The Lodge at Whispering Pines

by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  We reached our floor, and entered our apartment. We checked to see that the kids had fresh water, that the cats had food, that the litter didn’t need changed, and then we took our much needed nap.

  As I drifted off, I couldn’t help thinking… with my sister coming, things are about to get a lot more interesting.

  ~*~

  The light was dim when I woke up. I felt rejuvenated, but also completely comfortable. If I didn’t have a Lodge to keep tabs on, I’d be very tempted to stay right where I was, in spite of being wide awake.

  The lamp on Miles’ nightstand came on, and I knew he was awake too.

  “Feel like getting up?” Miles asked.

  “Nope,” I said, clutching a fistful of his t-shirt.

  “We’ve got time before dinner for a little Lodge exploration,” Miles said.

  “Oh.” I gave that about a second’s thought. “Then what are you waiting for?”

  “Just you, is all.”

  Miles kissed my forehead, and got out of bed. I followed after him, much to the dissatisfaction of Night, who was lying on top of my legs.

  “Sorry, Night Furry. Cuddle up with a blanket or something, Miles and I have exploring to do!”

  It only took me a minute to be ready, and we were out the door.

  “So what shall we explore first?” I asked, as the elevator doors swished shut behind us.

  “We haven’t even been up and down every hall or visited every floor, do you realize?” Miles said. “There’s the tower, too. It’s closed to the general public, but I can get us in.”

  “You are so cool, superhero husband,” I said. “Let’s go there first!”

  Miles pressed the appropriate elevator button, and we rode down to the fourth floor. The door swished open, and we stepped out and looked around. This hallway was as opulent as the rest of the hotel. The plush, forest green carpet was divided into diamonds outlined with stripes of gold, in a flowery pattern. Like the rest of the Lodge, a dark chair rail and paneling covered the lower half of the walls. Above it the walls were papered in a light, flowery pattern that somewhat offset the effect of the dark carpet in the long hall. Ornate gold room numbers adorned each of the doors which were set at intervals along both sides of the hall. At one end a window looked out on the snowflakes that drifted past, and at the other, a staircase was visible. Beyond that was another doorway, leading to another hall of guest rooms.

  Miles and I held hands as we walked down the hall toward the stairs. The air was still, and chilly. I was glad to have my heavy sweater. Our footsteps made no sound on the thick carpet, and it felt as though time was frozen here.

  “Kind of spooky, isn’t it,” said Miles softly.

  I nodded.

  “It strikes me as very funny that you would say that,” I said, and managed not to laugh.

  Miles did laugh, although quietly.

  “Even when I was… you know, the way I was before, I’d still get creeped out sometimes.”

  “Living alone at the estate, who wouldn’t,” I said.

  A guest opened one of the doors ahead of us. Whistling, he walked briskly to the stairs at the end of the hall and descended two at a time.

  “Well!” I said. “He was certainly cheerful. Thanks to him, the spooky mood has been entirely destroyed. Now it just feels like an ordinary hall.”

  “Funny how that is, isn’t it,” said Miles.

  We reached the stairs and instead of going down, we went up. We stepped out onto the next landing, and looked around.

  “Our suite is on the other side of this wall,” said Miles, resting his hand against it as we surveyed the square room.

  Windows looked out on the grounds both in back, and in front of the Lodge. Here there was no carpet, just wood plank flooring that had seen better days. The walls were textured plaster, devoid of paint.

  “We’ve got to do something about this,” I said. “This is an adorable space. Can you imagine sitting here on a window seat reading a book, on a rainy day?”

  “If you were here too,” Miles smiled, and gently tightened the arm he had around me.

  “We should have it painted, and either the floors redone or carpeted, and seating installed. There’s nothing to prevent guests from climbing the stairs to reach this place, and this isn’t an image we want to leave them with.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” said Miles. “Get some people started on that as soon as you like.”

  “Tomorrow then,” I smiled. “I love how you let me do what I want.”

