Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2015
Middle School Winners

First Place

The Hotel on 6^th Street

by
Jake Hogan

Everyday when I walk home from school I walk past the Hotel on 6th Street, an abandoned hotel that looks like a crusty barn left to rot in the Cold War. It's one of those things that you can tell was once beautiful, but can no longer see the beauty that was once there. It was the 2nd of October, 24 days until my 14th birthday, when I saw the Hotel on 6th Street. It had to be the millionth time I've seen it, but there was something different about it; on the top floor, third window to the left, there was a light on.

I wasn't scared, but I was curious as I walked closer to the hotel and looked up at the window with rays of light shining out of it. I have never been this close to the hotel before, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because of the stories that have been told about the hotel and why it's been abandoned. I'm a horror movie type of guy but I sure don't like it when you see something that makes you want to jump out of your skin or makes you feel the hairs on your neck stand on end. I walked up to the door, and knocked. I did it before I could realize that no one would answer but then I heard footsteps come from inside. Out of fear, I decided to turn around but then I heard a squeak. I turned back to see that the door had opened.

The door stood open. I rubbed my eyes and blinked to make sure it wasn't a dream even though I was hoping it was. I know I said I like horror movies, but it's not the same thing watching one and being inside of one. Looking above the door I saw a sign that read HOTEL. I stared. I stared at the sign for what seemed like ten minutes but I couldn't turn away. It was as if each letter had pumped some magical blood through my veins. I felt wonderful. I felt better than wonderful, I felt excellent. No matter how many times I had told myself to turn back, no matter how many times I sent my legs that magic command through my brain to tell them to turn the other way, they wouldn't. Instead they just kept walking forward before I realized I had already opened the door wider and crept inside without thinking of what I was doing.

It was like I had been there before. When I walked in, deja vu flooded my mind. It was as if I had sat down in the red velvet sofa by the big window diagonal from the grand piano in the lobby. There was wallpaper peeling from all the walls and then there was a crack. From the back room hallway appeared a young girl. The girl was pale, with blonde hair that was so blonde it was close to snow like white, and she looked about my age. But despite her beauty, there was terror and worry in her face. Her pale gray eyes looked up and me and she whispered something. I couldn't quite make it out because she had been mumbling under her breath. "What are you doing here?" I asked with concern for the girl, "Are you alone?". She just nodded her head. The girl had started trembling with fear from who knows what. "Do you need help?" I asked the girl but again receiving no answer. "Let's go. Let's get out of here." I took the girl by her shaking shoulders and led her toward the door. We approached the door but before we could reach it the door closed shut by an invisible force and I got thrown back as if an explosive went off.

My vision was blurry and was full of black spots. There was ringing in my ears and I realized I had been knocked back across the room. I rolled onto my back and felt a sharp pain through body that started from a sore rib. I wondered if it was broken and felt for any other injury or bleeding on my body and there was nothing else. I looked around the room once my vision cleared and found that the girl was gone. My vision became blurry again but this time they were full of tears and as they ran down my face, I had accepted the fact that I was never leaving this hotel.

All went quiet. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the salty tears that splashed one by one on the dusty floor of the abandoned lobby in the Hotel on 6th Street.