“Ella, don't do this,” he begged.
“I'm not going to wait around for the call when they tell me they found your body. If you leave, then it's over,” I said, hoping my ultimatum would keep him here. When he didn't say anything, I stepped back off the elevator and watched the tears spill down his face as the doors closed.
I fell to the floor crying hysterically.
“Miss Ella?” Gabe said, gently touching my shoulder. I hadn't noticed he was here until now.
“Oh Gabe, you have to stop him, you have to tell him not to do this!” I pleaded, hoping he could somehow be the voice of reason that I couldn't.
“Miss Ella,” he said, bending down next to me. “I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do to stop him.” I looked at him incredulously thinking he just didn't care. “Once one has made up their mind there's no changing it.”
“You know what he's doing? You knew about this?”
“No, I did not. I only know what I heard.” I narrowed my eyes at him ready to tell him it wasn't polite to spy. “I wasn't spying,” he said, clearing understanding my anger towards him. “I was on my way out and overheard the arguing. I kept myself at a distance to give you your privacy, but stayed close enough in case you would need my assistance.” I looked away feeling embarrassed at my behavior. “I'm sorry.”
“I don't need your pity,” I said harsher than I had intended.
“It is not my job to offer you sympathy,” he said.
“But then why –”
“Because I would have done the same thing.”
“Excuse me?” I said, not understanding. I looked up at him as I wiped the tears from my face.
“I too would have done anything to protect the people I care about. Your friend Tristan is a brave man.”
“Or a very stupid one,” I said with a harsh laugh. I looked away feeling the tears burn in my eyes again. When I turned back around and looked in to Gabe's teal green eyes, I lost it. “Oh Gabe,” I cried, throwing my arms around him. Not sure how to react, he just knelt there with his arms by his side. I didn't care though. I held on tight and continued to cry. Gabe eventually let his guard down and wrapped his arms around me trying to comfort me. Once he realized I wasn't going to stop crying anytime soon, he picked me up, and carried me back to the room.
When my parents caught sight of hysterical me being carried in by Gabe they rushed to my side thinking the worst. Gabe held up his hand indicating there was no need for immediate attention. My mom directed Gabe to take me into the bedroom and away from prying eyes. Gabe laid me down on the bed softly and pulled my parents aside telling them what happened, being witness to the horrible scene.
“Oh, Ella,” my mom said in a hushed whisper.
“Can you all just leave me alone?” I mumbled into the pillow.
“Come on Jamila,” my dad said, pulling her out of the room. I knew it had to be hard for my mom to just leave like this, but I did not want to talk. I just wanted to be left alone with my own misery.
I cried for hours. I cried until I couldn't cry anymore.
Sometime later in the evening my mom came in and checked on me. “Ella...honey?” I didn't say anything. I didn't even turn to look at her. I just lay there and continued to stare out the window. She came over and sat down on the bed next to me and brushed strands of hair off of my face. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” I said in a hushed voice.
“Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”
“No.”
“Josie's here, do you want to talk to her?”
“No, I just want to be left alone.”
My mom sighed, seeing she wasn't going to get through to me. She kissed me gently, pulled the covers up over me, and left the room. I stared out the window into the dark sky. No stars were shining tonight, too many clouds. I kept watching though, getting sucked in to the emptiness of the night. I started thinking of everything that happened. Not just today, but events from the past few days. And then I started to cry, again. I cried myself to sleep.
I woke up sometime in the middle of the night. Feeling stiff from lying in the bed all day, I got up and went out in to the living room. My mom was sound asleep on the couch and my dad was still working hard to come up with different missions to catch Jack. I took the blanket from the bedroom and placed it over my mom, careful not to wake her. Then I looked around for something to eat.
“Ella, what are you doing up?” my dad asked.
“Couldn't sleep, hungry. Is there anything to eat?”
“No, sweetheart,” he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and giving me a small squeeze. This was his way of telling me he was sorry for everything I had to go through. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him back. I felt his body loosen as he planted a fatherly kiss on my forehead. “I can have one of the guardians go and get you something to eat if you would like.” he offered.
“No, I can do it,” I said, hoping he wouldn't protest.
I knew he wanted to say no, but after today he knew I needed a break. “Just take Gabe with you,” he said.
“I will,” I said, heading back into my room and grabbing a hoodie and slippers. I waited for Gabe to finish up with some of the other guards and then we took off. He followed me quietly downstairs where I found a twenty-four hour pizzeria. Perfect, I thought.
“Did you eat yet?” I asked Gabe.
“Not while I'm on duty,” he said.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Look, you can relax. He's not going to get in here and you need to eat. I will not have you starve. I don't think I've seen you eat since you got here. You do eat don't you?”
“Yes, I do eat,” he said, giving me a half smile, amused at my comment.
“Good, then we eat.” I ordered a large pepperoni pizza for Gabe and I. Turns out he was pretty hungry after all. He ate most of it himself. “You know Gabe you need to relax a little. I have no doubt you're good at your job, but you don't have to go by the book all the time. I mean I won't tell anyone if you do 'something wrong',” I said air quoting the last two words. He cracked another smile and I felt like I was finally getting him to loosen up. “So what made you to decide to become a guard?” I asked, continuing the conversation.
