Friday, January 7, 2011

Haunted Hotel Part 4

Continued from Part 3. Start from Part 1 1st if you're new to this story.
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Over the next few days technicians and cleaners come by to start cleaning up the hotel during daylight. Milly sends different workers for different rooms and has them move things around as to disrupt the patterns of the ghosts who reside in there. Rooms that can't be fixed she puts a "Do Not Open" sign on them. For others like the one with the Rocking Chair lady and the boy in her bedroom she just asks to clean the cobwebs and vacuum. Millicent spends those few days staying in the main office avoiding much contact with the loud and boisterous workers, and unnecessary trips up the stairs. One day upstairs, a carpenter tells her that the beer dispensers are so rotten out that she'd need to replace the whole system with something newer. Milly sees that her note has been moved, and asks if the carpenter moved it, he replies that he might've but wasn't paying attention.

Soon, Milly gets a visit from the girl she contacted from the Internet a few weeks ago. She's a tall blond girl in a mini halter top, named Catrina. Milly is taken back by this girl's positive attitude and eagerness to be helpful, as she immediately asks Milly to give her a tour (grabbing Milly's hands and entering a no-touch zone). Milly shows her the bottom floor, and Catrina starts to ask about the ghosts. Unsure if this girl is for real, Milly tells her that the only ghost she should worry about is the one in the stairs. Catrina immediately runs to the stairs to see if she can see it, but gets disappointed that nothing is there.

Catrina and Milly get to know each other better through out the day. Catrina says that she had great grand mother or aunt that was burned for being a witch, and thinks that a haunted place like this would be great to hone her own clairvoyance skills. Milly then questions why she hadn't noticed the ghosts that were visible to Milly,...and as a matter of fact why none of the cleaners had experienced anything odd. The only reconfirming feeling Milly had about her haunting was when she hired a locksmith to work on her office bedroom but by the end of the day they couldn't even take it down with an ax.

Milly offers Catrina a room, but Catrina says that she's staying with a relative and didn't want to be late. One by one more of the other workers start to leave and Milly is left alone in the dark quiet hall. She goes through the 1st floor rooms, seeing if her renovations worked. The hanging lights in the room with the suicidal man had been replaced with a smaller light fixture. She looks around and sees an outline of a man with a rope looking at the new light fixture, confused. Milly apologizes, saying she'll get him some Zolof later. The 'Happy Room' had it's bed moved around and after sitting in there for a few moments, no crazy brothel woman came in to bother her (Milly imagined that her death might've been caused by the wife of a man she slept with).

Milly thinks that she hadn't gone up to see Russel in a long while and so he might be less moody to see her after all this time (plus she's been getting tired of sleeping on a cold floor in the office). Milly grabs her laptop and heads up stairs, stopping every so often to avoid getting thrown off by Grunder's tugs. As if on cue, Russel asks Milly how she's doing and if she wanted something to drink.

Milly smiles and asks how he can serve up drinks with a broken machine. He looks strangely at her and shows that it works fine. She walks behind the bar herself to see how he does it, and he steps back surprised that she would enter his space. She notices that his legs are quite transparent, but he's standing on the ground. Milly looks around and notices that there aren't any glasses to use. She tries to grab the one he has in his hand but it falls to the ground and shatters. He laughs and says that she doesn't need to be doing his job. She watches as he cleans up the broken glass with a rag and he throws it in the sink where it disappears and he grabs a new glass to start cleaning. She nods her head understanding that those items exist for him to use.

Milly stays in his space as he tries to walk around her to get to the other side of the bar. A few times his arms go through her and she feels a odd cold rush past. Milly starts up a conversation, "Do you know that you're dead?"
Russel pauses and thinks, "Oh, Yes."
"Then why are you still here?"
"Well I guess it gives me something to do. Keeps me sane."
"Ok then tell me this. Am I crazy? Am I imaging you and all of this?"
"I don't think so. If you were crazy that means I don't exist. But I know I exist cause I'm here talking to you. Unless you're not really there and I'm the one that's crazy. So if we're both crazy, that means you don't exist and I don't exist...so who's having this conversation?"

Milly gives a blank stare with a slowly growing smile. The two start to laugh and Russel points out to the note, "I read your note the other day. I missed ya to."
Milly blushes, "Oh...heh, thanks. I didn't want to bother you cause you were pretty grumpy that other morning."
Russel looks at her with a smirk, "Was I? Hm."
"I guess long nights of doing nothing can get to ya."
"Doing nothing, huh? I like being here, this is what I was hired to do, and I'm good at it. I can repair the pipes on my own if there are problems, you didn't need someone up here to do that...unless you're planning to take it out."

