Hello, Weirdos. It's been a while, but in honour of the first Saturday of Camp I have a new Chapter in the Dance Hall. Yeah, still need a better title. I don't even like as a working title. I will accept suggestions. I've worked on this chapter for a while, hopefully the next one will be wrote a lot quickly. This chapter does end with lots of direction for the next one. I'm still finding the characters. I don't know I've made the right direction for this story, my early starts might have been better. However, we here now so I'm just going to keep pushing myself to get through this. This story has been worth so far just with the different world building I've done and I do like ideas I've came up with. The Execution does need work. I'm going to stop review this chapter and just let you read.
Do tell me what you think and if you are also taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo this session as well.
Start & Last Chapter
Chapter
4, Vague Warnings
I’m
woken by someone slamming on my door. I finally got to sleep last night at
around 4am. I feel goggy. What the point of sleeping when you feel worse when
you wake up? I answer the door to my mother.
“Good,
you’re dress,” I hadn’t bothered to get changed before getting into bed. “You’ve
missed breakfast and we have to get going. Get your stuff together.”
This
is my mother typical morning greeting. She is morning person where I favour the
night, sticking to the stereotype. I grab my phone and bag without saying
anything. I didn’t even get my phone charger out last night, meaning my phone
is likely dead and Necromancy doesn’t work on electronics, that was different
type of magic. Though, I can do Frankenstein thing with corpses.
“Ready,”
I tell the hallway. My hair is probably a mess but I’m spending the next three
hours in the car anyway. She not there, I lock the door and make my way down
the stairs. We’ll run into each other eventually.
No
one was in the reception bit. Disappointingly, there’s not even a feeling of
eeriness in the empty hallway. People are easy to find, when they are ghost to
ask. I go outside to see if she at the car. I immediately spot that she not in
the parking lot. The only one presence is a ghost. It’s standing at the gate
looking out into the road. A girl in Victorian style white dress, how cliché.
The
dress is a clue to her state of living but I can just tell with the dead. I
couldn’t explain the difference between the living and the dead. There’s just a
clear distinction.
I
wander over to her. She must be one of the house’s actual sprits. They don’t
tend to leave their objects. Though, maybe the gate was from another place
originally. It wouldn’t surprise me if even the wall paper was haunted, stolen
from a derelict
mansion.
“Why
are clinging to the gate?” Conventional conversation with ghosts usually go no
way even with the most aware spirts, so it’s best to be direct with what you
wanted.
“He’ll
be back.”
“Who
will…” I stop at a crunch in the gravel. It’s Mr Creepy. Camp NANo The ghost is faded away when I turn back.
Our discussion was over with the intruder. I ignore him and walked to the car.
I try the door for kicks, my mother often leaves the door open. Its locked.
“Hello,
Nova,” Mr Creeps says rattling the gates. “How did you sleep? Have any disturbances?”
I roll my eyes.
“Yeah,
the mattress was so lumpy that my sleep was so light that woke from the sound
of the pipes ratting. Maybe you should get those replace.” I fake smile as his
disappears.
“I
just came out to make sure the gates were unlocked,” he pauses. “They sometimes
lock and unlock themselves.” He tells me this as though it’s a secret and not
something he’s tells all his guests. If true, it sounded like too rivalling spirts.
“Maybe
you should get a new a lock,” I reply to his disappointment. I know I’m being
bitchy, but these places give me the creeps and I can’t believe my mum wants to
run one. He goes on to opening the gate, pulling them wide and use a rope try
them to the fence.
A
minivan pulls in as if on que, it beat up Junker that’s all scraped up on the
side of it. It’s also crammed with kids. Is a spook hotel, a family hotel?
The
woman behind the wheel gets out the car, abandoning just at the gate. She is
dressed in bright patterns long shirt and ankle length skirt that crash with
each other and just the colours on them alone.
“Is
Aytia ready to go?” are the words she says to Creep. My mother’s car is sadly
lock. I can’t be bother to wait with Creeps’ family. My mother must be inside.
“You’re
Tella Stern’s daughter aren’t you?”
The
creeps all know us then. I awkwardly nod. I saved up from follow up questions
with the appearance of Junior Creeps.
“Hello
Aunt Mum,” the women turns disgruntled.
I didn’t know that witches doubled as Hill billies. I guess they must
exist somewhere. It probably witches just have the habit calling the unofficial
head of the family a version of mother and I haven’t met one who appreciates
being the one with this honour.
Aytia
stuffs her bag in a boot and then throws herself in with it. Witches are not
safety or law abiding butch. The woman
gets back in the car and drives off with only a wave to Creeps.
“I’ll
be seeing you all round Nova,” Aytia shouts waving as me as the van flees from
her father.
My
mother finally came out and meets me at our car. Its doors are finally opened.
We dump our bags in the boot.
“Did
you return your key?”
“The
ghosts did it for me,” I say with smile.
“Go
and do it so we can leave. Mav would probably demand we come back as the key
itself is haunted.” I’m not sure she joking or not. I would rather never come
back here. It’s a threat I’m not willing to risk.
Mr
Creeps is back in the hotel, so I’m forced back into the building. The hall is strikingly
colder than the spring weather outside now. Empty but for the ghost manning the
desk, flicking through files.
I
guess Aytia did keep the ghosts at bay. I slam the keys on the desk. He doesn’t
look up at the noise. Well, he’s clearly not being paid enough to deal with
guests. I probably should actually give Mr Creeps the keys, so they not carried
off by the sprits, but if this is really the quiet season then he would have
plenty of time to find the key again. Also he really should have spares in
different places with the amount of ghosts this place has.
Eh,
I need to get out this house before more show up. The room suddenly darkens and
file ghost disappears. I sigh and turn to leave. The Victorian ghost stands
before the door blocking the way. Well, she had her chance for conversation and
I don’t time for her menacing act.
I
walk towards her in game of chicken. Walking through ghost feels weird, but it
just in your head. You see something that should stop you moving forward, except
it just the same as a rainbow or light beam. Ghosts are just light, but not.
Like I said they’ll been almost no research done by anyone with any real knowledge
of the sprit world. The few non-cigma scientist are more interested in the biology
of magic than anything else. How powers manifest is the only nut they are
trying to crack.
She
doesn’t move as I get to her. I brace myself to go past her, closing my eyes. I
bang against something hard. I fall back on my arse. I open my eyes, to the girl
still blocking my way. I scan to see what knocked me over. She can’t be solid.
It takes a lot of energy for ghost to interact with the “physical” world and it
more touching things long enough to hurt someone. Maybe she pushed me for
ignoring her now.
“He
will be back for you,” her voice echoes, through the hall. Irrational fear
fills me. She talking about herself. Ghosts like to be dramatic and corner
people who can see her. She starts to move but then fades away again.
“What
are you doing on the floor?” I hear Mr Creeps behind me. Ghost must be repelled
by the Creeps. I get up from the floor and go out the door.
“The
keys are on the desk,” I shout back glad to be out of the company of the house.
