Young Writers Society

Ahead on the street, bright head-lights on a car zoomed by- jolting Jeanie out of her drowsiness. Now, Jeanie began to realize, this could be a dangerous situation; she could fall asleep at the wheel, drifting off into a ditch and dying. Considering the outcomes, dying or not dying, Jeanie pulled off to the side of the road. Looking around at her surroundings, Jeanie cautiously checked that her doors were locked and called Mika. Mika, with her light pink hair and big brown eyes resided in Arizona, where she was going for college. Jeanie was going to come from Delaware and stay with Mika in her apartment for the weekend. They’d been best friends since eighth grade and were going to finally spend time with each other. She heard the familiar voice of a friend and felt more comfortable on the dark, deserted road.

“Hey, what’s up? You almost here?” Mika’s high voice resonated throughout the warm and cozy car that protected Jeanie.

“Nah, not yet. It’s getting late, so I think I might just check out a hotel or something.” Jeanie glanced around once more, making sure no demons had gotten into her backseat. “I mean, I could just sleep in my car, but I’ve seen enough horror movies to know better.” Mika let out a small laugh and agreed,

“Alright, yeah. A hotel is probably the safest option if you aren’t close enough.

“Yeah, I’m not trying to have some demon possession moment.”

“Alright, well, yeah. Just call me when you get there.”

“Will do, Captain,” Jeanie said, referencing an inside joke from 10th grade. “Bye, love you.”

“Love you, don’t die.” Mika replied from the other end and hung up. Immediately after Mika was gone, Jeanie started to really get scared. She decided the best move was to keep moving, because a ghost probably can’t run that fast right? After she loaded up Google Maps on her phone and found a hotel seventeen minutes away, she started her journey.

Jeanie glanced at the clock. 12:03 am. Hopefully, the hotel would still be accepting new guests. Driving along, Jeanie did not see a single car. Knowing that she was the only one on the road gave Jeanie the creeps. She didn’t like being the only one out right now, especially not on some highway in Arizona. After driving for what felt like hours, she’d arrived. It was only 12:21 am. In big blue neon letters read ‘Shamois Hotel’. Insmaller letters underneath read ‘VACANCY.’ The hotel seemed to be more of a motel, but at this point, Jeanie would accept any place that had a roof over it and wasn’t moving. She entered the huge wooden doors, hearing them slam behind her.

Looking around, she took in everything around her. The lobby was strange; old-looking and filled with old paintings. There was an odd smell in the air, like that of old books. Walking toward the desk, she rang the bell, and out came a tinny, high sound. Shuffling toward the desk came an old woman with frizzy and curly brown hair. Here eyes were a dark brown-dark enough to look black. For a second, Jeanie couldn’t tell if her eyes were a heavy dark brown or just a startling black. Offset by the woman’s strange eye color, Jeanie stared for a second longer than she should’ve.

“How may I help you, dear?” The raspy voice of the woman stuck inside of Jeanie’s ears. Heavily creeped out by this woman and the artwork, Jeanie questioned whether or not she should just leave. Deciding she’d come too far to just leave, she started,

“Yeah, hi! I’d like to maybe book a room uh… if I could.” The lady gave back a cold, lifeless smile. The woman’s smile was burned into Jeanie’s memory; it was unsettling to have eyes like that staring through your soul.

“Absolutely you can book a room, dearie.” The lady behind the counter whose name tag read ‘ARABELLE’ in black capital letters. Somehow, the name comforted Jeanie. They discussed prices and money for a little while afterwards, and eventually, Jeanie made her way up the creaky wooden stairs. The hotel didn’t have a single elevator, which stood as a testament to the years the hotel had been around. As Jeanie made her trek up the seemingly endless stairwell, she took notice of the items placed around the walls: abstract and strangely colored stains along with randomly placed paintings. Finally, Jeanie had made it to Floor Seven: her floor.

As she walked through the hall, she noticed that every single door looked exactly the same; not a single difference could be noticed between two doors. Everything looked exactly the same throughout the hallway until she reached the door before her own; all boarded up with wood and nails. Jeanie had no idea what could be in there but she didn’t want to stick around long enough in the hallway to find out. Just as she was attempting to unlock her own door, she heard a series of loud bangs on the door- interrupting the eerie silence of the abandoned hallway. Jeanie turned her head quickly towards the door and the loud bangs continued; now, Jeanie definitely knew she didn’t want to be caught out in the hallway during this. She bust into her room and locked the door behind her.

