The Time I Stayed in a Haunted Hotel

A long time ago, my best friend moved across the country and was staying in Maryland. I flew out there one day to hang out for a few days and we decided to check out DC, wreak a little havoc, and we stayed in a little hotel off the Potomac.

We were both 19 and it was the first time I had ever booked a hotel alone. I got a great deal on Booking.com (Sponsor me) and it was a cute little Victorian Home converted into a Hotel. I won't name it but it's prominent in the area. The floors creaked, the furniture was primarily antiques, I don't think anything had been majorly renovated besides the plumbing for the last 50 years.

Overall, it was cute and full of charm and I didn't think it was too bad.

So we went to a pub for dinner, then went back to our room, watched Netflix and played War, then we fell asleep.

I had a pretty restless night, we both did, we were basically spooning on a twin bed in a room with a twisted heater that would turn on and off randomly.

I woke up some time around 4 or 5 am, I could hear the people in the room next to us leave early and when I opened my eyes I thought I saw someone at the foot of the bed.

It was only a glimpse but I thought I saw a tall man, well over 6ft, wearing a black suit and fedora. It reminded me of Johnny Depp from Public Enemies. Who I would not mind waking up to, I won't like.

I bolted upright but but when I blinked again, there wasn't anyone in the room.

I chuckled at myself, always overreacting to little things and I went back to bed.

I woke up a couple hours later to my best friend coming out of the bathroom and I sat up. She asked how I slept and we chatted about how uncomfortable the bed is.

"I thought I was still high this morning." She said as she fixed her hair. "I thought I saw someone at the foot of the bed."

I looked at her reflection in the mirror.

"Wearing a fedora? In a suit?"

My best friend is african american but she turned pale and her eyes got as big as saucers.

"...yes." She whispered.

"Weird." I muttered and stood up to stretch. "I'm gonna shower real quick."

"Make it quick, we're leaving." She just started grabbing stuff and throwing it in bags.

"Honey, come on." I yanked my clothes out of her hands.

"We are getting the f*ck outta here. Hurry up!" She shoved me in the bathroom where I proceeded to take the quickest shower known the humans. and by the time I got out, she was by the door tapping her toes.

"Can we at least grab a coffee on our way out?" I said as she threw my coat at me.

"No."

"Its snowing outside, and we have to walk ten blocks to the train station."

She just yanked me out the front door and we were out of the building.

"I cannot BELIEVE you booked us the Haunted Hotel." She kept saying over and over again.

"I cannot believe you think we saw an actual ghost." I rolled my eyes.

We trekked through the snow till we got to a coffee shop and then ran inside to thaw out a bit. I have never seen actual snow before much less walked through it in converse and jeans.

"Did you even research the hotel?" She asked as we sat down.

"Not really, I was just looking for something local and cheap." I said as I grasped a warm cup of coffee in my freezing fingers.

She pulled out her phone and started googling the hotel.

"I'm going to prove that we saw what we saw." I could see her dark eyes scanning the information that appeared on her screen like she had Terminator vision.

"Okay, Winchester. When you're done I'll rev up the Impala and see if we should go back and salt and burn some bones." I giggled at my own Supernatural joke, harder than I should have but give a fangirl a break.

"You dumb*ss." She thrusted her phone in my face. It took my eyes a minute to adjust and read the title of an article she found.

Apparently, back in the early 1930s there was a shootout in front of the hotel and a G-Man died.

She smacked me upside the head, not hard but enough to remind me that I might have made a mistake.

"A ghost almost killed me." She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"He was just waking us up." I shrugged and drank my coffee.

We spent the rest of the day joking about the ghost and her making me promise that she would vet our hotels from then on.

Which, for the 6 years since that incident, I have kept that promise and she always brings up the ghost story after we share a bottle of wine.

Was it a shocking incident? Yeah.

Did it scar me? Nah, I've got a lifetime of trauma that predates that incident that damages enough of my life already. Ghosts just add a little spice to my life if anything.

It was funny how two days later, when I was in DC having dinner with another friend, he asked me how my trip was and I told him about the museums and shops and trains and of course the haunted hotel.

"Oh I know that one. Yeah the ghost there isn't too mean."

I dropped the most delicious lobster roll I've ever had in my life when he said that.

"What?" I asked slowly.

"Yeah, it's pretty famous to locals for being haunted. Was it the guy in the fedora?" He cocked his head to the side and bite into his roll and acted like he just told me a fun fact about lobsters and not the fact that ghosts were a casual thing at a local hotel.

"Yes. In a black suit. At the foot of the bed." I said.

"Yeah, he's harmless. It's a nice hotel though, isn't it?" He grinned and we continued our fun evening.

So, if ghosts are what you're looking for in DC, you will find no shortage of chances to find one or two.

Let me know if you do find one, as my friend won't let us go back to visit the city since this supernatural debacle.