She inched forwards a few steps and froze at a soft noise. Someone was nearby. She listened and then heard the shuffle of feet, followed by a strange clicking sound on the floorboards. She leaned forwards when suddenly an ear-shattering high-pitched shriek made her flinch in surprise. Kelsey took another step closer to see what she was dealing with when someone large grabbed her roughly from behind, covered her mouth with his icy cold hands, and shoved her backwards into the clutter.
She struggled furiously, but his arms held her fast. They were bare and strong, and she felt herself pressed firmly against someone’s rock-hard torso.
She instantly realized who it was.
“Kelsey, will you calm down? It’s me. Get your nails out of my arm,” Desmond whispered in her ear. His breath smoked in the air next to her.
She instantly stilled and stopped trying to gouge his skin.
Desmond’s breaths were labored. “Stay quiet. They’re here. A lot of them.”
A loud crash followed and the floorboards vibrated as something big and heavy tumbled to the ground. The ear-splitting squeals commenced again, and they were so close, Kelsey felt if she took even just a few small steps forwards she’d run into who, or what, was making them. The sound was alien and caused shivers to run up and down her spine. Desmond gripped her protectively around her waist as the feeling of malevolence returned in force.
The creature quieted and started to shuffle towards them until through the maze of clutter, Kelsey could see it emerge into view. It was human and male, but something was very wrong with him. The man paused and sniffed the air, and seemed to peer about wildly as if searching for something. She wondered if he could smell them. The man’s body shook and he made deep chortling noises that sounded like it was once speech.
In shadow, the man seemed so thin as to be skeletal and appeared like a vision from a horror movie. A long white button-down shirt covered his torso, but he was naked from the hips down. With a jerk, the man thrust out his arm and violently swept it across a series of objects that were balanced on a nearby shelf. The objects crashed to the floor and the man fell to the ground and began picking through them, randomly shoving the objects into his mouth one at a time. With a disgusted grunt, he spit out one after the other. He stuck out his tongue and licked each of the objects. There was a desperation to it that tugged at Kelsey’s heart.
She had a sudden understanding of what he wanted. He’s hungry.
The man crawled on the floor and located something, then slammed the object into the ground repeatedly. The smell of canned meat now assaulted her senses and she realized he must have broken a container of food. The man put his lips to the can and sucked ravenously. She could hear the sloppy wet sounds as he ate. He must be starving.
Suddenly, the man convulsed and flopped around the floor like a floundering fish. He began to choke, making gargled noises. Kelsey made to move towards him to help, but Desmond held her back and refused to let her go. The man came out of his fit quickly and then with a maniacal laugh, that sounded both pained and hysterical, picked up one of the objects next to him on the floor and threw it across the attic. It crashed into a window and shattered. Another series of squeals from multiple people sounded from the far end of the room as they reacted to the noise. The man sat on the floor, wrapped his arms around his knees, and rocked himself like a baby. Then suddenly, without any warning, he bit into its own arm. Blood splattered everywhere. It hit the floor right next to Kelsey’s left foot and she jerked it back. The creature shrieked, rose and hobbled back into the shadows. Kelsey could hear the sound of his long toenails clicking on the wooden attic floorboards as he hobbled away. And just like that, her feeling of terrible unease dissipated.
Kelsey glanced down at Desmond’s arms wrapped around her waist and noticed a bloody, ragged wound on his forearm. The darkness made it hard to see, but she could swear they were teeth marks. She also noticed he wore only in his boxers and was shivering.
Her own skin prickled painfully with the cold. She knew Desmond had to be freezing.
He leaned in close to her once the man was out of earshot. “Some girl sneaked into my room and took a bite out of my arm.”
“And you went after her looking like this?” She craned her neck, but the strange man was out of sight and she heard his clicking feet now far from them, across the other side of the attic.
“I wasn’t thinking straight yet. She woke me up out of a drugged sleep and I just went after her. She must not have liked the taste of me. She started gagging and then took off down the hall. I followed her up here. This is bad, Kelsey. Really bad. There are people living up here like animals. And what the hell is going on outside? Was there a fire or something? I smell burning ash through the entire hotel.”
She peered out the window towards the direction of the staff quarters. Faint firelight leaked into the gloom behind her. The sounds of the other people in the attic were still far away. She wasn’t sure how many were there, but she was certain the girl she’d met up with in the hallway was one of them. She leaned back and whispered in his ear. “Let’s get back to the room and get you dressed and cleaned up. I’ll explain everything.”
He nodded, and they made their way away from the shuffling noises and down the dank staircase as quickly and as silently as they could.
Chapter 14
Back in their room, with the hotel room door securely locked and Desmond now warming up on a wingchair in front of the fire, Kelsey brought him up to speed on the horrors of the evening. A fire that most likely started from a wayward candle in an upstairs bedroom because the black-out had happened to the staff quarters as well.
