A/N: Back to normal uploading dates now – hopefully every Wednesday from now until this story finishes. We're also returning back to Luna's point of view. Thanks for reading!
Chapter nine
Stanley Hotel part two
I woke up to see the white ceiling of the hotel room, after remembering where I was I rolled over to check the camera. Yep it was where I had left it, recorder by its side, both still recording. I got up and changed the batteries and tapes in both when I looked at the clock, it was quarter past eight. I had no idea when or where we were meeting up and I didn't particularly want to go knocking on Nick's door asking him these things at this time of the morning. After a brief moment of thought I decided to take a shower whilst I wasn't paranoid about spirits or anything weird going on. I relocated the camera to point at the bathroom door; that was the closest it was getting to being with me 'every second' like Zak told me to do. If anything weird happened in the bathroom then he'll have to settle for it not being captured on video or audio. I wasn't going to take it with me whilst I showered, end of.
~30 minutes later~
Hot water pounding on my head had never felt better after the past few days I had. As I tied my damp hair into a ponytail I glanced into the mirror and saw that I had dark circles under my eyes. "I guess that's living on the road for you…" I muttered. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a blue T-shirt and then sat with my camera and recorder on the bed; it was quarter to nine, still a bit too early to go knocking on anybody's door. Checking my phone I saw I had a text message from Kate, it literally said;
'Owls get me happy."
I thought about this statement for a few minutes and decided to reply with;
'Good to know – I take it you're happy about this?"
That didn't surprise me; I knew I'd get a weird text at some point. Especially when I've kind of gone missing from school overnight, come to think of it; none of my other friends had bothered to text me, maybe they just heard where I was from Kate and left it at that. Who knows but it won't stop them from pouncing on me as soon as they see me again. The thought of that made my head hurt, I got up and did a final check of the camera and recorder's batteries before leaving the room to walk the silent hallways of the hotel.
It didn't take me long to find one of the guys, as I walked into the restaurant area where most of our equipment was laid out across various tables I saw the familiar coffee drone sitting at a table with his morning caffeine hit. "So Aaron – did anything weird happen last night?" I said pouncing on the back of his chair; he jumped about two feet into the air in surprise which was quite funny.
"Wha- oh it's you, you scared the shit out of me Luna..." he puffed at me. Before he had a chance to tell me about his night Nick and Zak walked into the dining area, both looking absolutely shattered.
"Tired guys?" I remarked sitting on the chair next to Aaron. "After the closet door stopped opening by itself I slept quite peacefully." All three of them stared at me as if I was speaking French.
"The closet door opened…by itself?" Nick asked still shocked. Zak took the seat opposite me with a serious look on his face. "Okay, what happened?" he bluntly asked.
I shifted in my seat under his curious yet uncomfortable gaze as I started to recall the events that had occurred last night; "Well even before I started looking for activity I noticed that the closet door was open – which it previously hadn't been. After that there was a feeling that someone was watching me so I asked if there was anyone there and to put it simply; there was a loud noise coming from the closet." I started fidgeting and not looking at any of them whilst I continued; "So I asked it to make the noise again and instead the door rattled. Disregarding my fear at the time I tried to open it whilst still being sat on the bed – what happened next scared the crap out of me…"
By this time all three of them were listening intently. Zak had dropped his serious and blunt attitude and was on the edge of his seat waiting for me to get to the next part of what happened; "So what happened?" he asked
Still avoiding their gaze I went on explaining my experiences. "The door opened right in front of me and as a result I fell off the bed, it just really startled me…" I mumbled
Aaron gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder which brought me out of my current fascination of the wooden flooring in the dining area. I looked up to see a look in his eyes showing he understood what I was feeling. I looked to Nick who also had a look of understanding, finally I glanced at Zak. He opened his mouth as if to say something but in the end just nodded for me to go on.
"Once I got over that I walked into the bathroom and I heard laughter… but it sounded as if it was coming from the wall between the corridor and the bathroom – not the actual corridor. I didn't think much of it at first but when I walked back into my room several things happened in a short space of time which all got me more and more paranoid; the first thing that occurred was the handheld camera froze on me. Whilst trying to unfreeze said camera I asked if whoever was doing this was the one who opened the closet earlier – this led to the second event; the main door shook violently, like someone was trying to get in…" I saw images of the event flashing through my head rapidly to the point of which I couldn't tell them anymore even though I knew it would be crucial to the investigation.
"Are you okay Luna? Don't rush yourself – take your time, we have plenty of it." Zak commented after I had stopped talking and regained my interest of the floor.
"I'm fine, anyway after the door shook the lights went out and whilst I was trying to find the night vision setting the closet door opened once again. I calmed down after it all went quiet for about two minutes and then I asked any children spirits in the room to basically go down to Nick's room and scare him." I said fighting the urge to laugh slightly at Nick's expression of mixed shock and humour. "After that everything died down really – no weird noises, no strange movement, and the only other weird thing that happened was battery drainage."
