Ghosts of The Summit Hotel

Jane’s plane landed at Denver International with two large bumps as she had expected. The rule was turbulence in the air means a smooth landing, smooth flight means a bumpy landing. At least, that’s the way it always seemed to be for Jane. She recognized patterns in things very quickly which made the world more predictable and easier to navigate for her.

She texted her friend and podcast cohost, LeAnn, while she waited to deboard the flight. LeAnn and Jane had worked together on the Paranormal Pussycats podcast for almost three years now. They planned to meet outside the airport so they could Uber to The Summit Hotel together. Neither had ever been there, but it was a 4-star hotel with a long history in the Denver area.

“What took you so long?” LeAnn asked her when she finally made it outside to the ground transportation area.

“Everything. It’s an airport. What do you expect?” Jane said as the Uber driver helped her load her luggage into the car. Jane had learned to have low expectations for her airport experiences. It was another tool in her toolkit for navigating the world. Her anxiety stayed low whether the experience met or was even lower than her initial expectations.

“I ran into Dave from the Ghosts with the Most podcast. Remember him?” Jane asked rhetorically, “His plane landed two hours ago, and he was just scoping out the airport, looking for secret government tunnels with aliens I guess.”

LeAnn laughed, “Don’t forget the messages in the murals about the new world order sacrificing human masses for to live forever.”

The legends around the construction of Denver International Airport were well known to Jane and her fellow podcast conference attendees. This was a paranormal podcast conference and most of her favorite conspiracy theorists would be there.

“Let’s get to the hotel, drop our stuff off, and go shopping,” LeAnn said as they traveled from the airport.

“Yes! The shopping. I don’t think I’m going to get through this weekend without it,” Jane laughed. Jane and LeAnn lived in a state where the marijuana plant was illegal. This was unfortunate as marijuana was another tool for Jane to use in her kit for processing the world. LeAnn loved the plant as much as Jane but for different reasons Jane suspected. Either way, it was one of many things they had in common and a vice they wouldn't judge each other for using to tolerate the world. Jane was more grateful for these types of relationships as she got into her mid-thirties; two adults just accepting each other as is. She and LeAnn worked well together as cohosts and coworkers. Jane was more cerebral and introverted while LeAnn was more extroverted and socially savvy. It was a great balance.

The lobby of the hotel was busy, but not full as Jane had planned their timing perfectly. She spent a lot of energy on having the least amount of human interaction possible for whatever she had planned for the day. They ran into some familiar faces who would also be attending the conference. Two of whom were Emily and Maggie, cohosts of the Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun podcast. They immediately hopped on Jane and LeAnn’s mission to stock up on some ganja for the weekend.

Emily and Jane had worked together behind the scenes on the now defunct You, Me, and My Succubus podcast. This was where they both learned the ropes of podcasting and how lucrative it could be if you had some talent, an audience, and good technical skills. More lucrative than working for a huge media conglomerate as many of Jane’s fellow journalism school graduates had figured out. She wasn’t sure how she fell into the paranormal side of the industry, but she had always had an interest in the extraordinary. The loyalty of their audiences made for a steady, predictable income though Jane thought most of their fans were odd. The interactions she had with them after the panels were always Jane’s least favorite part of these conferences. It was hit or miss on whether it would be an adolescent just dipping their toes in the paranormal pool or something else. Another reason to stock up on her drug of choice. Tolerating old creepy men was not a skillset Jane ever developed. LeAnn was better at it, but she was from the South.

The women chose to patron The Ganja House and each left the dispensary with a bag of goodies. They went for dinner and drinks back at The Summit as Jane was getting into her irritable stage of hunger by then. The hostess sat the ladies in the outdoor seating area, under the shade of a large umbrella. Jane took a sip of her extra dirty martini and felt her shoulders relax for the first time that day. The worst part of traveling was over. Now it was time to enjoy their stay.

“OH. MY. GOD.” Maggie yelled loudly enough to put Jane’s body back into fight or flight. “Sean?!” She leapt out of her seat and ran to a man standing in the patio entry. She made a big show of swinging her arms around his neck and giving him a big kiss on the cheek. At that point, he pulled his shades down and Jane realized she knew him too. Sean Knapp. One of her closest friends from graduate school. She hadn’t seen him in ten years and was surprised by how emotional she got. It was at that moment Sean made eye contact and recognized her too. His smile beamed even brighter, and he walked over to greet her.

“Well, this can’t be who I think it is,” he said as Jane stood to hug him. His embrace was warm and loving. “The Jane I know was planning on working all over the world in war torn areas and writing for the AP. No way she’s at a paranormal podcast conference.”

Jane would've taken immense offense to that statement from anyone else, but Sean could always get away with saying truths to her others couldn’t.

“Yea what did we used to say? Freelance, independent journalism or nothing,” Jane laughed, remembering the conversations between the twenty-somethings. Idealizing their career as young people did, they didn’t leave much room for reality in their future plans.

Jane had betrayed her defiant, younger self within a year of graduation. She needed money and moving back in with her parents was more stressful than she thought it would be. She got the opportunity to write for a new online magazine in ’06 that was owned by a large media company. She appreciated the independence and autonomy her boss afforded her there. After a couple of years, they were lucky to have enough advertising revenue to protect their jobs through the Great Recession. She lost track of Sean after grad school and was surprised to see him at a paranormal podcast conference. He didn’t seem the type to think of podcasting as a good use of his journalistic skills, and he was a huge skeptic when it came to paranormal topics.

“How do you know Maggie?” Jane asked him.

“Oh, we used to work together at Buzzfeed. We were both laid off in ’15,” Sean answered.

“Wow. Buzzfeed,” Jane said surprised, “I did not see you working for them.”

“Yea salary became a lot more important to me once mom and dad stopped paying my bills,” Sean laughed.

“Yea, same,” Jane laughed.

“Well, let me get back to my table,” Sean said, gesturing to a table of men who looked like they podcast for a living. “Just wanted to say ‘hi’, Maggie. And great seeing you, Jane.”

“Sean is so fun,” Maggie said as the girls sat back at their game. “I didn’t know you guys went to school together, Jane.”

“Yea, that was a long time ago,” Jane replied. “I wonder what podcast he works on.”

“Oh, he does ‘The Bigfoot Sightings’ podcast with Dave and Rick. I think he only does it sometimes. It’s popular here, but probably not in the rest of the country,” Maggie said.

“They’re gonna do a ghost hunt with us tomorrow night in room 401,” Emily said. “You two should join us! It could be a triple crossover, get more exposure for all of us.”

“That sounds like a great idea, Jane! We need to expand our audience and get new listeners.” LeAnn said excitedly. Jane wasn’t too keen on crossovers, and she was happy with the size of the audience they had now. She was uncertain of what kind of people listened to the Bigfoot and the Ghouls podcasts. She prided herself on having more of a skeptical, evidence-based coverage of paranormal topics on her and LeAnn’s podcast. She wasn’t sure she could commit to the activities right then. She was already feeling drained from the day of travel and was ready to head back to her room.

