Part 8 – NAPS

Hey again everyone, I’m back. It’s been a busy few days for me. I finally got through all of the stuff that Janet found for me. There were probably over 100 articles to sift through so I will give you guys the highlights. The place has not always been a motel but has been some sort of place of lodging for well over 150 years. The property has been used as a ton of different things over the years. It was once used as temporary housing for miners, an inn, an orphanage, and then finally became the motel back in the 1960s. It’s had a ton of renovations and remodeling done to it as well. Wings and rooms have been added and removed so many times that it was hard to keep track. It was only one floor for a long time before the second floor was added around the time it was turned into the motel. There has also been a long list of names for the place. The oldest one I could find was The Wayfarer’s Rest. At different points it was called Harlow House, St. Agnes Home for Children, the Fredmont Hotel, and eventually the Fredmont Motel. There were a couple others in between that only seemed to last a few years before someone bought the place and changed the name again. Now, obviously, it’s the Wayfarer Motel. I have no idea if the Wayfarer thing is a coincidence. There didn’t appear to be anything really interesting in the articles. There were a couple talking about some disappearances and strange things going on in the town but nothing overtly crazy. Janet said she was going to keep looking and would let me know if she finds anything else. Apparently, these posts have gotten a lot of attention, and I have you all to thank for that. They have been getting so much attention that they caught the eye of two men who are now our newest guests. The two men are from the North Atlantic Paranormal Society and have decided to come stay with us. Their names are Dan and Elliot. Dan’s early-to-mid 40s, a bigger guy, maybe 6’1” or so. He has short dark hair and a long beard. Usually wears jeans, boots, and a dark jacket or flannel. He looks more like somebody who came to fix the furnace with Gary than a paranormal investigator. He's the quieter of the two for sure. Elliot’s probably in his early 30s. He’s a thinner guy with messy hair and glasses. He is definitely the more excitable of the two. Man, can that guy talk. The two men had been sending me a ton of emails asking questions about the place. Eventually, after I couldn’t give them enough answers, they asked if they could come out and do an investigation. I told them as long as they didn’t bother the other guests, they would be more than welcome. They’ve already gotten on Gary’s nerves, and they have only been here a few hours. Not ten minutes after they arrived, Gary walked out of the back and immediately Elliot shot me in the foot. He saw Gary and got excited and before he even introduced himself, he said, “So, have you seen Richard tonight?” Gary just stared at him. “How the hell do you know about Richard?” That’s when I had to start explaining to him how I had been talking about his ongoing war with Richard, but Elliot jumped in and told him all about the posts I have been making. You should have seen Gary’s face. Eventually, he had heard enough and went off with a toolbox in hand, mumbling under his breath. Dan started to get set up while Elliot continued to batter me with questions. I told them about the articles and whatnot that Janet had given me. His eyes got huge when I told him he could borrow them to look through. They had been in the lobby with me for about an hour and had already covered half of one of the tables with equipment. There were a couple cameras, some little boxes with lights on them, and about six other things Elliot had explained to me twice that I still didn't understand. After they got set up, I went and sat back behind the desk. I had been listening to them chatter away for a little over an hour before one of the boxes started to light up and beep. Elliot jumped up pretty much immediately, a look of pure joy on his face. Dan calmly picked the box up and started to inspect it. Then another one started to beep and then a third started to light up. Elliot couldn’t contain himself as he started to pace around the lobby. The lobby door opened suddenly. A man with thin, long, dark hair walked through the door. He was tall and painfully thin with a pale, porcelain-like complexion. His clothes didn’t seem to fit right, like they were slightly too big. Every piece of equipment on the table started to react louder. Elliot grabbed something off the table and rushed over to the man, questioning him immediately. “Excuse me, sir. Have you noticed anything unusual since you've been staying here?” The man looked between the two of them. “No.” “Headaches? Nausea? Strange dreams?” “I...don't think so,” he said, trying to crane his neck around Elliot to look at me. Elliot continued to bombard the man with questions before he was able to finally get a statement out. “Actually, I just came down because I needed some towels.” Elliot didn’t seem fazed. “I understand, sir. I’ll grab you a couple really quick,” I said. I started to stand up to go to the backroom. When I did, movement on the security cameras caught my eye. I was looking through the camera that watches the west wing, second floor walkway. There was a man walking with a bag in his hand. The same man that was standing here right in front of us. Same long, dark hair. Same oversized clothes. Same painfully thin build. I turned my attention back to the scene in the lobby. He was still there being interrogated by Elliot. “Hey, Elliot,” I said. “One second.” “No. Seriously, you need to—” “Just give me a minute.” Elliot continued to question the man, running another instrument around his body. “Elliot. Really you—” “I said just a minute!” The man was starting to look increasingly uncomfortable. He finally just nudged past Elliot and asked for the towels again. My eyes darted between the man and the security cameras once more. The man on the cameras was still there, now walking across the parking lot. I shook my head in disbelief and gave the man the towels. He thanked me and walked out the front door. Before it could even close, the lobby erupted with conversation between Elliot and Dan as the instruments on the table started to go quiet. “Oh my god! Did you see that?” Elliot said. “The instruments were