I didn't see anything other than the ghost while we were walking but I had this gut feeling that something else was watching us, something unfamiliar. I was starting to get nervous so I sped up my pace so I was in step with the bus driver. I never asked his name so I looked at his name tag that I didn't see before and decided to try small talk. "So Stan, how long have you been a bus driver?" he doesn't look at me fully but gives me a sideways glance. "Ah I see you've finally noticed the name tag" he gives a light chuckle before continuing " about 40 years now, I'm thinking about retiring soon I'm getting too old for this shit" he lets out a more enthusiastic laugh but you could tell he's getting tired of driving hours on end, I give him a small smile as we descend into a more comfortable silence this time as we continue to walk down the badly lit street.
After a few more minutes of walking, Stan stops walking and nods his head at a fairly lit up building the color of a soggy cardboard box. "Well this is it" Stan says as he heads towards the front door. I take a closer look at the building and find a rundown sign hanging from the right side of the building stating that the place is called Bittersleep Motel, what an odd name for a motel. After a few more seconds of staring at the motel I hear rustling of bushes coming from the direction we just came from, my first thought is that it's the wind but then that can't be right cause there is no wind and after hearing a twig snap I decide that I'm going inside now. " no fucking way in hell am I going to be that dumb bitch in horror movies" I say as I near the door.
Once inside I'm met with the light glow of the ceiling lights along with the harsh smell of lavender. I walk into the main lobby and walk up to the front desk. "oh well hello there dear, what can I do for you this fine evening?" The lady at the front desk greets me with a curious look and a small grin on her face. Not creepy at all. "Uh hi, I'd like a room please" I try not to look straight in her eyes because for one she has a creepy stare going on and I just don't like eye contact, people say your eyes are the gateway to your soul and I don't want no one taking a sneak peak at my soul no sir. "Well of course darling for how many nights, oh and I'll need a name if you don't mind" hmm how about no, I think as I pull out the remainder of my money which is all of twenty dollars, the bus ticket was only ten, if you couldn't count. "How ever many nights this will get me" I say as I place the twenty dollars on the desk. She gives me a shit eating grin and says " all of one night darling, now how bout that name" well fuck you too. I listen to her thoughts only to find absolutely nothing, huh that's odd. So without looking at her I say with my best poker face I have " Jane Doe, now can I please have the key to my room" I give her a sideways grin and wait as she turns around and grabs a key from the wall behind the desk, but before she gives it to me she says "you better watch yourself girl, liars don't last long here. newcomers don't either" and with that, she gave me the key and told me where to find my room, which just happens to be on the third floor, and so I turned and started up the stairs because of course they didn't have an elevator, fuck me.
After a few long and slow minutes I managed to finally get my skinny and exhausted ass up the all to many flights of stairs to the third and final floor of the motel, once in the main hall I only have the option to either go left or right, the desk lady said to go right all the way to the end, which is kind of ironic as the hall seems to go on forever. I don't know if it's just my tired mind or the hall really just doesn't end. Taking a deep breath I will my tired legs to move down the hall, after walking for what seems to be forever I reach the end of the hall and face toward my room door, not bothering to check the room number I push the key in to the door and twist till I hear the lock click. Not bothering to take off my clothes or take in the plain interior of the room I belly flop on the stiff bed and immediately drift off to a deep sleep which has never happened, just as I'm being dragged into the infinite abyss of sleep I realize that this town is abnormally quiet and that's probably why I end up sleeping for more than a fair amount of hours.
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I was regrettably awoken by the sound of someone singing future starts slow by the kills, at first I didn't mind
because that's notably one of my favourite songs but then when I was more awake I realized I have no idea where it was coming from, I didn't set an alarm and I don't have it as my ringtone. After a few seconds of blindly trying to figure out where it was coming from I opened my eyes to see a male ghost sitting at the edge of my bed with his back to me. I say ghost because of the distinctive white cloud like halo around the man. When I made a move to sit up he turned around. He must have died in his early twenties because he looked really young, he had curly brown hair, his face looked smooth and delicate yet chiseled in all the right places. his lips were thin on top and full on the bottom, they looked soft, he also had the most beautiful honey colored eyes. I also could see that his clothes looked to be made out of rags. why he would choose to appear looking like a cute homeless dude I'll never understand. " uh excuse me but do you mind I was trying to sleep" I tiredly rasp out still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. " Sorry, I just got tired of waiting for you to wake up ,I'm Kit by the way." He gave me a small smile, I just continued to look at him. I wanted to be annoyed with him for being a creep and watching me sleep but something about him just makes me smile back.
" Hi, I'm Riley, I'd say it's nice to meet you but I can't get over the fact that you were just watching me sleep. Why were you waiting for me to wake up anyway?" I let out a yawn and got out of bed to go get a glass of water. "I wanted to meet you, it's not everyday our small town gets visitors, no less one who lies about her name." He's still sitting on the bed just watching my movements. " For one my actual name is Riley, and for two I lied to the desk lady because she was being a creepy bitch and I was exhausted."
" Ha, that's fair Daisy can be that way sometimes but she means no harm, oh by the way it's nice to meet you Riley." he bows his head in greeting. " ya it's nice to meet you too, but I have a quick question for you." Kit is now walking toward me. " ask away." kit says as he stops no more than four feet from me. " How is it that you know that I can see ghosts?" I ask before taking a sip out of my glass of water. " oh uh it was just a lucky guess, honest. My idea was to sing a bunch of songs and see if you could hear it." he lets out a small laugh, I smile. " that was not the worst idea actually." I say. " ya well it worked didn't it" Kit says, now joining me on the small couch in the far corner of the small motel room.
" So Kit, other than me being able to see and hear you and other than being your rare case of a visitor, why did you want to meet me?" I say letting out another dreaded yawn. " Well Riley since you are determined to know everything, I was curious as to why such a young and beautiful woman as yourself would want to venture into our quiet and secretive town." he says, looking at me with pure curiosity. It was quite frightening actually.