The hotel was of course weathered and tattered with age. An old, faded sign out front read The Oasis Hotel and Spa. The building was massive, Jane took a quick count.
"Fourteen stories tall. Wow."
"According to this, this was a huge tourist attraction years ago. They offered some kind of healing mineral waters that people came for miles for. It had 450 rooms, two ballrooms, and other amenities like a gift shop, barber shop, bowling alley, gymnasium, and even a bank," Frankie said as he read from his phone.
"Hey! You're not supposed to have your phone!" Jane said, pointing her finger at him.
"No. You're not," Frankie said as he grinned mischievously. "Not my wife, not my rules."
Maura, in one swift motion, snatched Frankie's phone out of his hand and tucked it into her purse before he had time to even object.
"Nice reflexes there officer," Riley quipped with a snort. Jane was done with that remark, laughing so hard tears started to fall. Riley laughed with her, adding in the occasional snort.
Maura stood there with her arms crossed waiting for the two of them to regain their composure.
"Are you done?" Maura asked, when they finally stopped.
They both nodded before Jane busted out laughing again.
"Ok, okay, I'm done," she said, wiping the tears away.
"This is our quality family time. I don't think it's asking too much to put the electronics up for one entire weekend. That goes for everyone. Not just the kids."
"Sorry Maura. I just wanted to check out some information about this place. That's all." Like a scolded child Frankie didn't even bother to ask for his phone back.
The group began to move around what was once the main lobby.
"Can you imagine what this place was like back in its time?" Maura asked out loud as she looked up at the high ceiling in awe.
"You mean full of stuffy rich people?" Tommy snickered from nearby.
Jane shot him a look before walking over to Maura. She bent forward and held out her hand. "Can I have this dance?"
Maura looked at her with both amusement and confusion. "This isn't a ballroom nor is there any music."
Jane shrugged. "We'll make our own music then." She said taking Maura by the hand.
Jane hummed as they stepped in tune of the waltz.
"I didn't know you knew how to waltz."
Jane grinned.
"You can thank my high school gym teacher for that." She said as she dipped Maura before kissing her.
"I think I just threw up in my mouth a little." Frost remarked, getting an elbow to the side from his girlfriend.
"Leave them be. Let's go check out some more of this place."
Jane and Maura laughed as one by one everyone disappeared. She held Maura in her arms and smiled.
"Thank you for taking this little side adventure."
"It's our vacation after all. I mean, when else will we see a place like this."
Jane smiled and kissed her wife again. "C'mon, let's see if we can find the others. Maybe we can even scare one or two of them." She said with a laugh as she and Maura walked hand in hand up the stairs.
"I'm not sure we should be going to these upper floors Jane. This place can't be all that stable." Maura stopped where she stood as a look of terror crossed her face.
It scared Jane. "What is it babe?"
Maura didn't reply so Jane took a look around, quickly spotting what the problem was.
"Oh Maur." Jane wrapped Maura in her arms, kissing her head in reassurance.
The elevator doors were standing open, revealing the shaft, the old, tattered car, parked on the first floor below.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that this old, abandoned shaft was triggering Maura, mentally reliving the worst day of her life.
Years ago, a crazed man had tried to kill Maura by trying to pull her into an elevator shaft similar to this one. Jane had saved her, and it was a day neither of them would soon forget.
"Come on. You don't have to go anywhere near it. Let's just go back downstairs. I don't see anyone and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have gone any higher than this."
"I'm sorry," Maura said as the two made their way back downstairs. "It just, it just startled me."
"Hey, you don't have any reason to apologize. I don't like elevator shafts either. I was there. Remember?"
The two stood there for several moments in a silent embrace, startled apart when a loud BOOM came from somewhere above.
"What the hell?"
Jane instinctively went for her gun, remembering it was in the car glove box.
"Damn it!"
"Maura, go get my gun."
"What? No. I'm not leaving you in here!"
"Well, I'm not leaving you either!"
Jane quickly surveyed the large room and picked up a nearby metal pipe.
"This will do."
Maura looked around looking for her own weapon. Not finding anything, she finally settled on an old thick hard bound book that was on a dusty bookshelf, dusting off the cobwebs.
Jane couldn't help but chuckle. "That'll get em."
"Oh shush," Maura said, rolling her eyes.
"Don't shush me. I don't like being shushed."
"So, are you going to stand there complaining or are you going to find out if there's a mad man in the building?
"Mad man. Or a ghost," Jane said as she looked at Maura and grinned.
"There is no such thing as ghosts."
"That's right. I forget you sciency people don't believe in what you can't see," Jane said as she started to walk, Maura following, their choice of weapons at the ready.
They walked down each hall, looking around corners and any place someone could be hiding, finding nothing.
"See. Ghost." Jane said as she chuckled.
This was just before Jane, who was looking at Maura, walked right into someone, or something.
