XIV

What surprises me most is not how there are three ghosts of strangers standing in front of us, but how we are not freaking out right now. I have always thought that I will be running away or I will be shouting strange noises when I will see one in my life. However, I am rather calm right now, just like these 2 men with me.

"Earth to Amy, Steven, and Harris?" They call us out.

The souls' reflections are just hovering in the mirror. Their skin is as pale as snow. Their eyes have no irises and quite have a darkened under eye, too. The two women's hair is on their sides unkept like a wave of the ocean while the man is cut clean. The women are wearing white dresses while the man is in a white polo and black pants. They all look decent except for the blood from their heads down to their bodies and stains on their clothes. They then smile, creepily.

What kind of joke is this?

"Sadly, this is not a joke, Amy," one of the female ghosts says.

Steven, Harris, and I stand shocked in front of the mirror where the three ghosts are. I wonder why I don't feel that much of a scare as of the moment as they look at us three in a sinister manner. Maybe, that's because we have encountered far worse scenarios than having the spirits of three people in front of you while smiling.

Harris is the first to move. He goes to the mirror and checks on its back and finds it flat and has no hidden compartments in it. It is indeed a mirror and we are indeed seeing ghosts.

Slowly, Harris goes back to us and whispers, "They are real."

I gasp and cover my mouth to avoid myself from screaming.

Why do ghosts try to talk to us?

"We are here to help you," the man says.

"Anyway, I'm Apphia," the woman on the farthest right introduces herself to us. "This is Eve, and that one, on our right, is Luke."

Luke and Eve simultaneously raise their right hand to say hi to us. They look so scary that my hair is rising as I feel the cold air at the back of my neck. I subconsciously go to Harris and hold on to his arm.

"Just like you, we are victims of this hotel," Eve says. "We have been trying to be in contact with anyone earlier but no one has responded, except you, Amy."

"What do you mean?" I hold on to Harris tighter as I remember what had happened earlier.

"The voices in the hallway when you left your room earlier," Eve says.

"That dead man under the chandelier," it is Luke.

"We are the voices that you have heard, Amy," Apphia tells us.

"The one who told you to run, and to leave this place," they say together with their voice so cold it feels like they have come from the depths of the earth.

Shaking, I ask them, "Why me?"

"We also do not know, you are the only one who has shown response to our call," Eve.

"We are trying to save everyone through calling them out but no one seems to hear us,"

"Except you, when you opened that fire exit door earlier when you were about to go back to the Iodestone."

"We knew, you could hear us so we kept an eye on you."

"When the scenario happened, Luke infiltrated the dead man's body in this realm under that Chandelier to tell you to run."

"We don't want you to die, just like what has happened to us... here."

"Well, too late," Steven interjects menacingly. "A lot of people are dead already."

"But you are all alive now because of us," Apphia tells us. "If you lost your lives here, today, you will also die in the real life, just like what has happened to me and the others here."

"Let's calm down first," Harris says as he exhales and releases the stress he's been holding on to his shoulders.

"You guys, can you change your appearance? That's what they say about ghosts. Can you make yourself look more, alive? You look pretty awful right now," I tell them.

They look at each other without changing their demeanor, "I'm sorry, but we can't."

"How old are you and when did you die?" Harris asks them

"I am 47 years old and I died last 1987 when I hid on this hotel's freezer," says Eve.

"I am 31 years old and I lost my life in 2004 when I drowned in the pool," says Luke.

"I'm in 2019 in the restaurant," says Apphia.

I couldn't imagine what they might have gone through.

"Are you the only three ghosts in this hotel?"

"No, we aren't. there are a lot of customers who have gone here and died."

"So where are the others?"

"They do not want to meddle with the hotel's business anymore," Eve says.

"I have a question," Steven butts in, "How can we wake up? Is someone able to leave this place?"

The three ghosts look at each other for a moment and look back at us.

"Sadly, no one has been able to escape this place for the last years," says Apphia. "but we are hoping that it would be you, guys, be the firsts."

"Why us?"

"Because of you, for the first time, there are actually survivors of those tragedies," Eve tells us. "The monster here is The Passion House itself."

"Although the hotel is known as a great place of escape from reality, quite literally. Once a year, as it celebrates its anniversary, it traps its clients' souls for it to eat."

"Do you remember that black matter that seems like it is eating the entire hotel?"

We nodded.

"That's the hotel's soul. It is pretending to be so beautiful so that it can have its prey, a human's soul."

"This hotel serves as the realm that is in between life and death. And we, the ghosts here, are trapped in this hotel's mirror, the gate in between reality and the subconscious mind."

"We do not know how to get out but we see everything."

"Is my sister with you? Is Melvin, there, too?" Steven asks them in hopes of a happy reunion of his sister and his lover.

"Not yet. When the sun rises in the east, the hotel will finally drink up all the souls of those who die here," Luke informs us, "eventually, they will be with us inside the mirrors of this hotel."

"How can we free you guys?" Steven asks.

"We don't know it, too. No one has attempted to ruin this place before."

"How much time is left for us?" I ask.

"There's no essence of time here, Amy," Apphia tells me.

"Do you know how we can leave this place?" Harris asks.

"Years of staying here and wandering in this sad ground, sadly, we do not. I have told you, no one has been successful enough to leave this place," We can feel the sadness in Eve's voice when she has said that.

"This is pointless," I hear Steven whisper under his breath as he looks at Stacey's body on the other side of the room.

"Harris," I call him, "My room attendant told me that we can wake up by sunrise. Shall we wait for it to come?"

"Let's try that," Steven tells me. "For now, let's do our best to survive."

"Are there any survivors in hiding in this hotel, aside from us right now?" I ask.

"There's only one way to know that. You have to go to the playground under the pool area," Luke tells us. "Steven, right?"

Steven nods to Luke.

"You might as well bring your sister's body with you when you go there," Luke finally smiles at us genuinely. For a moment, he looks alive.

"Don't worry, we'll be with you. You can reach us through the mirrors you can find in this hotel," Apphia tells us before they vanish, "Hurry, the black matter is already almost here."