Jeanie soon realized that her room didn’t seem like the safest place to be either. Paintings covered the walls; the most prominent one to Jeanie was the one of a blue boy holding an ice cream cone that’d been dropped. It was something about the boy- perhaps his eyes, how lifeless and black they looked- that stood out to Jeanie. Taking a deep breath, she sat on the hard bed and tried to relax. For awhile, she lie on the bed on her back, trying to make herself feel better about this hotel. It’s not that bad, she thought to herself. Just fall asleep and you can leave first thing in the morning. Before she could even think about closing her eyes in this place, she needed to snoop around a little and find out what kind of place she was in. Jeanie was not going to fall asleep in a foreign and mysterious hotel without first deciding whether it was safe or not. She decided she might as well visit the hotel bar she saw on her way up and see if anyone else was at the hotel with her. As she walked past the boarded up door, the same banging sound cut through the silence, jolting her forward and making her pick up her pace. Jeanie knew something was strange about that room; obviously something wasn’t right, because if it were a regular hotel room, why would the walls be boarded up like that?

Continuing on and walking through the halls, figuring she’d ask the bartender about the room, a peculiar couple passed her, arm in arm. This would’ve been perfectly regular if they weren’t dressed the way they were; the man donned a sophisticated black suit with a red tie. His black hair was slicked in a combover. But it was the woman who was dressed more strangely; she wore a long, puffy, black dress with a black veil over her face. She wore pearls around her neck and black high heels. Jeanie noticed the man had the same dark brown, almost black, eyes. As they walked past, Jeanie couldn’t help but turn and stare at them. On they walked, arm in arm, like nothing was strange about them.

While Jeanie was walking, she began to think she was going insane; every room looked the same and she began to lose her sense of direction. She could no longer tell which way she had been going, and which way she should have been going. Jeanie stumbled around, and she knew it wasn’t from fatigue. Something seriously strange was happening to Jeanie and there was nothing she could do to stop it. After going in what seemed like a circle, Jeanie made it back to her room. Shakily, she opened the door, the same banging from before ringing in the background of her mind. Jeanie felt dizzy; she thought she needed a doctor but she definitely didn’t want to leave the room. She just wanted to leave the hotel as fast as possible but she was in no condition to drive. Everything here was wrong: the experience in the hallway, the abnormal guests, the lack of direction; it just all seemed wrong to her. It left a lingering sense of uneasiness and confusion in Jeanie.

Jeanie headed over to the dresser, leaning her hands on the wooden surface, and staring into the mirror. Although the room was dimly lit, Jeanie could tell that there was something wrong with the woman staring back at her. The room began spinning around, and Jeanie swore she saw two of herself in the mirror. All she could hear in the room was heavy breathing, but she couldn’t even tell if it was coming from her. It sounded foreign and not like her own.

Looking closer at herself in the mirror, Jeanie saw something very wrong; her ocean eyes had been transformed into the same dark brown, nearly black, lifeless pools that she’d seen on the couple and the hotel desk lady. Her breathing intensified as she’d tried to make sense of this new change- maybe she’s just tired and imagining it, a hallucination brought forth by severe fatigue, but Jeanie knew deep in her bones that this was a little too real.

The entire room kept spinning for Jeanie and she couldn’t find her phone to call someone. She’d left it on the bed, she knew she did, but it was nowhere to be found. Eventually, after more dazed and confused stumbling around the room, Jeanie collapsed with a thud on the ground and a heavy breath, her body sprawled out on the old rug.

Hours, maybe even days, Jeanie had no idea, later she awoke when the same hotel desk woman from earlier unlocked the room with the master key. She found Jeanie on the floor and really thought she was dead, sprawled out on the rug unconscious like that. Jeanie awoke, with an urge to leave the hotel. That urge was overpowered by the overwhelming sense of attachment to the hotel and the need to stay. Something in her body wouldn’t let her leave this hotel.

So she stayed and wandered the hotel some more, in the same daze as she’d been when she went on an adventure around the hotel last time. Once again, after going in what she thought to be a circle, she reached her room once again. Same as before, she heard the familiar banging on the door. This time, she needed to find out what was inside the room. A new boldness was radiating off of her, a persona she’d been presenting as to mask her true fear. Strutting over to the door, she knocked three times; a quick, loud knocking. Although she knew there wouldn’t be a response, because there couldn’t be anything on the other side of the door- the room was boarded up with wood and nails and showed no signs of life inside. Rationally, Jeanie knew it wasn’t possible for anyone to be in there because once a person was in that room, they weren’t coming back out. Maybe, that was the point.

