Chapter 24
Nancy (October 1957, Halloween)
...
After waking up in her own bed to the sound of birds and the sunlight visiting through the window, Nancy was confused. She felt her blanket between her fingers and felt her head resting on her pillow. Nancy knew that she was in room C7 but for a moment she didn't remember what had happened a few hours before. She rolled over and looked at Carolyn, who was still fast asleep in her own comfortable-looking bed. Then, Nancy remembered. She remembered the spirit board and how it landed on the word 'hello'. She shuddered at the thought of what had happened in the hotel suite where a supposed politician was murdered by his wife. She was sure that Roger's story must have been true, that the room was haunted.
"Carolyn?" Nancy called out but Carolyn was still out cold.
"Morning, Carolyn," she said again, and then she watched her shift under the covers.
"Hm? Good morning, Nan."
"I'm not feeling so good," Nancy said as she sat up in her bed.
Carolyn turned to look at Nancy who was hunched over. "Is it your stomach again?"
Nancy nodded and watched Carolyn get up to comfort her. Carolyn rubbed her back and handed her the glass of water from the nightstand.
"Last night was bad," Nancy groaned.
"I knew it was a bad idea. Now your stomach is at it again."
"Something spoke to us," Nancy looked Carolyn in the eyes. She saw calmness within Carolyn when she stared at her. Nancy felt fear on her own face.
"Nan," Carolyn said, "it was just a game."
"I don't think so. It knew my name. It spelled 'Nan', remember?"
"Yes, I do remember, and it scares me too, but I think we were just pushing the planchette." Carolyn continued to rub Nancy's back to try to calm her down. Nancy did start to feel a bit better.
"I should've listened to you. You didn't want to play in the first place," Nancy said while beginning to cry.
"I didn't want to mess with anything," Carolyn said. "I'm going to give Roger a piece of my mind!"
Nancy shook her head while she held on to Carolyn tighter. "No, no, it's not Roger's fault."
"Are you going to be okay in class today?" Carolyn asked.
Nancy nodded. "Yes, I think I'll be alright. Breakfast may help."
Carolyn looked at the clock on the wall. The ticking was a welcomed sound in the otherwise quiet room. "Well, if you want to make breakfast, we must get dressed now. We're about to be late."
The girls got dressed and made it in time for breakfast. Nancy tried to shake the events from last night from her mind. Then, she wondered where the Ouija board was. She didn't recall it being in C7 when she woke up. The board was missing. Nancy sat in class with Carolyn in the seat in front of her. Mistress Laurier was giving another one of her lectures and Nancy had muffled out her voice, focusing on the missing Ouija board; it was the loudest thought in her mind. She scribbled on a piece of paper and passed the note to Carolyn.
"Where is the board?" the note said.
Carolyn wrote back, "We left it in that room. Didn't want it in ours."
"We must get it back later," Nancy wrote.
"We can get Roger to help us."
Nancy balled up the paper and tucked it away in her pocket.
Nancy and Carolyn went about their day and during a free period for study hall, Nancy snuck down to the lobby to find Roger. He had his nose in another book but Nancy was too preoccupied to ask what he was reading that afternoon.
"Hello Roger," Nancy said.
"Oh. Hi, Nancy," Roger said as he put the book down. Nancy noticed he would only put his book down for her and Carolyn. No one else was deserving of Roger's complete attention.
"I need your help," Nancy whispered. "We left the spirit board in that room."
Roger laughed. "Wait, you actually did it?"
Nancy nodded. "It was quite frightening actually. I've thoroughly been spooked!"
"I can get it back for you," Roger replied.
Nancy shook her head, "No, I don't want it back. You can get rid of it."
"Oh," Roger said. "Are you sure?"
Nancy nodded. "Yes, I wasn't very fond of it and neither was Carolyn." She chuckled slightly.
"I'll take care of it," Roger said and smiled.
"Thank you."
After Nancy left Roger to return to his reading, she quietly made her way back to floor C. When Nancy entered the stairwell, she was holding the door open when she felt eyes on her and she also felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She stopped for a moment and turned around to look back through the stairwell door and into the lobby but she didn't see anyone out of the ordinary, just normal-looking hotel patrons and employees going about their business. Nancy slowly turned back into the stairwell and started to go up to Bradley Diamond's. Once she reached floor C, she heard a lower door in the stairwell open and close. She tried to open the door to floor C as quietly as possible but then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs toward her. She rushed through the door, causing it to squeak loudly and she frantically ran down the main hall to her room. Nancy flung C7's door open and slammed it shut behind her. She realized that she had made a loud commotion and it was quite possible that everyone had heard her running and slamming doors. Nancy pressed her back on the room door and slid down to meet the floor. She burst into tears and then silenced herself when she heard a knock.
"Nan?" It was Carolyn's voice.
Nancy flung the door open and pulled Carolyn inside. She wiped her tears and Carolyn looked concerned.
"Nan, where did you go? What happened?" Carolyn hugged her.
"I just went to speak with Roger," Nancy said. "Then when I was coming back up, I thought someone was following me." Nancy sniffled.
"Following you? Who?"
"I didn't see anyone," Nancy said between sobs. "I think it was the ghost. The one that knew my name."
"Nan, there is no ghost following you." Carolyn tried her best to console her. "It must have been a guest."
Nancy shook her head, "No, I felt eyes. Like I was being watched. I'm so scared."
Nancy felt Carolyn run her fingers through her hair. "It's going to be alright, Nan. It's going to be alright."
Nancy pulled herself together and after a few more minutes, she stopped crying. "Did you come to the room because you heard someone running like a lunatic down the hall?"
"What?" Carolyn giggled. "No, I didn't hear anything like that. Study hall was over and I was wondering where you were. I didn't want you to go back up to that room by yourself."
"I wouldn't have gone up there," Nancy said. "Never again. Roger is going to get the board and get rid of it."
"Good. Roger owes you a new book to read."