For years after the night they escaped Blackthorn Hotel, the four survivors tried to convince themselves that leaving the building behind meant leaving the nightmare behind as well. They changed their lives, moved away from the memories connected to that place, and avoided speaking about what happened whenever possible. To the outside world, their story sounded impossible. A group of friends entering an abandoned hotel, disappearing one by one, and returning with a story about a hidden room that should not exist sounded like something from a horror movie rather than reality. When they tried to explain what happened, people questioned them. Some believed they had been lost in the building and panicked. Others thought fear had caused them to imagine things. Nobody wanted to accept the truth because accepting it meant accepting that there were things in the world that could not be explained. So eventually, they stopped trying to convince people. But they never forgot. Every night, they remembered the sound of the voices inside Blackthorn Hotel. They remembered the feeling of walking through those endless hallways. They remembered Daniel’s camera lying on the floor, Ryan’s flashlight beside Room 13, and the messages written by something that knew exactly how many people remained. Most importantly, they remembered the friends who never came back. Daniel. Ryan. Noah. Emma. Lily. Their names stayed with them forever. Because even though the hotel had taken them, the survivors refused to let the hotel erase them completely. Ten years passed before anyone returned to Blackthorn Hotel. During those years, the building remained abandoned, surrounded by the same forest that had hidden its secrets for decades. People continued telling stories about it, but fewer people believed them as time went on. The rumours became old legends again, something people mentioned during conversations but never truly feared. Until one day, a group of explorers discovered something strange. The hotel was gone. Not destroyed. Not collapsed. Gone. Where Blackthorn Hotel had once stood was nothing but an empty area covered by trees and overgrown plants. No walls. No rooms. No evidence that the building had ever existed. But one thing remained. A single wooden door standing alone in the middle of the forest. A door with one number carved into it. 13. When the news spread, the four survivors immediately knew what it meant. The hotel had not disappeared. It had moved. Or perhaps it had never truly been a building at all. Maybe Blackthorn Hotel was only a place where something existed. A place it used until it no longer needed it. Mia, who had spent years studying Elena’s diary and everything connected to Room 13, finally understood the truth. The hotel was never trapped inside Room 13. Room 13 was never trapped inside the hotel. The real prison was the belief that the mystery had an ending. Because every person who searched for answers became part of the story. Every person who opened the door continued it. Years later, Mia returned to the forest alone. She knew she should not have gone. Every memory told her to stay away. But she needed to know if it was truly over. The door was still there. Standing quietly between the trees. Waiting. She approached slowly, holding Elena’s diary in her hands. She had kept it all those years, unable to throw it away even though she knew it was connected to everything that happened. The door had no handle. No lock. Nothing that suggested it could open. But as she stepped closer, words slowly appeared across the wood. Not written by a person. Not carved. Simply appearing. “YOU CAME BACK.” Mia stared at the message. She should have walked away. She knew that. But after all those years, she finally understood something. The hotel survived because people were afraid of the unknown. It survived because people searched for answers without understanding the cost. So instead of opening the door… She placed Elena’s diary on the ground. And she walked away. As she left the forest, the door remained standing behind her. For the first time in years, nobody had entered. Nobody had followed the voice. Nobody had searched for what was hidden inside. And maybe that was what Elena had been trying to say all along. Some mysteries do not need someone brave enough to solve them. Sometimes they need someone wise enough to leave them alone. But as the years passed, a new rumour began spreading. People claimed that deep in the forest, if someone walked far enough at midnight, they could hear a voice coming from nowhere. A voice asking for help. A voice calling their name. Some said it was Elena. Some said it was the people who disappeared. Others believed it was something older. Something still waiting. And somewhere, hidden among the trees, an old wooden door remained. A door with a number carved into it. 13. Because some doors are not meant to be opened. And some voices… are not meant to be answered.

Chapter 17: The Last Voice