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.
SO I draw Grunder...I mean a lot. I've not given enough time here to really talk about stuff I've developed about him since I created him. It's easier to talk about his personality and his actions rather then where he came from. Be forwarded, he is a very offensive dude and if this bothers some people then feel free to stop reading at any point. If you're ok with it, then keep on reading.
Grunder's few moments of kindness show up in odd ways, such as when he's in the presence of Asian women. But young girls need to be wary, he has no limitations for his attraction to a girl who wants him. He also has an interest in spiders, and gets angry at those people who squish them.
