When the conductor called for the Collinsport station, the slender, dark-haired young woman closed her book and put it in her carry-on bag. As the train slowed, she headed up the aisle toward the door, nearly losing her balance as the train lurched to a stop.

A tall, dark-haired man grabbed her elbow to steady her. "Thank you," the woman said, smiling shyly up at him. The doors opened and the young woman stepped out onto the platform.

A few minutes after the train pulled away from the station, the man approached her, "you look like you're lost. Can I help you?"

"No, thank you. I'm just going to wait here for a cab."

"You must be from a bigger town than this. The cab company never comes out this far unless it had a reason. Now, you could call for a cab or," he pulled a pocket watch from his pocket and checked it, "you can share my limo with me."

As he said this, a limousine pulled up. The chauffeur walked to the pile of suitcases. The woman dashed over to the suitcases and picked up a red plaid suitcase.

"This one's mine."

"You could just leave it with mine. Especially if you're going to be riding in my limo with me."

"Thank you for the offer, but I'd really feel more comfortable in a cab, if that's all right with you."

"Well, then I hope you don't mind if I wait with you. Some. . . strange things have happened in Collinsport in the past."

"You don't have to wait on my account."

"Then I'll wait here for myself. I don't think I could sleep tonight unless I can be sure that you got into your cab all right."

"Well, maybe I should call the cab company again. I called them from Bangor to tell them when the train would be arriving, but I guess they didn't get the message or something," the young woman walked over toward the phones.

She picked up the receiver. Just as she dropped a quarter into the slot, the man called, "Miss! Your cab's here!"

The woman sighed and plunked the receiver back down in its cradle. She turned to walk towards the cab, nearly forgetting to wait for her quarter. As she got into the cab, she said to the man, "thank you for waiting with me."

"Anytime," he said, closing the door of the cab behind her, and walking towards his waiting limousine.

LATER:

After she checked into her room at the Collinsport Inn, the woman went down to the coffee shop for a snack before heading off to bed.

"So, what brings you to Collinsport?" the waitress asked. For all the waitress's attempts to look mature and sophisticated, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't that much older than the woman herself.

"I'm here for a job."

"Oh. Are you one of those computer types that are coming here to work for that new company . . ." the waitress's voice trailed off as she searched for the name of the company.

"Yes. I've just arrived. I don't even have a place to live lined up yet."

"Well, I'd be careful where I decide to live, if I were you."

"Why?"

"Well, weird things have been happening in Collinsport for as long as I can remember. For example, did you know that they almost never rent out room 318 here?"

"Why not?"

"Have you ever heard of an actress by the name of Olivia Corey?"

"I think I've heard the name. She was a little before my time, I guess."

The waitress nodded. "I'm not surprised. She died right here at this hotel nearly 30 years ago, and now no one can spend the night in her old room, 318. In fact, the cleaning staff refuses to go in there."

"Well, lots of hotels have stories like that one."

"OK, how about this one?" the waitress leaned over, resting her elbows on the counter. "There's a gloomy old mansion on top of Widows' Hill. No one has lived in it for, well, for about 15 years. All sorts of strange things happen up there, though. It's not that unusual for people to say that they've seen ghosts, but some people even claim to have seen a werewolf up there."

"Now you're pulling my leg."

"No. I swear I'm not. In fact, there used to be two gloomy old mansions up there, but the other one burned down overnight one night about five years ago. It was there at sunset, and by sunrise, nothing was left of it. The fire marshal never did make a decision on the cause of the fire. And that you can look up in the city records. The only people who live up there are Mrs. Hawkes and her daughter, and the Jennings family. They both live in old outbuildings of the mansion."

The woman glanced down at her watch. "I've got to get to bed. I need to find a place to live tomorrow, and then Tuesday's my first day of work."

As the woman walked away, the waitress called after her, "Good night! Don't let the ghosts get you!"

The woman, distracted, nearly ran into the tall man from the train station. "Oh! I'm sorry! I should probably watch where I'm going."

"No, that's all right, miss?" the man left the question hanging for the woman to introduce herself.

"Sally. Sally Bradford."

The tall man extended his hand, took Sally's in his, and shook it warmly. "Pleased to meet you Ms. Bradford. I'm Adam Von Stein."

"You're Adam Von Stein?!? Oh, my gosh! You're my new boss!"

"Well, I'll look forward to working with you, then." Von Stein picked up Sally's hand and, in a suave, Continental style, touched his lips to the backs of her fingers.

As he continued into the coffee shop, Sally watched him uncertainly, torn between feeling flattered that a handsome stranger kissed the back of her hand, and feeling affronted that he treated her like a date, rather than a co-worker.

Sally pulled her room key out of her pocket and, glancing at the number briefly, headed for the elevator. It wasn't until the elevator let her out onto the third floor that she realized that the tag on the key said "318."

Collinsport -- Part 2
Date: 7/17/98
From: DSRules

Sally shivered. {318}, she thought. The waitress' stories made her apprehensive at first, but then she dismissed those fears as the result of too many frightening stories and too little sleep and resolved to go straight to bed without another thought of ghosts, werewolves and other creatures of the night.

Sally's dreams were fitful, full of the sounds of voices, a man's and a woman's, in urgent conversation. She didn't realize that she was really hearing the voices until the woman's voice screamed, "Quentin! Help me! Please!"

