I n c o g n i t o

Prologue

    Matt takes a quick glance towards the silky smooth bed, now dotted with the little specks of his wife, Darla's blood. Shaking, he looks down at the handgun that is placed in his rough palm. Dumbass. For fucksake.
   He can't stand to be touching the cold metal object anymore, so he stuffs it into his coat pocket. 'As long as it's not in contact with my skin,' Matt thinks carefully and  paces around his room. His almost black hair has to be almost fully tousled by now; he couldn't help but stop pacing to run his calloused fingers through it every once in a while. His green eyes dialated and his mouth agape as he takes another short peek at the wounded - and dead - woman. 'I should cover her up,' he says to himself, running over and draping the light purple bed sheets over top of her.
   Matt instantly remembers his daughter and son, counting Z's in the room just next door - or so he thinks. Jonny dashes through the door. Tears streaked down his pale face.
   "Daddy what was that?" He inquires, shaking as well. 'Good thing I covered Darla up,' Matt thought as he walks over to his 5 year old son, clutching his small body to his own. Matt rubs Jonny's blonde hair and whispers to him that everything is alright.
   "Is your sister awake, Jonny?" He inquires, jogging into the hall and towards the door of his children's bedroom.
   "No, daddy, I don't think so," Jonny responds, his voice still slightly shaking after every word. He follows his father into his shared bedroom and towards his bed. Grazing his fingertips along the soft sheets of his bed, he plops down and watches as his dad runs around his room frantically, grabbing both his and Mally's suitcases and tossing their clothes and belongings into them.
   "Where are we going daddy?" Jonny inquires, which causes Matt to look up for once.
   "We are going... on a little trip," he states, zipping up the suitcases and pulling on the handle until it extends to the point where it clicks into place. 'We cannot stay here,' he thinks to himself as he picks up his 2 year old daughter, Malaysia (Mally).
   "Come on Jonny, lets go," he pulls both suitcases out of the bedroom and starts walking down the corridor. However, he abruptly stops and glances towards his bedroom door. Sighing, he shakes his head and continues his long treck down the long corridor and outside with his children.
   "Daddy what about Mommy?" Jonny asks dumbfounded, they always go places with their mommy. It just doesn't make sense to him.
   It is better that way.
   Matt stuggles to search for an answer, tears brimming his already-swollen eyes. He opens the door to his silver Jeep and places Mally into the pink carseat.
   "Mommy has to stay behind this time, bud," Matt finally says, afraid of Jonny's reply. Also shocked when Jonny doesn't question him and gets in the car.
   Johnny still didn't understand why Mommy couldn't come along, but just figured it was for personal reasons, so he didnt ask any questions.
   Matt hops into the car and speeds off to the north. 'There should be a hotel up here somewhere,' he thought to himself, drumming his fingertips on the steering wheel. Glancing into the rear-view mirror, he grins when he sees both of his kids sleeping. 'Beautiful,' he thinks carefully, pulling his eyes back onto the highway in San Diego, California. Sighing he thinks about his kids deeply. About how lucky they are to be kids and not have a single worry in the world.
   "Must be nice," Matthew mutters under his breath, glancing back into the rear-view mirror and shifting over to the right lane of the very busy highway. After all, it is rush hour.
   'Great, another thing I have to worry about!'
   --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
   The silver Jeep swerves into the not-so-packed parking lot of the small hotel and the engine shuts down. Matthew sits inside the car for a few seconds.
   "Dammit," he mumbles, pounding his fist onto the steering wheel.
   I hadn't planned to kill her, honestly, he thought sadly. But when I saw her lying in bed, with - maybe 20 - beer bottles laying next to her on the purple bed sheets, I couldn't help but feel the same anger I had previously contained for the past 6 months.
   Matt doesn't realize the salty tears slowly dropping down his cheeks until they rest on his chiseled, scruffy jaw, which they then fall onto the black leather steering wheel. He lets out a small sob, which soon leads to many more. He pounds on the rough wheel again, this time checking to make sure that he didn't wake up Jonny and Mally, knowing they would have a breakdown as well as soon as they saw him balling like a baby.
   To his luck, his two children were not awake. Hell, they were not even close to being awake. Smiling, he opens the car door and cannot help but stare at the sign above the hotel.
SUNNY SIDE INN HOTEL 66 - LOS ANGELES
   He shrugs, looking at the time on his (fake) gold watch. 5:42 a.m.
   'Damn did I really drive for three full hours?' he thinks to himself. Whatever, atleast we are here.
He unlocks the car door and lifts Mally out of her carseat. She stirs a little but falls back asleep quickly due to Matt rubbing her back gently, cooing at her in the process.
Jonny quickly complies to getting out of the Jeep, wanting nothing more than just being inside of a warm, comfortable bed.
