There was no one.
“Weird,” Jayla whispered. “Maybe this old hotel isn’t as sturdy as it looks.”
They continued to the stairs, which reminded Jayla of one of the pictures she saw online. It showed a bunch of people sitting around with blurry figures that appeared on both sets of steps. She tried not to think of it and turned to head down the last flight of stairs.
“Hey,” a familiar voice said. “It’s you two!”
When Jayla looked up, she found Reuben’s old friendly face smiling at them. He was headed upstairs, but paused to talk for a minute.
“Hi,” Jayla said. “Thanks again for helping us yesterday.”
“Don’t mention it,” Reuben said. “I hope you guys are staying out of trouble.”
Dion elbowed Jayla in the ribs. She shot him a look that could have derailed a train.
“We have,” Jayla replied through a forced smile. “But we did find something.”
Reuben tilted his head in curiosity. Before she even knew what she was doing, Jayla told him about the locket, leaving out the part about the steak knife and the damage she’d done to the carpet.
“Can I see it?” Reuben asked. It seemed like wherever he was headed could wait.
“Yes,” Jayla said. “Of course.”
She handed the locket to him and watched as he turned it around in his big worn hands. He popped the charm open and raised his eyebrows at the picture of the older lady inside.
“Oh wow,” he murmured.
“I thought it might be Elizabeth,” Dion said. “But now I don’t think it is.”
“No,” Reuben agreed. “That’s not her. But it could very well be her mother or someone she cared about.”
Jayla hadn’t thought of that. Maybe Elizabeth lost the locket with the picture of her mom inside and was trying to find it again.
“What were you going to do with this?” Reuben asked.
He held it up by the loop at the top of the locket. As he did, it ticked back and forth like a metronome. Jayla saw the old lady’s face staring back at her.
“I was going to bring it to the front desk,” she admitted. “I thought they’d know what to do with it. Maybe put it with some of the other old stuff down in the lobby.”
Reuben nodded. “It was a good thought, but why don’t you let me hold onto it? I’d rather give it to the general manager, David, when he comes in tonight.”
Dion spoke up. “Why not give it to the people at the front desk?”
Reuben smiled. “To be honest? David should see this before anyone else,” Reuben replied. “He’s a bit of a historian and might even have some idea who this lady is.”
“Makes sense,” Jayla replied. “Yeah, if you think that’s where it belongs.”
Reuben nodded and closed the locket carefully. He unbuttoned the breast pocket of his dark-green jumpsuit and dropped it inside. Giving it a pat, and confirming the locket was safe, he buttoned the pocket back up.
Jayla couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief wash over her. They’d found what was trapping Elizabeth in Room 217, and Reuben would get it to the right people. They’d know what to do with the locket.
“Thanks for letting me know about this,” Reuben said. “Now I’ve got to get down to Room 240. Their toilet won’t flush.”
“Yikes,” Dion said. “One time Jayla clogged—”
“Oookay,” Jayla said, interrupting him. “We don’t need to hear that story again.”
After saying goodbye, Reuben climbed the stairs, then headed left down the hallway.
Jayla and Dion stood on the stairs for a moment.
“You think we did the right thing?” Dion asked.
“I do,” Jayla replied confidently. “I bet Elizabeth is already in a better place.”
Dion scrunched up his mouth.
“If you say so,” he said quietly.
Chapter 10
Back Where She Belongs
“You have to be kidding me,” Jayla muttered with a look of exasperation on her face. She had left her phone to charge in the room while they ate dinner, and now back in Room 217, it wouldn’t turn on.
“What’s wrong, Jay-Jay?” Dad asked, taking off his coat.
She pressed HOME and touched the power button on the top. Nothing she did made her phone light up.
“I’ve had it plugged in pretty much all day,” she said. “But my phone is still dead.”
“It might be the charger,” Dad said. “Or the outlet. Who knows?”
Jayla looked at the outlet. There was another plug above the one for her phone charger that belonged to the lamp, which was working just fine. It wasn’t the outlet.
Dion spent the rest of the night watching a movie that he had seen close to a hundred times. Jayla read a book, and her dad was half-watching, half-looking at his phone, throwing out random Stanley Hotel facts.
“People are saying this place has been haunted since 1911,” Dad said, shaking his head. “I had no idea.”
Before long, Jayla’s eyes started to feel heavy. She reread the same paragraph in her book at least a dozen times, and none of the words seemed to make sense to her anymore. Trying to fight off sleep, she flipped back a page and realized she didn’t remember reading that one either. Defeated from fatigue, she found the beginning of the chapter and slipped her bookmark in between the pages.
She set the book on the nightstand and lay her head back on her pillow.
Was Elizabeth going to show up one last time? Or was finding the locket the last piece in the puzzle? Could their ghostly maid finally find freedom from this world?
Jayla closed her eyes for what only felt like a second. When she opened them again, it was almost completely quiet in the room. Dion had fallen asleep next to her, and Dad was lightly snoring on his cot. She sat up and glanced quickly at the alarm clock on her brother’s night stand.
11:43 p.m.
