47. Aspen #2
“No! No, they don’t.” I’m losing my temper now. “You keep saying that, but I haven’t seen anyone else here, working on the place. You said there was some prepper who lives out in the woods, but guess what, I haven’t seen any sign of him either. You know what I found when I went out to that cabin.”
Yes, we both know, but Blake only presses his lips together.
Anger bubbles up inside me. What the actual fuck?
Why does Blake—and fucking Levi—keep lying to me?
Are they trying to make me think I’m crazy and seeing things?
It doesn’t surprise me coming from Levi.
The guy is a complete headcase, even if he is good in bed.
But I had thought better of Blake. I’ve been such a fucking idiot.
I actually thought he cared about me, but how could he when he’s been playing games with me this whole time?
He knows what I’ve been through and how much I’ve been hurting, yet he still tried to make me feel like I’ve lost my mind.
At one point, I’d genuinely believed this place was haunted and was seeing the ghosts of past residents haunting the hallways.
But this is no ghost.
The only thing haunting Windridge Hall is a man.
“Tell me who he is!” I demand. “He’s been coming into my room at night, too.”
Okay, that got Blake’s attention. “What?”
“I’m sure of it. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve woken up feeling like I’m not alone or sensing someone standing outside of my door.
” And touching me, I want to say, but don’t.
Why do I feel like I can’t tell Blake this, like it’s my little secret?
Instead, I thrust the stick doll at him.
“I think he’s the person responsible for leaving me these, too.
It’s like he’s been trying to connect with me. Who is he, Blake?”
“I told you, just a contractor, or perhaps he’s a hiker or something.”
I give a growl of frustration. “What about if I ask Levi? Will he tell me the same?”
A muscle beneath Blake’s eye twitches. What would Levi say? Would he tell me the truth? In that moment, I believe he would, and Blake knows it too.
I spin on my heels.
“Aspen, wait!”
“If you’re not going to tell me the truth, I’ll find someone who will.”
“I have told you the truth.”
“Liar!” I spit over my shoulder.
I don’t know where I’ll find Levi. That’s the problem. He could be out in the middle of the woods and not be planning to come home for days. The only thing that makes me believe he’ll have stuck closer to home is the weather.
I race through the hotel and out of the front doors.
I pause, looking left and right, searching for Levi.
Frigid air bites at my nose and cheeks. The snow has stopped, but it’s left a dusting of white across the ground.
It’s freezing, and I haven’t stopped to put on any warmer clothes.
I wrap my arms around myself and shiver.
Leaving the front porch, I move at top speed, searching for any signs of Levi. I turn to look back up at the hotel. Something catches my eye, my breath stopping in my lungs.
The east wing.
I remember seeing someone standing in the window on the first day.
Of course, then I’d convinced myself I’d imagined things, that I’d caught the curtain flapping in the breeze or something and turned the movement into a person.
Now, I’m not so sure. Why has Blake been so insistent that I stay away from the east wing?
Is it really for my safety? Or has he had a different reason, such as he’s hiding something? Or someone?
I run for the main doors and burst back inside.
It doesn’t feel much warmer in here than it did outside.
There’s still plastic sheeting over the entrance that leads through into the east wing.
Has it been dislodged, partially pulled down?
Is that from someone slipping in and out of the doors, unseen?
I draw a breath and push through the plastic.
The door behind it is shut, and I wonder if it’s also going to be locked, but when I try the handle, it opens.
I slip through and pull the door shut behind me again.
I hope Blake won’t know where I’ve gone if he comes looking for me.
But then I realize I’ll have left footprints in the light covering of snow on the ground outside.
Will my wet footprints lead to the east wing, too? There isn’t much I can do about that.
I run deeper into the east wing and then slow.
I remember Blake’s warning about how it’s dangerous, unstable, that it hasn’t been worked on yet.
From the outside, I’d agree with that statement.
None of the exterior has been renovated the way the west wing has.
But now I look around, the east wing doesn’t look much different than the rest of the interior of the hotel.
I’m not an expert, but it doesn’t look like it’s about to fall down around my ears.