The Inn (Evenstad Media Presents Book 3)

by Voss Foster

  But more pressing is my worry about you and my father. Magnus is on the warpath right now, and you’re the one he’s coming for, by the sound of it. He suddenly seems to think you’re unfit to run Evenstad Media, and he wants something done about it. He also tends to get his way. I love him, but he’s never been good at losing, and he doesn’t get much practice at it.

  I’m not sure if it’s anything you’ve said or done that’s caused this, but if it is, it would be best if you found a way to make it up to him. It could be your job at stake, and I wouldn’t want to see that. I’m sure your medical bills are expensive. If nothing else, try to remember that. It’s a good reason to stay, cousin.

  As always, I wish you my very best, and I hope you’ll heed my warnings. Magnus is very set against you right now, and antagonizing him would only make it worse.

  Stian Evenstad,

  Editor in Chief, The Cruise

  —

  TO: Stian Evenstad

  FROM: Niels Evenstad

  SUBJECT: Worry

  SENT 1/16/2076 AT 4:39 p.m. EST

  Stian,

  You don’t need to worry about my health. If I’d known you wanted to be kept updated, I would have. Thankfully, there’s not much to say. I have the best care I can get right now, and the drugs are helping to suppress some of the worse symptoms. There’s still no cure in sight for Johnson-Freel Disorder, but I’m as well as could be expected, given my circumstances.

  And you don’t need to worry about Magnus and I, either. I can’t say that I’m not worried, but I feel I have things under control in regard to your father. It should be very clear to him how valuable I am, after his latest blunder, and I’m fairly certain he’ll let off of me, at least for a while. If not, then I’ll deal with that as it comes along.

  We should find time to meet in person. It’s been far too long. Nearly a year, I think. I wonder if I’ll even recognize your face.

  Be well, Stian,

  Niels Evenstad,

  Chief Operating Officer, Evenstad Media

  JOURNAL 03MAX

  ENTRY 005

  DATE: 1/17/2076

  I’m keeping an eye on the one guy over there. I ain’t so sure he’s going to keep it together. I’m doing my best not to draw any attention to it, in case he’s just right there on the edge. But I want to make sure that I’m ready. At least as ready as I can be. A man’s got to sleep, for Christ’s sake. But not too much. Not in here, even if I thought they all seemed nice and stable on the outside. You never know just who could be the one about to turn that gun or that knife on everyone else in the place.

  Hell, I never thought that I’d turn on anyone, no matter how bad it got. I don’t think anyone ever thinks they could be that person on the other end of a knife. I don’t think anyone wants to believe that about themselves. Of course, I don’t know that I’m right, but the thought never occurred to me in the past fifty-some-odd years that it could happen.

  But now I’m here, watching out for a lot of other people. Never thought that would happen, either. That’s why I never bothered to go into the military. Never once thought I’d like to be a cop or anything like that. Don’t need that kind of power or that kind of responsibility on my hands, but I’m here now, doing exactly that.

  That kid’s getting twitchier every day, and he’s pulling away from the rest of the group. Part of me hopes that he’ll actually leave, but then I can’t keep an eye on him. He could sneak up around here and attack any of these people.

  I shouldn’t care at all. I don’t know them, and any one of them could turn and kill anyone else. Me or Joy or Terrence or another one of these strangers. They could just as easily be murderous and this guy could just have a twitchy personality. I ain’t got a damn clue what’s the truth and what’s not, but I’m going to do my best not to let a bunch of people get killed. I couldn’t stand by and let that happen anymore than I could have chosen to take on this responsibility. It wouldn’t be right.

  So I’m just going to have to stand watch, I guess.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 04KATYA

  ENTRY 006

  DATE: 1/17/2076

  Well, I just think it’s time to move on. No point staying here longer than you have to, Katya. It’s been a few days. Starting to get antsy, and that means clouded judgment. Not a good thing to have in a situation like this, and you don’t need to make staying here any more dangerous. Helping this be harder would simply be foolish, and Katya Bowen isn’t a foolish woman.

  Slipping out when they’re all asleep is the best option. Can’t tell when any of them are going to break and try to turn on you, and it would just figure that they would come right for the little flight attendant trying to get away peacefully.

  Can’t stay in that conference room, but I think it’s best to be down on the first floor. Out of the guest rooms sounds best, too. Anywhere safer is good. It’s not really logical. You’ll never kill anyone, when it comes to it. But that could always change. You never know what might happen, but having the chance to find out is better than dying here with no possibility to try and survive.

  Go tonight, Katya. Billie won’t like it, but do what will keep you safest. None of these other people are your responsibility, and they wouldn’t hesitate to kill you.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 07DANIEL

  ENTRY 006

  DATE: 1/17/2076

  Hello again. I’ve been alone up here for a few days. Nothing’s happened that made me have to leave, and it’s given me time to think.

  You need a name. I know it’s ridiculous. On the off-chance that there’s someone on the other end of these journals after all, you have a name already. But I hope you won’t mind it. I don’t think being alone is really a good idea, no matter how safe it is. A name will make it easier to believe in you, for lack of a better term. I’m thinking Marie. I’ve always liked that name, but I’ve only read it in books or seen it in movies. I’ve never known a Marie in real life. So I hope that’s a name that works for you.

