The Beautiful and the Psychotic

Chapter Twenty-Four

Alexis's P.O.V.

I was woken up the next morning by Natasha shaking me awake. "Lexi, c'mon. Get up already." I've always been a heavy sleeper. I groggily opened my eyes. Natasha and Maya were leaning over my face, waiting for me to wake up.

"'Morning," I said cheerily. 

"Lexi, this is serious," Natasha frowned. "Guess who we found trying to rent a room."

"Who?" Now I was serious. "What was it?"

She took a deep breath. "It was Ethan. He was calling himself Zane Grey. Luckily, David was the only one who recognized him. We locked him in B122 with David and we're waiting on you to talk to him together."

It really was serious. I was still in my singlet and shorts, but I just pulled on a pair of ballet flats and a shirt. "Let's go," I said gravely.

Maya held my hand as we walked towards B122. "Who's Ethan?" she asked.

I sighed. "Ethan is a man who used to leave here, but he left because he was bad."

She looked at the ground. "Oh. Why did he come back?"

"I don't know. That's what we're going to find out."

We walked in silence the rest of the way. The door I knew all too well was hiding a murderer, I thought as Natasha pushed it open.

Ethan was sitting on the bed, David on a chair next to him.

David. I had to talk to him. But it wasn't all that important. First we had to question Ethan.

Ethan's hair was no longer blonde, now black and close-cropped. Natasha and I stood while Maya sat on David's lap.

Ethan looked up at us as we took our places. His expression gave away nothing.

"Look, Ethan, we know you're not here to stay for a holiday. Why are you trying to get into Silver Gardens?" I asked him straight up.

"Well, technically I'm in," he laughed.

"It's not time to play games, Ethan," David said grimly. "Tell us why you tried to sneak in."

Ethan's eyes shifted to David. "Okay. Fine. I wanted to help."

"Help?" Natasha raised her eyebrows.

"I didn't want to... make the choice I did, but now that I have, I think I can save a hundred more lives," he said, so low we had to strain to hear. "I know where to find the bracelet's control panel. I can turn them off so that everybody can get out safely."

Now this was something we wanted to hear. "You think you can turn them off?"

He nodded.

The three of us, David, Natasha and I exchanged looks of shock. Ethan could turn off the bracelets? Suddenly suspicion crept into my mind. "Then why didn't you turn them off when you were trapped?"

He looked surprised. "I tried. My bracelets set off the alarms. I barely got out of there before they caught me."

Fair enough. "Where's the control panel, Ethan?" David asked.

Ethan took a deep breath. "B500."

I'd seen the key to escape. I knew exactly where it was.

"Come on, Ethan. We're going to save lives," I said.

David looked at me strangely. "What if we get caught?"

I grinned. "I'm going to talk to Mason first. I think he'll help us."