Patient Twelve

Chapter Thirty

 Ben drove for most of the day and tried to avoid making any more stops. I rested my head against the window and stayed quiet. The sunglasses hid my eyes, so Ben had assumed that I had spent most of the day asleep. We pulled into the parking lot of another small motel. He put his hand on my shoulder and gave my body a slight shake.

"Sweetheart, we're stopping for the night," he told me.

I sat straight and stretched out my shoulders. I followed Ben as he got out of the car. He threw his arm over my shoulders as we walked into the lobby.

An aging man who spoke broken English was working behind the desk. Ben asked for room sixteen, paid with cash again, and the man passed us a key.

We grabbed our bags out of the trunk of the car and climbed the rusted metal staircase to our room. I set my bag down on the foot of the bed. I grabbed the remote off of the top of the television. I sat down next to my bag and flipped through the channels. Ben passed me and went into the bathroom. I landed on the news channel. They were discussing the weather, and my knee bounced as I waited for the topic to change.

My graduation photo came up on the screen again. I leaned in closer to listen to them talk and set my sunglasses on the top of my head.

"The search is still on for Diana Slater and Benjamin Beltran," the news anchor said. "Diana went missing six weeks ago and was pronounced dead five weeks ago after a car accident. Benjamin was the prime suspect in the murder of his mother and sister three years ago. Benjamin was also pronounced dead shortly after a car accident.

"Benjamin's fingerprints were found at Bethany Phillips' murder scene Wednesday morning. The fingerprints of Diana were found at the scene of the murder of Bethany's fiance Oliver Sweeney. It is assumed that Ben and Diana are together."

The bathroom door opened and I looked over my shoulder. Ben walked out and stopped when he saw the news channel. He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. The bed dipped as he sat down next to me. He slipped one arm around my waist and grabbed the remote from my hands. He turned off the television and then tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

"Don't watch that," he said. "You don't need to worry about that."

"Why do they say that we're dead?" I asked.

"That's what the doctors do," Ben said. "They stop the search for us by saying that we died in a car accident. Something so brutal that our bodies are no longer recognizable. They usually say that our bodies were completely charred. That way they wouldn't need to send them a corpse for the funeral."

"But they know we're alive now."

Ben pressed his lips into a line. He twirled a piece of my hair around his finger.

"It'll be just the two of us soon," he said. "In the meantime, we're going to have to disguise ourselves."

He kissed my cheek before getting off of the bed. He laced his fingers through mine and pulled me up with him. He dug through one of the suitcases and pulled out a wad of cash. He shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans. I could see a flash of metal and I knew it was the gun poking out from his waistband. His jacket was soon covering it again.

"Let's go get some things," he said. "I saw a gas station down the road."

I nodded. Ben's grip tightened on my hand. He lowered the sunglasses so that they were back onto my face. Ben kept a tight hold on me as we left the hotel room. The street was filled with fast-food restaurants and little hotels. There were quite a few cars pulling in and out of the gas station.