When Jane got back to the safety of privacy in her room, she immediately started a bath for soaking. She wanted to eat one of her marijuana gummies and relax in the tub with a book. Stephen King was always her first choice. She didn’t care if that made her basic. As she settled into the hot water, her phone pinged. Not now, LeAnn, Jane thought. She had just felt the warmth hit her bones.

“Hey,” the message said.

“Hey,” she replied,” Who is this?”

“It’s Sean. Maggie gave me your number.”

She hated how good she felt just from getting his text message. She never liked other people having any kind of effect on her emotions. Let alone this uncontrolled swell of feelings.

“Oh good. I thought it was LeAnn giving me more assignments for the weekend,” Jane replied.

“It was good seeing you today,” he texted.

“You too,” Jane replied honestly. It was easier for her to share her feelings over text than in person.

“Are you going to be at the ghost hunt in room 401 tomorrow night?” she asked him.

“Yes. Would you like to get dinner beforehand?” he replied.

“Yes,” Jane sent the text before she could second guess herself.

“Good. See you tomorrow :),” Sean replied.

She hated that the little smiley face meant so much to her. She couldn’t remember feeling this good about being around Sean before. They were in the same circle of friends in grad school, but really Jane wouldn’t have interacted with him had he not been sleeping with her best friend. Once she got to know him as a person and not the guy her friend was sleeping with, she realized they had similar senses of humor and personalities. Still, she never got as close to him as other women, as he slept his way through Northwestern’s campus.

Was she just another notch? Did he regret not getting it done while they were in school and now was his opportunity? Jane had a habit of dooming any new or budding romantic feelings with the quickness of a samurai swordsman. To be fair, her romantic relationship history did not disprove her theory that romance was a waste of time for her. As easy as it was to make and keep friends, it was just as difficult for her to make and keep romantic partners. LeAnn wondered if she were lesbian like her would it be easier, but Jane assured her it would not. She could not be as intimate with her romantic partners as she could be with her friends, male or female. Jane knew patterns and her pattern was clear. Showing romantic interest in someone was a sure way to ruin her relationship with them. This wouldn’t matter if it was just some stranger, but Jane liked Sean. They had developed a friendship during their time in school. They had even bonded over their complicated parental relationships. Jane’s inability to please her narcissist mother and Sean fighting with his dad over his career choices were conversations they had shared, mostly drunk and stoned at a campus party. It was easier for Jane to sleep with men when she did not have feelings for them.

The next day, Jane and LeAnn attended some panel discussions, one of which featured Emily and Maggie. They liked supporting other women in the field as it was very male dominated. She and LeAnn congratulated the women on their panel and they all decided to eat lunch together.

“I’m so excited about the hunt tonight,” Emily said chomping on the French fries she ordered for the table.” Y’all think we’re gonna get anything?”

“No.” Jane said flatly.

“C’mon, Jane, have some faith” LeAnn laughed, ”You’re still skeptical? We’re in The Summit Hotel! You’ve had some experiences in our other investigations.”

“Really? Like what kind of experiences?” Maggie asked.

Jane immediately got quiet and avoided eye contact. She didn’t like to talk about her mysterious experiences and didn’t like that LeAnn had brought it up.

“You don’t have to tell us,” Emily said kindly,” but I think we’ll get an EVP something tonight.”

“What are y’all doing this afternoon?” Maggie asked them, trying to change the subject so Jane would be comfortable again. Jane appreciated her.

“I’m going to going to outline my notes for our next two episodes about the hotel. We should get enough content to do a third episode tonight, I think,” LeAnn answered. Jane was as in awe of her organizational skills as she was of Jane’s technical skills.

“I’ll be taking a nap before dinner,” Jane said flatly. LeAnn knew how much she loved her naps.

“What are we doing for dinner?” Emily asked the table.

“Um, I’m having dinner with Sean,” Jane said, ready for the barrage of questions that statement would induce.

“Oh!” LeAnn said. Jane could already tell she was making it a bigger deal than it was just by the inflection on her Oh.

“It’s just dinner to catch up,” Jane interrupted. “We haven’t seen each other in ten years.”

“OK,” LeAnn smirked making eyes at Maggie and Emily, who both laughed.

“You guys are ridiculous,” Jane laughed.

“Lemme pull a tarot card for each one of us,” Emily says. She was as much a believer as Jane was a skeptic. Emily was from Louisiana. Her family had practiced witchcraft for generations. Jane still smiled when she pulled a tarot deck from her purse and handed it to Maggie. “OK, shuffle.”

Maggie closed her eyes and shuffled the cards seemingly getting into a trans to pick the correct card for her universal guidance. She then set the cards down on the table and pulled the one on top. It was the Queen of Wands.

“Ohhh, nice,” Emily says.” You’re hot and confident. Perfect, Maggie. I could see it at the panel.”

It was true, Maggie had been the center of attention during the panel, even though Emily did just as good of a job. No one could keep their eyes off Maggie.

“Yes, I am stepping into my Queen of Wands Era,” Maggie said, slipping on her sunglasses.

LeAnn was next. She took the cards and shuffled them like she was playing poker with her dad back in South Carolina. She pulled her card from the middle of the deck.

“The High Priestess,” Emily said, “highly intuitive and spiritually powerful woman.”

That was definitely LeAnn. She had a naturally strong spiritual sixth sense that she didn’t brag about or use to exploit others.

“Jane,” Emily said handing the deck to her. Jane shuffled the cards like a little kid. Shoving them into each other until they finally went back into a stack. She had never learned to properly shuffle. She fanned the cards out and chose one from the left side.

“Knight of Cups!” LeAnn laughed before Emily could announce it. They all laughed while Jane blushed and rolled her eyes. “Of course, your Knight is here, and you’ll be having dinner with him tonight.”

Emily didn’t shuffle the cards again but stacked them in front of her and chose one from the top of the deck. “Four of Cups! Hmmmm, what I am wanting?” Emily said,” I guess I really want us to see a spirit tonight!”

“Me, too!” Maggie said.

Jane did not feel the same way. Her last experience with a spirit drained her for weeks later. She thought she better get that nap in before dinner and what looked like it was going to be a long night. She left the ladies and headed for the hotel. Midday naps were one of Jane’s favorite things. Actually, one of her favorite things about traveling was the gift of a nice hotel bed. The beds at The Summit were amazingly comfortable. She snuggled into the sheets and comforter and fell asleep immediately.

She woke up to knocking on her door though she had sworn she put the Do Not Disturb door hanger on. “No need for housekeeping today,” she yelled towards the door.

“It’s me!” she heard the familiar voice respond.

