Playing with Fire Read Online Free PDF

supernice. It was just redone.” Sofia glanced over her shoulder. A door to her left labeled PRIVATE was slightly ajar. She leaned over the desk toward us. “Some people say the second floor is . . . haunted.”
    â€œHaunted?” Lily squealed. “Really?”
    Taking Lily’s broad smile as encouragement, Sofia nodded. “That’s the rumor. I think it’s so cool, don’t you? I’ve never seen anything, but if I were staying in an old hotel, I’d want it to have ghosts.”
    I didn’t think it was cool. I’d just left one haunted house, and now I was checking into another?
    My eyes darted about the lobby. Framed black-and-white photos of people in old-fashioned clothing lined the walls. Several guests, some in tennis clothes, milled about. Everyone seemed solid and alive. I had no weird tingly feelings. The air felt vibrant and happy.
    Sofia’s wrong , I thought. Just because this place is old doesn’t mean it’s haunted .
    â€œSara.” Mrs. Randazzo placed her hand gently on my arm. “If you want, we can get a different room.”
    Had my face betrayed my fear? Or was she remembering the conversation I was still hoping she hadn’t overheard?
    â€œYou look a bit pale,” she said quietly.
    â€œNo, no, I’m fine,” I insisted. “It’s the long drive, that’s all.”
    â€œSara’s not afraid of a haunted hotel room, are you, Sara?” Lily clapped her hands together the way shealways did when she was excited. “I’ll keep you safe from the supernatural. We’ll be ghost gathers together!”
    I didn’t know what a ghost gather was, but I decided not to ask. Better just to nod and smile.
    â€œHaunted how?” Angela pressed Sofia. “What do guests report? Noises? Sightings of actual ghosts?”
    The PRIVATE door swung open, and a broad-shouldered man in a pressed navy blazer and green tie moved quickly beside Sofia. “Hello, hello, Grant Himoff here. I want to personally welcome you.” He shook Aunt Angela’s hand, then Mrs. Randazzo’s. “Sofia just started with us. Summer job, right, Sofia? Just out of high school. So young.”
    All smiles, he waved over one of the front-door guys. “Spencer, please show these beautiful ladies to their rooms. I’m sure they want to start their vacations. Complimentary smoothies are being served for the next hour down by the pool.”
    In a flash, Spencer, the blond guy in all white from out front, corralled us out of the lobby and down a short hall leading to the elevators.
    I glanced back. Mr. Himoff bent his head toward Sofia, talking rapidly in a low tone, probably lecturingher about scaring guests with ghost stories.
    The elevator let us off on the second floor. Hallways, wallpapered in a green-and-beige stripe, stretched to the left and right. Lily shifted her sequined tote bag onto her shoulder and headed right.
    â€œWhoa! Wrong way,” Spencer called.
    Lily pivoted and followed him, her mom, and aunt to the left, but I lingered, staring down the wrong hall. Something felt odd in that direction.
    Quieter. Dimmer.
    The light fixtures, designed to resemble candles, were all dark down the right hall but burned bright down the left.
    â€œWhy are there no lights here?” I called out.
    â€œThat wing isn’t in use right now.” Spencer kept walking.
    â€œWhy not?” Aunt Angela asked.
    â€œRenovations.” Spencer shrugged. “They aren’t using any of those rooms while they fix them up. Off-limits. Here you go.”
    Spencer opened the doors to our rooms.
    â€œI call the bed by the window!” Lily flung herself across the green sateen bedspread. “Are you good there?”
    I perched on the second bed, close to the bathroom but directly across from a large flat-screen TV.
    â€œSure thing, but I control the remote.” I clicked on a cooking show, just to tease