Hotel Midnight // Shawn Mendes (✔️)

Twenty-Nine

Despite the fact it currently looked like a spider web was forming on my face, I thought I looked pretty good for one of Sam's parties.

I know, I'm not pointing out all my flaws and imperfections. Sue me.

But after noticing that the first thing anybody would ever look to is my ever growing tat, I decided upon the fact that I don't think any one would actually focus enough to see that I decided to skip the eyeliner wing and settle for a wingless line, or that I was currently an absolute tragic mess when walking in high heels, so I thought wearing flats to this would be much easier and way less painful.

I don't know why, but when I checked my closet, almost everything was different. This, of course, was nothing too strange, because the Hotel did this every night we had a "party", so my variety of dresses was probably way longer than my life span.

However as I searched through every dress, looking to see which one I would decide to wear to my last night at this place, I notice the very last dress, which was a sparkling shade of red that completely caught my eye. I instantly pull it out of the closet to see the full appearance, and my jaw almost drops to the floor.

It was the same dress I wore the night of the party that Shawn went to. I was in shock, because I had never received the same dress twice, but there it was, right in front of my eyes.

It didn't take me very long to decide that that would be the dress I was going to wear tonight.

When I go to the mirror once more, to check my final appearance in case I had a new addition to my face, I'm shocked when the moment I make eye contact with myself, everything goes black.

I wish I could put it in a better way, but it's exactly as it sounds. I walked up to the mirror, looked at my reflection, made eye contact with my reflection, and my vision disappeared.

I am not going blind tonight.

And turns out, I wasn't. Because the moment I looked away my eyesight was back.

I wish I could say I liked what I saw.

My right arm was turning faint.

Either I was on some serious drugs right now, or I could actually see my black flats through my hand.

Immediately, I sprint over to where I hide all of my research about this place (which, by the way, would no longer be needed) plus the key, and reach for Shawn's watch with my left hand, more eager than ever to check what the time was.

10:41 PM.

I'm not amazing at math, but I know that's probably enough time for my body to slowly disappear into emptiness.

I take a look at the journal I had spent a lot of time updating before I got ready, and hesitantly place the floorboard back down unevenly. If another victim of Hotel Midnight came to my room, I wanted them to trip over the floor and see what was hidden, so I could help them.

Just when I'm about to check how invisible my arm was about to be, I'm stopped by a sudden knock on the door.

Shawn.

"Hey, Nora, you in there?" I hear, and can't help but smile a little at the sound of his voice.

"Yeah, just a second." I reply, before walking out of the bathroom and opening the door. (With my right hand, may I add, because my plan was to cover it with the door so he wouldn't be able to see it and freak out over it.)

"Woah." Is what comes out of both of our mouths, before we turn bright red in embarrassment.

Shawn looked handsome as ever. And when I say that, I don't mean "Oh my gosh, he's definitely the hottest boy in our school.", I mean that right now, in front of me in his suit and tie, he was absolutely indescribable.

I wouldn't be surprised if I was drooling right now.

After what feels like forever of just looking at each other, I finally open my mouth to speak.

"You look..." I start, but can't find myself to finish the sentence. He looked more than just handsome. Right now, Shawn looked stunning.

"Yeah." He tells me, "You too."

And suddenly, I find myself unable to hold back front the smile that was itching to escape my shocked face. I didn't even know it was possible to reach this level of happiness when you only had a couple hours to left to live.

"So, shall we go to the ball?" I ask him, and then we were both smiling widely.

"I think we shall."

And so we did. The moment we walked in, almost every pair of eyes looked at my face or arm, but I ignored it. The only thing I was looking at right now was Shawn, who was looking at me. And only then do I realize that he's holding onto my hand.

"Shall we dance?" He asks me, once everyone is back to whatever they were doing.

"I think we shall." I reply, earnings small laugh from Shawn, which causes me to laugh.

"So, when where you planning on telling me how your arm turned see-through?" He asks, after bringing me to the middle, where everyone was slow-dancing to song I'm pretty sure is from the 1800s.

"Um, there's not much to say. One second it was fine, and the next it wasn't.

"And you're not worrying about this at all?" Shawn asks, and I shrug.

"No, not really. And I'm not giving you permission to worry about it either, okay? I'm telling you, the only thing I want to think about is the here and now."

Shawn smiles at me as we begin to dance, and plants a light kiss on my cheek.

Instead of feeling relaxed though, I felt a slight chill, like somebody was watching me.

Of course someone's watching you, you have the Spider-Man logo imprinted onto your face.

But it felt different, and in the weirdest way.

"Hey, you okay?" Shawn asks, with so much concern that I feel my heart sink.

What was going to happen to him at midnight?

I don't have much time to really think about it though, because the song is over, and I currently felt light-headed.

"I'm fine, but do you think we could sit down for a bit?" I ask, and Shawn nods instantly. I smile at him gratefully before giving him a quick kiss and holding his hand, then turning around to go sit down.

That's not what happens.

Instead, the moment I turn from Shawn, I'm faced with somebody I thought I would never see again.

"Hey, I'm really sorry if you've noticed me watching you, I swear I'm no stalker. But do you mind if I ask you where you got that necklace from?"

I almost fainted.

Standing in front of me, was Coraline.

TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH MISS PEREGRINES HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. I read the book last year and the movie had me in a next dimension.