Chapter 2 Ellis
Ellis
What the fuck?
One moment, Ellis was walking toward the reception area. The next, a wall of hot air smacked him in the back so hard it lifted him off his feet and threw him face down in the dirt. His ears were ringing; he could still feel the searing heat on his skin.
He knew this feeling from a year ago, standing on the basketball court, watching as the gym lit up around him, flames coursing across the roof.
He felt a tightening deep inside his chest—a hard, fist-sized knot.
Fear, maybe? Shock? Who knew? Those were all just words.
It was the sensation he remembered—the pure, physical sensation of danger.
He was all right, he told himself sharply. He was alive. Instinctively, he rubbed his shoulder; the rough, patterned burn scars on his skin were sensitive to his touch, the nerves still raw after a year.
Shake it off. He pulled himself up. You’re fine. Get the fuck up.
He could hear a voice. Someone was coming.
“Jesus! Ellis, are you okay?” Hands reached for him. Black fingernails. Raya Mori. He brushed her away roughly.
“I’m…fine,” he managed to say. “The driver…he was back there…” Ellis waved his hand in the direction of the bus. He just needed a moment; everything was still spinning.
Heavy, gray smoke billowed out from the bus frame. Deep in its shadow, a dark outline moved towards them—Benny.
Ellis watched as Raya ran to him. He could make out someone else too, someone big, maybe Caden? The two of them grabbed the driver and dragged him a safe distance from the flames.
Benny was coughing but seemed otherwise unharmed. He slumped on the ground, his hands planted on either side for support, a comical expression of shock on his red face.
“My…my bus!”
“Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Raya kneeled next to him, her hand resting on his shoulder. Caden lurked over them both awkwardly, shuffling nervously from foot to foot. Benny was obviously fine and loving the attention.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m all good…but my bus! What am I gonna do? I’ll lose my job, for sure.” What little hair he had left was standing on end, ash covering his face and hands.
The shock was loosening its grip on Ellis now, giving way to a surge of pure anger. How could something like this happen? He could have died.
“You should lose your fucking job,” he growled. “Buses don’t just explode for no reason. A few minutes earlier and we would have all been killed.” Clearly, someone was to blame. Someone had to be guilty. That was how Ellis’s world worked. Bad things didn’t just happen to him.
“Ellis, back off,” Raya snapped. “We don’t know what happened. Maybe the bus overheated on the drive or something? Just give him a freaking break—he nearly died.”
“I nearly fucking died!” Ellis clenched his fists tightly.
He did not like Raya Mori. Plain and simple.
He hadn’t liked her before she transitioned, with her ridiculous mullet and oversized jorts.
He didn’t like her now with her short black hair, kohl-ringed eyes, and piercings that shouldn’t be legal. Emo witch.
He was simmering dangerously; he could feel it. The adrenaline from the aftershock was taking over. His self-control was slipping.
The others were approaching, running over from the reception area. He pulled himself up. This was not the time or place to lose it.
Think of Father in court, he told himself. He pictured the calm, poise, and presence of his father—Grant Locke, the brilliant criminal defense lawyer, stalking around a courtroom, controlling the air, commanding everyone’s attention. On the raw edge between handsome and cruel.
Pull yourself together. Be like Father. He reached down and touched his expensive-looking Rolex, his fingers stroking the smooth watch face.
By now, the others had arrived in a cloud of hysteria.
Jade was freaking out loudly. Jax was filming everything.
Danny’s twin sister and Alex hovered near the bus driver, who was going on and on about his “poor dang bus.” Ellis blocked them all out, only half-listening while they got it out of their systems. He turned his back to them and watched as the fire burned itself out, until his heartbeat slowed to normal, until the panic subsided.
Now that the imminent danger had passed, the reality of their situation was sinking in, and one by one they fell quiet.
Ellis nodded to himself, flexing his hands.
There was no question in his mind about who was in charge.
Benny, the only adult here (and he used the term loosely), was clearly incapable of managing himself, let alone seven teenagers trapped in a deserted motel with an exploding bus.
No, it was go time. The situation called for a real leader, and Ellis was ready.
He turned to face the group.
“Is anyone hurt?” He had a natural, easy authority, and knew it. No one said anything, a few heads shook. “All right, good. Is everyone here?” Heads nodded. He looked around, double-checking. All seven plus Benny. All present.
