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“We didn’t leave the door open,” Oliver said, still staring. They were a few yards away from the room, and darkness gathered like a crouching beast in the narrow gap between door and frame. “I made sure I’d pulled it closed before we went into the woods.”
“Oh?”
Dave stood alongside him, close enough for Oliver to feel his body heat and smell his sweat. He liked the familiar feeling of Dave beside him, and he wondered for a moment if they shouldn’t just leave everything they’d unpacked to the darkness in the room, make a run for the car, and drive far away. But that wouldn’t get him the story, and he really wanted to find out what had been going on at this motel. Before he could come up with a suggestion, Dave stepped toward the door to the room with the lantern held high.
“Dave, wait…” Oliver said.
Dave stopped and looked back at him. “All our stuff is in there.” Then, as if reading his mind about driving far away, he added, “And the car keys.”
“Fuck.” Oliver took a deep breath, let it out, then followed Dave to the door.
“Hello?” Dave called, slowly pushing the door open all the way. The hinges squeaked, and tingles raced up Oliver’s spine and across his scalp. “Anyone in here?”
“See anyone?” Oliver whispered, crowding up close against Dave’s back and trying to see over his broad shoulders. Why did the Bower brothers all have to be so goddamn tall?
“Nope. But our stuff’s been moved.”
“Moved?”
“Okay, thrown around is probably a better way to put it.”
Oliver followed Dave into the room and shone the flashlight all around, trying to light up every corner at once. Dave set the lantern on the dresser and grabbed another flashlight to look around. Items lay strewn about as though someone had gone through their room in a rage, tossing things left and right. The food and bottles of water and iced tea had been pulled out of the cooler and thrown in all directions, followed by the freezer packs. The cooler itself lay on one end in a far corner. Clothing and papers and notebooks were scattered around.
“What the fuck?” Oliver said. “Who would do this?”
“Good to hear you say ‘who’ and not ‘what’.”
Oliver looked at Dave. “Oh, hell. I didn’t even think about that. Could the ghost have done this?”
“Not really a ghost power move, is it?”
“I don’t know,” Oliver said, bending to pick up the notebook he used to jot down story ideas and research notes. “Maybe she’s a poltergeist. They move stuff around, don’t they? And what exactly is a ghost power move anyway?”
“Let’s pick things up and see if anything’s missing.”
It took them a while to put the room back to rights, but from what they could tell nothing had been taken. Dave gave a relieved cry when he found the car keys in the corner by the bathroom door, then immediately walked outside. Oliver stood in the doorway and watched as Dave jogged to the car and got in. He let out a relieved breath when the engine turned over right away, and Dave pulled it up to a spot just outside the room. Once he’d made sure all the doors and trunk were locked, Dave returned to the room, pushing the keys into his front pocket.
“What do you think now?” Dave asked. “Was it Ruby Gallagher’s ghost looking for a new man? Or did someone lure us out to the woods then come in and go through our stuff?”
“I wasn’t thinking about the ghost until you mentioned her,” Oliver said. “And if someone did lure us out of here with a scream, why did they do it? They didn’t steal anything that I can tell. Not even the car.”
“Does that mean you’re leaning more toward the Vixen of the Morelock Motel firing a warning shot across our bow?”
“I don’t know. It just seems weird that someone would go to all the trouble of getting us out of the room to simply come in here and throw things around.”
“Maybe it’s like a Scooby-Doo episode,” Dave offered. “Where some developer wants to buy the place for as cheap as possible and put up condos or something, so he’s scaring people away.”
That made Oliver chuckle, and he felt a little more relaxed afterward. “God, I hope not. I don’t think I have the brain power to come up with a crazy ghost trap.”
“Yeah, neither do I. But it would be cool to be able to pull a rubber mask off someone in a really dramatic fashion.” Dave lit the burner on the camping stove and hefted several gallon jugs of water out of a canvas bag and onto the dresser. “As for a shower, I filled these from the faucet in our tub back home. I figured we could each use a quart or half gallon to clean up. I was going to heat mine in a pan for a bit and take it into the bathroom.”
“That’s a really good idea. Remind me to stick close to you when the zombie apocalypse comes around.”
“Sure you want to do that?” Dave’s expression went slack, and he widened his eyes and held his arms out, moaning like a zombie as he stomped across the room. He grabbed Oliver and bent his head to gently bite him on the neck.
“Cut it out!” Oliver giggled and struggled in Dave’s grip, but not too hard.
“You don’t like it when I pretend to tear out your jugular?”
