Vacancy

Chapter 5 - A Grinchy Idea

Samara spent the rest of the night too terrified to sleep. Even though she knew it was a deadly choice, Samara drove home last night. The fear had sobered her up, or so she told herself. She was dreading going back to the hotel.

Her laptop was sitting on the dresser within eyesight of her laying on the bed. Maybe I should look up the history of the asylum. Maybe the ladies were right. With a gulp, Samara got up and snatched the laptop from the dresser and powered it on as she plunked back down on the bed. The screen came to life and within a minute Samara was typing into the search bar. The first webpage read:

 Our Lady of the Blood Asylum for the Insane

 Established in 1935 by the Sheffield family as a private health care facility for the insane. Between the years of 1935-1975 the facility took in more than five hundred patients varying in the degree of their conditions. The asylum was one of the last private healthcare facilities of its kind when the doors were closed in the summer of 1975 due to a fire that claimed the east wing.

During the years of operation, two generations of Sheffield doctors ran the practice, with the last director of medicine being Dr. Ronald Sheffield Jr. He was most known for being the attending physician to Mark Carrington, the worst serial killer in Alberta's history to-date. Dr. Sheffield was subject of many rumors including insurance fraud (many people believed him to be the cause of the fire that shut down the asylum) and unethical treatment of patients (most notably in the treatment of Mark Carrington that involved outlawed shock treatments and accusations of torture). Dr. Sheffield Jr. lived out his days never returning to medicine and died at the age of 83 in 2002, leaving behind no children or spouse.

The asylum was boarded up and lay empty for years until it regained notoriety in the early 80s as the location where Mark Carrington would torture and kill his victims. When police re-entered the building in 1984 after an anonymous tip lead them to the building, what they found was truly horrifying. Bodies had been stuffed into the walls and were in various states of decay, bulging the drywall outwards. Most bodies had been dismembered, making it difficult to identify the victims and make an official count. One police account described the walls like ant hills that exploded with a touch, except instead of ants raining down on them, decayed skin and bones popped out. One skull had the words "No One is Innocent" carved into the forehead when found.

Mark Carrington was found skinning his almost 24th victim, Marcus Wright, by the police on September 13th 1894 and resisted arrest leading to his demise during a shoot-out with the RCMP. Marcus Wright is the only known survivor of Mark's killing spree, which spanned five years and 23 known victims that where found inside the asylum. The grisly details of what Mark would do to his victims ranged from skinning to live dismemberment. The victims were both male and female, ranging in ages 18-65, and from various ethnical backgrounds. His lack of pattern is likely the reason he was not found for many years.

Many people believe Mark's time spent at the asylum was the cause of his serial killer tendencies as he was originally labelled a non-violent schizophrenic when admitted to the facility with no history of harming others or himself. All records of his time at the asylum had been claimed by the fire. The only evidence of his mis-treatment was the testimony of a nurse who claimed that Mark was subjected to electric shock therapy which Dr. Sheffield Jr. administered himself, along with other treatments such as oxygen and sleep deprivation.

Dr. Sheffield Jr. never spoke about the allegations even when he was involved in the Mark Carrington investigation. Family of the victims put out a statement asking for him to admit what he did at the asylum, but he remained closed-lipped until his death.

Samara sat back from the computer, her mind in a daze from all the information. Was the hotel being haunted by the ghost of Mark Carrington? A chill ran up her spine as she remembered the disembodied voice saying no one was innocent. You're being stupid, Samara, her mind chided her. It's probably one of the ladies pranking you. If they were responsible, how were they doing it? How did they make the wall bulge like that? How get they get the voice to play?

Her heart started to race at the possibilities. Either she was being pranked by some employees or there really was the ghost of a murderous psychopath in the hotel. Nether prospect was a pleasant one.

***

Samara had finally dragged herself into the hotel to find nothing out of the ordinary. She had asked the kitchen staff to check the banquet room, but they had said everything was fine in the kitchen area in the back. This was confusing. Had the ghosts cleaned up after themselves or was she being messed with? She had called Chris at home to ask if he had changed the music station last night, but he said he didn't even know where the equipment was.

She was ready to chalk it up to the booze, when a guest came down to complain.

"There was a bunch of noise right outside our room last night," the crotchety old lady in 215 whined.

Sheri had called Samara over when she was unable to appease the guest. Sheri truly had been the worst hire. The lady went on and on just looking for an avenue to vent. Samara just smiled and nodded sympathetically until the lady mentioned warped drywall.

"Is this inside your room?" Samara asked.

The lady nodded.

Samara turned to Sheri. "Did you send maintenance to her room?"

Sheri shook her head sheepishly.

"Do it," Samara ordered, then added, "please."

Gerry, their maintenance guy, gave the room a look and came back down.

"Ma'am, I couldn't find any warped drywall," he said to the guest.

"I know what I saw," the guest said indignantly.

"Well, it's not there now."

Samara tried to not look as nervous as she felt as the guest continued to insist that the walls were warped. She wasn't the only one who had witnessed it. That fact was both comforting and frightening to Samara.

In the end, Samara offered half off last night for the inconvenience and a free meal in the lounge. The lady left in a huff, but took the free things anyways.

"We got our first review!" Daniel barged into the front area behind the desk and he didn't sound happy.

Both Samara and Sheri jumped at his sudden appearance.

"What does it say?" Samara asked.

"Apparently, there was a tone of noise and voices right outside the guest's room and a terrible smell." Daniel's face was starting to puff out like it always did when he got enraged. "How could this happen?"

"T-there was another lady today complaining of that too," Sheri piped in.

Daniel looked at Samara. "Hire another night staffer so they can constantly do walk-arounds."

"Dad, I don't—"

"Just do it," Daniel interrupted her.

Samara just nodded as he stomped away. Just then, she got a Grinch of an idea.

"Sheri, looks like you'll be on the evening shift for a while."