Chapter 5 - The Watching Eye
I stumbled out of the private bank with absolutely nothing but my baby, my duffel bag, and the clothes on my back.
The heavy rain had turned into a freezing downpour, soaking Elliot’s thin hospital blanket.
I walked three blocks until I found a cheap, rundown motel with a flickering neon vacancy sign.
I traded the diamond stud earrings my mother had given me for a single night in a room paid in cash.
The grumpy clerk shoved a heavy brass key across the sticky counter without asking a single question.
I locked the flimsy door of room number twelve and pushed a heavy wooden dresser against the frame for extra security.
The room smelled horribly of stale cigarette smoke and cheap industrial bleach.
I sat on the edge of the lumpy mattress and carefully unwrapped Elliot to check his temperature.
He was thankfully warm, but he was incredibly hungry and starting to fuss loudly.
I reached into my duffel bag to grab the emergency formula bottles the hospital had provided.
As I pulled the gray hospital blanket away from his tiny body, my fingers brushed against something hard stitched into the hem.
I frowned, running my thumb over a small, unyielding lump hidden deep inside the thick cotton fabric.
I used my teeth to frantically tear open the tight gray stitching.
A tiny, blinking black disk fell out of the blanket and rolled onto the filthy motel carpet.
It was a highly advanced GPS tracking device.
My parents hadn't just abandoned me in the hospital to die.
They had deliberately tagged my baby so they could hunt us down later.
I grabbed the heavy heel of my shoe and smashed the blinking device into dozens of plastic pieces.
I let out a heavy sigh of temporary relief, thinking I had finally severed their invisible leash.
Suddenly, the old tube television bolted to the motel wall snapped on by itself.
The screen hissed with loud white noise before violently snapping into a crystal-clear image.
It was a live, high-definition video feed of me sitting on the bed, staring terrified at the television.
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Someone was currently watching me from a hidden camera concealed inside the room.
The digital text scrawled across the bottom of the live video feed read: “Five minutes away.”
