The Wanderers

Chapter 24

 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 had 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 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 eyeing everything. I could see the wheels turning in her head, coming up with another plan of escape. "I got it! The window."