"Wake up, Marsbars."

I shift in my seat and wake up to dad shaking me.

We've switched buses twice, taking a total time of about 5 hours with having to wait to get on and off of them, and now we're finally in Manhattan.

It's night but there are so many street and shop lights that I still need my sunglasses.

We get to our feet, grabbing our bags and getting off the bus quickly. Dad keeps ahold of my jacket sleeve so he doesn't lose me as we push out way through the sea of people moving about the Manhattan streets.

We get to a rundown motel and go up to the front desk.

"How much for a standard room?" Dad asks as the man behind the desk turns to us.

"$135 a night," he answers, "our standard room comes with one full-size bed, a pull out sofa, a full bathroom, and a TV."

"Perfect," dad sets down his duffle bag and opens the backpack to pull out money. He pulls out $675 and puts it on the desk. "Five nights."

The man looks between the two of us, his eyes lingering on me for a bit before going back to dad

"She's a mutant, isn't she?" He gestures to me with his head and takes the money.

Dad looks at me quickly as I shift my weight from my leg to the one Venom made.

"We've had a lot of them tonight," he continues as he types on his computer, "no one here's gonna rat you out, especially not me."

He looks back at us and blows a small flame in our director, not enough to do anything, but t enough to show us that he's a mutant too.

I can see dad visible relax.

"Thank you," he sighs, pulling the bag back over his shoulder.

"Room 37B. Each room has an emergency fire exit through the window if something ever goes wrong," the man hands us a key, "be careful."

He gives us a small smile and goes back to his computer.

We head up to our room and set our things on the bed.

"How long do you think we'll be staying here?" I ask, sitting down in the lumpy mattress.

I take off my sunglasses since the lamps in the room don't give off hardly any light and toss them aside.

"I don't know," dad sighs as he sits on the couch, "probably until we run out of money. We can't use the credit cards, we can't take out more money, neither of us can get a job.... We're virtually fucked."

He leans his head back against the couch, closing his eyes in frustration.

"Language."

"Huh?" He lifts his head back up and looks at me.

"You said we're fucked," I say with a small grin, "you cussed."

He chuckles. "I did, didn't I?"

We chuckle a bit together before we fall silent again.

"We'll figure this out," I says softly, but I'm not sure if I'm trying to convince him or myself.

"Yeah..."

Silence again.

Dad seems to get an idea.

"Do you remember when I taught you how to play pool?"

"Okay, if people ask, you're nineteen," dad says handing me thirty dollars, "remember, make it look like you don't know how to play, get them to bet high, make them lose big."

I nod as we walk up the side walk. We stop across the street form a bar.

"V, if anything goes wrong," he points at Venom's face sternly, "get her the hell out of there."

"Got it," Venom nods.

"I'll here waiting for you okay?"

"Kay," I nod.

"Okay, hurry."

I look both ways before jogging across the street and walking into the bar. I spot a few pool games going on near the back and head over, taking off my glasses as I do.

I watch the different groups play, picking which will be the easiest to beat. One pair seem really competitive, but they're all talk, no skill.
Perfect.

I wait for them to finish before approaching them.

"Heya boys," I add a New York accent to my voice, keeping it innocent, "could I play the winner?"

"Well, that'd be me, doll," one of them says, "but I don't think it'll be all that fair."

He heavier set with shaggy blonde hair going just past his ears.

"And why's that?" I give a bit of a pout.

"Well, you don't look like you've ever played in your life," he chuckles.

"I used to play against my dad, though I never beat him," I play with my fingers a bit, "but I think I've gotten better."

He chuckles as he watches me.

"You know what, sure, I'll let you try, doll," he laughs, "just don't cry when you lose."

He starts setting up the balls while I get ready to start.

"Alright, I'll break," he says before hitting the white ball to the triangle.

The balls split up, but none of them go into a pocket, which he huffs about.

"My turn?" I ask, though I know the answer.

"Yeah, you turn, doll."

I bend over the table, aiming my skewer a little off from where I want it to go.

I can feel them staring at my ass through my skinny jeans.

I smirk and aim perfectly.

The ball hits and not one, but two stripped balls go in.

"So that means I try to get the ones with the white tops, right?" I ask, standing back up.

"Yeah, and they're called stripes," he answers.

"Oh yeah, sorry," I act shy and nervous.

"It's okay, doll," he says, looking me up and down, "infact, let's make this interesting."

"How?"

"You win, you get all the money in my wallet, which is....," He pulls it out and takes the cash out, "413 bucks."

"And if you win?" I tilt my head a bit.

"You have a few drinks with me and my friend here," he gestures to a pale, lanky man with buzz cut hair, "then we head upstairs for some fun."

I barely keep from gagging.

"Okay," I smile.

I can see he's totally confident in himself.

"I'll bite his head off if he lays a finger on you."

I giggle a bit.

We kept playing. I'm down to one ball and the 8 ball, while he has four more to go.

"You ain't that bad, sweetheart," the lanky man says as his friend takes his shot.

"Thanks," I keep up the shy act as I go to take my turn.

If I do this right, I can skip the ball over his and hit both my ball and the 8 ball in.

I correct my posture so my ass isn't in the air anymore, and my skewer is aimed downward a bit. I hit the white ball, and it goes just as planned.

The lanky man laughs out right while the other groans in frustration.

"I won!" I give a giddy hop of excitement and turn to them.

"Yeah, yeah," the other says, pulling his cash out and handing it over.

"Pleasure doing business, gentlemen," I let the accent fall and give them a smirk as I turn on my heel and walk out of the bar, leaving them with shocked expressions.

Dad is sitting against the wall across the street waiting as he said he would.

"How'd it go?" He asks as I help him to his feet.

"413 bucks," I show him the cash, "and I didn't even start the bet, they did. And they didn't want to bet to be money."

I watch as dad's jaw tightens, knowing exactly what I meant.

"Let's just get back to motel before they come out here looking for me," I say, shoving him back the way we had come.

"Fine," he sighs, "but next time, don't agree to that."

"Don't worry, dad," I chuckle, "V said he would bit his head off."

"Which one?" He asks jokingly.

"Both," Venom answers, popping his head out of my back.

We all laugh as Dad puts his arm around my shoulders and walks back to our temporary safe haven.

VENOMOUS