SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
Chapter Seventy Four After getting back on the road again, Alan decided to try another nap while Awinita read a book. “Let me know if any more jerks threaten you again so I can lunge through your window and beat the crap outta them,” he said to her before closing his eyes. Rose patted him on the head and smiled when he pulled the blanket up to his chin and drifted off to sleep. “Alan?” Alan mumbled in his sleep. “Meh?” he muttered. “We’re in Chattanooooooga,” she said. “That’s nice, dear, wake me when we get to Timbuktu,” he muttered. Awinita giggled as Rose poked his shoulder repeatedly. “Up and at em, my sleepy little Time Lord,” she said. “Timbuktu already? Blimey you’re a fast driver,” he mumbled. Rose glanced at Awinita when he drifted back to sleep. “Let me handle this,” Awinita said. She leaned over into his ear and took a deep breath. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Alan jerked awake and sat up as Awinita quickly threw open the sliding door and ran out. “Bloody Hell!” he yelled. “Give a guy a heart attack!” “Well, we were trying to tell ya we’re at a Holiday Inn so you’d get out,” Rose said. “Did ya have to cause me partial deafness in the process?” he said. He looked out his window and saw Awinita cowering behind a support column near the front door. “I’m sorry, you wouldn’t wake up!” she said. “Yeah, right! I’m sure you’re very, very sorry,” he said to her. “I thought you didn’t feel like sleeping,” Rose said. “Well, I have to admit I did feel tired after awhile and I was resting well until loudmouth over there blew my eardrum to bits,” he said. He reached down and gathered up his things while Awinita tiptoed cautiously back to the van. He eyed her when she leaned her head into the sliding door. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t think of any other way to wake you up. Rose kept shaking and poking your shoulder and you kept on sleeping. I figured screaming in your ear would do it.” “I forgive you, but fair warning. I’m the Doctor’s clone and the Doctor had to deal with many a monster and villain and they often tried to sneak up on him, which meant his reflexes were always ready in case that happened. You’re lucky I didn’t slam my fist in your face in my groggy state so just keep that in mind the next time you wanna play alarm clock.” “Gotcha,” she said. They gathered up their things, locked the van and went inside the hotel. While they were checking in, Alan went over to a rack filled with brochures and picked out several interesting ones. He looked around when Rose tapped him on the shoulder. “Got a room, follow me,” she said. After settling in, Rose called for the laundry to come and take some of their clothes and they warmed up the rest of the food from McDonalds. Awinita turned on the Weather Channel to check on the progress of Charlene while Alan laid the brochures out on the bed and began to peruse them. “Here’s one that’s close by,” he said to Rose. “Lookout Mountain. It’s just outside the city. Might be worth a look.” Rose took the brochure from him and looked through it. “Yeah, this might be neat to see. Especially this Ruby Falls. And it’s got a little railway car we can ride up to the top. You guys wanna do this?” Alan and Awinita nodded. “Okay, we’ll do that tomorrow then. What else you got there?” “Well, they also have an aquarium in Chattanooooooga!” Alan said, handing her the brochure. “Um, they have a zoo in Memphis. We could see that along with Graceland.” He picked up another brochure. “They also have Dollywood in Pigeon Forge wherever that is,” he said. “My mom took us there one time when I was little. It’s fun,” Awinita said, pulling her chicken sandwich out of the microwave. Alan read through the brochure. “Dolly Parton, eh? What’s in this theme park? Are all the rides shaped like breasts then?” Awinita laughed. “No, they have roller coasters and different rides and attractions. Pigeon Forge is up around Knoxville, just above Gatlinburg. It’s not Disney, but it’s pretty good.” “Well, let’s just start with Lookout Mountain and the falls and the railway and the aquarium and then see where we wanna go after that,” Rose said. “Sounds good to me,” Alan said. “Now if you don’t mind, I have to use the loo before I eat. Excuuuuuse me.” He went in the bathroom and shut the door while Rose and Awinita watched the Weather Channel. “Yes?” Both women looked over when they heard Alan call out. Rose looked at Awinita. “Yes, what?” Rose said. “What’d you want?” Alan called. “Whoever did that, I mean.” “Did what?” Awinita said. “Knocked on the door. Whoever did it, what do you want?” Rose and Awinita stared at each other. “No one knocked on the