Milly steps back, "Oh no! I mean I'd like to get it working again. Would that throw you off?"
Russel pauses to think, "I don't know. As long as it still works for me I'd be fine with it. You don't need to seek my approval. You own the place, have confidence in your decisions. The only concern I have is that your renovations only make the ghosts lost in their own space...."
Milly is worried and confused, "Well maybe we can get them to head towards the light. They don't need to be here anymore, they can go to someplace better."
Russel, "Or some place worse?"

Milly frowns and thinks about what she's doing,"I wish I could allow the ghosts and mortals to live side by side, but I'm running a business for the living. They'll be coming in here paying full price and you ghosts are staying free of charge so long as you don't scare away the paying customers. People don't want to sleep in Satan's bed either."
Russel nods, "Very well, I can't argue with that but I don't speak for all of us. What I can say is that when it comes to being 'grumpy in the mornings', I promise to be more consolable for your concerns."
Milly laughs "Hey if you're not a morning person I can understand that...wanna watch some movies?"

The two of them sit behind the bar while Milly laughs at old 70's movies, and Russel serves the customers endless drinks. The gentleman walks up for the 3rd time that night and scolds Milly, "Young lady you have the most foulest mouth. You and your cursed box have no place in this fine establishment. Young man I request that you dispatch this bearcat from premises forthwith."
Russel looks at the man, "Well sir I'll have to ask the manager." He looks to Milly, " Mam' would you like to leave?"
Milly looks angrily and the ghost, "No! I wouldn't and I say we have the right to refuse services. No more drinks for you!" and she tries to knock the drink out of his way but her hand goes through it.
The gentleman gets angry and storms off, "I refuse to give service to this establishment again. To hell with you all and your smut films!"

From the bottom of the stairs Grunder calls out to Russel, "I agree, bartender, that girl is bad for business. She'll run this place to the ground and we'll be left to haunt pile of ash and rubble."
Milly yells back to him from behind the bar, "If that's what you want I can make it happen! That wall paper gone! Your steps? A ramp! And I'll dig a huge pit into the ground, take all that dirt and toss it into the ocean. You're not good enough to haunt ash and wood, you'll haunt a giant concrete pillar where those damn stairs used to be. And I'll make a new staircase somewhere else...and an elevator. Haha!"
There is a pause before Grunder replies, "You'd do all of that for me? How nice of you! You must really like me."

Milly fumes and runs out of the bar ready to smack him. Milly stands at the edge of the stairs looking at the ghost who's peaking through the banisters from the last few steps below.
"I swear, you're GONE! I don't know what I have to do to get you out of here but you're...GRR! Beyond dead here!"
"Give me head...or your head which is ever easier."
Milly grabs the glass of beer still at the edge of the bar and throws it at him. The glass hits the railing above Grunder's head and shatters, and disappears instantly, Grunder doesn't even flinch. Russel backs up in shock, surprised she was actually able to grab on to the glass.

Grunder smirks a bit and waits for Milly to calm down,"Fine, I'll go...make it easier for both of us. Don't mean intrude on the prospects of a young emerging business lady. It's only a shame we didn't get to know each other better." With that a dark shadow fills the stairway for an instant and a rush of hot air hits Milly. Milly looks down the stairs in shock and back to Russel, who looks back at her with a shrug (mostly still scared about Milly's anger). Milly takes a step down and waits for something to happen. She works her way to the banister and looks over the edge to the 1st floor and sees nothing there. Russel looks around the corner to see what's going on and Milly looks back feeling slightly confident.

A hand emerges from under Milly and grabs her ankle. She holds tight to the railing to avoid being pulled down but a sharp stings hit her hands and the pull on her ankle grows stronger. She lets go and the hand pulls her leg through the banister. Another hand grabs her other leg and pulls it through a different banister, making it hard for her to to close her legs. From below, Grunder rises up with his tongue licking her legs, slowly getting closer to her crotch. Milly panics and pulls one her her legs away from his grip and starts to kick him, with no effect but just to make him laugh.

Grunder crawls up through the banister, the rails going right through him but more like they're fusing with his skin, then him being transparent. Milly starts to pound against his head and crawl her way closer to the edge of the stairs, but his grip holds her in place. All of her hits, even a few knees in the crotch don't hurt him at all. Grunder pins Milly down and starts to kiss and lick her face while pulling down his pants.

Seeing all of this, Russel calls over the Drunk man to try to help Milly. Within moments the Drunk runs over, kicks Grunder's head, steals his hat and run back up to the top floor. Grunder looks at the drunk who starts to play around with the hat and fills it with beer (the hole in the top of it prevents it from filling up). Grunder yells at the drunk to give it back but the drunk threatens to rip it up. He thinks about ignoring the drunk looking at Milly eye to eye. She freezes up but he smiles to steal one more kiss and brings her up to her feet with him. He tells her in her ear, "No funny stuff girl. Get me my hat and I'll make it quick and easy for both of us."