  “I love that I approve of what it is you want,” said Miles. “If I didn’t, I’d let you know, and we’d discuss it. But you’ve got good sense and good taste, and I have full confidence in you.”

  “Are you trying to get me to kiss you?” I asked, loving what he said.

  “I don’t have to use words for that,” said Miles, giving me one of those melting looks.

  “You’re telling the truth.”

  Instead of laughing, he kissed me. I kissed him back for a while, but we remembered our mission, and continued.

  We climbed a spiral staircase toward the tower. Oddly shaped windows of differing shape and size, randomly occupied the textured plaster walls of the stairwell. It made for an interesting look both inside, and outside the Lodge.

  “I’ll have this painted too, and the stairs carpeted. I could see someone slipping on the bare steps, otherwise.”

  “Good idea,” said Miles.

  We neared the top of the stairs, which led to a door in the ceiling. The latch clicked, and it opened for us.

  “You are so cool,” I said, and Miles smiled as we entered the tower together.

  The circular room was larger in diameter than the stairwell that led to it. The space was dim, lit only by the fading rays of the sun that filtered in through the falling snowflakes on the other side of the encircling windows.

  “It’s too dark to really see,” I said. I heard the click of a wall switch, followed by a blinding flash of light, and then there was darkness.

  “I’ll have that replaced tomorrow,” said Miles, as we stood still for several seconds, waiting for our retinas to recover. He held up his cell phone, and the space around us lit, the flashlight app chasing away the darkness, and driving it behind us and the rest of the contents of the room.

  “This would be such a cool place to hang out, if it was cleaned up,” I said.

  “It does look rather the worse for wear, doesn’t it,” said Miles. “Is this where flies go to die?”

  “I guess so!” I said. There were a lot of them lying on the wood plank floor. It needed to be refinished, and the walls redone. Water stained the peeling wallpaper, and the plastered ceiling. It looked as if no one had been here in years, although surely that wasn’t the case. Several trunks and odd bits of furniture were stacked along one wall, along with a rocking chair that held a large old-fashioned doll.

  “Oh what fun, more trunks,” said Miles, in a tone that belied his words.

  “Oh, come now, are you telling me you got all the searching out of your system when we were hunting for proof of your innocence, at the estate?” I smiled, as we moved forward for a closer look.

  “You could say that!” said Miles. “It was worth it to hang out with you, but there are lots of things I’d rather do together, than sort through trunks and drawers and wardrobes. Good grief, will you get a load of this doll? The thing has teeth! It’s enough to give a kid nightmares. It’s enough to give me nightmares!”

  “You know if you stare at a doll’s face long enough, its expression changes,” I said.

  “What a gruesome thought! Thanks so much for sharing,” he replied. “And here I believed it, when you said you loved me.”

  “I do love you, silly,” I laughed, squeezing him with the arm I had around him. “You’re right though, this—oh my goodness, did that rocking chair move?”

  “No. And you know it did not,” Miles laughed, then so did I. “But here, why don’t you have a closer look
at that doll.”

  Miles started to push me closer to the chair, and I screamed and grabbed hold of him. I managed to get my arms around his neck, and latched onto him with my legs for good measure.

  “I go, you go!” I said, as I hung on tight.

  “You are so much stronger than you look,” Miles laughed. “And I’m teasing, I’m not that cruel. I think you might be, though. I’m sure glad I’m bigger than you. And that I’m the one that has the superpowers I do. You realize, right, I could make that doll rise in the air and its head spin around.”

  “Oh my word, if that happened I’d run so fast—no one would ever catch me.”

  “I know. And I don’t want that,” said Miles. He had a melting tone to his voice. I couldn’t see his eyes, because the light was focused on the pile of furniture and that doll.

  “Sorry dear,” I said. “I’d love to melt on you, but I’ve got to keep both eyes on that doll. Who knows what it might do if we look away.”