Swinging the pipe was an automatic reflex. Frankie ducked just in time.
"Jesus Janie! What the hell! Are you trying to kill me?"
"Sorry. You scared the hell out of me. Did you and Suzie hear that huge bang?"
"Yeah. We were trying to figure out what it was."
"Well looks like we've got a mystery," Jane said in her best Scooby doo voice.
"Really Jane? Scooby Doo again?" Maura said, raising an eyebrow at her wife. "You've been watching too much TV with the kids."
"Come on gang! Let's go solve the mystery!" Jane said with overexaggerated enthusiasm. "Zoinks!"
"You really are just one of the kids."
Before Jane could say anything more, Frankie took notice of the book Maura was still holding in her hands.
"Okay. That I get," he said, pointing to Jane's metal pipe.
"But what exactly is THAT supposed to do?" He chuckled, Suzie began to laugh with him, although she was a bit more modest trying to hide her laughter.
"You want me to show you what it can do?" Maura asked, eying Frankie's crotch area.
"Hey! Don't, that's just…. That's my brother! Jesus woman!" Jane's cheeks turned a deep crimson red.
"Oh, stop Jane. It's not like I see your brother in a sexual way. I was simply saying that a good wack with this book in his genital area would do what I intended it to do."
"Oh God. Stop. Just stop. Don't do that."
"Do what?" Maura asked, obviously confused.
"Use my brother's name, sex and is junk in the same sentence. That's just wrong."
"I didn't say sex Jane. I said I don't see Frankie in a sexual manner."
"You did it again! Stop that."
Maura chuckled as Frankie stepped forward and then back, slightly using Susie as a shield.
"Are we going to keep standing here discussing hitting me in my manhood,"
"Yep, just threw up in my mouth a little." Jane remarked, shaking her head as Frankie continued.
"Or are we going to go find the others and figure out what that bang was?"
"Hey, that's a great idea. C'mon on Maura." Jane said as she grabbed Maura by the hand.
Maura walked past Frankie slowly before making a swinging gesture with her book causing him to jump backwards.
Jane snorted, "Now that was funny." She said as the started to head towards the direction of the loud noise.
As they walked, they suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of knocking. Not just any knock, a cop's knock that turned to banging.
"Riley?" Jane yelled, her voice echoing in the huge building.
"Down here," she heard Riley yell back from somewhere further down.
"We're stuck." Tommy yelled out.
Because of the echo in the building Jane couldn't figure out which direction their voices were coming from.
"Knock again," she yelled loudly.
Riley knocked again, this time continuously so Jane could locate them.
As the group came to a stop outside of an old storeroom they could hear Riley and Tommy arguing.
"Ugh! I've already tried that, Tommy. Stop before you bring more of the second floor down on us."
"You two okay in there? I'm assuming that loud bang, was you?" Jane asked from the door.
"Yeah, that was us. That old floor gave out. We're okay but Tommy might not be for much longer if you don't get that door open soon." Came Riley's reply.
"Okay, calm down. We'll get you out. Is there anything on your side blocking the door?"
"No. We've moved what we could, but the door is jammed."
"Alright, look back away. We're going to kick it in." Jane looked at Frankie, "Give me a hand."
Frankie stepped forward.
"On the count of three, okay? One, two,"
"Wait," Maura said, stepping forward. "Is this a good idea? What if it brings more of the upper floor down on them?"
Jane sighed, "Maur, we don't have any other choice. We have to. It'll be okay."
Maura nodded, she had to trust Jane.
Again, Jane counted, this time making it to three. She and Frankie kicked hard, sending the door crashing to the floor in a plum of dust.
"Hurry up, come on." Jane yelled, stretching her hand to her brother. Frankie extended his to Riley and together they pulled them to safety.
"Leave it to the two of you to fall through the floor." Jane remarked with a chuckle, relieved that her friend and brother were okay.
Riley dusted herself off and looked around. "Where's Frost and Anna?"
"Well, we thought maybe they were with you two but clearly that's not the case."
"I think I saw them headed down to the basement." Tommy remarked.
"Great, floors are falling in and now we are going into some creepy basement?" Jane complained, not noticing everyone's eyes turning to her until she looked up. "What? Why is everyone looking at me?"
"Because this was your idea, Jane." Maura replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well yeah, but I thought we were all going to stick together."
Tommy looked from Maura to Jane and snorted. "It sucks to be you, Janie."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm just saying that by the glare on Maura's face, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end. Seems like you might spend more time than a month on the couch. I mean, your brother and partner went through the floor and your best friend, and his girlfriend are missing too. All because you thought this was a cool thing to do."
"Hey! It's not my fault that you two, the destructo twins, fell through the floor."
"He's not wrong." Maura said with raised eyebrows.
Jane groaned, "I refuse to live in a world where Tommy is right. Let's go find Frost and Anna so we can get the hell out of here. The girls should be back in the car by now."