November Nightmares (2013)

The Hotel of Blood and Doom

That night was different. This was the start of her nightmares. As Stacey started drifting into a deep sleep, images started flashing through her mind, like a strobe lighting effect. The first was of the outside of a hotel, one she knew quite well, The Night Fall Hotel. The sign was broken, but the letters; N, h, t, a & e were flashing a pure white in the dense, night air. Stacey gently pushed open the double doors which had a bloody hand print dragged down the left hand side. She walked through into the proceeding hallway with a, what was, golden rug laid out across the hallway, leading into the room at the end of the hall. The carpet had dark blood stains that looked like they'd been there a while, parts of the way down it, they looked like footprints. Small footprints that were light on the carpet, somebody hadn't place all their weight onto their feet when walking towards this room. Stacey followed the footprints, making sure to tread carefully around so she could follow the footprints. There were few lights in the hotel on still, it looked abandoned or at least it had been for quite a few weeks by the looks of things. Stacey commenced into the room at the end of the hallway, this room consisted of a plush red sofa, placed about 2 feet away from the television. At the end of the room, there was a window. Like those windows you get on houses that overlook the sea, the big windows, yeah those sorts. This one had a view of a forest of pine trees; however there was snow over them. It was the middle of summer, Why is there snow on the trees in summer? Stacey wondered. The window also had two curtains at the sides and a big seating platform next to the window. The curtains were a bright blue, like the colour of the sea; they really tied the place together. The atmosphere in the room was so roomy, so cosy, and perfect for a hotel. After all, this was a hotel, or had been at least. Stacey remembered it always being busy and full of life, all the staff were friendly, it had been a beautiful, wondrous hotel, and it was always so well looked after. Stacey plummeted herself down onto the sofa, multiple dust clouds rose from the plush red sofa, like it had not been used in a while. Stacey's mind flashed back to the blood stains on the golden rug and on the double doors. Whose blood was that? Stacey wondered endlessly for nearly half an hour. The lights in the hallway continued to flick on and off, Stacey shook her head and rose from the sofa. She walked back through to the hallway, her mind racing now with thoughts about why this place was abandoned. The once lively, joyful and astonishingly amazing hotel was abandoned and Stacey couldn't understand why. As she turned out of the doorway of the mysterious room with the big window that looked out over a snowy forest, she caught a glimpse of a spiralling staircase. Clearly this will lead to the rooms, might as well go have a look. Stacey was happy now, maybe she'd find a bed, and maybe she'd sleep. Sleep, oh sleep. The wonderful thought of sleep raced through her mind.

