Revelations
Chapter three
Alex
The next afternoon, I spot Jake walking down the hall, having apparently just emerged from his room. I totally wasn’t walking down this wing of the house at this time of day hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
Must’ve been a long night. I hadn’t realized I was out of it for that long. Andrei isn’t with him; he must have left this morning before anyone could see them together. Forbidden love is the worst. I sigh and curse myself for losing so much time this morning. I’m a curious bitch, sue me.
I study Jake appreciatively as he goes. He’s wearing his black button-down again, sleeves rolled up. God, how does this man always look so fine and put together? He doesn’t have one bag under his eyes.
I’m just about to follow him when Kayla appears behind me, hand outstretched to knock on Jake’s door.
“Oh, you just missed him,” I tell her.
Kayla knocks on his door, and the move pushes the door in a couple of inches.
Why did he leave his room open? She enters the room and moves out of my line of sight, calling out to him.
Out of respect for Jake and his secrets, I don’t follow her in.
I really want to, though. Is his room as tidy as he is?
I bet it is. I bet he made his bed this morning.
As I’m thinking about Jake’s bed, Kayla lets out a blood-curdling scream.
If my heart could beat it would be going a million miles an hour right now.
I rush into the room ready to do battle and stop dead in my tracks.
Jake is lying on his bed motionless, wide eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
A bottle of pills is lying tipped over on the nightstand.
I can’t quite believe my eyes as I stare dumbly at his corpse.
I just saw Jake leave this room, but Jake is lying on his bed, dead.
Kayla starts crying hysterically and pulls out her phone to call what I’m assuming is 911.
I hear her desperately trying to explain the situation to the person on the other end of the line, but her voice turns into background noise as I try to piece together what I am seeing.
Jake is a ghost. That’s the only explanation.
What the hell happened? Did his boyfriend hurt him?
Did he hurt himself? Now I wish I’d been a little less respectful of his privacy.
I knew he was upset last night. I should have stayed with him.
I wouldn’t have been able to stop him from swallowing a bottle of pills, though. What happened to you, Jake?
Kayla is still on the phone as I rush out the door to catch up with Jake.
She’s got this handled, she’s a professional.
Metaphorical heart in my throat, I sprint down the halls back into the heart of the house, running past the living room into the dining hall, before flying through the door of the kitchen.
Having no time to see where I’m going, I crash directly into a solid body, sending it flying.
Oh shit. In my mad dash for answers, I’ve run over some poor guest.
“I’m so sorry, are you okay? Please don’t report me to management, this is an emergency–” As I babble, trying to justify myself, I realize I’m staring down into the wide eyes of none other than Jake, sprawled out on the floor.
He looks up at me, pissed. “Watch where you’re going, dammit,” he says and rubs his head, trying to fix his hair. It still looks perfect.
“You can see me?” I ask.
“Uh, yes. Clearly, I can see you. Are you blind or do you just always run around without looking where you’re going?
” He starts to stand up and I offer my hand.
He grabs it and I can’t believe I feel solid skin as I pull him up.
The man is annoyingly tall. I have to look up and then up some more to see his eyes.
Jesus. Self-consciously, I run a hand over my short, dirty blond hair, hoping that it’s all lying flat.
Another downside to being dead is that I can’t see myself in the mirror, so I have no idea if I look a hot mess right now in front of him.
I hope not. I clear my throat and try to form a coherent sentence.
“I’m so sorry about that. Listen, can you tell me what happened last night? Your boyfriend came to see you and–” I cut myself off. How do you tell someone that they’re dead? He clearly hasn’t realized it yet.
He thinks about it for a moment. “Boyfriend? I–I don’t remember anything about last night.
I have a huge hole in my memory. I woke up, and I saw you stalking me in the hall.
I don’t remember what happened before that.
God my head hurts.” He takes a seat at the island, cradling his head in his hands as he’d done the night before.
I need to tell him. He’s going to find out anyway when the ambulance gets here and he has to watch his body being hauled out on a stretcher. Wait, stalking?
“Hold on, I was not stalking you. I was… checking up on you,” I defend. He gives me a withering look. “I wasn’t stalking, and I definitely didn’t watch you sleep. You’re dead, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
He stares for another second before getting up and heading to the door, running a hand through his hair.
