Chapter 10 Ana
Ana
“We’re in a circle?” Benny said, as though his mind was two steps behind the words coming out of his mouth. “And if we go outta the circle, then we get shot at? So, we’re…trapped?” He was chewing methodically on a piece of gum, staring at the vintage linoleum floor as he spoke.
The sound of gunshots had kicked Ana into high gear.
She felt alert and on edge as she stood by the window in the reception area, listening to the others talking.
Everyone was gathered together, blinds drawn, dust drifting lazily in the heavy air.
She focused on one speck of dust, watching as it was swept up in a current of air from Ellis’s manic stomping up and down, back and forward. The guy was never still.
“Yes, Benny. Well done,” Ellis snapped. “Everyone else keeping up?” He glared around the room.
His usual sarcasm wasn’t enough to hide the fact that Ellis looked scared. Ana watched his body language as he paced the room.
No one could blame him. Someone had just tried to kill him.
Of all the people in this room, he knew what that felt like.
He’d been there. A year ago, Ellis had been the big hero of the day.
He had been the first to react when the fire started, running across the basketball court towards the flames, while everyone else ran in the other direction.
He’d dragged several students out of harm’s way before the fire finally caught him, paying for his courage with nasty burns across his chest and shoulder.
Raya also seemed subdued. She was perched on the pink pleather sofa and had barely said a word, letting Ellis do the talking.
“So, this isn’t a prank? This is all real?” Jade’s voice sounded uncharacteristically high-pitched, far from her usual monotone drawl. Her make-up was immaculate, her outfit perfectly put together, ready for her moment in the spotlight.
“No, babe. No, it’s not real, okay? We’re fine.” Jax spoke up. All he had on was a pair of jeans, his perfectly toned six-pack glistened with a sheen of sweat.
“So, who’s shooting at us?” Jade asked.
“No one! Can’t you see?” Jax said. “It must be part of the game. It’s probably special effects. It’s genius.”
“Didn’t you read the message?” Ellis spluttered. “Karl Hunt lit the match, but you are all guilty. Someone brought us out here to punish us—not some random kids. Us! Isn’t it obvious? This is no prank.”
“Look, Ellis.” Jax was committed. “You can believe what you want. But you’re going to look like such an idiot when it turns out to be a prank. Just saying…”
“And if it’s not a prank, you’re going to look fucking dead,” Ellis snapped back.
This didn’t feel like a prank, simply because it wasn’t funny.
Any way she looked at it, Ana knew it didn’t make sense.
Taking a group of survivors, kids who had been through one kind of hell, and torturing them for amusement was beyond reason.
No successful YouTuber would touch this.
They’d get canceled at the very least, and most likely arrested for reckless endangerment. No, this wasn’t a bad joke.
Oddly, the thought didn’t scare her. She felt wired and focused, but not afraid.
Maybe she was numb and the reality hadn’t set in yet.
Or maybe…maybe she didn’t care enough. She glanced across at Alex.
His hair was tousled with sleep, and he still had the imprint of his pillow on his cheek.
He caught her eye and gave a resigned half-smile.
He looked sad and worried, his arm wrapped around the neck of his guitar protectively. Ana felt a pull of something inside.
No. She cared.
“I want it on the record that whatever happens, I ain’t responsible for any of you. I’m just the bus driver!” Benny said emphatically. The guy looked terrified. As the only legal adult within a thirty-mile radius, it wouldn’t look good if all the kids died on his watch.
“Yeah, that’s not really a good legal defense, is it?” Ellis said with a half-laugh. “If we all die and you’re still standing…negligence, accessory to murder, second-degree manslaughter…”
“How about we look at the facts?” Ana cut in, surprising herself. She held up her phone. “It’s already nearly nine-thirty. We can spend the rest of the time arguing, or we can try to figure out what’s going on.”
“Fair point.” Ellis stopped pacing and moved in front of Ana, taking over the room. “We need to share everything we know and gather as much information as possible.” Heads nodded in agreement.
