Tiffany and Ashley: the Case of the Hotel in the Wooded Hills
"So Ashley, do you think this haunted hotel is actually, like, haunted?" Tiffany asked.
"Ooh, I hope so! Don't want to drive all this way for nothing!" Ashley answered enthusiastically.
"When are we supposed to be there?" Tiffany asked.
"Hours ago, Tiff. But it doesn't really matter. It is a hotel."
Tiffany and Ashley considered themselves paranormal investigators and found a new place to investigate, way, way out in the hills in the country. The remote location had attracted them both. The road winded and meandered around many hills and valleys, testing Tiffany's already horrible driving ability. Tiffany had always enjoyed a good ghost story, while Ashley considered herself an 'expert' after she encountered a ghost in her home as a young girl.
The road had grown dark in the early evening as a storm rolled over the countryside. Rain started sprinkling and faint sound of thunder in the distance. Then it began raining more heavily and flashes of lightning grew closer. They had lost their way several times and had turned around many times in their journey.
"I thought we were close. Did we miss a turn?" Tiffany said.
Ashley sat in the passenger seat looking at the map, trying to find something recognizable. After passing a sign with a name, "Misty Oak, Ashley squealed with delight and pointed at the map for Tiffany. Tiffany, in her absent-mindedness, leaned over Ashley to look, forgetting to look at the road.
Tiffany jerked the wheel back to steer the car back in the road. but the front tire hit a downed branch. The flapping of a flat tire pulled the car more to the side. Tiffany screamed and slammed on the brakes, sending everything in the car flying to the windshield.
"Oh my gosh! Can you change a flat?" Ashley said but Tiffany returned her question with a blank look. "Yeah, no, what do we do?"
They both looked at their cell phones but had no signal. They sat with the engine running for some time until Tiffany noticed it was getting colder outside as the sun set distantly behind the storm that rolled off the hills, and Tiffany also noticed her Low Gasoline light. She bit her lip and looked at Ashley who continued to look at the map. Ashley looked up and noticed the storm getting worse.
"It has been almost an hour and no one has driven along this road. What do we do, Ash?"
"Well, should we walk down the road or something? The hotel is that way, I think. Just beyond those trees," Ashley said and pointed toward the side of the road. They both looked at each other and sighed as the sky faintly illuminated with distant lightning. Ashley and Tiffany started walking along the road in the cold rain and dark.
*** Chapter 2 ***
Rain fell and the air grew chilly. Tiffany and Ashley both felt cold and wet, angry and confused at the situation. Tiffany felt like crying. Ashley wanted to apologize but did not know what to say. They held the other in fear and out of anxiety. After walking a few hundred paces, Ashley looked back to the car hoping for something, and Tiffany stopped in her tracks and looked in both directions.
The cold rain made Ashley shiver, and her legs began to shake, her nipples pushing into her dress. Not wanting to struggle in her heels, Ashley pulled off her high-heels and held the red shoes in her hand, her purse in the other. She wore a small, floral print, strapless dress that pushed out her cleavage and was entirely too short. She had strawberry blond, curly hair and a voluptuous figure that looked almost poured into her tight dress. Tiffany, a leggy platinum-blond with enormous, gravity defying breasts, wore a t-shirt cut above her midriff, exposing a hint of under-cleavage and a pair of boy-shorts. She wore a small pair of sneakers.
With each drop of rain, the two grew a little colder, and they quickened their step to keep warm. They had not prepared for such a cool night in late spring. Their clothing started soaking through to the skin. Tiffany felt her nipples pointing into her small, tight shirt. Ashley felt the cold water dripping down her cleavage into her dress.
"Ashley, are we, like, going in the right direction?" Tiffany stood shaking.
"I think so. The place was really close. We were on the wrong road to enter the property I think? It was, like, on the other side, so that means we must be close to it. Maybe that way? Because it was close on the map as we drove in this direction? Yeah!" Ashley pointed to one side of the road.
They both looked in the direction Ashley pointed. The wall of verdant green looked daunting. Ashley shrugged and approached the thick foliage.
"Yeah, no, I think it is this way, Tiff. It was only a mile on foot, but it was twenty on the road to drive all the way around." Ashley said, but Tiffany seemed hesitant. "If we don't see anything, I promise we turn around."
Tiffany rolled her eyes and walked stiffly behind Ashley, and the two entered the forest. The first step Ashley took, her feet sank into gravel and mud, setting her off balance. She grabbed a tree branch to steady herself and continued walking. Tiffany followed, frightened and cold. Branches and sticks poked and prodded them with each step.
One bush snagged the hem of Ashley's dress, and she tugged to free herself, not wanting to take one step backwards. Tiffany pushed Ashley as she stepped forward, and Ashley's dress tore at the hem.
The mud started to slip and slide more and more, and Ashley struggled to keep her balance. She dropped her purse at some point as she clawed at trees to brace herself of help her move ahead in the dark. Tiffany kept soldiering forward, scared and cold. She felt leaves and twigs swatting her as she moved. Another chunk of log lay in their path. The top had grown slippery with lichen and moss and the rain helped it even more. Ashley had trouble stepping on it and grabbed Tiffany and a broken branch to steady herself. When she put weight on her foot on the moss, she slipped and tumbled back into Tiffany. As she fell the broken branch caught her dress and tore again as she fell, tearing it up the side, exposing her left hip, and pulling the fabric enough that her nipples almost popped out of the dress.
"Sorry, Tiffany," Ashley said as she climbed to her feet and helped Tiffany out of the muddy puddle where she landed. The two slowly climbed across the slippery log.
They stood and continued wandering into the dark forest. After a few dozen paces from the hellish log, Tiffany stopped to lean her body against a tree branch for a moment. She rested her head on the trunk, and Ashley stood behind her and embraced Tiffany. She rested her head on Tiffany's shoulder, but then she saw a faint light through a parting in the trees. It looked like a lit window of a house.
"I see light, Tiffany!" Ashley exclaimed.
Keeping her head up and looking for the light, Ashley missed the ground sloping away at her feet, with one misstep, she fell forward and pulled Tiffany with her. They both slid and tumbled across the wet leaves into a thick pool of mud at the bottom of the short slope.
Tiffany stood covered in mud, looking for Ashley. Ashley pushed herself to her hands and knees, and Tiffany helped her to her feet. Ashley's dress had come clean off in the tumble, ripped away from her body by something up the hill. Half her body was caked in mud, naked with nothing covering her but her red thong. Somehow she still had her high-heels in hand. She used her free hand to wipe mud from her bare chest.
It rained harder, thick enough to wash much of the mud off Ashley's perky breasts and flat stomach. Tiffany wiped the mud from her face and body only to find her shirt had ripped. Now her shirt had a massive tear up the front that showed more of her cleavage. Her hard nipples pushed against the transparent wet fabric.
"Ashley, which way did you see the light?"
