Family Trip (standard:horror, 2443 words)
Author: kissofthehungry	Added: Aug 14 2005	Views/Reads: 3741/2392	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
When Gina, and her brother, Stephan, are sent to entertain themselves, they do what any other teen would do, begin to explore the seemingly empty motel. They discover it's not all that it seems.

Gina stared out the window, her head tiled bored onto one hand, the
endless line of cactuses parading past them.  Her little brother, 
Stephan, was sound asleep next to her, his head tilted onto his 
shoulder, a trickle of drool dribbling down his cheek.  Her mother was 
in the front passenger seat, busy reading one of her love novels and 
her father's eyes were glued to the two lane highway in front of him. 

She didn't understand why they were driving to her aunt in San Diego. 
Wouldn't it have been easier flying versus this miserable drive?  They 
had been on the road for three hours and had about three or four hours 
more to go, how fun.  A motel loomed on horizon, protruding like a sore 
thumb out of the desert landscape. 

Her mother looked up and announced, “Oh sweetheart, look there.  How
quaint.  Let's go stay there for the night?”  Gina rolled her eyes, 
that's just what they needed to do.  Spend the night in some roach 
motel that charged an arm and a leg cause it was in the middle of 
nowhere. 

“Stay for the night?  Evie, do you realize we're only about four hours
away from San Diego?” her father sounded exasperated and she could hear 
the exhaustion in his voice. 

“Oh, come on.  I'm tired of being on the road.  Four hours is a long
time to go,” she begged and Stephan saw the building, he winced.  Not 
that she could blame him, even from the distance that they were at, she 
could see how rundown it was.  The “vacancy” sign was lit but only an a 
and cy were working. 

“I don't know,” he eyed the upcoming motel suspiciously, “it doesn't
look real hospitable.” 

“Dammit Ryan!  Just stop there!  I don't want to be in this vehicle any
longer.  Stop there or I am going to flip,” her mother threw one of her 
infamous fits and Gina rolled her eyes again.  Her mother was so 
immature and her father just rolled with it. 

“Fine, don't blame me when we get hacked to death by the natives,” he
signaled then turned as there was nobody else stupid enough to be in 
the vicinity.  Her mom just sighed heavily then smiled in anticipation 
at her thought of comfort.  Gina could imagine what she was thinking, a 
spa, jacuzzi, delicious food delivered to the room, and hand and foot 
service that was impeccable.  Yet from the looks of the place, they'd 
be lucky if they had clean sheets. 

There were two other dusty cars parked near the front, one with a flat
tire that looked as if it had been parked for a century and forgotten.  
The other car looked slightly better, but not much.   Stephan groaned 
but otherwise than that, they remained silent.  Their parents were of 
the opinion that what they thought didn't count for much so they had 
learned to quit trying to object to stuff. 

“Um, wow,” her mother mumbled, the dawning that this wasn't an inn &
suites registering slowly on her.  They got out and walked through the 
glass door, which had several large cracks and no legible paint on it.  
An old man was asleep in a large seat behind the dirty counter, the 
tinkle of the bell above the door didn't even disturb him. 

“Scuse me,” her father knocked on the counter, nothing, so quite a bit
louder, “Excuse me!”  The old man jumped so bad that his chair just 
about flipped, and he looked around in a state of confusion, his eyes 
huge when they landed on them. 

“Who are you?” he sputtered, “What do you want?” 

“A room,” her mother's tone made her think of a cheerleader speaking to
those she considered lower than herself.  Sometimes her mother was too 
rude.  It was obvious he was not used to getting people, and who could 
be shocked at that.  The place was a dump. 

“Oh, of course, a room,” he grinned sheepishly and pulled out a sheet of
paper with info that he needed from them.  Stephan looked awed at the 
paper, a motel with paperwork versus computer.  How strange and 
old-fashioned.  Gina stifled a snort of laughter at his reaction.  It 
was as if he'd never heard of anyone doing anything but computer work. 


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