Checking Out

by Alexie Aaron

  “We’ve heard rumors of an inn that appears to lost travelers at night and disappears the next day. We’re here to find it. You want in?” she asked.

  “Why are you looking for the Dew Drop?” Paul asked suspiciously.

  “We think it swallowed up our friend, and we want him back,” Mia replied honestly.

  “You’re sure it’s the Dew Drop?” the old man asked.

  “It’s the only inn we’ve found that has disappeared in a meteorite shower so far,” Mia said confidently.

  “I’m in,” Paul said.

  “How about you?” Mia asked the old man.

  “I’m here waiting for Old John over there. He’s due to kick the bucket any day now. Thought we’d go up to Ely and do some fishing before the Lord takes us in.”

  “I hope you get that adventure,” Mia said. “But if you change your mind, the light will be by now and again when you’re ready.”

  “I appreciate the info. Now, I better go and see what shenanigans the codger is up to now. Always been a ladies man. Ladies and lying go hand-in-hand with Old John.”

  ~

  Mia related her and Murphy’s conversation with the rest of the PEEPs team in the privacy of the pool hall they had commandeered. Mike handed the bartender a hundred dollar bill for the privilege.

  “Paul and the old man’s story coincide with the vision I got from Old John’s memory. What they didn’t see, and what John doesn’t realize he saw, was that the ley line was active when the house was pulled into it. I don’t have a physics degree, but I’m sure it had something to do with the energy sources attracted each other, and the inn got in between. The second hit severed the artery, and the ley line disappeared at this point. Murphy and I saw a segment of it where Burt’s car and backpack were found.”

  “You keep talking segment,” Audrey interrupted. “How do you know the line is cut off?”

  “From what I can gather, the original line went from Cape Hatteras to Itasca Minnesota. Burt didn’t find any sightings in Minnesota. The Itasca line is blocked somewhere northwest of here. I think it happened very close to the time the Dew Drop disappeared.”

  “What do we do now?” Audrey asked.

  Mia looked over at Cid. “It’s your call.”

  “We’re going to lose light soon. I think we need to position ourselves close to where the next predicted occurrence is scheduled. Burt’s calculations were right on the money for the Ashville occurrence. Let’s go up the line and stake out the next place the line intersects a road. Mia, do you think you can oob into the line safely?”

  “If it behaves like any other line, then yes. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to find the inn though. It depends how fast it’s moving. If it is too far ahead of me, I’ll have to follow the line until the house rebounds back towards me. And that may just kick me out. A large mass moving takes precedence in the line. If I may suggest, let me enter prior to the next predicted stop. This way Murph and I can move towards it before it rebounds.”

  “How do we know it’s going to stop,” Mike asked.

  Paul moved towards Mia. She raised her hand, silencing conversation, and gave the ghost her full attention.

  “The Brewsters never let a stranded traveler go without a good night’s rest and belly full of grub in the morning,” he told her.

  “Paul has told me that the owners of the inn never let a stranded traveler spend the night out in the cold. May I recommend some play acting?”

  “I’ll do it,” Mike volunteered. “Audrey, you’d make a great missus.”

  Audrey blushed. “I’m game.”

  “Ted and I’ll take Maggie in the truck with us. You two, take the van. Mia, do the com links work in the line?” Cid asked.

  “Nope. Murph and I can barely hear each other. Even if I could physically hang on to the com, we will be moving too fast for you to hear us. My goal is to find Burt and extract him from the line if I can. I’ll need a fully charged Murphy and time.”

  “We better leave now,” Cid said.

  ~

  Burt faced Millie the cook again. This time Mrs. Brewster stood behind him.

  “I’d like to apologize for any rudeness on my behalf. I’m a grumpy bear at times, especially when I’m preoccupied with an investigation.”

  “What exactly are you investigating, Mr. Hicks?”

  “If you would indulge me, I’d like to tell you both a story,” Burt requested.

  Millie took out a mound of bread dough and began to kneed it. “Go ahead,” she urged. “Hopefully, it will amuse me.”

