Chapter 5 Tonight, we improvise

After some more driving we decide that we

need to stop and rent a hotel room. To be

honest we would be better off sleeping in the

gutter. As the clock on the radio reads 1:52am

I pull into the only hotel in the small town

that I cannot remember the name of. The

The hotel goes by the name The Crane Motel Inn.

Except the a,n,e in Crane and the o,t and l in

The hotel are out so it reads The Cr Mt. Besides

that the roach coach looked promising. Only

needing 16 dollars it was luxurious or at least

that is what I kept telling myself so I can get

myself to hand the greasy haired guy ina

Black Sabbath T-shirt my money.

"Carls..This looks sketchy..." Justin says as

he peaks his head out of the car. Sabbath

peaked behind me and raised an eyebrow.

This causes Justin to add on "Where we come

from Sketchy means cool. Wonderful your

hotel is so sketchy." He then rolls up the

window and pushes the lock button. I roll my

eyes and take the black key to room 605.

Roberto is right behind me and behind him is

Mary and Justin practically falling over each

other. Once I open the door I am greeted with

the strong smell of cigarette smoke. The

curtains, once white are now stained a

mustard yellow color. I can practically smell

the prostitutes perfume from the guest

before.

"Okay, where's our room?" Mary asks me,

taking Justin's hand in hers. "This is your

room. And ours." I say gesturing to Roberto.

"You didn't get us separate rooms?" Mary

says almost mad at me for not getting her and

Justin a sex cabin in the woods. I have forty

dollars for hotels on this trip. This is all I can

afford. When I tell Mary this she rolls her

eyes and flops on the bed. "Fine but you get

the couch and Roberto gets the desk." She

says as she rubs her body all over the gross

sheets.

Cringing, I put my bag on the desk. "Me and

you on the bed, Roberto on the couch and

Justin on the floor." I say and put my body

next to Mary's on the bug infested bedding.

Though I do this, I make sure to take the

pillows out from under my head before laying

down to sleep. Mary didn't think of this and

neither did Roberto who stole the pillow I was

not willing to use. I set my alarm for three

hours. So it will be just about sunrise when

we leave. With that, I turn out the lamp that

was blinking the whole time it was on due to

what I am guessing is a short fuse, and shut

my eyes to go to sleep and get some energy

for the rest of the journey.

"What do you want!" I screamed at the man

in the ski mask. "You." He replies...deadly

calm. I try moving my arms once more,

wondering if maybe the ropes tying them to

the kitchen chair would give in. Alas, nothing

happens just some burn marks on my wrists.

"Just let me see him!"I holler. "I need to

know he's okay!" this was met with a cold,

hard closing of the shed door and three locks

locking me in. "Please! Let me see him!"I

keep on. I spill this nonsense as I scoot the

chair to the work bench that has a rusty bow

saw sitting on it. Once I get to it the door

opens. "You should have listened to me when

I said to follow my instructions. You might

have gotten a days more out of your pathetic

life." The man is back. Then it all went black.

I wake up in a cold sweat. The soft sounds of

Mary's snoring next to me to fill the room. It

was just a dream I tell myself. So much for

getting sleep and more energy. I flop back

down on the bed and wonder why I had that

dream. My dreams have always been a portal

to my subconscious for me. When I was

fourteen and had a dream about the lunch

room at school filling up with milk, the next

day I went to school and the milk freezer

overheated or over-cooled or something and

all the milk was rotten. It happened another

time when I was sixteen.I had a dream that

the guy I was with was cheating on me and I

killed him and his other lover and went to jail.

Little did I know that I ended up cheating and

he offed himself.

That got me thinking about all the shit I've

gone through the last decade of my life. When

I was 8 my best friend disappeared, My mom died at child birth. When I was fourteen

Roberto put a firecracker in my bed and made

me go to the hospital with first degree burns.. When I was 17 I was admitted into

the loony bin for a Schizophrenia diagnosis

that I didn't even have. And now at 19, a

fucking psycho wants to kill me. Great. Just

fucking wonderful.

My self-sulking thoughts were interrupted

with the beeping of my alarm. Everyone else

in the room groans as I get up and make them

get up. This was met with "Five more

minutes!" and "Shh..." coming from both

Roberto and Mary. Justin is a morning

person like myself. So he was relatively easy

to wake. We then pack the bag and head to

check out. Instead of Black Sabbath dude

greeting us with his greasy hair and yellow

smile there was a small Asian woman missing

a few teeth sitting at the reception booth. The

morning air has a bite of chill in it and it

makes the hair on my arms stand up and my

body shiver as I stand there waiting for her to

shimmy closer in her house slippers. "You

enjoy your stay yeah?" She asks her accent

showcasing itself. "Yeah, wonderful." I say

and with a smile I gave her my room key and

walked to the car, the rest of the gang

following behind me.

We had just gotten settled when the pre-paid

flip phone rang. If I wasn't awake before, I

sure was now. I take a deep breath and

answer the phone. The car getting deadly

silent. "Hello?" I question. The other line

stays quiet for a moment and I am met with a

greeting. "I will have you know that you when

you get here I expect forty thousand dollars in

hand. A penny less and I off the boy." The

voice said. The feeling of my stomach in my

throat from when I first received the letter is

back. "I don't have that kind of money." I say.