Sean? Why would Sean be at her door. She opened it up to find him standing there smiling with a bouquet of flowers. He looked like the Knight from the tarot card she had pulled earlier. Flowers? How impractical, she thought. How would she take them back home?

“Are you ready to go?” Sean asked, still smiling. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out into the hallway and towards the elevators.

“Are we going to dinner now? I thought we were meeting in a couple of hours?” Jane said.

“Dinner? No.” he said.” We’re going to room 401. For the ghost hunt, remember?”

Jane nodded. He was still smiling, and it was becoming unnatural at this point, but Jane had no instinct to go back to her room and not go with him. They walked to the older part of the hotel which was on the opposite side from theirs which Jane had not explored yet. They took the elevator up to the fourth floor. The doors opened to reveal a part of the hotel that was not like any other part she had seen. It still had the original 1970’s Gaudi décor complete with an orange and brown diamond-patterned carpet. The gold sconces lining the hallway were barely lit and cast eerie shadows along the hallway.

“They must not allow guests to sleep on this floor anymore?” Jane asked.

“Not anymore,” Sean answered like he knew something.

He stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway near the doorway to the stairs.

Room 401.

Sean opened the door without a key. Why was it unlocked? There was an eerie red glow from a lamp in the corner of the room. The room was smaller than Jane thought it would be with two twin beds and a chair near the lamp in the corner. There was a chest of drawers but no television in the room. The comforters on the bed had a floral pattern with large lime green and yellow flowers. They were the only ones there.

“Where are the others?” Jane asked. She had expected LeAnn, Emily and Maggie to be there too. And Rob and Dave from Sean’s podcast.

“Oh, they’ll be by later,” Sean said, not seeming to be bothered by their absence. He pulled her over to the twin bed closest to the chair and sat her on the bed while he sat across from her in the chair. “Do you like red wine?”

No. Most reds were too bitter for Jane. She liked sweet wines. “Yes.” She replied.

He grabbed two glasses that Jane didn’t see on the table originally and poured from a bottle of wine that also seemed to appear from no where. He handed Jane one of the glasses and pulled the chair closer to the bed so their knees touched when he sat. He raised his glass for a toast and Jane followed. “Shall we toast to reunions,” he said. He was still smiling. Jane couldn’t remember if he had stopped since she first opened her hotel room door. They both took a sip of the wine. It was sweet to Jane’s surprise. It left a stain on Sean’s lips. To her surprise she leaned in to lick it off. He pulled her closer to him by the waist and reached his other hand around to embrace her onto his lap. The kiss was nicer than what Jane was expecting. His lips were soft, and he tasted sweet from the wine. Jane leaned back and smiled at Sean.

“Well, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” Sean said to her.

“What, since you saw me at the restaurant yesterday?” Jane laughed.

“Well, yeah” Sean said, laughing with her.

They laughed together like they had in their 20s, their worries molehills compared to the mountains they had as adults. Jane leaned into Sean to kiss him again, but this time she didn’t taste the sweet wine. She tasted something wet and metallic. It was blood. She leaned back and screamed when she saw a woman dressed in red and black holding a fire poker. The end of the poker was shoved through Sean’s neck. Jane screamed and back up to the door, only to turn and have the woman blocking her exit. She crumbled to the floor, holding her head, and screaming “Let me out! Let me out!”

Jane sat up in bed as she awakened from her nightmare of a nap. She was sweating and breathing heavily. The dream seemed so real. She looked at the clock. It was already five. She needed to shake that weirdness off and get ready for her dinner with Sean. She did a fifteen-minute meditation to ground herself before the dinner and ghost hunt. Luckily, she had packed her little black dress at the last minute on a whim. It had never failed her. She jumped when she heard a knock at the door. She had forgotten about the dream until then. She opened the door, and it was Sean, just as she was expecting. She did a once over to make sure he was not wearing the same outfit as in her dream.

“What?” Sean asked. “Not dressed up enough for you?”

Jane laughed. “Yea, it’s fine.” She had lowered her expectations for men, but she thought he looked dapper in his black blazer paired with designer jeans and a black shirt. The blazer was lined red inside. She thought they looked good together.

“You look great,” he said, coming in for a hug.

“Thank you,” Jane said.” Let’s go to the restaurant.”

Sean had made reservations for the nicer restaurant in the hotel. Jane would’ve never thought of eating there. She was more of a tavern burger or “the best pizza place in town” type of eater. She was a foodie, though and would enjoy spending time with Sean. The host sat them at a table by the large fireplace in the center of the dining room. He looked more handsome by the fireplace in this lighting, she thought.

“You Ok?” Sean asked. “You seem kind of uptight. You’re not nervous about the ghost hunt, right?”

“No, “Jane said, a little self-conscious under his gaze. “I just had a weird dream.”

“Oh. Well, I figured it wasn’t the ghost hunt. You guys have been on scarier ones, right? Like the Hotel Lamont in Chicago?”

Jane eyes widened, “You listen to our podcast?” The Lamont experience was her worst paranormal investigation, but it was one of their most popular episodes. Most of time, she just sucked it up and talked about it with fans.

“Yes, I do,” he said. “New listener. So you really felt something there or did you see something?”

“I felt and saw a male energy and saw the apparition of a man,” Jane replied. That was the one and only time she had experienced an actual apparition.

“Not a good experience?” Sean asked, reading her body language. As much as Jane was emotionally closed off, her body always gave her away.

“Well, I thought it was strange, but things got even weirder when I got back home. Like strange things happening in my house.”

“Really?” Sean seemed excited about this part, but Jane wasn’t ready to share that experience.

“Yea, it just wasn’t good. I had to get a local woman to come and clear my house. My normal energy cleansing practices were not helping.”

“Oh,” Sean said, picking up on the fact that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Well, I hope Mr. Samuelsson and his wife don’t follow you home from here.”

Jane had heard that the hauntings in room 401 may be the responsibility of the hotel founder, Mr. Samuelsson, but she had not delved deep into the story. She hadn’t heard anything about his wife. “No. I did learn some new cleansing rituals to practice before I leave here. Do you know the story about the Samuelssons?”

“Yes,” Sean said, he moved his body into his favorite storytelling position, staring directly into his audience’s eyes. He leaned over the table, his hands hovering above, almost touching hers.

