3 Chapter 2: Acquaintances

Several days passed by just like that and the sun tore through the dappled morning sky. At exactly 9 a.m., Faith, together with her friends Theo, Maxine, Judy, Kacey and Olwen were back in the hotel with their popping luggage. They all stayed at the lobby. Some were seated on the couch and some were standing.

Opposite of them was the other group. A female with a long, vibrant red hair color scowled at something said by two male twins and three other boys. For sure, Faith knew the girl in their school's dancing team along with the twins and the other three must be included. Style exuded from them judging by their way of clothing: jerseys, tees with cool prints on it, crop top, snapbacks, skinny jeans, leather bracelets and branded sneakers.

Not a moment too soon, Judy, as perky as she could be, greeted the other group with a cheery tone and a rapid wave of her hand.

"Hello there! My name's Judy!" She turned to her seated friends and gestured her hand. "This is Faith, Theo, Maxine, Kacey, and Olwen!"

Small waves of a hand and shy smiles were exchanged. Of course, they hardly knew each other. It was expected of them to act in such a way. Strangers? That would disappear once they had spent time together at Golden Hotel. Surely possible.

"My name's Meg." The pale-skinned young lady sounded blunt. She seemed cold and the type to accuse people of their heinous crimes. "These are my friends, also my dancing team: Klein and Yves; the identical twins, Jared, Hans, and Daren." She motioned to them and the boys flashed their friendly smiles along with their hi's and hello's.

Judy nearly nudged Kacey out of her sitting position. Their handsome and cute dimple smiles caught her attention the most. "They're so cute!"

With her eyebrows automatically furrowed, Kacey smacked Judy's arm and her friend flinched. "Will you shut the fuck up? I get it that they're cute, but you will make it more obvious!" Her tone seemed to be just as frank as Meg, but she sounded more of a fabulous diva girl.

"You two! Please, lower your voices," Olwen sharply whispered to stop their small squabbling. "They are still looking at us!"

Maxine gently nudged Theo whose mind seemed to be afloat somewhere. "You're a lot more handsome and cuter than them, yeah?"

"Nah... I'll give you a big no-" Theo shut his mouth closed as soon as he turned his attention to Faith. She appeared to be dazed. He traveled his eyes to where her focus was fixed at and a tinge of jealousy suddenly cooked up in the pit of his stomach.

Faith curled a small smile at the corner of her mouth and her cheeks turned into shades of red. She had been eyeing three of the boys standing near their luggage: Jared, Hans and Daren. Dorky smiles. Her weakness. If she could jump off a building right now, she would have done it. But with a harness, logically speaking.

"Faith, right?" Daren, with a tall, slim and well-built body, only wanted to clarify her name. His peering dark brown eyes matched his clean-cut hairstyle.

"Y-Yeah, you're right." She meekly nodded, displaying her cute smile.

"Nice name. Keep the Faith!" Hans pumped a fist in the air with a quiet laughter, almost sounding shy around them. His body was a little buffer than Daren, but definitely tall and fair-skinned as well and his charming eyes mirrored the color of his black hair. It was short and gelled up like Theo's.

He also had a little bit of facial hair growing.

"Hi, I'm Jared! You're kinda cute." Jared shamelessly leaned closer to Faith, smirking as he studied her innocent features. "Mind telling me your age?"

Her cheeks instantly burned up at the sound of his gruff voice. "I-I'm..."

"Respect the girl!" Hans quickly grabbed his hoodie, yanked him away and he stumbled back. He didn't like how his friend got too straightforward even though he was only fooling around.

"D'aww, Hans! I was trying to befriend her!" Jared's hair was black like Hans', but a little longer than him. Tall and slim like Daren, but not well-built. His skin color was a bit tanned.

"You call that flirting..." Hans sighed, shaking his head.

On the other hand, Theo secretly secured his arm around Faith's waist and pulled her closer to him. "She's twenty six." He forced a smile.

"Oh, neat! Meg's the youngest!" Klein pointed at Meg with an upbeat tone. She stared at him in a critical way.

Yves leaned his back against the couch and smirked. "And Daren is the oldest in our squad."

His friends burst out laughing at his remark while Daren shot him a glare. "Not that old!"

The twin brothers, Klein and Yves, were both tall and slim. Their skin color was both fair but only a little darker. Their eyes were both ocean blue and the only way to tell them apart was by hair color and how their bangs were brushed to opposite sides. Klein's hair was a natural brown and swept to the right side while Yves' hair was blonde and swept to the left side.

"Oh!" Judy clapped once and raised her hand. "I've got an idea!"

Everyone turned to her.

"And that is?" Kacey raised an eyebrow.

"We should pick two leaders in case we need it for the upcoming games and you know, just to be organized when we need to decide on stuff." Judy flashed a child-like smile.

"That's not a bad idea at all!" Klein showed a big grin. "Right, Bro?"

Yves shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever suits you guys, I'm in."

And the rest of them nodded in agreement.

The awkward atmosphere between them melted away even for a little bit, thanks to Judy. But before they could decide on their leaders, their bus have arrived. Each of them grabbed their own things and walked towards the exit. One by one, they placed their luggage into the bus' compartment located outside with the help of the driver opening it for them.

After a while, all of them boarded the bus.

Judy tried to break the ice by asking for their ages the moment they had settled into their own respective seats. It turned out with Meg as the youngest followed by Klein, Yves, Faith and Theo. Entering the same older line were Maxine, Judy, Jared, Hans, Kacey and the oldest were Olwen and Daren.

