Chapter 1

'Another day, another dollar!' Rena thought as she walked down the street to her day job, as a housekeeper at a local hotel, the glass windows faded reflections of the crowd and other unmentionable things. Swinging the door open, Rena whipped out her time card and slid it through the slit of the machine. A yawn escapes her as she signed her name on the hardcopy.

"Alright! Remember 30 minutes a room. Go ahead and get to work!" The housekeepers nodded their heads in agreement as they bee-lined out of the narrow hallway to the elevators in the main hallway. "It's always the same speech everyday," Rena mumbled as she grabbed hold of her ocean blue linen cart and pushed it after the trail of housekeepers.

The smell of pancakes, bacon and sausage filled the air as Rena rounded the corner to the lobby. He stomached growled as she swung her black Wal-mart purse on top of her bed sheets. Her stomach gurgled again as the breakfast crew passed her with a tray of hot cinnamon rolls. 'If only I could get out of bed earlier to make my own breakfast.' Rena looked down to her list only to notice it was going to be a hard day, there were a few king bedrooms and more of the queen bedrooms on her list with a few stayovers that were highlighted in yellow. 'At least I semi stocked my cart yesterday' Rena thought as she tapped her fingers on the side of her little blue linen cart. 'Just get in and get out. Not that hard to do . . . her self pep talk was interrupted when she overheard the guests telling each other about the hotels past.

"Did you hear that someone died here in this hotel?"

"Nooo! Really?"

"Yees!" The blonde lady in a casual outfit exaggerated her yes, " They say that there was this lady that died on the fourth floor and to this day she haunts the hotel: the guests and workers and all."

"Wooow. That's scary." The brown haired lady next to her gave a shudder as she tried to shake off the feeling.

"They also say that there's someone on the fifth floor as well, or something like that."

The two ladies shivered and quickly entered the elevator.

'If they only knew what was really going on in this God forsaken hotel,' Rena rolled her eyes at her thought. Finally the elevators on the left side opened and she raced in to get to her floor. The lights flickered and child like giggles filled the empty air. Rena ignored the giggles and pressed the 4th floor button. With a jolt the elevator went up along with voices that laughed with pleasure from the cheap ride. Reaching her floor the doors opened and Rena pushed her cart only to find some of her clean pillowcases tossed to the floor. With literally one foot in and one foot out of the elevator Rena stretched her arms and fingers to get the pillowcases. Her lips tighten and her eyes squinted as she managed to get the pillowcases and toss them back onto her sheets.

'Surely this is worth more than minimum wage,' Rena thought and sighed. Rena went to get her cart as she pushed the linen cart ahead of her. There were already two other girls on the floor who were looking for a spare cart to use for the day. They were chatting and giggling about various things as Rena passed them to the storage door. Digging in her pockets for her keys, she managed to pull them out as giggles popped up around her, a purple club of a hand appeared as it snatched the keys and dropped them. The giggles turned to laughter as Rena stooped down to grab them.

"Are you okay Rena?" A short white girl with bouncy curls asked cautiously.

"Uh yeeah. Just butter fingers is all. You know how Mondays are." Rena flashed a smile and laughed nervously.

"Oook." The girl replied as Rena tried once again to open the door. This time the laughter came from inside the storage room. As Rena unlocked the door only to find it was hard to push open. "Umm Rena, do you need help with the door?"

"No. I got it. Just . . . need . . .to . . . give . . . it . . . a nu-" Rena pressed her body against the door and as she blinked her eyes to let loose a light trickle of spiritual energy to cover the door. The laughter squeaked and turned to shock as the door propped open. "Just a nudge." Rena finished her sentence and she smiled again, 'darn hobgoblins.' Little round bubble like creatures showed themselves to Rena, they had big round eyes that were closed with amusement and thin arms that ended in club like hands, their heads were lined with horns in parallel lines, they covered their face as their small round bodies bobbled up and down with laughter.

Her co-worker inched passed her to get a cart, Rena did the same. The day continued as the bubble creatures hovered around Rena, they spun around her in circles as they played tag with one another. Rena had her iPod on as she worked. The goblins bobbed to the beat as they switched songs to their liking, Rena glared at them. They laughed at her as she waved her arms frantically in the air. The same co-worker from before look at her from down the hall like she was crazy.

Rena called out to her coworker, "That time of year for bugs ya know."

She worked one room to the next as she stripped the bathrooms and beds, making the beds, cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming and taking out the trash. Until she reached her last room, she arched her back and stretched as she proceeded with her routine. One goblin wobbled over to help her as it grabbed a pillow to strip only to be hit by another goblin with a pillow. The two laughed as they went back and forth hitting each other with the pillows, Rena sighed and took the pillows and spun the two goblins like a disc jockey. The two raised their hands in the air as they yelled with pleasure. Rena finished up the room and closed the door. She pushed her cart back to the storage and took off the trash and tied it up for the houseman. She gathered her chart, phone and iPod and headed back down. The goblins continued to follow her to the locker room. As she placed her things in her locker, a small green hobgoblin floated in between her and the locker as it looked up at her with watery eyes as bit its lower lip as it whimpered. The others soon followed as they also whimpered.

"I'll see you tomorrow, ok." She patted the small hobgoblin like a puppy. "But I have to go." They tugged at her shirt and pants as she got up to drop off her keys and chart. Rena shook her leg and shrugged her shoulders. "You all right Rena?" a soft female voice came from behind her.

Rena turned to the voice, "Chills. Just got the chills." The hobgoblins pouted in place as she dropped the chart and keys on her boss's desk and left the back door. As Rena left the property, the Hobgoblins waved to her. She only smiled and plugged in her earphones and thought to herself. 'All in a day's work.'