Midnight at the Spectral Motel

THE CRATE

The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon and it made the empty parking lot feel hot.. Inside the Neon Mirage it was really cold. You could hear a noise coming from the pipes but then it stopped and everything got very quiet. The delivery that we were waiting for got at exactly 3 PM.

A plain white van pulled up. The driver, who was wearing a uniform pulled out a box that was not too big and not too small. It was on a cart with wheels. The box did not have anything written on it except, for a label that said it was going to L. Vance in Room 8. Silas signed for the box on a pad and his signature looked a little weird on the screen.

The driver just left without saying anything his tires made a lot of noise on the gravel. Maya and Silas were standing over the crate that was, in the middle of the lobby.

Silas said that we can not open a guests property. His voice was tight when he said this. The reason is that it is, against the rules. If we do this the guest will have a reason to complain about us. Silas explained that opening a guests property would give the guest justification.

Maya said "But we can take a look, at it". This actually surprised her. She was still scared. Deep down she felt something new. She wanted to protect this place. "We need to check it for security" Maya said. ". To make sure the building is safe".

The floor started to vibrate with a humming sound. Silas looked at her. A small smile came on his face. "Indeed. We have to make sure the thing does not have any stuff, in it."

They took their time to lift the edge of the crates lid with a crowbar they found in the maintenance closet. The wood started to break. It made a loud cracking sound.

Inside the box something was packed in thick grey foam. It was an object that was covered in a lot of black felt. Silas carefully pulled the black felt to see what was underneath. The black felt was really thick. It took Silas a little effort to pull it back and see the object.

This thing was a machine. It was old. Someone had clearly taken good care of it. The Sonicorp Acoustic Resonator had a reel, with spools, a few dials and a heavy microphone hanging from a brass arm. There was a plate that said Sonicorp Acoustic Resonator, Model 7 1968 so that is what it was a Sonicorp Acoustic Resonator.

Maya said in a quiet voice what is this thing, for finding ghosts? She looked really confused.

Silas said that things are really bad. His face looked very serious. This thing is not for hearing things it is for making a map. It sends out sound waves that are very precise. It measures how those sound waves bounce back and what gets in the way. It does not listen for ghosts or anything, like that it is used to figure out the layout of things that we cannot see. The device is able to find places that're not strong. It finds doors Silas said, doors that we cannot see the doors that the device is looking for these doors.

The man fixed the machine again. "He is not someone who looks for things " he said. "He is a surveyor. This will help the man find the office where he needs to go."

What are we going to do ? We need to figure out what to do with the situation, at hand. That is what we should be thinking about the situation and what we are going to do.

Silas said "We will deliver it. That is what you asked for." His eyes looked really tough. ". The motel is not a place that can be easily hurt. It has gotten some things sent to it before."

They worked together to get the crate onto a luggage cart. Then they wheeled the crate down the hall to Room 8. The door to Room 8 felt really cold. It was colder than the air, around it. Silas knocked on the door to Room 8.

After a moment Leo opened the door. Leo was not smiling like he usually did when he was talking about history. The look, on Leos face was very serious. "Ah. My equipment. Bring my equipment in please.”

Leo and the others got the crate inside the room. It was really cold in there. Leos breath was visible in the air. The laptop that belonged to Leo was open, on the desk. It was showing some complicated diagrams of sound waves. Leo had not just been sitting around doing nothing while he was waiting.

When they put the crate down Maya saw something that caught her attention. There was a line of frost on the wooden lid. It was spreading from the inside out. Making really cool patterns that looked like lace. The frost was so thin you could hardly see it. Maya thought the patterns were really pretty. The crate had a seam of frost, on the lid that was making these patterns.

Leo saw it too. He had this intense look, on his face and it was clear he was annoyed. "The desert nights are colder than I thought they would be " Leo said, like he did not care.

Silas said "Indeed". He did so in a totally neutral way.

Back in the lobby Maya turned to Silas. "What, about the frost?"

Silas said that the motel has a way to protect itself. It will try to break down the machines. The motel will make the machines cold and mess, with the settings so they do not work right. This will take some time. The motel might be able to stop the machines for a day. The motel might even be able to stop the machines for two days.

That is not time. The man is already making his map. The mapping is something that he is already doing.

Then we have to do something about it. Silas walked behind the desk. Put his hand on a special part of the fancy wallpaper. The wall made a clicking sound and a section of it swung open showing a dark and narrow staircase that went down. The smell of books and air came up from downstairs. Silas was standing there looking at the staircase and the smell of paper was really strong. The air smelled funny like, after a storm. Silas was still looking at the staircase.

Silas said the office is not on this floor. It is actually in the foundation, where they laid the stone. The person who is looking for the office will check for doors on this level. The office is in the foundation. That is where he needs to look but he will not think to look below for the office, in the foundation.

Maya asked, "Are you really taking me there?" Her heart was beating fast.

You are the owner of this thing. The bloodline is very important because it holds the key.. Only the person who is supposed to have the key can use it to enter. Your uncle was able to do it. Your mother was not able to do it because she was not the one who was supposed to have the key. She was not the heir. That is why she needed your uncle to help her.. That is why she did not succeed. He looked into her eyes. You have to succeed where your mother failed. The bloodline and the key are important for you to succeed. You must do what your mother could not do.

He took an old kerosene lantern from a hook inside the doorway and lit the kerosene lantern. The flame, from the kerosene lantern made shadows that danced on the walls of the stairwell.

The man said "Come". He started going down.

Maya followed, the steps creaked under her feet. The air got really cold and dry. The noises from the motel upstairs got quieter and quieter until all Maya could hear was a deep silence like she was underground. The silence was really deep it felt like it was coming from under the ground. Maya felt it the silence of being, under the ground it was a strange feeling.

At the bottom the light from the lantern showed a room with stone walls. The room had a book on a stone stand it was bigger than the one upstairs. The book had thick pages made of parchment. There were keys over the walls they were all different sizes and kinds and they hung from hooks. In the middle of the room set into the stone floor was a stone tablet. On the stone tablet someone had carved a strong symbol: it was an archway and a key was carved above the archway. The lantern light made the symbol look pretty cool. The stone tablet was the main thing you noticed in the room with the huge ledger and all the keys, around it.

This was the heart. This was the source of everything. The weight of all those stories was, on her. It was not scary. It felt like a really big deal. She felt like she had a responsibility to carry all those stories. The heart was a thing for her to handle.

Silas stood beside the stone. He said "This is the pact. The motel is like a lock. Every time we resolve a story it is like a turn of the key. We are getting closer to something, with the motel and the pact. Every story that we resolve."

“To what?”

He said this with a voice that was echoing off the walls of the room. "To sealing it " he said. ". To leaving it open for men like Leo to claim." This was what he wanted to do with the thing he was thinking about closing it or letting men, like Leo take it.

There was this loud BZZZT sound, like static that is all messed up and it came from upstairs. Then someone let out a gasp like they were really hurt.

The sonic resonator is a cool thing. Leo had actually turned the resonator on. Now the sonic resonator was making a lot of noise. The sonic resonator was really loud.

The motel above them gave a shudder they could feel in the stones beneath their feet.