I couldn’t stand his smile; it was disgusting. He had food in his yellow teeth, along with all the plaque growing beside it. I walked faster to our room and opened the door. It smelt horrible. There was one bed. One bed! Who is going to fit four people in one bed? The floor hadn’t been vacuumed in, I’d say years. Dust bunnies roamed around the room like tumble weed. When I sat down on the bed, dust and dirt soared like airplanes, which made me cough.
“Great hotel choice.” I said.
“It just needs to be cleaned.” Mom said.
“More like exterminated.” I replied.
“Lets go swimming!” Brittany yelled and put on her bathing suit.
I decided there was nothing better to do, so I joined her. We walked out to the area that said swimming pool. We stood looking at a hole filled with green slop.
“Do you think if I go in there I’ll be eaten alive?” I asked.
“By what?” Brittany asked.
“The lochness monster.” I said.
“I’m outta here.” Brittany said and left.
I turned around to see the creep staring at us through the window. I stared back and then left. What to do in this boring hotel? Let me think. Search for dead people? Sounds good. I changed into jeans and a T-shirt and sat on the bed. Mom walked up to Brittany and me.
“Randy and I are going to go out to dinner,” she said. “You two will stay here alone. Don’t open the door for anyone. Even if it’s that man from the front counter. Caitlin, be nice to your sister, you’re in charge.”
“Fine.” I said.
“I’ll see you soon.”
“There’s no service here.” I said.
“The TV doesn’t work either.” Brittany said.
“I’m going to go meet our new neighbors.” I said. “Stay here.”
I walked out of the room and down the hall. I stood right in front of room 9. I put my ear up to the door and heard nothing. I looked inside the hole in the door and saw manikins. They had clothes on and looked just like a normal family; a husband, a wife and two kids. The kids sat by the TV, The husband sat at the table reading a newspaper and the wife did laundry. I thought our neighbors were supposed to be real. Real as in alive and breathing. I stared longer until a face popped in front of the hole. I jumped back and fell to the floor. I got up and turned around. The creep was standing in front of me.
“See anything you like?” He asked.
“This place is,” I started saying.
“Wonderful right?” he asked.
“More like creepy. Who’s in that room?” I asked.
“Your neighbors, but they are in town right now.”
“Why are there manikins in there?”
“Because they own a clothing store and they are on a business trip.”
“I would love to believe that.” I said. “But this place is too weird. Our room hasn’t been cleaned in years. There’s only one other family here and for all I know, they might not even be alive any more. Where are all the employees around here?”
“This is a new hotel. I haven’t had time to find employees.”
“Well you should.” I said.
“You should too.”
“Should what?”
“Be careful.” He said with a huge grin. I walked fast away. I went into my room, locked the door and put chair by it.
“What’s going on?” Brittany asked.
“Just being careful.” I said. “We don’t exactly have neighbors.”
“What?” she said.
“They’re not real.” I said. “But there is someone or something in that room.”
“Who?”
“If I knew I would of said who it was.” I said. All of a sudden the lights went off. “Oh Lord.”
It was so silent you could probably hear a pin drop. I heard footsteps getting closer. I didn’t know if it was the creeper or my heart pounding. I took Brittany into the bathroom and hid in the bathtub. The doorknob began to rattle. Brittany started crying.
“We’re going to die.” she whispered.
“No we’re not.” I said and got up.
“Where are you going?”
“To tell the guy to stop scaring us. Maybe beat him up if I can.”
“Don’t leave me here.” she said.
“You’ll be fine.” I said and left.
I crept down the hall, in the dark, not knowing what I was going to find. I thought for sure I was going to die. I walked doing 360’s every ten seconds. My fists were in fighting position. The lights turned back on once my parents pulled into the parking lot. It was like he knew when it was a good time to scare us. It was like he was watching us.
“Caitlin,” Mom said. “What are you doing out here?”
“I was going to see if they had a vending machine around here. I’m hungry.” I lied.
“We brought some food home for you guys.”
“Thanks.” I said and we walked back to the room.
“Where’s Britt?” Mom asked.
“I think she’s still in the bath.” I said. “We freaked ‘cause there was a black out.”
“Oh,” Mom said and went into the bathroom. Brittany was in the bathtub bawling her eyes out in terror. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Surprisingly, nothing happened during the night. It was absolutely peaceful. Although we were squeezed tight together like sardines, I woke up feeling rejuvenated. We woke up, took showers and got changed. Mom and Randy decided that eating breakfast in town would be best because there are stores around and we can go shopping. We hopped in the car and pulled out of the parking lot with the manager staring at us through the window.