As Stacey walked up the spiralling staircase, one of the steps cracked just as she stepped on it. Her dainty, small foot slipped through the cracked wooden boards of the step. She screamed out in pain as half of the wooden board on top of the step had a sharp pointed edge that dug into her skin and through her right leg. Blood oozed from her leg, through her soft blue leggings, the pain suddenly got worse than ever, but she had to move. Something was out there, something was banging on the double doors, she'd shut them tight behind her and placed a broom she'd found by the coat rack in the handles so nothing could get in and potentially attack her. Something or someone was out there. She was trying so hard not to scream due to the amount of pain, but it hurt more than anything. Is this what giving birth feels like? Stacey wondered and gently giggled at her stupidity, she tried to pull her leg free from the broken boards. The board started to break away, however part of the wooden board was still stuck in her leg. The banging at the door was getting louder and louder, like more and more people were trying to get in. Stacey started panicking, her breathing getting heavier and heavier by the second. She was eager to know who these people banging on the door were, but at the same time she was scared. She turned her head to face the door at the end of the hallway; there was a banging coming from the window in the room. Stacey was surrounded. Was this the end for Stacey? Footsteps started banging from above her. Heavy footsteps, like someone had just woken up from a deep sleep and were treading carelessly towards the staircase. Moaning and groaning noises started coming from the object or person that was moving, clearly they had just woken up and wanted to know what all the noise was about. Stacey tried to stay silent, she did not want to panic or annoy the person anymore than needed. She struggled free and called out to the person, "H-Hello? I'm sorry to have woken you, it's okay, I'm okay. Go back to sleep. Please." The person's groaning and moaning grew louder and closer. "I'm sorry," Stacey called out, "Please. Go back to sleep. It's okay; it's all going to be okay." She started walking up the rest of the wooden spiralling stairs, slowly and carefully. She held out her right arm, a fraction of the wooden step she broke still hanging out of her leg, half of it still in her leg, touching the bone. She was in pain, of course she was, but she needed to move, she needed to get out of there. The groaning from this person turned into silence. Stacey continued moving up the staircase, watching her step; the staircase was a big, long descending staircase which had corridors leading off it everywhere. She peeked inside the first corridor, no sign of anyone, but the groaning was getting louder and louder. She moved down the corridor, checking every door as she went. No sign of anyone. But the groaning was definitely getting louder. She re-checked every door down the corridor, nothing. She walked back down the long, dark, gloomy corridor to the wooden staircase and proceeded up them, her footsteps being light and dainty, although that was how she had fallen through the step in the first place. Her ankle was hurting and had gone a purple colour; it was starting to go pale due to the lack of blood getting to it. The lack of blood was making Stacey feel woozy; it was making her sweat with panic. But she had to keep going; maybe this person could help her. The pain of her leg was becoming unbearable now; she had to push through it. She continued climbing the staircase, got up four steps then grabbed onto the hand rail, her breathing becoming a lot faster now. Stacey fell to her knees; she was sweating so much now, she screamed out in pain with the little voice and breath she had in her. She felt drained; the smell of rotting was getting stronger as she climbed the staircase. She was six steps away from the next corridor. She knew she could make it, she just had to try. It wasn't far to go, she knew she could make it. She had to try, it was the best she could do in the circumstances. She started to crawl up the steps, holding onto the hand rail as she went, she was uneasy. She stumbled a few times, nearly falling flat on her face. Stacey was strong; she wouldn't let this stop her, not this time. She powered on through, ignoring the pain, ignoring everything. The groaning from the person came back; she tried her hardest to follow the sound. She stumbled to her feet and climbed up the last few remaining stairs. She slouched where she stood at the start of the hallway for a minute, catching her breath. The groaning became louder from the hallway; Stacey became intrigued by this and continued hobbling down the hallway. She checked the first door, nothing. She checked the second door, nothing. She checked the third, fourth and fifth doors; nothing. But the groaning was certainly getting louder. There were at least twenty doors down this corridor, by the time Stacey had reached the twelfth door she became bored and tired of looking through so many doors. She had to keep going, she couldn't stop now, the groaning was getting louder as she walked further down the corridor. The further she walked, the louder it got. She was becoming nervous now; she wanted to know who this mysterious person was. She got to the sixteenth door and the door was locked. Strange, Stacey thought hard, none of the other doors are locked, yet this one is... She shoved her whole body against the door, it budged slightly. Stacey became intrigued, despite her leg being pretty much ruined at this point; she continued smashing her whole body against the door. The door started slowly edging its way open, budging slightly more with each smash. Finally, after the fifteenth attempt, Stacey was becoming extremely worn out by this time, her leg was close to giving way, as was she to passing out. With one last shove against the door, the door swung open and she fell, face first onto the floor of the room. The groaning was definitely coming from this room. She attempted to get to her feet; she discovered that she was in a bedroom, the first room that the door opened into. Stacey grabbed onto the side of the double bed that was in the middle of the medium sized room, the sheets were a lilac colour. There was something different about the sheets though, it should have been lilac coloured all over. The sheets weren't fully lilac like they were meant to be. The same blood stain that was on the double doors was here. Just the same hand-print that had been dragged down the left hand side door was here now in the middle of the bed. Stacey tried her best to examine the hand-print; it looked like a left hand-print. But there was more to it than just a hand-print, Stacey just couldn't figure out what. Her leg was getting worse by the minute, but it was losing its feeling. This person can help me, I know they can. Stacey kept telling herself this over and over until such time that she truly believed it. She clambered to her feet as best as she could. Maybe I should just cut my leg off, how bad could it be? I've already lost most of the feeling in it, couldn't get any worse, right? She looked around in the room for something that could help, maybe an axe or something. The groaning from the person came from the room next door and was getting louder. Soon, the person was banging on the door, groaning extremely loudly. Stacey couldn't hear herself think over the noise.