(For previous chapters and stories, go to my home page and look under 20/20 Investigations, Inc.)

Thank you for joining us again today, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy this next chapter!

All I manage to see is Bill, Trish and, I guess, Trish’s boyfriend Roger, standing in the main room looking at me and laughing.  Then everything goes black….  They put me on the bed with Jessica and left.  Poor Muffin, she was trying so hard to wake us up, but without success.  She knew the danger we were in, Bill and Roger had started a fire on the third floor of the hotel!  Muffin even tried jumping on my stomach, but that didn’t work either.  Meow, meow?!=What I going to do?  Must work fast, not much time!  Off she goes to the kitchen and finds a towel hanging on a hook, but it’s too high for her to reach.  She gives a big jump and manages to grab it and pull it down with her.

Now she needs to get on the counter to get at the bucket with water.  It’s an easy jump for her, but not while holding the towel in her mouth.  By this time the top floor of the hotel was totally ablaze and it’s moving fast in that old wood building.  Muffin was also moving fast.  Since she couldn’t make the jump with the towel, she pushed a kitchen chair over to the counter, then she could jump onto the chair and then onto the counter, dragging the towel with her.  Then she reached up to the bucket of water and pushed the towel in.  Once the towel was wet, she dragged it out, then down onto the chair, then the floor, dragging that wet towel with her to the bedroom.  Since the towel was now heavy she had to walk backwards while dragging the towel.

Finally in the bedroom, she had to crawl up onto the bed, still dragging this heavy wet towel.  Then she stood on my chest and dropped the towel on my face.  I opened my eyes slowly and smell the smoke.  Meow, meow!=Wake up! Hotel on fire, no time for sleep!  Fire!?  That got me awake quickly even though my head felt like it was hit with a hammer.  I couldn’t wake Jessica so I carried her out of the bedroom.  Meow, meow!=Not out front, ghosts out there!  So we went out the back door and I carried Jessica over to the sheds so she would be far from the hotel.  Meow, meow!  What?  You found something?  Okay, show me quick!  Muffin took me to the fireplace where she had hidden that second day we were here.  Meow, meow.=Shelf inside, with tin cans.  I reached up inside and sure enough, there was a deep shelf with 2 old tin cans, which were quite heavy.

I pulled them out and then went and retrieved my backpack.  Chunks of burning boards were falling from the ceiling around us by this time.  Muffin and I ran back outside quickly, but a burning board had landed on my backpack setting it on fire.  Meow, meow!=You on fire!  I dropped my backpack and put out the fire.  Then I left it and the tin cans with Jessica.  I get Muffin all set and say to her, Ready to fight the ghosts Muffin?  Meow!=Let’s go!  All 3 were standing on the grass out front watching the hotel burn.  I guess they wanted to make sure it burned this time, and with us in it!

To be continued.

Steve and Muffin.

© 2020 Steve McLeod.