“We should go!” Jake was already touching the knob as the lights overhead started to flicker and the volume of the radio increased.
… mirrors…. Pink….. prisoner…. Help me!
“Roland, PLEASE! Let’s get out of here!” Jake’s heart was pounding so hard that it had almost drown out the sound of the radio that was now blaring at a nearly unbearable volume.
“Not yet!” Janette shouted over the music, “We have to push through!”
“Through what?!” Jake was teetering on the edge of hysterics due to the sensory overload.
“The back wall!” Roland gestured the other two forward, “This wasn’t a warning to leave! It was a clue as to where to look!”
“What if it’s the demon?!” Jake’s feet remained planted firmly by the door.
“We already met the demon and this isn’t it!” Janette stated as she moved forward to help Roland look around the shelves, “There’s a plank of particle board back here. I bet there’s something behind it!”
…master’s… stab… beast… pull!
The group of three managed to wiggle the shelving away from the wall without knocking any of its contents to the floor. Once there was enough space to get to it, Roland pulled the large plank of wood away from its spot on the wall to reveal a section of concrete that was covered by a green tarp.
“Well this isn’t sketchy at all!” Janette stated sarcastically, “Maybe Jake shouldn’t be in here for th…”
Roland interrupted his boss, “He’s already been in the freezer of hacked up corpse parts. He will be fine!”
“Alright, let’s go then!”
Janette reached up and started tugging the tarp away from the wall. After almost no effort, the flimsy duct-tape seal holding it up came loose and the tarp fell to the floor to reveal a hole in the cement that was about six feet high and a foot and a half wide.
“That is just the right size for a slim man to walk through!” Janette pointed to the hole.
“Yeah, fine!” Roland took a deep breath as he lit his flashlight and stepped into the hole.
…I remember… door… passage… closer!
The first thing Roland noticed was a dim, white light blinking about ten feet down the narrow passage between the walls and what he assumed was the foundation of the hotel. The smell of the space was an unmistakable odor of decay that let Roland know ahead of time what he was about to see. Lifting his flashlight, Roland’s eyes landed on a mummified corpse.
The body was wedged in between the two walls in an awkward manner that led Roland to believe it was caught up in something. A thick layer of dust sapped all of the color out of the clothing that covered the body and left no clues behind as to who it was or what had killed them.
Continuing to walk forward, Roland nearly choked on dust as he gasped at the realization of what the blinking light was. Clipped to the pocket on the front of the shirt the corpse was wearing was a small, black pager.
…relax… receive… you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave!
With shaking hands, Roland reached out to pick up the pager; having to untangle it from a delicate necklace chain that held a small, silver cross. Wiping the dust off of the face of the pager, his fears were confirmed as he saw his own cell phone number blinking on the screen.
Lifting a hand to cover his mouth as he turned away from the corpse of the man he considered a friend, Roland came face to face with the man who had been helping him for his entire stay at the Moorsfield Hotel.
“I told you I might need the services of a medium some day.”
7
Roland’s hands were trembling as he looked at the apparition that stood before him in the dimly lit crevice between the two walls.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Honestly, it was nice to be treated like a person again.”
“Roland, what is going on in there?!” Jake’s voice broke the tension in the air, “Janette says she smells a dead body!”
“Sh-,” Roland’s voice cracked, “she does.”
“Well then, get the hell out of there!” Jake’s head popped into the crack as his gaze passed through Devon and straight to Roland’s face, “You’re not stuck, are you?”
“No, I’m coming.” Roland coughed and gestured for Devon to follow him.
Once out in the maintenance room, Roland was glad to hear that the radio had gone silent again as he looked into the faces of his friends, “We’re in slightly more trouble than I previously thought.” He held up the pager, “We are only two deaths short of losing.”
“Why do you look so sad?” Jake eyed the pager, “What happened?”
“I’m not actually sure yet.” Roland turned to Devon, “You might as well make yourself visible so we can all hear your story at once.”
Jake jumped as the translucent form of Devon appeared directly next to Roland, “Holy shit…”
“So,” Janette stated coolly, “you must be Devon. Roland speaks highly of you, though, it does seem he left out something important.”
“I am Devon.” He shifted awkwardly, “I really was a maintenance man here, but back in nineteen-ninety-four, I went into the walls to fix a leaky pipe, got tangled up, and never made it out again.”
“How did nobody notice?” Janette inquired, “I mean, you would think whoever covered the hole in the wall would have noticed the smell at the very least and I’m sure you were shouting for a good while before your unfortunate passing. Also, someone should have noticed that you never clocked out or showed up for work again.”
“I don’t think any of my coworkers cared much. They probably thought I finally got pissed off enough to quit on the spot. As for the wall, it was not an employee that covered the hole, at least, I don’t think it was.” Devon crossed his arms, “I couldn’t see much from way back there, but I could hear a fair amount of wheezing and, at the time, all of the maintenance men were young and healthy.”
