The Woman in Room 204

I was staying at an old hotel during a business trip.

At midnight, I heard someone knocking on the wall.

Three slow knocks.

I ignored it.

Then it happened again.

I called reception.

The receptionist became silent.

"Which room are you in?"

"203."

She paused.

"Don't answer the door."

"Why?"

"Room 204 is empty."

I laughed nervously.

She repeated herself.

"Nobody has stayed there for ten years."

The next morning, I asked about it.

The manager eventually explained.

A woman had died in Room 204 ten years earlier.

Her husband had been staying in Room 203.

He never forgave himself because he had ignored her calls that night.

He returned to the hotel every year.

Always Room 203.

Always on the same date.

I checked the calendar.

It was that date.

That evening, I heard the knocking again.

This time, it stopped after three knocks.

Then I heard a man's voice from the hallway.

"I'm sorry."

Silence.

I never stayed in that hotel again.

But I still wonder whether the sound came from Room 204.

Or from a man who had been carrying regret for ten years.