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Okay, Awsten gets it. The ParxBoiz are huge right now. Crowds of fans camp outside the venues for their shows, media interns shyly ask for autographs, and their music is being played everywhere. Their tour bus is highly noticeable, decorated with their faces on the side. Hotels near each show location are packed with fans desperate to see them.
It’s something the label wanted. It’s something management is thrilled about. It’s something Awsten, Geoff, and Otto have learned to live with and even love a little.
The thing that Awsten doesn’t like is how management has suddenly decided to set them up in obscure out-of-the-way hotels whenever they’re on tour. Awsten doesn’t get it. Well, he did sort of listen when he got yelled at for tweeting their location on the first night of tour, and he agreed to not do it again, but he’s not happy about it.
The hotel they’re staying in tonight is just terrible. Like, whatever, the building looks cool and it’s actually pretty fancy inside with its archaic fashion, but it’s so far away from civilization. All by itself on a lonely road, nothing around except cornfields and a Dollar General with a fading yellow lamp illuminating its parking lot.
After the buzz and excitement of that night’s show… ending the night at this isolated hotel just feels lame.
But on the other hand, the fact that there’s literally no other cars in the parking lot means the band will all get their own rooms. Awsten will be able to enjoy an actual bath--as long of a bath as he wants--and he can use all his products. He’s going to feel so refreshed and relaxed tomorrow morning.
“Here are your keys,” the old employee at the front desk says, handing over a handful of actual metal keys. Lucas, their manager, takes them.
“Rooms in the teens are on the second floor,” the old guy says, his voice dry and wheezy. “Twenties are on the third floor. Breakfast starts at six.”
“Thanks,” Lucas says. He turns away from the old guy to start distributing the keys to everyone. The old man exits the reception desk via a wooden door behind him that creaks as it opens and shuts.
Awsten’s key is heavy and cold, with a polished wooden 13 hanging on a white ribbon tied to the end. Very cool. He’s totally going to tweet this once he’s in his room. He rolls his suitcase towards the elevator: one of those creepy ones made of metal and wood and decorated with brass. Awsten freezes in front of it to look at it. Holy fucking shit.
“This is so sick,” he whispers, pulling out his phone and taking a picture of the elevator.
“Don’t put that on Instagram,” Lucas says immediately. Awsten rolls his eyes but puts the phone back in his pocket. Damn, that dude has like a sixth sense or something.
Awsten opens the metal doors of the elevator shaft, and then the wooden doors of the elevator carriage. Man, he’s always wanted to be in something like this. He walks into the elevator and Otto comes in right behind him. Awsten waits a second for Geoff to get in as well. Geoff stands just outside the doors and gives the elevator a skeptical look.
“Uh, I think I’ll take the stairs,” he says, pulling his suitcase towards the stairs that wind around the elevator shaft.
“Whatever, Davynn,” Otto says. Geoff just waves at them with a smile.
Awsten shuts the doors, presses the button for the second floor, and immediately takes out his phone again to take a video of the elevator ride. The elevator carriage moves much smoother than he was expecting, although it’s predictably slow. But there’s no creaking or clunking or sudden horrible lurches. This almost makes up for being in such a creepy place.
When the elevator stops at the second floor, Awsten reaches to open the door.
It won’t budge.
Awsten frowns and pushes a bit harder, then even harder. The whole elevator carriage shakes with the force of his attempt, and then suddenly there’s a terrifying creaking noise all around him. Awsten’s stomach drops and he glances over his shoulder at Otto.
“Is it not opening?” Otto says, looking concerned at the noise.
“No,” Awsten says.
Otto laughs nervously and reaches past Awsten for the door. It opens seemingly with no effort, and Otto pushes the carriage door the rest of the way open.
Awsten grabs his stuff and exits, feeling kind of weird. Geoff has reached the second floor landing at that point, and he’s looking at the elevator uncomfortably again. Otto makes sure the doors are shut securely, and then the carriage goes down again, probably to pick up the crew.
“How old do you think that thing is?” he asks, falling into step behind Awsten and Otto.
Awsten shrugs. “Probably as old as this building?”
“You think it’s still up to, like, elevator codes?” Geoff says.
“It’s gotta be, otherwise they’d shut it down,” Otto says. He stops in front of room 17. “See ya tomorrow.”