He told her about how Mr. Reginald Samuelsson had opened the hotel in the 1950’s in response to the population boom and Denver’s increasing popularity. He was a wealthy oil man from Oklahoma who met his wife, Lucy, on a trip to Denver in 1945. He loved her so much that he was willing to relocate to Colorado and try his hand in the hospitality business. Lucy was the real manager of the hotel. She even chose the initial décor for the place. It was so stunning for the area at the time, The Denver Oracle did a spread on it with Mrs. Samuelsson as much a focal piece as the hotel itself. The Samuelssons occupied the fourth floor of the hotel. It was successful from the start and the couple had a prosperous ten years, including the birth of their three children. Then one morning, Mr. Samuelsson returned home from a week-long business trip to find Lucy stabbed to death in her own bathtub. Homicide investigations by the Denver PD were not that great in the mid-20th century and the case went cold within a year without many suspects. Mr. Samuelsson spent the rest of his days on the fourth floor. The employees and guests rarely saw him after that spring day in 1965. His children would come and visit. They introduced him to the grandchildren with little recognition of what that meant on his face. The children ended up hiring a in home nurse until the day he died in 1985. At that point, the hotel needed a remodel and an increase in funds, so the children decided to renovate the fourth floor from their childhood home into more rooms. The reports of odd happenings started almost immediately after the grand re-opening in 1988. Sounds of a woman screaming, bedsheets torn off of sleeping guests, and malfunctioning lightbulbs. Even what looked like blood trickling down the bathroom wall in room 401. That room had the most reports of activity seeing as it was in the same location as Mrs. Samuelsson’s former bathroom. During the pandemic, the Samuelsson children had decided to close the floor to guests permanently. Although lately they have been open to using paranormal reality TV shows and podcasters to record programs there.

“So the police never had any leads?” Jane asked Sean when he was done with his storytelling show.

He leaned back in his chair, “No. There were some rumors in town that it was one of her lovers who had murdered her. Ken Jones.”

“One of her lovers?!” Jane exclaimed.

“Yes, Mrs. Samuelsson was well known to take lovers while the mister was out of town.” Ken said, smirking.

“Oh, that complicates things,” Jane said.

“That’s what the police thought,” Sean said.” Well, we better go change for our night with Mrs. Samuelsson. Unless you’ll be wearing that little black number for ghost hunting?”

The way he looked her up and down when he said that made Jane very warm inside. She smiled and waited for him to pull out her chair and take her arm as they walked back up to their rooms. It felt very natural walking together with Sean, which was odd for Jane. She was normally a no touch person. She had to feel very comfortable to not tense up at the sight of a hand coming towards her looking for affection. When they got to her room, Sean followed her inside. She turned to go into the bathroom when he grabbed her waist and turned her back towards him. Their lips were about an inch apart then when he said, “Jane, you are absolutely the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He kissed her before she could protest the compliment and Jane relaxed in his arms. His lips were soft and sweet like the dream. She could taste the double Old Fashioned he had during dinner on his tongue.

“I better stop,” he said, smiling at her. She smiled back. “Let me go change. I have to meet up with the guys and get some things together before the recording tonight.”

“No worries,” Jane laughed. She always had to play it cool. “I have to meet LeAnn and the girls in an hour anyway. “

“OK see you later.” He kissed her on the lips again and left her to change. Jane’s heart was beating so fast she had to sit down on the bed, or she thought she would faint. This was the worst thing that could happen to her before a ghost hunt where she had to be focused on her job. Her emotions were at a high. A good high, but still Jane didn’t focus well when any of her emotions were high. She had to get herself together. She doffed her first outfit of the night and took a quick cold shower to get herself back from Lalaland. She paired one of her podcast t-shirts with some black jeans for the night’s activities and thought she looked pretty hot for a casual fit. She texted LeAnn to make sure she was ready and headed to her room to pick her up.

“Hey girl, how was your date?” LeAnn greeted her with a smile. She had chosen a similar outfit to Jane’s with a different merch shirt. “Based on that grin, I’d say it went well.”

“Yes, it was a good time. Better than I expected.” Jane said. LeAnn knew that was all she would give up so soon. Jane wasn’t one to open up about a new or old romantic connection so Leann took what she could get. She thought maybe Jane would open up later after the hunt.

They made sure they had all of their pertinent equipment to record good data for an episode: digital recorders, flashlights, infrared cameras, batteries, walkie talkies, IR thermometer, EMF detector, etc. What Jane used the most besides her digital recorder was her notebook. She found that writing down her initial emotions and images she sees in her mind helped immensely in analyzing their experience during a ghost hunt. LeAnn and Jane loaded up their equipment in their backpacks and headed to room 401. The déjà vu started for Jane almost as soon as they stepped onto the elevator. She had such a good date with Sean, she forgot she even had that weird dream this afternoon. It was so intense she started to get a little dizzy during the elevator ride.

“Are you ok?” LeAnn asked as the doors opened to the fourth floor.

“Yea, I think so,” Jane said, using the wall to help her navigate down the hall.

At that moment, Sean was coming down the hallway, presumably from room 401. “Hi, ladies. You feeling ok, Jane?” he asked.

“I started getting déjà vu from my weird dream I had this afternoon,” Jane said. “Then I got dizzy.” She didn’t know why she was always so open with Sean. Normally, she would pretend nothing was wrong and there was nothing to worry about.

“What weird dream?” LeAnn asked.

Sean grabbed the backpack from Jane and led her and LeAnn to room 401. They sat Jane on the bed while LeAnn grabbed her a glass of water. The room was eerily similar to the exact layout of the room in Jane’s dream. Two twin beds, a chest of drawers, no TV, and a lamp and chair next to a table in the corner. Everyone was already there, discussing how they were going to set up the equipment and who would be recording when and where. They stopped when they saw Jane wasn’t feeling well.

“What’s going on?” Emily asked, sitting next to Jane on the bed.

“I don’t know,” Jane said, feeling flustered.” I don’t even know how to explain it.” Her shoulders slumped and Emily rubbed her back. Normally, she would hate this, but it felt comforting at the moment.

“Try us,” Sean said. “I mean I can’t think of a more open-minded audience than a group of paranormal podcasters.”

“Just tell us about the dream, Jane” Maggie said. She had pulled the chair up to the bed like Sean had in her dream.

“OK,” Jane said. She took a deep breath, knowing she was in a safe group to tell the truth. “This afternoon when I took my nap, I had a dream that Sean brought me to this room for the ghost hunt. We took the elevators up to the fourth floor the same way that LeAnn and I just did. That’s when I was getting déjà vu.”

Rob and Dave had stopped prepping at this point and gathered around to hear Jane’s story. She took a large sip of water from the glass LeAnn brought her and finished the rest.

“Well, the next part of the dream gets a little PG-13,” Jane laughed a little trying to ease her tension. “Sean and I kissed…”

“Wait, on your date or in the dream?!” Rob interrupted, never missing the opportunity for a joke. “Sorry. Sorry, Jane.”

“It’s ok, Rob.” Jane appreciated the break in the tension.” Well, when we kissed, in the dream, a woman in red stabbed Sean in the throat with a poker. I tried to escape but she wouldn’t let me leave the room. It felt so real. I was terrified. I thought it wouldn’t affect me on tonight’s hunt, but I’m feeling more emotional about it now.”