Once I had finished telling them what happened, all three of them sat in a collective silence for a few moments digesting the events before Nick spoke; interrupting their thought process.
"So you told some children spirits to come and scare me?" he asked me
"Yeah, well I thought it would make a good way to get them to do something. What child doesn't want to play a game, especially when they're specifically told to go scare someone?" I reply.
"Well something was in my room last night – I don't know who or what it was but it made me feel like I was going to throw up." Nick stated
"You felt physically sick dude?" Aaron asked shocked, which was becoming a regular occurrence and also slightly annoying.
"Yeah, I don't know what was going on but one minute I was walking into my room and talking out loud about the poltergeist activity and the next I felt really dizzy and there was definitely something in that room with me." He explained.
"Care to go into detail?" I ask now curious at what I had caused by a simple 'game'
"At first I just heard a few weird noises but nothing substantial until I reviewed the recording and caught a voice. It said 'You better start talking' after that I started feeling dizzy to the point where I had to lie down."
"Wow…was it clear as day?" Zak queried reaching into one of the equipment bags strewn around the room and grabbing the same recorder.
"You bet, and it was as soon as I played it back that I felt dizzy." Nick replied pinching the skin between his eyes. "So anyway – I heard weird noises and the camera malfunctioned a few times, once during the night I heard a child's laughter."
"No way…any freaking way…" I repeated. "No way, are you serious?"
"Calm down, and yeah I swear I heard a child's laughter. So the camera needed a new tape and whilst I was replacing the tapes there was footsteps from outside but when I went to look there was nothing there. But the weird thing was as soon as I walked back into the room I felt a cold blast of air and my camera completely died." He explained "I pretty much demanded whoever drained my camera's battery to show themselves and nothing happened, so basically I went to sleep after that."
"Sounds like you had an interesting night there Nick." Zak commented "I sent you to a room with a levitating bed and you experience children laughing and a whole load of dizziness."
"Yeah it was crazy dude; I don't think the bed moved at all to be honest. It slid slightly but other than that it pretty much didn't move an inch."
"Well you certainly got something to react. Speaking of which; Aaron did that wig I gave you help at all?" Zak continued
"Dude you will not believe what happened after I got into my room." Aaron started
"Wait you gave Aaron a wig? Why?" I interrupted
"To lure out the spirit of that cowboy who kissed the woman on the forehead." Zak responded "What happened Aaron?"
My attention was drawn back to Aaron sitting with his eyes wide open as he told us what had happened;"I left the bag with said wig inside down here in the restaurant when I went to my room. I opened the door and as well as the equipment bag on the bed there was another bag next to it, when I looked inside I found the wig – now I knew that Nick and you, Luna, were in your rooms and I knew that Zak was by the front door so how that bag got upstairs is a mystery to me."
We all stare at him wide eyed, "H-How did that wig get from here, in the dining area, up four floors and into a locked room?" I stuttered
"Who knows...we'll have to check the x-camera to see when exactly it showed up." Nick replied. "So what happened next?"
"I refused to wear the wig – considering it had magically appeared on the bed – so I just paced the room asking questions and reviewed the audio after nothing happened. On the audio there was a faint whisper but I couldn't tell what it was saying so I marked it and then just sat on the bed." Aaron continued "It was really quiet, seriously no noise whatsoever it was kind of freaky so just to see if I could get any response I put on the wig but nothing changed, in the end I just gave up and went to sleep."
"You had a pretty uneventful night then, where Nick and I had crazy activity filled ones." I acknowledged. "Come on Zak, I'm dying to know; what happened to you last night?"
"The lights went out by themselves..." He muttered.
I didn't quite get what he was muttering about, I looked to Nick for answers but he looked as puzzled as I did so we both looked to Aaron and he knew something and wasn't telling us. In the end Nick bit the bullet; "Didn't you cut them Zak?"
"Nope. I called Billy and between leaving the building, pacing up and down the porch and me trying to get back in, the lights had gone out. The main door also wouldn't open I had to kick it in right Aaron?" he replied solemnly
"Yeah, then I left you fiddling with the door and went to my room." Aaron muttered
Something unsettled me about the way they spoke about this, the tones in their voices made it seem that something else happened last night but I wasn't about to start an argument.
"So anyway I walked up to my room in the darkness and once inside I basically tell Lord Dunraven that if he doesn't like me staying in his room that he should make it clear by saying something. I reviewed the tape and got a voice saying; 'Somebody's coming' and as soon as I played it over again I heard footsteps walking along the corridor and stopping outside my room. Naturally I got up and opened the door and there was nothing there." Zak recounted "I led on the bed and accidently fell asleep, I woke up and changed the batteries in everything that's when I started seeing shadows everywhere but whenever I'd point the camera at them there would be nothing there. It was something like two am when I went to sleep properly."
"You didn't have much happen either then..." I stated
"Not anything immediately obvious, we still have to go over all the video footage and audio we recorded overnight. Besides; none of us stayed up until three am which is notorious for being the 'witching hour' when a lot of residual activity could've taken place." Zak explained
"So should we get to it then?" Aaron asked "If so then I'll need coffee."