Step by step, Grunder holds Milly tight and he allows her to reach one hand out and beg the drunk for the hat back. The drunk acts like he's going to walk away until Grunder inserts his sharp fingers into Milly's gut threating to hurt her more if the hat doesn't come back. The drunk holds out the hat far enough away from Milly as she has to take a few more steps up. To her left she can see Russel standing posed and ready with a bottle in his hand. She mouths to him, 'just hit me' knowing that the bottle go through her to hit Grunder, but Russel asks for one more step. The Drunk sees that command and backs up, allowing Milly to get onto the final step on the 2nd floor.

With both her feet firmly on the top step, Russel bends farther over the bar to pound Grunder in the head with the bottle. This allows Milly to break free from his grip and she runs into the bar and huddles under Russel's feet, her body going through him. Grunder screams and roars pulling at the walls around him, and causing boards from the floor to lift up and snap. Terrible winds and shadows escape from stairway blowing back the drunk a bit, but he tosses the hat back to Grunder and runs back to his spot at the end of the bar.

Grunder screams and swears to Milly from the stairs, "If you didn't want it you wouldn't keep coming back to me!" He smashes the window to allow the wind to blow through to cause more unsettling noises and disappears. Russel watches the stairway to make sure that he doesn't try to come out to get him, and turns to Milly. He sits down to try to comfort her, but he only goes through her. Milly rocks back and forth, crying and after a while falls asleep on the floor next to him. Russel stays next to her, enjoying how warm she is, but he gets up when he sees her shudder from his cold presence. By that time everything had turned back to normal and the hotel was quite, ready for the morning to come.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Haunted Hotel Part 3

Continued from Part 2. Start from Part 1 1st if you're new to this story.
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Early the next morning Milly has a dream. She's walking into her room and see's two people asleep in the bed. A small petite woman sleeping closer to the door and an extremely large man on the opposite side of the bed. She walks up to the foot of the bed and crawls in between them. Within moments, the large man starts to stir and roll over onto Milly. Milly struggles to push the man off her and then realizing how the little ghost boy had been sitting on her the night before. She assumes that he's now trying to suffocate her, so she tosses up the covers and sits up in a heavy sweat. She looks to her side to see the small boy stare at her with wide eyes.

With a scream, she jumps out of bed and runs out of the room. She closes the door tight but in her mind she still sees the boys sunken eyes staring her. She slowly walks backwards until she bumps into the banister behind her and screams thinking she'll fall over it. From around her she hears laughter from brothel girls and Grunder. She looks over to Grunder who is hunched over at the edge of the stares rolling his finger, begging her to come to him, "I'll make it all go away sweetheart."

Milly starts to hyperventilate and in a weak voice calls out for help. She notices that Russel is staring at the empty wall behind him not moving. Soon the drunk and another gentleman in the sitting area, get up to look at her. Hunched over the top stair, Grunder starts to stretch his fingers and long tongue towards her. Milly looks to see somewhere else to run but eyes grow up around her, on the floors and walls. The entire hotel is staring at her waiting to see what she'll do next. Milly covers her head and begging for it to stop.

Milly snaps out of her panic attack when there's a knock on the door below. She looks around in surprise and sees that Russel has broken out of his blank stare as well, surprised to see Milly there. She looks to see the Hotel has returned back to normal so she runs over to the 2nd story window to see who's down below. She calls out to an old couple waiting at the door. They want to come in and set a reservation. Milly thinks over her options and the safety of two old people in a spooky room, but knows the money will be worth it, so she tells them to wait while she comes down.

Just as she's about the leave down the stairs, Grunder pops up instantly in front of her, blocking her way. She catches a glimpse in his eyes and freezes up, feeling another panic attack coming on. His fingers start pick at her hair and a wave of cold air rush past her. Grunder bends over closer to look at her face and asks, "Are you ready to be part of my world now, pretty thing?"

Milly blanks out her mind and yells out, "Get out of my way, you Rat Soup eatin' Mutha F**ka!"
Gunder laughs and politely moves out of the way to let her by. Milly opens her eyes but never once lets them off of his eyes. She holds on tight to the banister and they walk down the stares one step at the same time, Grunder staring at her with devious delight, and Milly with hateful fear. Once she rounds the corner to the last flight she yells at him to never get in her way again or he'll find the raw end of a hammer up his ass.

He rushes her and grabs her face to bring it close to his, "Don't disrespect my politeness when you're in my world!, you ungrateful bitch! " He pushes her to the ground and tells her to open the door for the customers.

Milly gets up quickly and opens the door for the old couple. For the 1st time in her life, Milly is happy to see real people. The old couple thank her and are excited to see such a wonderful hotel. They explain that they're here to attend a huge city festival that'll happen a few months in the future, and seeing how this hotel is so close to the main street it'd be the perfect place to stay that's not in the main hussel and bussel of the festivities. Milly has a sinking gut feeling that she'll need to get this place cleaned up faster then she had thought she would.