Breakfast was delicious; I ate everything on my plate. I was about to have seconds, but then I looked at the price. Afterwards, we walked around and digested. I decided to go into CVS. Maybe they had some snacks I would like? Randy went into a sports store and Brittany and my mom went clothe shopping. I didn’t actually go into CVS for snacks. I went in looking for stuff to protect myself. First on my list; a knife. Any type of knife would do. I searched around for pocketknives.
“Knives, knives, knives,” I said to myself searching.
“Can I help you with something?” a man asked. I turned around to see the manager.
“Yes, I was looking for something to protect me while I stay Everyone Dies Hotel.” I said.
“I don’t know what you mean.” he said.
“You may fool my parents, but you’re not fooling me.” I said and searched around for pepper spray.
Finally, I found pepper spray. I grabbed that and went searching once again for knives. After a half an hour of searching, I decided to give up and go pay. When I reached the cashier, I saw pocketknives inside a glass case.
“I’ll take one of the red Swiss Army Knives please.” I said.
“You make sure you’re mighty careful with this.” she said.
“I will.” I said and paid. “Could I ask you something?”
“What is it honey?”
“Do you know anything about the Great Expectations Hotel?”
“I’ve never heard of that place.” she said with a puzzled look.
“Oh, well never mind then.” I said and walked out the door.
I decided to go to the library to see if they had anything on it. This library was old. They had like early 90’s computers and the books, don’t even get me started. I went over to the computer and typed in “Great Expectations Hotel”. Nothing came up. So, I decided to type in the address. It came up with an article about how it was a butchery, but it got shut down after they found out the owner was a murderer. That didn’t make me worried at all. I printed out the article and folded it into my pocket. I went up to the front desk to see if they knew anything about the butchery.
“How may I help you?” a man asked.
“I was wondering if you knew anything about the place that used to be a butchery.” I responded.
“I was a little boy when that happened, but my father told me about it. He said that a boy my age had a father that owned a butchery. Some people went missing and they found their bodies chopped up. They searched every house and store trying to find any clues. They went to the butchery and found more dead bodies. They arrested the man. Now the son lives there and is a little crazy, like mentally crazy. He used to kill stray cats. He went psycho after his father got arrested.” he said.
“Thank you.” I said and walked away.
I called my sister to find out where they were. I walked over to the onlt clothe shop in town. Brittany was trying on clothes like always and Mom was making faces like she always did. Then I saw the manager AGAIN. This time he was helping my mom. I walked over to them and stared at the man.
“Hey honey, look who’s helping us.” Mom said.
“Hey Mom, did you know that our hotel used to be a butchery and the man that owned it was a murderer? He chopped up bodies and this is his son.” I said.
“Caitlin Ashley!” Mom yelled. “Apologize right now to this man. Stop making up stories. You’re acting ridiculous.”
“I’m not going to apologize. My story is true. I have proof right here.” I said reaching into my pocket. There was nothing there. “I swear, I had an article right in my pocket.”
“I’m sorry. We’ll see you back at the hotel.” My mom said and grabbed the back of my arm.
We drove to the hotel with her rambling on about how stupid I acted in front of the man. When we got back to the hotel, she threw me on the bed and wanted to know why I would think that the owner’s father was a murderer.
“I asked a lady at CVS if she knew anything about this hotel and she said she had never heard of it. Then I went to the library and searched Great Expectations Hotel. Nothing came up, so I typed the address. It gave me the article I was going to show you, so I printed it out. I was going to read it to you but I guess I lost it.”
“Do you have anymore proof?” she asked.
“I went to go meet our neighbors yesterday and there was manikins in there. They were placed just like a typical family in the morning. Then something popped in front of the hole in the door. I ran into the manager and he said I should be careful with a grin!”
“That means nothing. When someone said be careful, they are being nice. I think you have your head messed up.” she said. I rolled my eyes.
“You don’t believe anything that I’m telling you do you?” I asked.
“No Caitlin, I don’t.” she said.
“I’m going to go meet our new neighbors.” Randy said.
“I’ll come with you.” Mom said. “Stay here this time.”
“As you wish, your majesty.”
She stared at me with that look that all moms have when they are upset. They walked out the door and what do you know? It starts raining. How lovely. I locked both locks and sat on the bed with my pepper spray and pocketknife in hand. Hours went by and there was no sign of my mom and Randy. Should I go out and look for them? Should I risk getting killed by the creep? Sure why not? Or should I risk getting yelled at by my mom for disobeying orders? Yeah, the lecture will be fun.