My loss of hope apparent in my voice, so

much that Rob and Mary each have a hand on

my shoulder.

"You better find it." And with that, the phone

went dead. For the first time during this

entire trip...I wept.

After my full blown breakdown that I'm not

even that mad at myself for having, we are

sitting in the car in silence. Trying to come up

with a way to get 40 thousand dollars. I was

about to turn around and take the hit. At least

Max wouldn't be a what if, where is he and

what could I have done differently situation.

He would just be dead. I would know the

ending of his life and I would finally be able

to start mine. Mary, like always piped up with

her high pitched bubbly voice "I know where

we can get most of it." This made everyone in

the car turn to her and look for more answers.

"My Grandpa says he has one good loan for

me. He wants me to use it for college but said

that if I need a bit of it or all of it for that

matter, for anything he would be more than

happy to supply it to me. I guess it camne in

handy coming from a shallow rich family Am'i

right?" She explains.

I didn't look back at her. I can't look back at

her without crying again. I really don't want

to ask that from her but at the same time it

isn't for me, it isn't about me. Its about Max

and saving him. "Where does he live?" I ask.

"Oh nonsense I'll just call him and have him

transfer it to my savings account. Pull over to

the first Bank of America we run across." She

sighs and takes out her phone, dialing what

I'm guessing is her grandfather's number.

With a few sentences we where 36,000

dollars richer. We still needed 4 thousand

dollars.

When I bring this up Justin pipes up with a

way to gain some money. "My Uncle, he owns

a...special plant farm." he says enunciating

the special in the sentence. "How is it

special?" Mary innocently asks. "Weed Mary.

His uncle grows the devil's lettuce." Roberto

answers with a roll of his eyes and a hardy

laugh. Something we all need right now.

"Okay does he live somewhere around here?"

I ask. "No. Sorry we would have to lose a days

work on driving." Justin says. There's the

kicker. We left just in time to get there on

time. "Let me think about it." I say.

Ineed to come up with another plan. One that

doesn't involve Mary giving up her college

fund, and not getting there a day late. I know

I can't take that much out of my father's

account or my Mama's. They check their bank

statements three times a day and probably

more since they aren't at home. Justin doesn't

have that kind of money just laying around

and neither does Roberto. Mary would offer if

she could magically get her Mother or Father

to give he four thousand no questions asked

and that sure as hell isn't going to happen.

Anon isn't going to accept 36,000 and Max

will be dead a second after I meet him again.

Then it hits me. My dream. Anon said that I

didn't follow their direction so I must have

not given them the 36000. I must have tried

to break Max out. How am I going to do it is

the question. I pull the car over.

Looking back at Justin and Mary and

glancing at Roberto I tell them that we need

to break Max out. "We can't do that. I tried to

steal a Twinkies and got caught." Justin says.

"Yeah Carla I'm all for saving Max but I can't

you know..die." Mary adds. "Well this is the

only option at this point. Anon isn't going to

take 3600o they want the whole amount." I

say. They look at each other and break the

news. "Yeah, if we have to do that I'm out.

This is getting to Murder-y" Says Justin.

"Yeah I agree. Sorry Carls." Mary adds once

more. "Come on guys how am I supposed to

do this without ya'll1?" I say my voice cracking

a little bit. "No Carla." They say and they take

their seat belts off and getting out of the car.

"We'll get a cab and take the Gray-hound."

Mary says and then they leave.

For the second time I cried. I cried so much I

forgot Rob was beside me. "I'm staying and

and

we are gonna get Max back." He says as he

rubs my back. I nod and hug him. I feel so

hopeless and now helpless. Maybe I should

call the cops. I think but thenI remember

Anon is always watching somehow and Max

doesn't stand a chance. I don't know how he

kept himself alive so long, Anon has to be

waiting for my nineteen birthday for some

reason. I have so many questions still. The

biggest one right now is how in the hell am I

gonna break Max out. When I tell this to Rob

he remarks that we should meet with anon.

Me, distracting them and then Rob going to

find Max. Most likely in the hotel that they

are having us meet them in.

This isn't what I am in favor for since Anon

can slit my throat at any moment while Rob is

trying to find Max.. Though, I digress since

this is the only plan we have so far. We stop at

another motel after a days of driving except

this time its a little different since we don't

have to argue on who gets the bed and who

gets the couch and who wants to spend

double the money so they can go be intimate

with each other. Maybe this trip will be better

without Mary and Justin making things

harder. The bad thing is, we are kinda on our

own if we need the 4ok in the first place.

Hopefully we won't and we will be able to

break Max out. The only thing is, we need to

stop Anon from trying to take Max again and

the only way we can do that is by killing them.

At least the most rational thing. I am willing

to take the fall. We will kill Anon and then I

will call the cops and tell them I killed them

and hopefully they will either think I am crazy

or they will let me claim self-defense.

Either way, stuff is going to go down and I am

not sure if I am ready for it but I dont' think

that really matters at this point. I tell myself

that is a question I should have asked myself

when I first got the letter that was sat on my

bed not two days before. All of this is running

through my head as I fall into a dreamless

sleep. A sleep to drown out the horrors I'm

about to face tomorrow and especially the

next day.