Act 3 | Chapter 4

We woke up late the next morning. I sat up slowly beside Riley, who was leaning off half the bed and snoring loudly. She, just like me, was still undressed from the night before. Once I realized what time it was, I had to quickly get out of bed and into the shower. Before doing so, however, I yanked the covers off Riley and tried shaking her awake.

"Riley! Wake up!" I said, holding back a scream. A part of me was really excited because New York City wasn't too far away, and I knew that once we got there, the first stop would be our hotel, and then the next day would be the art museum followed by nothing but exploring the big apple.

"Nooo." Riley groaned. Tiredly, she reached around for the covers like a blind baby and tried pulling them back over her. Rolling my eyes, I pulled them further away from her and tried sitting her up.

"Riley, we slept in. Come on, we need to get ready to head out!" Riley sighed and blinked her eyes open a few times.

"Fine." She sighed, "Morning."

"Good morning." I smiled a bit, "Hey, I'm going to jump in the shower real quick and then you can alright. Can you start packing out stuff?"

She gave me a weak and tired nod in response. To thank her, I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and went to shower.

***

It didn't take us too long to get back on the road, and after a painfully long two-hour drive in traffic, we made it. The scene of towering skyscrapers actually kinda scared me as we drove closer to the city. It was a lot to take in honestly. There were so many things different with it compared to my own little town of Bate's county. We had maybe a couple of skyscrapers, but this place... it was nothing but. The hotel Riley had planned for us to stay at wasn't too far from the Museum of modern art, and once we arrived, I saw just what this place was. To be honest, it looked like one of those run-down motels on the edges of most towns. Usually, the ones that gave you a creepy vibe like someone was going to kill you in your sleep here.

"This is the place?" I asked tilting my head.

"It's not the best place, but it's pretty cheap for the item were staying here."

"That's true I guess. Are we checking in now or later?"

"Be best to do it now. We can drop our stuff off and then just go out to lunch." Riley explained. I grabbed my suitcase from the back of Riley's car and hauled it inside along with her. The lobby was pretty standard. A dirty red rug ran from the entrance of the door to a stairway and an elevator, the lobby walls looked like they needed a serious fresh coat of paint, with parks of it cracked or already flaking off. A man sat at the front desk with his feet up over it. There was a book in his hand, but there was no cover, so I couldn't exactly see what it was. Riley had to cough to get the man's attention, and when she did, the two went through the typical process of renting a room. I stood behind her and simply looked around. One man came down from the stars, and walked past us wearing a large brownish trench coat, while another entered wearing all black. He stared at the two of us as he walked by, eyeing us up and down like he was studying out features. I cringed a bit and shook the disturbing feeling off, before looking back at Riley to watch as the process finalized.

The man at the front desk handed me the room key and told us what room number we would be staying in. It was on the sixth floor. Upon entering said room, I could see just where we would be staying for the next week. There was one single bed, with what looked like clean covers, or at least clean by the hotel's standards. The bathroom was a small hallway with the shower at one end and the toilet right next to it. The sink was across from that, and there was enough room for maybe two people to just barely move around. The TV was mounted to the wall, with a dresser right underneath it with a DVD player and some other things. The carpet was all shaggy with stains across it.

"This... the place will do, I guess?" Riley shrugged her shoulders and leaned her suitcase up against the bed.

"Y- Yeah. It will do."

"Sorry if it;'s not the nicest of places."

"No, it's fine. I can spend a week here." I said with some sarcasm in my voice, as I leaned my suitcase up against the cracked wall.

"You maybe want to get lunch now?" Riley asked. "You only gave me a pop tart for breakfast and I'm starving now, thanks to you." She smirked. I gave her a small nod and sighed.

"Yeah sorry, I just wanted to get here as quick as possible. I'm just... excited.

"Oh, I know you are. Now come with me, I saw a burger place on the way over here we can try out." I gave Riley a smile and took her hand. We both made sure to grab our wallets and phones before locking the room door and leaving. As we walked down the street, I felt an overwhelming feeling of stress. There were definitely more people here than in Baste's county. Some of them would glance at us and stare as we walked by and others would simply ignore us. I wasn't sure why I felt so nervous to be here, but I did.

"You doing okay?" Riley asked, patting my back.

"T- There are so many people," I commented, looking around at everyone. It was funny too because everyone all dressed differently, but at the same time, they all looked the same.

"Well, it's one of the biggest cities in the U.S." She shook her head and giggled, "What did you expect."

"Not this." I squeezed Riley's hand a bit tighter. The burger place was right around the corner from the hotel. It wasn't very busy inside, with only a few people having wandered in. We took our seat at the nearest booth and waited for our waitress.

"So..." I started "you tried from the drive?"

"Not really. Wasn't as bad as I thought. What about you? You slept most of the way."

"Y- Yeah, I guess you could say I was tired."

"Well, we can go back to the hotel and rest for the rest of the day before going exploring," Riley suggested.

"No, I want to see things, it's just that..." I glanced out the window, "IT's already feeling like so much. There's so many people, so many buildings and just a lot of everything. We aren't even in the heart of the city yet."

"Hey, you conquered your fear of horror movies. This can't be that bad can it."

"I guess not. I have also conquered other things." I smiled a bit, "I'm just a bit nervous."

"I'm here if you need me, Zoey. Remember, I won't let anything bad ever happen to you."