Close Encounters of the Fictional Kind

Chapter 35: Mimiko Mizunuma

Marie and Elise exhaled loudly as they both fell backwards onto the beds in their hotel room. The flight from Paris, France had taken forever in Marie's opinion, and luckily they got to sleep a bit before meeting Gina in the morning for breakfast. Gina was Marie and Elise's friend from college who was from South Korea. She had offered to get the girls from the airport, but they didn't want to be a burden since their plan came in so late, and were happy to relax in a hotel room for the night before meeting up in the morning.

"We have a few hours before your skype interview… we could nap. I'll set an alarm." Marie offered holding up her phone and waving it a little bit.

"Set the alarm to 2:30am so I can be ready by 3am. That'll be 11AM their time. I'm crashing." Elise rolled over away from Marie and curled up on top of her bed spread.

Maire rolled her eyes at Elise and got up to go to the bathroom. She came out about 20 minutes later freshly showered and sat on her bed in the dim light of the room. She quickly braided her hair and let herself fall back onto her bed and closed her eyes.

Marie woke up fast when her alarm blared in her ear at 2:30am, and she threw her phone away from her and called out, "Elise… wake up." The younger girl threw a pillow a few seconds later at the grumbling coming from the other bed.

Marie was about to say something else when she bolted up in bed along with Elise when there was screaming outside of their room. They both sat very still and watched the door in the dark, no light coming in from the bottom of the door. After a few moments Marie slowly got out of her bed and gently padded over the the door, while Elise made soft urgent noises for her to stop. Marie halted beside the door and looked back at Elise bringing a finger to her mouth asking her to be silent. She turned and slowly brought her eye to the peephole and looked out to an empty hallway.

Elise watched Marie from her bed, noticing when Marie tensed up and backed away from the door fast. She slid onto the bed with Elise and whispered, "As long as we stay away from the door until morning we should be fine. Go shower quickly, dry your hair, and we'll get on with your interview in half an hour. Just… don't look out the peep-hole… or get too close to the door."

Elise paled and asked, "You know what this is?" The older girl rose from the bed as she gathered her shower things.

Marie nodded, looking at the door again. "Just go about your regular business and leave the worrying to me." She rounded on Elise and had a cheery fake smile on her face, "And I'm not worried. So go get ready; you have a company to impress!"

Elise slowly made her way into the bathroom, leaving the door open a little in case Marie called out to her. When she was finished, she came back out to find Marie was sitting on her bed changed and ready for Elise's interview, finishing her braid.

"All is quiet in the hallway, but I'll keep an ear open for screaming," Marie said standing and moving to the door peeking through the peephole again. "I started up your computer for you though. All you should have to do is log into Skype."

"Thanks," Elise told her, smiling at her before sitting down at the desk and starting the process of logging into Skype.

Marie leaned against the wall, "No problem. Let me know if I can do anything else." She turned the light by the door off before lowering her head and watching the floor at the bottom of the door for distortions in the light coming in from the hallway.

Marie didn't see the look that she got from Elise, but when there was a faint scream down the hallway and people rushing by she turned and saw that Elise had her headphones on and was talking to the people on her screen. Since Elise didn't turn to the door, she assumed that the interviewers hadn't heard the screams either.

Marie turned her head back and kept her eyes on the floor. She sucked in her breath, keeping still and quiet. The light was blocked as a shadow moved across her feet and slowly inched across the floor, like the person on the other side was creeping along the wall near their door and listening for someone. There was a small scratching noise and Marie jumped at the sound of Elise's voice calling to her. She looked up at her.

"Marie? Are you okay?"

Marie cast her eyes down quickly, but the shadow was gone. "I'm fine," she said, inching slightly away from the door. She gave Elise a thumbs up.

"Nothing," Elise said, turning back to the computer, speaking to the interviewers. "There are just teenagers running around being teenagers."

Marie turned back to the door and stared at it, trying to will the ghost away. She knew it was irrational, the ghost couldn't come after them, not really. Neither of them would get a call. No one had their numbers besides Gina and a few others here, and none of them were Japanese High school students. But none of that meant that the ghost couldn't mess with them.

Marie spent the next twenty minutes watching the door, ignoring Elise and her interview, and waiting to hear any noise from the hallway. She let out a scream when Elise finally touched her shoulder to let her know that the interview was over.

"Oh my god! What?" Elise yelled out, jumping back from Marie and the door.

Marie braced herself against the frame, her hand over her heart, "Holy Hell's Kitchen… You scared me."

Elise had jumped back into the room and was staring at Marie, "Are we safe?"

Marie nodded, her hand lowering to her side, "Yeah, safe. She doesn't have our numbers, she can't hurt us…"

Marie was cut off by a loud scream, coming from outside their window. She pushed past Elise and rushed to the window, looking down the few floors to the street. She pulled back quickly though and whipped the blinds shut, "Don't look Elise. Just… don't."

She turned back to Elise, who hadn't moved from the other side of the room. "How did the interview go?" Marie asked changing topic and staring at Elise, trying to sound calm, "Cause they would all be fools if they didn't hire your amazing self!"

Elise just watched her for a moment, before speaking. "The interview went fine. I sent them an updated portfolio link; they wanted to review a few things. Also, they asked about you, the photographer. They were impressed by a lot of the photos too, I think that they may send you a job offer too."

"That is… amazing.," Marie said, moving away from the closed off window. She went and sat on her bed. "An adult job?" Both girls watched each other for a few moments before Marie continued, "I am too tired to process this. We should get some sleep before we have to check out and go to Gina's house. We are going to have a long few days, her family is super excited to meet us."

Elise nodded and went to lay back down on her bed. Both girls curled up, Elise facing Maries back, Marie facing the door. Elise tried to stay awake, but Marie soon heard her breathing change, and new that she was asleep. Marie lay awake for a while, watching the door and the light under it change as someone… something slowly walked back and forth.

It the morning, when girls both woke up were ready to leave, Marie sent Elise out first, blocking view of the outside of their door. However the long scratches and ghostly bloody hand prints stood out against white painted wood. Marie nearly stepped on a small hard red candy ball lying on the floor. Her face grew pale and she hurried to catch up with Elise. They both ignored the deathly silent halls, the traumatized staff, and the police with their crime tape everywhere in the building on the way out of the hotel. Both let out a breath neither realized that they had been holding, and neither looked back.