Creepy Hotel

The giggles of my niece and her friends echoed through the room, a stark contrast to the tense silence that hung between me, Jay, Jarret, and Anthony. A childish prank had sent the boys fuming, stomping off down the dimly lit hallway. The air itself seemed to crackle with the promise of something sinister lurking just beyond the reach of the flickering overhead lights.

The minutes bled into an eternity. Every creak of the floorboards, every groan from the aging building sent shivers down our spines. The playful banter of the girls died down, replaced by worried whispers that mirrored our own growing unease. Then, just as hope began to flicker, the door ripped open with a bang.

Anthony stumbled in first, his face a mask of abject terror. His eyes darted wildly, searching for escape, for something, anything, to calm the storm raging within him. Jarret followed close behind, tears streaming down his cheeks, his usually boisterous laugh replaced by choked sobs. The playful energy that usually surrounded them had vanished, replaced by a chilling dread that sent a cold wave crashing over the room.

"What happened?" I demanded, my voice a hoarse whisper. I had known both boys for years, seen them through countless scraped knees and broken toys, but never had I witnessed such raw terror in their eyes.

They both tried to speak at once, a jumbled mess of words fueled by panic. Taking a deep breath, I forced them to calm down. "One at a time," I said, my voice surprisingly steady despite the tremor that had taken hold of my hands.

Slowly, they pieced together their terrifying encounter. It had started innocently enough, a descent down the dimly lit stairwell to escape the childish chaos of the room. The first five flights were uneventful, the only sound their own echoing footsteps. Then, at the landing of the sixth floor, they saw her.

A young girl, shrouded in a baggy black hoodie, stood at the bottom of the next set of stairs. The darkness swallowed her features, but Anthony swore the air around her crackled with an unseen energy. It was her eyes, though, that sent a jolt of terror through him. They were enormous orbs, glowing an unnatural crimson that seemed to pierce the shadows, devoid of whites or irises. In a voice like nails scraping a chalkboard, she tilted her head, a single sentence shattering the oppressive silence.

"Why are you guys running?"

The question sent a jolt of primal fear through Anthony. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to flee. He didn't wait for Jarret's reaction, his legs pumping as he sprinted back up the stairs, his lungs burning with the need for oxygen. Jarret, startled by his friend's sudden burst of speed, followed close behind. They didn't dare look back, their minds conjuring horrifying images of the entity that lurked in the gloom below.

They raced past landing after landing, gasping for air as they reached the safety of our hallway. Here, the familiar wallpaper and framed prints offered a semblance of comfort. Leaning against the wall, they tried to catch their breath, whispering accounts of the encounter.

Anthony, between ragged breaths, described the girl's impossible eyes. He insisted they were impossibly large, glowing with an unnatural red light that seemed to burn into his very soul. He swore he'd never seen a human's eyes expand so unnaturally, the pupils contracting to pinpricks within the ominous glow.

As they stood there, their terror multiplied. The sound of soft footsteps echoed from below, growing louder with each agonizing second. The girl emerged onto the floor, her movements unnatural, almost gliding as she crossed the hallway. Ignoring them completely, she moved towards the elevator doors, her voice a chilling monotone.

"Wanna go in the elevator with me?"

Jay, the pragmatist of the group, scoffed. But Anthony and Jarret's wide eyes and trembling bodies spoke volumes. Without another word, they turned on their heels and bolted. They sprinted back towards the room, fear turning their legs to pistons. They threw open the door, slamming it shut behind them, collapsing amongst the giggling, now wide-eyed girls.

The rest of the night was far from peaceful. Every creak of the floorboards, every groan from the pipes, sent shivers down our spines. We huddled together, the playful atmosphere replaced by a suffocating blanket of fear. Although nothing else transpired that night, the memory of the crimson eyes haunted us. Finally, with a sliver of dawn painting the sky, Jay cleared his throat.

"We can't stay here all night," he stated, his voice tight. "We're not supposed to be in here."

His words jolted us back to reality. We couldn't stay here indefinitely. With a shared look of apprehension, we crept back to our room, the silence broken only by the nervous patter of our footsteps.