Motel 6

This happened to me after I turned 15, me and my family had lost our home to a wildfire and were currently living in a crappy Motel 6 in Northern California for the next few months. One night my mother and stepfather went out to go buy more paper plates, which left me, my dog, our cats, and my foster sister alone in the motel room while they were gone.

My foster sister was on her phone with her headphones in next to the room door, and I had to take the dog out to use the restroom. I had trouble using the key card so I asked her if she could listen for me to knock and let me back in. She kinda brushed it off and put her headphones back in.

I took my dog out to do his business in the parking lot, which was a couple meters away from our room. It was getting dark so I kinda stood there while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. On our walk back I noticed the people in the room next to us standing outside their door taking a smoke break. Both were above 6 feet and towered over me at 5 feet 3 inches.

I knocked on our room door and stood there but my foster sister didn't answer. I awkwardly smiled at the men while waiting for her to finally let me in. The guys smiled back and looked at my dog and back at me. My dog is a big dog, a Belgian Malinois, which are commonly used as police dogs.

"What breed is he?" one of the men asked while staring down at me. "Belgian Malinois." I answered while knocking on the door, a little harder this time. The two guys looked at each other and then back at me. "He doesn't bite people, does he?"

My dog has major anxiety and is more scared of people than threatening. "No, he's harmless." I smiled while holding his leash. I think back then I was thinking they were scared of my dog. I swear I could feel my heart go into my chest when the men looked at each other and one started walking towards me.

At this point I banged on my door and my sister finally let me in. I slammed the door shut behind me and slid the lock and the deadbolt shut. I looked through the peephole and nobody walked by my door. Meaning after I went inside my room, the man stopped walking towards me and went back to his own room. They most likely were asking about my dog to make sure he wouldn't attack them if they tried to snatch me.

I'm 16 now but it's still something I think of every now and then. I'm scared of motels to this day.