June – POV
The first rule of running: don't look like you're running.
Blend in. Keep your head down. Stay moving, but not too fast. Act like you belong—even when your heart's pounding and your hands won't stop shaking.
I took a bus three neighborhoods over, paid in cash, and changed direction twice just to make sure no one was tailing me. It wasn't paranoia if people were actually after you, right?
By the time the sun dipped beneath the city skyline, painting everything in dull orange and rust, I'd found a run-down motel wedged between a liquor store and a 24-hour laundromat. The neon sign outside buzzed like it was dying—"Sunny Palms Inn." There were no palms. No sun either. Just flickering letters and a clerk who didn't even look up from his phone as I slid a folded hundred across the counter.
"Room 12," he muttered, handing me a keycard without glancing at my face. Perfect.
