Secrets of Her Fire. (J. P. March.)

1.

Cassie's eyes flittered up as her father snatched her phone, pausing her music and then slipping the device into the pocket of his sleek black trousers. She huffed, he was always overdramatic.

"Yessir?" She asked, hiding the bite in her tone.

"We're almost to the hotel. Which means we'll be meeting with the bank." He tells her.

Cassie shrugs, her dark blue eyes looking at her legs which were covered partially by a black skirt. "I'm not the one who's buying the old building." She mumbles.

He sighs, looking at her in the rear view mirror. "I'm buying this place because you always loved it." He said, carmel eyes narrowed in concern.

"And you probably have intentions of ruining it's beauty with arrangements for it to become an apartment building." She grumbled, half tempted to unpause her music with her ear bud.

"Actually, no. I'll be purchasing it, but after a couple of months I'll be signing the hotel over to you." He said, surprising Cassie.

She had just graduated college, and now her father was dumping an entire hotel on her? She didn't know whether this was paradise or hell.

-

"The establishment comes with a bar, two large kitchens, a reception desk, four honeymoon suites, staff, a cellar, and an attic." The banker, 34 year old Trisha Parker, explained as she led Cassie and her father Jordan Louis toward the reception desk.

"Staff?" Cassie asked, blue eyes looking at the taller woman in curiosity.

"Oh- yes. A handful of cooks, housekeepers, and two receptionists." Trisha says, taking out a mirror to fix her mascara.

Cassie could never quite get along with Trisha after catching the woman in her father's bed after her mother died.

Jordan nodded to his daughter, and she tossed her ginger hair over her shoulder before brushing past Trisha and heading towards the room behind the reception desk.

Inside she found millions of documents and ledgers on shelves, some fiction books strewn around, a newspaper, and three people. Two had a darker aura, signifying they were spirits.

The other had a simple red aura, and Cassie didn't know what that meant.

The one with a red aura acknowledged Cassie's presence first, she was an older woman with grey hair, glasses, slightly overweight and was wearing a light yellow soft tshirt with loose jeans and a cardigan over her tshirt. Her vibe felt motherly, protective, but also fearful and somber. Trauma rolled off of her in small waves, obviously it was something the woman wanted to hide.

The shorter of the spirits was a woman who wore a maid outfit, her bushy ginger hair was only slightly darker than Cassie's and was worn in tight slightly staticky curls that fell at her shoulders. She also had deep brown eyes, pale skin and few freckles that danced around her cheeks.

The taller spirit was a male dressed as a female, and Cassie loved that this spirit had the bravery to be a cross dresser. He was bald, with blueish eyes and olive skin. He wore a black knee length dress that was made of thin fabric and had sequins and false diamonds decorating the fabric and making small designs, with a diamond neck lace, sapphire earrings, and light grey heels. He raised an eyebrow at Cassie's appearance.

"Oh, hello young lady." The ginger spirit spoke up.

"Uh-.. hello." Cassie said.

"I'm Cassandra, my dad bought the place." Cassie said, and finally all three relaxed and gave her a smile.

"I'm Iris." The older lady greeted, pushing her glasses up a little.

"Liz." The man- woman? Said.

"Evers. Mrs. Hazel Evers. I'm head of housekeeping here at the Hotel Cortez." The ginger said, she gave Cassie the impression she had something... mental, going on.

Anymore, who didn't?