Night had already came and the moon was out from its hiding spot and shone its serene light everywhere in the dark. The stars were twinkling next to it and it seemed like they were having a party up there. I felt my eye lids become heavy but just as I was about to shut them, the car came to an abrupt stop and if it was not for Alexander's hand in front of me, I would have gone straight through the windshield.

"What happened?" I said as I rubbed the sleep off my eyes.

"I have to check" With this said, he got out of the car, leaving a confused and sleepy me in the car. While he checked whatever happened, I fished out Amelia's diary and the map from my bag. We were still pretty far away and it would take a whole other day to finally reach the place we suspected her to be.

I took the map in my hands as I got out of the car to join Alexander. "What's the problem?"

"I am not sure but I don't think it will start right now."

"What do we do now? By car itself it will take us another day to reach and by foot it will be even longer" I said as I showed him on the map that I had laid open on the closed hood of the car.

"Let's continue down the road. It looks like there is a town nearby. We might find a place to take shelter while finding someone to take care of the car." He said while folding the map and rounding the car. We got our bags and locked the car before walking down the road.

As we continued further down the road, small, run down buildings appeared on the sides of the road. Groups of drunk men were outside and I even caught sight of some supernatural around the corner. A putrefying smell lingered in the air and I scrunched my nose in disgust while Alexander seemed unaffected by it.

After a walk of about 10 minutes, we reached a small two story building. "Motel Shine", read the old, flickering neon sign that was hung up on the entrance. The name completely contrasted the rusty and old appearance of the building but nonetheless we entered as we had nowhere to go.

Upon our entrance the bell hanging over the door chimed, signaling our entrance. A strong smell of liquor mixed with cigarettes filled my nostrils and I felt bile rising in my throat. I walked towards what looked like the reception with Alexander hot on my tail. The man who I assumed was the owner shifted his attention from whatever he was doing to us.

"Welcome to Motel Shine. How can I help?" He asked and honestly he sounded pretty freaky.

"We would like to spend the night here. Could we get two rooms please?" I said politely with a small smile. Looking around I found a few other people standing around in the corner. They were drinking and smoking. Their clothes were far from being spotless. I found some of them looking at me but ignored them as they could not harm me. The lobby, if it could even be called that, was dirty and old. Spider webs hung on the walls, roaches roamed on the floor and walls along with litter here and there.

My gaze returned back to the old man behind the counter. His eyes were fixed on me as he eyed me up and down. There was a strange, menacing look in his yes that reminded me of a predator looking at his prey. His eyes all the way from my shoulders to my feet, back up. His eyes made contact with mine and I raised a brow at him. I was about to say something when I felt a presence behind me and an arm wrapped around my waist. Just by the sparks that flew from the contact I knew who it was. Alexander tightened his hold around my waist and pulled me to his side.

"Actually we would take only one room." Alexander said. I twisted my head to look at him so fast that I was afraid I might have actually broken it. He kept his gaze on the man who was slightly trembling under his heated gaze. The man quickly gave us our key and showed us the way. After asking him for a mechanic to repair our car we went to our room.

Our room was on the second floor so we had to take the stairs to reach it. The floor creaked with each steps we took. "Why did you take one room?" I asked as we reached our floor. "Because the place does not seem to be very safe and the men were all eyeing you up and down." I smiled lightly as the hint of jealousy did not go unnoticed by me.

He opened the room and motioned me to get inside. The room was small with minimal furniture. Only a small bed that was pressed to the wall, a small wardrobe and a nightstand next the bed. There was a door on the other side of the room for probably the washroom. I took off my shoes at the door itself as both of us walked further in the room.

I let out a squeal and jumped as I felt something run over my feet. "Eww" I said as I looked at the small figure of a rat running around in the room. My hands were placed over my thumping heart as an attempt to calm it down "It's not funny" I deadpanned at Alexander who for the first time displayed any sort of emotion- a smirk.

He ignored me and walked into the washroom to get changed. While he was busy, I took the time to read a bit more from Amelia's diary. I found out about her love for gardening. Her favorite flower was Strongylodon macrobotrys or in other words, Jade Vine. There were a few pictures she had glued in her diary of her flowers. All of them looked beautiful. Despite having contracting colors, the flowers in the pictured all merged well in harmony. I heard Alexander get out and I placed the diary on the nightstand as I rummaged my bag in search for my clothes.

I got in the shower and quickly changed out of my jeans in sweats and an oversized shirt. I put my hair in a bun as I got out. I found Alexander sitting on the edge of the bed, with the diary in his hands. "Where did you get all this information and this diary?"

"I accidentally came across an old room where I found out about the old war we had and Amelia's involvement." I said nonchalantly. He hummed in response as he kept the diary back to where it was. As I was putting my clothes in my bag, I heard him speak.

"I'll sleep on the floor and you can sleep on the bed." I was about to state my opinion but he beat me to it. "Except if you want to sleep on the floor with the rats." He added in a teasing voice.

"Whatever" I mumbled as he took a pillow from the bed and lied on the cold floor. I honestly felt bad for him but I was not interested in getting attacked by rats in my sleep. I definitely don't want to die so soon especially not if the cause is having a heart attack because rats decided to feast on me in the middle of the night. I shuddered at the thought as I got on the bed.

I closed my eyes and let sleep engulf me.