Locklyle - The Story after The Empty Grave

Part 7: The Haunted Hotel

Lockwood's POV:

After leaving Lucy's room last night, I was so flustered that I went straight to bed. Luckily I had already had a shower so I wasn't still sweaty and disgusting from our encounter with the surprise ghosts. I took me a while to get to sleep. All I could think about was our near kiss and how stupid I was to think she also felt that way. I knew I had to apologise, but I didn't know how to do it without it being even more awkward.

I woke up many times throughout the night, never having more than an hours sleep at once. When I woke up at 6am, I decided to give up trying to go back to sleep and went down to the kitchen. It would be another hour before George woke, and another four before Lucy did. As I made my breakfast and sat down to eat, I decided that when Lucy came in, I would pretend as if nothing had happened last night. I didn't want it to be awkward and if I ignored how I had acted, then we could be normal and act as friends. And colleagues.

The more I thought about the encounter, the more I realised how much I had been reading into the looks she had given me. But one look I didn't doubt was the one she gave me as I had walked away last night. It had seemed as if she was at war with herself, pity driving through her brain. I didn't want that pity. Maybe she felt bad for looking away, but I would rather she do that then rather than if I had leaned in. That would have made it ten times worse.

When I heard George's bedroom door open I decided to rush up to my room. I didn't need George's questions he was sure to ask. Or his scrutiny to the answers I would give. I passed him going up the stairs and said good morning, to which I received a grunt. Even though George always woke up early, he was still grumpy as anything until he had eaten.

Once in my bedroom, I got changed and then wondered around looking at all my parents artifacts displayed on the walls. There weren't as many as there used to be, having been ransacked a few months earlier, but many were still in tact.

I'm not sure how long I had been looking, but eventually there was a hard knock on my door. My heart started thumping. What if it was Lucy? I quietly padded to my door and opened it slowly.

Only to find George standing there.

'I thought I would just tell you before I leave. I'm going to grab the bags you and Luce left at the scene yesterday then head to the Archives. You should probably read this as well.' He handed me a newspaper opened and folded on the fifth page. I glanced at the title.

Rogue Ghosts Attack Agents And Leave Destruction

The article contained information from an elderly lady who had heard and seen me and Lucy running away and getting attacked by the ghosts last night. It also contained a photo of the destruction left behind. Tree branches were strewn everywhere, two mailboxes were lying smashed on the pavement. Many cars that had been parked on the street were riddled with dents from the gravel that had been thrown at us.

I hadn't even given it a second thought last night. Luckily, the lady hadn't gotten a good look at our faces so no one knew it was us. How embarrassing it would have been if it got out Lockwood & Co couldn't deal with some ghosts.

Apparently after we had left, some fittes kids had gone in and tried to contain the ghosts. They had managed to find the source of the spectre - it had been a rock in Mrs Holden's neighbour's garden. Weirdly it had never been disturbed before last night. I reckon somehow when me and Lucy had been sitting on the kicked fence, it had sensed us.

The fittes group unfortunately couldn't figure out where the poltergeist had come from, so it was still on the loose. The residents in the area were being warned to not go out after 6pm until the group could have another go at containing the source.

Since I had been reading the paper, I hadn't noticed that George had left and I didn't notice till the front door clicked shut. I tossed the paper onto my bed and walked back downstairs to the kitchen. I needed a cup of tea badly.

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The rest of the day was spent getting prepared for the case at the hotel tonight. Lucy avoided me a lot, somehow managing to never be in the same room as me. Multiple times I heard her down in the basement. Rapier clashing with metal and concrete, before hearing fabric tear meaning she had hit either Joe or Esmeralda. I hoped she wouldn't hurt her knee more. Holly spent most of the day between the kitchen and basement getting either food ready or doing paperwork. She had been horrified when she had heard about what had happened last night and had tried to get Lucy to stop practicing with her rapier, but after a lot of convincing, Holly quit her fretting.

I didn't do too much. I read multiple magazines, tried to gain the courage to speak to Lucy, only for her to leave the room before I could even say hello. I oiled our chains and prepared our bags.

Soon enough it was 4pm. Time to leave. I didn't really want Lucy to come, telling her she should rest. But she just got annoyed and stormed off to the waiting cab. Holly and I hoped into the cab shortly afterwards and gave the driver directions. We would be meeting George there since he was still busy at the Archives. No one really talked in the cab. Holly was looking through the notes from our chat with Mr Perion yesterday and Lucy was staring out the window. Her hair had fallen to create a curtain so I couldn't see her properly, which was a bit of a shame really. But it was probably for the best. Otherwise I would have spent the whole car ride staring instead of thinking about the case.

Mr Perion had said that throught the history of the hotel, only two deaths had occurred. One from a heart attack and one from an allergic reaction. Both had happened on the same floor. He had shown us a floor plan of the hotel and had circled where the deaths had happened. Holly had a copy of it in her notebook. Mr Perion didn't have much other information to give us other than he never gave those bedrooms to other guests and that they belonged to his daughter until 6 nights ago. When his granddaughter had began to scream every night.

George had done many a research on the hotel. All the facts that Mr Perion had given us seemed to be true, but George had found more. According to a local newspaper, there had been two sightings of ghosts. However when agents had gone to check on the accounts, Mr Perion had denied access saying they were crazy. He was also almost put out of business for a child being ghost touched. Luckily it had been minor and the child survived, but the parents had sued for a lot of money. It was after this incident, which happened almost ten years ago, that the ownership had been handed to Amy Goodrye (Mr Perion's daughter) and her husband. Since then, no paranormal activity had occurred, as the ghost had seemingly been dealt with.

Apparently, now one was back.

George was waiting for us when we arrived at the hotel. It was a very tall one, stretching seven storeys high. It must have been built around the 1950's, or so the architecture told me. Together we all walked in through the revolving doors and were meet with Mr Perion, Amy Goodrye and her husband, Gary. We shook hands and then they left us too it.

We took a walk through the hotel, taking temperature readings, using our senses. We found two cold spots near the rooms we had been warned about and another on the stairs going up to the next floor. I saw two death glows in each of the rooms, neither too bright. No one else sensed anything.

Once we had set up three iron circles, one downstairs in the foyer, one on the landing by the bedrooms, and one in the coldest bedroom, we took a break to have some tea and biscuits. From there we decided to split into two groups. Holly and George would focus on the coldest bedroom, while Lucy and I would wander from the second room and the stairs. We would regroup in two hours and swap places if nothing had occurred.

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An hour had passed, and still nothing. Lucy had tried to use her senses, but she couldn't hear anything. Her touch hadn't worked either. We had been pacing back and forth between the stairs and the bedroom for a while, but just now Lucy had picked up on something by the stairs. We quickly moved towards the stairs and I had just turned to tell Lucy to be careful and that I would watch her back while she tried to listen, when I heard her scream.