“Guardian,” he said. “The correct term is guardian.”
“Sorry,” I said, stifling an eye roll. “So what made you become a Guard-ian?” I drew out the word being the natural smart ass I was.
“My father was one, and his father, and so on.”
“Okay, I get that it's a family thing but did you really want to be one or did you feel like you had to?”
“I wanted to be a guardian. It makes me feel proud to be able to protect people. To be a guardian is like the vampire version of being a Marine.”
“But aren't most guardians used to protect royalty and the wealthy?”
“Yes, but not all,” he said. He looked at me unsure at what I was getting at.
“Wouldn't you rather be out fighting the good fight then babysitting a bunch of stuck up snobs? I mean doesn't it get boring?”
He took a sip of his drink and looked at me over the top of his cup. I could see the corners of his lips twitching. “I've dealt with worse,” he smirked.
“Did you just insult me?” I asked, trying to hide my smile. He said nothing. I stole a piece of pepperoni off my pizza and popped it into my mouth. “So wouldn't this make you more like a secret service agent?”
“If you prefer to call it that,” he shrugged. Clearly he wasn't one for titles.
“So Gabe, you got a girlfriend?” I teased.
“That is not an appropriate topic of conversation,” he said, regressing back to serious mode.
“Why not, oh...gay,” I whispered. “It's cool with me.”
“No,” he said a little louder than he intended to. He cleared his throat to try and correct himself. “No, I am not gay. This is just not a conversation I should be having with my employer.”
“
Technically my dad is your employer so...”
“Miss Ella, it is not very professional to discuss my personal life on the job and therefore this is the end of the conversation,” he said, tightening his lips. Clearly this was a touchy subject and I didn't want to push his buttons. I didn't want Gabe to go back to his all work and no play, not after I got him to open up. So I let him be while we finished our pizza.
After we finished eating I wasn't quite ready to go back yet, so I decided to walk around the hotel and check things out. Gabe offered up no conversation, but it was a comfortable silence so I didn't mind. On our way back I thought it would be nice to get some pizza for the rest of the guardians who were hard at work upstairs. I had a feeling they didn't get a chance to eat and thought they could use a nice break.
My dad was pleasantly surprised when we came back with the pizzas. “Thank you, Ella. That was very thoughtful of you,” he said.
“I figured you guys needed a break.”
“Indeed we did,” he smiled.
He let everyone relax and have a few slices before getting right back to business. I wanted to call Josie, but it was too late and I knew she would probably be sleeping. So instead I just went back to bed.
Chapter twenty-four
The next few days went by the same. My dad and the guardians worked all day every day and my mom just stayed out of their way. Josie came by to visit me a few times, but I still wasn't in the mood to talk. I basically just kept to myself, isolated in my room, and sulked. By the time the weekend rolled around, Josie said she had enough of me being miserable. “That's it Ella, I'm breaking you out of here.”
“Josie, you know my dad is not going to let me go anywhere and I really don't feel like it either.”
“That's why we're sneaking out,” she said mischievously. I gave her a look letting her know that was not a good idea. “The Halloween party is tonight and you and I are going.”
“Josie, I –”
“No excuses. We found some kick- ass costumes and you need to get out of this hotel room. I'm tired of you moping around and feeling sorry for yourself. You need to get out of here, but first you need a shower,” she said, crinkling her nose at me.
“Hey,” I said, hitting her. “I took one this morning.”
“Whatever.”
I knew Josie was right. I did need to get out of here, but I still didn't think going to the party was a good idea. “No worries, I already talked to Billy and no one has seen or heard from Tristan so I'm sure he won't be there,” she said, taking my skepticism the wrong way. I sighed. That didn't make me feel better about the situation. I would have rather been told someone heard something from him. Hearing nothing made me worry more. “Ella, I know you're upset about Tristan, but he left. That was his choice, nothing you did. He was a dick for doing it but you can't spend the rest of your life holed up in this hotel room.”
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go, and getting out of this hotel room would probably be a good idea. I couldn't remember the last time I saw the light of day. “Okay, what's your plan?”
Josie cheered giddily. “You're going to tell your mom you're staying in my room tonight and I'm going to tell my mom I'm staying with you.”
“What about the guardians, they're everywhere?”
“Already taken care of.”
“How?” I asked, not liking the sound of this.
“Well, I was doing some investigating and it turns out the first floor bathroom has an entrance to the back halls for the staff. We're going to excuse ourselves to go to the bathroom and sneak out through the back where Billy and Dixon will be waiting for us.” Before I could protest she was pulling me off the bed and out the door. I did as Josie said and told my mom I would be spending the night in Josie's room. She thought it was a great idea. I think she was just happy I was getting out of the bedroom even though I was just going to another one.