going insane.” “Look at these readings!” “Are you two done?” Elliot looked at me. “Did you see those readings?” “Yeah. Crazy. Um… can you come over here for a second?” “What is it?” “Him.” I rewound the tape back to when the man had been in the lobby and pointed at the same man walking around the motel. Elliot and Dan just stood there with their mouths open as they realized what they were looking at. They spent the next half hour reviewing the tape and going back over all the readings that they had gotten. They continued to debate nonstop over which of their theories was the right one. I was interested but none of what they were saying really made sense to me, so I just went back to work. A little while later, Gary walked into the office but there was something different. For probably the first time since I have been working here, Gary looked visibly shaken. “You good?” I asked. Gary didn't answer me. “Gary?” “Yeah.” “You don't look good.” “I'm fine.” Elliot started to stand and rush over but Dan caught his arm and got him to stay put. Thankfully, he didn’t let him bombard him again. “Gary, where’s your toolbox?” I asked, noticing he didn’t walk in with it. “Dammit,” he said, shaking his head. He just sat there in silence, occasionally rubbing his face. I got up and poured him a cup of coffee and topped it off with a shot of whiskey. That was a common trick Gary and I had used over our time working together when a weird thing happened to us. Gary took a drink and stared into his cup for a few seconds. None of us poked at him for more information, even as hard as Elliot clearly wanted to. Eventually Gary spoke up. “I was out at the back of property near the old shed.” “Why were you out there?” I asked. “Working. What the hell do you think I was doing?” Fair point. “Anyways. I was out there moving some old equipment trying to get to a panel. After a few minutes, I heard something behind me.” “What did you hear?” Elliot asked, unable to contain himself any longer. Gary just looked at him, daggers in his eyes. “I couldn’t tell what it was. So I just ignored it. Then I heard something again. This time though I could tell. It was a kid laughing.” “There was a kid that far out?” “That’s what I thought too but when I turned there wasn’t anyone behind me.” Gary looked down and finished off his drink. He then held his empty cup out towards me for a refill. I poured him another as he continued. “I got up and started to look around but couldn’t find anyone. Then I heard it again but this time it sounded like it was just on the other side of the shed.” I could see Dan and Elliot writing down notes as fast as their hands could move. Elliot seemed to be loving this as Dan sat listening intently. “I started to walk to the side to look and…” he paused. “And then I heard it right in my ear.” “Then what?” Elliot asked. “Then nothing. I couldn’t move. I was just… there.” Dan chimed in, “Could you see? Breathe?” “Yeah. Just couldn’t fucking move.” “Do you feel anything?” Dan asked. “Just that someone was there. I couldn’t see them but… I knew.” “What was the next thing you remember?” Elliot asked. “Walking back in here.” “What?” “Everything went dark. Next thing I know I’m standing in front of the lobby door.” It took a second for me to remember the cameras. I jumped up and ran back behind the desk, switching between them to find the one that covered the back of the property. I rewound the feed to when he was there. I could see him standing there, then he started pulling stuff out of the shed. I watched his account play out just as he described. He stopped when he was pulling stuff out and looked around. Then he went back to work. Then he stopped again and started walking around. When I got to the part where he started to walk around the side of the shed he just froze in place, his head jerked to the side. No one was there behind him on the camera. Then, the camera feed went straight to static. I switched to another channel that overlooks the same area. Static. I switched to the walkway. Static. The lobby’s feed was working perfectly fine. I could see him walking up to the door but he wasn’t walking right. It was stiff and rigid. Then I watched his hand reach out for the door and suddenly he seemed normal again. I then checked the timestamp. “Gary,” I said, “you don’t remember 15 whole minutes?” “Honestly, it felt like a couple of seconds,” he said, finishing another drink. “Is that where you left your toolbox?” Elliot asked. For the first time since he got here, he wasn’t smiling. “Yeah. By the shed.” The two of them started to gather equipment from the table. “You two are fucking idiots,” Gary said, shaking his head. I asked Gary to watch the front office while I went with Dan and Elliot. We made our way out back to the shed and there it was. The toolbox sat right next to a pile of stuff that he had pulled out of the shed. I grabbed it and set it aside. I didn’t want to leave it out here or forget it if anything happened. Dan and Elliot got set up and went to work. Elliot walked around the shed, scanning with a couple of different instruments while Dan stood back taking pictures. They worked feverishly around the shed. They had more stuff set up than they did in the lobby but nothing happened. None of their equipment beeped or lit up or anything like that, not even the box they sat down where Gary was standing when he froze. After 45 minutes, they packed everything back up and we went back to the lobby. I patted Gary on the shoulder and handed him his toolbox. He just turned and went to the back office. I went behind the desk and sat back down as Dan and Elliot started to review their pictures from the shed. It caught my attention when I saw Dan tilt his head to the side and mumble a soft, “Huh.” “What’s up?” I asked. He just continued to flip through the pictures. “What’s that?” Elliot asked, peering over his shoulder. “What’s what?” I asked. Dan got up and brought the camera over to me and I started to flip through the pictures. The shed. The equipment. The shed again. Then there was one with Elliot in it. Beside him stood a dark spot, about three feet tall. I switched to the next picture and there it was again. Then another. Then another. This time the shadow was taller. “Isn’t that—” Elliot started to say. “Right where Gary was standing,” I said, staring at a picture of a six foot tall shadow. Standing right next to a toolbox.