I've always hated hotels gross carpets gross beds gross bathrooms a germaphobes nightmare next time you're in a hotel just think about it you have no idea who was in here before you doing God knows what on the furniture or on the floor actually you can probably find out if you bring a black light but I digress anyways as much as I hate hotels I always seem to end up in them either from being forced on some family vacation with my parents and brothers or being invited to an Oso fun work conference halfway across the country I think I'm in a new hotel about every 3 months I first heard about the Gateway Hotel when my boss sent me an email on a Thursday requesting well ordering me to attend a conference in Oregon to discuss a merger with another smaller company I had just let out a long exhale and accepted the fact that I would be forced yet again to travel across the country to pleased the biggest prick in the world at least the pay was good that very next day at a little past midnight I pushed open the creaky door to room 4:15 where I would be staying I flicked on the light and it looked just like a regular hotel room on the surface I placed my luggage on the counter in the little kitchen area and went to sit on the bed to play on my phone until I was tired enough to turn in for the night looking up I noticed a painting of a blonde woman in a bright red dress on the wall opposite of the bed inspecting it closer the lady in the painting was aesthetically beautiful but something about her didn't seem right her hands were tucked in a very unnatural position behind her back and the way she stood was rather menacing as if she was about to run out of the painting at me there was also something about her face it was twisted in an angry expression but she still smiled I could see every one of her unnatural white teeth her eyes seemed to follow me as I walked up to the painting I was thoroughly unnerved by it why would the hotel even put something like this up I shook my head and took the painting off the nail it hung from I turned it so it faced away from me and I propped it up against the wall I didn't want that staring at me as I slept something crinkled beneath me when I sat back down on the bed after taking down the painting so I stood back up it was a light blue pain paper titled welcome to the Gateway Hotel this is what it said welcome to the Gateway Hotel we hope that you enjoy your stay at the hotel but there are some things that you need to know to maximize your fun and your safety for this reason the hotel staff has put in place some rules the rules are as follows rule one do not destroy anything in the hotel rooms or move around any furniture it makes cleaning up after afterwards a pain for our lovely cleaning staff and extra charges will be added to your bill if we find that you have broken this rule rule two please do not engage in any intercourse the staff hates cleaning it up and there's a hotel specifically made for just that a few blocks away rule three do not leave the television on all night the hotel needs to spend less on the electricity bill to keep all of the lights on rule 4 do not leave uncovered food out in your room room this may attract unwanted attention from Critters that can smell the food storage in the refrigerator or cabinets is okay as long as the food in covered Rule 5 do not leave your room from 1:00 a. m. to 4:00 a.
m. this is when the cleaning staff are working on cleaning the halls but no need to worry they won't make much noise rule 6 if your room's phone rings at 4:14 a. m.
do not answer rule seven try not to track any sand from the beaches in your rooms it's not easy to get out of the carpet and it makes some of the hotel staff very unhappy rule 8 keep your blinds closed at night people have reported others looking into their rooms rule 9 from in between 3:00 a. m. to 4:00 a.
m. you may hear a child's voice begging for help coming from the hallway it is imperative that you are not tempted to look out of your peephole and do not leave your room there is no one that needs assistance at that hour rule 10 if you notice a maid with long blonde hair and a red uniform in the hallway staring at you look away return to your room and notify the staff our uniforms are light blue do not attempt to speak to the maid in red rule 11 if the maid is blocking your path to your room simply return to the lobby via the stairs and not the elevator she will not attempt to follow you unless you make prolonged eye contact with her she will take that as an invitation rule 12 if you are in the elevator and see a button marked B2 do not push it we do not have a second basement level Rule 13 if you do happen to accidentally push it do not make eye contact or speak with anyone who may get on at that level no matter what stand in front of the buttons on the elevator to prevent them from pushing any keep your head down and push the button marked L to reach the lobby get to the front desk and inform the person there what has happened again again do not make eye contact or speak with any of the passengers that get on at B2 rule 14 do not enter room 414 if you see that it is open even if you hear someone calling for you by name inside do not approach the door and don't attempt to close it contact the staff immediately and we will take care of it that room is out of bounds and should be shut and locked at all times thank you for choosing the Gateway Hotel we hope you have a wonderful stay and don't forget to follow the rules sincerely the staff at the Gateway Hotel what the actual is this this has to be some kind of stupid prank from a completely irresponsible staff member that thinks it's funny to scare their guests I have half a mind to call the front desk and report this idiotic joke I glanced over at the cheap digital clock on the nightstand it's on almost 12:30 at this point and I'm really not so much of a stuck up that I would bother the front desk with something so trivial I might report it when I leave for my meeting tomorrow I groaned when I realized that I would have to wake up at 4:00 a. m.