door, Alan. We’re both sitting on the beds,” Rose said. There was a pause. “Oh, sorry, must have been a leftover ringing in my ear courtesy of Awinita.” Rose shrugged. They went back to watching TV. “Yes?” They frowned and looked over when they heard Alan’s voice again. “Okay,” he said, “this time I definitely heard someone knocking on the door. So whoever’s doing it, either tell me what you want or knock it off.” “We’re…not knocking on the door,” Awinita said to Rose. “Alan, we’re just sitting here on the bed. No one’s knocking on the door.” The door opened and Alan stepped out. He frowned in confusion. “Someone just knocked on the door. I heard it.” “Wasn’t us, we haven’t been anywhere near the door,” Rose said. “Well, what the hell am I hearing then?” Alan muttered. He shook his head and walked over to the bed. He sat down behind Rose. “Hurricane is going over Florida,” Rose said. “It’s a tropical storm now but they think it might go up to category one once it goes into the Gulf waters. I…” She trailed off when she saw him looking back at the bathroom, puzzled. “I swear, Alan, no one knocked on the door. We’ve been sitting here ever since you went in there,” she said. “I thought…I coulda sworn…I heard a soft knocking, I’m sure of it,” he said. Rose shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell ya,” she said. “Maybe the room’s haunted,” Awinita said with wide eyes as she waggled her fingers. Rose looked back at Alan. “Maybe that’s it? Maybe we got a ghost?” she said. “Well, if we do it better behave itself. I…” He trailed off and got an odd look on his face. “What is it?” Rose asked. “I think you may be on to something, Awinita,” he said. “Why?” she said. “Because someone just ran their finger across the back of my neck. I felt it.” Rose and Awinita looked at each other. “Um, should we ask for a different room?” Rose said. “Dunno, how disruptive is this ghost?” Awinita said. “Well, so far it’s seemed to taken a liking to Alan,” Rose said. “I haven’t heard any knocks or felt anything.” “Maybe it’s a woman that’s attracted to his baby face pretty boy looks.” He rolled his eyes when the two of them giggled at that. He jerked his head around when he felt the finger run across his neck again. “I’m for changing the room,” he said, “so this thing will leave me the hell alone.” Rose nodded. “Okay, follow me guys and we’ll sort this out,” she said. Rose got the room changed to another and after making sure their laundry would be delivered there, they moved into it and sat down on the beds. Both women stared at Alan for about five minutes until he finally told them in an annoyed voice to stop looking at him. “Just let us know if anything bothers you again then,” Rose said. “Well, if I start yelling and jerking my head around and pawing the air, you’ll have a pretty good idea what’s happening,” he said. Awinita opened up the wrapper covering what remained of her chicken sandwich. “Take two on my meal here,” she said, raising it to her mouth. Rose took another chicken sandwich out of the bag and went to warm it up. As she did she kept glancing back at Alan who was munching on some French fries. They locked eyes. “Nothing yet,” he said. “Good, maybe the ghost was only haunting that room then,” she said. She finished warming up her chicken sandwich and walked back to the bed. Around 11:30 the three friends decided to call it a night and went to bed. All three of them quickly drifted off to sleep. Alan was dreaming about him and Rose. They were sitting together on the beach. The wind was blowing Rose’s hair and the sun shone down on it making it glow. He was holding her tightly while she looked deeply into his eyes. “Alan.” Alan frowned in his sleep. Rose hadn’t spoken in the dream and yet he heard someone calling his name. “Alan.” “Yeah?” he mumbled in his sleep. “Alan.” “What is it, Rose?” he mumbled. “Alan.” Alan paused a moment. He was now slowly waking up and his brain suddenly registered that the voice was neither Rose nor Awinita’s. “Alan,” the voice whispered. He slowly opened his eyes. They widened when he noticed a white mist hovering by his side of the bed. “Alan,” the voice whispered. “Help me.” “Who are you?” he asked. “What do you want?” Instead of answering, the mist faded away before his eyes. Alan lay there for a minute and then switched on the light. “Alan, what the hell?” Rose mumbled. “I saw it,” Alan said. “What?” “The ghost,” he said, getting up. By this time Awinita was awake. “You saw the ghost?” she murmured. “Yes, it was a white mist and I heard a woman’s voice calling my name and asking for help,” he said, walking over to a chair and grabbing his trainers. Rose jerked her head up. “What are you doing?” she asked. “I wanna go have a