“Witnesses?” Nick asked.
They all turned to him. Ricky and Amber both had their flashlights pointed roughly at Nick, lighting him up like he was on stage.
“What do you mean?” Liz asked.
“Well, assuming that this all started tonight at the train crossing, maybe the attack on Riley was the only random part. Maybe whatever went after him was just hungry. But then, I witnessed them and they wanted to get me too. I got out of there before they could grab me, but then I soon returned with Aaron, Ricky, and Amber. Now, they’re after all of us.”
Amber clicked off her flashlight to conserve the batteries. Ricky did the same. The only light on Nick was from the emergency light near the door.
“You guys rescued Riley, and then you were witnesses too,” Nick said, pointing to Ricky and then Amber. He turned to Alan and Liz. “I don’t know how you guys fit in. Maybe you just got caught up in all of this because they were already in the parking lot?”
“Perhaps,” Liz said. “But we talked to Amber and heard her speculation, and then we discovered that Jennifer and Aaron were gone. In a way, we witnessed something as well.”
“So, witnesses,” Nick said.
“Maybe,” Amber said, “but why do they care?”
“They don’t want us to tell what we saw. Maybe they don’t want people trying to track them down.”
“I’m not sure they’re that smart,” Amber said. “I think it’s just as likely that they’re simple hunters and they see us as prey. I would believe that they followed you here because you were warm and moving. Aside from that, I don’t know that there’s all that much planning going on.”
Everybody froze when they heard a knock at the door.
It didn’t sound like the tapping. This was the sound of actual human knuckles hitting the metal of the door.
Ricky clicked on his light.
The knock came again.
“Amber? Are you in there?” the voice called.
“That’s Aaron,” Ricky said.
Everyone looked to Amber to answer.
“Should I…” she started to ask in a whisper.
“It’s Aaron,” Ricky said. He began to move towards the door.
“Wait,” Nick said. “Just hold on. What if it’s not really him?”
Ricky climbed the dresser and put his eye to the peephole. It took him a moment to get a good look at the form in the fading light of the battery-powered emergency lighting.
“It’s him,” Ricky said.
“Are you in there?” Aaron called from the other side. “Can you let me in? I don’t know if it’s safe out here.”
“Just a minute, Aaron,” Ricky called. “The door is blocked.”
He tried to move the dresser on his own and then called for Nick to help.
“I’m not sure it’s safe for us to open the…”
“It’s Aaron,” Ricky said.
Amber moved closer to the door so she could communicate. “Aaron, are you okay?”
“Yes, but I don’t think that I’m alone out here. I think I saw something earlier.”
“What happened before? Why weren’t you in your room?” she asked.
Ricky was whispering to Nick, arguing with him to try to get him to help. When Nick shook his head, Ricky went back to trying to move the dresser on his own. Amber put a hand on Ricky’s arm to make him stop while she conversed with Aaron.
“I don’t know,” Aaron said. “I was with Jenn and then I guess I fell asleep. When I woke up, she was gone. I went to look for her. Is she in there?”
“Were you injured, Aaron?”
“Can you let me in?”
“Do you have any bites or scratches?”
“What?”
Ricky ignored Amber and finally got a good grip on the dresser, rocking it until he could free it from where it had been wedged between the door and the wall. It started to slide.
“That’s far enough,” Nick said.
Ricky went back towards the door and reached for the tape on the lock. Amber put her hand over it.
“Aaron? Could you answer the question? Do you have any physical injuries on you? Maybe one that you don’t remember getting?”
“What? No,” Aaron said. “No. I’m fine.”
Amber kept her hand on the lock and she glanced back to the others. Liz shrugged and Alan shook his head.
“It’s not safe,” Nick said.
“He comes in, or I’m leaving,” Ricky said. “Either way, that door is opening. Are you going to try to stop me?”
After a moment, Amber moved away from the door. She clicked on her light and stepped back near the bed with her flashlight in one hand and the stake in the other.
Ricky peeled the tape and then opened the door.
When he opened it, the door could only swing about a foot before it hit the dresser. Aaron squeezed through the gap. Amber kept her light pointed at his feet. It only took a moment for Aaron to realize what Ricky was trying to do and then he turned to help push the dresser in front of the door again.
Amber pointed her light at his face when he turned around.
Aaron blinked, but didn’t flinch or shrink from the light.
“Start from when I left you in the hallway and tell us everything,” Amber said.
“She’s not here? Jenn’s not here?” Aaron asked, looking around.
“No,” Amber said.
With a sigh, Aaron seemed to deflate. “All I could hope was that she got angry at me for not being fully present on our wedding night. First the phone call and then running off to look for Riley. I thought maybe she came back to you to commiserate on what a jerk I was being. If she’s not here, then I don’t know…”
“Start from the top, Aaron,” Amber said.
# # #
“There’s not much to tell—we left you, went to our room, and then I guess I fell asleep. When I woke up, Jenn was gone. I looked downstairs and went out to make sure the car was still here. I went back to the room and figured that she had to be in the hotel somewhere because all her stuff is still here. The power went out and I came down
