Room #666

“Kyle, can’t we try to find another hotel?” Anisa Baker said to her husband, her grey-blue eyes dubious as she let them scope out the low-rate motel they’d pulled in to. The building itself was in an L shape, with parking spots in front of each door. The sign was an old, retro looking one with neon pink lettering advertising the name as the Sleepy Hollow Motel, with a blue and green neon flower to the side of it and a red sign blinking Vacancy on the bottom.

“Relax, Anisa. It’s just a cheap hotel. We’ve stayed in them plenty of times before.” He smiled at her reassuringly from the driver’s seat as he grabbed her hand over the console and gave her hand a light squeeze. “We’ll leave at the crack of dawn. I promise.”

“I don’t like the feel of this place, Kyle.” She told him. “It looks like the Bates Hotel, for God’s sake!”

At her reference to the famous horror movie, Kyle chuckled and shook his head as he pulled the keys out of the ignition, getting out of the driver’s side of the car and walking around to the passenger side, opening it and kneeling on the dirt so that he was looking at his wife’s face.

“Baby, I’ll distract you from feeling creeped out.” He smirked at her, leaning up to kiss her lips lightly. “C’mon, it’s only gonna get colder out here. It’s just for a few hours, and we’ll be on hour way.”

“Are you sure there’s no other hotels in this town?” She frowned at him. “Why can’t we just sleep in the car? It’s cheap, and it’s safe.” She reasoned.

Kyle sighed, becoming slightly annoyed at his wife’s constant refusal to stay in this place. He’d been driving all day, and the heater had given out two days ago. No stations had come in through the radio all day, and Anisa had slept the entire time. He was exhausted, and right now, all he wanted was a bed, a pillow, and a blanket. He didn’t care how ratty or how cheap they were; he could sleep on a bed of rocks right now for all he cared.

Anisa saw the annoyance on his face and let out a small sigh of her own before a small smile formed on her face. “Fine.” She finally gave in, standing up out of the car and wrapping her arms around his neck. “But if I see any cockroaches in the shower, you’re coming to kill them.”

Kyle grinned at her and kissed her lips lightly one more time before walking around to the back of the car, opening the trunk and pulling out a suitcase that had their clothes in it before he grabbed her hand again and led her into the lobby. The second they stepped inside, Anisa began feeling scared again. This place just didn’t sit well with her, despite its old-time charm and faded floral wallpaper pattern.

“Can I help you?” A man at the front desk asked them. He was an older man, with salt and pepper hair and dark brown eyes that seemed to stare straight through Anisa. She almost started shaking as Kyle tightened his hold on her hand, and he turned to give her a reassuring smile.

“We need a room for the night, and the sign said there’s vacancy here.”

The man smiled, his eyes holding a knowing twinkle as he turned around and grabbed a key with a yellow placard off of the hook behind him. “As luck would have it, we have just one room left tonight.”

“Kyle, I don’t mind driving to the next town.” Anisa whispered to him, meeting his gaze as her husband took the key.

“Nis, you hate driving at night.” Kyle sighed, stroking her hair for a few seconds before pulling a wad of cash out of his pocket. He turned back to the man and looked at him. “How much for the night?”

“If you survive until morning, it’s free.” The man said, a serious look on his face. Anisa’s blood ran cold at the words, and she all of a sudden felt like she was in some horror movie from the ‘60s. She tugged on Kyle’s shirt, pleading him with her eyes to just leave the motel.

“Sir, my wife is a little antsy about staying here as it is, so I’m sure she’d appreciate it if you’d tell her that you’re making a joke.” Kyle said, keeping his tone friendly but still warning the man to at least take it back. Instead, the man let out a chuckle and shook his head.

“It’s no joke, sir. If the two of you are alive and well when you decide to check out in the morning, your stay at the Sleepy Hollow Motel will be free.”

“Kyle, please.” Anisa whispered, turning him so that he was looking at her. Her eyes were nearly brimming with tears, and she’d begun shaking. “Please, we can just drive somewhere else.”

“You’re a jerk, man.” Kyle looked at the man behind the counter with disgust as he sat the key back down on the wooden surface before taking Anisa’s hand in his own as he led her towards the door that would lead them out to their car. He opened the passenger seat for her and then walked around to get in the driver’s seat, and he turned to look apologetically at his wife.