“I believe our mastermind was unfortunately the first to hear you then. He made sure no one would ever find you.” Janette sent a regretful gaze to the spirit, “How did you keep Roland from figuring out you were a ghost? Shouldn’t you have been in the murder files at the very least?”
“That was sheer dumb luck.” Devon looked bashful, “Jake almost blew my cover twice but, the first time, Roland thought he was just being a jerk and, the second, he was in shock. As for the file… I don’t know. Whoever it was sounded really ill. Maybe they were incapacitated by that long enough that they simply forgot to add it or something.”
“We’ll just have to ask about it when we meet the bastard.” Janette stated as she noticed Jake looking accusingly to Roland.
“You thought I was a jerk?”
Roland held his hands up defensively, “I’m sorry. It was only the second time we’d bumped into each other and I thought you walked in, took booze, and dropped cash next to Devon without acknowledging him. From where I was sitting, I thought he was a normal, living employee here.”
“I kind of am…” Devon looked as if he felt guilty, “I do still try to help out with the understaffing problem.”
“Wait, were you the one that picked up my broken glass in the billiards room?!”
“Yes.” Devon nodded sheepishly, “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Alright,” Janette interrupted, “sorry to burst everyone’s discovery bubble, but we are all in significant danger if this guy only needs two people to finish his deal.” She gestured around the room, “If you haven’t noticed yet, there are more than enough of us to end it and we clued the bastard in a mere hour ago.”
“Devon, did you ever find the room?!”
“I did. It IS behind the walls in the missing part of the third floor, but I don’t know how to get a physical person in. I only got there by walking through the walls.” Even in spirit form, Devon had noticeably trembling hands, “What are the chances of me escaping an eternity in Hell for dying in this building?”
“We are going to help you.” Roland’s tone was intensely serious, “Jake, I’m not in charge of your life in any way, but I’m going to ask you one more time if you will leave while you still can.”
“No!” Jake stated stubbornly, “There is power in numbers and I told you I was staying, so stop trying to kick me out already!”
“You do understand the risks, don’t you?” Janette inquired.
“Roland has been abundantly clear, but I am invested now.”
“Alright.” Janette nodded, “Devon, we’re going to bust through the wall. Where can we find something like a sledgehammer?”
“They store the heavier tools in a little shed on the roof. They key is unfortunately on Sal’s key-ring and he won’t be in to work for another few hours.”
“Is it just a padlock and a chain?” Roland was trying to get his mind together around his worry for Jake.
“Yeah.”
“We can break in.” Roland started walking to the door, “Come on. We move only as a group from here on out.”
“I’ll meet you up there.” Devon phased back out of sight as the three living humans moved to the door.
“So,” Jake was hovering as close to Roland as he could without tripping the man up, “can we take the elevator for the sake of speed?”
“No.” Janette replied, “Elevators in haunted buildings are never safe. We take the stairs.”
Roland pushed through the door that led to said stairs, “I told you.” He side-eyed Jake.
“Remind me to move into a one story townhouse after this nightmare is over, okay?”
“Deal.”
Roland took off up the stairs at a pace that made speaking nearly impossible, slowing down only when he hit the top landing and needed to use his key-card to open the door. After pushing through, Roland looked over his shoulder, only to realize that Jake and Janette were still three flights of stairs behind him.
“Once we beat this thing, I’m celebrating by buying you both gym memberships.”
Janette hit the landing before Jake did, “We’re conserving energy. You’re springing; we’re running a marathon.”
“I like her,” Jake wheezed out as he followed the other two onto the roof, “she’s nicer than you.”
“Whatever.” Roland was now on a mission to find the shed Devon had spoken of.
“It’s over here!” Devon’s voice rose from Roland’s right.
“It’s over here.” Roland stated as he was pretty sure Devon had dropped his corporeal form for the time being as leaving it up long-term was incredibly difficult for spirits.
A small, weather-worn, wooden shack stood at the back corner of the roof. Roland walked a circle around it and was slightly put off to see that it was still well sealed. The padlock and chain on the front were in better condition than he had been expecting, leaving him to look up to his companions in desperation.
“I should have brought hedge clippers up.”
“Don’t be stupid.” Jake, who now had a lit cigarette in his mouth, was walking forward with a dense looking metal bucket that was partially filled with a mixture of cigarette butts and sand, “Step aside and I’ll show you how a fiction writer does things.”
Stepping boldly up to the padlocked door, Jake raised the heavy bucked over his head before bringing it down onto the padlock as hard as he could. Repeating this motion three more times, Jake smirked and exhaled smoke as the lock snapped open and fell to the ground.
“Continue.”
“Damn it all, I love you!” Roland stated exuberantly over his shoulder as he ran into the shed to search for tools.
Jake froze as his stomach seemed to drop down to his feet. Taking another drag off his cigarette, he mentally berated himself for even considering that Roland had been serious before shaking his head and stepping up to the door of the shed.
“Did you find anything good?!”
“Its slim pickings,” he walked out with an armload of tools, “but I think we can probably work with these.” Roland offered up a roofing hammer, a sledgehammer, and a claw hammer.