  Burt curbed his temper and began, “For some time now, there has been a legend of an inn much like yours that has sheltered people for the night, fed them extraordinary breakfasts and then simply disappeared, never to be found again by the guests it had served. There were only a few reports of it throughout the last forty years until six months ago when the occurrences of the mystery inn’s hospitality increased. I hunt down paranormal things for a living. I’m just trying to discover if the stories of the inn are true. Does a charming little hotel appear to the weary traveler and then disappear? And if it does, why? Is there a reason? What is it made of? And if someone in the inn needs my help, I’ll do my best to give it.”

  “Why would they need your help, Mr. Hicks?” Mrs. Brewster asked.

  “In my business, I encounter people, or spirits of people, that are trapped in situations they can’t escape from. I, with the help of my associates, work hard to free them. Now and again we find souls that are happy being caught between worlds. We let them be, as long as they aren’t hurting the flesh and blood people around them.”

  “Sounds like hogwash to me,” Millie spat. “Mind your own business is a better policy.”

  “Millie! When did you become so jaded?” Mrs. Brewster asked.

  Burt turned to look at the woman and then back at her daughter. He felt the spirit of the hostess was breaking away from the hold of the inn for a brief moment.

  “Not everyone gets what they want.”

  “True. What didn’t you get?” her mother asked her.

  “Independence.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “My life has been planned out for me since I was born. I was born in this inn, and I’m not sure I haven’t died in this inn. The only freedom I’ve had was culinary school, and that was just so I could come back here and bake muffins in this inn.”

  “Nonsense, you have a husband,” Mrs. Brewster said.

  “Who I have to leave every morning to serve breakfast to others!” she pointed out. “I can’t tell you the last time I was able to cook Paul a decent meal. He doesn’t complain…”

  “Millie,” Burt interrupted. “What do you mean, you’re not sure you haven’t died in this inn?”

  “I’ve been thinking ever since you told me what year it is. It doesn’t add up. Where did the time go? I assumed I left this place after lunch service and had gone home, but I don’t remember actually leaving.” Millie pounded on the dough. “All I know is baking…”

  Burt turned around and addressed Mrs. Brewster, “How about you? What do you remember?”

  “I remember fireflies and putting my feet up after the guests have retired for the night. I remember a gin and tonic. I remember summer…”

  Burt watched as a change came over her. Her face went from soft remembrances to a model of efficiency.

  “Time to get the wash in. If you’ll excuse me, Mr. Hicks, I have linen to change. Millie, don’t forget to use up the apples before they go soft,” she said and turned on her heel and pushed her way through the kitchen doors.

  Burt turned back to Millie. She had abandoned her bread and was now peeling apples. She looked up from her task. “Is there anything I can help you with, Mr. Hicks?”

  “I… You… No, I’ll just continue to stretch my legs. Mind if I use the back door?”

  She looked around puzzled. “We don’t have a back door.”

  Burt walked through the kitchen, and sure enou
gh, there was no longer a back door. He rushed through the kitchen, through the dining room and into the foyer. The front door had not reappeared.

  “Hello, can I help you?” Mrs. Brewster asked, appearing behind the desk.

  “I was looking for a door. I wanted to get some fresh air.”

  “Fresh air is overrated, Mr. Hicks. I suggest you go back into your room, and I’ll bring you up some fresh coffee.”

  Burt walked up the stairs dutifully. He didn’t seem to have any other choice in the matter. He reached the landing and turned around to address the hostess but found she had vacated her post. He saw to his amazement the front door was open. He decided to leave his stuff and make a run for it. He took a step, and the staircase fell away from under him. He clung to the banister and managed to climb back to safety. He pushed his back against the wall of the hallway, panting from the exertion.

  “Careful, Mr. Hicks, that second step could kill you,” Mrs. Brewster’s voice echoed through the inn.

