The hallway, just as the bartender had said, had two elevators, each with an attendant. One was the bellhop from the front, the other was a devil in a similar outfit, grinning menacingly at our entrance. “Dang I really want to ride the right elevator.” Hildr muttered, with me thinking much the same thing.

The attendant's smile grew. “It’s...to die for.” than, almost under their breath, muttered, “However due to current situations among the hotel, we cannot guarantee the usual safety of this elevator.”

“Dang.” Hildr snorted, hands on her hips. “Guess we really do need to wait after.” She joked.

I think.

“Well, let’s get moving.” I led us into the elevator on the left, followed by Hildr, then the bellhop from before. “Don’t suppose you know off hand where the maid Ghoultrude is?”

“Fraid not, boss.” The attendant said with a soft chuckle and a shrug. 

“Well, guess we’re starting with the fifteenth floor.” I shrugged, dismissively. 

“You got it.” He gave a small two finger salute, before moving the lever and saying, “Going up.” After a moment of silence, the attendant said, “So my name’s Tobias.” I gripped my staff a little, mentally I was not prepared for small talk. “I know your name, boss man, of course, but how bout you, Red?”

“Call me Hildr.” Hildr grinned, leaning her elbow on my shoulder, and crossing one leg over the other. “How long have you been working here, Tobias?” I was so glad she was here to do the socializing.

“Eh, not long. Just since semester ended.” Tobias shrugged. “Gotta earn enough for my next set of classes. I’m in Bard College, off and on when I can afford it.”

“Oh yeah?” Hildr asked, I had partially checked out, watching the lights on the floors go up, hoping they’d move faster. “How much longer do you got?”

“Well I’m a senior, I’ll be needing to work on my Final Sonata soon.” Tobias explained to us, while I wondered what a sonata was, or how you made it final. “If I can get my last few classes finished, I’ll be performing it at the septennial festival, actually.”

“Wow, so you’re in sight of the finish line.” Hildr laughed.

I was studying one of the corners of the elevator, where the wallpaper was peeling, wondering if that was part of the spookiness or just bad upkeep.

Oh that was probably something I should be making sure happened, huh?

The elevator made a soft ding, as Tobias brought us to the fifteenth floor. “Alright, here you go, bossman.” He told me, stepping to the side. “Want me to stay up here and wait for you or...”

“For now.” I said, stepping out, looking side to side in the hallway. “If we decide to use the stairs, we will let you know.”

“You got it boss.” Tobias gave a salute.

As Hildr stepped out, returning his salute with a grin, loud banging in patterns of three started from down the hall. Hildr tensed, moving into a lowered fighting stance. I, however, just frowned, stepping in the middle of the hallway, ears twitching. 

I already knew this wasn’t what we were looking for. I also knew how to draw it out. Using my staff, I repeated the pattern, and although it was wood on carpet, the sound echoed with an almost hollow ring, three times as loud as the original noise. 

The banging increased from there, growing closer and louder and, from both sides of the halls, one by one, the doors of every room slammed open, closer and closer. Hildr’s eyes narrowed as she darted looking for the invisible presence.

I looked forward to the door in front of me. The door flew open, and a large clown leaped at me with loud cackling laughter, looming over Hildr and I.

I met its gaze, and struck my staff once. “You stop that.”

The clown immediately shrank, with a balloon deflating noise, into the size of about a doll, looking up at me as Hildr relaxed next to me, with an impish smile. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Haven’t had any guests in a while and I start to get antsy. So are you the new boss?”

How many times was I supposed to answer that?

“I’m uh...Isaac DeWinter.” I answered with a dismissive shrug. “Are you the hotel’s poltergeist?”

“One of them.” He answered, floating up to eye level, as if he was laying on his side. “Every five floors have a different one.”

“Is it just you on this floor?” Hildr asked, leaning against me, eyeing the poltergeist curiously.

“Just lil ol Pagliacci.” He answered.

“Have you noticed anything outside of the normal, lately?” I asked him. “Or seen Ghoultrude?”

“Well I haven’t seen anything for a couple days, but when...whatever is doing all this ran through my floor, it made everything...opposite.”

“Opposite how?” Hildr asked.

“Like a mirror almost, all the rooms and furnishings were reversed.” he shrugged with a shake of the head. “It was weird, I tell you what. As far as Ghoultrude, she came through about an hour ago.”

I would ask him normally if he could tell me where she was, but if the poltergeists were every five floors, that most likely meant his sphere of influence only spread to his floor. So instead I nodded, “Alright, thanks for your help.”

“Hey, no problem, hopefully you can get this figured out quick.” He said, sliding into the hotel room. Every door slammed shut at once, and I turned to Tobias. 

“We’re taking the stairs from here.”