by Amy Cross
I wait a moment, hoping against hope that she'll turn out to be a shadow, but with each passing second I'm more and more certain that she's real.
“Who are you?” I stammer finally, tilting my phone but still not managing to get any light onto her face. “Where did you come from?”
I wait, shivering in the cold air, but the girl doesn't respond at all.
“Where did you come from?” I continue, struggling to stay calm. “Did Annie send you? Is this some kind of joke?”
Again I wait, and after a moment it occurs to me that the girl might be some kind of mannequin. She hasn't moved since I spotted her, and I guess it's possible that Annie might have found a mannequin in one of the rooms and decided to use it to freak me out. I should step closer and check, and I'll probably find that the girl is made of plastic or wood, but I can't quite bring myself to move.
And then, slowly, the girl disproves my theory entirely by starting to hold her left arm out toward me.
I stare at her outstretched hand for a moment, but there's no way I'm going to touch her, not just yet.
“What do you want?” I ask, and now my teeth are starting to chatter. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
When she still fails to reply, I realize I'm going to have to step closer. From the shape and size of her silhouette, it's clear that she can't be more than eight, maybe nine years old at most, and she's still holding her hand toward me. I mean, it's not like a little girl can actually hurt me.
Finally, swallowing hard, I take a step forward and reach out to take her hand.
“Beth?” Steve yells suddenly, from far off in the building. “Where are you?”
Immediately, the little girl turns and runs, vanishing from view as she hurries along the corridor. Startled, I step through the doorway just in time to see her disappearing around the far corner.
“Beth?” Steve shouts. “Babe! Come on, what's going on here?”
I hurry to the corner and look along the next corridor, but all I see is Steve coming this way with his phone held up for light.
“Where did she go?” I ask.
“Where did who go?”
“There was a girl,” I continue, as I feel my heart pounding in my chest. “She ran right this way, you can't have missed her!”
“Do you mean Annie?”
“No, a little girl! She ran this way, she must have gone right past you! Either that, or she went into one of the rooms, but I didn't hear any doors opening.”
“Are you okay?” he asks, coming over to join me. “When I woke up and you were gone, I kinda figured maybe you'd gone to find Annie.”
“I heard a noise,” I reply, slipping past him and opening the nearest door, only to find another empty room. I try a couple more doors, but there's still no sign of the girl and finally I turn back to Steve. “She must have run right past you! I know it's dark, but how could you have missed a little girl running past you?”
“Uh, maybe because a little girl didn't run past me? Babe, I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed something like that.”
“I'm not making this up!”
“I never said you were.”
“And I didn't imagine it!”
“You're under a lot of stress,” he replies, sounding as if he's trying to be diplomatic, “and this place probably gave you nightmares.”
“I didn't imagine her,” I mutter again, heading to yet another door and pushing it open, only to find myself staring into another empty room. “I know what I saw,” I continue. “Don't tell me to doubt myself. That girl was as real as you are. It's like she wanted something, but then your voice scared her off.”
Turning to him, I raise my phone, and I immediately see the doubt in his eyes.
“So what do you want to do?” he asks finally. “Check every room in this place until we find her?”
“I want you to tell me you believe me!”
“Fine. I believe you.”
Staring at him, I realize he's just humoring me. He obviously thinks I'm cracking up, that a few hours in a creepy old hotel was all it takes for my mind to fall apart.
“I'm not staying here,” I tell him.
“Beth...”
“I'm not spending another minute in this place!” I hiss, storming past him and heading back to the room where we put together our makeshift bed. “I'll sleep outside, by the car.”
“Beth, you're overreacting,” he says as he follows me. “So you thought you saw a spooky little kid, so -”
“I don't think I saw anything! I saw a little girl, and since I don't believe in ghosts, the only explanation is that you and my idiotic sister are somehow in on this together. I should have known something was up when you claimed you hadn't bothered to check the place was still open before we drove all this way. Nobody'd be that stupid!”
Stepping around the mattress, I look for my bag, before realizing that it's under a pile of Steve's clothes. Reaching down, I pull the clothes aside, only for a familiar set of keys to slip out of his pants pocket and land on the bare floorboards.
“Beth, let's talk about this,” he says, standing behind me as I pick the keys up. “You're over-analyzing everything again.”
These are Annie's keys, the set for the car, but if Steve has had them all this time...
Slowly, I turn and hold the keys up for him to see.
He opens his mouth to say something, but I can see from the look in his eyes that he knows the game is up.
Chapter Five
“You're a dirty, lousy, goddamn stinking liar,” I say slowly, my voice simmering with rage. “You let me think Annie had the keys all along, when they've been in your pocket.”
“Beth...”
“Why would you do that? What possible reason could you have?”
“Beth, listen...”
“And now you're going to lie again? You're going to claim they were planted there, is that it?”
He hesitates for a moment, before sighing. “No, I'm not going to claim that. I've been an idiot, and I can only ask you to forgive me. If you'll let me explain, you'll see that I -”
“Where's Annie?”
