CHAPTER 14: WHAT WAITS IN THE LOBBY.

Concurrently, in Room 218, Candice summoned what little remained of her shattered confidence. Her hands trembled slightly as she draped a thin, blood-streaked bedsheet over the lifeless woman sprawled grotesquely in the hallway. The sheet clung to the contours of the corpse like a shroud, soaking up the warmth that had already fled. A shiver rippled through her as she stepped carefully over the body, boots avoiding the slick pool of crimson that had begun to seep into the carpet.

Behind her, the Indian boy pressed close, one hand fisted in the back of her shirt as if afraid she might vanish. His wide eyes flitted back and forth, scanning the dim corridor with frantic energy—pausing on every shadow, every flicker of movement, every creak of the old hotel settling. The hallway smelled of copper and mildew, thick with a silence that hummed just beneath the surface, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath.