Eyes Wide Open

Alice.

I awaken to the car bouncing around on small pebbles leading up to a hotel called "The Warner Hotel". "Umm, excuse me? Why have we arrived at a hotel?" I quietly break the silence to the men in the car with me. "We have been notified that the grounds aren't expecting children at this hour, due to a containment issue." The driver said quietly. "Containment issue?" I ask worriedly. They nodded. How can there be a containment issue? It's children, and why the hell wouldn't they be able to handle it? What kind of place am I going to...?

When we roll up, the driver walks up calmly to the front desk and asks for two rooms, while the other man takes care of the valet for the car. I walk over to the glamorous lobby chairs and pick up a magazine to scan through to pass some time. As I begin reading gossip about celebrities, the man taking care of the valet begins to sit next to me, and I scoot over to give him room. "My name is Charles, by the way." he said hesitantly. I extend my hand to shake his and he shook it. The moment I start to say my name, he interrupts "-Alice. I know. I'm terribly sorry for the incident with your parents. I'm sure they're resting in a better place than being here." he chuckled. I smiled, understanding his intention of relieving the tension. The other man motions to Charles and I, and asks us to follow him to our rooms.

"I need to apologize my partner's stern and strict behavior," Charles begins, "he knows what you've been through and wants to refrain from involving himself as much as possible, considering we're only here to escort you." he said walking beside me. The other man turned around wondering what was taking us so long. "I understand, and I suppose that makes sense" I nodded in agreement. Charles, the other man and I stepped onto the elevator and I turned to Charles and began to make small talk. When we arrived to our floor I asked where my luggage was. "It will be brought to your room shortly" Charles' partner replies. "Thank you.. Mr..?" "Revenue. James Revenue." he responds with a straight face looking for the rooms.

"Ah. Well, James, I respect your authority and reasoning, and would like to thank you on my behalf for looking after me and escorting me safely." I say with a smile towards Charles. Charles smiles and looks to James who is staring at me looking rather annoyed. "Here. Here is your key, your luggage will arrive within a few minutes, you may do as you please with dinner tonight- but you must let us know. If you are going out anywhere than we must go with you, and if you are ordering food service then tell them to put it on the bill." James started. He continued with instructions and gave me a few dollars cash to give to the valet guy. I thank them both and opened my door while turning around and seeing them walk into the room across from mine.

I see the valet guy had already brought and unpacked my luggage and organized my clothes in the drawers underneath the T.V. across from my bed. I smile, and head for my bed to pull back the sheets to notice a piece of paper underneath the sheets. It reads "Midnight tonight, best dress and your beautiful smile at the lobby." I take the note and slip it into my pocket while laying on the bed, contemplating my arrival to this mysterious man.

Alexis.

"Containment alert. Containment alert." I heard while running. Shit I keep forgetting how massive this place is. The sirens kept blaring and I kept running while holding my stomach. No, it's not to look thin. This asshole that's dating the bitch I threw against the shelf pushed me down the stairs while I was running and kicked the shit out of my stomach. Don't even ask how I got out of that one. I keep running slowly releasing the grip of my stomach, dodging every bush and every broken branch. I hear men chasing after me, our distance shrinking by the second. Dammit! If he hadn't of kicked me I would have been ten miles further. I'll make sure to get him back for that later.

I see a log in the distance and begin to jump over it but miscalculate the distance by just a bit and trip and fall on the side of my stomach that was kicked. I groan, clutching onto the dirt and leaves around me to take the pain out on. However, thanks to my noise, the men heard me and found me. One of the guys sprinted over to me and kicked me over and over again to make me weak. I shrink to fetal position to guard my rib-cage, but that didn't even matter seconds later. Boom. Kick to the ribs and its broken. Yet again. I yelp in pain trying to keep as much silence as possible to not egg him on. Some of his teammates run up beside him, and some standing over me putting handcuffs on my wrists and then throwing me into the truck. My head hit the side of the truck and it began to bleed. I let out a soft grunt as men pile up in the back with me.

I stare up in the sky, mesmerized by the sunset. All of the men surrounded me with guns pointed, talking about how they all would kill me, then screw me up. I knew they were just trying to scare me, some of them trying to put "authority" back in hand. I roll my eyes and lay my head down to try to think of something good enough to say to Madam Achille. You know, the selfish owner/ headmistress of this rotten ass place.

The truck pulls up to the grounds about 10 minutes later, and the guys start jumping off the truck trying to look cool. This one guy who was waiting for us hopped into the back and grabbed my arm, pulling me up to my feet. I raise my head to see who and sure enough, it was Ezera. One of the actually sane people that's trapped in this hell hole with me. I give out a slight smile and stand on my feet. "Made a new distance record, took them nearly 30 minutes to come and catch you. I'm proud of you, tesoro. " he said with a smirk. He holds my arm until we reach the end of the tailgate, and then he jumps off. "Jump." he said holding his arms out. "If you're thinking about catching me, it didn't work out so well last time." He smiled, "Then kneel down and i'll carry you, princess." I glared at him. He knows I hate being called that. He let out a loud laugh, and I did just what he said. "Now put me down." I said while being in his arms. "Alright, fine." he said. He put me down and we walked back inside to find Madam Achille waiting inside for us.