Chapter 3

I looked over at the alarm clock, noticing that it was around six in the morning, too early for vacation. I laid there for a while longer and begged my brain to turn off so I could go back to sleep but it never did.

Sighing in annoyance, I rolled out of the bed.

I showered before brushing my hair and my teeth, hoping all the while that Mady would wake up. When I exited the bathroom and saw that she was still sound asleep in her bed, I was slightly jealous that she had yet to be woken up by the sunlight that was peeking through the curtains.

I was in desperate need of caffeine and I decided that I couldn't wait on her to wake up. I grabbed my sketchbook and pencil bag and walked towards the door.

Quietly, I left our room and wandered into the elevator.

Riding ball the way down to the lobby, I found the hotel's coffee shop and grabbed a seat.

I don't know how long I was there, but I drank almost two cups of tea and nearly finished a sketch of the Vegas skyline before I began to get jittery.

I walked around the hotel for a while and found myself wondering into the casino.

The neon lights and greedy machines had yet to turn on for the day and the room was nearly empty except for a cleaning crew and a man who stood behind the bar cleaning drinking glasses.

He looked up and caught sight of me, immediately waving me off.

"We're closed!" he yelled.

I mumbled out an apology before turning to leave.

I walked back to the elevators, deciding it was time to go back to the room.

Just as I hit the button to call for an elevator, I looked up to see Mady walking off one quickly, looking panicked.

She sighed when she saw me.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" she asked, her tone furious.

"You didn't let me know you were leaving or where you were going and you left your phone in the room. What if something had happened to you?"

I laughed as I looked at her wild expression.

"Good morning to you, too," I said.

"Remind me though, what was that you said last night about me being a grown woman?''

She rolled her eyes and turned to get back on the elevator.

When we got back to the room, I waited for her to change and get ready before the two of us went back out to explore for the rest of the day.

"Dad said he wants us to meet them in the lobby around six after their meetings are over so we can all go to dinner together," Mady said, reading the text her father sent her.

I nodded. "Sounds good to me."

We left the hotel and walked out onto the sidewalk.

The charm and appeal of flashing lights had long since escaped the city now that the sun was shining directly above us. However, the streets were just as crowded as they had been the night before.

Since we were only a few minutes away from the Strip, we decided to head that way and decide what to do when we got there.

"There's an aquarium in Mandalay Bay," I said as we walked up the sidewalk next to the resort.

"We could do that?"

"Sure," Mady agreed.

We walked inside and got lost in the maze of people for a few minutes. Once we had finally gathered our bearings, we found the aquarium and paid for our tickets.

Even though I was happy to be there, I couldn't help an unsettling feeling that I had as we walked under the tunnel of fish.

Mady didn't seem to notice, going on about the different species of rays and sharks that were swimming above us. I began to look through my purse, wondering if I had forgotten something.

"Are you okay?" She asked me, stopping in the middle of a sentence about bull sharks being able to survive in freshwater.

"I have a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she pulled me out of the way of thetour group that was passing by.

"What do you mean? Do you feel sick?"

I shook my head. "Not exactly, more like I've forgotten something."

Mady thought hard for a moment before she spoke.

"I mean, you did forget your toothpaste at home."

I shook my head again.

"Did you get your card back from the guy who we bought the tickets from?"

I nodded.

"Did you make sure that you didn't leave your phone in the hotel room?"

"Yes," I said, nodding.

"I've already thought of all of that." She hummed.

"Did you leave your keycard at the hotel?"

I couldn't remember.

"Maybe that's it," I said, sighing.

"It's not that big of a deal," Mady said. "I brought mine so we aren't locked out.''

As we continued our stroll through the aquarium, I came to the conclusion that the feeling in my stomach wasn't there because I left my keycard in the hotel room. The feeling slowly came to hover over me like a rain cloud and I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen.

We finished our tour of the aquarium and walked back out into the main lobby.

"Want to grab some lunch while we're here?" Mady asked.

"Maybe you're just hungry?"

I nodded, still trying to shake the unexplainable feeling.

"Oh look," Mady said, nodding over my shoulder.

"We should walk through the casino."

I turned to see the casino's flashing lights that loomed over the entrance.

"Sure." I said, turning to walk in that direction.

As we walked in, I noticed the number of people walking in was far greater than the number of those who were leaving.

Once inside, the music and lights were enough to distract anyone from their problems. The sensory overload I experienced was almost enough to make me forget about the weird feeling I had walking in.

Maybe that was the appeal.

As we walked around, I noticed all the girls in short, shimmery dresses and men in cheap, ill-fitting suits. Scattered around were also people who were clearly tourists with lanyards hanging around their necks and 'I heart Vegas' t-shirts.

Mady and I stopped at the end of a long row of slot machines that were dinging and flashing lights in their user's faces.

"Wanna play?" Mady asked me.

I shook my head. "I don't have enough money to be feeding it so freely into those machines."

Mady laughed, nodding her head in agreement.

"Well," she said.

"We came, we saw and we conquered. Wanna go get lunch?"

I nodded as I turned to follow her out.

As I did so, a loud crash echoed throughout the room followed by the sound of screaming.

Mady and I both turned around to see a crowd of people rushing towards us. Her and I both exchanged a look of surprise before we turned to make a dash for the exit.

As we got closer, I noticed the men who stood at the entrance, blocking anyone from coming in or going out.

"What the hell is going on?" I heard Mady mutter under her breath.

Repetitive sounds of crashing and mechanical failure began to echo around the room, although I couldn't determine which direction it was coming from. Over the sound of the machines whirring and people screaming, I noticed that the music, which had been playing when we walked in, had stopped.

People were now piling forward, trying their hardest to leave and escape.

"There has to be more than one way out," I said to Mady.

"Start looking for a fire escape."

Her and I pushed our way back through the crowd, our eyes straining to find a red-glowing exit sign along the walls around us. As we passed those who were still running up to the entrance, I caught parts of their frenzied conversations;

"They're looking for someone..."

"I think it's the feds."

"Did you see that guy? He threw the roulette wheel into the blackjack table!"

Mady and I exchanged looks as we both heard what the last woman saidHad Bruce Banner lost his bets and turned into the Hulk?

Mady and I stood out from the crowds because of the direction that we were walking. If we were trying to be inconspicuous, we were failing miserably.

"Look!" she said, pointing to an exit near the back of the room.

"There's a door."

I nodded and began to follow her as she ran towards it.

"Wait, Mady!"

I grabbed her by the back of her shirt and yanked her backwards so that she was standing next to me, behind a slot machine.

At the moment we were hidden, a group of three men walked past.