The Haunted Hotel

Third Floor

I was the first to poke my head into the hallway, the door only cracked open, so as not to immediately kill us all. You know, that was kind of the goal at the time. Evading death.

"Do you see anything?" Adley asked, her hand on my back.

"No. It's really dark. I can't see anything."

"Well, let's go in. We have nothing else to lose," Trey urged.

I shrugged and further opened the door, stepping in and holding the door open for the rest of us. The three left stepped in behind me. We stayed close to the wall and door, pressing our backs against it.

"I can't see a thing," Kelley said.

Then, as if Kelley had uttered a cue, a bunch of candles in a circle on the ground lit up. They were flames, not automatic, so who knows who lit them and how.

It illuminated a board in the middle, casting eerie shadows over the rectangular shape.

"Oh hell, it's a oujia board," Trey whispered.

"Do we have to play?" Adley asked.

"Yes. All must play. One must die," came the voice again, it's sinister message reverberating around my skull like a concussion. My hands started to shake. I had always found oujia boards super scary. After I watched the movie, I didn't sleep for almost three days. I usually liked horror movies, but I just couldn't handle that one, which of course, was the one seated in front of me at the moment.

Adley's hand snaked into mine, her slender fingers pressing into my skin. She must have known that I was scared. That my hands were shaking. That a part of me wanted to wet my pants and run and hide under my bed like a little boy.

I wasn't going to do that however. I couldn't let that happen. This group treated me like their leader, and I wasn't going to let them down. I couldn't run screaming from this. This was something I had to do. For Adley. For Trey. For Kelley. For Jonah. For Shay. For Mrs. Rodman. For me.

"Then let's play," I said. I sat down on one side inside the circle, with Kelley on my left, Trey across from me, and Adley on my right, still grasping my hand.

We all put a finger on. I took a deep breath, before speaking, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

The thing moved to the y. Then to the e. To s. Yes.

"Who are you?"

It spelled out 'none of your business.'

"Please. Tell us who you are?"

I got kind of distracted while trying to read what they spelled out, so I didn't get the whole thing, but I got the gist of it. Something about showing me instead.

"He's going to show us? How?" Adley asked. With the hand that wasn't on the board, I grabbed her free hand. My hand was shaking. I'm sure Adley could feel it.

We waited for a few seconds, nothing happened. Then all of a sudden, Kelley started shuddering. She shook her head wildly and screamed.

"Kelley!" Adley screamed, starting to go towards her. I tugged her back down.

"Don't take your fingers off the board!" I yelled.

Kelley thrashed her body around uncontrollably. Then she stopped and looked up to the ceiling. A darkness seemed to overcome her. I looked down. She was floating half a foot above the ground. Her legs crossed and arms up.

"Kelley!" Trey said.

She snapped her head down to look at us. Her eyes were completely black, soulless, empty. Dark and cold portals to hell. "What?! Mortals!" She screeched.