Many people have odd childhood memories—some are funny, some are eerie, and some are just unexplainable. I recall one of these memories. I don’t remember the finer details because I was six years old.
My parents and I had taken a trip to a place in England. It was a town with a lot of cathedrals. We attempted to stay at a few places but discovered that they were pretty expensive. My parents did, however, discover one…. Hotel 481. The hotel’s architecture, as far as I recall, was similar of Victorian homes. The inside was clean yet had an unsettling sense of eeriness to it. My parents went to the reception desk to book a room, while I walked off to play with a bead maze. Playing with the bead maze, my attention was drawn to movement behind the heavy curtains framing the front windows. Looking closer, I saw a tall silhouette, its form obscured by the dim light filtering through the fabric. Strangely, its elongated fingers emerged, delicate yet unsettling in their appearance. Frozen in curiosity, I watched as the figure seemed to acknowledge my presence with a wavering motion. In response, an instinctive impulse urged me to wave back. My parents grabbed me by the hand, and we walked to the room. I faintly recall the number of our room. I believe it was either room 18 or 78.
I, of course, jumped onto the bed and switched on the television to watch some cartoon. My parents discovered they had forgotten their wallets in the hotel lobby, so they decided to leave me alone for a while. I continued watching the cartoon until I heard a knock at the door. I opened it and found no one. I looked down and found a note. I opened the note and read it as best I could: “Now you are all alone.” Even as a six-year-old, this still made me feel uneasy. I quickly shut the door and returned to watching my cartoon. My parents returned, and we started preparing for bed. I should have told my parents about the note, but I didn’t, for some reason. Either I was afraid too, or I simply forgot.
We went to bed. The next day would be a huge day. We were going to see a historical site. However, in the middle of the night, I awoke. I’m not sure why. This does not normally happen to me. I observed what I assumed to be something behind the curtains in the corner of the room. I could see the whole body. It was slim and malnourished. It appeared to be wearing a hood or something over its head. It appeared to be wearing a mask. The mask had a smiling face drawn in red. As an innocent kid, I thought it was paint, but now I am not that sure. It waved again and I waved back. I was freaked out. I could feel goosebumps forming on my skin. It just stared. I eventually went back to sleep.
When I awoke, I discovered that our visit to the historical site had been cancelled. I was unhappy, but my parents said they would try to find another place to go. In the meantime, I could explore the hotel. There was a playground toward the back of the hotel. I wanted to go there first. Now, you expect playgrounds to be crowded with children, yet there were none. It was very eerie. There was no one, except for one of the hotel workers.
She greeted me, stating that I was one of the only kids to actually come here. Even as a six-year-old, I found that weird. I decided to play on the equipment. However, I immediately became bored. There were no children to play with. I was going to leave when I ran into that the thing again. It just waved at me.
“Hello little boy.” it said, “Why the long face?”
“The playground is boring. There are no kids to play with.” I said.
It seemed to move its head in intrigue, “Is that so? How ‘bout I’ll play with you. We could be friends”
“Really!” I yelled.
I was a dumb kid who ignored all the red flags with this interaction. I began to play with the thing. It pushed me on the swings and played tag with me. It never told me its name. It just told me to call it “Nine”. Nine told me it had a game it could play with me. It was a version of hide and seek. Basically, I would hide, and he would try to find me. Regular hide and seek right? Wrong! I had to play it in the forest behind the hotel.
I was scared of playing in the forest. What if something hurt me? However, Nine reassured me that nothing will happen. I agreed to playing the game.
He started counting and I ran into the forest. I had to find a hiding place. However, while walking through the forest. I noticed something weird. There were piles of dirt. There seemed to be more every few feet. These dirt piles had sticks put in them, resembling makeshift graves. I firmly believe these were actual graves. They came in different sizes. Most of them were child sized, while a few were adult sized. Of course, I did not think much of them. I simply found a hiding spot in an old well and waited to win the game.
A few minutes went by, and nothing happened. I started to think about this. I began to feel anxious, and my heart rate increased. Why in the forest? Why not at the hotel itself? I got out of the well and began to walk back to the hotel. I yelled for Nine, telling him I didn’t want to play the game anymore. However, I had gone too far into the forest. I was lost.
I heard Nine’s voice behind me, “Now you are all alone.” I turned around to see Nine. He just stood there. I told Nine that I did not want to play the game.
“Why not? We were having so much fun.” asked Nine.
“I….I…. This is scary.” I said.
“Why? Just because it is a forest? Nothing will hurt you. Do you want to be my friend, forever?” asked Nine.
I gulped and said, “Y-yeah….”
However, something in me told me to…. Run. I turned and bolted. I began crying uncontrollably. I breathed heavily. I was horrified. I looked behind me and witnessed something I’ll never forget. Nine had his mask off…….. Was it…. Apart of his face? I got to the hotel and hurried inside, accidently bumping into one of the employees. It was the same one from the playground. She looked outside. She clearly saw Nine.
She took me to my parents. I looked at her nametag. Her name was Alice. My parents listened to my story. However, they did not believe me, but decided to change hotels to make me feel better. That was twenty years ago.
In the years following my incident, the hotel burnt down. I recently went to the town to check out the site that Hotel 481 was at. I learnt some things about the hotel. It had a history of disappearances. The majority of them were children, with the exception of a few adults or older teens. The “graves” made sense. They were the victims. I spoke with the hotel’s former manager, who had worked there when I was six. I asked him if any of the employees when he was the manager there were named Alice. He said something that surprised me. There was no one named Alice who worked there.
I have a suspicion that the owner of the hotel was in one whatever Nine was doing, or maybe Nine was the owner. It was obvious that Nine aimed for the children since they were the most gullible. He presumably told them what he told me. He said he wanted to be their friend and then offered the game. While they were in the wilderness, he would find and murder him, then bury their bodies. I was one of the few, if not the only one, that survived him. But the hotel burnt down, where is he now? I’m afraid of what he would do now. Would he try to tie up loose ends?