When Sarah got back a few hours later, she found her niece asleep. She smiled and pulled a blanket over the girl, before going to her own room. It was only about seven, but she was exited to start showing Lorraine around tomorrow, and decided that they both may as well get some sleep. After all, it was hard to sleep around here sometimes, even if a haunted hotel was great for tourists who wanted to see that sort of thing.

Sarah was brushing her teeth when she saw the boy in the mirror. She jumped a little. She hadn't seen any of the boys in years. She heard them every couple months or so, and almost weekly they would move something in one room or another, but they didn't show themselves very often, at least not to her. The older she got, the less often they came. It was always children who saw them. A few parents staying here had said they'd woken to hear their darling sons and daughters speaking to somebody in another room, somebody who always disappeared the moment the door was opened. This was always dismissed as fakery, or attention seeking, but Sarah knew better. She had spoken to a girl a few years ago that kept saying she had talked to a handsome cowboy with a New York drawl. There was that boy, too, no more than three who insisted he'd been asked to play, but his parents had come in before the cards could be dealt. They had described to her names and faces, even clothing. She knew they were there. And now one had come to say hello.

It was the blond one with the glasses. He had never spoken to her, even when he was alive. She wasn't sure he spoke English at all. He just stood there for a moment, his charred clothing and sooty, tear-streaked face gnawing at her inside. Crazy Sarah. Poor, old Miss Jacobs, she was. She supposed they wouldn't want to scare the children, but someone who had watched it all wasn't worth bothering about. His head was cocked to the left at the same unnatural angle it had been at since he hit the pavement 57 years ago. Sarah didn't turn. She stared until she had to blink, and then the boy was gone.

Rainy could hear something in the kitchen. It wasn't her aunt. It was a boy, a kid, and he was giggling hysterically. She got up and turned on her flashlight, wondering what a boy was doing in her aunt's house at…1:34, by her watch. She crept out towards the kitchen, sleepily annoyed and ready to sternly bring this kid back to whatever room he was staying in. Her flashlight pierced the darkness, and the giggling turned into a panicked whisper, then a clatter of shoes on the floor, Rainy ran the rest of the way, and on the other side of the now bread-and-spreads strewn kitchen the door was just swinging shut. She jumped through just before it swung shut. She followed the footsteps down the stairs, and then down more stairs…they kept going down. She heard him whisper frantically

"C'mon, ya goose, we gotta lose her!"

So there were two of them. She called after them.

"Wait, who are you? You're not in trouble or anything! I'm not mad anymore, don't-"

She tripped over the threshold of a dark doorway, on was sent sprawling diagonally, lying on a flight of stairs. Her flashlight went spiraling off into the darkness on either side. She hissed through her teeth, trying not to cry. She worked back up to her feet, and waited until her entire front half hurt a little less. She felt around the walls for a light switch, but couldn't find one. Dangit. She focused on the flashlight beam in a far corner of the basement. She could see nothing in its illuminated field.

'Guys? I'm really not mad. You guys have to come up. You can't stay down here, or someone'll worry…" Someone giggled, and someone else shushed him. Yet another one, and this one sounded older, whispered

"Sheesh, guys, you made her trip. Give her back the torch or whatever," the same voice raised itself, and directed itself at her. "Little miss, we ain't gonna hurt ya. Me an' my friends ain't spoke to no one in awhile, but don't be scared." A voice with just as heavy an accent as the first one, but a bit harsher, added

"Yeah, trust me, we prob'ly couldn't violate ya even if we wanted to." There was a thud and a yelp as someone pushed him over, saying

"Ain't ya got no excuse ta be rude ta the goil."

"How many of you are there?' Rainy squeaked. There was a pause, and someone said "26." The door slammed shut behind her, and somebody tapped her on the shoulder. She yelped and turned around, to see a sturdy teenager in overalls holding out her flashlight to her. She shone it all over, but saw nobody. She turned around, but the boy in the overalls had disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared in the first place. The door opened, and as she ran through it and sprinted towards her bed, she heard a piping little voice ask cordially

"Do come back, sometime, miss!"

Rainy pulled the covers over her head, but it was a long time before she fell asleep again.

A/N

Review or wee ghosties will raid your kitchen as you sleep!