The city center was completely off-limits. No way in, no way out. You got police cars deterring away would-be onlookers on the main roads, hazmat-wearing fellas stomping about in the blackened gloop, miles and miles of yellow tape scattered throughout the place - the whole nine yards.

Online, you were just a tap away from the latest juicy leaks that'd continuously be updated from residents trapped within the ground zero. Poor them.

From where we stood now on current events, it seems that a lockdown on the entire city was imminent. Any moment, perhaps even starting in the early dawn of tomorrow, nobody would be able to leave until the red stuff that fell from the sky is a verifiable threat to the state's safety.

For now though, tonight, they were just beginning to rally. Army trucks carrying army men, we passed at least three of them on the freeway, all delving deeper into the heart of the city.

As fate would have it, we were sent twisting and turning towards the completely opposite direction.

Irene, apparently, was not situated in town. If I was living in the outskirts of the city, then Irene was basically hovering in the outskirts of the outskirts - the view from the passenger window was less on buildings now and more on grassy plains, with the occasional gas station scattered few and far between.

"Sure you're still picking up on her, Adalia?" I asked as the distance from the town and we continue to stretch ever thinner and longer.

"Stronger… now…" She affirmed.

"Uhh, sorry but… there's a roadblock ahead," Amanda slowed our momentum to a snail's pace. "We go any further, we'll be leaving town… a few friends already tried, mmm it's a no-go."

"We won't… be…" Adalia whispered, brimming with absolute certainty. "We turn left… shortly…"

"Left?" Amanda almost whirled around to face the vampire, but luckily managed to stop herself at the last second. "Erm, but isn't left… just… you know… it just doesn't seem like a place that someone of her profession would be seen hanging around, right? Unless, um, is she undercover?"

The mask muffled her voice, but it did a poor job at stifling the growing concern in her inflection.

Clueless me shifted my inquiring eyes from Ms. Driver to Ms. Matriarch but none seemed eager to actually elaborate on what was just implied. Freaking… why do I always get stuck asking the obvious questions that seemed always to be general knowledge to everybody else?

"Why? What's there on the left?"

Amanda funneled out a long winding sigh, reluctantly winding the wheel to the next left turn that was available.

"Erm - how do I say this - ah, you know how every city always has the bad parts to it, something like, uh... a bad neighborhood?"

"So we're heading to a bad neighborhood."

"Mmm, not exactly… per se," Her eyes became painful squints forward, her hesitance conveyed loud and clear. "I wouldn't call it bad, it's worst. It's the worst neighborhood. Mmm, see! Look there! No one's on the road, no one comes here… aww, I don't wanna get jacked."

"We need… the succubus…" Adalia huddled herself closer, her words almost grazing the back of my neck. "She's… here…"

Eyes firmly forward, Amanda continued to drive on. Swallowing fear and timidity in one audible gulp.

"Can… can you tell her to," She took another sharp inhale. "Ada- Adalia, you are kind of… please… you're too close…"

Both Adalia and I turned in her direction, and there, lying limp in the corner of her peripheral sight were five jagged fingernails clutching the edge of the driver seat.

The vampire, without a word, retracted her claws, and crept herself back into a lonely cramped corner of the backseat.

"But I… won't hurt… you…" Adalia muttered, her words spoken with a tinge of sadness. "I… pinky promised…"

"Driving…" was all Amanda had to say back, leaning in closer to the dashboard and fastening in more tightly to her wooly coat.

Gotta admit, even I felt a little bad seeing Adalia look so dejected over it. But this was an issue for some other time. For now… we got more pressing matters to deal with.

Like the many dilapidated rundown houses that suddenly and gradually came into a view on either side of us. Each one being more ominous and foreboding than the last.

Yeah, this was more than just a bad neighborhood alright. Now I was starting to empathize with Amanda's initial apprehension alright.. don't think I've ever seen a place that was more god-forsaken than this.

You got shifty-looking denizens leering an almost constant suspicious gaze at us as we rumbled on by them… at times we even had to steer clear of the innumerable pieces of shattered glass that littered the pothole-ridden street.

The sidewalks had enough rubbish strewn across the concrete to put even the largest landfills to shame, and everyone, everywhere seemed to wanna be the modern-day Da Vinci with all the graffiti artwork plastered across the place,

Every turn wheeled us deeper into the heart of darkness, the roads becoming much grimier, the atmosphere much darker… it was as if this particular part of the city itself had been left abandon by the eyes of society. Now it was just a place where the depraved and desperate lurked.