For as long as Jeanie stood outside the door, the banging wouldn’t stop; it persisted, a steady drum providing background music to Jeanie’s daring attempt to gain access to the room. Jeanie tried to pull the boards off with her hands, but she just wasn’t strong enough. Her hands and arms had started to hurt. The nails on the wall held the boards close, shining and gleaming in mockery of Jeanie. Still, no matter how hard she pushed, pulled, or shoved, the door was boarded shut and staying that way. Defeated, Jeanie went back to her room, thinking of ways to possibly get that door opened.

Back in her room, things weren’t looking any better than they were in the hallway; her things had started to disappear. Her phone, wallet, clothes, and keys had gone, one by one. The disappearance of her items went slowly, as if to not disturb her. Despite her bright blue eyes transforming into black-brown lifeless pools and her valuables disappearing, Jeanie couldn’t shake the need to stay at this hotel. She’d already booked the room for another day. There was something about the hotel that tethered her to it, gnawing at her brain and begging her to stay. So she did, and so she tried to not worry about every slightly unusual thing happening, but how could she not worry? Although she was nervous and unsteady about the hotel, the urgency of her need to stay was overwhelming. Daydreaming of possible ways to get into that mysterious room, Jeanie drifted off into sleep.

The next morning, she awoke, and everything seemed fine. Everything was okay until she gained a sense of where she was and looked down at her body. Her outfit consisting of ripped jeans and a t-shirt had been replaced with something different, not her own. Dressing her were the clothes of another woman, and Jeanie’s old clothes were nowhere to be found. The dress, a white, frilly, lacy, old thing, was completely foreign to Jeanie; she’d never seen it before in her entire life. This was the last straw for Jeanie- she headed downstairs and decided to ask for a screwdriver. She knew there was no other way into the room. Arabelle was at the desk again. It was strange; she’d been looking toward the stairwell Jeanie came out of. It was like she was waiting for her to come down. After some questioning and some lying on Jeanie’s part, Arabelle handed over a metal toolkit. If only Jeanie had turned back to look at the woman; she would’ve seen the evil smile, the knowing smile, of a woman who knew exactly what was about to happen.

Jeanie trotted upstairs, feet clomping on the ground heavily as she walked on. The frills of the ancient looking dress flounced around with every step she took. After climbing up for what felt like hours, she finally made her way back to floor seven. Walking down the hallway, Jeanie felt like she was having deja vu- every door looked the same and she’d seen this same sight every time she walked down the hallway.

After reaching the only door that was set apart from the others, Jeanie started to go to work on the nails, unscrewing the boards, drowning out the banging on the other side of the wall. Jeanie couldn’t help but laugh when the boards started to become unscrewed; a maniacal laugh of a woman gone insane. The boards peeled off the wall with a seamless transition. The pounding from the other side intensified, or perhaps it was just the pounding in Jeanie’s head- she couldn’t tell the difference. She really had started to think she’d been going insane; hallucinating noises and imagining that her eyes had been magically transformed into a color different than they should be. I’ve really lost it now, Jeanie thought to herself. I’m delusional, oh my god, I’ve lost it. Still, the same tug pulled at her to stay at the hotel and open the door, like a dog on a tight leash. Jeanie figured she should remain at the hotel until she’d recovered from whatever this was. Her wanting to stay at the hotel until she ‘recovered’ was really just a demonstration of the hotel having some sort of strange yet powerful hold over her, Jeanie would realize later when she looked back at it.

Now that Jeanie could open the door, she wasn’t 100% sure if she wanted to. She’d been dying to see this moment ever since she first noticed the room, but a little voice deep down inside told her to keep the door shut and run far away. Yelling over that tiny, timid voice was the loud, booming voice of the hotel, demanding her to stay and open the door.

Unfortunately, that tiny voice just wasn’t enough to fight off the big voice; Jeanie removed the boards, which were barely hanging on now, and placed them on the floor. The overwhelming sound of the banging getting louder played; hurting Jeanie’s ears, making her put her hands over them. The gold colored door knob shined at Jeanie, as if to tell her to turn it and open the door. Jeanie took a few deep breaths, trying to relax herself and open the door. Breathing in and out, Jeanie felt calmer- like she knew what she needed to do to complete this strange sort of mission.

A few times, Jeanie turned the door knob and quickly let it go, backing away from the door. Her head was pounding out a fast and heavy drum beat, causing her to lose her focus. The door seemed to be pulsing, as if someone was viciously banging on the other side of the door. Jeanie sat up quickly from where she sat on the old blue carpeting of the hallway and faced the door directly. Finally, a wave of courage came over her. She twisted the door knob and pushed the door open, hearing a loud creak. Jeanie’s throat had formed a lump in it, preventing her from breathing. As soon as the door was slightly ajar, many veiny, thin, white hands reached out and grasped Jeanie, pulling her into the room. Jeanie let out a scream, but she was pulled into the room faster than she could figure out what was happening. Everything had moved so quickly and everything was so dark and quiet now since the banging stopped.

