Floor Six

There are many things hidden in this world. Some of these hidden things are treasures, waiting to be discovered and valued by humankind for their exceeding preciousness. Others are simply hidden out of obscurity and the ignorance of those who fail to value it. Then there are things hidden for intentions beyond value.

 Some jewels were never meant to be unearthed, and some inventions meant never to come into existence. Some new discoveries reveal truths undesirable to the social roundabout of human communication, and some secrets unveil terrors that could never have been imagined by anyone.

 Other times, to remain hidden is to remain alive.

 As we lay there on the dusty carpet of the sixth floor gasping for breath, my father and I clung to each other for dear life. I stared out at the open doorway we had just leapt through, praying that the creepy face that chased us wasn't going to float up the side and squeeze itself through the narrow frame. With that thought invading the ever-present stage of my mind, I got up just to close that door and lock it before my legs weakened and I collapsed back into my father's one working arm. Anxiety was both a blessing and a curse in a place like this.

 "Thank you for that. That needed to happen." Father breathlessly remarked, still somehow managing to crack a smile in his anxious, breathless, injured state.

 "I could not agree more, Papa." I sighed, my legs feeling as though they might burst into flames.

 "Oh yes, the draft from that open door was most dreadful indeed! Thank you for closing it." Those words did not come from my lips, nor my father's. Nor were they in the voice that typically accompanied the strange light.

 Turning my head slowly to look behind me, I noticed many things that were strange and off; the first being that I could see fairly well despite there being no windows or anything nearby to bring light into this room. The second was that this voice wasn't like the others… it wasn't a faded echo of a voice, nor a distant spirit's call, nor a monstrous booming voice like that of the giant face below… this was the voice of a young woman. The final thing was the lit candle I saw as I finished turning my head.

 "We wouldn't want this candle to be blown out!" Said the voice again. This time I could see where it was coming from. A lifeless-looking pair of brown eyes peeked out from beneath the candle, its nose and mouth being placed sequentially above, though its head was facing straight up. "We wouldn't be able to play our little game without this candle!" Continued the strange monster with the upside-down human face. Its eyelids sagged, revealing the walls of the sockets beneath and causing my stomach to turn as I realized that its eyes looked like they could fall out at any moment.

 I was left speechless and frozen. This monster looked like a young woman wearing a torn, ragged old dress, standing on its arms and legs with a face thoroughly misplaced so as to oppose its rightful nature. Its neck twisted unnaturally from its back, looking directly at us as we sat there on the floor. Its breath reeked of rotting human flesh, and its hair was almost all gone. Its cheeks were sunk in, and its skin was gray, tinted purple and green. Just looking at this creature made me feel dizzy and nauseous.

 "My friend down there must have given you quite the chase! You two look so very exhausted." It spoke, lifting up its hand and stroking it gently across my father's sweaty, paralyzed face. It seemed that neither of us could move, nor did we want to out of fear of setting this thing off. "If you had that much fun playing tag, I just know you'll love my game." It cheered, crawling around us to face us directly. Its bones creaked and popped with each movement, its upside-down mouth hanging open with some kind of rotten liquid leaking out it.

 "Aren't you curious what kind of game I'm talking about?" It asked, twisting its head to be downward so that its face would right side up. I was far from curious about what kind of game it would want to play, in fact, I was feeling quite the opposite way about it. I wished this thing would go play with someone else!

 "What game?" My father asked, his voice shaky with his arm around me protectively.

 "Only the best of games!" It cheered in its eerily squeaky voice. "Hide and seek, of course."

 My father and I both exchanged a glance that silently spoke the words: "Will this nightmare ever end?" Though we knew it wouldn't. Not with the lifeless eyes of this crawling, zombified, crazy lady with an upside-down face wanting to play "hide and seek" with us.

 "Just in case you need a reminder of the rules… it's really quite simple. I will stay here with my candle, counting down from thirty. While I count down from thirty, you two get to go and hide somewhere on this floor." Its instructions were given in such a cutesy manner, but it put so much emphasis on staying on this floor that I wondered what would happen if we tried to escape to the next floor while it was counting down.

 "I say on this floor because my friend on the floor below us will catch you if you go back down there, and the door to the staircase to the next floor is locked with a special lock! You need the key you already have and a second key to unlock it." It explained, as though it heard my thoughts. "After I'm done counting, I'll come and find you. If I manage to find you, then I win, and you lose!" It cheered once again.

 "What happens if we win?" I asked the crawling zombie.

 "Oh, dear. You were under the impression that you could win? I'm sorry, sweetie, but there is no winning this for you two." It informed us condescendingly, draining me of my hope. "Even if you manage to find the second key, there's no way you'll make it out of here before I find you." It promised, leaning its creepy, unalive face into my face and giving me a whiff of its deathly breath.

 It was clear, then, what we needed to do. While it was counting down, we needed to find that key and escape to the next floor before it even finished counting.

