Paranormal Case 9

Chapter Twenty-Four

When Lupe arrived at the hotel and entered the lobby, she was with Ortencia and Soto, Natalia's father. Valeria greeted them with Natalia seated in chair nearby.

Quietly Valeria spoke to them. "She's fine. But I suggest you not try to wake her. Just take her hand into the car gently and return her to her bed as soon as possible."

"How did my daughter know you were here?" Soto asked loudly, visibly angry.

"Soto! Shhh . . . the child!" was Ortencia's muted comment.

"She just found me," Valeria said apologetically. "It's part of her powers."

"I don't want to hear any more of these goddamned powers!" Soto continued, his voice strong and loud. The hotel desk clerk looked up, concerned at the sound of Soto's booming voice.

"Soto! Please. Let's just get Natty home," Lupe weighed in. We shouldn't wake her here. Please, mi novio . . . just stay calm."

Surprisingly, the girl's father stayed near the door and decided to remain quiet.

Lupe stepped softly over to Natalia and reached down for her hand. The girl did not look up. She simply stood and gingerly walked on her injured feet toward the door with her mother. Valeria affectionately placed a hand on Lupe's shoulder as they passed by.

Putting her finger to her lips, Ortencia signaled all to allow them to make a silent and hasty return to their car outside. And ultimately, back to their community of Pacific Grove.

"I'll call you tomorrow," Valeria whispered to Ortencia as she was last out the door.

When the family had left the lobby, Valeria returned up to her room. There was an eerie, isolated feeling in the posh room as she reentered it. As the light was still indirect and dim in the main room, she turned on several corner lamps to give the place a safer, less fearful atmosphere. She then went over to the window where Natalia had been looking out blankly for the last hour. She opened it to let the sound of the distant ocean's waves in. She could also smell the sea air mixed with the garden fragrance and feel the room beginning to cool down.

As she walked into the bedroom, she turned on more lights to give the suite an even more secure ambiance. Looking at the clock on the wall, Valeria could see it was already past twelve o'clock. As she opened the plantation blinds and looked down across the garden, now illuminated with its greenish footlights, she could see it was all but empty of the former meandering guests and those who were seated on benches and at the outdoor bar tables.

The lovely garden was vacant—except for a single guest who sat alone at one of the garden tables. Valeria looked down with intense interest at the woman. Her heart jumped as she realized it was the very female she had seen that afternoon, sitting among the flowers and trimmed bushes, again alone. Valeria determined she was precisely the one with the large hat, and dressed anachronistically in a flowing, summery dress with the puffy shoulders of a Gibson girl. Could it be Her, she wondered? The spirit who many had seen at the hotel for over a century?

The lone woman seemed content to just sit, staring out into the foliage as she had been doing when Valeria noticed her several hours before. She tried to calm herself, telling her mind it was just a coincidence that someone who looked so out of place in time and location happened to be there also at night.

Nevertheless, Valeria stepped back from the window and blinds, trying to ignore the garden below. She felt that if she were going to carry out Luciana's wishes, it would have to be while there in the room, where she ultimately feared it would take place, sometime in the heart of the night. She remembered what Travis had told her about the legend of the hotel ghost—that people would awake in the darkness to frightfully see a beautiful young woman staring down at them from the foot of their bed.