7 - Discovery

Ginny Hawkins

June 7, 2000

First thing's first. We need to know why the place is cursed. We need to know how to break it. We must find out and end it before the guests start disappearing. I was told many things, but not all.

Sam seems pretty surprised how well the place is doing. Some people were fine paying both the small admission fee, and the price of a room (which was discounted for guests at the ball, first night.) Many stayed, since we are indeed in the middle of nowhere. A few brought children, which makes me even more nervous. After running breakfast rounds to those who didn't make it to the kitchen, I rush to find Sam.

He was leisurely walking down a corridor (I didn't realize he was deep in thought) when I seized his arm. "We must find out."

He jumped and jerked away, but once he spent a couple seconds realizing it was me, he relaxed. "Good grief," he said. "Yes, I know. I was just thinking of how and where to start."

"The grave?" I suggested. "Secrets haunt the place."

"Basement," he said, determined. We turned right around and took the first stairs down.

"It doesn't seem to have changed," he said in surprise as we went down to the third floor. "It is the same as it was yesterday!"

"It's because guests are here," I said softly.

He laughed. "I kind of which guests would stay then!"

"Don't," I cautioned. "Last time, the spirits kept the hotel grounds the same, to keep the guests in place. The wish of anyone in the staff keeps the spirits in their game."

He sobered, frown growing more intense as he struggled in himself, as he told me later.

We went deeper and darker, thankfully knowing our way a little bit from last night.

We got close to the final ending, where we saw the little alcove of the grave ahead. Our pace quickened in excitement, only to stop short.

"Who...who comes..."

We froze. My chest began to hurt as my heart went overtime, and Sam seized my arm. He was deathly white. No one was down here.

"Let's go back," he whispered.

"You will never know what you came here for," the voice said, clear as day, as though the person stood in front of them. The doors where closed. No guests were on this floor. The voice was not that of any of the staff.

Sam could not speak, so I tried for him. "What is it? No lies."

"I was there in the beginning," the ghost said. "I saw. I saw the founders. I was one of the staff, I one of the first. A chamber boy. But someone cursed us---not only are there evil spirits who were never human, the original staff remain and haunt the place."

A dread chill ran through me. Sam adjusted his sweaty grip on my arm.

"I saw our founders, I know why they are cursed," the ghost went on. "They were inseparable--spent all their time together. Every second. Whole nights, even...people questioned them...and then they cursed us, cursed us!" The voice rose to a shrill and mournful howl that made one fear for one's life and pity the spirit deeply at the same time.

"Who cursed you?" I tried, but the ghost was silent. There was not a sound.

Sam finally could speak. "How can we believe it?" he cautioned, arm out to keep me from going farther. "We must test his words."

A new, deeper voice suddenly spoke, a presence more sinister than that of the human spirit. "Believe me." And I felt the words draw, the creature pulling us in, drawing us by his will alone, forcing us to bend to his will as the draw of the tide. I saw by the strain Sam felt it too.

"ENOUGH!" he suddenly roared, and, tearing himself away, he seized my arm with a grip harder than anyone had put on me and almost threw me ahead of him. "Take it!" he shouted, desperately perhaps, but I wasn't sure what he meant in the panic. So I raced ahead. But I couldn't leave him to the doom...

I slowed and glanced behind me. "We both will die if you do not run," he managed. "Neither will of ours is strong enough to resist. You go. You live. Return when you have more strength."

The ceiling crumbled behind me, in front of him.