What if We all Cared?

Celeste entered her room and headed to the bathroom. She flipped over her hand washed drying clothes and noted they were almost dry. Then she remembered she hadn’t been ‘to the bathroom’ in hours and gratefully made use of the facilities before washing her grimy bare feet. From the bathroom she swore she could hear her pillow calling her and slowly walked towards the bed. That’s when she remembered to check both of the doors and the windows to make sure her room was secure. She sure was going to sleep soundly tonight!!

~*~

As Celeste awoke in the dark she realized she was not alone in her room. It wasn’t that she could see someone there. It was more that she could sense their presence. As she lay in bed she softly whispered, “Who is there?” and they materialized then disappeared into a starlight mist. Celeste lay quietly in her bed a minute waiting . . it was so quiet in the hotel. . . eerie . . no sound whatsoever.

Slowly, gently she sat up and said, “Hey, are you still here? Do you need help?”

Very slowly it reappeared . . it was the same apparition of a woman she’d seen before!!

“This place is bad! You must go!!” it whispered, looking over it’s shoulder. “My name is Elise and I tried to help the children here. You need to leave. Really bad things still happen here. Secret things done down in the secret caverns. Please go . .” Elise sobbed and disappeared.

Celeste grabbed her robe and walked back towards the lobby. As she neared the doorway she heard off-key singing and saw the clerk dancing like a strutting squirrel. “Gonna cook the guest in 115 and eat her, gonna have a feast tomorrow!” 🎶

Celeste knew assumption was bad . . and she was now very guilty of making an assumption based on what Elise had said, what the clerk had sung and that her room was #115!!

Celeste had no time to be retrospective . . she quickly headed back to her room, dressed and called Allen .. . .