Awsten and Geoff keep walking to rooms 14 and 13. At least the carpet here is normal, Awsten thinks to himself. Not like one of those mind-screwing designs out of a horror movie. The wallpaper is an old floral pattern, but the color is nice. All the framed art on the walls are landscapes, flowery fields and beaches and stuff.
So why does he still feel creeped out?
“Goodnight,” Geoff says as they reach their rooms, the last ones at the end of the hall.
“Night,” Awsten says. He unlocks his door and walks into his room.
Jesus fuck. The bed is one of those old wooden four-poster ones. This hotel sure is sticking to its antique theme. A different floral wallpaper, a thick carpet that seems to absorb all sound, and a radio in the corner. For decoration probably? There’s no television, but Awsten doesn’t really care, because he opens the door the the bathroom and sighs in relief.
“Oh thank fuck.”
The bathtub is big and thankfully modern. The rest of the bathroom is comfortably bright. It almost feels weird that this is the one place in the whole hotel that doesn’t follow the Older Than Sliced Bread vibe, but Awsten is mostly just glad he can take a fucking bath and not feel like he’s being watched by some ghostly old bellhop who hates pop music.
Ha-ha.
Awsten drops his suitcase on the bedroom bench and proceeds to spend over an hour in the bathroom. He posts a picture of him posing in the bathroom mirror and tweets a thank you to all the fans who were at the concert, then replies to some of their responses with emojis.
By the time he exits the bathroom, fully relaxed and ready to go to bed--or at least lie in his bed for another hour while staring at his phone--he’s almost forgotten what the bedroom looks like.
“Ugh,” he mutters, one foot on the carpet and one still on the warm bathroom tile. He’d forgotten to turn on all the lights and the shadows all over the room are sort of creeping him out. Whatever, it’s just a room. He’ll fall asleep soon and it’ll look less ominous in the morning when he wakes up.
Awsten shuts the bathroom door behind him and reaches for the light switch. Right as his finger touches the switch, however, there’s a ear-splittingly loud metallic creak from somewhere outside his room. Awsten jumps and covers his ears, wincing as the noise only gets louder and more horrible.
After a few torturous seconds, the noise stops. Awsten shudders and takes his phone out of his pocket to text Lucas.
Only… there’s no service.
No fucking way. Awsten had a full four bars and a strong wifi signal literally two minutes ago. They passed a cell phone tower on the way here. There’s no fucking way Awsten doesn’t have service.
Awsten glares at the screen of his phone and tries to force it to regain a signal, but he doesn’t get anything.
“The fuck,” he grumbles. He glances at the door of his room.
He could… just go out and find Lucas. But he doesn’t know which room he’s in. Awsten looks back at his phone, but it’s still useless.
Then there’s a loud and frantic knocking on his door. Awsten nearly jumps out of his skin, dropping his phone on the ground.
“Awsten!” It’s Geoff.
Awsten picks up his phone and goes to open the door. Geoff looks shaken, standing alone in the darkened hallway. He shoves his way into Awsten’s room. Awsten notices Geoff is breathing a bit heavier than usual.
“Did you hear that?” Geoff says.
Awsten is about to reply, but Geoff continues on.
“I--I don’t know, I thought it might just be--you know, this place is old and old places settle at night, but… I was going to text you guys but I don’t have service all of a sudden, and I opened my door to--but. God.” Geoff shudders. “I hope I was just imagining that.”
Awsten’s chest tightens with dread. “What.”
Geoff looks at the hallway outside Awsten’s open door. Awsten follows his gaze. It’s dark out there. Except… not complete darkness. Probably from a safety light.
Slowly, Awsten steps out of the door, Geoff following close behind.
There is a light at the end of the hallway. But it’s not from a safety light.
It’s coming from the elevator. The elevator with doors wide open. Awsten knows that Otto closed those doors. As Awsten stares in disbelief, the lights flicker on and off. And then they do it again.
“Nope!” Awsten says loudly. “Not doing that shit!” He grabs Geoff’s hand and drags him back into his room. As soon as he and Geoff are both inside, Awsten shuts the door firmly, locks it, and then goes to turn on every single light in the room. Geoff sits down on the end of the bed, looking sadly at his phone.
“It still won’t do anything,” he says gloomily.