  “Okay, fine,” he laughed. “Let’s leave for now, and come back in the light of day. I have a feeling we’ll wonder then what was so disturbing about an old doll.”

  “Maybe. After all, it’ll still have teeth. Although if it didn’t, that would be even creepier!”

  “My nightmares tonight will be all your fault, I hope you intend to sit up with me every time I wake up screaming,” Miles said, and I laughed.

  “I’ll do that, dear.”

  We walked back to the stairs, keeping a wary eye on the doll and its teeth. Once we were down the stairs and the door closed and locked behind us, I couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief. I knew it was an inanimate object, and some little girl at some point in history was probably thrilled to have it. But I was thrilled to have it locked on the other side of that door!

  “We will have to go through all of those trunks sometime,” I said. “Who knows what’s in them. If there was any likelihood that Elizabeth was ever here when she was alive, I’d make it a priority.”

  “You would have to go and mention that, wouldn’t you,” said Miles. “You do realize the possibility does exist that Elizabeth may have died here. It may be small since there’s no record of it, and we know the previous owner picked the name for the restaurant out of a list off the internet. But there’s still a possibility.”

  I considered that.

  “You would have to go and notice I mentioned that, wouldn’t you,” I said, and Miles laughed. “Fine then, I guess that means we better search through this stuff.”

  “Not now though. We need to get ready for dinner.”

  “We’re not going to wait until after hours?”

  “No, we’ve plenty of staff now. If a problem arises, we can be reached as easily in the dining room as we can anywhere else.”

  “Well… then why not order room service? Let’s run by the kitchen before it opens for dinner, and get a report from Chef. We’ll place our orders, then take our dogs for their last walk of the day, and spend the rest of the evening in.”

  “I love that plan,” said Miles. “That’s exactly what we’ll do.

  Chapter 8

  The lamp on the nightstand was on. Miles was sitting beside me, rubbing my shoulder. I was confused for a second, then realized what that must mean. There were no growling cats, but…

  There was Elizabeth.

  I quickly sat up in bed and scooted over beside Miles.

  “What manner of thing is this?” she asked, her luminous eyes somehow vacant and curious at the same time as she pressed against the force field that surrounded our bed.

  “It’s a force field to keep you from touching my husband,” I said pointedly.

  Trixie hurried over and positioned herself between us and Elizabeth. How in the world do we keep managing to shut her in here at night?

  Elizabeth looked from me to Miles, as if trying to register what I said.

  “Do you have a name?” asked Miles.

  She searched for the answer.

  “Elizabeth,” she suddenly replied, twisting the bracelet on her arm.

  “Elizabeth, we want to help you, but we need information to do that,” said Miles.

  Elizabeth’s luminous blue eyes focused on Miles.

  “You’re… different,” she said, tilting her head from side to side as if trying to understand.

  “You’re kind of different yourself,” I said. “Why is that?”

  She looked at me, then her gaze wandered away.

  “Elizabeth,” said Miles, “what is your last name?”

  “I’m just…” she looked at her bracelet. “Conner. Elizabeth Conner.”

  Surprise washed over Miles’ face and then it was gone. But it had been there! Did he know this girl after all?

  “Elizabeth, when were you born?” he asked.

  She stared back at him vacantly.

  “Elizabeth Conner, when were you born?”

  She looked confused and twisted her bracelet.

  What was wrong with this girl, and how in the world could we possibly help her?

  She continued to twist her bracelet.

  “You have a nice bracelet,” I said. Maybe she’d talk about that. “Very fancy.”

  “Thank you,” she said. Her gaze was steadier now.

  “Did someone give it to you?” I asked.

  Her eyes clouded again, and she stared at nothing.

  I looked at Miles.

  “Any ideas?” I asked, nonplussed.

  He thought, then turned to me.

  “Anika dear, we’ve hardly had time to talk since we arrived here at the Lodge. We’ve been so busy, and all.”

  What? We spent all evening together, just the two of us, and we did spend at least part of that time talking! I stared at him in confusion.

