𝙰𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚡𝚒𝚊 (𝙶𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙴𝙻𝙻𝙾 & 𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝙴𝚁)

•𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯•

It was currently 9:30 PM, and you were clocking out of work. Clean-up went by pretty fast, and it had been a slow day.

A feeling of unease seeped into you slowly throughout the day, and it just kept getting worse the longer you went on with your plan. Something felt so, so wrong, like you didn't think it through well enough, but you tried to assure yourself you were prepared.

With your backpack heavy on your shoulders, you headed towards the hotel that, conveniently, was near the store.

Now, this hotel you were staying at wasn't... exactly the nicest, but it provides all three meals (though, probably not the highest quality) and would give you a place to sleep, bathe, and rest, so it was something.

It was infinitely better than living on the streets, that was for sure.

So now you found yourself standing in front of the simple building, shifting your weight between your feet unsurely.  You didn't get it.  You had planned this all out, you knew what was coming next, you knew it would be over soon enough.  So why was it so hard for you to continue?

  You felt like there was an invisible pull drawing you back home.  The place that felt like home.  The person who was your home.  You felt a longing ache, a want to go back, a wish that you could pretend everything was fine.
  You felt like a child wanting the comfort of their parent, and clutched the straps of your bag tighter.

  Then, you walked inside.

  The first thought you had when you saw the place, was basic. You thought the place looked really plain, and basic. There was nothing really outstanding about it, or anything that stood out at all. The colors were plain, the furnishing was plain, and you were sure you would go insane if you were to stay here longer than you needed.

After taking everything in quickly, you went up to the desk and checked in. The woman looked suspicious, and there was no other way to describe her.

After you got your keys, you made your way to your room, and creaked the very squeaky door open.  The room itself didn't look too bad. However, you wanted to clean everything before you took the chance to relax.

  So you did.  You cleaned (mostly) every corner of the room and more.  If you were going to be staying here for a week, you might as well make it hygienic.

After you finished, you set your few belongings up, and looked through what money you had left.

You had used any savings you had to pay for the handful of days you were going to spend here, and had just a bit left in case you needed to eat out for any reason, and some change for those coin laundromats.  You had very little for luxuries, considering that you had to make due with what you had until your next work day.

Let's just say, you didn't exactly have anything for a backup if your plan went wrong.

  You hope that wouldn't be the case.

  So, now that you were finished setting your stuff up, you decided you would get ready for bed, and then plan out the course of action for tomorrow.

  You had brought only a few toiletries with you, just the ones you thought you needed the most and could fit in your bag, but you knew you would have to buy some more.  For now, you were just going to ration what you had.

After you freshened yourself up, you sat down on the floor with all your stuff, and tried to work out how everything would work from here on out.

It was still Friday night, so you only needed to be out for the weekend, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Only five days, three that you had to attend school and work so that you wouldn't raise suspicion. You thought that wasn't too bad, and thought that maybe, just maybe, this might work out after all.