned and opened my own beer, guzzling a good half of it as I mulled it over. "We'll evaluate how much you help, as we get the information. I will always listen to you, but you follow my lead, ok? If we have time to talk things over, I will do it, but if there's something going on, I need to know that you will trust me, and I'll explain once things are safe."

Penny shrugged easily then, finishing a couple jalapeño poppers before finally nodding in agreement. "Ok. I'll only argue if it's really, really important. But I can handle myself."

"Sometimes I charge clients. But this guy is talking about mortgaging his house. I don't.... If it's an actual emergency or something bad, and people are desperate, I don't take advantage of it. I might not accept much, or any, money for this. But I'll give you three hundred a day, or forty percent, whatever is more."

"I'm not doing this for money." Penny shook her head slowly but offered a thoughtful smile. "But ok."

"I'm not really good about sleeping in places where other people have access to." I motioned to the room around us. "So, I'll pay for your room as well, we'll split food. Just this gig for now. No guarantees that I'm not just going to take you back home when we're done. You should be going to school, or something."

Penny just gave me a knowing look, before shaking her head and grabbing my notebook, starting to read as we continued to eat, talking back and forth about what we knew and what we hypothesized about the road ahead.

I don't know how it happened. Later that night, I was lying in bed, feeling sleep dragging me down, and thinking about the fact that after so long working on my own, I had somehow hired a sidekick. She seemed to have a level head, though she was a little more free spirited than I was. Penny still watched me with a cautious expression, as if not believing me, or having trouble believing in me.

A small, pessimistic side of me told me not to trust it, that it was all too convenient, but it didn't ring true. Something about this girl, and how we seemed to settle into an ability to communicate with one another, building off each other's knowledge and ideas, searching information and building game plans, seemed right.

I had never wanted a partner, or a pack, as Ver and Enzo had called it.

But it seemed like one was building up around me with every road I took, lately. I could only hope that I could keep them all safe.