She’d just finished the final dressing on his arm wound and was now helping him to clean his feet, which were caked with whatever muck had been in the stairwell. Desmond wrapped the blanket tightly around his shoulders while Kelsey used a towel and soap to wipe him down with water she’d put in the basin that had been on the dresser. His shivering had nearly ceased and the welts from earlier had thankfully gone down dramatically. The redness around his mouth was nearly gone as well, though it had not vanished completely. But thankfully, he was clear-headed and awake again, which was what she needed most.
He craned his head to glance outside. Kelsey had opened the curtains so they could watch for any changes in the status of the fire. It had died down, but the smell of it permeated their quarters. “How bad is it out there, Kelsey?” He scratched at a remaining welt on his chin.
“It’s awful,” she said grimly. “Twelve members of the staff are dead and four from the Cragg family. At least from what I know. It’s a perfect storm of problems, Des. The blizzard is expected to continue until tomorrow night, we have a blackout and they can’t get the generator going, so there’s no electricity or heat, and no one can get up or down the mountain. Worse, the temperatures are expected to drop by morning and there are a lot of people injured with only Dr. Cragg to help them.”
“We probably shouldn’t just be sitting here then. Do you want to go downstairs to help? I can get dressed. I’m feeling a lot better.” He absently scratched his shoulder.
Kelsey shook her head “Dr. Cragg asked all the guests to stay in their rooms for the night which is probably not such a bad idea with those people from the attic loose and running around the hotel. And get this…” She told him about the Scotts’ request for their evening snack and how close she’d come to losing her cool before Pago stepped in.
“That Pago is something else, isn’t he?” Desmond said. “He helps run this place like a well-oiled machine.”
Yeah, when he’s not running around doubled all the time. “Desmond, I’m still seeing two of him. And when I get close to him, I hear strange, hateful things echoing in my head. I also saw it with Roselyn, but once she died, it stopped.”
He blew out a sharp breath. “I didn’t know that. I’m sorry for not taking you more seriously earlier. There’s no reason any of this should still be happening. So do you have a theory about what is
actually wrong with these crazy people running around in the attic and who have a thirst for human flesh?”
“They’re probably sick, not crazy. The more I think about it, the more I believe they must have some type of prion disease the way they are jumping around like that. Baby Hope seems to have the same symptoms. And didn’t the man seem hungry to you? The way he was sucking on that can? He was so thin and he appeared to have a real problem eating. One of the symptoms of a prion disease is difficulty swallowing. Many times the people who suffer from it actually succumb from malnutrition. The baby has a real issue eating too.”
“But the girl bit me, Kelsey. Who goes into someone’s room and bites his arm?”
“Someone who has a taste for human flesh? Look, Julia was telling me about the Fore Tribe and Kuru disease and how they eat people. Maybe there is a link here we haven’t figured out. I mean, the baby even took a chunk out of Tooh’s finger, apparently.”
“So the baby has Kuru disease, too? At such a young age?”
“I know. Supposedly it’s not inherited but acquired, and supposedly it takes a few years to manifest. But what else can it be?”
“Or that’s not it at all and they are really just violent and crazy,” Desmond said.
“Yeah, it could be that, too.” She put her chin in her hands and thought for a moment. “What I want to know is how they’ve kept them up there in secret, without their being noticed for all these years? How did guests not ever see them? Are they prisoners? Their clothing looks clean, and the girl did have a bow in her hair, but they’re not dressed warmly enough and clearly need help. It’s obvious they can’t take care of themselves.”
“That staircase was filthy. They’ve obviously been using it for a long time.”
She crinkled her nose. “Perhaps the Craggs don’t even know about the staircase. I can’t imagine they’d not clean something like that up, what with the attention to detail in with every other aspect of this hotel. That staircase smells to high holy heaven.”
“I thought I was going to gag going up the steps,” Desmond said. “I think autopsies are easier to handle than that stairway.”
She cocked her head. “Or maybe they know about it and just ignore it. Maybe those people are the rumored ghosts in the hotel and every so often over the years they either get out or are heard and they hush it up? Dooley said the walls are thin. Not to mention, the entire south wing on the third floor is never used. There have to be at least ten suites on that side alone. And the door jamb was broken. Maybe that’s just recent. Still, whatever is wrong with those people, they need to be in a hospital and not kept hidden in the attic.”
“Or maybe they were kept up there to protect the Craggs the staff, and the guests. We don’t know their story yet, but they are violent, I can tell you that.” Desmond raised his arm where the girl had bitten him. “I probably need a shot. Is prion disease contagious? If she has it, will I get it from her biting me?”
“God, I hope not. We are definitely going to have to ask Dr. Cragg.”
He whistled. “Bad idea. What if the Craggs and the staff know exactly what is happening in that attic and it’s been a big secret? Maybe they’re dealing with them right now.”
She arched her brows. “How could they be dealing with them? More than half the staff is dead, and now the Craggs lost four of their own. They have enough to worry about right now, and if you can get sick from her biting you, don’t you think we should tell someone? Those people in the attic are not descended from the staff from Papua New Guinea. They’re as lily pale and blond as can be and resemble the Craggs greatly. I’m sure they’re family. At the very least, they need medical help.”