“Ellis, what are we supposed to do?” Jade dusted off her tiny Lululemon shorts and checked herself on her phone camera; her carefully curated perfection was firmly back in place now that the shock had worn off.
“Seriously. How are we going to get home? We can’t even call an Uber. This really sucks!”
There was a murmur of agreement.
“There’s not much we can do. The bus is gone, it’s almost dark, and the nearest town is miles away. We can keep looking for a cell signal. But in the meantime, we might as well check in for the night and make the best of it.” He kept it direct and simple—commanding. A chip off the old block.
“Wait, you don’t mean we’re staying here tonight?” Jax said, a flash of panic in his green eyes.
The chorus started up.
“I won’t stay here,” Jade said flatly. “It’s filthy and—”
“There’s no Wi-Fi,” Jax added unhelpfully.
“No food,” Caden grunted.
“Anyone seen Psycho?” Raya grinned.
“All right, enough!” Ellis barked. He looked around at the expectant faces. “We don’t have a choice, do we? Like it or not, we have to stay—for now, at least. We’ll leave in the morning. Are we clear?”
There were reluctant stirrings of assent.
“So unfair,” Jade griped under her breath.
“Fuck’s sake, Jade,” Ellis snapped, the last of his patience gone. “Get over yourself. It’s not my fault the driver drove us to the wrong motel.”
Benny muttered a half-hearted squeak of protest.
“Actually…we are in the right place,” a small voice cut in. It was Danny’s sister, his dull little shadow. What was her name again? Emma? Anna? Ellis couldn’t remember and cared less.
“What do you want?” he said sharply. She wilted a little under his glare.
“It’s just that…I found something.” She held out a small pink envelope. “This was in the reception office. It’s addressed to us. We were expected.”
Ellis glared at her. Even though she was boring, quiet, and totally irrelevant, there was a touch of something about her. A small flash of Danny in her eyes, her voice, maybe the way she turned her head. Like an after-image, a living reminder.
He snatched the envelope out of her hand, noting the distinctive scarring across her palm—he wasn’t the only one marked by the fire. Quickly he turned his back to her, preferring to look anywhere else, as he tore open the envelope.
Inside was a card with a picture of pink roses bathed in a sickly, yellow light. It looked perfectly innocent, if a little tacky. As he opened the card, a twenty-dollar bill fell to the ground. He bent down and picked it up.
A shadow crossed his face.
“What is it?” Jade asked impatiently, her voice sounding a touch less bored than usual.
Ellis rubbed his face, then held the card out for everyone to see. Printed inside was a generic message: HAPPY 1ST ANNIVERSARY. Someone had handwritten a message below it: Only the truth will set you free.
“Seriously?” Jade scrunched up her nose in confusion. “What’s that even mean? And what’s with ‘happy anniversary’? Happy? I’m sorry but that’s messed up.”
She had a point. Tomorrow would be exactly one year since the fire. If someone knew they were from St. Francis High, then they had to know about the fire, about the deaths. Ellis looked around at the worried faces.
“Look, I don’t know. It’s nothing. Probably the only card they could get on short notice.
” He suddenly needed to get away from the smoldering bus—from these idiots.
He handed the card back to Danny’s sister, discreetly slipping the twenty-dollar bill into his pocket.
His hands were starting to shake a little.
He folded his arms before anyone could see.
Show no weakness. “Let’s go and check in. First come, first served,” he added.
That got them going. Jade grabbed Jax by the hand and practically took off for the reception area, closely followed by the others.
Ellis waited until they’d all left, turning to look at the bus; red embers glowed through the hollowed-out windows, like a row of fiery eyes glaring back at him.
The truth was, he didn’t know what was happening here.
Maybe the bus had overheated. Maybe the motel was just a cheap rip-off, and the card was an unfortunate coincidence.
Maybe there were perfectly logical explanations for all of this. It was just…it didn’t feel right.
He put his hand into his pocket, his fingers playing with the twenty-dollar bill, pulling at the edges. He swallowed nervously.
Clearly, someone wanted them here. They were stumbling forward, figuring things out as they went.
But the inescapable fact was that they were trapped at the Motel Loba.
Maybe tomorrow things would sort themselves out.
But for now, for tonight, they were playing someone’s game, and they didn’t know the rules.