  ENTRY END

  “Northward Bound” Fills the Internet, Evenstad Media Silent

  1/17/2076 at 4:18 p.m. EST

  Two days ago, an anonymous party sent out an email to a large number of the subscribers of deceased adult film star, Jeremiah North. The message was concise, and placed the blame for his passing on Evenstad Media. North’s death during the filming of The Inn, the latest incarnation of Evenstad Media’s hit reality show, has caused an uproar among fans of the controversial celebrity.

  The email suggested that upset fans make themselves known to the world through a simple, two-word update on social media. And now ‘Northward Bound’ is trending on most major platforms. The phenomenon has grown beyond the original recipients of the message and is now taking the internet by storm.

  Evenstad Media has refused any comment on the phenomenon.

  JOURNAL 04KATYA

  ENTRY 007

  DATE: 1/18/2076

  It seems like everyone finally fell asleep. Time to run, Katya. Go find a place to hide. You can make it a little further in this whole thing if you manage to get away. Run fast and get far away. You can work out all the rest of this stuff once you get to safety. Maybe things will work out, somehow. Anything’s possible.

  For now, just get some safety for yourself. Even if it’s fake.

  ENTRY END

  07

  JOURNAL 06RAY

  ENTRY 005

  DATE: 1/18/2076

  Shit. I didn’t mean to do anything to anyone. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone or kill anyone. I didn’t want to be that kind of guy. Not ever. Who wants to be that kind of guy?

  It wasn’t too loud, at least. But it would have been obvious once the rest of them had woken up. That makes me sound sick, but this whole stupid place is just as sick. It’s making me that kind of person. The kind of person who can rationalize killing some poor innocent woman. Damn man, just the kind of person who coul
d haul off and stab someone he didn’t even know.

  And now I’ll never know her. There’s no chance. No one else will ever know her, and that’s some heavy shit. I did that. I killed her. I’ve still got her blood on my sleeves, and some of it on my chest. It’s such a small little bit, but it just smells awful. I don’t know, maybe it’s all in my head. I’ve got to have some reaction to killing her. Something more than I had.

  That’s the thing. I’m more upset that I killed her than that she’s dead. I mean, what does that say about me? It doesn’t matter if I knew her. I should still be upset that there’s a life gone. She was a person, but I’m so much more worried about myself than I am about her, or about the fact that her mom or her sister or whoever is going to have to watch her get killed. By me.

  There it I again. I’m worried what they’ll think about me for killing their damn family. She wasn’t that old. Was it this stupid show or game or whatever you want to call it that did this to me, or have I always secretly been this obsessed with myself? I’m not vain, or at least I never thought I was.

  But I never thought I was a killer, either.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 03MAX

  ENTRY 006

  DATE: 1/18/2076

  I’m getting too old for this, I tell you. Another dead body. One of the people who came out of the meeting room. And that guy who was getting twitchy? He’s gone. It don’t take a genius to figure out what happened. I don’t know for sure why he did it, but I knew he was getting dangerous. Hell, maybe I was watching him panic because he knew what he was doing, but his better nature was trying to keep him from doing it. I ain’t sure on that at all. There’s no way I could be.

  I don’t know what to do with her body, either. We could try to burn her. A few people suggested that. Hell, burn all of them. Get rid of them so we don’t start getting sick from them decaying. But it’s also been pointed out that it would be stupid to do that. Burn down the whole hotel if anything went wrong. And if the fire alarms and sprinklers and all that are still working in here, then it won’t do anything anyway. A body takes a long time to burn, I imagine. That much smoke probably ain’t good for your lungs, either.

  But what’s really got me most concerned is the fact that someone is definitely out there somewhere, and they definitely killed that girl. They’re capable of that, and who knows when they’re going to come back and try doing something else. Maybe to me or maybe to Joy. Maybe to anyone else. And I think I could take him out, if it came to it. But that’s assuming that I’m awake and aware and all that. He waited until we were all asleep the last time. There’s no saying he wouldn’t wait until we fell asleep again. No one around. It makes good sense to me, if I was going to try anything like that.

  I guess I’ll be staying awake more, being a better guard. At least until this little group of people breaks up. I ain’t a fool. I know this ain’t about to last forever. Especially as people are getting killed, everybody’s going to want to run, try and pretend they can find some safety. I don’t blame them. I wish I could act like that. I wish I could believe that there’s a safe place in this hellhole, but it just ain’t true. I’ve already moved past that delusion.

  I ain’t the type of person who lets hopelessness get to him. I don’t believe in that kind of thing. It’s useless. But I can feel it getting pretty close to pulling on me. I hate that feeling. I hate not being in control. Hopelessness makes you do stupid things, and that’s the last thing I need in a place like this, I’m sure of that much.