Desmond clicked his tongue. “But there is already a doctor on staff here. He is part Cragg, part Papua New Guinean, remember?”
Kelsey squinted. “Then why isn’t he doing anything about it? I mean, that would make those people his relatives, right?”
Desmond nodded. “Exactly. And that’s the reason we can’t say anything. People do desperate things in desperate situations and we have no idea what is going on. We’ll get out of here in the morning and hike down the mountain if we have to whether it’s snowing or not. We’ll get those people help, whether the Craggs want us to or not. Promise.”
“But will they last the night?” Kelsey asked.
“They’ll have to. There’s not much else we can do for them right now.” He held out his bare feet and pouted. “I need socks. My feet are cold.”
Acting helpless was not something Desmond normally did and his pathetic joking made her smile. She pulled socks up around his ankles and then sat back on her haunches. “I think you’re right. They must know about them. It would explain the closed wings and the very reduced guest list. They’d be much easier to manage and hide with fewer people roaming the hotel. What bothers me, though, is this situation must have been going on for ages. That wasn’t some little kid we saw in the attic. It looked like an older man, and the girl in the stairwell wasn’t a child, either. Wait, do you remember Elsa’s strange look the day we arrived? I could have sworn she heard something and took off after it.”
Kelsey kept putting two and two together. “You know, with their smell, the tremors, and the high pitched squeals, it’s obvious they all suffer from the same condition as the baby. Carla mentioned she hoped the baby grew out of it, but what if she doesn’t? What if Carla knows Hope could potentially turn into one of the people in the attic?”
Desmond grimaced. “Then she literally can see her baby’s possible future. It really must be some family secret. Maybe those people in the attic never grew out of it, so they put them away. And, if they were put away to keep them secret, having that secret come out may not make the Craggs happy, Kelsey.” His voice held an ominous tone.
She eyeballed him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Look, they’re nice, sweet, and accommodating on the outside, but you better than anyone should know that outside appearances mean nothing. What you’re insinuating, if brought up in normal society, would throw people in jail. Locking sick family members in an attic and allowing them to starve to death is against the law. Denying them medical care is a felony. At the very least, those involved would brought up on negligence charges and the hotel would probably have to shut down from the scandal it would create. Some deep secrets run in this family. A family that has been living here isolated in the mountains for nearly one hundred and fifty years. I’m certain that no one wants their secret to come out. Would you?”
Kelsey pursed her lips. “Maybe they couldn’t take care of them the way they needed to, especially if they’re suffering from the prion disease called Kuru. I spoke about this with Julia and everything is matching up. I’ve seen the staff feeding that baby pink gruel. I saw the lump of meat a feral girl was eating in the hallway when I ran into her. All that rotted meat on the stairs. Kuru disease was something very specific to the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea because of their ritual cannibalistic practices. What if they brought their religious customs with them to the United States, and what if over the years, the staff has given the Craggs this disease for some reason? What if Carla thinks that gruel is helping her baby, but instead it’s making her sicker? If it’s an acquired disease, maybe this family just reacts differently and it happens quickly with them?”
Desmond seemed unconvinced. “But why in the world would they do that? Why give a family a disease that can only hurt them? Especially their employers? What is the motivation? What, do you think they’re trying to wipe them out? For what reason? Bad pay and benefits? No tipping?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they want to take over the hotel?”
He shook his head. “The way you’re insinuating would take generations to do. Not to mention you’re talking about them eating people. I don’t think that’s it. The staff looked like they doted on that child. And furthermore, that’s not the only thing physically odd about these families. What about the red needlemarks on Dooley’s arms? The missin
g limbs on the staff? This is not just random stuff.”
Kelsey told Desmond that she saw them on Carla as well and he didn’t seem surprised. She also told him she felt odd whenever she was near someone who was suffering from symptoms of prion disease.
“So,” Desmond said, “there are more secrets than answers right now, and it’s between both the Craggs and the Papua New Guinea staff.”
There was a knock on the door. Kelsey skipped over and peered through the peephole.
It was Josh.
She opened the door an inch, but kept the chain on and scowled. “What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Go away. I have nothing to say to you.” She made to shut the door and he jammed his foot inside to stop her from closing it.
“Kelsey, we have a problem.”
“I don’t want to talk to you. Now get your foot out of my doorway.”
“I’m not going anywhere. This is serious.”
She glared at him. His jaw was set in a way she recognized all too well. Something was very wrong and she knew it went beyond the problems they were having.
She glanced at Desmond and he rolled his eyes. She unlocked the chain and let Josh in.
He stormed inside holding a backpack. It was wet and dripping with something dark that Kelsey couldn’t make out with just the light of the fireplace flames.
Kelsey eyed the bag with distaste. “You’re leaking on our rug.”
“Something happened to the Scotts.”
Kelsey snorted. “And that’s a problem? Who cares?”
Josh pressed his lips into a thin line and unzipped the bag. He reached in, gripped something, and awkwardly lifted it out.
The Haunting of Cragg Hill House Page 17