“I don't know, she -”
“Where's Annie?” I hiss, taking a step toward him. Right now, he's goddamn lucky I'm not the type who hits people, because I'd love to wipe that lying mouth clean off his face. I don't think I've ever been this angry with anyone before, not in my entire life.
“I don't know where Annie is,” he says, holding his hands up as if somehow that'll make me believe him. “I swear. I took the keys and pretended I didn't have them. I admit that. I know it was dumb, but I wanted us to spend one night here. I swear, Annie running off is nothing to do with me. I can only assume she's playing some other kind of game, but I promise, it's nothing to do with me. I don't even like her! Why the hell would I plot something like this with her?”
“You wanted us to spend a night here?” I ask. “Why?”
“There's something here I wanted to check out.”
“There's nothing here,” I reply. “Look at the place, it's a complete dump. It's empty!”
“I wasn't lying when I said I wanted us to come and stay,” he explains. “Then, when I found out the hotel had shut down, I figured we could make the trip anyway. I've been waiting ten years to get back here, but I never dared, not until recently. You make me stronger, Beth. You make me feel like I can face anything, and now I want to face whatever I saw, or thought I saw, when I stayed here all those years ago.”
He reaches out to touch the side of my face.
“Beth, you make me stronger and -”
“Don't!” I hiss, pushing his hand away.
He hesitates for a moment, as if he's worried about saying any more.
“There's something here,” he tells me finally.
“What do you mean?”
“There's something at the hotel,” he continues. “I'm not talking about furniture, or even about people. I'm talking about something else, something I think I saw te
n years ago. Something that most people don't see while they're here. If I could explain it any better than that, I wouldn't have had to come all the way back here to figure it out properly, but I promise you, there's something in this hotel that only lets itself be seen when it wants to be seen. And for some reason, ten years ago, it wanted to be seen by me.”
Staring at him, I can't help feeling that he's completely lost his mind. That this kind, fun, handsome guy I've been dating is actually insane.
“You're talking about a ghost,” I say finally. “Seriously?”
“I think so, but I don't know for sure. Maybe.” He hesitates for a moment, as if the ridiculousness of these claims is sinking in. “You have to understand, Beth, that I came back here because I need to know for certain. I've spent ten years wondering whether she's real, or whether -”
“She?”
“The little girl. But if you saw her too, then -”
“I didn't see a ghost!” I say firmly, feeling a rising sense of anger at the realization that this whole trip has been one long manipulation. “I saw a little girl, but she was real! So if you -”
“Her name is Ruth.”
I open my mouth to reply, but I can tell that he really, truly believes this. Turning, I look back toward the dark corridor, but there's no sign of anyone and I certainly don't intend to stick around while Steve goes chasing after bumps in the night. I want to scream, I want to tell this bastard exactly what I think of him, but after a moment I realize that there's no way I'm going to let myself fall apart. I can cry later, when I'm alone, but not right now.
“Here's what's going to happen,” I say finally. “I'm going to go outside, and I'm going to sit in the car and wait for Annie to come back. And then she and I are going to leave.”
I wait for him to reply, but he simply stares at me.
“Just promise me one thing,” I add. “Please, please promise me that Annie didn't know about any of this, and that you and her weren't conspiring to -”
“Of course not.”
“And you don't know where she is?”
“I swear. I'm sure we were right earlier. She's just messing with us.”
“She's not the only one,” I reply, before turning and heading to the door.
“Beth, wait!” he calls after me. “Can we at least finish the night here?”
“You should have been honest with me from the start,” I tell him through gritted teeth, as I use my phone to light the way to the top of the staircase. “I don't like liars, Steve. You had hundreds of chances to tell me the truth, and you know I'm a reasonable person. I wouldn't have laughed at you. But you've been lying this whole time, and that means I can't ever trust another word that comes from your mouth.”
“Wouldn't you want to know?” he asks. “If you'd met a ghost when you were younger, wouldn't you want to come back and see if she was real?”
I hurry down the stairs, not even bothering to look back at him. I can't believe that not only did I let him lure me into a so-called haunted house, but I even slept with him in one of its rooms. I've been completely humiliated.
“Beth!” he shouts. “What if -”
“Go to hell!” I yell, turning and seeing him at the top of the stairs. There are tears in my eyes now, and the sight of him makes me feel nauseous. “And in case you haven't figured it out yet, we're through. Annie and I'll drop you at the first town we come to, but after that we're going our own way. You can go home alone.”
“I was scared to come by myself,” he tells me. “You make me stronger, Beth. This hotel -”
“I don't care,” I say firmly. “What you do is none of my concern, not anymore. Just be glad that we're willing to give you a ride at all. A lot of people would just dump you here and let you walk back to civilization.”
With that, I turn and hurry out through the front door and down the steps, before making my way toward the car. I'm starting to cry properly now, but there's no way I want James to see me when I'm upset. By the time I reach the car and start fumbling for my keys, my hands are trembling and I feel like I'm going to break down completely, but I tell myself there'll be time for that later. As I unlock the car, I glance back toward the hotel and see that at least Steve isn't coming after me, and then I turn back to the car.
