Chapter 7 Ana
Ana
On the scale of scary things that wake you in the night, seven angry high schoolers bashing on your door was right up there with creepy clowns and broken-necked ladies. At least it was for Benny.
When he opened the door, his red face had an almost comical expression—somewhere between abject terror and resignation. But, to his credit, he rallied quickly.
“Whad’ya think y’all are doing banging on my door like that? I was gettin’ my beauty sleep,” he grumbled, his eyes watchful, uncertain. He was still wearing his uniform, belt undone now.
Ellis didn’t stop to explain; he pushed his way past Benny and led the charge into the motel room.
The room was just as dated and funky as the rest of the motel, but oddly, it suited Benny. He looked like he was in his natural environment. Shabby and stale. The air reeked of cigarettes and alcohol. Clearly, he’d raided his minibar too; several bottles were lying empty on the bed.
“We need answers,” Ellis said, thrusting his phone in front of Benny’s face.
Benny squinted at the screen, mouthing out the words as he read:
“You are all guilty… The Balloon Game… What’s going on? What’s all that about, then?” He scratched his bald spot, looking flummoxed.
It took a solid few minutes of explanation to get him to catch up. He kept asking for bits of information to be repeated, and then squinted his eyes as though that would help it seep in. Finally, he seemed to get it.
“Phew,” he muttered, sinking down on the end of the bed. “I dunno, but that sure doesn’t sound good.”
“Really? You think?” Ellis said coolly. He was unnaturally still, arms folded across his chest, studying Benny’s face. “Show us your phone.”
“My phone? Why?”
“Why do you think? To see if you sent the fucking messages!”
Benny looked around at the expectant faces and shrugged resignedly.
He nodded at the dresser. An old-style flip phone was charging next to a pile of change, an orange keychain with the letters ‘HT’, and a box of Lucky Strike cigarettes resting on top of a folded piece of paper.
Jade snatched the phone up and flipped it open.
“Passcode?” she demanded.
“6969.”
“Ugh, seriously?” Jade unlocked the phone, holding it gingerly, as though she might catch something from it. She tapped on the screen several times. “There’s no message, and nothing recently sent or deleted either” she said.
Well, at least that was some information. Benny hadn’t sent the message, but he also hadn’t received it. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t invited to play this game.
“Look, I dunno what y’all got yourselves into here, but I’m not part of any of this.
I’m not responsible for y’all. Whatever kinda trouble y’all are in, ain’t nothin’ to do with me.
I ain’t no babysitter. I was hired to drive y’all here, and that’s what I did.
Just doing my job.” Benny looked on edge.
Ellis laughed dryly.
“Really? Your job? Well, it turns out your job involved kidnapping a group of teenagers and trapping them in a remote motel.”
“Kidnap! I didn’t kidnap…I… This ain’t fair! This ain’t my fault! I got nothin’ to do with all this… I’m a bus driver is all. Just drivin’ my bus…”
Ellis was clenching and unclenching his fist; he looked about ready to lose it, and Benny was in the line of fire.
Ana stepped forward quickly.
“It’s okay, Benny. We’re just trying to figure out what’s going on. Do you have any idea who might be behind this or who hired you to drive the bus?”
“I don’t know nothin’!” he said, turning to Ana imploringly. “Look, someone emailed me a work order—they needed a minibus and a driver for three days. The money’s real good. I mean, real good. More than I make in a month. They drop the itinerary in the mailbox and you’re good to go—easy money.”
“Do you usually take commissions from people you’ve never met?” Ellis cut in.
“Commissions?” Benny gave a short bark of a laugh. “It ain’t no commission. It’s work, payin’ work—and, yes, I take any work that comes my way and I’m grateful for it too. Not everyone’s rich like y’all. Man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do…put food on the table…pay the bills,” Benny grumbled.
“Yeah, right. Real salt-of-the-earth stuff. Come on, think. You must know something about all this,” Ellis said, clearly frustrated.
Benny stood abruptly, chest pushed forward. “You think I drove y’all here for what? So’s I could blow up my own bus? Like I wanna be stuck out here with a bunch a stuck-up, no-good teenagers?”
“Who the fuck are you, Benny-boy? Why should we trust you? We don’t know you. You’re just a loser with a bus and a messed-up accent. What’s up with the accent? Trying to pretend you’re a New Yorker? Oh, hey, I’m just some regular guy? Well, you’re not fooling anyone.”
“A New Yorker? Now that’s insulting!” Benny was spluttering.