to get ready thankfully I got some sleep on the flight here I began to get settled into bed as I lay under the scratchy beige comforter I couldn't help but look down at the blue paper that now lay on the floor from when I had crumpled it and tossed it towards the trash can I hate to say it but I can't really get comfortable thinking about the contents of that paper I closed my eyes but immediately opened them again when I realized that I had already broken the first rule I had taken the creepy painting down from the wall hesitantly I sat up and looked at the wall across from the bed even in the darkness of the room I could tell that the painting was back up a chill ran down my spine as I I noticed the woman in the painting was even closer than she was before her face was somehow even more Twisted I quickly lay back down and shut my eyes guess I'm not moving the painting again hopefully I'm just being paranoid even though the rules are probably a joke they still made me a bit nervous the painting back on the wall was probably just a result of me scaring myself in sleep deprivation then again I'm too scared to check I'll update later after I talk to the front desk tomorrow morning edit it's 1:12 a. m. I can't sleep I think I just heard something tap on the window of my room I'm on the fourth floor I still can't really wrap my head around what the hell happened last night in that goddamn hotel but I'll try to recount my experiences up until now in the order in which they happened I didn't want to write everything down and relive it again but I feel like I owe it to everyone to recount my story even if it only stops just one person from booking a night at the Gateway Hotel that'll be enough for my conscience I edited my last post about an hour after I first posted while Frozen in bed hiding under the cheap hotel comforter at 12 a.
m. I had heard a tapping on my window I really hadn't wanted to get up to look but I wanted to prove to myself that it was a tree or some like that I stood up from the bed and crept to the curtained window in the dark I avoided even looking towards the painting on the wall not wanting to see the woman again I knew she was still there and staring in my direction I could feel her eyes follow me as I made my way across the room to the window the almost rhythmic tapping continued as my fingers wrapped around the edge of the curtains and pulled back quickly not even giving myself time to hesitate damn I really wish that I had hesitated I never expected that I would see the grow tesque face of a man staring back at me the man's face almost looked like it was rotting off as he no it grinned at me revealing yellow and brown teeth its sunken eyes met mine as I stared at the thing clinging to my window and tapping on it with a disgustingly long fingernail attached to a twisted and wrinkled hand I had really convinced myself that it was going to be a tree tapping on the window not some zombie guy who had somehow made it up to my window on the fourth floor I hate to admit it but I screamed and fell back landing on the floor who wouldn't there was no balcony outside and nowhere for this guy to stand to reach my window unless he was Spider-Man I lunged for the phone and quickly dialed the number for the front desk that was scrawled on a piece of masking tape stuck to the phone hello this is the Gateway hotel's front desk how may I help you hello yeah there's some guy outside my window tapping on the glass I'm even on the fourth floor how please refer to the list of rules that the hotel has provided you with if you read the eighth rule you will see that you should have kept your windows covered yeah but I'm on the fourth floor that's never stopped them from peeking in please ignore any tapping that may follow now that you've acknowledged them they will continue tapping all night remember to follow the rest of the rules carefully have a good night ma'am the phone line went dead I slammed down the phone back into the receiver cursing I walked over to where the bald up rules lay on the floor and picked them up I smoothed the paper and reread it over and over and over I put my head in my hands as I sat in the room that had looked so ordinary just an hour ago I eventually put the rules on my nightstand and laid down on the bed I looked over at the digital clock on the nightstand 1:46 a. m.
I jumped and hid under the covers as the tapping on the window started up again I had tried to sleep but it proved impossible the tapping on the window and my growing feeling of fear kept me up for hours that is until the alarm on my phone went off at 4:00 a. m. causing me to almost scream I got ready for my meeting quickly anxious to leave the hotel I checked the rules again making sure that I could leave the room the clock read 4:13 a.
m. I sighed in relief when I saw that I could leave suddenly the phone rang and I whipped around to see that the clock now read 4:14 a. m.
I left pretty quickly after that I looked at my window from outside the hotel when I walked out the zombie guy was gone there were also no trees nearby even after the rather successful meeting ended I tried to stay out of the hotel for as long as possible I even called my boss to ask if I could transfer hotels but he just bitched at me about the high cancellation fee and how the Gateway Hotel was the cheapest in the state gee I wonder why I knew I couldn't afford the cancellation fee and the fee for a new hotel room for the night so basically I was stuck in the hell hotel until my flight left at noon tomorrow I returned to the hotel at about 10: p. m. that night I didn't want to risk going back any later on my way through the empty Lobby to the elevator I asked the front desk about may be transferring rooms but they just informed me that all of the rooms were booked as I walked into the elevator I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen anyone else in the hotel besides the front desk staff if they were totally booked shouldn't I have seen someone by now or at least heard them on my way up to my room I saw the elevator button for B2 not surprisingly I didn't feel any urge to push it there was so much tension in the air as I walked down the silent dimly lit hallway to my room I reached the door and unlocked it with my key I walked in and turned before I closed the door my room was right across from 4:14 the door was closed and it just looked so ordinary something about it though maybe it was just the fact that it was on the list of rules made me incredibly uneasy I could have sworn that I saw a flash of red past my door as I closed it so here I am stuck in the Gateway Hotel for another night stuck in the room across the hall from the supposed nightmare room stuck in the room where some zombie guy was tapping on my window stuck in the room with a demon painting I reread the rules again as long as I follow them I should be fine right I made sure that my curtains were closed I double checked that I didn't leave food out I didn't push the B2 button in the elevator and I didn't answer the phone at 4:14 a.