“That is an intense dream, Jane,” Maggie said. Jane forgot one of her interests was dream interpretation.

Just at that moment there were two loud bangs on the wall of the room. Loud enough to shake the pictures and rattle the windows. The teams paused, wide-eyed for about two seconds before everyone went into high gear, gathering their equipment to document what was happening. Rob and Dave grabbed their EMF and digital recorders and went to room 403 to see if they could find the source of the bangs. Emily joined them with her IR camera and IR thermometer.

“Don’t forget your walkie talkies,” LeAnn said, handing one to Emily. “Jane why don’t you stay here with me, Sean, and Maggie.”

“That’s fine with me,” Jane said. LeAnn knew she usually liked to be where the action was, but even Jane thought in this moment staying in 401 and writing down her experiences would probably be better for their documentation later. She was feeling a lot of emotions and wasn’t sure if they all belonged to her. She could get overwhelmed with the emotions of the people she was ghost hunting with or maybe the emotions of other entities. She was feeling a large swell of anger that she was pretty sure was not coming from her.

“We’ll be right here with you,” LeAnn reassured her, taking Maggie’s place next to her on the bed as she assisted the others with equipment. LeAnn knew that normally Jane would’ve been the one from their podcast who went into the other room to investigate, but in this situation, she wanted to make sure Jane was emotionally safe.

Sean and Maggie sat on the other bed using it as their “communication headquarters.” Jane watched as they made sure their screens were showing what the others were seeing from room 403. She started writing in her journal, but the only word she could manage to write onto the paper was ANGER in large caps. She knew she wasn’t angry and the other people in the room with her were not angry, so she assumed it had to be another entity. Maybe there was a certain entity that didn’t want her to talk about her dream with the others. She had found in times like these, it was best for her to go into a quiet meditative state to sort out the source of the emotion. She took three deep breaths and let out a large exhale on the last breath to quiet her mind. She sat quiet for about twenty seconds before an image of a woman in a red dress appeared in her mind’s eye. She had very dark hair in a bouffant style and pale skin. Are you Lucy Samuelsson? Jane asked the woman. The woman smirked in return, then turned, snapped her fingers and was gone. At that same moment, Jane heard a scream from room 403 where Emily, Rob, and Dave had gone. The lights in both rooms had gone out.

LeAnn and Sean turned their flashlights on as they instinctively ran out the door to see what was happening next door with the others. Jane turned her flashlight on and called the front desk to inquire about the power outage.

“Yes, ma’am,” the friendly front desk attendant said, “Well I haven’t received any complaints from anyone else. We’ll look into it, but you may just have to cancel your little ghost hunt. Or wouldn’t this be the perfect conditions for a ghost hunt?”

Jane saw she wasn’t going to get much immediate help from the front desk crew, so she decided to head to room 403. When she got there, everyone was surrounding Emily who was sitting on the closed toilet with a wet towel on her head. Jane could see she had a large cut on her head that was bleeding.

“Oh, sorry, Jane” LeAnn apologized. “I guess we forgot about you in a rush to get over here.”

“No worries,” Jane replied. “What happened? I called the front desk. I’m not sure they will be able to get the power back tonight.”

“Well, good thing we brought all these extra batteries,” Sean said.

Emily answered Jane’s question. “When we got into the room, I thought I saw something in the bathroom, so I went over to take pics with the IR camera. I decided to use the IR thermometer at the same time to focus my camera shots. I picked up on something of a cooler temperature on the thermometer and it…well, it kind of was shaped like a woman with a big bouffant hairstyle.”

Jane’s eyes widened, but she let Emily finish her story.

“Then, I turned to tell the boys what I saw, and the towel rack swung out from the wall and hit me on my head. Hard.” Emily said, pointing to her cut, that had slowed its flow of blood. “I mean it swung out from the wall, Jane. It was weird. There was no way it wasn’t intentional.”

Jane believed Emily. She was sincere and the fear in her eyes and voice was all Jane needed to see. “I think it’s Lucy Samuelsson,” she said.

“Samuelsson?” Emily asked. “Like the owner of the hotel?”

“The original owner’s wife, “Sean answered. “She was murdered on this floor.”

“I’m pretty sure she was the lady in the red dress in my dream too,” Jane added.

Just then they heard a loud thud in the other room next to 403. Room 405. Even though it was dark, and they only had the light of their flashlights, Jane could see them all staring at each other.

“What the hell?” Dave finally said. “What is she gonna do? Keep us running room to room all night?”

“I got an idea,” Rob said from a dark corner. Jane almost forgot he was there. “Why don’t we split up? Two of us in 401, two of us here, and the other two go investigate the next room.”

“This sounds like a set up at the beginning of a horror movie,” Maggie said.

“I agree, Maggie, but I don’t have a better plan and it does sound logical if you don’t think of every horror movie you’ve ever seen.” Jane said.

“Well, I’m on board with the plan,” Dave said.

“Look, if we’re all in this room, we’re missing stuff in room 401, and vice versa,” Sean said. “And now we’re missing stuff in 405. Let’s get as much footage and content as we can for these podcasts.”

Reluctantly the other four agreed as they didn’t have any good ideas either. They decided Sean and Jane would have room 401; LeAnn and Maggie would stay in room 403; and Rob, Dave, and Emily would explore the noise in room 405. They all would have live video feeds and walkie-talkie to stay in communication.

Jane almost protested getting stuck in room 401, the room in her dream, but at least Sean would be there. And though she had not seen room 405, she imagined it would look exactly like 401 so what was the difference. All of these rooms were in her dream. She tried to focus on the positive of getting to spend more alone time with Sean. Hopefully, it would just be them and not Mrs. Samuelsson too, Jane thought.

As Rob and Dave were heading to the door, the electricity returned to the floor. There was a collective sigh of relief from the group and even some smiles. Staying overnight in a haunted hotel room with electricity was way less intimidating than staying in a pitch-black room. Emily came with them to grab Rob and Dave’s belongings and the equipment they would need. Sean helped her carry the items to room 405 while Jane started to set up the equipment for their room. She wanted to keep her mind busy in that room while she was alone. She was less likely to have an experience when her mind was focused on a task. She was so focused on getting everything ready she didn’t realize Sean had been gone for 15 minutes until she heard the door open again.

“They got some weird stuff going in that room,” he reported back. “I think we’re gonna get some good content tonight.”

“Really? Like what?” Jane asked excitedly.

He didn’t answer, but walked over to her and gently brought her face to his in a soft kiss. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to do that since we kissed in your room.”

Jane giggled. Dammit, she hated when she acted like a schoolgirl. “Don’t ever apologize for kissing me,” she replied, “but really what’s going on in that room?”

