The Many Ghosts of Donahue Byrnes by Laura McLoughlin

Author:Laura McLoughlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Books UK
Published: 2024-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

chapter 20

predator

BALLINADRUM HOTEL WAS WELL-USED to regulars. It knew the one-night-stay stopovers and the gentle to-the-country escapees.

The couple which entered its golden doors, today, however, were difficult to place – at least, as far as Mia was concerned.

They looked ordinary enough, save for their large backpacks, stamped with brightly coloured patches. In all likelihood, Ballinadrum was just a stopover town for them. They would probably be gone by the morning, Mia thought as she glided through the lobby, off in the direction of some bigger, brighter town.

But then the woman said to Sonia at the front desk, ‘For the week.’

Mia took a second glance. No one spent more than a few days in Ballinadrum Hotel, especially not those as young or adventurous-looking as this pair.

‘Never,’ Mia could hear Sonia tell them. ‘But I’ll let you know if that changes.’

Whatever the topic of conversation was, the two laughed good-naturedly, before taking their keys and cutting ahead of Mia to the lift.

Mia hopped in before the doors closed.

It was the woman who spoke first.

‘Say,’ she said as though already in the middle of a conversation, ‘you work here, right?’

Mia folded her hands in front of her. ‘Yes.’

There was a charged look between the couple, before the man asked her, ‘And have you ever . . . seen any ghosts?’

‘Ghosts?’

‘Yes, spirits. We read that this place was especially haunted, and, well, we’ve been to lots of haunted hotels, but we’ve never actually seen anything. We’re hoping this will be our first real encounter.’

Mia picked out the woman’s accent then: a little lower than her own, a little rounder. Scotland, she believed, though no notion as to whereabouts.

‘Where did you read that?’ she asked.

‘Oh, this website,’ the woman went on, reaching into her back pocket for her phone. ‘I don’t know if you’re into the supernatural, but it’s the best if you want up-to-date information on hot spots.’

‘Hot spots,’ Mia repeated softly.

The woman swiped at her phone and then passed it to Mia. On her screen was the familiar grey text of GhostHuntHub.com – and in the corner, a white counter that told Mia that she was the nine thousand and sixty-seventh person to see it.

That was four thousand more than when she last checked.

‘You came here,’ she said, ‘for this?’

‘For the ghosts,’ the man said cheerfully.

The lift pinged as it reached the third floor, and Mia gratefully disembarked.

If only they knew, she thought to herself, where she was headed now.

She took extra care to check over both shoulders before she slipped through the passageway.

In the ballroom, she made the ghosts her offering.

They declined.

‘But—’ Mia began to reason, before recalling what a fruitless exercise it would be.

Instead, she returned the packet to her satchel with a sheepish apology and more disappointment than she cared to say – because, in her opinion at the very least, they were good biscuits. They had scalloped edges, a chocolate cream centre, and, best of all, real sugar and calories and crunch – unlike the empty jars, tins and cake stands she normally collected for the ghosts.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.