Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
─ one: the usual tourist traps
THE RAVEN HAIRED GIRL was just bubbling with excitement at the prospect of finally being in Paris, the city that she only thought she'd be able to see on television. A lot of thoughts were running through her mind but the only one that seemed to stick was the thought of exploring what Paris had to offer. She wanted to see everything. The beautiful, pristine side. All the way to the dirty and gritty side that Paris often kept hidden. Esther Martin knew that there was a good and a bad side to everything. From places, opinions, and even down to people.
She could barely stand on her own as she found herself being pushed and shoved around by people in the airport, everyone just trying to reach their destination without any delay. Esther was able to take a deep breath once she left the congested place and smiled at her surroundings. She was in the middle of the bustling city life outside, everyone walking around and going on with their daily lives. She resisted the urge to drop everything, dig into her bag, and pull out her sketch book to draw out the scene that anyone else would call mundane.
Esther didn't care much about what others thought, seeing as she had traveled to Paris alone despite her family's concerns. After all, Esther was a struggling artist with no money who was now traveling to a foreign area where she didn't speak the language. Almost anything could happen. And yet, Esther didn't worry about those things. She just wanted to live her life how she wanted to without living under her parents' thumb all the time. For God's sakes, she was twenty two. Her life was hers now.
Esther traveled aimlessly around the city, looking for some sort of taxi but ending up empty handed. She had a destination to get to, a hotel to be able to unload her things. She had researched a bit before making a flight and managed to find a hotel for a reasonable price. Now, the only thing to do was to get there before she'd be out of a place to stay.
Lucky for her, a taxi eventually stopped for her. She breathed a sigh of relief before getting into the taxi, placing her bag beside her as she closed the door.
"Where are you headed, ma'am?" the taxi driver asked, voice laced with an European accent.
"Um, the Scarlet hotel," Esther answered, "Please."
"Sure," he agreed before beginning to drive off, faint music playing in the background.
Esther played around with the straps of her book bag, the silence besides the radio being on making her feel on edge. If there was one thing that could drive Esther crazy, it was silence. It bothered her to no end. She needed some type of noise or else she'd go nuts.
"What's a girl like you doing over at that hotel anyways?" the driver questioned and Esther looked up to see him looking at her through the mirror.