  Chapter Five

  Mia smiled as she prepared to oob. The days of double socks on her hands and feet were gone. Ted had bartered with a mountain climbing company for a state of the art artic survival bag and gloves. He in turn gave them access to his GPS heart monitoring equipment to try out. Mia pulled on a special balaclava over her head. Its soft but dense fibers clung to her face. Ted felt that this added layer of protection would keep Mia out of danger of frostbite should they lose power in the truck.

  “I feel like I’m being prepared for an Egyptian burial,” she said as she lay in the bag suspiciously resembling a hooded coffin.

  “Nah, I haven’t extracted your brain yet,” Ted said.

  “He couldn’t find it,” Cid joked.

  “That’s because half of it went missing, and the other half’s out looking for it,” Ted teased.

  Mia was going to join in the good-hearted joking but remembered that time wasn’t on their side and prepared herself. She pulled on the gloves and let Ted zip her in. The last thing she waited for was for him to kiss her. His warm lips would be the last earthly thing she would feel for some time.

  “What persona are you bilocating in?” Ted asked, bending over her.

  “My normal cargos and hoodie,” she answered. I want Burt to be able to recognize us. It’s been a while since he’s seen Murphy.”

  “Good thinking. Good luck and good hunting,” Ted said. He bent down and said, “I love you, Mia Martin. Come back to me.”

  “I will,” she promised.

  Ted kissed her. Mia closed her eyes and was soon up and out of her body. She found Murphy just outside the truck, soaking up some energy from the second of the two cubes Cid had activated for him.

  “You’re looking dapper this evening,” Mia said, admiring the subtle change in his attire. “I thought you couldn’t change your appearance.”

  Stephen Murphy blushed. He had used some of his energy to put on the appearance that he was wearing company clothes. He was pleased that Mia noticed, but his intention in the change of appearance had more to do with not being turned away from the inn as some poor dirt farmer than impressing Mia.

  “I approve. Let’s get moving,” she said.

  Murphy did his best to stay with Mia. In a bilocated state, she could move six times his speed. She was careful and slowed down for him, but sometimes she forgot in her excitement and left Murphy in the dust.

  Paul stood at the edge of the frozen field. He looked at the shimmering line and back at Mia and Murphy several times. “Are you sure this is a safe thing?”

  “No, and what if it isn’t? You’re already dead,” Mia pointed out. “Just stand close. I’ll go in and pull you and Murphy in after me. The line has an intelligence to it. If you concentrate and think ‘Bring me to Millie,’ it will. But if you panic and think you’re going to hell, well…”

  “I understand.”

  Mia looked at Murphy. “Are you ready?”

  He nodded.

  They walked closer to the shimmer. Mia backed inside and reached out with both hands, grabbing a ghost with each and pulling them towards her.

  This line was different. There was a two way flow. Mia worried that they may waste time going the wrong direction.

  Paul Swanson said something that was swallowed up in the spectral wind. Mia smiled at she read his lips. He said Millie, and the line began to pull him forward. Mia grabbed ahold of him, and Murphy clasped his arms around Mia. They shot forward. Mia tried to calculate the direction in which they were moving but couldn’t be sure. She prayed that they would encounter the house before it reached the next stop.

  ~

  Cid pulled the command truck over and watched Mike and Audrey pass by them in the van. The plan was that Mike and Audrey would drive around pretending to be lost and periodically stop at the crossroads where Burt had predicted the inn would stop. Cid and Ted would monitor them via the long range ear coms. When they entered the inn, they would reposition the truck behind the van.

  Cid shook off his feeling of being inadequate for the leader position. He knew Ted had his back and would guide him if he fell into a fit of indecision. Cid wasn’t the newest member of the group, Audrey was, but he had never worn the mantle of leader before.

  He pulled up the back door and looked over at Ted who was adjusting Mia’s body.

  “How is she?”

  “According to the computer, she’s bilocating, and that’s all I can say. Her body temperature is maintaining that of a normal resting person.”

  “Good,” Cid said. “Have you ever thought to learn to do that oobing stuff?”

  “I’m not sure I can.”