“Baby, I’m sorry.” He said to her, wiping at his exhausted face. He really didn’t feel up to driving anywhere else tonight, but he could see that his wife was in distress about this hotel, and he hated seeing her anything but happy. If going to another motel would make her feel better, he’d drive as far as it took.

“Can we just get out of here? Please?” She asked him, pulling her knees to her chest and looking out the window. She was shivering, but it wasn’t because of the cold. The man from the hotel was standing outside the door now, watching their car with an eerie smile on his face. It gave Anisa the chills.

Kyle tried to start the car several times, but it refused to turn on, only making a few halfhearted sounds. He groaned as he hit the steering wheel after the fifth time of attempting to start it, and turned to his wife again.

“It won’t start, Anisa.” He told her quietly. “And we can’t stay in the car all night; we’ll freeze. Look, I know what he said scared you, but it was just some cruel joke. Let’s go in and see if he’ll still let us use the room, okay?”

“Kyle, no.” Anisa said, shaking her head furiously as she glared over at him, not budging on her stance. “I don’t like this place. It gives me the creeps.”

“Dammit, Anisa! It’s been a long day, alright? We’re both tired, we’re both cold, and we’re both hungry. We’re only going to be staying here for a few hours, and then we’ll be on our way again. I only need four our five hours of sleep. After that, we can leave. I promise.”

“I don’t want to, Kyle.” She replied softly. “There’s something off about this place.”

Kyle rolled his eyes, becoming annoyed with his wife again. “You’re sounding like your mother right now, Anisa. There’s nothing wrong with this motel. So it’s old. So’s our house. It’ll be fine.”

“Don’t bring my mother into this.” Anisa whispered harshly, tears springing to her eyes as she thought about her mother. She’d never approved of Kyle, because he’d never understood her. Then again, Anisa didn’t understand the old woman, either. She believed she could see things that others couldn’t. Dark things. Scary things. Things that made Anisa have her institutionalized.

Things that Kyle said didn’t exist, but Anisa had always questioned. Her mother had always said she’d gotten the ‘gift.’ And while she had never known what that meant, she’d always pondered if she’d ever find out. If this was what her mother had always talked about, then there was no doubt in her mind that the woman had been right. Because Anisa could feel it.

This place, the Sleepy Hollow Motel, wasn’t right.

Kyle sighed, pushing a hand back through his hair as he turned to look at her. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have compared you to her.” He apologized quietly. “Can we go inside now? Before we die of hypothermia?”

It took another five minutes for Kyle to get his wife to agree, but the cold finally got to her, and she reluctantly agreed to return to the lobby and get the key to the room. When the man saw them walk back inside, there was yet another grin on his face, this one more sinister than the one he’d given them earlier.

“Look, we’re not in the mood for any of your games. Just tell me how much it is and we’ll go to the room and you can go back to playing with your Ouija board or whatever it is you do back there.” Kyle grumbled at him, causing a low chuckle to leave the man’s lips.

“I’ve already told you. If you leave before morning, I’ll be here at the desk, and you can pay me then. If you make it through until morning, your stay is on us.”

“Matt, let’s just go.” Anisa whispered to him, grabbing the key off of the desk and taking Kyle’s hand in hers. She didn’t meet the man’s gaze as she directed a sentence at him. “What’s the room number?”

“Room number 666.” The man smirked, causing Kyle to roll his eyes and Anisa to shiver. “And what’s awaiting us? A portal to Hell?” Kyle muttered as he and Anisa began walking down the only hallway that led out of the lobby area.

Anisa scooted as close to Matt as she possibly could in the narrow hallway. There were brown wooden doors covered in wormholes every so often on either side of the hallway, with very dim-lit sconces between them, giving off an effectively chilly atmosphere.

“This has got to be it.” Kyle muttered as he turned around the bend in the hall and stopped at a door in the middle of the hallway, looking at the number placards on the wooden surface. They were faded bronze plates, with one of them missing the top screw, turning it upside down into a 9 that hung below the two other sixes.

“Four hours.” Anisa whispered to him, clutching his hand tightly. “You said four hours.”

