Marshall House Writing Project

Marshall House

The rain pours down heavily on the roof of Caitlin's father's white van. Tiana is driving through the horrendous downpour while Caitlin is peacefully sleeping in the back. Squinting in the darkness, she turns down 123 E. Broughton St., when a lightning flashes in the midst of the twilight. Throughout the glimpse of light, she sees something standing in the distance. She lets out a cry of terror, then swerves out of the way and runs off into a ditch, and slams into a tree. They both jolt forward from the force, Caitlin awakens from her former undisturbed slumber. Numbed in shock, Tiana is unresponsive.

Caitlin looks around sleepily and breaks the silence, "Really Tiana? I know you like to mess around with me by swerving for fun, but did you really have to ruin my dream about Dylan Sprayberry?" Tiana stutters, "I-It.. it wasn't my fault... I saw something.. I don't know what it was..." Caitlin continues, "Well that's fantastic. You did such a beautiful job of crashing our only transportation! What are we gonna do now? Try to make a force field around us to stop the rain?" she rants. The two girls got out of the van and looked at the now damaged van. "My dad is going to kill me..." Caitlin muttered.

Tiana starts looking around for any type of shelter, and she eventually sees a strange structure through the heavily pouring rain. "I-I- I think I see a building over there." Tiana utters out while pointing at a tall, strange building. Caitlin and Tiana start wandering over towards the building. They shield their heads from the pouring rain, and quickly scurry, eventually making it to the building and stop right in front of it. The building is extremely huge and made out of wood that makes it look creepy and eerie. Hesitantly, the girls walk up to the door, and Tiana slowly reaches her hand up to open the door. Caitlin grew impatient, "Oh my gosh Tiana, just open the door!" Tiana jumps from Caitlin snapping at her, and Caitlin opens the door herself and steps in.

The exterior is way different from the outside, it actually looks like a normal hotel. Caitlin drags Tiana to the front desk to see if anyone is here. Tiana points out a bell on the counter, and Caitlin rings it a couple times. Eventually, a creepy man comes to the front desk. "Hello and welcome to The Marshall House Hotel. Would you like to have a tour or stay a night?" The creepy man asks. "Well since our van has been crashed," Caitlin glares at Tiana, making her wince and shrug an apology, before Caitlin continues talking, "I think we would like to stay the night if there are any vacancies."

The strange man nods, "I see, and we so happen to have one room left available which would be Room 207." The two girls take the room and pay for the one night. While they were making their way up to the room Tiana speaks up, "I don't like this place. It gives me an eerie feeling." Caitlin looks at her and rolls her eyes, "Well maybe it's because you're still spooked from the supposed thing you saw outside and the way this hotel looks. Just don't worry. Hopefully we can get the van fixed tomorrow and leave this place tomorrow, so we can continue on our road trip." Caitlin replied.

They make it to their room and open it. The room looks extremely vintage and beautiful. Caitlin and Tiana set their stuff down on the beds and look at the time on the nearby clock. The clock reads 5:27 p.m. and Caitlin lets out a groan. "Urgg, what are we supposed to do for the time being?" Tiana shrugs but then gets an idea, "How about we go take that tour thing the man mentioned?" With nothing better to do, Caitlin agrees with Tiana's suggestion. They start making their way down the stairs to the front desk where the creepy man is sat writing in a journal.

Walking up to to the front desk, their footsteps quietly clicked against the hardwood floor. Coming to a stop, Caitlin clears her throat for the lobby man's attention. The man looks up, and quickly shuts his journal. Swiftly, the man gets up from his chair and slightly bows in acknowledgement. "What can I do for you two today?" He smiles.

"Well.. we were wondering if we could get the tour that you suggested earlier when we came in?" Tiana said unsure. The man replies, "Certainly, if you would just follow me, I will show you all of the areas of the hotel...There are many stories about this place, maybe I could recite some that I know, if you would like to hear them of course." The girls glance at each other with hesitant expressions. Looking back at the man, the girls nod with an unreadable appearance. The man lets out a big grin, "Splendid. Meet me at the end of the hall, we will begin the tour shortly."