She’d been asleep for nearly two hours.
Jayla turned and switched the lamp off, making the room mostly dark, illuminated slightly by the lights outside. She set her head against the pillow and closed her eyes.
And immediately felt cold.
A second later, her eyes were open, and she saw Elizabeth’s ghost once more. The maid was headed toward the wall, drifting along her usual path. Though it was the third time Jayla had seen Elizabeth, it still sent chills through her arms and legs.
The maid stopped at the wall to light a lamp that hadn’t been there for over a century. She turned and walked back to the spot where her locket had lain hidden for years. Jayla hoped Elizabeth would see it was found. She hoped it would set her free and bring her peace.
Jayla Walters couldn’t have been more wrong.
She watched as Elizabeth crouched down as usual to look for the locket. The maid put her hand in the spot where Jayla had made the opening in the carpet and then seemed to pause.
It’s gone and now she realizes it, Jayla thought. Now she can be free!
Instead, Elizabeth’s hands moved frantically, as if desperate to find the locket. Her head turned as if looking somewhere else for it.
Without warning, the maid stood up and stared across the bed with her dead empty eyes. Jayla gasped and slipped farther beneath her blankets. From her burrow, she could see the hazy details of Elizabeth’s face: her eyebrows were furrowed, and her face looked panicked.
Then Elizabeth’s face contorted and her hands clawed at her cheeks as she silently screamed. Jayla’s heart pounded a mile a minute as snowflakes rained down onto her bed. As she watched, the maid continued her silent wail, her dark eyes closed tight. Then suddenly, Elizabeth’s spirit seemed to disappear into nothing.
Jayla pulled the blankets down a little to look around. The snow was gone and it didn’t seem like the maid had rematerialized somewhere else in the room. Even though s
he couldn’t see the maid, there was still a heavy feeling around her. Cold and uneasy, as if something wasn’t quite right.
“Is she free?” Jayla wondered aloud. Her heart beat as fast as a hummingbird’s wings.
Just then, a drawer shot out from the dresser along the right wall, landing next to her dad’s cot with a thud. He awoke and sat up, just in time to get smacked in the shoulder with another, smaller drawer.
“No,” Jayla said aloud. “She’s not!”
“What is going on?” Dad asked.
He looked at the dresser, and then at Jayla.
“I made her mad,” Jayla shouted, tears starting to stream down here face.
Not surprisingly, Dion was now awake too. He started screaming.
Jayla couldn’t stop crying and shaking her head. “I screwed up, Dad. I screwed up big time!”
The room was in complete chaos. More drawers rumbled along their tracks. Shoes were tossed around the room. The cushion of a small green chair in the corner flipped off on its own.
She’s looking for it, Jayla thought. And it’s not here!
Dad grabbed Dion in his arms and put his hand over Dion’s mouth to stop him from screaming. Then Dad sprinted with Dion into the bathroom. Jayla followed them.
“How did this happen?” Dad asked, heaving and closing the door behind him. The three of them sat on the edge of the claw-foot tub listening to items in Room 217 being thrown around as the ghost maid continued to ransack their room.
“I thought finding her locket would help her,” Jayla said. “It seemed like she was looking for it every night.”
“She wants it back,” Dion said. “But we gave it to Reuben, who was going to give it—”
“—to David,” Jayla finished. “The night manager.”
There was another thud outside the bathroom door. It didn’t seem like Elizabeth was going to stop searching anytime soon.
“I know what to do,” Jayla said resolutely. “I need to go find her locket.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Dad said, shaking his head. “We sit and hope this passes soon.”
Just then the bathroom door blew open on its own. There wasn’t anyone on the other side.
“Or we all go,” Dad said quickly.
The three of them ran toward the open door and hurdled over the mess in Room 217. They turned quickly, opened the door to the hall, and darted out. As the door behind began to close, Jayla froze.
“The room key!” she shouted.
Jayla caught the door an inch before it closed and locked them out. She looked around but didn’t see the small key card anywhere. Elizabeth had probably thrown it somewhere else. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a small drawer and used it to prop the door open.
“C’mon,” Dion shouted. “Let’s go!”
If the other people in the hotel weren’t awake before, they are now, Jayla thought.
The three of them ran down the hallway, barefoot and in their pajamas. Jayla looked back and could see the door open and close slightly. She just hoped Elizabeth wouldn’t move the drawer and lock them out.
I’ll make it right, Elizabeth, Jayla thought. Please don’t be mad at me.
They leapt down the stairs and rounded the corner to the front desk.
“We’re looking for David,” Dad said to the older woman behind the desk counter.
The lady looked at all of them and seemed confused.
“Well, David isn’t here right now,” she said slowly. “Is there a problem?”
Jayla knew she needed to step in.
“What about Reuben?” she asked quickly.
There was a squawk farther down the lobby near the restaurant. Jayla wanted to cheer when she saw the familiar caretaker heading their way.
“Dad,” Jayla cried with relief. “This is Reuben. He knows this place inside and out.”