“I’m exiting this conversation. Kayla!” he yells.
“There’s a strange boy in here that needs to be escorted off the premises immediately.
Don’t refund his money.” For a second I’m upset that he doesn’t know who I am, before remembering that I’ve literally never seen him here before.
“No listen, Kayla can’t hear you. You. Are. Dead. I saw your body.” I’m not explaining myself well.
“And who are you again?” he asks.
“Oh, I’m the cleaner here at the hotel. I’ve, uh, worked here for a few years now. Though I guess I’ve been replaced, being dead and all.” I’m babbling. “I’m Alex.” I stick my hand out hoping he’ll shake it.
Without another word he walks away from me, calling for Kayla again.
“She’s not in the lobby, Jake. Let’s go sit down in the living room for a minute. I don’t know much about being a ghost, I don’t think I’ve been one for long, but maybe I can help you.”
“Listen, I don’t know what you’re playing at, but you need to back off. I need to call my father. Was he here last night?” He runs a hand through his hair again, apparently a nervous tick of his.
“I need a glass of water.” He walks over to the sink and tries to turn on the faucet, but his hand slips right through it.
“What the hell?” He tries again, and once again his hand goes right through the handle.
He raises his hand and stares at it for a second, before looking at me again. “I don’t understand.”
“Let’s go sit down for a minute.” I silently lead him to the living room and sit on the couch. He sits in one of the armchairs opposite me and continues to stare down at his hands.
“Okay, I don’t know how all of this works.
I don’t remember how I died either. Or when.
I just know I woke up here one day, same as you, unable to touch anything.
No one could see or hear me. Talk about a confusing morning.
I’m here if you need someone to talk to.
Maybe we can work together, try and figure out what’s going on.
” I wish I could help him more, but we’re in very similar boats.
“This is ridiculous. I’m not dead. Is this all some kind of prank?” He looks around the room like he’s looking for cameras, and I know he’s not going to believe a word I say. Who would?
“It’s not a prank, I promise. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I don’t know what’s going on.” He’s breathing hard, clearly on the verge of a panic attack.
“Try and calm down for me. Take a deep breath in and hold it.”
Surprisingly, he obeys. “Okay, now let it out. You’re doing so good.”
I talk him through his breathing and do my best to keep him calm until I hear the siren of the cop car as it pulls up, and I stand. I don’t want him to have to see his body, but it’s the only way to get through to him.
“Come with me, I want to show you something,” I say and lead him back towards his room, the dark walls suddenly feeling oppressive.
Kayla is right where I left her, standing just outside the door of room three, crying into her phone.
I listen to her for a second, realizing she must be talking to his parents. Fuck.
The police and paramedics are in there, and Jake stops short beside me as he watches them load his body into a black bag before placing it on the stretcher. They’re saying something to Kayla, but I’m no longer listening because Jake grabs me roughly by the shoulders and spins me to face him.
“What is going on, what is this?” he demands, before covering his mouth with a hand. “I’m having a psychotic break. I don’t do drugs. You’ve drugged me,” he accuses. I scoff but swallow my reply as the paramedics wheel his body past us down the hall. Jake watches in shock.
Kayla follows close behind, still talking on the phone while trying to answer the questions of one of the officers.
The other has gone with the paramedics. “I understand, Mr. Covington. I’m going to check the guests out now and shut the manor down for now.
Are you going to come up here?” After a minute she says, “Oh okay, I understand. I’ll handle it.
” She ends the call and takes a second to compose herself.
Her makeup is running along with her tears down her face.
She turns her attention back to the officer.
“Sorry, what was your question?” she asks, dazed.
“Who all was here last night.”
“Oh. Just me, Jake, and the guests. Andrei came by—”
“Do you have any surveillance cameras?” he asks, cutting her off.
Kayla nods her head. “We do. The hardware is in my office, if you guys want to grab it.”
“Do you have any backups? Cloud?” he asks.
“No, there are no backups. We were lucky to have working cameras at all. Mr. Covington didn’t see a need… cheap bastard.”