"Huff… Huff… Huff…"
The clouds of vapor formed in front of Xavier's face as he sprinted down the empty corridor, his footsteps echoing around the concrete walls. His shirt clung to his sweaty back, biting cold air sending chills down his spine, but he barely even noticed, focused on scanning the surfaces of the door he passed.
"This should be fine…" he muttered, as his eyes fell on one of the symbols scribbled on the door. With a quick glance at his phone, he compared it to his notes, and once he found what he was looking for, he opened the door…
Tap, tap, tap, TAP, TAP TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAP
From the depths of the dark corridor, a ghastly entity charged towards him, its bloody claws reflecting the light from his phone.
SLAM!
Xavier shut the door, and instantly opened another, no longer bothering with the signs. There was no time. All he could do was to cast a quick glance into what was ahead of him, before sneaking in, and quietly closing the door behind him, so that the thing chasing him wouldn't know which door he entered.
Just in time to hear the door in the corridor behind him slam open.
Not waiting for the entity to start checking the doors in search of him, he moved toward the nearest door, soon disappearing behind it. Only after there were two doors separating them did he stop for a moment to take a deep breath.
He was fucked, royally fucked.
***
Everything started an unspecified amount of time earlier.
"Ugh…"
Xavier stumbled into the hotel, almost tripping on the doorstep. The receptionist briefly lifted her eyes from her computer without much interest before going back to tapping on the keyboard. At this hour, the hotel's doors were closed, and people could enter only by either calling the reception or using their own key cards to unlock the door. Since Xavier had managed to get in by himself, it was safe to assume that he was a guest, and there was no need for her to do anything.
She wasn't paid enough to deal with this shit.
Not that Xavier would have wanted her help. He barely registered her presence. His head was spinning, and all that he could think of was the bed waiting for him in his hotel room.
Alcohol and bad mood were not a good combination, after all.
Ding!
The elevator door opened, revealing the small metal interior with a scratched-up mirror. Xavier stumbled inside, pressing the button on the control panel…
4.
"Shit."
Swearing under his nose, he tried again. The numbers blurred in front of him, and he had to squint his eyes to read them as he tried to find the right one…
14, 11.
By accident, he punched two buttons. Neither of which was for his floor.
However…
"Hmm?" Xavier blinked, tilting his head. Those numbers seemed a bit familiar…
Wasn't it the same as the beginning of the combination that the woman at the bar had told him about? There was some sort of legend regarding the hotel that he was staying in. Apparently, if someone were to press the buttons in a specific order at night, the elevator would take them to a secret floor.
Before he knew it, Xavier started pressing the rest of the buttons, following the directions in his memory.
Did he believe the story? No, not at all. It was just an 'urban legend' for a reason. But his hand moved on its own before he even had a chance to think, as if it was being guided by some supernatural power.
…Perhaps he was just drunk. That must have been it.
In no time at all, around one-third of the buttons on the control panel were lit up. The floor that Xavier was staying on, the 7th floor, not included.
"This is so stupi-"
Tzzt, tzzt.
The light above Xavier's head flickered, enticing a nervous glance from him. There wasn't anything particularly odd about it - considering how run-down this hotel was, it was to be expected that some things didn't work properly. However, for this to happen right after Xavier had finished following the directions from the legend…
A sudden chill passed down Xavier's spine. Instinctively, he turned toward the exit, wanting to leave the elevator…
But it was already too late. The door had closed, and with a heavy, metallic creaking, the elevator came to life, moving up.
'…Well, whatever.'
Xavier shrugged his shoulders and leaned against the mirror. Since he had already started it, he might as well take it all the way to the end to see what would happen.
The elevator moved up and down, stopping on every pressed floor, the lights on the control panel turning off one by one. In his drunken stupor, it took Xavier a while to notice that something was wrong.
Why was the elevator moving in the order that the buttons had been pressed? Shouldn't it stop on each floor as it passed it? That was how the elevators were supposed to work, no?
An ominous feeling finally started settling in, creeping under Xavier's skin.
Something was wrong, something was very wrong…
Maybe trying it out wasn't such a harmless idea after all.
The sense of dread sobered Xavier up a bit. The moment the elevator stopped once again, he pushed himself off the wall, ready to rush out…
WHAM!
But the elevator apparently had other plans. As if sensing that Xavier was about to escape, the door shut right in front of his nose.
"What the…"
Xavier's shoulders shuddered, his eyes widening. He threw himself at the control panel, pressing every button, STOP, the alarm, the call, even other floors, but nothing seemed to work. The elevator continued its journey, stopping on the floors, but no longer opening its doors, so as not to give its prey any opportunity to escape.
Until only one light remained.
Ding!
The elevator finally came to a full stop, its heavy metal door parting once more.
However, the scenery that spread outside of it didn't resemble any of the hotel's floors.