"The older ones should be our leaders!" Klein and Jared suggested in sync.

"I don't mind." Olwen smiled as polite as possible.

"I'd appreciate it if you two boneheads stop emphasizing how old I am!" Daren drew a mischievous grin. He lunged at them from behind and locked Klein's head while Jared managed to slip away from his wrath.

A fit of laughter filled the bus.

"Ack! Mommy Olwen! Save me!" Klein tried to wiggle himself free but Daren was too strong for him. "Daddy's at it again!"

Jared wanted to suppress his laughter but he failed, snorting undesirably. Others grinned and tittered about it. Daren threatened to throw his squad off the bus while Olwen's gang began poking fun at her.

Reactions varied inside the bus.

Suddenly, the microphone's deafening screech interrupted them. Some of them cringed, gritted their teeth and knitted their eyebrows as the driver tried to adjust the volume and fix the cord. After a few adjustments, he tapped on the mic thrice.

"Sorry 'bout that! Our estimated travel time before we arrive at our destination is 2 hours. Sit back and enjoy the ride!"

A small TV set installed on top of the bus had been turned on for them to watch any movie. Kacey and Maxine proceeded in front to choose for everyone and they became livelier than before. Faith thought about joining in but she chose to focus on recovering from her lack of sleep. Escaping a long sigh, she sat back in her seat and tapped on Theo's shoulder.

"I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me up when we get there."

Theo simply nodded before plugging his earphones to listen to rock music.

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Finally, the driver announced that they would be arriving shortly at Golden Hotel. Everyone had fallen asleep on the way so they began to stir and open their eyes.

Olwen gazed out the window. There should be houses and buildings on sight at Long Island Beach but nothing could be seen. Only the road, beach and ocean itself. For a moment there, the body of water glimmering under the sun distracted her but their current situation pulled her out.

"Where are we?" she asked the driver.

"We're still a part of Beach Haven, miss! The hotel is just right up ahead."

"The hotel is outside of the community?" Jared poked his head out towards the aisle. "'Cause I haven't been here."

"Same." Hans nodded.

"You got that right, sonny!" The driver chuckled. "The owner purchased a big land to build the hotel. Makes sense to me if I don't wanna be limited by the available space back there. Soon, this area will be bustling with houses and buildings! He or she won't have to worry about it anymore."

"Pardon me, sir, but do you have any idea who our sponsor is?" Kacey tried to ask the driver but he seemed to be acting deaf.

"Is he avoiding your question?" Meg's tone of voice went sharp. She was about to interrogate the driver but Kacey placed a hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

"We might be really in a reality show?" Judy stared at them.

Everyone exchanged doubtful looks.

Faith shifted her sight outside. An isolated building from afar was surrounded with towering trees, fences and bricked walls. As they drew closer and closer, the sign read GOLDEN HOTEL in a huge cursive font at the topmost part of it. The exterior was painted in gold and yellow. Wide and tall. The blueprint seemed convincing enough and anyone would be surely impressed.

But something was fishy.

A few minutes later, their bus stopped right in front of the hotel's entrance. They went down and fetched their own luggage in the compartment before walking into the lobby. Strangely, there were no signs of people around. Their footsteps echoed and bounced off walls. But before that, where was the bellboy? The security guards? They should have encountered them a while ago.

"This is a lobby? Why does it seem like we're in a closed room?" Meg squinted her eyes as she glanced around.

The LED light bulbs, ivory ceiling, walls and marble floor appeared to be brand new but the couches, chairs, tables and potted plants were missing.

"I get the feeling that we are being watched. Where's the-" Judy did not continue what she was going to say when Kacey darted her a death glare.

"Stop fooling around for a second!"

"Somehow, I'm beginning to freak out..." Yves shuddered. The hotel radiated an eerie atmosphere for some unknown reason.

"Holy crap, same here." Klein wrapped his arms around his mildly shivering body.

Suddenly, an earsplitting shutting of entrance doors startled them. Everyone screamed and flinched while Faith flung her arms around Theo who in return mirrored the same action to protect her. His eyes were on full alert towards the double doors crafted in wood.

"We're trapped." He let out a shaky breath.

"Uh, guys? We have a problem!" Hans pointed at something above.

White smoke began spraying out of the four corners of the walls and it rapidly fogged the lobby.

"Fucking hell! What is happening?" Meg, who sought protection, held Daren's arm and hid behind him.

"Guys! Stay close!" Daren eyed everyone.

"Huddle!" Olwen did the same before motioning for Judy and Kacey to come closer.

While everyone was busy gathering together and anticipating for whatever was going to jump on them, Maxine sniffed something odd in the air. She creased her forehead and let out a cough after inhaling too much of it. Was it only an ordinary smokescreen?

Seconds later, her world started to spin. She totally blacked out and fell down on the floor with a loud, heavy thud.

"Maxine!" Theo attempted to aid her. Unfortunately, he got a whiff of the same air and his legs instantly fell asleep.

"Theo!" Faith quickly caught him. She tried to carry his body but his weight was too heavy for her. Carefully, she laid him down on the floor before covering her nose. The ash-scented smoke began invading her sense of smell but there was nothing she could do to prevent herself from falling asleep.

She helplessly watched the knock out gas eating the lobby until every single one of them lost consciousness.

However, one person was missing.