 "Are the rules clear?" It asked, moving over to get in my father's face.

 "What happens if we lose?" He asked. I didn't want to know the answer and considered plugging my ears.

 "The loser pays the consequence." It began laughing, twisting its head back up so that its face would be upside down again. The cracking and ripping sound coming from its bones and flesh sent shivers down my spine.

 "Without further ado, let us begin!"

As the monster counted down, so did I. To make sure we knew exactly when that thing was going to start looking for us, I counted down in my own head as my father and I split up to search for that key before the end of the thirty seconds. I kept my steps as light as possible so as not to let it know which direction I was heading.

 My father was surprisingly stealthy as well, moving much faster than I was and searching through drawers and cabinets at an impressive speed despite only being able to use one arm.

 We went to opposite sides of the floor and would meet up in the middle whether one of us managed to find it or not. That was what my father had told me in the two seconds before he ran off, anyways.

 Ten seconds had passed, and I was feeling nervous. I had only managed to dig through one room and was unsure how I was going to be able to keep searching when that thing started searching for us. Honestly, it wasn't going to be as easy to hide on this floor, anyways. Although it had the same grid pattern as most of the floors, some of its walls had massive holes through them or had just collapsed altogether. It would be harder to sneak around with less cover, though it also meant we could keep better track of where the monster was.

 Without wasting any time, I quickly switched to the next room. There were bits of furniture torn apart and spread across the halls, along with broken glass and the usual mice and insects crawling about here and there, though not nearly as prominent as the third floor.

 Twenty-three seconds had passed now, and I had just finished my second room with many more to go. If one of us didn't find the key within the next five seconds, we were going to have to prioritize hiding over finding the key. This made me worry about my father. He was walking around with a dislocated shoulder and was much larger than I was. Hiding would surely be very difficult for him, though I would just have to trust that he was going to be fine.

 Finally, thirty seconds had passed. I had already wedged myself between a dresser and the wall as I heard the cracking and popping of the crawler's bones moving down the hall. "I know you can hear me…" It sang, shuffling down the hall on its arms and legs, carefully picking which door it would enter.

 I peeked out from behind the dresser to see that it had not entered my room yet, but I could hear it popping and creaking, nonetheless. I guessed that it was in the next room over. As such, I decided to remain as silent as possible and stay in my hiding spot until it passed.

 "Here I come to find you!" It squeaked, entering my room. Its candlelight filled the room as it made a walk around. I could hear it open up the closet, and I prayed that it would stop there and just leave the room. I heard it climb onto the bed, then what sounded like beating on the walls. What was it doing?

 I decided to crouch down a little further as I realized just what it was doing. I could see the candlelight moving upward as the noises on the wall continued. This creepy thing was climbing up the wall to get a bird's eye view!

 As the light got brighter, I knew it was coming closer. My heart raced so fast I thought it might rupture then and there. Fortunately, the light dispersed soon as the creaking crawler left the room. I took a quiet breath and waited a little longer before exiting my hiding spot to take a look around. I couldn't hear or see it anymore, so I kept looking around for that key. I tried underneath the pillow and blankets but only managed to find some foul-smelling goop from the crawler's mouth.

 "Just wait, you can't hide from me!" It squealed from down the hall. I knew I was safe for now to switch to a different room and keep searching for that second key. "I can hear your footsteps!" It shouted from down the hall. Had my father messed up!?

 I was sorely tempted to run down the hall to go try and save my Papa from that monster, but I forced myself to swallow the fact that even if it did, I would not be able to do anything about it. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the creaking started again, signaling to me that the hunt was still on, and my father had not been found.

 I managed to search through an entire extra room before I found what we were looking for… hidden on the record player. The arm of the machine was stuck through the eye of the key, making it dangle from the arm. I would have to be very careful not touch anything on that old record player except the key if I wanted to avoid making too much noise and alerting the crawler.

I had slid the metallic key nearly all the way off when the arm of the machine decided to drop on its own, making an awful sound as it crashed down onto the empty player. I quickly grabbed the key and dashed to another room, praying that it wouldn't have noticed me.

 Meanwhile, as I was off finding the key, the brilliant Matis Gibeau was hatching a plan of his own. He crept as silently as he could from room to room in search of the key or something that could help him pry open the second lock on the door. He had already taken a walk to find out where exactly that door to the stairs was, and surely enough, it was at his side of the floor. There was indeed only one door with an extra lock rigged in, and he knew exactly where it was. He would need to remember that if they wanted to make it out of here without "paying the consequence".

 When the monster came near him and squealed that it could hear his footsteps, he knew it was bluffing to scare him. Even if he were making any noises, that thing's bones creaking was so loud that it wouldn't have been able to hear his light footsteps. Besides that, he wasn't moving a muscle. He was only behind the door and finding him wouldn't have been that hard if it hadn't passed his room right up.