  I guess I have to try my best. Joy needs me. Terrence ain’t a spring chicken, either. Not that I’m the youngest person in this psychotic hotel, but I’m in good enough shape. I owe it to all the people in here to try and be the best protector I can, as long as I can. But I ain’t putting myself in harm’s way for anyone. Except Joy, of course. She’s coming along with me to the end of this damn thing. I don’t know that I can get her out. I don’t know that I can get me out. I don’t know that I’ll make it another damn night. No matter what I might like, I still have to sleep eventually. And that’s when this could all go sour.

  Let’s just hope it doesn’t come down to them trying to figure out the right thing to do with my body in this place.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 08BILLIE

  ENTRY 009

  DATE: 1/19/2076

  She was killed. Katya got murdered and I never even noticed. I didn’t protect her. The whole point of the two of us even bothering to get together in the middle of all this was to try and find some sort of safety, some weird kind of protection in numbers or whatever you want to call it. But that’s right out, I guess. I was asleep. I slept through the whole thing, and I doubt anything could have woken me up. I’m sleeping a lot lately. I seem to always just be exhausted. Maybe it’s the stress of being here, or maybe it’s some stupid medical thing, or maybe it’s a combination of the two. I can’t think of any issues that actually get better under stress, after all.

  It’s almost three weeks in this place. Three weeks away from everything and everyone. I hate to say it, hate that it’s kind of true, but I’m starting to get a little more comfortable in this stupid hotel. I’d still take any chance to get home. Offer me a magic ticket right now and I’m on that flight. But all in all, things are as okay as I guess they possibly can be with everything the way it is.

  Other than Katya. She’s not all right. That’s a good reminder, having her just laid out there. Dead. Really, none of the people in this place are all right, when it’s over. Either you get killed, or you’re the one who actually survived, and probably not by luck. No, eventually, if you make it all the way out, you’ll have somebody’s blood on your hands. You’d have to, the way everything works out.

  I’ve been thinking about that a lot, actually. At least a lot since I saw Katya’s body there. About death and killing and the way they’ve set up this so-called game. And I’ve been considering myself. Is it better for me to do this all as myself, die, and have that be the legacy I leave in the public eye? Or should I go against every last thing I believe about human decency, go down to the level they want me to play at, and have a slim chance of making it out alive? To tell my story?

  I really don’t want the latter. I want to survive, but that cost is so high. Unfortunately, I can’t honestly say that there’s no reason behind it. If there wasn’t any, I don’t think my mind ever would have gone to that place.

  Or maybe I’m going completely nuts locked up in this place. Maybe that’s the reason actually ending someone’s life doesn’t sound totally unreasonable. Maybe spending enough time in a situation like this actually changes the way morals work. I’m not a philosopher or a psychologist or whatever you’d have to be to make calls like that. Not by a long shot.

  I just know that it’s scary. It’s terrifying. Thinking too much about it just makes my whole body cold. It’s probably an answer by itself. But pushing myself? What could that mean to the community? To the whole world outside? It’s not a simple answer. God, I wish it was. I really do.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 09HIKARU

  ENTRY 005

  DATE: 1/20/2076

  If there’s any sort of force in the universe that can tell me anything, that cares enough to have some sort of influence in my life, then I’ve just received a message. I am not a religious man. Hardly a spiritual man of any kind. But I do think that my ruminations on morality are near an end. Even if there is no grander intelligence out there, my mind has latched onto the idea that this is a sign.

  The alarms went off in my room. I made it out, in ample time, but my attempts to find peace with myself were interrupted. It’s very possible that this is only some part of myself that wanted to turn down this path finding an excuse to abandon my morals. But if that’s the case, it means there’s a part of me that wanted this all along.

  I’ll give it one more day. That will be three weeks. Three weeks I’ve been thinking on this. They say it’s enough time to either make or br
eak a habit. Perhaps other changes will occur in that time, making it easier for me to commit.

  I don’t intend to draw any of this out, when it comes to it. I don’t want killing to be inhumane. I wouldn’t want that for myself, after all. It wouldn’t be right to force it on others. Of course, murder is hardly something I would want forced on myself at all, but too much examination will just set me going back and forth all over again. I’ve needed to reach a decision on this for some time. Since I first woke up in the lobby, in fact. And now I have. I can’t afford to start the process over again.

  The day is just for me, to acclimate myself to the idea that I’m going to become this person. That I’m taking this on. I just hope that’s long enough.

  ENTRY END

  WHO IS GOING TO WIN THE INN?

  POLL 2

  1: Max (22%)

  2: Terrence (18%)

  3: Joy (17%)

  4: Hikaru (13%)

  5: Ray (11%)

  6: Billie (6%)

  7: Daniel (5%)

  8: Lena (3%)

  9: Jeremiah (2%)

  10: Katya (1%)

  11: Deb (1%)

  12: Shelley (1%)

  (Information collected by The Cruise)

  JOURNAL 02JOY

  ENTRY 005

  DATE: 1/21/2076

  I ain’t never seen Max acting so worrisome before, and that’s including when he was just sitting there doing nothing before. He won’t sleep longer than half an hour or so. I think he’s going to end up killing himself over this whole mess, and he won’t even realize he’s doing it.