Meanwhile...

Joshaua was a rat, sitting behind the counter of the run-down motel. He was just as greasy as the place was. His shirt was torn up, his hair was a bucket of grease, and he was smoking behind the front desk. He held his phone in hand, scrolling through twitter in between glances to the clock. There were still 8 people who hadn't checked out yet - His favorite time of the day, that meant an additional 240 dollars plus tax was about to be automatically pulled from each of their bank accounts. 

Money. In. The. Bank.  

The man had his feet up on the counter, ratty combat boots and a pair of poorly kept jeans. He had a cigarette in his mouth even though it was against local ordinance to smoke indoors. He didn't care, people weren't coming to his motel for luxury and he knew that.  

There was one thing he did provide though. Coffee, from a self-serve single cup machine off to the right. It was set up on a rickety table, but it was the newest thing in here. He even still had old CRT monitors for the check-in computers...

10:55 AM.  

THWUMP-clink

"I'm checking out." Raz said brusquely as her hand came down on the desk in front of the rat, the key for the #4 room slapped down onto it as she shifted her stance slightly.  

Walking with him in her shoe was difficult for Raz. It was like walking with a ball of dirt under her toes and having to do everything she could not to crush it. Yeah, he said he liked it and yeah, if he was telling the truth, it would spirit him off to some other place.  

Still, it was more of a challenge on her end to try and make sure that she didn't turn this little guy to mush. She couldn't even start to imagine how it must have been in there. Hot, humid, muggy... and she knew the smell had to be unpleasant at best.

She was in mid-stride when she felt the lick against her toe and had to stop herself from instinctively pressing in to goosh him into her shoe, but she did her best to hide it.