  “So let’s talk,” Miles said. “You have bracelets that are lovely, too. I gave some of them to you before we were married, and others after. They were heirlooms handed down through my family over the years.”

  “I was given this bracelet by my parents,” Elizabeth piped up. Her eyes were less vacant.

  I started to speak, but Miles squeezed my hand and stopped me. Then he spoke.

  “My parents passed down my family’s heirloom jewelry and it now belongs to you, Anika, my wife.”

  The vacant look was vanishing from Elizabeth’s eyes. I understood what Miles was doing now.

  “The jewelry is very special to me,” I said. “It means a great deal that it belonged to your family, and that you gave it to me. I especially love my rings. They mean the most because you gave one of them to me the day you asked me to marry you, and the other on our wedding day. Jewelry can be very special because of what it signifies.”

  “My parents gave this to me…” said Elizabeth, her eyes focused on me as she twisted her bracelet back and forth on her wrist. “It is the only link I have to my family. They are gone… all gone, and I must find them.”

  “Anika, my parents and brothers and sister are all gone. They died long ago, after I did.”

  Except Delevan, he died first, but that truth was hardly relevant to the conversation and would take too long to explain. That didn’t stop the truth voice from informing me of it, though.

  Elizabeth spoke rapidly.

  “My name is Elizabeth Conner. I was born in 1801. I had a mother, a father, and twelve brothers and sisters. We were wealthy, but our fortune was lost. My parents asked but one thing of me before their lives were lost to the plague. ‘Elizabeth, you must care for your brothers and sisters and see that you keep our family together. You must promise, Elizabeth.’ And I did so. But we were given no choice and all were taken to an orphanage. The headmistress was an evil woman and treated me as a slave. One by one my brothers and sisters were taken into separate homes, the only link remaining between us the bracelets bearing our family name. I was left behind at the orphanage and there I died, without fulfilling my parents’ last request. All I have left is this,” she looked at her bracelet. “I must find my brothers and sist
ers. I must wander, in search of children. I must search for a bracelet on the arm of each child that I find. I shall wander, wailing in agony and unable to rest in peace until I have found all twelve bracelets and the children who wear them…”

  Miles looked stunned, and I could not believe what I was hearing! Trixie looked at Miles and barked sharply.

  “Elizabeth… that is a made up story,” said Miles.

  She and I both looked surprised. She stared, but didn’t speak.

  “This is a story told around campfires and at Halloween. There is no basis for it. It is entirely made up. Just like the story that Elizabeth lived and died here at the Lodge,” he said.

  “How can you be certain of this?” she asked, concern and uncertainty filling her eyes. She focused on him intently.

  Miles hesitated, then said, “I was there when the story was made up. I know that there is no truth to it.”

  Trixie nodded.

  Elizabeth’s focus clouded once again.

  “Did you have anything to do with creating this story?” I asked Miles.

  “A group of friends and I came up with it a long time ago. It kind of caught on, I guess she heard it…”

  “Why would she take that on as her own story, though?”

  “I… don’t know. She’s dressed for the part, though.”

  “When did women wear gowns like this? Maybe we can narrow down a timeframe based on that. Nobody sleeps in stuff like this anymore.”

  “Sorry honey, I’m no help to you there. You probably know more about women’s sleepwear through the ages, than I do.”

  “Okay,” I laughed. “Well I know women haven’t worn gowns like that in years, but I’d have to research to find out when that started to change. So what else do we have to go on?”

  Miles thought, then looked back at Elizabeth. She was off in another world again.

  “Anika, may I see your rings?” he asked, and I held out my left hand. He took my hand in his and studied them. “There’s an inscription.”

  On the inside of my rings.

  “My bracelet has an inscription,” Elizabeth said clearly.

  “Anika, may I see the inscription on your rings?” asked Miles.

  Elizabeth moved closer. Miles must have released the force field. She held out her arm, and I held my arm across Miles’ chest to block her if she tried to touch him.