Looking around (seeing there are too many ghosts still in the main hall to bring in normal people) she takes the couple upstairs, explaining that most of the rooms aren't quite cleaned up yet, but she can get advice about the best room for them by an employee. Up stares the Milly talks to Russle to find the best room for them, and he says 1s down the hall but warns them not to open the closet. Milly enters the room with the elderly couple and her eyes hit right on the closet door. With eager temptation she walks closer to it, as her curiosity drills little dents in her brain but decides to just put a chair in front of it. The older couple approve of the space and say they'll have this space reserved for the official re-opening of the hotel.

The couple leave and Milly waves them off (avoiding going down stares again). She takes in a big sigh and sees the sunlight start to come in. She looks over to Russel who's doing one last wipe down of the counter tops. She comes up to him and angrily asks why he didn't try to help her when she was stopped by Grunder. Russel looks up with a confused angry look on his face, "I don't work during the day. There are some things you have to figure out on your own cause I can't always be here to help you." With that the sun comes through the window and he disappears.

Millicent looks at the space he was at and takes a huge sigh. For the day, she spends her time going into the rest of the rooms ghost hunting, and taking more notes. Two rooms down from her own, a man with an ax screams and chaises after half way down the hall before he disappears. She goes back to open the door and duck and hide before the ax man can see her. When there isn't a response she peeks into the room and sees that he's standing in front of the bed waiting for her. She closes the door slowly and writes a note on it, 'do not open.' In another room she looks under the bed to see red eyes and chattering teeth. She gets spooked and pulls the covers back down, but she stops and thinks about how silly it is and pulls all the covers off the bed where she sees that nothing is there (solution: no long covers).

Milly gets to the spot with the two brothel girls. They look at each other for a long time and Milly tries to ask them questions but they roll their eyes and smerk. Milly looks over the banister to down below and pictures that they might've gotten into a fight and fallen to their deaths (possibly landing on the mustache man below).
The brown haired girl taps Milly and it startles her, "You like the man at the bar don't you?"
Milly blushes a bit, "Huh?"
The brown haired girl points to the bar, "He's got a long tongue." The blond girl makes an obscene gesture with her fingers and tongue, and the two of them laugh.
Milly shakes her head and opens the door behind them. She looks inside and sees a naked headless man. Milly looks at the two girls in disgust and points at him as if to say, "Did you do this?"
They shrug their shoulders, "He was like that when we got here."

The last room is a deep freezing cold room, and she assumes that it'd be the best place for the ice machine. Apon existing she sees a small little door to her right and starts to walk over it. Quickly out of the left corner of her eye she sees a glimps of a young woman (younger then her) jump from the banister. Milly takes a 2nd look but there is no evidence of the spirit still there. Turning to the small door, Milly finds a set of stairs leading to the roof. She gets to the top and feels the wind rushing past her face. The sun is already midway down by now and but Milly enjoys the cool air and wind. She then hears a voice to her left call out, "Can you help me mam'?"

She slowly turns around and sees a man in Cowboy hat and a bandanna around his neck. He is moderately transparent and the wind doesn't seem to be glowing his hair or cloths. He pulls out his gun and points it at her, playfully making shooting motions, "I'm looking for the man in black. You know where he be at?"
She stares at him wide eyed and fearful, "He's down stairs...I'll go get him." She heads towards the stairs and back into the main hotel. She stands in the middle of the sitting area and says aloud, dumbstruck, "There's a Cowboy on the roof...why is there a cowboy on the roof?" (*I'll tell ya why some other day if you're interested*)

She stops and thinks about what the cowboy said and walks to the stairs and bangs on the wall three times, "Where are you?!"
"You came to kiss and make up?" Grunder looks down at her from the ceiling on the opposite side of the stairs. Sitting upside down without a grin, his presence makes her jump.
"There's a man on the roof who wants to talk to you. He seems friendly." Milly stays far enough away from the stairs without taking him out of her sight.
"I got no business with a man right now. He wants to get to know me so bad, he can come down here himself. You though *points to Millicent quickly*, all this bad blood between us can go away. You're a fun one, ya know? Get to know each other better...I'll even string ya a pearl necklace...Right here *uses his finger to draw a line under his neck*"

Milly looks in horror, hic-ups, and quickly walks back to her room. She buries her head in her hands for a moment and cries. Not long she looks up to see that there is still enough sunlight left she can get down stairs and spend the night in the main hall, rather then force herself back up again and deal with the demon. She gathers some blankets and her hammer and gets to the stairs. She writes a note for Russel, telling him that she's sorry to bother him so much and she'll see him the next time she's up there. Making sure Grunder isn't out for the prowl, she hugs tight to the banister and makes it down safely. Milly gets to her computer to make a few extra notes and finish up calls. By morning, she starts the renovations.