Downstairs in reception, 1
hour later, Hannah and Jess sat on office chairs rolling across
the marbled floors. Suddenly the phone rang again for the fifth
time in 5 minutes.
"Hello?" Jess said. There was manic giggling on the end
of the line and then they hung up.
Suddenly Hannah heard the lift ping and she wheeled over to it.
The doors opened and Ben stepped out.
"Oh, it's YOU." Hannah wheeled herself back again.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing. I came down so I could go out."
"At 3am?" Jess was shocked. "What is there to do
at 3am?"
"You'd be surprised." Hannah assured her. "Where
are Chris and Daniel?"
"In our apartment." Replied Ben.
"Go get them." Hannah demanded.
"But I'm going out!" Ben exclaimed.
"NO YOU'RE NOT! It's past your bedtime!" Hannah
stood up and turned Ben around, pushing him back into the lift.
"Go get them! NOW!" Ben fled, fearing for his
life.
The phone rang again. Jess grabbed it.
"Hello?"
There was more mad laughter. "Oh, PISS OFF."
Jess hung up. Hannah grabbed the receiver and tapped in a number.
"As I suspected. Room 343. I should have known." She
cracked her knuckles. "Let's got get 'em."
The master key opened the
door of room 343 to reveal organised chaos. Dom was madly gibbering out a load
of Indian voice impressions with no breathing inbetween them.
Elijah seemed to be rocking back and forth in the corner of the
room repeating the words: "It's mine! My precious!!",
holding an empty tea-cup. Sean was leaping around on the sofas,
with who Hannah recognised as the Scottish guy, having a cushion
fight.
"Did you slip something in their tea?" She asked Jess
who was staring wide-eyed at the spectacle.
"Only extra-strong mints!" Jess replied. "Maybe I
should get some tranquillizers."
"Maybe I should get some extra strong mints." Hannah
said with an evil glint in her eyes.
"I'm getting some tranquillizers." Jess was about to
peg it out and down the stairs when Hannah caught her arm.
"Hang on, we could GAIN from this."
"How?" Jess looked around at the 4 guys acting as
immaturely as chimps or politicians.
"DUR, Jess - Rich people in an expensive
hotel with LOTS of money who have lost their
minds…?"
"Oh…? Oh…OH!" Jess nodded. "You
think that we can dupe them into giving us money!"
"YES!" Hannah said. "Clever Jess."
Jess looked at the madness. "Where do we start?"
"You guard the door." Hannah glanced at Dominic.
"I'm going for his wallet." She crept over to Dominic who was
standing near the corner. She quickly pinched the wallet out of
his back pocket.
"OOH! How do you do?" He said in an Indian
voice, thinking that Hannah pinched his butt.
"Better than you will be when you wake up." Hannah
grabbed the tea tray and wacked him round the side of the head
with it.
Suddenly Elijah leapt onto her and held his hand up. "This
is STING! You remember it don't you? GOLLUM!"
"What did you just call me young man!?" Hannah threw
him off but he held onto her ankle.
Suddenly the walky-talky in Jess' pocket sounded, signalling
somebody was downstairs at reception.
"Come on, Hans."
Hannah tried to run after her, pulling Elijah along with her.
By the time Hannah and Jess
(and Elijah) had got back downstairs, Ben had fallen asleep at
reception, his head slumped forward on the attention bell, making
it 'ting' at 10 second intervals.
Jess looked at her watch. It was 4am.
"What the HELL have you been doing at 3 in the morning that
took an hour?" Jess shouted, waking him up with a start.
"And I THOUGHT I told you to go back to bed!"
Hannah yelled, angry at being disobeyed. "YOU HAVE to do as
I say! You'll ruin my EVIL PLAN!" She shook her leg in
frustration. "Elijah, for GOD'S SAKE, LET GO!"
Elijah ignored her.
"Just go up to your room, Ben." Jess muttered, pushing
him into the lift. "How much longer until our shift
ends?" She asked Hannah.
"Two hours."
"Oh dear God."
Jess and Hannah set up
a ping-pong table with a difference – they had to play
sitting in their office chairs.
"HA! I win AGAIN!!"
"This is unfair! I have something holding me back!"
Hannah complained. "And every time I change direction
quickly I run him over!" Hannah exclaimed.
"Maybe we should dispose of him somewhere? Is he dead?"
"No, just asleep."
Jess and Hannah got up and detached him from Hannah's ankle then
threw him in the lift and pressed the button for floor three.
"How many hours left?"
Jess looked at her watch. "Ooh! 10 minutes."
"Let's go."
"No! We have to stay for the whole time otherwise someone
might come and find the desk unmanned!"
"Fine." Said Hannah grumpily. Suddenly the lift pinged
again and the doors opened to reveal Elijah asleep on the floor.
"Ah, crap. You would have thought he'd have the decency to
roll out on the appropriate floor." Jess muttered.
"We could always try taking him up and leaving him outside
the door." Hannah suggested.
"Nah…Dominic might have realised his wallet's
missing."
When a tired looking
receptionist finally came to relieve them at 6 o' clock, Jess and
Hannah crawled along the road back to their house, before
realising that Hannah had left her key back in her locker at the
hotel and Jess' key was still inside.
"COLIIIIIN…?"
A red light came on next to the door.
"WHO GOES THERE?!" Said a deep, threatening voice.
"Colin! Colin, it's just us!" Hannah said quickly, not
wanting to risk death. "It's ME! Hannah! The light of
your life!"
"Oh, hello Hannah, hello Jess. How can I help?" Colin's
voice went back to it's normal polite form.
"We've forgotten our keys."
"Oh. What a shame." There was a pause. "Bye."
The light went out.
"COLIN!" Hannah screamed.
"Hmm?" The light came back on.
"Could you let us in?"
"Oh." There was another pause. "No."
The light went out again.
"COLIN! You've got to let us in! Where are we going
to sleep?!" Asked Jess.
"I'm sorry," Said Colin. "It's part of the
security system."
"Some security system when the people who own the place
can't get IN!" Jess muttered.
"Colin, if you let us in, I'll.." Hannah crept up to
the door speaker and whispered something. The door flew open.
"What did you say?" Jess exclaimed as they went
inside.
"AAAAHHH." Hannah tapped her nose knowingly.
� Jess and Hannah 2002