Suddenly I spot something in the corner of my eye. Looking toward the patio, I see a familiar silhouette standing next to the swimming pool.
Finally!
“Hey!” I yell, waving my hands at her. “Annie! We're getting out of here!”
I wait for her to reply, but she's just standing by the pool, watching me.
“Annie!” I shout, cupping my hands around my mouth. “We're leaving! Right now!”
When she still fails to respond, I can't help sighing. Even now, my dumb little sister apparently thinks it's fun to pull some kind of stunt, so I march around the car and hurry past the hotel's far corner, heading toward the patio. I'm freezing cold and there are still tears in my eyes, and all I can think about is that I want to get as far away from this crumby hotel as possible. In fact, I never want to even think about the stupid Lakeforth again.
“Annie, it's freezing!” I continue as I get closer to the pool. “Aren't you cold? You're wearing next to nothing! Where the hell have you been for the past ten hours?”
Stopping at the pool's edge, I see that Annie has her back to me. She's watching the pitch-black forest, and I can't help thinking that she's still engaged in whatever dumb game she's been planning all night.
“I'm so not in the mood for this,” I tell her, taking a step closer. “Annie, please, Steve's turned out to be a total asshole and I really need you to just come with me. I just broke up with him, and I feel like everything's going to hell right now, and for once I need you to see things from my point of view and just stop playing this game, okay?”
I wait, but still she doesn't turn to me.
“You got us good,” I continue, edging toward her. “Okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? We were freaked out when you disappeared, and you really inconvenienced us, and it's all very impressive. But you're my sister, and I need you to understand that I'm really hurting right now and I just want to get the hell away from this place. Please, you can prank me again once we get to the beach, but I'm begging you, just make this easy. Let's go.”
Nothing.
No reply.
The only sound now is the rustling of the trees.
“Seriously?” I continue, stepping up behind her and reaching out to put a hand on her arm, only to find that her flesh is wet and ice cold. “You're going to get pneumonia if you stand out here like this. Come on, let's blow this dump and go somewhere with soft beds and warm showers. For once in my life, I actually want to just hang out and party and forget my worries. I might even drink more than one beer. Please, can you do this for me?”
I wait, and this time she slowly starts turning to me. As soon as I see the side of her face, however, I can tell that something's wrong. Her eyes look very pale, almost glassy, and her mouth is hanging open with a steady trickle of water running down onto her chin.
“Annie?” I ask, trying not to sound like I'm too freaked out right now. “Did you go in the lake? What's wrong?”
She turns a little more, until finally her eyes are staring straight at me, but the expression on her face seems really off. I want to ask her again what's wrong, but I'm not even sure she's capable of hearing me, She looks completely stoned, as if she's out of her mind, and I can't help noticing that more and more water is dribbling from her mouth and running down her chin.
And her eyes are milky white.
“Annie...”
“Annie had a little accident,” Steve says suddenly, from right behind me.
I turn to him, but he quickly grabs me by the shoulder and pulls me back. At the same time, I feel a sharp pain slicing between my shoulder-blades, and a moment later the tip of a knife bursts out of my chest, just below my collarbone. Gasping, I stare down at the bloodied metal.
“I'm sorry, Beth,” Steve continues calmly, “but I really need you to stay.”
Part Three
Maurice Mecklethorpe - 1915
Chapter Six
“Look at her!” Father hisses, grabbing me by the shirt collar and dragging me across the room, before forcing me to my knees and placing his hands on either side of my head. “Look of your own free will, boy, or I'll make you look!”
With my eyes still squeezed tight shut, I try in vain to end my miserable shivering. I've been working to hide my fear, but my body betrays me and now Father is pushing his hands against the sides of my head as if he means to crush my skull. I tell myself to be calm, to be a man, but my heart is racing out of control and I feel as if fear incarnate has taken control of my limbs. I cannot stop shaking.
“Look at her!” he sneers, leaning so close that I can feel his hot breath against my ear. “I'm telling you, boy! If you want to join me in the family business, you're going to start by looking the old bitch in the face!”
I know I should open my eyes, but I cannot bring myself to witness this horrific sight. I caught a glimpse of Grandmother's body earlier, through a crack in the door, and it was enough to strike terror into my soul. Perhaps Father is right, perhaps I am too weak, but the thought of seeing her again, this close, is too much to bear and -
“Look at her!”
Suddenly Father places his dirty, calloused fingertips against my eyelids and works to force them open. I struggle, even though I know better, but Father slips one fingertip beneath the lid of my left eye and raises it up. For a fraction of a second, I see Grandmother's face on the bed before me, but I immediately try to look away, only for Father to put an arm around my throat and start squeezing tight.
“Look,” he whispers, spraying my ear with hot saliva, “or so help me God, I shall slice off those eyelids of yours and make it so you can never look away from anything again. No son of mine is going to live as a coward! How do you ever expect to make it as an undertaker, if you can't even look at a corpse?”
“But it's -”