Locked Away - Book 1

Chapter 26

"The Overlook Hotel?" Kinsey looks over at me.

"What? The Shining is my favorite book and movie. I've read it ten times and seen the movie at least 20."

"Wow..." She smiles and wants to laugh.

"I think it's adorable." Tyler pats my shoulder. "A little weird and creepy, but adorable."

"Whatever. So what do we do now?"

"Well, usually everything is pretty much labeled." Kinsey starts looking around. "Usually signs to memories. Mine is a mall with different named store fronts."

"I don't see any of that." I look around for anything, but then the lights flicker.

"Well shit. That's not creepy at all." Tyler looks up at the big chandelier right as it stops flickering.

"This is great." Kinsey is excited and I agree.

"We should split up and look around," Tyler says and Kinsey and I both turn our heads to him.

"No. Have you ever seen a scary movie before?" Kinsey says and I just laugh.

"We'll stick together." I grab his hand.

We make our way upstairs and to the first hall of rooms. But things are different. The rooms aren't numbers but have different names written on plaques.

"Roger? Oliver? Hannah?" Tyler looks at me as we continue down the hall.

"I'm pretty sure this is the hall of people I hate."

"Wow. Big hall." Kinsey is trying not to look back, but I can feel the judgment.

"It's smaller than I thought." I walk forward, past Kinsey and to the end of the hall.

"Who's this?" Kinsey stops at the door with the name scratched out.

"No one." I turn to the other hall, the two of them following me. "These must be bad memories." The doors have different plaques.

"The Stairs. Night in the closet. The paddle." I can feel Tyler's eyes on me.

"Let's keep going." I don't stop walking as we walk past the worst memories in my life.

The hall goes on for a while. Passing memories I completely forgot about, or blocked out. As we reach the end of the hall, the last door on the left has me freeze. I don't why. The plaque on the door is blank. But something in there, I just know it, is evil. It's the same feeling I have with the voice. With that thing. I try reaching forward, but my arm won't move. Won't even budge.

"Is everything okay?" Tyler walks up.

"The... the..." I'm beginning to shake.

"Do you want me to open it?" He looks at me and I turn to him.

"Yes." I don't know why. I'm scared of it. I'm scared of the memories. But something in me needs to see it again.

"Okay." Tyler opens the door, everything quickly going black and the memory of that first dream appears. Then the first night in the attic. The second night in the attic appears. It moves around like a whirlwind. I can't stop staring at it, like watching a car crash. And then that nightmare from earlier appears. My eyes blink. We're back in the hall.

"Oh my god." Kinsey blurts out.