The Crescent Hotel

“That tour was actually very informative,” Mrs. Seiger said once they were all settled in for the night, her and Mr. Seiger in their bed, and Hanna in hers, fast asleep. She was more relaxed than ever about the hotel now that she knew that there had never really been any troublesome ghosts. She wouldn’t be so content right now if she knew that there were ghosts that were harming guests, or who were known to harm guests.

“Yeah, it was,” Mr. Seiger agreed quietly before asking, “Hey, did you hear something when we left the basement?”

“No, I didn’t hear a thing. Why?” she asked in hushed tones so she wouldn’t wake up her daughter.

“Well, when we were leaving I heard someone, a man specifically, tell me, ‘You don’t belong here. Get out.’” They were both quiet for a few more minutes before he concluded, “I think it was the security guard that Carroll was talking about that haunted the place.”

“I know one thing for sure. We’re not going down there again,” Mrs. Seiger said with finality.

“Agreed,” Mr. Seiger yawned, before he slowly fell asleep. It wasn’t long before Mrs. Seiger fell asleep too, the room quiet with sleep.

Throughout the night, Hanna couldn’t seem to find a comfortable position to sleep in. Once she found one, she’d fall asleep, and then she’d start to feel cold, and would roll over to another spot. This continued all through the night, and she finally decided to crawl into her parent’s bed.

She got up to go and do so, when she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see what it was, and saw a figure of a man standing near the bathroom door. He had a spectral glow to him, and he was dressed in old construction clothes. Before she could ask who he was, or even scream for that matter, he disappeared.

Her eyes widened in wonder and horror before she ran the few feet to her parents bed and dove in the middle, causing her parents to shout in discomfort and surprise.

“What in the world?” Mr. Seiger sputtered before realizing it was Hanna that had disturbed his sleep. “What’s wrong Hanna?” He took a glance at the clock on the nightstand between the beds before exclaiming, “It’s four in the morning!”

“I kept on getting cold and not being able to sleep, so I wanted to crawl into bed with you. Then when I went to walk over here I saw a man standing by the bathroom, and then he disappeared,” she explained, clearly frightened.

Mr. Seiger got up off the bed and walked to the bathroom, looking in it and around the room before saying, “That must have been Michael you saw, Hanna. No one’s here besides us.”

“Well, you scared me Michael!” Hanna shouted angrily at the air, causing her parents to chuckle.

“I’m sure he heard you,” Mrs. Seiger said as Mr. Seiger got back into bed, making room for Hanna in between. “Now get some sleep.”

Hanna nodded before drifting off to sleep, safe between her parents. Her parents got back to sleep as well, and before they all knew it, it was morning.

Throughout the rest of the week, the family went to many places throughout Eureka Springs during their vacation. The places ranged from the Cosmic Caverns to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.

Each day up until the end, nothing else happened to them paranormal wise, until they got ready to leave.

“Will, where’s my makeup bag?” Mrs. Seiger asked, looking around the counter of the bathroom where she last left it.

“Last time I saw it, it was on the bathroom counter,” Mr. Seiger answered, zipping up his suitcase. He walked in the bathroom and right when he walked in he saw it tucked underneath the counter. “It’s underneath here.” He bent down and picked it up, handing it to her.

“Huh. I must have dropped it somehow,” she said, shrugging.

“You must have,” Mr. Seiger agreed, going back out into the main room to Hanna watching cartoons on the television, her small suitcase packed and ready to go. He sat down beside her; everything packed up besides some bathroom essentials that Mrs. Seiger was using at the moment.

Mrs. Seiger did her daily makeup routine, putting on foundation, blush, and some eye makeup. Just as she was putting on her eye makeup, she thought she saw a figure in the side of the mirror watching her and turned to look at the spot to see nothing there. She shook her head at her paranoia and continued to put her makeup on. She took her lipstick out of it’s compartment in her makeup bag, and started putting it on when she saw what looked like someone peeking out at her in the mirror. She dropped her tube of lipstick in shock, sure she had saw a figure staring at her. She picked the tube up and quickly put some lipstick on her bottom lip before putting everything back in its compartment and walking quickly out of the bathroom.

“Will, I saw someone staring at me in the mirror,” she said assuredly, putting the bathroom items into her luggage, zipping it up.

Mr. Seiger’s brow furrowed, and he got up and checked the bathroom to find nothing. “It must have been your imagination, Clare.”

Mrs. Seiger sighed in defeat and then asked, “Well, is everyone ready to go?”

Hanna nodded, and Mr. Seiger said, “I guess we are.”

The family moved towards the door and opened it, the parents carrying the luggage out. “Bye Michael!” Hanna said, waving at the room. She felt cold around her shoulder after she said that, and then the cold went away. She smiled; feeling like Michael had given her a hug.

“So, how was it?” Max asked Mr. Seiger as he was checking them out.

“It was…” Mr. Seiger said, struggling for a word to use, “Interesting.”

Max smiled. “I hope that was a good interesting, and that you come back soon.”

“I wanna come back, daddy!” Hanna said, pleading at her father with her eyes.

Mr. Seiger chuckled. “I guess we’ll come back someday,” he said to Hanna before turning to Max. “Thanks for your hospitality.”

“You’re welcome, and I’m glad you enjoyed your stay here,” Max said, nodding once.

The Seiger’s then left the Crescent Hotel to go back home, each mulling over their stay there and their different experiences. They got their film developed when they got home, curious to see what were in the pictures.

As Mr. Seiger was going through them, he noticed that the pictures he had taken at the Crescent had some strange things in them. He looked closer at the one that he took of his wife and daughter in the hallway, and saw something that looked like a woman pushing a hospital trolley behind them. The other photos he took at the Crescent were slightly blurred, or had an orb in them. “Whoa,” he murmured, going to quickly show his wife and daughter the pictures.