Jen bent over the steering wheel, her head craned forward, eyes searching, knuckles white and taut as she steered her way in the darkness.

Flashes of lightning rent the pitch black sky in frightening frequency, followed by booms of thunder that shook the ground, sending vibrations through her chest. She felt constricted inside her car, hopelessly lost in the torrential downpour that drove her visibility down to almost nothing, terrified that the storm would swallow her whole.

“Oh no” she gasped, her whole body tensing as a gust of wind shifted the vehicle slightly to the right. “Oh…”

Breathing deeply, Jen squared her jaw in resolve and sat up taller in her seat. Painstakingly slowly she inched up a road she was unfamiliar with, hoping against all hope that she would round a corner…

**************************

The dim light of the hotel was a literal “light at the end of a tunnel”. Jen whispered a prayer in jumbled confusion, delirious from fatigue and fear, and drove into a parking slot nearest what looked like the entrance.

She grabbed her bag and jumped out. Her mad dash didn’t help; she was soaked to the bone as she shakily walked up to the empty front desk.

“Hello? ...Hello, anyone here?” her voice sounded tiny so she tried again, authoritatively and much louder, “Hell…!”

“No need to yell, missy. We can hear just fine,” a sharp voice snapped behind her.

Jen started and spun around, coming face to face with a thin, pinched, weasel-like man.

“I… I’m sorry, I didn’t think anyone…” Jen began, surprised at the rude welcome and her inhospitable host.

“Yes, well…” he cut her off again. “I suppose you’ll be needing a room then, we have several available…”

Looks like the entire place is available, Jen thought, as the small man threw her a key across the chipped reception desk and shuffled back over to her.

“Let me help you with this,” he said, already reaching for her overnight bag.

“No, no, it’s okay, I’ve got it,” Jen said, swiftly recoiling from his closeness.

“Fine.”

His eyes souring and his mouth stretching tight, he turned away and disappeared into a dimly lit backroom.

“Well,” she mumbled to herself as she followed a ratty sign to her room, “At least I’m out of that storm. Besides, it’ll be morning soon enough.”

The room was illuminated by a single, naked bulb, hanging off-centre from the peeling ceiling. The floorboards had creaked all the way up from the reception, so she wasn’t surprised that they squeaked and moaned and almost gave way in some places.

The bathroom smelled strongly of bleach and the bathtub was stained with what she hoped was rust.

But, Jen was too tired from her ordeal to care. She splashed her face with water in the sink and crawled onto the threadbare bed, closed her eyes and blacked out.

**************************

She was sailing, a gentle wind in her face, the deep sounds of the ocean a soothing lullaby, the soft creaks and groans of the wooden boat…

Jen awoke with a start. A cold draft was coming in through a crack in the window from the storm still raging outside. It had sounded like the ocean and the memory of the dream brought a warmth and calm inside her.

She stretched her muscles and arched her neck, about to roll back over to sleep, when a distinct creak in the floorboards down the hallway had her fully awake and out of bed.

“Shh…”

“You shh! Your stupid whispers are so much louder than if you’d actually just talk…” the man she’d met earlier hissed. “I’m in charge here, so shut it and don’t tell me what to do.”

“Okay, boss,” the other whispered back, much lower now. “I’m sorry, of course you’re in charge and don’t worry, I bet she can’t hear a thing,” a female replied.

Jen’s mind had been whirling through every possible scenario as she listened, playing through what she could do, what they would probably do… until she heard the woman speak. Could it be, she wondered, that the woman knew that she knew that they were coming? And what did that mean, would she help her?

“Don’t move!” roared the small man a moment later, flying wildly into the room directly for the bed.

“Argh!” Jen kicked him hard in the back, her years as a runner having endowed her with fairly strong legs, sending him flying across the room where he crashed into the headboard of the bed before flopping like a rag doll onto the thin mattress.

Spinning around, her arms crossed defensively ready for her second assailant, Jen came face to face with a frail old woman.

Go, the woman mouthed, shooting a look at the man moaning and disoriented on the bed. Go!

Jen bounded past her and grabbed her bag, as the man, now slowly regaining himself, bellowed in pain and anger.

“Grab her, you fool! Idiot! Don’t let her get away!”

Jen was already at the door of the hotel, when she turned back to see her wizened helper stumbling down the stairs in an attempt to stop her.

She yanked her purse out of her bag, pulled out everything she had and ran up to her.

“Get away too, and thank you!” she said, grasping the claw like hands in her own.

Then she ran, straight into the rain outside, straight into a flash of lightning that lit up the sky, illuminating her way to her car. She got in and was off as her livid attacker came through the door to see her tail-lights melt into the darkness.

“Whew,” Jen exhaled and steadied her hands on the wheel. Another bright flash followed by a thunderous clamour reverberated through the night.

“Haha,” she laughed dismissively, “You don’t scare me anymore,” she said to the storm.

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