Page 13 of Eldritch

An hour later, they’d hauled in all the cleaning supplies, which they staged in a huge storage room next to the kitchen walk-in pantry. After that, they brought in nonperishable groceries and stored them in the pantry. Clarice had already supplied them with some food in the freezer, and if they needed anything else while they were here, they’d have to trek all the way back to Estes Park to pick up extras.

The four of them stood in the Great Hall.

Letisha checked her watch. “Two o’clock already. I’m taking my stuff to my room and grabbing a nap. Twenty minutes tops.”

Sybil yawned, swamped by an energy drain. “A nap sounds great.”

They grabbed their suitcases and began the trudge upstairs. Once at the second story landing, Maria paused.

“Wait,” Maria said. “Who gets which bedroom?”

Pauline shrugged and started down the hallway to her left. “Finders keepers.” Her voice drifted down the hallway. “I’ll see if I can find the gray lady haunted room.”

“White lady!” Sybil yelled down the hallway. “She was white! And she’s down this way!”

Pauline made a talk-to-the-hand gesture as she walked.

Letisha sidled up to Sybil. “Don’t antagonize the woman. You’re liable to wake up with the coffee dumped down the drain or the coffee machine broken. She appreciates how much you love caffeine.”

Maria’s jaw dropped a little. “Would she do that?”

Letisha snorted softly and looked down the hallway. Pauline was out of sight, so they knew she’d picked a room.

“Oh, yeah.” Letisha’s smile was sarcastic. “A couple of jobs ago she did some passive aggressive things.”

Sybil sighed. “It was before you started. A job before our last one. She took offense to something I asked her to do. Anyway, she started flirting with the homeowner.”

Maria glanced down the hall in the direction Pauline had gone. “Oh, snap. That’s messed up. I mean…that could go badly in so many ways.”

What could Sybil say that was better? “Exactly. The homeowner just ignored her, so that turned out all right.”

Letisha sighed and then smiled as if to discount it all. “Yeah. But that’s neither here nor there. We need to put our noses to that grindstone and do this big ass house. I don’t care how many radios play on their own or ghosts are living in the bedrooms.” Letisha cleared her throat. “I’m finding a room.”

With that, Letisha turned right and headed down the hallway.

Sybil said to Maria, “I’ll take a room on the third floor. The one with the woman in white.”

Maria’s expression still held concern. “You don’t still think you saw a ghost.”

Sybil reacted defensively inside but kept her tone even. “I’ve seen them before.”

“No way.”

“Way.”

Disbelief crossed Maria’s face.

Sybil headed for the stairs. She didn’t feel like talking about it right now or facing more skepticism. “See ya later.”

As she walked, she realized she hadn’t left enough time in the day to do a full inventory of the house like she’d said. She’d do it tomorrow.

When she reached the third-floor landing, she took in the musty scent and wrinkled her nose. Unlike the second floor, which had the advantage of light coming from the connecting first floor staircase and open landing, this floor of bedrooms appeared dimmer. She glanced at the light fixtures. Older sconces that had lived better days. She took her cell phone from her pocket and made a note about light fixtures needing a clean and polish. Clarice had given them permission to replace lightbulbs if needed. She pocketed the phone and headed down the hall. She paused and saw that at the end of the hall an enormous window was partially visible, and it needed a cleaning as well. They wouldn’t be climbing on any huge ladders for that. Clarice had assured them a company that did large windows would take care of it.

A bulb next to the third bedroom on the right made a pop, and Sybil jumped. She stopped, surprised. The room where the ghostly figure had shown itself. She hesitated. Did she want to take this room? Something tugged at her. Curiosity. A touch of fear mixed with defiance. She wanted to shout at the entire house.

You can’t scare me. You can’t scare me.

Instinct told her to take this one. She opened the door and stepped inside. The soft scent of rain drifted through the open window.

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