[DFM]

Shorter update today because oh man I am crazy tired. Writing isn't quite up to snuff, sorry about that. Next time will be better.



There's a single pipe that runs along the length of the cement hallway and the air gets colder the further down it I go. I can hear something crash against the floor upstairs. Glass shatters. Then... noises. I can't tell if they're footsteps or just a derelict old house creaking in the wind.



There's a door at the end of the hallway. Not sure where it goes to, but I can see a light coming from the crack above the floor. I don't want to think too hard about why.



That doesn't make sense. Everything was powered down, I checked half a minute ago. I make my way towards the light, hoping to see a wire I can follow or batteries I might be able to use. As soon as I get close to it, the bulb explodes in a high pitched whine.





The whine bounces around the room like an echo, and the second it begins to fade, it brings in footsteps. Not footsteps like before. These ones are pounding, slamming down one after the other in a run. Coming from somewhere in the basement and getting louder.



Something slams against the door and I can see the hinges buckle. I jump back against the wall and brace myself. I've got nothing to defend myself with, the best I can hope for is distance. Distance means time, and the longer I have to react to whatever comes through that door, the better. There's a sudden rush of cold air through the cracks in the doorway, and then everything goes dead. If I was still breathing, I would have held it. Nothing moves.



There's a thud from behind me as a paint can falls off the shelf and rolls to the door. It hits the metal with the faintest clink before everything falls silent again.



I move away from the door towards one of the side walls, and I notice a section of cement blocks that seem looser than the others. I might be able to make a big enough hole to fit through, avoid having to go near that door again altogether.

I glance back once before sitting down in front of the wall and slamming my bare foot into the crumbling section as hard as I can. Much to my surprise, it starts to break apart. With a flurry of undead might I kick the weak spot four more times and blow a flurry of concrete and powder into the adjoining room.





On the other side it looks like an old storage room. Probably held the hotel's laundry when it was still operational. I wonder how long it's been out of service? Place could be three hundred years old for all I know, I never was an architect. Or a historian. I squeeze the handle of the door at the far end of the room.



Locked. Should have figured. I turn around to head back through the hole when I notice something I hadn't on the way in.





The edges are curled and blackened, obviously survived a fire. Probably left by one of the vacated construction workers. I lift up the fragile old paper and squint, trying to make out at least the headline in the darkness.



There's a faint creaking from behind me.



This place can go fuck itself.

I wrap a hand around the door frame and ease myself through the open doorway into the next room, half expecting to find a laundry room and a child's severed head.



What I got might have been worse.

I glance up at the ceiling, and the whole I'd fallen through. Three branching hallways. One a dead end to the elevator. One loops around on itself. Which leaves...



God damn it.



Fine. Fucking fine. I'll play the idiot. I'll play the idiot and when I get out of here Therese is going to owe me so much more than a truce with Tong.

I jaunt quickly down the hallway. The less time I spend there, the better, it feels like. I take a left where the girl ran through. My feet are almost as cold as the cement. I hadn't noticed that when the shoes were on. I'm getting that feeling again, like something's watching me. The hallway stops at a dead end and a door. It's quiet and there's no light from the other side. Better keep moving. I push it open and stop halfway through the doorway.



Oh, no.



No, this... this isn't the only way through. This is bad, this isn't...

There's a low creaking sound.



Oh god...



It's sitting against the side wall. I can feel it staring at me. Same model. Same angle. Door fucking ajar.

Part of me wants to scream, wants to run. I can feel panic coming. I start moving, but I never tell myself to. It's like I'm watching someone else. I start to walk towards it and with every step I start screaming louder inside my head.







My hand throws open the window.



I pull the reflective metal from inside the washing machine and hold it in my palm. I want to laugh, but I think I start crying instead. Not even a trace of blood inside the machine. The key... The ghost... or house or... whatever it is... must be asking me to go to the boiler room. It's like Himmler asking you to take a shower.



I don't know what's going on, but it's not like I have much choice anymore, short of tearing down the wall and digging my way to freedom. I walk out the far door and follow the only route I can. I reach a door labeled "Boiler Room" and slide the key into the lock. It opens with an unusually loud click.



A frying pan and a fire.



The stairs continue down for what seems like ages, getting redder and louder and hotter the further down I go. For a place that's been long dead, there must be a warehouse of machinery groaning down here.









I finally reach the bottom. It's hot down here. Too hot to be from the machinery alone. I leave the stairwell and enter into the boiler room on the right.



It takes almost a second for me to leave again.



Shit. Shit. He had a fucking axe. Jesus Jesus Jesus he's going to murder me. He was coming this way, he must have seen me... he wants me to run. He was walking too calmly, he knows I can't get away. Or that there's something else waiting for me if I turn tail and run. Shit shit shit oh fuck. Fuck.




He should have come out the doorway by now. He's hiding. He's waiting for me to come to him. Jesus, I wish I still had my gun.

I think for a moment, replaying what I saw in my head. The man walking towards me with an axe, his midsection visible through the pipes.

I didn't hear any footsteps.

It's a mirage. It's got to be. Or a ghost. I don't know how it works. Axe murderer. Fits with the child's head. And the woman in the bloody dress. Alright. As long as it's a phantom and not a physical threat, I think... I think we should be okay.



I head back into the boiler room. There's a half dozen boilers, all lain out like a maze you have to bend and twist around to get to the other side of the room.



I don't see any axe murderers.



Don't hear anything besides the rumble of the boilers.



Eventually I see a light at the end.



Fuse box.



Looks like whatever took out all the lights just shut them down from here. I flick the switch to restore power to every level of the hotel that happens to be wired.



I hear an explosion. Steam. A bolt rips through the air in front of my head and smashes against the cement wall on my right. I hear another bolt whiz just above my head. I make a dash through the gauntlet.



Metal shrapnel bangs and screams all around me, entire bolts being shot from their gaskets to ricochet all around me.



I can hear them pass within centimeters, luck or fate keeping me unharmed as I passed through death valley. As I near the end, a single bolt slices through my ankle and makes me stumble, but I land on the bottom of the stairway and limp out of harms way.



The ankle already begins to heal as I make my way up the never ending flight of stairs to the maintenance door at the top.



And God said let there be light.