With one more shuffling step, he was close enough for Amber to grab his legs. He tried to twist from her grip and ended up tripping himself. He toppled hard, slamming into the floor with a deep grunt.
“Excuse me,” the woman said, standing over them. “What are you…”
“Blanket,” Amber said. She didn’t dare let go of his legs. Ricky was still churning his legs, trying to get away. At least Liz had stopped fighting.
Alan ran over to investigate the commotion.
“Don’t look at the corner!” Amber whispered to him.
He almost did anyway, just as a reflex. Before his eyes could shift, he raised a hand to block himself from seeing.
In her grip, Ricky stopped trying to wriggle away.
Amber heard the click of a latch and the movement of a shadow in her peripheral vision. Under the tables, over in the corner, something had moved. She could only hope that it meant that everything was going to be okay. She didn’t dare to look to be sure.
“Blanket?” the woman asked.
“I’m just saying, my friend needs the blanket more than me,” Amber said. She sat up so she was facing away from the corner and helped Liz spin around before she sat up too. Together, they got Ricky up. Alan knelt next to them.
“What was it?” Alan asked.
Liz sighed and put her hands to her temples. After wiping the corner of her eye, she said, “Jennifer, I think, or something that looked just like Jennifer. I’m afraid she’s really gone.”
“For now,” Amber said.
Fourteen: Escape
They were allowed to go back in after the hotel had been inspected and the power was restored. By then, the guests were grumbling and several were threatening legal action. Alan and Liz rescued their bags from the lobby and said their goodbyes in the parking lot.
“We can take you into town if you like,” Liz said to Amber. “You can come back later today when this place isn’t so crazy.”
“No, thanks,” Amber said. “As soon as they let us in, I’m going to race upstairs, grab my keys, and then hit the road. I’m not slowing down until I’m five states away.”
“Ditto,” Ricky said. “I mean except for the five states thing. I think Kingston will be far enough for me.”
Amber stared at him with raised eyebrows, but he only shrugged and said, “I’ve lived there my whole life.”
They stood together and waved to Liz and Alan as they drove away.
When the power came back on and everyone saw the lobby light up, a cheer broke out. The good mood didn’t last long. They were all shifting from foot to foot and complaining within sixty seconds. Amber recognized many people from the wedding reception. Ricky said hello to a few of them and made sure that they were all going to hit the road that day. Nobody he knew was planning a second night in the hotel.
“I’ll see if I can convince anyone that the hotel should be shut down. They don’t have that many guests anyway. You wouldn’t think it would be a big deal,” Ricky said.
“Good,” Amber said. “But it wouldn’t surprise me if they were all gone anyway. I don’t think they stick around one area very long.”
Ricky studied her for a moment to see if she would say more. She didn’t.
“You planning on every telling anyone what happened?” Amber finally asked.
Ricky shook his head. “I’ve been through something like this before. People aren’t just resistant to hearing about things they don’t understand. They’re downright angry about anyone who insists differently. Anyone who tries to blow the whistle would be attacked from all sides. I think I’ll keep my mouth shut about things I can’t explain.”
“Didn’t you take an oath to protect people or something?”
He nodded. “I didn’t say that I wasn’t going to work on a solution, I’m just not planning on running around talking about it.”
“Oh,” she said.
When the firefighters waved for people to return to the hotel, Ricky and Amber walked together. They went to her room first and he stood by while she gathered her things. The room was ice cold. She moved fast, trudging through the broken glass on the floor.
Ricky tried to say goodbye in the hall but she insisted on waiting for him to get his things together too. They joined a line of people who were waiting patiently for their turn on the elevator.
“We could take the stairs,” Amber suggested. “Fewer people.”
“No, thanks,” Ricky said.
Amber nodded.
Down in the parking lot, Ricky waited while Amber put her bag in her car. She leaned in to start it but didn’t get in right away.
“What do you think is going to happen when they discover the missing people?” she asked.
Ricky shrugged. “I have no idea. From what I saw, they’re not going to find any evidence of them. I’ll talk to Aaron and Jennifer’s family. I owe them that much. I haven’t figured out exactly what I’m going to say though.”
“And Riley. And Nick,” she added.
Ricky’s eyes went wide.
# # #
“You don’t have to do this,” Ricky said as they rounded the corner.
They came up the back staircase to avoid the other people. Ricky had veered wide around the space under the stairs.
“I know,” she said.
They sprinted up the stairs to the second floor and Ricky poked his head out to see if anyone was there.
“It’s the maintenance closet—third door on the left. Stand between me and the elevators in case he doesn’t open the door.”
Amber nodded.
They darted from the stairwell and took their positions. Amber’s hands felt empty without her stake. She looked through the windows at the end of the hall to reassure herself. Outside, the sun was bright. While Ricky knocked and whispered through the closet door, Amber slid across the hall and tried the door to the guest room. It was unlocked. Propping it open gave some more natural light to the hall in front of the maintenance closet.
“Stand here for a second,” Ricky said, pointing. “I’m going to break in.”
Amber moved into the spot.
