Michelle found herself standing outside a tall granite building. The satellite navigation on her phone told her this was Lakeside College. You have reached your destination the robotic voice reminded her again as she closed down the app with a trembling thumb. Pull yourself together she told herself, it’s just college. Just like school. However, Michelle knew that this place was more than just that. It was a new start for her and her mother, it collaborated with the move and the hotel, along with everything else this was just as important, it had to go right and she knew it. Somehow Michelle managed to drag her way into the daunting building and with the help of the timetable she had printed off that morning she found her way onto the fourth floor. She soon reached Classroom 4B where the rest of her class stood. They gave her a look when she arrived as if to say, who are you? Michelle offered them a friendly smile but only confused faces glared back.
There was one girl who stood out from the rest of the blank faces however and beamed at her warmly. The girl had long auburn hair, huge pink earrings in the shape of turtles and stripy green an orange legwarmers over a flamboyant pink tights and a multi-coloured sun dress.
“Are you new?” the colourfully dressed girl asked her with giant blue eyes as huge as suns so that Michelle couldn’t help but stare back at her for a minute before answering.
“Urm…yeah” said Michelle finally and then with an attempt to make at least one friend she said “my name is Mich-”
“Michelle, right?” said the wide-eyed girl “I know. I sensed you were coming. I read it in the stars”
The girls behind, began to splutter with laughter but the blue-eyed girl ignored them as if they wasn't even there “I’m Kestrel by the way.”
“Nice to meet you” Michelle said her voice slow and cautious; she couldn’t work out if this girl was pulling her leg, trying to make a mockery of her because she was new. How did she know her name? Did she read it in the paper too? Michelle found it hard to believe that so many teenagers around here took notice of the local paper, so much so that Michelle had an inkling to check it out herself. What had she meant when she said I sensed you were coming but before Michelle could ask the teacher strode through the corridor and ushered them into the room. The man wore glasses and had a slightly balding head. His bulge of a belly almost stuck out underneath the Space Invaders top he wore.
"New girl, right? Come stand over here for a minute” the lecturer waved Michelle over to stand awkwardly in front of the class “everyone this is Michelle Jacobs, she’s started a little late this term but I’m sure you will make her feel welcome and help her catch up with the work. My name is John Dime, you can call me John. Now. Let me see. Yes, go and sit over by Kestrel Hemmingway if you don’t mind. Good. Right, media studies…”
Michelle was grateful to take her seat next to the only person who had made an effort to speak to her, but those huge glaring eyes from the girl didn’t make her feel much more comfortable. As she sat down, Kestral reached over and touched Michelle gently on the wrist, whispering softly “he chose for you to sit next to me. We were fated to be friends”
Michelle was complimented by Kestrel’s eagerness to befriend her and more than willing to offer friendship in return but she was a lot more cynical when it came to spirituality “I’m pretty sure he just told me to sit in the only empty seat.”
“Fate decided for this seat to be empty today.” Kestrel insisted before turning her attention towards the lesson. Michelle was pretty sure by the body language the other members of the class had shown around Kestrel, that the seat beside her was always empty, but she didn’t say otherwise.
When the two hour lesson was finally over the rest of the students rushed out of class, Kestrel took her time to pack away her things and Michelle waited with her.
“What did you mean when you said you sensed me coming?” Michelle asked casually, not trying to make it into a big deal in case Kestrel really had been joking.
Kestrel stopped packing her things and looked up at Michelle, those bright eyes unblinking “I felt it. I do sometimes with things. Father says I have a gift. Your face appeared in a dream and warned me of your arrival.”
Michelle raised an eyebrow disbelieving “You saw my face, really? Anything else you saw in this dream then?”
Kestrel’s face changed then, it was as if the bright sunniness of her aura was suddenly clouded over, her light dimmed and she hesitated to answer.
"Well?" persisted Michelle.
“I saw…darkness. That was it, darkness and within it some sort of sign - like a sign you would see on a road or something. It was swinging. as if it was in the wind. I couldn’t see what was written on it though. The words were crossed out.”
Michelle thought to herself for a moment, and then said “like a hotel sign, could that have been it?”
Kestrel blinked up at her curiously and nodded “I suppose so yes”
“Maybe you saw my new house. We just bought the old Roosevelt Hotel. Well, we’ve renamed it The Jacobs Hotel so that could be why the words were crossed out.”
Michelle still just thought that Kestrel had read the supposed article in the paper but she wanted to play along until she could catch her out. Yet when Michelle mentioned the hotel, Kestrel jerks backwards, her face creased with fear.
"No, no, no” said Kestrel in loud drawn out strains. Her face was pale white and unmoving. Michelle had never seen anybody look so frightened before.
“Kestrel, calm down” Michelle said taking a step towards her but the red-haired girl began backing away, her eyes growing so wide they almost bulged from her head.
“What’s the matter with you?” Michelle pleaded as Kestrel’s distress seems to exhort from her, causing Michelle herself to feel panicked from such a strange reaction.
“That place…is….dangerous…evil spirits linger...you must leave…you must… you must…” before Michelle can go after her, Kestrel is out of the door, her feet pit-pattering down the corridor. Michelle sighed feeling helpless and bemused. As she is about to leave the classroom herself, she sees the strange girl has left her satchel behind her. She's going to have to see me again, Michelle said to hersel picking up the satchel.
YOU ARE READING
The Jacobs Hotel (Haunted)
Horror"A perfect cross between American Horror Story and The Bates Motel" When Michelle and her mother Mersey Jacobs buy the old hotel in Lakeside Village, they're hoping for a change in their lives. However they soon realise they may have got more than...