m. I just have to make it to noon tomorrow something just knocked on my door it's 1:54 a. m.
I'm not supposed to look out of my peephole between 1 and 4 but they're still knocking the rules didn't say anything about that I'm out I'm finally out spoiler alert I survived for now with only some emotional scarring however I don't know how long I'll be able to celebrate because I think I broke another rule on accident I think the consequence quences may be more severe this time I'm only posting this now to warn you again do not book a room at the Gateway Hotel so back to where I left off it was 1:54 a. m. when I posted and something had been pounding on my door I knew that I couldn't open the door or look out of the peephole I wasn't about to break any rules again rule do not leave your room from 1:00 a.
m. to 4: a. m.
I wanted to call the front desk but based on my prior interaction with them I knew that they would be completely indifferent to my fear and just tell me to follow the rules again so that's what I planned on doing for the next 8 hours and 36 minutes I just had to make it until 10:30 when I could leave for the airport and finally get out of here I gave up any hope of getting any sleep that night as the rhythmic pounding on my door continued as much as I wanted to know who or what was knocking on my door I knew that it wasn't in my best interest to check it out I turned on my bedside lamp and just sat on my bed watching the door shutter on its hinges with every strike against it good thing I used the chain lock on the door as well as the actual lock because hey I was staying in a nightmare Hotel I couldn't take my eyes off the door until the pounding finally stopped 6 minutes later at exactly 2 a. m. everything was quiet for the next hour no tapping at my window no knocks on my door know nothing even though I was still right across from the creepiest painting in existence thankfully the woman in it had not moved from her position from the night before since I hadn't tried to move her again I was actually beginning to think that I might be able to get some sleep that night until I heard a quiet muffled male voice call out from the hallway outside my room Mama it felt like all of the blood in my body turned to ice in that moment my eyes went wide and I slowly turned my head to look at my clock 3:02 a.
m. rule from in between 3:00 a. m.
to 4:00 a. m. you may hear a child's voice begging for help coming from the hallway I turned back to face the door again as I heard the child in the hallway began to cry while still crying out mama mama the crying was slowly getting louder as the child got closer and closer to my door as it made its way down the hallway my shaking hands curled into fists as the light from the hallway that was pouring under my door was blocked in two spots almost like there was someone standing directly outside of my door even then I still jumped when I heard a soft knock on my door e excuse me ma'am can you help me find my mama I'm lost oh hell no I know all of the other that had been going on in this place was Terri terrifying but this was some Next Level horror movie cliche why does it always have to be a creepy demon child and how the hell does it know that I'm a ma'am I just stayed silent as I heard another knock on my door rule it is imperative that you are not tempted to look out of your peephole and do not leave your room there is no one that needs assistance at that hour ma'am please open the door I'm scared well me sideways kiddo I'm pretty scared too I just gritted my teeth and ignored the child's increasingly desperate pleas for help continue for the next 20 minutes until I heard a sniffle and footsteps going past my door my relief didn't last long however because at 3:24 a.
m. a loud tap sounded against my window I jumped again but quickly calmed myself down oh it's just your friendly hotel zombie Spider-Man I told myself as I glared at the curtains that hid the windows from my sight surprisingly I wasn't even that scared this time I guess it's because I realized that all I had to do was not look at it and it would leave me alone trust me the desire to look at him again was 100% non-existent I was more scared of the creepy lady painting at this point there were no more Taps on my window after that and for the next hour everything was calm again I took the time time of peace to pack up my few belongings that I had pulled out of my suitcase I didn't really unpack much and I bet you can understand why I just ended up just watching the clock on my bedside table at 4:02 a. m.
when it hit 4:14 a. m. I braced myself and waited for the ringing of the phone that sat next to the clock however this time the call never came rule if your room's phone rings at 4:14 a.
m. do not answer 10:30 a. m.
couldn't come fast enough even though it had been calm and quiet for the past few hours I hadn't let my guard down yet that morning at 10:00 a. m.
