Beneath (WIP)

Am I crazy?

I shivered in fear the entire time I stayed locked up in that security room. That woman outside kept calling to me, asking me to let her in, her voice changing by the second. Sometimes it was normal sounding like it had before, but other times it became unusually higher or lower. It made my heart race in ways I never knew it could. I'm older, so I was convinced this woman would give me a heart attack. I almost wish she did. I wanted out of this situation. I screamed at the woman that the cops were coming and to leave me the hell alone. It silenced her, but I know it didn't make her leave.

I could feel her presence outside my door. I would occasionally hear her slowly scratch at the door or mumble under her breath. I regretted threatening her. I think I would have rather just heard her talk. The good thing was that I didn't have to worry about her getting inside the room with me. That door was locked, and thick enough to where she couldn't get through, and I had the only set of keys. While in my safety, I thought about Margaret and hoped she was ok and out of the building. If this woman was harassing me, I assumed Margaret had to be fine. To distract myself from her strange behaviors, I turned back to the cameras to see the man that was standing in the hallway was now staring up at my camera, watching me through it. I watched him back, wondering if I should turn on the microphone and address him. Feeling upset and angry over this situation and wanting to know what was going on, I did. I switched on the microphone feature and spoke to him.

"Excuse me, sir. Do you have a room here?" I asked him.

The man didn't say anything to me. He just....stared at the camera. I couldn't even see his face. It was covered by the black hood that cloaked his head. I was getting annoyed with him, so I asked him again.

"Black hoodie, I'm talking to you. I'll have you know that I am the owner of this inn. If you are not checked in or staying with someone, I will have the police arrest you for trespassing. Where is your room?" he asked.

The man didn't answer me, and instead walked to the left and entered a room out of the camera view. I recognized it as the room once being rented by the young lady who had been frightened by an intruder, room 22. As soon as he left my sight, the entire panel of cameras exploded into static. I couldn't see anything. Enough was enough. I wasn't going to go after him and threaten him further, especially not with that strange woman outside my door who may or may not be dangerous. I assumed she was. No sane person acted like her. 

A knock finally came at my door with someone announcing that they were the police. Figuring they had the woman in cuffs, I opened the door and greeted them. 

"Mark Thompson?" they asked. I nodded my head.

"Yes, that's me. Thank you so much for coming. There has been some suspicious activity going on around here. An unknown woman in a white dress was trying to break into my security room here, and there is a strange man lurking upstairs near room 22 where there was a break in a couple days ago. It might be the suspect. He was not wearing the same clothes, but I have a feeling it was him. These two may be connected in some way. I'm not sure."

"We will look into that, and I'll send some officers up there. Hopefully we can apprehend him. Do you have any footage we can look at?" he asked. I looked back at my cameras, shrugging, expecting the static to still exist, but surprisingly the footage had come back on. I motioned for him to come over and sit down beside me.

"Yeah, I do actually. Let me rewind this back a bit...."

The officer sat down beside me as I began to rewind the tapes back to show him the man that was standing in the hallway. I watched the time as it regressed into the past, but the man was absent from the clips. I looked at the date at the bottom right corner to make sure I was looking at the footage, and I had everything right. I don't know how I could have lost it anyways. It just happened. I didn't have to upload a previous file. It was right at my fingertips. The officer paused me and instructed me to go forward. He paused me at the moment he wanted. I had thought he had seen the man, but he was instead addressing me.

"Who were you talking to right here?" he asked. I listened to my own voice and cringed as the man was gone, and it looked like I had just imagined things.

"Black hoodie, I'm talking to you. I'll have you know that I am the owner of this inn. If you are not checked in or staying with someone, I will have the police arrest you for trespassing. Where is your room?"

The police officer eyed me with suspicion. I pointed at the camera in shock at what I was not seeing. Had I imagined all of this? Was I going crazy?

"But he was honestly right there standing in the hallway! He was standing there for two hours. That is how long I watched him." 

The officer didn't say a word to me. He just kept that same annoyed expression on his face. Little did he know, I was annoyed too! A little more upset though...I had someone who was not supposed to be in my inn appearing in my security footage and then disappearing when the right authorities came to view it. This was insanity. I knew this wasn't just me though. Margaret had seen someone too.

"Hold on. There was someone else. Margaret, my desk woman, and I both experienced this. There was a woman trying to break into the security room." I pulled out my phone and handed it to the officer as somewhat evidence. I wanted him to see the text messages we exchanged.

"Well Margaret is outside terrified. We met her out there, and she told us you were inside here." he commented.

I flipped through the cameras to the front desk cameras where I rewound the tapes to see if the woman would appear. Strangely like the man, she didn't appear in the tapes either. My jaw dropped in shock. The officer looked over at the cameras, still not amused by the sight.

"What am I looking at?" he asked.

"I swear she should be here! Margaret saw her, and I heard her! She called for me to open the door!" The officer shook his head and shrugged. A couple of knocks came at the door, and the officer got up to let his colleagues in.

"The hotel is secure. We didn't find any suspicious parties. Did you find anything here?" the investigator asked. The officer shook his head.

"No, we didn't. I think we ought to head out. Mr. Thompson, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. I nodded my head as the other officials walked out of the inn. The officer sighed and propped his arm up on the door frame.

"Mark, I suggest you sleep it off tonight and practice healthier habits. What you are experiencing is not normal." he told me. I knew everything was fine with me. I made sure to take care of myself each and every day. I looked him dead in the eyes.

"Officer, I'm fine. I get good sleep and I make sure I am in a healthy condition. Yes, what I am experiencing is not normal, but it isn't because of me. I think someone is fucking with the inn and causing me headaches."

"Even so, they would appear on the tapes, and we'd be able to identify them. Let this be a warning to you. Please don't call unless if there is a serious problem."

"THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM!!" I yelled. How could this not be serious? Did he seriously think I was joking or making this up?

"Well then maybe update your security systems so accurate tapes can be presented. If something is really happening, we should be able to see it." he said. I rolled my eyes.

"Obviously, so. Officer, I am not making this up. Something is terribly wrong here."

"Well then maybe we aren't the people to call regarding your problems. If you are suspecting paranormal activity-"

"Ghosts aren't real." I told him firmly. I wasn't going to accept an imaginary presence as an answer when I was dealing with real, living, and skillful pranksters. The officer shrugged and pulled out a notepad.

"Alright, well that is your belief. I'm just trying to help you out. I'm going to head out, but just remember what I said. If stuff gets too weird, call this place. They might be better for you."

As he left, he handed me the paper. I looked at it just to crinkle it up. I was not calling a damn paranormal investigation agency, nor was I ever going to accept the help of an exorcist when I didn't need one. I didn't have a damn devil problem. Ghosts were not real, and that is something I will always stick by.