  “Mia seems to think that anything is possible if you try hard enough,” Cid said as he activated his com link with Mike and Audrey.

  Ted nodded his head and thought about it a while. “I think that it wouldn’t be bad to learn as a safety measure, but I think my talents are more technical than oobical.”

  “Hey, that’s a new word. Ten points Ravenclaw.”

  Ted laughed and took another look at Mia before getting up and taking over the console from Cid. “We haven’t put Audrey in a house yet,” he said, bringing the GPS system up online. Mike and Audrey had been outfitted with tracking devices that Ted had added an experimental power cell to. He hoped to be able to penetrate the veil of the ley line and track them if the inn took off with them in it.

  Maggie whined from her travel cage.

  “I’ve got her,” Cid said getting up. “Do you need to take a walk, girl?”

  Maggie responded with a sharp bark.

  He opened the cage, and she bounded out. She took time to lick Ted behind the ear before pouncing on top of Mia, washing her face with flicks of her tongue.

  Cid quickly pulled her off of Mia. “I’ll let you explain that to Mia,” Cid said.

  “Coward,” Ted responded. “Maybe we should attach the lead before opening the cage.”

  “Good hindsight advice.”

  Ted watched Cid and Maggie exit the trailer before he rolled over to where Mia was resting. He sponged off the dog drool from the balaclava. “There, now you’ll be just fine. I wonder where you are, my little star?”

  ~

  Mia held on to Paul with all her might. If she didn’t know any better, Mia would have sworn that they were being pulled in by a tractor beam. She noticed that the ley line had started to expand. Paul shouted a warning that was lost in the turbulence. Before she and Murphy could prepare themselves, they collided with a solid mass. Paul tumbled onto the front porch of the Dew Drop Inn, while Mia and Murphy had to inch their way along the clapboards towards the porch.

  “If I wasn’t oobing, I’d suspect I just broke my nose,” Mia commented as she touched her face. Murphy was silent, but Mia wondered if he hadn’t connected with more sensitive areas of his ghostly anatomy. He walked funny, all hunched over.

  Paul got to his feet. “This is it. This is the Dew Drop!” He ran to the door and tried to pull it open. “Millie!
It’s Paul, let me in!” he said, pounding on the door. “I don’t understand it,” he said, looking over at Mia. “The door has never been locked before.”

  “Perhaps it’s not locked to keep us out - as no one would have suspected we’d be here. It could be locked to keep something or someone in. You continue knocking while Murph and I try to find another way in,” Mia suggested.

  Murphy grabbed Mia’s arm and pointed. She turned and looked out over the porch and saw fields of grain moving in sunlight. “It’s a mirage. There’s nothing there but energy,” she told him. “I don’t know what is real, but I’d suspect, that since it’s winter in Wisconsin, that isn’t wheat. The house however feels real.” Mia patted the side of the building. “Let’s see if we can find a way in. Check all the windows.”

  Murphy and Mia walked the large porch, pulling on windows and were disappointed to find all openings locked to the travelers, even the ghostly ones.

  Murphy raised his axe and tapped the ceiling of the porch.

  “You’re right. We should climb up there and check the second story. I do hope that we don’t have to come down the chimney like Santa.”

  Murphy rose and moved through the ceiling while Mia waited at the edge of the porch. She knew he probably could have entered the house himself but did not want to leave Mia alone and unprotected. Instead he lowered his axe over the side of the porch. Mia grabbed hold of the handle, and he pulled her up and over the side of the house.

  She got to her feet and walked across the top of the porch to the second story windows. She cupped her hands and looked inside.

  Burt gasped as a face appeared at his window. His first inclination was to run, but there was something familiar about the nose that was pushed up against the panes. Mia! He rushed over and prayed the window would be unlocked. It was. He opened it with a mighty heave. Mia, who wasn’t prepared for this, fell in head over heels, landing at his feet. Murphy moved into the room after her.

  “How is it that I can see you, sir?” Burt asked. “Am I dead?”