“They’ll have to do.” Janette took the roofing hammer, “Come on. We don’t have any time to waste here.”
“Back to the third floor!” Roland stated aloud just to ensure everyone was still on the same page.
“Is there anything you need out of your room?” Jake inquired as he followed Roland down the first flight of stairs.
“Nah, this is going to come down to a battle of wills if we can’t destroy the room in time. There isn’t a relic in our possession that would give us the upper hand against something this powerful.”
“I don’t know if you were trying to be comforting or not,” Jake started making his way down to the fifth floor landing, “but you failed.”
“I figured honesty was the best policy here.”
“I guess but ma…” Jake let out a grunt as he dropped his hammer and grabbed onto the railing.
“Jake!” Janette and Roland both shouted in unison as they watched Jake fly horizontally away from the step he was standing on and forcefully slam into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Sliding down the wall, Jake fell into a crumpled heap as he tried to catch his breath after having the wind knocked out of him.
“Shit!” Roland dropped his hammer and ran down to the fifth floor landing to check on his friend, “Jake! Are you okay?!”
Jake released a wheeze as he glared up at Roland and continued trying to catch his breath.
“Janette?”
“I’m on it! You take care of Jake!” Janette had pulled a vial of water with a cross on it out of her pocket, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I demand you leave us be!” She started flicking droplets of water around the area where Jake sat.
Her chanting continued as Roland looked down to meet Jake’s eyes, “Do you have your breath back yet?”
Jake sucked in a pointedly sharp inhale before looking up to meet Roland’s eyes, “Take the stairs, he said. It’s so much safer than the elevator, he said!” Jakes tone was dripping with so much sarcasm that Roland physically scooted back a few inches, “Bad things always happen in the elevator so let’s go down the spiky stone ledges where the demon has more space to throw us instead!”
“I’m so sorry!” Roland genuinely felt bad that Jake had been attacked, but was also comforted that the man had it within himself to be so bitingly sarcastic after a hit like the one he had just taken, “Do you think anything is broken?”
“Just my spine.” Jake coughed and started to stand up, “The bones may actually be protruding from the flesh by this point, but the rest of me is just fine.”
“You didn’t hit your head?” Roland helped pull Jake up to his feet.
“No, it took the majority of the blow to my shoulder-blades. I’ll be fine.”
“Let’s get moving then.” Janette said, “The ferocity of that attack means that it is definitely aware that we are a threat to it. There may very well be more attempts at our lives so maintain your vigilance.”
“Sure thing, Mad Eye.” Jake muttered as he picked up his hammer and turned toward the next set of steps, only to stop as the foulest odor he had ever smelled mad him retch and turn away, “What is that?!”
“That’s the demon.” Roland had pulled his sweater up over his mouth and nose as the smell that was somewhere between spoiled eggs and rotting flesh filled the room, “This is not good.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” Jake muttered as he pressed his back into the corner of the landing, “Seeing as it’s blocking our way down, or at least I assume it is via that odor, maybe we should take a different route.”
Before the last word had completely left Jake’s lips, the stairs that would lead the group from the fifth to third floor started to tear themselves apart in a manner reminiscent of an angry, invisible bear trying to break through them. Chunk after chunk of cement and carpet flew backward to the landings below, leaving the trio no choice but to evacuate the stairwell.
“What now?!
” Roland was pacing back and forth as his anxiety over the situation rose, “We are NOT getting in the fucking elevator! I would rather go jump the giant gap over the stairs than set foot in that fucking elevator!”
“Get it together, Roland!” Janette snapped, “This is not the time to have a breakdown! Surely we can think of something else.”
“How safe are fire escapes?” Jake was looking at the door to his own room, “We could take it down to the third floor and break in through a window. I realize this is kind of an invasion of personal space if someone is actually occupying that room, but considering the circumstances…”
“That’s perfect.” Janette nodded, “Lead the way.”
Jake ran forward and opened the door to his room. Gesturing the two in, he slammed it shut and locked the deadbolt before pausing and taking a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” Janette’s voice had a mild air of concern etched into its normally neutral tone.
“I am, but I’ve noticed Roland is afraid of heights. I just thought he might need a minute to collect himself before we run out onto the rusty metal death-trap.”
“That is incredibly considerate of you,” Roland sent Jake an affectionate half smile, “and I do appreciate it, but I think this situation requires me to suck it up and get out there.”
“Alright.” Jake walked over to his window and unhinged the locks, “After you.” He opened the window and gestured for the other two to head out before him.
Janette was the first out the window, moving with a level of grace that surprised the blonde standing inside. By the time he and Roland had followed, Janette was already on the fourth level landing, showing no signs of hesitance or slowing.
Roland followed suit, leaving Jake a moment to think as he didn’t find it wise to put the weight of more than one adult on the same set of rickety steps at a time. Looking out over the horizon, Jake felt a strange sense of peace as the rest of the town sat quietly below. Twinkling its lights into the still pitch black sky, it new nothing of the trio who were possibly running to their deaths inside a hotel that had been mostly forgotten by time.
The Moorsfield Hotel Page 10