“Hey,” Dad said. “Damon Walters.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Walters. Was that you guys making all that noise up on two?” Reuben asked. “What’s going on?”
They stepped away from the front desk, leaving the woman behind the counter looking confused and left out.
“It’s Elizabeth,” Jayla said quickly. “I didn’t think she would, but she showed up tonight and started going crazy. I think she’s looking for the locket I found. We tried to see if David was here, so we could get it back, but that lady said he’s not, so I don’t know what we’re going to do.” Jayla stopped to catch her breath.
“Whoa, whoa,” Reuben said. “Slow down!” He started to reach for his pocket. “David didn’t come in tonight. I never gave the locket to him.”
A wave of relief washed over Jayla. “You still have it?” she asked. “For real?”
Reuben unbuttoned his pocket and produced the age-worn and tarnished locket.
“Can you put it back in the room?” Jayla asked. “Before she tears the whole hotel apart?”
Reuben smiled and put the locket in Jayla’s hand.
“I think you should be the one to do it,” he said. “It seems only right.”
Jayla took a deep breath and nodded. She knew where it belonged. She was the one who removed in the first place. The real question was: Would it make a difference? Or was it too late?
__________________
A few minutes later, the four of them stood outside Room 217. People from the neighboring rooms poked their heads out to see what was going on. The door to the room was still opening and closing a bit, as if Elizabeth was thinking of searching the rest of The Stanley Hotel.
Jayla gripped the locket in her hand, her knuckles tight and her palms sweaty.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered.
“She doesn’t want to hurt you,” Reuben said. “She just wants it back.”
Jayla nodded and took a quick glance back at her dad and little brother. They looked tired and worried but nodded to show their support.
“Okay,” she whispered. “I’m coming, Elizabeth.”
Jayla took a deep breath and pushed open the door. Immediately, goosebumps speckled her arms and legs. The room felt cold enough to store meat.
As she made her way to the foot of the bed, the windows started to vibrate as if they would explode and shatter glass everywhere. She quickly reached the spot in the floor where she’d found the locket. With her fingernail, she ran her finger along the edge of the locket one last time.
“Here,” Jayla said.
She slipped the locket back into the small pocket under the carpet and padding.
“You can have it back,” she said. “I just wanted to help you, Elizabeth. I’m sorry I messed things up.”
Almost immediately, the feeling in the room changed. The heaviness lifted, and a wave of relief washed over Jayla. She brushed her hand across the carpet, hiding the small cut she’d made.
A moment later, her dad’s face poked in through the partially opened door.
“Are you okay, Jayla?”
Jayla turned around and smiled.
“Yeah,” she said. “I am. And I think Elizabeth is too.”
__________________
It took the four of them a half hour to put their room back together. Thankfully, nothing was damaged.
“Thanks for your help,” Jayla said as the caretaker headed to the door.
“No problem,” Reuben replied, then he chuckled. “The two of you have made my job pretty interesting these last few days.”
“It was lucky you were still around,” Dad said. “You must work some crazy hours.”
Reuben laughed. “That’s an understatement. They called me so often that I finally just agreed to move in.”
“Wait a second,” Dion cried. “You LIVE here?”
“I do,” Reuben replied. “It beats getting up in the middle of the night and drivi
ng in. Sometimes I think I’m what keeps this place standing.”
Jayla thought about that. It seemed like the old caretaker was the heart and soul of The Stanley Hotel.
“Do you think Elizabeth is still here?” she asked.
“I think so,” Reuben said, nodding and looking around the room as if she’d appear suddenly. “This was a place that she knew and loved. Probably almost as much as that locket of hers,” he gestured vaguely to the floor. “Yep. Even though she’s been gone for a long time, this old hotel is where she belongs.”
“I think so too,” Jayla replied.
The Walters family said their goodbyes to Reuben. When the door was closed, Jayla turned to her dad and brother. She looked a little sheepish. “Sorry for. . .” she stopped, unable to find the words for what she wanted to say. “All of this,” she finished. “I just thought Elizabeth wanted to be free.”
After the family settled into their beds and said their goodnights, the only light remaining in the room came from the lamp on Jayla’s nightstand.
“Are you going to turn that one out?” Dion asked.
“Yeah,” Jayla said and clicked it off.
See you soon, Elizabeth.
Author’s Note
Trapped in Room 217 was a lot of fun for me to write because years ago I actually had the opportunity to stay overnight at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Though I wasn’t lucky enough to stay in Room 217 (it’s quite popular!), I did get a mini-ghost tour very similar to the one Jayla and Dion went on with Natalie in the book.
A big part of our tour was hearing the story of Elizabeth Wilson, who was a maid at The Stanley Hotel in the early 1900s. There are many variations on what happened to her. Some stories say the explosion in Room 217 launched Elizabeth onto the balcony, where she was stunned. Another said that Elizabeth died from the explosion and fell into the dining room where guests were still eating. The one that stuck with me though was where she survived the fall and her hospital bills were taken care of by Mr. Freelan Oscar Stanley who gave her a “job for life.” It was said she returned to work eighteen months after her injuries and worked there until she was ninety years old.
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