The young father hauls the small luggage out of the trunk (a/n also known as 'the boot', depends on where you're from) and slugs into the hotel with his kids following him. I must look like such a laggard, he thought to himself as he could practically feel himself falling asleep just standing in the lobby.
A woman appears from an oak door behind the front counter and smiles politely. However it was fake. And it was showing gratefully. Of course, Matthew throws a small grin in her direction and greets her tiredly.
"Hello mister, how was you night?" She inquires politely, although her exhaustion was clear in her tone, as well as appearance. She had a very quiet and low toned voice, as well as large, dark circles underneath her brown eyes that seemed to be a little bloodshot. It was obvious that she hadn't had any sleep since the night before.
Matt immediately replies with a bigger smile than before. He really wanted to pull off the lie that he was going to tell.
"It has been amazing thank you!" He replies and notices Johnny leaning against his lower torso, also grasping at his right tricep.
The worker notices too and calls the group over to the counter.
"How many nights will you be staying?"
Matt takes a minute to think about the answer. In full honesty, he really doesn't know how many nights they would be staying. How long it would take for Darla's death to get around. He decides that five days would be enough. Then they would move to the another hotel. Maybe in Fresno; he has always wanted to visit that city in California ever since he was a young boy. It would be the perfect opportu-
"Young man, do you know how many days you'll be staying?" The receptionist asked again, her face showing both concern and fatigue.
He gives her an apologetic look and grins.
"I'm truly sorry miss, but I'll say about five days."
She smiles back and mutters something under her breath as she types on the new looking computer. Matt pays for the room (which is pretty damn expensive) and clutches the blue key card in his sweaty palms. Nodding as a thank you, he pats Mally's back when she starts to wake up and heads over to the elevator.
   The sliver doors graze open and the three enter the transportation device. While inside, the young boy points at all of the pretty, lit up numbers that range from one to ten.
   "Which one daddy? Which one do I press?" Jonny asks quietly, practically jumping up and down in his place. Although he is absolutely fatigued, he adores things that light up, and these buttons grab his attention almost immediately.
   Matt chuckles slightly at his son, however confused at how he can be so tired, but hyper at the same time. 'Just like his mother used to be,' he thought , immediately becoming emotional.
   He checks his room key.
   "Press number 5, Jonny."
   Jonny complies and presses the lit up number, although it takes a moment to remember what the number five looks like.
   It takes less than three minutes to reach the fifth floor. The doors slide open and Matt saunters out with his son following close behind. The father searches for their room number, 27.
   "Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, ah,ha! Twenty-seven!" He exclaims quietly, as it is only six in the morning and people would be sleeping in the rooms around them.
   Matt swipes the room key about four times along the black code detector until it finally shows a green light. He pushes open the oak door before it locks again.
   Jonny complies to his father's previous orders and plants his butt onto the soft, white bedsheets. He kicks off his Nike tennis shoes and almost instantly falls asleep.
   Matt decides that Mally will just sleep in the same bed as him for the night. He sets down their luggage (which isn't that much) and lays Mally down onto the soft bed.
   As he pulls down her sleeping pants and unbuttons her purple onsie, all of the sad, emotional feelings come bubbling up inside him again.
   'No, it was for the sake of me and Mally and Johnny. I can't cry now anyway, I'll wake the little buddy up,' he thinks to himself. However, after many times of telling himself this, he can't help and and starts to cry.
   Mally notices and babbles up to him, the only words noticeable are "Daddy" and "okay?" He gives his daughter a small, lopsided grin and wipes his salty tears onto the sleeve no of his black sweatshirt.
   "Daddy 's alright, sunshine. Everything 's gonna be just fine, I promise Mally. Just fine," he states as he pulls on a new diaper and her previous articles of clothing.
   He boops her nose and earns a small giggling child in return. Mally laughing makes him stop crying and start to laugh. The father pulls his sweatshirt up and over his head.
   Matt lifts Mally into his long, strong arms and lays her down in-between two pillows beside him. He takes a moment to stroke her hair. 'Damn she already has a head of hair,' he ponders with a small grin. After waiting for Mally to fall asleep and giving the young girl a kiss on the forehead, he mumbles a 'goonight' and falls asleep himself with one thought one his mind.
   'I am going to try my hardest to keep my children safe. Safer than they would've been. Safer than I could ever think.'

   --- word count : 1,888 ---