Chapter Text
The hotel is dressed as an old motel, one of the grimy ones with only a few rooms. The off-white walls are marked and scratched, along with the doors, leaving a sense of discomfort. The doors of the motel open softly, the rusted hinges scraping against each other. Cold air poured into the lobby as the guest stepped inside.
A boy in a rugged jacket looks around nervously, one hand in his pocket. He walks up to the motel’s front desk, the floor creaking beneath his feet. He asks the concierge if there’s a spare room. “Just- Just to spend the night in.” He mutters.
The concierge smiles at him, “Of course, sir.“ He opens the guest book, the cover hitting the desk with a thud, “I believe we have a few rooms left open, sign here.” He hands the boy a ballpoint pen.
He signs the book, its pages cheap and thin. Once he’s finished, the concierge hands him a small key, “Your room is in the building out back, just across the parking lot.”
He thanks the man at the desk, looking relieved. The boy leaves through the front doors, another spout of cold air flowing through the lobby. As the doors are shut, the concierge stares from his desk, his smile unwavering. He doesn’t expect to see the boy for check out tomorrow.
***
The sky is dark, with the only illumination coming from the lights around the pool yard. The boy breathes in deeply, savoring the night air. He hugs his jacket tighter around himself as he continues down the lot, the building just up ahead. He’s able to get a good look at it now, seeing its shabby state. Reaching the door, he looks up at the building. Despite what the concierge said, he realizes that he can’t see any sign of other people inside.
The boy opens the door as quietly as he can, in case the building really is being occupied. The place hasn’t been cleaned in awhile, he could tell, seeing the bits of grime that were stuck in the corners. He walks up the stairs to the second floor, looking for his room. The lights are just a bit too dim, making it difficult for him to make out the numbers on the doors. He squints his eyes in the darkness, tiptoeing across the hall.
Just a couple doors down, he manages to find his room. The carved “004” on the door is more visible now as he stands in front of it. He pushes the key into the lock and twists, but he finds that the door won’t open. He fiddles with the key more. It seems to fit just fine, yet no matter how much it turns the door won't budge. The boy takes the key out with a sigh, the lock must be broken. He turns to walk back downstairs, but pauses when he hears a creak from behind. The boy spins around, eyes trying to focus against the darkness. He doesn’t see anything behind him, only the rest of the hall. He doesn’t have the chance to turn back around before the door at the end begins to open.
The door opens slowly, like it had been lightly pushed from the other side. He can see inside of it now, but instead of a room, he sees pitch blackness. Anxiously, he opens his mouth to speak, “Um, hello? I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“
The sudden noise of squeaking hinges interrupts him, as the other rooms of the hall are swiftly unlocked. The opened doors hit the walls with a slam, containing the same void inside. The boy gasps, and he stumbles backwards with his hand on his chest. As he catches himself, the wall around the open doors begin to split and crumble at the edges, growing across the entire surface. He sprints as fast as he can towards the staircase, eyes wide with panic. The building erupts with the groans of wood breaking and warping, walls bending in impossible ways as he runs down the steps. He should be on the first floor by now, but the staircase keeps growing longer the faster he goes. The ceiling starts to contort as well, shifting lower and lower. The boy has to duck in order to not bang his head against it. Tears form in his eyes as the whole building shrinks in on him, jutting sharp wood into his skin. The creaking sounds more like screams as the walls and ceiling compact, crushing the boy from all sides. As his bones shatter, and he is nothing more than a mush of blood and meat between the planks of what was once a regular structure, the sounds of the night can be heard as the warping is ceased.