The awful creaking noise sounds again, this time for even longer than before. Geoff and Awsten make eye contact throughout it. Geoff looks like he actually might be scared. Awsten is getting pissed off. Okay, he’s freaking out too, but if this fucking haunted hotel thinks its going to trick him and Geoff into investigating the creepy elevator, it’s got the wrong stupid white boys.
“What are we gonna do?” Geoff says.
“We’re not going anywhere near that fucking elevator,” Awsten says, starting to pace. “We can just stay in here until morning. Or until Lucas comes.”
“You think he heard that?” Geoff says.
“Of course he did,” Awsten says. “The whole fucking state probably heard it.”
“What about Otto?”
“What?”
“Otto--I didn’t go to check,” Geoff says, fidgeting on the bed. “I was going to, but then I saw the light and--”
“Fuck,” Awsten hisses. He jumps for the door, unlocks it, and opens it again.
God fucking damn it, now the lights closest to the elevator are brightening and dimming as if they’re alive. Awsten grits his teeth and hurries down to Otto’s room. He pounds on the door.
“Otto!” he yells. “Get out of there!”
He continues knocking, trying not to think too hard about the elevator doing its best to beckon him over. Slight movement in that direction catches his eye, however. Awsten looks instinctively.
He gasps and falls away from Otto’s door. There’s a faint white mist rolling out of the open elevator doors.
Okay, fuck Otto. Awsten turns and runs back to his room, where Geoff is waiting, half out of the door. As Awsten runs back, he sees even more movement along the darkened walls and sees that the landscapes have all filled with moving figures.
Nope. Nope. Fucking nope.
Awsten sprints back into his room and he locks the door again as fast as he can. He stumbles back away from the door, shaking.
“This fucking place is so fucking haunted, oh my god,” he says, on the verge of becoming hysterical. “I fucking swear, if it’s trying to kill us or keep us here forever, I’m going to fucking--”
“We can just stay in here,” Geoff says. “I mean, as long as everyone stays away from the elevator, we’ll be fine, right? That’s probably the only haunted thing.”
Awsten looks at Geoff and sees the desperate hope in his expression.
And then, as if on cue, the radio in the corner of Awsten’s room crackles to life.
“And now, the end is near,” Frank Sinatra’s voice warbles out of the ancient speakers, “And so I face the final curtain.”
“Oh my god, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Awsten yells. He races over to the radio and pulls the plug out of the wall.
The radio keeps singing. “My friend, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and every highway.”
Awsten turns the volume knob all the way down. It does nothing. Frustrated, he throws it at the wall. Still nothing. Before Awsten can try to destroy it further, Geoff comes over, wraps the radio in the comforter from the bed, and then shuts it in the bathroom.
They can still hear it faintly, but it’s muffled enough that they can’t hear the words. Awsten groans and collapses onto the bed next to where Geoff is sitting.
“Well, looks like the whole hotel is haunted,” he says with fake cheer. “Are we going to try and stay in here until it’s morning, or escape?”
Geoff is silent for a long moment. “We can’t really leave without the keys to the bus,” he says softly. “Which are… probably upstairs. We’d have to go past the elevator to--”
An idea suddenly hits Awsten. He jumps up and grabs Geoff. “The window!” he yells.
Geoff blinks. Slowly, his face lights up in understanding. “Oh.”
Excited, Awsten pulls the sheets off the bed and ties the ends together. Geoff crosses the room to the window and pulls aside the curtains.
“Oh fuck!”
“What?” Awsten looks up and his heart definitely stops for a second. Standing--or floating maybe--outside their second-story window is the fucking old dude from the reception desk, with milky white eyes and a gaunt face. His hands are pressed against the glass of the window. Geoff backs away, returning to Awsten’s side.
Awsten is frozen in horror for a moment as he watches the old man start to claw at the glass of the window. Then another feeling takes over. Irritation. This scrawny old ghost is the only thing standing between them and freedom from the evil elevator demon? Fucking bring it.
“You fucking old bitch!” Awsten yells, charging at the window. He wrenches the window open and throws his hands out. They pass through the ghost and Awsten nearly falls out of the window. Geoff catches him just in time.
The old man ghost makes a startled sound and vanishes. Guess he wasn’t expecting resistance. Awsten smirks in satisfaction.
