The footsteps continued moving through the hallway, getting closer with every second. Alex and Mia stood completely still, unable to decide whether they should run or turn around and face whatever was approaching them. Every instinct told them not to look, but another part of them needed to know what was behind them. The hotel had already taken two of their friends by using familiar voices, and now they wondered if it was trying the same method again. Slowly, Alex turned around. The hallway was empty. The footsteps stopped. For a moment, they believed they had escaped whatever was following them. But then Mia noticed something strange. At the end of the hallway, one of the old doors was slightly open. They were certain it had been closed when they walked past it earlier. The door moved gently. Almost like someone inside was inviting them in. Alex immediately shook his head. “No.” Mia looked at him. “We’re not going in there.” For the first time since entering Blackthorn Hotel, they ignored their curiosity. They did not investigate the room. They did not search for clues. They did not follow the invitation. They walked away. And as they left, they heard a voice from inside the room. A voice that sounded disappointed. Meanwhile, Noah and Emma had been searching another section of the hotel when they discovered something hidden beneath the old dining hall. Behind a damaged wall, they found a narrow passage that led underground. The passage was filled with old boxes, broken furniture, and documents that looked like they had been hidden there intentionally. Among the papers, they found the most important discovery yet. A record of the people who had entered Blackthorn Hotel after it was abandoned. The list was much longer than they expected. Dozens of names. Dozens of disappearances. But what terrified them was the final entry. The last name written on the page was not from years ago. It was from that night. It was Daniel’s name. And underneath it was written: “Room 13 accepted him.” Emma felt sick reading those words. Because it meant the hotel had been recording everything that happened. It had known they were coming. Back in the living room, Lily continued studying Elena’s diary alone. She had promised herself she would not panic, that she would focus on finding answers, but the more pages she read, the more frightened she became. Elena had spent years trying to understand the thing inside the hotel, and near the end of her diary, she wrote about the only possible way to stop it. Not destroy it. Not defeat it. Contain it. The final pages explained that Room 13 was not the source of the danger. It was a prison. And the hotel was slowly breaking that prison apart. Lily realized something terrifying. When they opened Room 13, they had not discovered the mystery. They had released part of it. As the groups finally returned toward the living room, they expected to find each other waiting. But only Mia and Alex arrived. Noah and Emma were missing. Lily was missing. The living room was empty except for Elena’s diary sitting on the table. Nobody had placed it there. It was open to a new page. A page they had never seen before. Mia slowly walked closer and read the words written across it. Her hands began shaking. Because the message was not from Elena. It was from the hotel. “THE GAME HAS STARTED.” And underneath: “THREE REMAIN.”

Chapter 12: The Voices In The Empty Rooms