Night Auditor

Meredith (15)

"How does she just disappear?" Abby cried.

It had taken me a good five minutes waving my arms around before I felt my hands touch the edge of the front desk counter. In the darkness I could hear Abby and Lily's outcry for this Gale who I assume was the little girl they checked in with.

I slid my way around the counter and grabbed and pushed things out of the way until I felt the hard plastic handle of the drawer beneath the desk. Quickly I pulled out the first drawer I could reach, its contents a noisy rattle in the dark. I reached in with my hand, found out to my dismay that it was the supplies drawer when my fingers brushed between thin pencils. I closed the drawer, more so slammed it shut, and pulled out the drawer beneath it. Two seconds later, the flashlight was in my hand, blindingly bright in the dark just like the Busy Bee sign on I-10 a few days ago.

A few twists and turns before the spotlight landed on Abby Soupley, slumped on the foot of the front door.

"I think he took her, Marilyn. He definitely took her."

Was I Marilyn?

"Wait-- Lils. Where's Lily?"

I did a quick 360 with the flashlight but there was nothing but the blackest of black shadows, not even a pinch of moonlight shining through the window. Not even the ghost of Billy I could see in this darkness. It must have been just as dark out there.

"I don't see her."

"She was just here," Abby was heaving now, a step before pure panic. "What if he took her too?"

"Who?"

"The boogeyman! The one I saw in our room when I woke up."

I wanted to say that it was an absurd thought, that she was insane and there was absolutely no possibility of a boogeyman kidnapping her daughter and... wife? Partner? But with my dead husband occasionally paying me a visit, I felt I should be the last one to talk. Instead I said, "I'm sure she's here somewhere. She's probably looking for Gale."

"Oh God," I didn't need to shine the flashlight on her to know the defeated look on her face. "Gale's gone and now Lily. What the fuck is happening?"

"Everything's okay," I said, but what I really wanted to say was that she was drawing conclusions too quickly. "I'm sure they're both fine. No one can come in and out right now. Not in this weather."

It was true. Or I believed it was true. The narrow bridge right before anyone could get to the hotel was already questionable when the skies were clear and blue. And Peter Burrows said it was almost flooded. No one could get back through town so the only way out away from the property would be east, towards the national park's entrance.

I helped her up, debated with her for longer than necessary that she should stay in the lobby while I went looking for Lily and Gale, leaving Abby alone with the worst of her conclusions.