Connecting the Dots (Shane Madej x OC)

22- Dauphine Orleans Hotel

The next day we head to the Dauphine Orleans hotel, it honestly might be one of the nicest places we've ever stayed. The whole place is absolutely beautiful. We get to our room and unlock it, stepping inside to see a king bed in one bedroom and two queens in another. Shane goes to turn on the light but Ryan stops him quickly,

"No no! You could scare off the ghosts,"

"I don't think that's how it works," Shane laughs, nevertheless we leave the room in darkness and the boys look around with their flashlights.

"Holy shit!" I hear Shane yell, and everyone turns to look at him, he pokes his head out of the bathroom, "It's a jacuzzi tub!" He says excitedly. "Ryan this is the best place we've ever... cleared?" He says, not exactly knowing what to call what we do.

"Stayed?" Ryan says,

"Ghost-busted?" Shane asks and Ryan laughs,

"We've never ghost-busted anywhere!" He says, going to check out the rest of the room.

We spend the evening exploring the most haunted places in the hotel, the bar, and the bordello suite. I step into the bathroom of the bordello suite to get some footage of it and Ryan follows after me to look around. 

 "Whoah, I just got lightheaded," Ryan says, turning to face Shane who is standing in the doorway. "I'm getting out," he says, trying to get past Shane. 

"Wait, stay in there," Shane says grabbing the doorhandle, 

"Wait, wait a second! What are you doing?" Ryan asks, looking at me and then back at Shane. I laugh and watch as Shane locks Ryan and I in the bathroom. 

"Turn out your lights!" He calls from the other side of the door. Ryan shakes his head and turns off his flashlight. The nightvision on my camera kicks in. Usually I'm on the other side of the door for these lock-ins so it feels strange to be the one in here with Ryan. Luckily he only freaks out a little bit and after 2 minutes Shane switches places with him. When Ryan closes the door Shane turns to me and smiles, giving me a thumbs up. 

"Now Ryan is out there, and he's probably freaking out!" He laughs, and then turns out his flashlight. A second later we see the light creeping under the bathroom door go dark. 

"Oh god, oh god my fucking light just died!" We hear Ryan start panicking, "God damn it.. turn back on please, please, please! Shane is your lock in done!?" He calls out. Shane laughs, 

"No I've just got another two minutes!" Shane says, and Ryan starts freaking out, 

"Fuck fuck fuck! Come back out!" He yells, 

"I've got two more minutes," Shane says again. 

"No! No!"Ryan is yelling on the otherside. Shane looks at me and laughs, 

"This is one of the best days of my life," he jokes. When we go back outside we spend a little more time in the bordello suite, at some point Shane's flashlight flickers out as well but I kinda just brush it off. 

Finally, we go back to our room to spend the night. The boys lie down in one of the beds and turn off the lights for one more attempt to speak with any ghosts on the premises. After a few minutes of nothing happening Shane asks,

"Are we doing more of this or can I use the jacuzzi hot tub that we've been blessed with?"

"Are you serious?" Ryan asks. 

"Are we gonna spend the night here and not use that!" 

Next thing I know the boys are changing into shorts and getting in the tub, I genuinely cannot believe that this is how the night has gone. I laugh as they attempt to turn on the jets only to find the tub is broken. It's too funny not to get a video of so I grab my camera and record, 

"The uh... the jets don't work," Ryan explains, Shane devolves into laughter, 

"We're just two guys sitting in a tub!" Ryan laughs, and I break down, I lean against the bathroom sink trying to catch my breath. 

"Fucking christ," I say, grabbing my camera and stopping the recording. Shane and Ryan are both still laughing as they climb out of the tub and grab towels. 

"You ever imagine you'd end up in this situation when you took the job?" Ryan asks, I laugh and shake my head,

"Only in my dreams," I say sarcastically and the boys laugh. 

... 

I set up a static cam in front of the king bed the boys will be sharing,

"Alright, you guys are on your own!" I say, going into the connecting room I'll be sharing with Devon and TJ, who are already winding down and getting into bed. 

"You sure you don't wanna trade places?" Shane asks, I can tell he's not excited to be kept awake tonight by Ryan's anxiety. 

"Oh I'm sure!" I say, turning out the light as I leave the room, "Good night!" I say, 

"Fuck this!" Ryan yells in return and I laugh and close the door behind me. 

Devon and I share one queen bed and TJ is in the other, we fall asleep pretty quickly. It's nice to not have to deal with Ryan's shit for once. Unfortunately, we don't exactly end up getting a full night's sleep like I'd expected. From 4 am to almost 6 am some asshole is stomping around in the room above us, Devon asks if TJ and I hear it and we both agree sleepily. I try to sleep through the sounds, I can only imagine how much fun Ryan and Shane are having next-door. 

...

In the morning we pack our bags and get ready to head back to the hotel we'll be spending the next couple nights in, meanwhile, Ryan goes upstairs to see what the fuck was going on last night. Turns out there was someone above us but he denies stomping around. It's definitely weird but I know the likelihood that he's just lying is about 100 times the likelihood that a ghost was marching around upstairs all night. 

We spend the rest of the day just relaxing. It's been a busy few days and all of us are exhausted. We had planned to use our day off to explore around New Orleans a little more but instead we end up spending it in the hotel, TJ naps most of the day, Ryan and Devon hang out and bond over their shared belief that a ghost was above us, and Shane and I mostly spend the day sitting in bed on our laptops next to each other. Occasionally he'll crack a joke or show me a funny video but it's a really chill day and it ends up just being nice to sit and relax with him. We do all decide to stop being lazy and go out somewhere nice for dinner, so at around 6 pm we start getting ready and then we hit the town. This time there is only a very moderate amount of drinking involved. 

When we get back we all collapse into our beds and fall asleep, I probably get my first full night of sleep since we left L.A.