 "You're not good at hiding." It muttered angrily, stomping past his room. My father wasn't sure what it meant by that, or who it thought it was talking to, but it was true… he wasn't very good at hiding. Nevertheless, this thing passed him right up.

 Taking complete advantage of its ignorance, whether it was deliberately passing him up or not, he began gathering anything that could be of use to him. Pillows, blankets, even some clothing that was left over in the closets. He couldn't help but admire one suit coat that he had found. It was outdated by a couple of decades, but the quality thereof still exceeded the quality of his modern coats.

 Realizing that he was getting distracted, he shook his head and returned to his original scheme. He only hoped that I wasn't the crawler's main target.

 My fear of being caught was intensified when I heard the crawler move toward the sound of the record player at a frightening speed, despite how slowly it had been moving beforehand. It was no longer creaking, rather the sound it made was rapid stomping of its hands and feet on the ground and walls as it crashed through the halls, taking chunks of drywall with it as it rounded the corner far too close to the wall.

 "Ding-dong…" It exclaimed menacingly as it knocked down the door and its frame to the room where I had just been. "I can sense your horror… "

 I peeked from the doorway of the room across the hall where I was hiding. I watched it pick up the record player and smash it on the ground. "I see you've found the key! You won't have it for long, though." It cheered, climbing onto the walls to survey the room.

 What was I to do? If I tried to make a run for it, it would surely hear my footsteps and catch me. If I stayed put, it would make its way over to my hiding place and very likely find me there. It knew I was close now, and there didn't seem to be any good way out of this.

 I settled to slowly take large steps, stretching my legs as far as I could with each step while trying to make as little sound as possible as I crept out of the room and down the hall. I managed to make it out the doorway before it started moving again. "Ding-dong! I have found you!" It squealed in its deranged excitement. It must have heard my footsteps! There was no use in tiptoeing anymore. I had no choice but to run and pray that I reached the doorway to the staircase before it saw me!

 Although my legs were still worn from running around the fifth floor, the adrenaline in my veins from fear boosted me past the corner as I heard it crash through the wall. "You can't hide from me!" It screamed, still not able to see me past the corner.

 Suddenly, I felt someone grab me and pull me into a room. Praying that it was my father, I remained quiet. Clearly, he didn't expect me to be silent judging by the panicked look on his face as he pulled me in. With only one arm working, he couldn't cover my mouth.

 I heard the rumbling on the floor as the crawler passed us by, dashing toward what must have been where the staircase was.

 Seeing the key in my hands, my father leaned closer to whisper in my ear. "Remain as silent as possible. We will make it. The monster will come in here and we will run toward the staircase. I know where it is."

 I nodded in agreement as he hid us behind a dresser. I knew this wasn't a good hiding spot for both of us, but it was the only place we had other than the closet or underneath the bed where we would be trapped.

 "Clever! I don't know how you escaped, but I know where your precious Papa is hiding! I'll bet you're in there with him!" It desperately scrambled toward the door and bashed it in. It took everything I had in my emotional and physical capacity not to scream as I felt the dresser we were hiding behind wobble. I thought for sure that it had found us!

 To my surprise, it had only wobbled because the crawler had bumped it on its way in. It was not after us, rather it was after two figures hiding underneath the bed with their shoes sticking out. My father had set up dummies! "Ding-dong! Pay the consequence!" It exclaimed with a sickeningly satisfied tone as it threw the bed out of the way with strength unbefitting of its scrawny, wiry figure. It ripped into the dummies with more voracity than I was comfortable with.

 As it did so, my father and I ran quickly toward where he knew the staircase was. It didn't take us long to get there, so I quickly prepared the key as we ran. The crawler quickly realized that it had been bamboozled and screamed in frustration, its voice like an old lady that had smoked far too many cigars.

 My hands fumbled the keys as I heard it screaming, my vision blurring and my mind spinning from anxiety. My hands wouldn't stop shaking and I could barely get the key into the lock. "Good job, Lyra. It's my turn now." Papa said, quickly unlocking the other lock as the crawler spotted us.

 "You lose!" It shouted, darting toward us with speed I didn't realize was possible for such a being. Its hand outstretched to grab one of us was slammed in the door and its fingertips removed with a horrible crunching sound. My father had shoved me inside and shut the door with so much adrenaline that just his one arm had enough force to crush through its fingers!

 "No! You've lost! Cheaters!" It cried, bashing at the door. We knew that thing was capable of knocking down doors, we made haste to ascend those stairs. To our surprise, it gave up and retreated from the door, wailing that we were cheaters and how unfair this was. Eventually, its voice faded, and we could hear it no longer.

 Both of us sighed a simultaneous breath of relief. I knew not why it gave up, but I wasn't going to question it. We took a moment and sat down at the top of the stairs to catch our breath before opening the door to the next floor.

 A rest was earned and well deserved after the things we had just been through. We would need it, after all, because of the unrelenting horrors that lay ahead of us in L'Hôtel Hanté.