Hotel Mortis - Chapter 1 Part 6

Part 6

With a grimace on his face, he quickly got up from his seat to find the source of the sound. However, the suite was spacious, making it difficult to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. When he stayed still and listened carefully, the sound seemed to come from one direction, but as he rushed towards that spot, the swishing sound echoed from another corner. It was as if the sound was continuously moving and emanating from different places.

With this realization, a shiver ran down his spine. 

‘I’m not alone in this place, am I?’

He was not one to believe in strange urban legends, but in this bizarre situation, all sorts of ominous imaginations began to creep into his mind.

‘Could it be that a deranged killer has trapped me here and is hunting me?’

… It was absurd how such unthinkable thoughts can suddenly come to his mind. However, it was undeniable that the current situation was far from ordinary.

He headed towards the mini-bar in the room, hoping to find something he could use as a makeshift weapon. He thought he might be able to find a fork or a dull knife. If all else failed, he could even resort to using a liquor bottle as a weapon.

As he rummaged through the mini-bar’s shelves, suddenly…

– Swish, swish.

A shadow flickered across the shimmering ceiling display of the mini-bar.

‘Huh?’

He checked behind him, but found nothing. He blinked his eyes, but the scene in front of him remained the same. The large and comfortable suite room’s scenery…

As he turned back to search the cupboard, it happened in an instant. He looked up and stared at the glass cupboard door, witnessing a chilling sight.

There was a woman stuck to the ceiling. He instinctively referred to the figure clinging to the ceiling as a ‘woman,’ because her long hair was flowing down towards the floor. That woman… no, ‘it’ was clinging to the ceiling like a lizard crawling on the floor.

– Swish, swish.

Finally, he identified the source of the faint noise.

‘What should I do?’

He fell into panic. Pretending not to notice anything, he pretended to rummage through the cupboard while his body trembled. It was the best he could do.

For a while, the presence remained still, seemingly stuck to the ceiling. He rolled his eyes nervously and tried to distance himself little by little from that presence. However, it was only for a moment. The figure, resembling a woman, raised its head and revealed its face. Between long, torn eyes, there were eerie pupils without any whites. He made eye contact with ‘it’ through the cupboard door. Its complexion was deathly pale, like a frozen corpse. There was no nose, just two holes, and its mouth was torn wide open, giving a creepy, wide smile. It sent shivers down his spine.

His body froze like a mouse standing before a snake. It stared intently at him, then turned its neck to the side, as if whispering, ‘I know that you are looking at me.’ Soon after, its neck started to twist endlessly, bending at angles that would be impossible for a human body. 

It was a frightening sight to behold.

For a long moment, he stood there, forgetting what he should do, just watching as it slowly rotated its neck. He snapped out of it when it, having turned its head halfway around, began crawling rapidly towards him.

“Ah, aah!”

He let go of everything he was holding and ran away. He didn’t know where to escape to, but his instincts were screaming, ‘Get out of here now!’ He frantically searched for the exit in the enormous suite. Every time he glanced back, the presence was getting closer, inch by inch. It stuck its body completely to the wall and crawled away so fast that he couldn’t see its hands and feet.

‘No! I have to move faster!’

He ran with all his might. With his increasing desperation, his mistakes became more frequent. He stumbled and collided with furniture and decorations scattered throughout the room. Bang! Thud! Crash! There was a loud noise and the sound of something crashing. Under normal circumstances, he would have been worried about the value of the things he had broken, but in the face of life or death, that little bit of money was utterly useless.

After wandering around the room for a while, he finally found the door that led to the exit and shouted. 

“I found it!” 

It was right in front of his nose.

If he could muster enough strength to take about ten more strides, he might be able to escape from this place. He ran with all his remaining strength.

-Swish, swish, swish!

But his wish could not be fulfilled. 

Quickly crawling on the ceiling, it reached the door before him. It crawled down from the ceiling to the door.

“No!”

Despite his best efforts to stop, he couldn’t help but rush toward it. He could feel it grabbing his neck. Its hand was extremely cold.

“Ugh!”

He struggled to break free from the grip on his neck. However, the strength of that hold was beyond imagination.

It crawled back to the ceiling while still clutching his throat.

His vision blurred. He couldn’t breathe. His face turned red and his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head. He struggled to free himself from the hand that was choking him.

– Ki, kiki, kikikikiki!

It watched his suffering with delight. With an apparent sense of enjoyment, it shook the hand that held his neck, causing his body to sway like a pendulum. Each time it did so, excruciating pain shot through his neck as if his bones were about to break, and his breathing became increasingly restricted.

“Keu, keugh, heu, heugh!”

His breath reached its limit. He attempted to breathe, but all that came out of his throat were ghastly, strained groans.

His vision blurred. His eyes rolled back. Every time his vision briefly returned, the gruesome sight of it, showing its protruding fangs and laughing maniacally with a torn mouth, filled his field of view. It was a horrifying sight.

Finally, he felt his neck bones break as he couldn’t endure the pendulum motion. All the sensation in his body seemed to be cut off.

‘I’m scared…’

And with that thought, his vision blurred, and he took his last breath.

***