Sean laughed at her persistence in getting answers. It was one of the things he had loved about her in school. He knew she would be a great journalist one day. He thought it was funny (or fate?) that they both ended up in the spooky podcast world. “OK, ok, little Miss Journalist. I’ll tell you.”

Apparently, room 405 may have the most activity. Rob started picking up activity on the EMF reader as soon as they went to investigate. The little needle seemed to really vibrate near the shared wall with room 403, between the two twin beds. This was also where they found the lamp that sat on the bedside table fallen onto the ground. When Dave picked it up, he noticed it had been bolted to the table initially and been torn off the table by a force strong enough to rip the bolts out. They all presumed this was the source of the loud “thud” they had heard from room 403, but this did not explain the loss of power on the floor. They would likely have to wait until tomorrow when they could talk to the hotel staff to get more answers about the outage.

“Hey everyone! It’s team 403,” LeAnn’s voice said from their walkie talkies. “Just checking we have good communication and video for everyone. We can see team 405. Team 401 where are you?”

“Team 405 here,” Emily replied. “We can hear you loud and clear and Maggie is giving the thumbs up in the video feed from 403. We can’t see 401 either.”

“Team 401 here! Sorry, I forgot to turn on our video feed,” Jane said, walking over to the table to set up her and Sean’s end of the video feed.

Once she turned on her feed, she could see LeAnn and Emily’s faces and the oddly similar backgrounds of rooms 403 and 405.

“There you are!” LeAnn said.

“I was thinking you and Sean had turned off your video intentionally,” Maggie yelled, appearing behind LeAnn in her video feed. Emily and LeAnn giggled.

“Good one, Maggie” Jane had to admit.

“OK everyone, leave your feeds on, keep recording, keep documenting. See you in the morning unless Mrs. Samuelsson pays a visit again,” LeAnn said.

“Byeeee,” Emily said.

“See you guys later,” Jane said. She moved the camera to point towards the bathroom, as she thought that would be where the most activity in room 401 would be. She wondered if LeAnn’s sign off would provoke Mrs. Samuelsson’s ghost to make another appearance.

“I’m going to try and meditate to see if this room wants to reveal any more information on what happened on this floor of the hotel,” she said to Sean.

“That’s a great idea,” he said. “Would you mind if I take pictures with my camera while you meditate? I think want to use the EMF reader too.”

“No, I don’t mind,” Jane said. “That’s a great idea.”

She sat on the bed and tried to slow her breathing and relax her body into a state where her nervous system was in a parasympathetic state. This was a task Jane had to really focus on as many of her lifetime experiences had made “fight or flight” to be how her nervous system usually operated. Tuning out everything in the room, including Sean, she inhaled for four counts and exhaled for four counts repeatedly until she was so relaxed, she could only hear her breathing and she was focused on her inner eye. Going into this deep state of relaxation, Jane’s senses were completely focused on her inner mind’s eye, she could not hear, see, smell, feel, or taste anything that was actually in her body’s physical presence. All of her senses were focused inside of her mind. About thirty seconds after going into this state, she felt another presence near her. She initially thought this was Lucy Samuelsson making another appearance, but Jane got more of a male energy from this entity than the one from her dream and the bathroom here. She also didn’t feel anger like with the previous encounters, but a deep sadness. At that moment a man showed himself to her in her mind. He was wearing denim overalls and a plaid shirt. He was dressed like a construction or blue-collar worker from the 1960’s. He was a handsome Latino man with dark hair and features. He reached his hand out to show something to Jane. When he uncurled his fist, Jane saw he was holding a gold necklace with a diamond-encrusted “L” charm. Jane got the sense he wanted her to take it but not for herself. He wanted her to return it to someone else. Its owner.

“Jane!” Sean’s voice yelled, abruptly pulling Jane and her senses back to the room. He was kneeling in front of her on the bed, his face only inches away from hers.

“Oh, hey” Jane said. She shared with him what she had experienced in her meditative state.

“Really?” he said. “That is crazy. I was in the bathroom taking some shots with the camera just to see if I could get anything and when I came back out your eyes were rolling into the back of your head, and you were making a humming noise.”

“What? I didn’t sense that at all,” Jane said. She had just assumed she was sitting on the bed cross-legged in a normal meditative state.

“How are you feeling now?” he asked.

“A little drained and I probably won’t be able to stop thinking of that man and the necklace,” she said.

“Well, let’s rest a little. We’ve had a lot of excitement the past couple of hours.”

Jane looked at her phone and saw it was already 2:00 A.M. She didn’t understand how the time had gone by so quickly. Sean went to get Jane a glass of water while she jotted everything she could remember into her journal. She hoped her notes would be helpful later. Sean came back with the water and sat next to her on the bed. She took the glass and drank a huge swig, not realizing how thirsty she was. She sat back and leaned onto Sean’s shoulder. He held her and stroked her hair while they cuddled on the bed. She thought it felt nice and tried to remember the last time she felt this safe and comfortable with the opposite sex. It definitely wasn’t any time in the recent past. Most of her recent dating life included superficial dates with emotionally stunted men that she would sleep with once or twice then block their numbers from her phone. She sighed and kissed Sean on the lips to let him know how much she appreciated this feeling. He responded in kind and soon they were back to their make out session. Kissing him felt good and she could tell that they both wanted to keep going. Sean leaned back and pressed his finger up to his lips reminding her they would have to be quiet as the recorder was still on. Luckily the video was pointed to the bathroom, away from the beds.

Sean adjusted his body so that he was on top of her and began to feel up her T-shirt. Jane’s body responded with a tingling sensation, and she moved her hand to a belt loop on his jeans, pulling his hips closer into hers. Sean sighed into her ear and the feel of his breath on her neck made her start to get wet. Sean thrust his pelvis into her, and she could feel he was getting there too. He unbuttoned his pants and tossed them off while she removed her shirt and jeans. She pulled his shirt over his head, and they kissed again. Sean reached behind her back to unclasp her bra while she grabbed his tongue into her mouth. She rubbed herself on the growing bulge in his boxer briefs, her breath and heart rate speeding up. He leaned over to grab something out of his jean pocket and smiled at her. She smiled back when she realized it was a condom. She was glad they were on the same page. She removed his boxers and placed the condom on for him after giving him a couple of licks for good luck. He pressed her back onto the bed and slid her panties off. He put his finger on her lips to remind her to be quiet again before he entered her.

He felt amazing. The perfect size for Jane. He wrapped his arms around her and began to rock back and forth. Jane’s hips responded naturally, and it felt so good, she knew she was going to have a hard time being quiet, so she made sure to place part of the pillow in her mouth. Their bodies moved in a natural rhythm, the friction between them perfectly arousing. At this point the movements became more intense, and the bed started to respond. Luckily, the headboards were not attached to the actual bed or else everyone would think another paranormal event was occurring in room 401. They stared into each other’s eyes while Sean began to move faster. Jane could feel herself filling up. It wouldn’t be too long now.