Ana felt a small flash of irritation. Wasn’t that what she’d just suggested?
“Let’s start with the trip invites.” Ellis pulled the black card out of his pocket.
A couple of other cards were produced, and for a few minutes, they stood around studying the glossy invitations.
The images were clearly cobbled together from random photos; a yurt with a woman meditating, a close-up of a mud-covered face with cucumbers over the eyes, a horse with a smiling rider.
The most interesting image was in the background.
It looked like the Motel Loba, only sleek and modern.
Everything was in the right place, the reception area with its angular carport roof, the wings of rooms, even the palm tree.
“Photoshopped!” Ellis declared. “Someone made all of these invites and set this whole trip up. Think about it. Every year some super-rich parent donates a trip as the top prize in the school fundraiser, right? So, this year, whoever is behind this must have pretended to be a school donor and arranged all of this—the invites, the bus, the motel, just to bring us here. That’s a hell of a lot of effort. ”
“But who…and why us?” Jade asked. “We won this trip in the raffle, which is random, right? I mean, that’s the whole point of a raffle—you buy a ticket and it’s luck who wins. So, what? We’re just really, really unlucky?”
“No, the message was clear. It said we’re all guilty.
Clearly the raffle wasn’t as random as it was supposed to be.
Somehow Bates figured out a way to rig the results.
He must have known it was mandatory to buy a ticket, so we’d all have at least one entry.
Which meant he could pick who he wanted to win—and he chose us. All of us.”
“How’s that possible? I can’t have been chosen. It doesn’t make any sense. I’m not guilty of anything!” Jade’s voice kept getting higher and higher.
“I know. Me either.” Everyone knew Ellis wasn’t guilty—he was the big hero. “The only thing I’m guilty of is not getting fried into a charred hunk of dead meat.”
Ana felt like she’d been slapped in the face. She quickly turned away. How could he just casually throw out something like that? What was his problem? Images swept into her mind before she could mount a defense. She closed her eyes, willing them away.
“Don’t say stuff like that, Ellis. You’re not the only victim here.” It was Alex’s voice—one of the rare moments he’d chosen to speak up. Ana didn’t need to look at him to know that he’d done it for her.
“All right, I’m sorry.” Ellis sounded contrite. Probably surprised by Alex’s uncharacteristically sharp tone.
There was an unpleasant silence. Ana opened her eyes and looked around. Alex was standing next to her, his guitar momentarily discarded. Her protector. She was touched by the gesture, but she didn’t need protecting. She could look after herself.
“What I don’t get is who would do this?” Jade carried on, oblivious to the tension. “I mean, who would want to hurt me? Seriously, I’m not like overstating or anything, but people generally like me. Wait, unless it’s like a stalker…”
“Look, whoever this Bates is, it’s not some low-level stalker,” Ellis said. “They’re a rich, organized, and determined—”
“YouTuber,” Jax muttered in a stage whisper.
“Fuck’s sake, Jax!” Ellis sounded exasperated. He rubbed his hand hard over his head.
As Ana looked from face to face, she could tell that the mood in the room was sinking. They could guess all they wanted, but it didn’t change the fact that they had no idea who was doing this, or why.
But maybe they could start with how.
“What if we’d said no?”
A row of faces looked back at her blankly.
“What if one of us had decided we didn’t want to come…or we couldn’t make it? Bates’s plan would have been ruined.”
“Good point,” Ellis added. “What are the odds that all of us would accept the invitation—that we’d all be free this exact weekend?” Ellis was talking fast now. “I wasn’t going to come. I had a game on Sunday night, but it was canceled the night before the trip.”
“Jax and I were going to skip the trip too,” Jade chimed in. “All my college friends were throwing this awesome party in the hills. I’m, like, not even kidding you, this super cool DJ was set to play. I so wanted to go.”