Ellis’s fists were firmly clenched, his arms tense. Ready.
This was not going to end well.
Ana wasn’t sure what she could do to defuse the situation, but she knew she had to try. They needed more information, and beating people up was not going to help.
“I’m sorry, Benny. We’re not accusing you. We’re just scared.” She could feel the electrical presence of Ellis close by, his tight, angry energy filling the room. “Can you think of anything that might help us? Anything at all?”
Benny scratched his head thoughtfully, then reached over to the dresser and picked up the folded piece of paper. Shaking it open, he held it out in front of them.
“Look, here’s the work order. I brought a copy in case.” He pointedly spoke to Ana.
Ellis snatched the sheet out of his hand and unfolded it.
It was a printout of an order placed a month ago and sent to the Happy Travels Bus Co.
The instructions were clearly entered, just as Benny had described: services of one driver for a three-day trip, a description of the bus, route information to follow.
Payment in the amount of five thousand dollars.
Deposit of two hundred dollars paid immediately.
An additional five hundred for driver expenses.
There was a name at the bottom of the sheet. Order placed by N. Bates.
“Fuck!” Ellis snapped, flinging the paper down. “Are you fucking kidding me? N. Bates?”
“Wha—” Benny asked, hands raised in confusion. “Y’all know this Bates guy?”
Raya picked up the sheet and scanned it quickly. She started laughing.
“Benny—you got a work order from N. Bates to go to a remote motel with a busload of random strangers? Norman Bates? A motel? No alarm bells there?” she said, grinning.
“Why would there be? What aren’t you telling me?”
“Wow. Okay.” Raya passed the sheet around. “I guess you’re not a fan of old movies. Have you seriously never seen Psycho?”
Benny’s face fell as he put the pieces together. Clearly, he had seen the murderous horror movie set in the remote Bates Motel. The implications weren’t totally lost on him. He plonked himself on the edge of the bed and scratched hard at his bald spot.
“It’s a joke, right?” Jade said as she read the sheet. “I mean, this just shows that someone’s messing around. Like a prank or something…”
“Or we’re trapped here by a nutjob with an ironic sense of humor and a taste for vintage movies,” Raya said.
“No, listen. Jade’s right.” Jax snatched the sheet out of Jade’s hands.
“Think about it. Psycho’s a movie, right?
A movie—that’s gotta be a clue. We’re playing a so-called ‘game’.
We got cameras everywhere filming everything we do?
Guys, this proves my point. It’s YouTube!
It has to be. And whoever’s doing this spent serious money on this set-up.
Trust me, this isn’t some small wannabe influencer.
Not naming names, but this is big. I’m talking like a hundred-million-subscribers kind of big, if you know what I mean.
” Jax lit up, proud of his wayward logic.
He beamed radiantly for the invisible cameras.
“Guys, smile. We’re about to get famous. ”
“Oh my god. Jax, you’re so right,” Jade said, all smiles suddenly. “It makes perfect sense. I was wondering why I was invited, but now I totally get it.”
The mood in the room lightened instantly. At least this half-baked explanation didn’t involve getting murdered.
Jax was practically bouncing up and down with excitement.
“This is brilliant!” he shouted, turning around to random corners of the room and flashing his full-kilowatt smile.
This was his fantasy, the push he needed to project himself into the social media A-list. If he made a good impression in front of millions of viewers worldwide, he would get verified. “Game on. Let’s do this.”
“Oh my god, tomorrow is going to be so much fun.” Jade was glowing with excitement. “Wait, I need to pick my outfits and my make-up—it’s got to be perfect. There’s so much to do. Jax, come!” The two of them hustled over to the door, on a mission.
“Norman Bates…cool,” Caden mumbled, following them out.
“So, y’all figured it out. Now can I get some sleep?” Benny grumbled, pushing himself back on the bed and plumping up his pillows.
The conversation was over. Time to go to bed.
But as they stepped outside into the cool night air, Ana looked at the remaining people. Raya and Alex were quiet. Ellis was deep in thought. Were they thinking what she was thinking?
It would be so easy to choose to believe Jax’s theory. After all, maybe he was right. Was it any more ludicrous than the idea that someone was planning on killing them off one by one?
There was just one small problem.
What if Jax was wrong?
What if they all went to bed, then woke up bright and early, put on their cutest clothes and counted down to the start of the game, only to find out that it wasn’t a prank? What then?
They’d have thrown away their one chance to escape.
“I still think we need to leave,” Ana said quietly.