“Are you close?” he whispered.

She nodded. He began to kiss her neck and rub his hands over her breasts. She moved his hand towards her nipples, and he gave them a little squeeze. This made Jane climax so hard she startled him. She was very glad she had the pillow at that point. Jane was loud when she came. Sean came immediately after that and also used the pillow. He let out a sigh of satisfaction and exhaustion after and fell into Jane’s arms. They lay like that, their chests heaving for a couple of minutes afterwards, enjoying their entwined energy.

“Hey! Are y’all seeing that in there?” Rob’s voice came over the walkie-talkie, interrupting their mood and bringing them back to the reality of why they were there.

“Seeing what?” LeAnn asked back over the walkie-talkie.

“It looks like someone is standing in the shower of the bathroom in room 401, but I know I saw Sean walk out a little bit ago. Sean? Are you there? Jane? Team 401?” Rob asked, trying to reach them.

Sean and Jane rushed to put their clothes on away from the video before rushing over to the bathroom to see if anything was there. Jane grabbed the walkie-talkie.

“Hey guys. We don’t see anything in the bathroom,” Jane said turning in a 360-degree circle around the bathroom. She didn’t see anything, but she felt that angry energy she had felt previously in the room and had the feeling Lucy was back.

“Well, keep your eye on it. I’ll let you know if I see anything else,” Rob said.

Sean went and got the camera and took pictures of the bathroom. He grabbed the IR equipment also. “Let’s turn out the lights and see if we can get anything in the IR spectrum.”

Jane woke up the next morning with a peaceful breath enjoying Sean’s arms still wrapped around her. He was already awake and kissed her on the forehead as she opened her eyes. “How’d you sleep?” he asked.

“Surprisingly well for being in a haunted hotel room,” Jane said.

“Well, that’s all thanks to me,” Sean said with a cocky grin.

“Of course,” she giggled. Ugh. There it was again. That girly giggle. She hated it but loved that he brought it out of her.

“I am ready to get the hell out of this room, though” Sean said. “I’m hungry. I wonder if the others are up.”

Jane and Sean got up and collected their belongings and equipment. It was close to 10 A.M. and Jane was in agreement with Sean that it was time to get out of this room. There was a knock at the door and Jane assumed it was one of the other teams coming to get them up. She answered only to find a hotel concierge.

“Good morning,” the young lady said. “I am sorry, but you all will have to evacuate this floor right now. We’ve had an emergency in the hotel.”

“Oh!” Jane said. “What kind of emergency?”

“Just a maintenance emergency. No one is hurt, but we had an issue with our indoor water park.” The concierge said.

“What issue?” Sean asked. The “just” didn’t match the look of anxiety on the concierge’s face.

“Two of the large pipes fell from the ceiling this morning causing a lot of flooding in the rooms on the other part of this floor. You all got lucky that it didn’t affect these three rooms,” she said. “Actually, these are the only three rooms on this floor that weren’t affected.”

Jane and Sean exchanged looks before gathering their things and following the concierge into the hallway, rounding up the teams from rooms 403 and 405. They greeted the others who looked like they were ready to get off of the fourth floor. No one seemed bothered about being rushed out of the rooms. The crew from room 405 seemed especially drained.

“How are you feeling?” Jane asked Emily, who had dark circles under eyes. She could see a large bruise and cut where the towel rack had hit her head.

“Ugh, we had an…. interesting night,” she answered. She glanced towards the concierge. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

Jane nodded. The orange and brown carpet started to squish with the floodwater as they got closer to the elevators. Jane wondered how much bacteria would be stuck to her shoes after this. It grossed her out. She was happy to get on the elevator with everyone and get back to her room. She wanted to shower and freshen up after staying in that old hotel room. They had to walk to the lobby to get to their side of the hotel and it was packed with firefighters and maintenance workers. There were audible gasps from the group as they turned to see what had happened in that part of the hotel. A portion of the ceiling of the first floor was exposed where part of the plumbing system had fallen through. The floor below was flooded, and the stench was overwhelming for Jane. She was sensitive to odors and had the instinct to run to her room, until something caught her attention. A couple of detectives and cops from the Denver PD talking to a short bald man in a gray suit. The man in the suit turned towards them as they came nearer and began to approach.

“You got that floor all cleared, Julia?” he asked our concierge. “These detectives need to get up there.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Samuelsson,” Julia replied. “These were the only guests over there and as you can see, they’re all out.”

Mr. Samuelsson turned towards the group as Jane and Sean exchanged a glance. This was Reginald and Lucy’s grandson. “Hi there, folks! I am so sorry about the inconvenience,” he said. “I hope nothing interfered with your investigation last night.”

Jane was surprised he knew about their investigation and that he was comfortable with it. She wouldn’t know how she would react if people were trying to investigate the ghost of her grandparents in the hotel she had inherited from them.

“No, sir,” Dave answered for the group. “In fact, we had a nice night over there.” Jane was unsure if he was being sincere or not. Well, at least she and Sean had a good night.

“Well, there’s been a bit of surprise,” Mr. Samuelsson said, turning back to Julia. “Unfortunately, the maintenance crew found some bones in the rubble. They think they might be human. That’s why the detectives are here. They’ll need to collect them for testing at their lab.”

Julia’s eyes widened, glancing towards the group who were all eagerly listening now.

“It’s OK,” he continued. “I want to get out ahead of the story anyway. I’m going to release a statement to the media this afternoon. You guys don’t publish your podcasts that quickly, right?”

“Well, it depends,” Dave answered. “We sometimes…” He trailed off when he realized everyone was staring at him. “Yea it takes about one to two days,” he said changing his answer.

“Perfect, we’ll be well ahead of it by then,” Mr. Samuelsson assured Julia whose face relaxed only slightly. She seemed more skeptical of the podcasters than he was.

“Well, thank you, Mr. Samuelsson,” LeAnn said, turning on her Southern charm. “We have enjoyed our stay here this weekend and I'm sure the rest of our stay will be just as nice.”

“Of course, ma’am,” he replied. “We will make sure the rest of your stay is enjoyable. When do you folks leave?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Jane answered. She was somewhat relieved by that. She wanted to spend more time with Sean but wanted to get away from this hotel too.

“Well OK!” he said louder than necessary. “You guys enjoy the rest of your stay here at The Summit.”

The group split off from Mr. Samuelsson and Julia and headed back to their respective rooms. They planned to shower, freshen up, then go over the data they collected together in one of the conference rooms. Julia had assured them the room was not affected by the flood. Maggie and Emily offered to order and bring lunch which Jane was very appreciative of their organizational skills. Her first priority was a shower and then she wanted to journal her paranormal experiences from the night before.

The teams met in the conference room with everyone getting there about an hour later. Maggie and Emily took a little longer as they were getting the food for everyone.

