Life Will Out

Chapter 21: Road Trips and Bad Times

Friday, December 27

[Amelia+Kate]

Kate was driving in her car and Amelia was in the passenger. Kate drove a Jaguar F-Type Convertible which she often rode with the top down. She was playing "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen while simultaneously screaming all the lyrics. This was a long road trip- the two of them were driving from Seattle to the border of Nevada and California because there's no exact address for a place like that.

It had been 8 hours and they were stopping at a motel for the night before continuing on. The motel was small with two beds scary but enough for a night.
"Tell me about the El Royale Kate." Amelia asked calmly not quite sure of the place Kate was taking her.

"Atty's birth parents owned before they died and before they gave him up- he kinda grew up there. His parents were Dove and Avalon Hartford. I promise he was a man so he went mostly A.V. The hotel weird though, his parents were not good people. They got into deals they couldn't get out off and it costs them their life. Atty doesn't I have the address of the El Royale he prefers to not remember those times. Lot of shit happened at the El Royale- murders and drug deals. It's been closed since 97'' to guests but there's a still a guy who used to know his parents who stays there and keeps it clean: Hudson Bishop, old man but a nice one. You'll learn more tomorrow get some sleep Amelia." Kate said giving into the drowsiness from a long of driving and singing.

[Atticus]

Link laid in bed that night, after a very long day and as he found himself giving into sleep his mind began to wander- that was never a good sign for Link because it often brought awful memories of awful times he doesn't like to remember.

*Shatter. 7 year old Atticus shot up out the bed he sleeping on in the El Royale Hotel. He walked into the entrance area to find a man beating another man over the head with a bottle of whiskey whilst the other man wiped the blood off his forehead from the impact. Their hands had blood covering them while another man's lifeless body hung over the bar. The men yelled at each other but they were both so drunk Atticus couldn't make out what they were saying, he just stood there watching in horror and they continued to beat one another senseless with the bottles of liquor from the bar. As Atticus' gaze shifted from the bar to the floor he quickly realized he couldn't walk any closer to get a better view- as the floors were covered in shattered glass, liquor and blood.*

*The door of his hotel room that his parents had turned into his bedroom flung open with such force it came off the hinges. A man with stubble on his face and hair grey like storm clouds bursts into Atticus' room wielding a pistol, the lights shined from their cars headlights and the man fired a shot into the air to warn who ever was in that room, upon realizing this was not the room they meant to open they knocked him side the head with pistol to make him black out as they continued to look for room 104 on the Nevada side of the El Royale. *

It was 1:04 when Atticus sat up crying in a cold sweat. He hated having dreams or flashbacks from his days at the El Royale, the only days he remembered being happy was his birthday's his parents would be clean that one day of the year to make sure he had the best day possible for living at a hotel. He would swim in the pool and they would buy balloons and a cake. He didn't many friends people found it weird he lived in a hotel. He would blow it his candles and make the same wish every year. Let my mom and dad get better and the scary people stop coming here. Needless to say it never came true just got worse. He drifted back into sleep only to remember the worst of all the times.

*Atticus sat behind the receptionist desk spinning on the stool. His parents were in a booth on the Nevada side injecting heroin into their arms. A man who looked dirty and like a homeless person swung the doors of the El Royale open. He wielded a large gun and slowly walked towards his parents. Fear caused Atticus to sit like a statue and prevented him from yelling. The man placed the gun on the side of his father's head. Bang. His fathers body slumped over- he had died. The same was done to his mother and she fell onto the table. Blood was everywhere and the man left that easily. A realization had hit Atticus- he was all alone in the world now.*

A/N: these next few chapters are some of my absolute favorites to write! hope you enjoy them!!