"Yeah gather up the tapes and then sit down and review them all." Zak ordered "I need to go and talk to the cleaning staff and warn them of our camera set up. I'll meet you in base when I'm done." He then got up and wondered off leaving Aaron, Nick and I to make our way to base.
"Well I guess we better get going – the last thing we need is a grumpy Zak when he shows up and we haven't done anything." Nick sighed "Come on you two let's go." He got up to leave and I followed leaving Aaron at the coffee machine.
"Hey wait for me guys!" Aaron called to us "The coffee's not done yet!"
"Maybe you should lay off the coffee then!" I replied from the hallway where Nick and I were stood by the elevator waiting for both it and Aaron to appear. "Nick, how long does it normally take to review all the evidence?" I ask him
"Depends on how much we actually have to listen and watch. Sometimes it's a few hours, other times it can take up to three days."
"Three days? Is that seriously how long it takes sometimes?" I cried
"Yeah it's a thorough process and you gotta keep focused, so quite often two or three people will listen to the same tape, to have a fresh set of ears and sometimes they'll each find something different on it." Nick explained
"Guys, I got my coffee!" Aaron hollered ambling through the doorway just as the elevator arrived.
"Great timing. Now let's get to this evidence already before Zak finds us goofing off." I declared as the doors shut us inside the small elevator.
~ 4 hours later ~
I had a few things scribbled down on my pad that Zak gave me, possible voices as well as debunked noises or events. Reviewing the x-camera placed in the ballroom's footage, all nine hours of it certainly proved Nick's point about being focused. I leaned back in my chair and glanced around the room known as base. For some reason Zak had picked the room Stephan King stayed in for base which begged the question; why wasn't there a camera watching base? The guys sat spread amongst laptops, wires, tapes and lots of coffee cups, or at least Aaron was. It seemed so lonely in the room as everyone had their headphones or earphones plugged in and were concentrating, it had been about two hours since one of them had spoken to me last and I was getting bored. I sighed loudly and stretched, I wondered if I could just leave and get some fresh air without any of them noticing?
I got up and walked to the door without making a sound, I hesitated before walking out into the hallway. I decided to take a walk outside the seemly abandoned hotel; it took me two seconds to remember that it was abandoned because it was winter here. Two seconds too late for I had already walked out onto the porch in a sleeveless top and got greeted by a freezing cold blast of wind. I briskly walked back inside and aimlessly wondered the corridors for a few minutes when I could feel someone watching me, I turned around and the elevator doors just closed despite the fact I hadn't used the elevator so why was it open?
"You're imagining things again Luna..." I muttered to myself. This was why I had chosen to take a walk; too much focusing on a small screen for three and a half hours causes inaccurate results in evidence review. I continued along the corridor and somehow ended up outside the base room again. "Well I might as well get back to work." I opened the door and all three of the guys quickly looked up like I was an alien.
"Oh Luna – when did you leave? I didn't hear you." Aaron asked surprised
"I left about twenty minutes ago, I'm not surprised you guys didn't notice as you were all glued to your computers." I replied
"Beside the point – did you hear anyone about?" Zak cut in
"Uh...no...I thought the hotel was closed for the season..." I mumbled
"It is – but we keep hearing footsteps up and down the corridor." Nick clarified
"Now you mention it...I felt as if someone was watching me downstairs, and the elevator doors shut when I hadn't even used the elevator." I said. Zak got up and walked out of the room in silence, I was slightly scared I had somehow offended him.
"If someone's here then all our evidence could be screwed." Aaron murmured
"Oh I didn't think of that...is that why Zak's just basically stormed out of the room?" I asked
"Yeah – if we can't use the evidence because someone's here then he's going to be mighty pissed off." Nick replied
Just as I started getting anxious Zak came back into the room and grabbed a handheld camera. "You might wanna see this guys..." he muttered before exiting again.
We all followed him without a word and he took us to the ballroom, there wasn't anything immediately out of place so I was wondering why Zak had brought us here until he led us to an old door behind the piano.
"Since when has this door been here?" Nick asked
"Exactly – it shouldn't be." Zak replied "I called the owner to ask if anyone else should be here and they said no – then they asked me to check something in here when I found the door, they have no idea what it is but they said we can look into it if we want."
"Well we need to get us some flashlights then – and another camera." Aaron said as he left to get the necessary items. Zak had already opened the door and was peering into it;
"It looks like a basement of sorts...best wait for those flashlights I guess." He muttered
"So you're saying the owners knew nothing about this?" Nick asked also peering into the opening
"Yep pretty much."
Aaron returned a little out of breath with four flashlights, another camera and a few spare batteries and tapes, we each took a flashlight and one by one we entered the new darkness under the Stanley hotel.
A/N: Sorry if it seems shorter than normal but I've been ill this week and fell behind on writing so there's been a mad dash to finish this chapter today. Plus we're entering exam season right now so things are getting a bit chaotic right now – but I am determined to finish this project!