“Yes! Middle Eastern. My favorite,” Jane said.

Everyone grabbed their shawarmas and sat around the large conference table with their notes and equipment in front of them. Rob and Dave set up the projector to display their images and videos for everyone to see while they discussed what happened.

“OK, I think the best way is to go around the table and have each team describe how their night went chronologically,” Dave said.

“That sounds like a good plan,” Emily said. “Why don’t we start with Sean and Jane since room 401 is where we all started. Let’s pick up after you two left room 403 and returned to your room.”

“Well, I mostly took pictures with the digital and IR cameras and used the EVP,” Sean started.” I was listening to the EVP recordings for a second when we went back to our rooms. Check this out.”

Sean played a recording from their room from about 4 A.M. when they both were definitely asleep. The recorder was hooked up to the conference room speakers, so the background noise was loud, but Jane thought she heard a man’s voice speaking.

“Wait, play it again, Sean,” she requested to get another listen. The others nodded in agreement.

The voice was muffled under the static of the recording, but Jane could swear she could hear a man saying Please give it to Lucy. Please give it to Lucy. Twice, just like that.

“Please give it to Lucy?” she said, looking around the table to see if the others heard it.

“That’s what I wrote down too,” Sean said. Emily, Maggie, and Rob nodded in agreement.

“Sorry, I’m partially deaf so I’m never good at the EVP stuff,” Dave said. Jane knew that EVPs were also not LeAnn’s specialty either, so Jane understood why she didn’t voice an opinion.

“Give what to Lucy? And who is Lucy?” LeAnn asked.

Jane and Sean looked at each other. “Well, while Sean was recording the EVPs and taking pictures, I decided to meditate to see if I could pick up on anything in the room.” Jane went on to explain to others about the man she had seen while meditating and the necklace he had shown her. Sean then went on to tell them about the history of the hotel and the original owners. Some of them knew the history already.

“Lucy Samuelsson! The owner’s wife that was murdered?” Emily said. “Do you think the bones have anything to do with it? Who is that man I wonder? She had a lot of lovers you know.”

Jane loved the way Maggie got excited about connecting all the dots, but she could see the men and LeAnn were a little hesitant. She understood. Especially just meeting Lucy and Reginald’s grandson. The human impact of what they were doing got a little more realistic.

“Well, let’s look at what else we have,” LeAnn said. “Is that all that happened in your room last night?”

“I took like fifty pictures with the digital and IR cameras, but none of them turned out. They’re all blurry like this,” Sean said. He shuffled through the pictures on the projector. All showed what looked like the hotel room, but with a big, gray fuzzy cloud blurring out most of the picture.

“Some electromagnetic distortion maybe?” Jane asked.

“Yea the EMF reader was going crazy. Mostly in the bathroom. What happened in room 403 after we left you ladies?” Sean asked Maggie and LeAnn.

Jane knew the quicker they could get the others talking about their experience, the less likely chance they would figure out she and Sean had had sex. Not that she cared if they knew, but she didn’t want it to be the focus and she wasn’t one to kiss and tell anyway.

“Well, sad to say, not much after the scream,” Maggie said, disappointed. “We stayed up until 3 A.M. and took some pictures but got nothing on the EMF reader or cameras. I slept through the night pretty hard.”

“Yea, we had a similar experience in 405, “Rob said. “But we did set up the EVP recorder in our bathroom to record while we slept. Listen to this.”

Rob played his recording over the conference speakers like Sean had. His was softer and harder to hear for Jane. She couldn’t really make it out. But apparently, LeAnn could as she sat wide-eyed at the table.

“What?” Jane asked her. “What’d you hear?”

“I think it was, ‘Don’t kill me, Reggie.’ Did anyone else hear that?” LeAnn asked.

“Play it again, Rob,” Sean asked. “I think maybe I hear it.”

Rob played the EVP again, a little bit louder so much so, Jane was sure they could hear it outside the closed conference doors. This time Maggie, Jane, and Dave confirmed they heard the same thing.

“This is crazy!” Maggie yelled. “What if Reginald murdered his wife and her lover? The man Jane saw while she was meditating? We have to tell Mr. Samuelsson!”

“Are you crazy?” Rob said. “We can’t go up to this man and accuse his grandfather of murdering his cheating grandmother and her lover. I like having my job. We’d lose all credibility.”

Sean smirked, as he thought all of this was silly, but he understood where Rob was coming from. “Ok,” he said. “Let’s just put our evidence out there on our podcasts and see what the audiences think. We don’t need to be the ones drawing conclusions and making accusations. We can just put what we have out there. Especially if Mr. Samuelsson is going to release a public statement Monday anyway. That can only help us.”

They all agreed with Sean and got down to recording their crossover episodes in the conference room that afternoon. It took until late evening with two trips for more coffee and snacks, but they got through it.

Jane actually thought it was one of the best episodes she and LeAnn ever had. She was excited to release it later that week when they got back home to Atlanta. She just had to do some final touches on the audio, and they could publish it that Friday. She was exhausted when she got back to her room and ready for a real night’s sleep, but her heart still jumped with excitement when she heard two knocks on her door. It was, of course, Sean as she had expected, and she let him into her room to spend one more night together before they returned to their home cities the next day.

Back in Atlanta, later that week, Jane watched as their newly published episode was streamed and downloaded over 5000 times that day. A record for a premiere episode for their podcast. Mr. Samuelsson had made a public statement and the drama of the hotel flood combined with the discovered bones and the hotel’s history made it a popular topic. Not just in Denver, but the story made national news. Ghosts with the Most and the Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun podcasts also reached record numbers of downloads, streams, and new listeners. Jane was proud of the work they all had done.

About six months later, she received a message on their group text they had created after the conference. Though the text messages in that group had been slowing down as time moved further away, that text had sent them all back into a texting frenzy. The DNA results of the bones found in The Summit Hotel had been identified by the Denver police. It matched a man named Raul Gonzalez. He was an interior decorator hired by Reginald Samuelsson to do some remodeling for the hotel in the early 60’s. Apparently, he had worked closely with Lucy Samuelsson. So close, hotel employees had even speculated about their relationship. The police suspected Reginald had something to do with Mr. Gonzalez’s demise as his favorite hunting knife was found in the same debris as the bones. Seeing that Mrs. Samuelsson was also stabbed to death, they thought it was pretty obvious what had occurred though obviously no one would ever be held accountable for the demise of the two lovers. Jane thought of the Samuelssons’ grandson, still running the hotel where such a family tragedy had occurred. She sent him a healing energy of peace and health. She couldn’t imagine dedicating her life to a place where her grandfather had murdered her grandmother. That same day she received an unexpected package in the mail. The return address was The Summit Hotel in Denver. Inside the package was a small black box holding a thin gold necklace with an “L” charm.