little chat with the people at the front desk. I wanna know if anyone else has seen this woman or if they know who she is. The people didn’t seem too surprised when we asked to change rooms so I wanna know if this is a common occurrence or some random ghost is just fancying me.” Rose glanced at Awinita and the two of them quickly got out of bed and got dressed. “May I help you, sir?” the man at the front desk said when they walked up. “Yes, hi, I’m being bothered by a ghost,” Alan said. “And it seems to be bothering only me. We moved from one room to another but it seemed to have followed us. I was asleep and I heard someone calling my name and when I woke up there was a white mist in front of me and I heard a woman asking for help. I would just like to know if this is a common occurrence here?” The man glanced at a female co-worker. “Yes, sir, it is. Her name, we think, was Mary Stuart. She’s haunted the premises for as long as anyone can remember.” “Who is she?” Rose asked. “She used to live here on this spot. There used to be a large house on the grounds and Mary lived here with her family during the 1800’s. The story goes that she had a sweetheart that fought for the Confederacy and he was killed at Lookout Mountain during The Battle Above The Clouds. Mary was so distraught that she hung herself in her room and supposedly she’s trying to locate her sweetheart so they can be together. So she only bothers the men that stay here.” “Which is why you two haven’t heard or felt anything,” Alan said to them. “She’s harmless though. What you described is normal. She never has hurt anyone before that I know of. Most of the people who work here have seen strange things and actually Mary’s checked me out before but you have nothing to fear from her.” “Has anyone ever tried to talk her over to the other side?” Awinita said. “Um, a guy who’s worked here longer than I have said a psychic did try to do that a few years ago but Mary refuses to go unless she finds her boyfriend so there’s really not much anyone can do.” “I’m assuming when she asked me to help she was wanting me to help locate this sweetheart of hers?” Alan said. “Could be. But, like I said, there’s really nothing you guys can do to help her. The guy’s long gone now, probably went to Heaven and is there waiting for her if she ever does decide to cross over. The psychic tried to tell her as much but it’s no use. I apologize for her bothering you, but I promise she won’t rape or kill you or anything. If you want to stay here tonight, my advice is to either ignore her or ask her to leave you alone. Other than that, there isn’t anything we can do, sir.” “Thank you, I just wanted to know what was going on since this has happened twice.” The man smiled. “Well, have a nice night, all of you.” They nodded and headed back towards the elevator. “That poor woman,” Rose said when the doors closed. “I wish there was some way we could help her.” “Yeah, imagine being stuck on Earth for over 150 years,” Awinita said. “Well, I guess there’s really nothing we can do,” Alan said. “If she does it again, I guess we can try to talk to her and get her to move on, but it sounds like she isn’t willing to leave.” The elevator doors opened and they went back to their room. For awhile, the three of them watched TV waiting for any sign from Mary. Finally, after about an hour, Alan began to hear her whispering his name in his ear. “Mary,” he said aloud. “Listen to me. You’re dead, okay? The man you love is dead and he’s waiting for you in Heaven. If you see a light, walk towards it and I guarantee you he’ll be there. I can’t help you find him. Go towards the light, find your love and be at peace, please.” Rose looked at him. “Hear anything?” she asked. “Not so far.” Then he heard her whisper his name again. “Nope, didn’t work,” he said as Rose and Awinita sighed sadly. “I’m sorry, guys, I have a feeling no one can help her. She’s gonna have to convince herself to go. I hate to do this to her since she’s only a lost soul looking for help but we can’t stay up all night trying to talk her over to the other side, so as much as I hate to do this….Mary, leave me alone! I don’t know where he’s at! Go away and leave me in peace!” He listened but didn’t hear anything more from her. Guilt pricked at his mind and he felt the same feeling of helplessness the Doctor felt when he wasn’t able to help someone but he knew that if she wouldn’t be talked over to the other side then he had to be firm and tell her to go so he could get some sleep. The three of them stayed up for another half hour waiting but there was nothing further from Mary so finally they turned off the lights and went back to sleep.
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