There was not a single shred of light in the room; the darkness was suffocating. A raspy whisper sounded and Jeanie couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It sounded like it was all around her, in her head, seeping into her brain. Jeanie couldn’t get away from the whisper,

“You’re like us now,” the raspy whisper laughed. “You’re like us and now you can’t leave us.” The laughing continued. Jeanie covered her ears, yelling,

“Like who? I don’t know who you’re talking about!” Jeanie had buried her head into her knees, but she heard a click and immediately raised her head. Suddenly, the lights were on; the room was covered in mirrors on every surface: every wall, every inch of the ceiling, every inch of the floor.

“Like us…” The whispering raspy voice replied, stretching the ‘S’.

In the mirror, surrounding Jeanie was a collection of people. The weird couple from the hallway, Arabelle, and a few other unrecognizable face; all dressed in old-fashioned clothing, similar to Jeanie’s, staring at her with the black, lifeless eyes. “The hotel has you too, now.” Everyone in the room began laughing along with the raspy voice, filling Jeanie’s ears. “Welcome.” She covered her ears and collapsed to the floor, hitting her head when she struck the ground.

4 Years Later

A couple arrived to the Shamois Hotel in the middle of the night, just like Jeanie had one terrible night four years ago. In they walked, looking tired and looking around at the lobby, and rang the same bell that Jeanie once had.

As soon as Jeanie heard the bell, she rushed out, knowing this would mean a new addition to the hotel, and they hadn’t had one in ages. Some people had pushed through the large wooden doors and then walked directly back out. They were the lucky ones. The hotel hadn’t gained a strong hold over them yet.

Now, from being at the hotel for so long, Jeanie ran out of things to do. She couldn’t leave; she’d tried that over and over until she realized it just wasn’t going to happen for her. She researched many different topics and places to pass the time: the Shamois Hotel and what happened there was one of those topics. Oddly enough, she found no record of this hotel ever existing; not on Google Maps, not online, not in newspapers. Nowhere. It was as if the hotel had never existed. She couldn’t find out what happened there, because according to everywhere she searched, absolutely nothing ever happened. No one in the hotel knew the mechanics of the hotel and how it worked; they just knew they couldn’t leave and would never be able to..

Jeanie greeted the couple as nicely and with as much hospitality as she could muster up, even though she knew she was sinisterly trapping them here. When all of the members of the hotel first started off, they swore they wouldn’t trap anyone, but after awhile of being at the hotel, their morals sank away. Jeanie knew the drill; they’d spend a day or two until they were pulled into the same room that Jeanie had been pulled into.

From the outside of the Shamois, nothing much was happening. In fact, nothing was happening at all; the place where tired travelers thought the Shamois was placed happened to be an empty lot in actuality, sandy and barren. Of course, Jeanie, or anyone else inside the hotel, had no clue about this. She was still under the impression that there ever was a hotel, because why would she think otherwise? No one in the hotel seemed to know that they were trapped, in some nonexistent place that had sucked them in and wouldn’t show them an exit.

For a regular of the town, they knew about this empty lot and about how nothing could be built on it. No project lasted for more than two days before the workers had mysteriously gone missing, and after being at the hotel for a while Jeanie found them. After spending so long at the hotel, everyone had conversed with each other, always the same conversation starting with “How’d you end up here?”. She talked with them and found out that they had been unable to leave the lot while working on it, and woke up to find themselves in a hotel room. They just all passed out one day and the next thing they knew, they were lying in a hotel bed. That was the best explanation they could offer to themselves and anyone else who cared enough. They didn’t know exactly what happened to them, and they never would know. The saddest part to Jeanie was the fact that they would never truly understand how they got here.

Everyone just knew the lot was empty and was meant to stay that way, for some reason no one could figure out. People stayed away and didn’t question it, because they didn’t even know what the question would be.

Inside the hotel, Jeanie was at work, trapping the next unknowing victims of the hotel, tricking them with charisma and smiles. “Welcome,” Jeanie said to them as she handed over a room key, shiny metal with a red leather keychain dangling from it. As they walked up to their room, Jeanie held her smile at their backs, knowing that she’d made new friends, whether they wanted to be here or not.

Outside, a car whizzed by the seemingly empty lot, unaware of the tragedy that lurked inside.