Beyond the Grave

Chapter 1

"Are you sure we should do this?" "I'm positive", James replies. As they are about to leave, Rebecca says, "Oh, I almost forgot my phone. I'll be right back" "Alright honey, take your time", says James. As James is waiting for his loved one, he pulls out his phone and starts to read some thing about the wonderful place they are going. "Proposal?" James see's a heading on his phone. 'Want to propose to your loved one, ask us for help.' James is interested in what he is reading. All of a sudden the car door swing opens and Rebecca returns with her phone. "Sorry it took a while. It must have fallen under the bed." "No problem honey." And with that they leave to have a romantic vacation.

On the way to their destination, James realizes that they are low on gas. They notice a gas station off the side of the highway, so they decide to stop to get some gas. As they are driving up to the station, they realize that it looks like a barren wasteland, with one orange pick-up truck in the small parking lot, and a small gray car near the back. They pull up to the station and stop beside one of the gas pumps. Rebecca tells James "I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back." As James is filling up his car, he see's the two people from the truck exit the store, a old man and women. He starts to hear them talk about something strange. The old man says, "He says she saw her husbands clothing start to pack itself. After she saw that she ran for it." James is sure that what they are talking about is just some old folks tale. At the same time, he's not sure if they are speaking truth about some supernatural beings.

He finishes filling gas into the car and goes inside the gas station to pay. While he's paying, Rebecca finishes up in the bathroom and tells James that she will meet him back in the car. James is still confused so he asks the cashier what the old couple were talking about. He replies with a feint southern laugh, "Heh, they were just talkin bout some weird lady that went to hotel and experienced some weird shit, like her clothing being moved around and such." James says thank you and leaves to go to his car. James, still confused, walks towards the car and gets in and is emotionally stunned. Rebecca asks him what's wrong, James replies, "Nothing dear." They drive out of the small gas station and continue to their destination.

After another hour of driving, they drove off the side of the highway and finally arrived to their destination. The Queen Cliff Hotel. They notice that there are numbers and letters in the parking lot in each parking space. Most of the spaces were taken with only a three spaces empty, which were side by side each other for some odd reason. Not really giving it a second thought, James parks the car in the middle parking space that was free and walked inside with Rebecca. They were both exited to see the hotel and walk inside. When they walked inside they didn't see anyone at the front desk. The only things they saw were a door behind the desk, and a tiny button that says "push for service." Because there was no one there, James pushed the button and a tiny jingle went off. After a minute, no one came, so James pushed the button again. After another minute of waiting, they decided to leave and get food, then come back later.

"Wait!" They heard someone scream and turned around to see what it was. A man then walked out from the door behind the desk. "My apologies. I was dealing with another guest." "No worries" said James. The man said with delight, "My name is Patrick, I assume that you two are here to relax and have a good time together?" James and Rebecca nodded. "Is it just you two?" "Yep, just us", Rebecca replied. After filling out all of the information and paper work, Patrick asked, "If I may, what parking space did you park in?" James said, "If I remember, it was G9."

"G-g-g 9?" "Yes, why is that a problem?", James asked. It took a second for Patrick to respond, then he said "No, no, It's just that were just finishing cleaning up after the people who ere last there. People can leave such a mess." James and Rebecca both awkwardly smiled at each other. "How about you two go to the restaurant down the road and treat yourselves to some nice cuisine. They have the best Caesar salad and bread sticks." James is slightly confused by the question, but Rebecca relies, "Oh you mean Jacks n Snacks? I read about that place, it sounds delicious. What do you think dear?" "Sure. Let's go get some food. I am pretty hungry."

"Excellent. You two take as much time as you need. Give another hour or two and the room should be, finished."

After they were done talking, James and Rebecca walked to their car, and drove off to have a wonderful meal. As they were leaving, James saw Patrick through the front window quickly run back in the door that he came from.

In no time at all, they arrived at Jacks n Snacks restaurant. They walked in and were given a table for two. "Any drinks for you two today?" asked the waiter. "Um, I'll have an ice tea please." James said. "And for you?" asked the waiter. "I'll just have a water please and thank you." Rebecca replied. As they were reading through their menus, James asked Rebecca, "Rebecca, do you feel like Patrick acted a little weird whenever we told him our parking number?" "No, I don't think so, why would you say that?" James relied, "Well didn't you see that after we told him the parking number, he questioned us in a stuttered voice. He also started to sweat. I don't think that reaction is just because 'the room was still being cleaned'."

"I mean I guess. I didn't really see anything off but if you think it's strange then we can leave after we eat." "No. We shouldn't leave. We came all this way to have a good time with each other, and I'm not going to let a small thing like that stop us from enjoying our time together."