So why in the name of all that is pure and holy was Irene doing walking these begotten streets? I doubt even the Devil himself would risk even a few seconds breathing in the stench of the musty air here.

Why? Why? Why?

Could have kept asking the same question for forever and ever, over and over, but I didn't have to actually. The next whirl 'round the corner had my question bashing face-first into the answer like a brick wall. Literally.

"She's… here!" a hurried whisper from Adalia who was once more breathing down our necks had caused Amanda to immediately slam down the brake pedal with all her might, sending the car screeching to an abrupt halt at the side of the road and almost snapping my neck in two from good ol' fashioned inertia.

"Okay!" yelped a flustered Amanda, shifting the gear into idle mode and tearing her mask away to take in some much-needed air. "We're here! Alright! Don't do that again…"

Adalia poked her head out between our seats, her pure undivided directed towards a rather shabby looking building with a shabby looking sign, and honestly, if it wasn't for that sign, with letters faded and paint crusted, I couldn't have possibly guessed at all what the building even was used for.

The three of us stared in silence, together in a shared moment of surprise over what we just stumbled upon. It was Amanda that was first to break the silence, lips in a frown, and brows raised under the fringes of her hair.

"Hotel Paradise," Amanda read, blinking back her disbelief. "Umm, little confused, which part of this is supposed to be paradise?"

"Probably sick of me asking, but you sure you got the right trail, Adalia?" I said, turning to the vampire with her misty eyes staring away in mild intrigue. "Sure there isn't some other succubus out there somewhere wandering around that you might have accidentally picked up on instead?"

"It's her…" slowly, creepily, adalia-ly, she turned her head towards me, "Fifth floor...."

Dubious though I was still, I knew I couldn't doubt her canine-like senses for long, we've traveled this far after all, what's the point of garnering distrust now? It'd be better to just have a look-see with my own eyes and find the truth out myself.

"Kay," I muttered, unfastening my seatbelt, and uncoupling the passenger-side lock. "Stay in the car, be back in a jiffy."

Before I could even push open the door, already there were some questions being raised by the perturbed chauffeur herself, grabbing hold at the ends of my shirt sleeve.

"Stay in the car?" She asked, letting go and giving me the most peculiar glance sideways.

I'm not sure what she's even asking, regardless though, I thought maybe a bit of rephrasing was what she was after for here.

"Yes, stay in the car," I repeated, shifting my gaze from left to right. "That means you two, together - stay."

"Are you - !"

Amanda's lips hung loose, flapping, sputtering, but only a strangled whisper ever emerged after that. While Adalia, on the other hand, was a bit more well-off with her words.

"Can't… I come… with you…?"

Adalia knew and so did Amanda. Leaving those two together alone in a cramped space was a recipe for disaster, given their… uhh, colorful history with one another.

But in the long run, it was the wisest choice. If all three of us head up to the building, we're gonna be coming down to a missing car, and if I took Adalia with me, Amanda would be all by her lonesome in such a perilous place with no way to defend herself. On the other hand, if Amanda came with, no one would be there to monitor Adalia in case she has another one of her… episodes.

So really, me heading solo was the only and the best approach we have here.

After explaining my reasoning to the both of them, Adalia shuffled back to her corner in an act of quiet compliance, while Amanda, after a few moments worth of very deep soul-searching and contemplation, begrudgingly nodded her head, finally coming around to the same conclusion as I.

She had to be alone with the vampire.

She didn't have to like it, she just had to accept it - and accept it she did, the brave girl she was.

"Just please don't take too long, okay?" She pleaded as I took my first steps out of the car.

"I'll try," I said, smiling reassuringly in return. "Just try to play nice in the meantime."

As I closed shut the door, I heard the faint click of the lock settling firmly in place, which I then took as my cue to face the complete and utter desolation that awaited me inside the building that fronted me.

One step, two steps, up the rickety steps, brought me to a decaying set of wooden doors that swung open with the most ominous creak.

Couldn't see a thing, from the outside looking in, it was a pretty foreboding scene, pure darkness as far as the eye could see save for the dim glow of moonlight shedding light to the entranceway, revealing only some dusted wooden floorboards leading deeper inwards.

Call this a hotel? Seemed more like a haunted house to me.

Irene, oh, Irene… just what are you up to in here?

Don't suppose I'll get an answer just dawdling by the doorway, so with a deep breath, and with the distinct image of two slumbering figures permanently in mind, I swung the double doors to its widest and decided to see just how accommodating this hotel's customer service really was.

I expect a 10/10.