Chapter six

CHAPTER 6

Berlin was walking on the street now, he just had his coffee and he decided to walk a little to get to a cheap motel where he could rest until morning.

The caffeine was kicking in, and his chest felt lighter. Although he was aware that there was not a thing in this world that could take away all his pain and suffering from the last seven years and today especially, he was glad that at least the pain did not take a toll on him that much and he could still feel his head.

The street was busy and many people walked to and fro with their heads bent and their eyes glued to their phones. Berlin always knew the streets of New York to be busy, so that was not a new thing to him.

He held his head up high as he walked amongst them while clutching onto his phone which was basically the only thing he owned now, along with a couple of dollars that wouldn't help him for too long because it was not enough.

He did not own any clothing at all and he could tell that it would be a great problem for him but he decided that it was the least of his worries because what he was most concerned about was getting a place to rest his head for the night.

Tomorrow will come and I'll get by it, Berlin thought in his mind. Amongst all of this, his mind was filled with one single thing that fueled him all along.

He was determined to get revenge but he knew that would be hard because he didn't really have the resources to go through with an act of revenge right now but he could at least map his plans out as he only knew one thing, he had to be extremely smart and careful henceforth because Rhodes was a dangerous man.

Berlin was already considered an enemy by Rhodes since he did not take his bribe money, so if Rhodes knew Berlin was making plans to take him and his daughter out of the game and make them pay for what they did to him, Berlin would not have a chance of surviving.

“Oh thank goodness,” Berlin muttered as he sighted a sign in front of a building that read Cheers Motel with letters that were almost falling off.

“Who wants fancy? I'd go with what I can get,” Berlin thought to himself as he walked closer to the motel. He was trying to make himself feel better about the old and unkempt building but he couldn't help but wonder what the interior would look like if the exterior of the motel looked like this already.

He sighed as he hurried his steps, he was getting tired and was desperately in need of a place to rest his aching body.

“Okay, this is it,” Berlin muttered as he talked himself through the process of getting into the motel since it was the only option he had.

He thought that maybe looking up the motel would be a better choice. That way he would have an idea of what it looked like before going in so he looked the motel up on the Internet and just as he had suspected, nothing came up.

After a second thought, he decided he was still going in no matter what eerie feeling the motel gave him because it was already too late and he couldn't walk around to start searching for another motel.

“Well, at least there was an effort made,” Berlin said to himself and walked towards the entrance.

He took a deep breath and pressed the button on the door and it slid open immediately. Berlin checked through before walking in and the door closed after him once he was inside the building.

He looked behind him abruptly in surprise before he calmed himself down and walked toward the reception. He had been jumpy since he left his corner father-in-law’s house.

“Oh wow!” he exclaimed once he saw the interior of the motel because the inside was nothing like the outside.

He concluded that whoever it was who made the quote about not judging a book by its cover, saw this motel first before saying that. The motel was beautiful on the inside with vintage walls and contemporary art hung up on the wall.

A quote was hung up on the wall and it said “Beauty is only skin deep,” and Berlin immediately knew what the quote was implying was about the building itself based on its outside and the impression it gave passersby.

Berlin was glad he listened to his heart and he walked over to the front desk to talk to the receptionist who then checked him in. She was nice and very welcoming and Berlin was elated that his day was not entirely going to a shambles.

She gave Berlin the key to his door and told him he could look around the building at the arts before going up to his room as they had a lot of captivating art and exquisite views.

Berlin took up the offer and decided to walk around and the receptionist wasn't lying when she claimed he would like what he saw.

There was a lot of captivating art, and soon, he got lost inside the motel while admiring everything that was hung on many walls.

Berlin soon heard footsteps approaching from behind him but suddenly everything went quiet. He wondered if it was the receptionist and turned to check but was surprised when he saw no one around.

Dismissing the fact that something suspicious could be going on, he withdrew that same eerie feeling from his mind and continued enjoying the view the motel served.

The footsteps suddenly began to approach again and Berlin turned around immediately, hoping to see someone this time.

“Is anyone there,” he called out but no one answered him.

Immediately, he saw the shadow of a man walk past from one corner to another down the end of the passage he stood and Berlin had that eerie feeling once again that something fishy was definitely going on.

But he did what he had been doing since he walked into the motel which was ignoring things and taking them off his mind before returning to look back at the many arts on the walls before him.

Soon, minutes passed and he didn't hear the footsteps anymore so he figured that he was probably only overthinking it and it was just another customer like him.