“I know.” He replied softly, groaning when the door opened and they stepped inside. The room was hardly what Anisa would classify as hospitable, with dusty cobwebs hanging from the dim chandelier hanging in the middle of the room, an old, musty-looking duvet on the bed some whimsical flower shape in faded green and tan colors. There was no TV, and no phone was sitting on the bedside tables.

“I’m going to go take a shower, alright?” Anisa asked him quietly, hoping that maybe taking a short, hot shower would ease her nerves. Kyle nodded as he sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his shoes off, followed by his jeans as Anisa walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open and walking over to the glass shower stall.

She opened the door and couldn’t help but let out a scream. Crawling on the bottom of the shower near the drain were some strange-looking bugs that she’d never seen before. They were red and black, about the size of a large cockroach. Upon hearing his wife scream, Kyle bound into the bathroom.

“What’s wrong?” He asked her with a frown, pulling her into his arms. She pointed with a shaky hand at the floor of the shower, and Matt frowned again as he looked at her. “I don’t see anything, baby.”

Anisa blinked, and when she looked back at the floor of the shower, the mysterious bugs were gone. She couldn’t understand. She knew she’d seen them there. Seeing the frown on her face, Kyle sighed and hugged her close to his side.

“You’re just tired, baby. It’s understandable that you’re seeing stuff, especially in a bathroom like this. Maybe you shouldn’t take a shower after all.”

“I know they were there, Kyle.” She muttered under her breath, letting him lead her out of the bathroom.

“Then they must have crawled into the drain or something.” He said logically. “Maybe your scream scared them and they scurried down it or something. I dunno. Let’s just go to bed, okay?”

“Fine.” She said in a quiet voice, not wanting to argue with him anymore as she got onto the other side of the bed, not bothering to take her clothes off. She took her shoes off, however, and sat them at the edge of the bed for easy access before crawling under the covers. Kyle pulled her against his chest as he flipped the light off, and kissed her neck.

“See? This isn’t so bad.” He murmured into her ear, already sounding as though he were going to sleep. Anisa sighed, not believing him but not saying anything as she too closed her eyes, wanting to get as much sleep as she could in this dingy room before they had to get on the road again.

-x-

Anisa awoke a few hours later to the sensation of feeling something crawling all over her; from her feet to her waist, where the blankets had been tossed back to. She immediately tossed the blankets all the way off and jumped out of the bed, screaming when she saw the bed covered in the same bugs that she’d seen in the bathroom, hundreds upon hundreds of them just crawling all over the mattress, their little legs making a chit-chit-chitting sound.

When Kyle heard his wife’s scream he groaned and opened his eyes to look over at her, wiping the sleep out of his eyes, a frown on his face. “Baby, what’s wrong?” He muttered, his voice still sleepy.

“Don’t you see them? They’re all over the bed!” She yelled at him, shaking and covered in a clammy sweat as she stood there shaking, tears beginning to leak out of her eyes. Kyle looked down at the mattress and frowned before looking up at her, wiping his hand over his face.

“Baby, there’s nothing there. Come on, it was just a bad dream.” He tried to reason with her, becoming anxious even as he watched her. She was still standing against the wall, shaking from terror. “Come back to bed, Anisa.”

“No. Kyle, I want to get out of this place. Please, can we just leave?” She stammered, her breath coming out in sobs. Kyle sighed, pushing a hand through his hair as he walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulder, pulling her against his chest.

“Give me another hour, baby.” He groaned, fighting off a large yawn that was threatening to leave his lips. “Just one more hour, and we can leave. I promise.”

Anisa looked up at his face and it dawned on her for the first time how exhausted he really must be. He had purple bags underneath his normally crystal-blue eyes, and his skin was stubbly with a five o’clock shadow that he hadn’t gotten a chance to shave. She nodded slowly, holding in the sobs that threatened to take over her body again as he led her back over to the mattress, making sure to check the bed for the bugs she’d sworn she’d seen before he pulled her against his chest again.

“I love you, Nis,” he whispered against her shoulder as he fell asleep quickly again, his snores sounding throughout the small room. It wasn’t so easy for Anisa to fall asleep, however. All she could think about was the bugs and their legs, crawling all over one another in the mattress, scurrying closer and closer to her shaking body. Tears began leaking out of her eyes as she thought about it again, and she shot up on the bed when she heard a whish of sound in the small space between the end of the bed and the bathroom.

