More Than Human

Chapter 15

June 10

"It'll be how much?!" exclaimed Jess.

"That'll be 115$," repeated the cashier.

The girls were at a hotel, still in Winnipeg. They had managed to convince the cashier that Jess was sixteen and just very short, and that Erica and Rose were her cousins.

But they didn't have the money. Well, they did have money, but only 80$.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have enough," said Erica.

"Well then you can't stay," the cashier said firmly. "Giving a room to minors is bad enough, but giving to them for free is even worse. I should've expected as much from minors."

"Fine," snapped Jess. "I'm not sixteen anyways. I'm only thirteen." She stormed out of the hotel, Erica and Rose in pursuit.

They sat down on a bench under the canopy above the front entrance. "What should we do?" Jess sighed, sounding defeated. It was dark out, almost 10pm, and they had no place to stay.

"There's more hotels," suggested Rose. "There's a Days Inn just down the road."

"I doubt anyone else would both fall for Jess being sixteen and let minors rent their own room," stated Erica. "I think we should just camp out somewhere."

"But where?" asked Jess, luckily not seeming offended by the fact that no one would think she's sixteen.

Erica shrugged. There weren't that many parks around here, but they were really close to the edge of the city, which meant fields. "I don't know. The middle of a field?"

Rose and Jess looked disgusted. "No way. Just... No way."

Erica saw shadowy figure approaching them. Fear gripped her heart. "Guys, we should get moving. It doesn't matter where we go now, just as-"

Jess had already gotten on her bike, with Rose not far behind.

"Oh, okay then," muttered Erica, and she ran to join them.

They pedalled away towards the edge of the city as fast as they could, powered by fear.

Erica risked a glance behind her and saw that the shadowy figure was climbing into a car. She pedalled even faster.

"Guys," Rose asked nervously, "do you think he wants to kidnap us, too?"

Erica was torn between telling the truth and reassuring Rose. She did, in fact, think that he wanted to kidnap them. Sure, she might be overreacting, but who would've thought that Maddie, Gloria, Fay, and Lea would get kidnapped?

Suddenly a van pulled right in front of them. Jess and Rose stopped quickly, but Erica's bike with the half-broken brakes rammed right into the side, her unfastened helmet flying off of her head.