I got up and unlocked the door. Brittany stared at me.
“Stay here.” I said. I walked down the hall with lights flickering all around me. I looked up and saw speakers. Why would there be speakers in a hotel? Or should I say shutdown butchery? I kept walking silently.
“Caitlin,” A deep voice said over the speakers. “I would like to make a deal with you.”
“Keep talking.” I said. So that’s why there’s speakers…
“Your parents are in one of the one-hundred rooms at this hotel. If you can find them in an hour, they won’t die. If you fail to succeed this task under sixty minutes, things will get messy and it will be your fault.”
“Messy? Nothing can get more messy than you.” I said.
“Time’s running out.” he said. “Tick tock, tick tock.”
“Fine.” I said and went running.

I searched about thirty rooms and had no clue where they could be. I decided to check the last room at the end of the hall. It said 101, which made me really confused. I thought there were only one hundred rooms in this butchery. I opened the door to see nothing but cobwebs. I brushed them out of my face. I stepped on a loose piece of wood, which made it creak really loud. I saw something dark get closer and closer to my head. Right at the last second, I ducked. I looked behind me to see and axe in the wall. I began to breathe really fast. A huge piece a wood, the size of a tree trunk, came from one side of the wall. It hit me and I went flying. I hit the wall and hit my head on the table. Fortunately, I didn’t get knocked out. I decided to get out of that room before I got killed. Luckily, I got out safely. I sat down and had to think.
“Ten minutes left. You shouldn’t be sitting.” he said.
“Get up Caitlin!” Mom yelled through the speakers. I heard a slap after that.
I got up and ran to our room. Brittany locked herself inside the bathroom. I banged on the door and she yelled at me to get out. She got out of the bathroom and I handed her the pepper spray. We ran out of the room trying to find our parents.
“There’s a place out back.” Brittany suggested.
“No, he said it was inside.” I said thinking. “Inside! He means under here. The creaky board in room 101. Lets go!”
We ran into the room and once we got inside we were careful to find the squeaky door and duck just in time. We went down stairs leading to a basement. There were cows hanging on hooks ready to be sliced n’ diced and chickens hanging by their feet. Brittany and I almost threw up at the sight. We walked silently through the meat chamber, weaving in and out through cows. We came to another room where there was Mom, Randy, and three other people. It looked like the family the guy was talking about, but he said there were four of them.
“So, I’ve seen you’ve won the game.” he said.
“Yes, fair and square.” I said. “Now let my parents go.”
“But not fair and square. I said if YOU could find your parents. You and your sister found your parents. I’ll give you a second chance though. If you find their son, I will let all of you go. If you don’t find him, all of you die.”
“How long do I have?”
“Ten minutes starting now.”
I ran up all the stairs as fast as I could because I knew where the kid was. I ran to room 9 where all the manikins were. I opened the door to find more manikins then I had seen before and doll heads hanging from the ceiling.
“Kid? Are you in here? I saw you yesterday and I’m here to save you and your family. I saw them in the basement.” I said looking around. A manikin fell over and a saw a boy running out of the room. I began chasing him. He tripped and I jumped and grabbed his foot. “I’m not going to hurt you!”
“That’s what that guy said and then he locked me in the room and starved me!” he yelled and kicked me in the nose.
“Kid, get back here! He has my family too and if you don’t come with me, our families are going to die!” I yelled and he stopped.
“You better not be lying.” he said and came with me.
When went downstairs into the basement to meet our family members. They had all been blindfolded. The creep was standing there with a butcher knife.
“What are you doing?” I said. “I found the boy just like you said. You have to let our families go, it’s part of the deal.”
“Sweety, I lie a lot.” he said and was about to swing when the boy sprayed him with pepper spray. The man screamed in pain. I pulled my pocket knife and threw it to him.
“I have been wanting to do this for years.” the boy said to the man and stabbed him. The manager fell to the floor with a shocked look of pain. We stared at him as the blood poured out of his back and onto the floor. After all of the screaming and him moving, he suddenly stopped, dead. We walked over to our families and untied them. They hugged us and cried.
After that all the cops came and investigated the scene. When the cops told us we could go my mom got in the car as fast as she could and we drove away. After all that craziness, I honestly think we are going to stay in a hotel in a city the next time we go on a trip.