It Was On December 7th, 2007. I was a lawyer who is on parole. I was put behind bars because I couldn’t resist being tempted by the money offered to me to betray my own client.
Now that I had lost my licence, I had nothing to do. Though I had a fair amount of money in my bank account, I always feel homeless when I’m not fighting for justice.
I couldn’t dare to sit alone at home because of the crazy thoughts that crossed my mind. So I embarked on that life-changing, ultra-enlightening journey to move on and bury the past, Forever…..
I didn’t know where my Car was heading, but I didn’t even want to give it a thought.
As I continued going forward, I realised that I was so weary that I couldn’t even steer the car in the direction I wanted to.
When I stopped my Car, Towards my left, I saw a sign board named ‘All Day, All Night.
It was a motel.
As It Was snowing like hell, I parked my car and went in.
I saw a bald,fat, middle-aged, drunk guy at the reception who looked just like Paul bearer.
Though my sixth sense sensed a Sinister vibe, I had no other option but to check into the motel.
“Michael is my name,” I Said as the receptionist wrote down my name in the record book. “Room Number 407 sir.” The receptionist says this with a smirk on his face.
As I took the keys and started walking over, I heard the receptionist smiling and saying, “Have a good night sir,”.
I got to know that the place I was staying had a variety of spiritual destinations nearby. So I checked in for 3 days.
The room was on the fourth floor.
I had to take steps because the lift wasn’t working.
The more steps I took, the more darkness crawled over the place.
When I reached the 4th floor, my shadow had disappeared. The motel felt abandoned, just like the ones in movies.
I put the Flashlight on my phone and searched the room. When I opened the lock and took a step in, clouds started Conquering the sky, battling the moonlight, before Erupting a mighty shower, adding to the heavy squalls that were ripping apart the poles and trees. There was no network or WiFi at that motel.
As I took a shower and lay down on the bed, the regrets bounced back into my head, haunting the peace.
With thoughts battling my peace, I started having a headache. I suddenly realised that the fan wasn’t turned on, so I immediately got up, turned on the switch, and laid down again. The fan had a very intriguing design.
As I turned on the fan, my eyes started experiencing pain, which was unexplainable.
The headache was in no mood to subside.
Darkness was all I could see.
My vision became blurry, and as time went by, I slowly fell deep into sleep.
Someone banging on my door disturbed my sleep. I heard the receptionist screaming outside my room.
I got up from my bed and answered the door.
“The guest residing beside your room is found dead; are you even aware of it?” The receptionist questioned me in an enraged tone.
“What are you even talking about?” I say this because I couldn’t understand anything because of the headache.
I went to see room 406, the one next to mine, and found a 70-year-old man dead in the bathroom.
I immediately questioned the receptionist about how many guests were present at the motel, and to my surprise, he said only three, Including the dead.
There was another person who checked in. I asked the receptionist about who the manager of the hotel was, and he replied “I’m The manager of this motel sir.”.
As we were having a conversation, I heard someone running down the stairs. The receptionist and I ran down to the 3rd floor.
I observed that Room Number 306 door was kept open. I asked the Manager about that room. He Replied by saying,” That’s the room of our customer Jonathan. He’s the only one in the motel besides you and me.”
“We have to call the police,” I say before taking out my phone. To get a signal, I peeked through the window, but there Was no network in the motel due to the heavy storm.
In a moment, because of the heavy squalls, there was a power outage.
We were standing right in front of the third guest’s room.
We both started walking towards his room. With my tremors going wild, I knocked on his semi-opened door three times.
But there was no response from Jonathan. I grew impatient and entered his room without permission and found him on the couch, fully drunk, singing some western folklore.
I immediately dropped the idea of doubting him for the murder, as he could walk with only one leg.
When I tried asking him about the murder on the 4th floor, he mumbled some nonsense in an alien language. Alcohol was driving him wild.
The Manager and I woke him up, explained about the murder, and asked him to close his door till the police arrived.
Going upstairs, the only doubtful person was the Manager. But I couldn’t draw conclusions as there was no solid proof of him committing the crime.
I asked the manager to close all the windows and doors, lock himself, and try to contact the police just like me.
A Dark cloud hung over the motel.
As I lie down on the couch, only one question keeps bouncing back: “Who’s the killer?”
I raise my head and start to think, and then suddenly the fan turns on. As soon as the power was back, I thought of going downstairs to meet the manager and check the CCTV footage, but my headache again bounced back, causing menace In my mind.
As the pain progressed, I found it difficult to keep my eyes open, and eventually, I fell asleep.
I remember that I had a nightmare that day. I saw the hotel manager staring at me and talking to me about something that I couldn’t understand.
Suddenly, I heard someone banging on my door again. As I open my eyes, I see two police officers holding handcuffs staring at me and screaming,” Get down on your knees Sir!”
Amidst the whole chaos, I could only grasp that it was morning. I slowly remembered the incidents that happened last night.
I asked the police officers why they were arresting me. Upon Hearing that, they took me to the manager’s room and showed me a clip.
It was CCTV footage, showing me leaving my room, killing Jonathan (whom I had earlier warned about staying inside), stabbing him 40 times, and then returning to my room to nap.
I was extremely shocked to see myself behaving That Way. The footage was so brutal that even today, when I remember that incident, chills run down my spine.
In a state of oblivion, the police officers dragged me out of the hotel to the paddy waggon before Putting me behind bars. And when I was in the waggon, I could never forget the sight of the Sinister Smile of the motel manager, who was standing at the gate.
During the whole time I spent in prison, I tried recollecting the memories of the motel in an attempt to join the dots, until one day, on the eve of Christmas, I finally managed to connect the dots.
I hope you remember me mentioning that the fan I turned on before falling asleep in the motel had a very intriguing design.
The fan really had an intriguing design of a spiral, which drove me wild with headaches.
The night I thought I was asleep, the Manager Entered the room, hypnotised me, and made me kill the other two guests in the hotel.
“But why would he do that?” This question keeps Haunting me, and I could never answer it.
The day I was released from prison, I went on a hunt to find that motel and the Manager, and to my surprise, I found out that The manager had burned the motel and gone missing a few months ago.
People say that he went missing, but he always lived in my mind, rent-free, in the form of many unexplained questions with which I have to deal with till my last breath.