Geoff hauls him back into the room and they finish tying together the sheets. The elevator makes another loud noise and in the bathroom, the radio starts playing another song. Too fucking bad, Awsten thinks, the damn hotel isn’t going to eat their souls tonight. He knows enough about horror bullshit that it’s best to fight these things in unconventional ways.
“How are we getting down?” Geoff asks, looking out the window at the significant drop to the ground.
“We tie this to something and climb down it,” Awsten says. He looks around for something sturdy to tie it to. Outside their room, the hallway lights flicker enough to notice through the tiny crack under the door. They should move fast, before that damn ghost comes back or the hotel tries to attack them some other way.
Awsten ties the end of the sheet to one of the posts of the bed. Their makeshift rope only reaches partway to the ground, but it’ll be enough. They can drop the rest of the way.
“Alright, come on,” Awsten says, grabbing onto the sheet and carefully maneuvering himself out the window.
“Uh,” Geoff says hesitantly. “Is it going to be strong enough?”
“Sure it will,” Awsten says. He transfers his body weight from the windowsill to the sheet. Okay, it’s holding fine. He shifts his grip from one hand to the other.
There’s a faint ripping sound.
Awsten has just enough time to look at Geoff in panic before the end of the sheet rips off the post of the bed and he falls down towards the ground.
“AWSTEN!”
Awsten hears Geoff’s scream a split second before he falls into a bush. He lies there stunned for a moment. He just fell out of a fucking window. From the second floor. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he can’t break any bones or sprain anything, he’s in a fucking boy band he needs to dance and sing and--
There’s a crashing sound next to him. Geoff rolls awkwardly in the bush beside him, and then scrambles over to Awsten’s side. He turns Awsten’s face towards him, genuine fear in his eyes.
“Are you alright?” Geoff says.
Awsten stares at Geoff. There’s a scrape on Geoff’s cheek that’s already starting to bleed. Did… this fucking idiot jump down after him? Geoff looks so… concerned. He fucking risked his… he could have broken his legs or his neck or… but he just jumped down.
Awsten opens his mouth. “Geoff,” he breathes.
Geoff’s face suddenly twists in confusion. “One second,” he says, and reaches for his pocket. He takes out his phone. And then a smile spreads across his face. “I’ve got service back,” he says.
Awsten doesn’t move for a moment. Service… right. They need to get help or something. Call Lucas or, if they can’t get ahold of him, do something else.
Awsten’s mind races with a million bad impulse ideas. It locks on one and he grins. Perfect. But first, he needs to make sure nothing’s broken. Slowly, he moves each of his body parts. While his entire body hurts from the fall, nothing feels too bad. Wincing, he moves to get up, and Geoff immediately stands up and reaches down to help him. Together, they extract themselves from the bush.
“Come on,” Awsten says. “I’ve got an idea for how we’re going to get out of this place.”
~~~~~
Otto is sulking. He’s very clearly tired and annoyed that he’s being forced to sleep on the tour bus instead of in a real bed. Geoff feels kind of bad about that. Only kind of. He’s glad they got the fuck out of that hotel. Even if nobody will ever believe the truth, that he and Awsten might have saved their lives. Geoff knows they did the right thing.
But maybe… Maybe letting Awsten tweet a picture of the two of them posing in front of the hotel and asking if any fans wanted to meet up for a late night haunted hotel adventure… Maybe that wasn’t the best way of fixing this problem. It certainly got upper management on Lucas’s ass fast. He had them all out of the hotel just in time as the fastest fans showed up.
Now Lucas has confiscated Awsten’s phone and the whole bus is giving Awsten the silent treatment. Awsten is putting up with it surprisingly well. He’s sitting next to Geoff, the only person who is tolerating his presence right now.
Awsten’s starting to nod off, and he leans against Geoff as his eyelids slip shut. Geoff can feel the smile growing on his face. Gently, he moves so Awsten isn’t in such an awkward position. Then, praying that Awsten won’t wake up, he places his hand over Awsten’s and holds it.
Geoff almost lost him tonight. Maybe it’s a good thing that Lucas threatened to make them sleep in the bus every remaining night of the tour. As long as it keeps Awsten safe. And as for Awsten’s happiness… well, Geoff can work on that in the morning.
Geoff leans into Awsten and closes his eyes.