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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Voodoo_Clerk on 2024-06-28 23:41:06+00:00.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

As I sprinted towards the stairwell, I quickly dug my fingers into my eye, tore the glass ball out of my head, and threw it down the hall as far as I could. I wasn’t going to give that asshole any further advantage than he already had over me. I quickly entered the stairwell full of rotting corpses and sprinted up the stairs. I wasn’t going to bother going up to the 11th floor again, since he probably would think that I’d be dumb enough or panicked enough to consider doing that. Instead, I got off on the 6th floor and quickly sprinted towards the closest room. Taking my phone out and using it as a flashlight to illuminate the pitch darkness I turned the doorknob to see if this room was opened. It wasn’t. 

I quickly whipped my backpack around and pulled out my lockpicking tool; making quick work of the door even though I was working with only two working fingers on my left hand. I entered the now unlocked hotel room and slammed the door behind me. I wasn’t planning on hiding there however, I had a better plan. I quickly began to make a mess of the hotel room, ripping the sheets off and kicking up a mountain of decades-old dust into the air. I yanked the comforter off of the queen-sized bed and next went about picking the side door into the next-door hotel room. 

This door also met the same fate as the last one and I quickly ran inside, surrounded by my new comforter. I quickly exited the second room and made a v-line towards the ice machine and the vending machines. I had a hunch that a hotel this old and abandoned had to have an ice machine that was large enough for me to fit in. And to my immense relief there indeed was one large enough for me to climb into. Even though this hotel was supposed to be abandoned I was still confused as to how everything still seemed to work, including the electricity. But I wasn’t in the habit of thinking too deeply about it, as I quickly wrapped the comforter around me and climbed into the still-working and freezing ice box, shutting my phone off and plunging me into darkness. 

I shivered a bit as I got myself situated and waited for the ice to stop making noise as it also settled in around me and my protective blanket. Maybe even if Mirror Creole was able to find me the blanket would protect me from any attack he might make on me. Wishful thinking sure, but I needed any comfort that I could get. I waited in the ice machine waiting to see when my five-minute head start would be done. I didn’t have long to wait. 

“Ready or not, here I come.” Creole’s voice whispered in my ears, causing me to flinch and look behind me to see if he had somehow appeared behind me in the confined space. Even though he wasn’t there I quickly shivered uncontrollably. Both because of the freezing temperatures and because the game had officially begun. 

I wrapped the blanket around me as tightly as I could and waited to see what would happen. I had an hour to survive, and if I did, I would be free of him. Even though an hour might seem short I felt every single second tick by as I began to flinch at every single noise that happened. Every single ice cube that fell next to me caused my heart to nearly beat out of my chest. 

A few minutes later but what felt like six days later I heard the stairwell door open. I froze so tightly that I could probably have passed for an ice cube as I tried to listen to see if I could hear Mirror Creole walk around the hall. But judging by the fact that I couldn’t even hear mirror me’s footsteps when she was chasing me, I doubted if I was going to be able to hear his. But what I did manage to hear was a few doors being opened and closed. 

It sounded like whoever was doing it was just quickly popping in and closing the door soon after. That certainly didn’t seem like something the mirror creatures would do. Because they were much more likely to just bust the door down in their attempt at finding me. After a few more doors I heard footsteps approaching and I didn’t so much as move a muscle. And then to my horror, the door to the ice machine was opened, but before I could do anything a hand was placed on my mouth. 

My eyes adjusted from the pitch black as a lantern was shone into my face. I stared up at the button eyes and permanent smile of Jacob. I quickly let out a torrent of muffled obscenities at him. I was filled with so much anger, fear, and rage that they all boiled together when I finally laid eyes on him again. He had nearly tried to kill me just a few moments ago in Creole’s shop and now here he was probably about to sell me out to his boss. 

Instead, he quickly held a finger up to his smiling face and quickly pointed towards a corner. I followed his gaze and was shocked to see that a part of my comforter had been sticking out of the ice machine. He quickly stuffed the blanket completely into the ice machine and looked around him before finally removing his hand from my mouth. 

“Thanks,” I mumbled to him, still not fully trusting him after he had so nearly eaten me back at the shop. He nodded quickly and again looked around before handing me some hand warmers and slowly closing the ice machine lid. I heard his footsteps quickly walk away and become faint as he seemingly left to continue the search for me. I stared down at the hand warmers and gave them a little shake as I again settled back down into the blanket and the ice cubes surrounding me. 

It wasn’t long after Jacob left that I heard loud thumping coming from not too far away. And more horrifyingly, soft singing. It was faint at first but it slowly grew louder as I guessed the Mirror Creole was enjoying his hunt. 

“Don’t you ever laugh, as a hearse goes by. For you may be the next to die,” he sang as I heard soft clacking against the surface of the ceiling. He was crawling on the ceiling just like the mirror me had done. I involuntarily shivered as I imagined that lanky bastard crawling around on the ceiling. He continued singing as he came to a stop just near the ice machine. I couldn’t tell if he was scanning around or if he already knew where I was and was just taunting me. 

“The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. The worms play pinochle on your snout. They eat your eyes, they eat your nose, as you begin to decompose,” he continued to sing as his voice grew louder with every lyric. It was here that my nose began to betray me. All the dust that I had kicked up had made itself at him in my nose and I suddenly needed to sneeze more than I ever had in my life. I quickly raised my fingers to cover my nose to prevent anything from escaping but in doing so I caused some ice cubes to move. 

The singing came to an abrupt stop and so did my heart. There was no way he’d heard the sound of the ice cubes moving. Was there? My question was soon answered when I heard something drop down from the ceiling. I had held my breath so long that it felt like my lungs were about to burst from lack of air. Just as I was sure I was about to be torn to shreds, a loud crash rang out from down the hall. 

Suddenly Mirror Creole took off toward the sound of the crash. I waited for him to get far enough away from me before exiting the ice machine as quietly as I could, abandoning my blanket in the machine and quickly crawling on the floor to be as quiet as possible in the dark void. I crawled my way towards the stairwell and was happy to see that just like the mirror me, Mirror Creole had broken the door. I quickly ducked into the stairwell and ran up to the 7th floor. 

Silently exiting into the hallway I quickly turned my phone on to be able to see what I was getting into. With the adrenaline winding down I now realized how absolutely cold I was. It seemed the comforter had not been enough to keep me warm. Shivering uncontrollably I quickly ducked into another hotel room and as silently as possible entered the room. I shivered softly as I quickly ducked underneath the dusty covers trying to get warm again. 

I was almost tempted to turn the shower on to see if I could get some hot water going, but my instinct to survive this game was far and above my need to warm up. It took me a few more minutes to warm up and when I wasn’t as cold I quickly exited the bed and began to look around for a hiding spot. All of them however were blaring obvious. The closet, under the bed, and in the bathroom, were all too obvious and would be probably found instantly. The ice machine had been my best bet but now that Mirror Creole probably already knew I had been hiding there, he’d most likely check all the other machines. 

“What the hell do I do?” I wondered aloud to myself. Sure this place had plenty of floors but all of them had the same things a hundred times over...

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