Allison's POV
We pull off the main road, and the lights of the city disappear behind us like a memory fading too quickly. I expected "room arrangements" to be a quick switch, maybe between apartments, not this. Not a trip out to the middle of nowhere. Not *this* motel. The only one out here, sitting alone like a scar on the landscape. And I don't even know where we are anymore. California? America? Hell, it doesn't even feel like Earth.
I stare out the window at the rundown building looming ahead of us. It's rotting. The walls sag under the weight of time, the roof bowed like it's about to collapse in on itself. The neon sign buzzes and flickers, casting a sickly green glow over the cracked pavement. Weeds crawl up through the asphalt, nature trying to reclaim what's left of this forgotten place. The air feels thick, almost heavy, like we've crossed into some dead space that doesn't belong to the real world.