“Yeah, but then I got this DM…but I’m not supposed to talk about it,” Jax said with a faux-humble smile. “You know, non-disclosure and all that,” he added mysteriously.
Jade paused for a respectable five seconds before adding, “Let’s just say someone’s PA reached out and said that someone thought this whole trip would make a cool story, seeing as how it’s on the anniversary of the fire and all.
And that someone might be interested in having Jax and me on their show to do an exclusive when we got back. But don’t share that, okay?”
“Yeah. You don’t say no to someone, right?” Jax added emphatically as if this was a no-brainer. Jade nodded enthusiastically and slipped a hand into Jax’s back pocket, pulling him close.
“If it was a DM, how do you know they were really someone’s PA?” Raya asked, one pierced eyebrow raised archly.
“Because she told us—duh,” Jax said as though he was stating the obvious.
“Well, then, it must be true,” Ellis said, rolling his eyes. Raya coughed pointedly. “Okay, moving on. What about the rest of you?” Ellis looked around. There was a tight knot developing in Ana’s gut. “Alex?”
Alex looked embarrassed.
“Someone called my abuela about it.” He blushed awkwardly. “They told her I’d won this special trip, and it was the chance of a lifetime. We’ve never been on a vacation, so she was really happy about it. I had to go…for her.”
The thought of Bates calling sweet old Mrs. Cabrera to manipulate her into sending Alex was sickening. It was a violation. Bates had reached into each of their lives, poking around and stirring. The knot in Ana’s stomach was getting bigger by the minute.
“Caden, what about you?”
“None of your business,” Caden said grumbling.
“It’s kind of our business, don’t you think?” Ellis said.
Caden shuffled from foot to foot awkwardly. He seemed to be weighing up his options. Finally, he cleared his throat and spoke.
“This sophomore on the cheer team DM’d me and said she was going on the trip too. Wasn’t gonna say no to that. She’s a solid ten. But then she never showed, did she.”
“Ever heard of catfishing?” Raya said drily.
Ana felt her face go red. It would be her turn soon. Everyone would turn to her and ask her why she was here—how had Bates manipulated her into coming? Why had she started this whole conversation? She should have just kept her damn mouth shut.
“I got an email from Dankman saying I would be excused from all detentions this month for showing ‘school spirit’ if I came. Seemed like a good deal.” Raya grinned, but her eyes were on Ana.
Everyone turned to look at Ana. The final piece. Positive proof that they had all been lured here by some crazed psychopath (or very well-organized YouTuber). She chewed her lip nervously. The knot in her stomach was so big now she felt like she might vomit.
She could just lie. She could make up a story. My mom got a call, or the school said I had to come. But what good would that do?
The truth was, she was the outlier—the only one who hadn’t been manipulated into coming on this trip. She hadn’t needed manipulation. She’d come voluntarily to the Motel Loba, not because she wanted to—it was quite possibly the last thing she wanted to do. But she’d come because she had to.
She had to get away. Now—on this day. She couldn’t be at home, staring at the blue sheets across the room, the white trainers lined up underneath, the Lakers hat over the bedpost. Untouched, unmoved.
She couldn’t walk into the kitchen and see her mother at the stove, look her in the eyes and see that expression.
That pain. That resentment. She couldn’t feel that roaring, devastating guilt.
The shame of knowing that the universe was upside down.
That it had made a huge, terrible mistake.
That she was bad, and Danny was good. That she should have died.
No one made her come. She was grateful for an excuse to run away from everything for a few days. There was never a question of whether she’d say yes to this trip. She had no choice.
The thing was, Bates hadn’t even tried to force her hand. He hadn’t set some story in place to ensure that she would be here. She was the only one who hadn’t been lured into this terrible trap.
Which could only mean one thing: Bates knew she’d come. With complete certainty, he knew. In two steps she made it to the door, swung it open, and ran outside, giving in to the knot, to the nausea.
Bates knew her. Whoever he was, he knew what she’d done; he knew what she was thinking. He was in her head.
He was in her head.