“Who-Who’s there?” She whispered frantically, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms tightly around them, trying to make herself as small as possible as the sound reached her ears again instead of a reply. Her head darted back to the side when she thought she saw a shadowy form cross the wall, and she began whimpering uncontrollably as sheer panic overtook her body.

“What’s wrong, girlie?” A small voice with a high pitch asked her before trailing off in a loud laugh that reminded her of a circus clown. “You aren’t afraid are you?”

“G-Go away!” Anisa pleaded, burying her head between her knees and letting her tears hit her skin while she waited for whatever this was to just stop; stop and let her go back to sleep. The laughter sounded again, and this time a darker voice spoke.

“But we’re not here, girlie. We’re not here. We’re not here.”

“Stop it!” She screamed, temporarily forgetting that Kyle was asleep next to her on the mattress. The voice continued chanting the same thing over and over again, right beside her ear. We’re not here. We’re not here.

“Anisa?” Kyle’s groggy voice sighed, though she could barely hear him as she projected herself off of the mattress and against the window, not even noticing as the glass shattered, some of the pieces sticking into her skin and causing blood to begin dripping to the floor.

We’re not here, we’re not here.

“Shut up! Just shut up!” She screamed, falling to the floor in a heap of sobbing flesh, pulling her arms over her chest. Kyle sat on the bed, fully awake now as he watched his wife’s shivering form sit on the floor, glass surrounding her and her arms swatting out and whatever she thought was attacking her. He had no idea how to handle this; no idea what was going on.

“Anisa, you’re scaring me, baby,” he finally whispered. “There’s no one in here but us.”

Anisa looked up at the voice she’d heard, before she shook her head, squeezing her eyes tight again as she pulled her knees closer to her chest again, the voices getting louder in her ears.

We’re not here. We’re not here.

“Go away!” She shrieked, grabbing a piece of the glass off of the floor, not noticing the bite of the deep cut it made in the palm of her hand. “Leave me alone!”

When Kyle saw his wife pick up the glass, that was when he began worrying for her safety. He got off of the bed and slowly walked over to her, holding out his arms as he tried to let her know that it was just him; that it wasn’t whatever she was thinking was trying to hurt her.

Anisa saw the shadowy form coming closer to her, and whatever small pieces of logic she’d managed to hold onto slipped from her grasp as the voices whispered jovially in her ear again.

We’re not here. We’re not here.

“Anisa, put the glass—” Kyle started before he was cut off as his wife lunged at him, the glass held tightly in her hand. He backed away from her but stumbled on the bed and fell backwards. Anisa’s eyes were wide and teary, fear-stricken in a way that Kyle had never seen from her before.

We’re not here.

“Go away!” She screamed, slamming the glass down into Kyle’s leg, emitting an earsplitting scream of pain from his lips as she pulled the glass out and slammed it in again, this time the blood-soaked glass landing in his stomach.

We’re not here.

“Leave me alone!”

She stabbed Kyle’s body again and again, not stopping, not noticing that the body she was stabbing repeatedly was her husband. His blood was all over her hands and up her arms now, smearing onto her nightgown as she leaned closer to stab him anywhere she could. He was long-since dead now, the combination of shock and blood loss proving too much for his heart to handle as she continued thrusting the glass into him.

We’re not—

There was a loud banging sound coming from the door of the room now, and a light flipped on. The second the light was turned on, the voices stopped, and she dropped the glass, her eyes wide and glassy as she stared at the open hotel room. Standing there were two police officers, guns pointed straight at her, and the man from the lobby desk.

“Oh, my God.” One of the officers exclaimed, his voice perturbed as he stared at the gruesome scene in front of him before the shock wore off and he looked Anisa straight in her eyes. “Hands in the air!”

Anisa did as the police officer had asked her, having no comprehension of what had happened. Kyle was dead, she knew that much. His blood was covering her hands and clothes, and the sage and green bedspread. She knew that much. But she had no idea what had happened. She didn’t know how she’d gotten the gash in her hand, or why the window was broken. She had no idea why the police were here with guns, or why they were arresting her for murder.

As she was led out of the hotel room with her hands behind her back and the policeman holding them for extra security, she met the eyes of the owner of the hotel, a knowing smile on his face as his eyes followed hers. And then she heard it again.

We’re not here.