Sally sat bolt upright in bed, her nightgown drenched in sweat. She had hoped that the voices would stop once she awoke, but they didn't -- they just became more distinct.

She tried to go back to sleep, but the incessant babble kept her awake. First his voice said, "I'll be there, as close as I can be, and when it's all over, I'm going to hold you so tight . . .," and then hers said, "Quentin, when I dropped the coat, I was so afraid that I was going to lose you," then he yelled,
"Amanda! Don't struggle! Stand still!" and she whispered,"Quentin, I - I - I'm frightened."

When 'Amanda,' whoever she was, let out a blood-curdling scream, Sally had had enough. She changed into a T-shirt and pair of sweatpants, grabbed a book and her room key, and went to sit in the hallway until morning.

About half an hour later, Von Stein ventured out into the corridor from his room down the hall. He saw Sally sitting on the floor and came over to where she was sitting.

"Is there something wrong with your room?" he asked. "If there is, I'm sure I can get the management to fix it."

"No. My room's fine. It's just . . ."

"You just enjoy sitting on the floor in the hallway at 2:00 in the morning, rather than taking advantage of your hotel room?"

"I can hear what must be the voices of the people upstairs or next door or something, and they just won't shut up!"

"Are they fighting?"

"No, they seem to get along fine. It's just that they're so loud . . ."

"Oh!" Von Stein responded. "It's {those} sorts of sounds, huh?"

Sally blushed. "No. Nothing like that, either. Just conversation." She remembered the scream. "Mostly. I can't sleep, though, and so I decided to get some reading done."

"Tell you what, Sally. Why don't you sleep in my room?"

"You mean . . . . No, I couldn't possibly . . . ."

Now it was Von Stein's turn to be embarrassed. "I wasn't talking about sleeping in my room while I was in it. I was suggesting that we switch rooms for the rest of the night."

"I couldn't do that. I mean, it was my bad luck that I got the room with the noisy neighbors."

"Well, I won't be able to sleep, knowing that you're out here in the hallway, and I figure that one of us should get some sleep." He held out his room key, and Sally replaced it with her own.

Before she headed down the hall, she turned to Von Stein one last time. "You're sure that you don't mind? This is your last chance to stop me before I take over your room."

Von Stein smiled. "Would you go and get some sleep, already? Oh! I'd better run back to my room and get some paperwork." He took the key from her hand and disappeared into his room.

He emerged a few seconds later with a stuffed file folder and gave the key back to Sally. "Now I'll have something to keep my mind off of your neighbors."

Sally smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you. I think I'll owe you several after this."

MONDAY

The sound of a rooster crowing woke Sally up. She tried to get back to sleep, but found that she couldn't -- the sun was rising and the prospect of exploring her new town was just too exciting for her to get any rest. She noticed that she had a bad case of "morning breath," and cursed her lack of foresight in not bringing a toothbrush with her.

She decided to see if Von Stein was up, and so she walked down the hallway and tapped, very lightly, on the door. He came to the door immediately, and said, "Sally. What are you doing up at the crack of dawn?"

Sally smiled, "I got a few hours of sleep, but I don't want to lose any time to explore the town."

"I'd love to show you around," Von Stein offered, "but I'm going to be in meetings all day. That's one of the burdens of being president of a growing software company."

"You'd show me around? But I thought that you just moved here, too."

Von Stein smiled, "I did just move here, but I . . . lived here for a while many, many years ago. Probably before you were born, in fact."

"Well, I'll be sorry to not have you for a tour guide."

"Collinsport is a very, very small town. I think you'll do just fine on your own."

With that, Von Stein left Sally to get cleaned up to face the day. She hurriedly showered and brushed her teeth, and then headed down to the coffee shop for breakfast.

Fortunately, the waitress from the previous night wasn't on duty, so Sally was spared having to discuss her night's sleep with the talkative woman. She had a quick breakfast of cereal and fruit, and then set out to explore her new town.

After about an hour of window-shopping and walks along the shoreline, she noticed that the Collinsport Realty was open.

The bell jingled as she pushed the door open. Sally walked into the office and over to where a young blonde woman was sitting reading a newspaper.

Sally looked at the nameplate on the desk, which said {Alexis Anderson}, and cleared her throat. "Excuse me."

Alexis looked up from the newspaper. "Sorry. I didn't hear you come in." She hurriedly gathered up her newspaper and shoved it under the desk. "May I help you?"

"Yes. I've just moved to Collinsport and I'm looking for an apartment or a house to rent. Preferably a house. My brother is going to be a freshman at Logan University this year, and so he'll probably want to freeload off of me on the weekends."

"Oh? Are you one of the computer programmers? I've had a lot of young people from that new software company come in here."

"Yes, but actually, I'm a little embarrassed to mention this, I took the job with them because it was a good reason to move to Collinsport."

"Why would you want to live in Collinsport?"

"My family is from here. My name is Sally Bradford and my ancestors were from here."

"Bradford? Hmmm, the name sounds familiar, but I don't think there are any of them left here in town."

"Well, maybe there are some of my however-many greats grandmother's family left. Her name was Winters. Victoria Winters."

"Vicki Winters? I haven't heard her name since I was a little girl! In that case," Alexis reached into her desk and pulled out her purse. "I think I have just the place for you. At the very least, you'll be interested to see it, even if you don't want to rent it. Do you want to look it over?"

"Sure," Sally replied, and the two women headed out of the office toward Alexis's car.