Chapter 3
Devin went pale.
He pleaded, "Look, don't make this worse. Business is bad enough as it is. If we get shut down for ten days, or even two weeks, my boss will fire me.
"And Halloween is in two days. We can't afford to close now.
"Fine, I'll show you the footage, okay?"
He sighed and led me to the security room. As he rewound the tape, he muttered under his breath, clearly annoyed.
He said, "See? From six o'clock, you guys are the only ones who entered. I wasn't lying.
"No female guests. No female staff.
"Maybe your husband really did run into a ghost in there."
As we scanned the footage, we finally spotted Ryker.
He was in a grim bedroom, a large bed against the wall, stains like dried blood smeared across it.
In the corner, a corpse lay slumped, an axe buried in its forehead.
Ryker sat bare on the bed, a look of pure satisfaction on his face, lost in thought.
Apart from him and the NPC playing dead, there was no one else in the room.
"That's strange. Where's the female ghost?" I asked.
"You must've imagined it. There's no female ghost here," Devin replied, shrugging.
He switched on his earpiece. "Don't believe me? Ask Timothy."
He pointed at the guy lying motionless on the floor and called out, "Timothy."
"Yeah, what is it?" Timothy's voice crackled through.
He sat up abruptly.
Ryker jolted in surprise.
"Holy shit. Who's there?" he blurted out.
He scrambled to pull on his clothes and bolted from the room.
As Ryker rushed out, Timothy spat on the ground in disgust.
"Damn. What rotten luck! I met a pervert," he grumbled.
"Pervert? I'm about to ask you. Have you seen her enter with a female ghost in her wedding gown?" I pressed.
Timothy scowled, "Female ghost? Please. Even a roach in a dress would've run. Who gets turned on in a place like this?"
He went on, still fuming.
He'd been lying there, playing dead, when Ryker walked in and started undressing like no one was watching.
Timothy nearly jumped up, thinking Ryker was about to do something creepy.
But instead, Ryker climbed into bed, pulled the covers over himself, and started moaning loudly.
The bed shook violently. Timothy was too stunned to move.
He didn't know what was going on. Ryker seemed to get it on by himself.
He totally ignored Timothy, who was lying on the floor.
Timothy was so embarrassed.
He wasn't sure if he should get up and call Ryker out.
But honestly, that'd just crank the awkwardness up to eleven.
So he stayed put, pretending to be dead.
After hearing this, Devin was speechless.
"Your husband is something else. Can he get that worked up all alone?" He paused, grimaced, and took a step back. "Seriously, what kind of couple are you? Don't tell me I'm part of some twisted roleplay?"
My face went pale.
I snatched the remote and scrubbed back through the footage.
There I was, hiding near the coffin, and there was Ryker, leaning against the wall, talking intently to the air.
A gasp escaped me. The remote clattered to the floor.
"I'm not making this up. I saw him with that female ghost. She was right there..." My voice trembled.
All my anger melted into pure dread. Chills shot down my spine.
Devin gasped. "Holy shit. So he's not a pervert. He really did run into a ghost?"
We stared at each other and then screamed in unison, "Ghost!"
We bolted from the security room into the lobby and ran straight into Ryker, who was just walking out, fastening his belt, a smug look on his face.
When he saw me, his expression turned awkward.
He forced a smile.
Ryker began, "Honey, it's not what you think.
"Her brother died. She said I look just like him. She started crying, so I went to comfort her.
"We only talked for a few minutes. Nothing happened."