I felt bad for lying to my mom and hoped when she found out she would understand. She suggested I take Gabe and one of the other guardians with us. I knew my guilty conscious would eat at me if I gave Gabe the slip, plus I knew he was too smart for that, so I came up with some story telling my mom that I thought he would be better use to my dad. She agreed but still sent two other guardians with us. We told them we wanted to go shopping in the gift shops down on the first floor. Twenty minutes into it we said we had to go to the bathroom.
Josie shoved open the door to the ladies room and checked all the stalls for occupants. When she saw that it was clear she waved for me to join her by the back door. “Ready?” she said. I nodded and watched as she turned the knob on the back door only to discover it was locked. “Okay, I never said my plan was fool-proof,” she shrugged.
“Well, at least you tried,” I said, walking back to the front.
“Hey, since when did I give up that easily?” Josie said, hands on hips. I looked at her thinking there was no way out. She looked around eying everything. I could see the wheels turning in her head, coming up with another plan of escape. “I got it! The window.”
“Josie, that window isn't big enough for us to fit through, not to mention it’s too high.”
“We're not going through it,” she said, confusing me. She took out her phone and made a call. “Babe, change of plans. That backpack I gave you, bring it to the window of the woman’s bathroom on the first floor,” she paused, letting the other person talk. “I don't know how you figure out which window it is. You just do,” she said annoyed, pausing again to let the other person talk again. “Okay, see you soon,” she said, hanging up the phone and sticking it in her back pocket.
“Josie, what's going on?”
“We're going out the front door,” she smiled.
“What? They'll never let us leave.”
“They're not going to know it's us,” she said, shaking her head like I was an idiot.
“Huh?” I was getting more confused by the minute.
“It's Halloween Ella, haven't you noticed all the people walking around in costume?”
“Wasn't really paying attention.”
“Of course you weren't,” she said, rolling her eyes. There was a knock at the window. “Ella, give me a boost.” I interlocked my fingers, palms up, and Josie stepped on my hands. I lifted her up as high as I could so she could reach the window. “Thanks, babe,” she said, pulling through a black backpack. “Now meet us at the front entrance in ten minutes.” I let her down and she pulled out the contents of the bag. “Here, put this on.”
It was our Halloween costumes. “Josie, how is this going to work?”
“With our wigs and masks they're not going to be able to tell it's us,” she said, getting undressed.
“I don't think this is going to work,” I said, getting worried.
“Is everything okay in there?” One of the guardians called, knocking on the door.
I looked at Josie, panicked. She just threw my costume at me and told me to get dressed. Then she walked closer to the door. “Sorry, you're going to have to give me a few minutes. I think I had some bad Mexican food earlier,” she groaned. She made some gagging sounds, pretending to get sick and then some farting noises with her mouth. I had to keep my mouth covered to keep from laughing out loud.
She ran back over to me and said, “Hurry, we don't have much time.” I quickly changed into my costume and then helped her with hers.
“Hey, what did you tell Dixon this was all about?”
“He still thinks this all has to do with just regular people getting killed and us having overly protective parents,” she shrugged. “Okay, ready?”
“Ready as I'll ever be,” I said, taking a breath.
We walked right out of the bathroom and straight past the two guardians. “Excuse me, ladies?”
I froze. I thought we were busted for sure. “Just relax,” Josie whispered and turned around.
“Did you seen two young girls in the bathroom?” asked the one guardian.
Josie cleared her
throat. “Oh yeah, poor little thang,” she said, trying out her best southern accent. “She's a sick as a dog. I gave her some Pepto so she should be fine in a few minutes.” The guardian looked back over his shoulder. “But I wouldn't go in there if I was ya, whoooeee,” she said, waving a hand in front of her nose.
The guardian cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Um...thank you.”
“No problem, cutie.”
I grabbed Josie's hand and quickly pulled her in front of me. “Oh my god, that was close.”
“Yes, but thanks to my wonderful acting skills –”
“I'll thank you when we're in the car,” I said, pushing her along. I felt slightly guilty for tricking the guardians, knowing that as soon as they found out we eluded them their jobs were done. I made a mental note to speak on their behalf and do my best to save their jobs, but I might also suggest some retraining.
Billy and Dixon were right out front waiting for us. We quickly hopped in the car and took off. “I can't believe that worked,” I said, breathless.
“You need to have more faith in me next time,” Josie said.
“Says the girl who has gotten me in trouble, more times than I care to admit, for all her great ideas.”
“Whatever. It worked, didn't it?”
“So far, so good. I'm not even going to think about how much trouble we'll be in when they find out we’ve snuck out.”
“Chill out, Ella. You worry too much and all that is going to do is give you premature wrinkles.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Here,” she said, handing me her make-up case and climbing in the backseat with me and Dixon. I took off my mask and Josie and Dixon helped decorate my face with glitter, all kinds of make-up, and some adhesive stars. Once they were done, Dixon and I helped out Josie. Although I don't think I was much help. It was hard to keep a steady hand with all the bumps Billy was hitting.
He ended up stepping on the brakes a little too hard to avoid some trick or treaters and I ended up drawing a big line across Josie's face. “Babe!” Josie yelled at him.
The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven Page 37