The Motel

 I’ve slept in some shitty places but goddamn this one was by far the worst. It was two years ago. I was driving across states so that I could attend my cousin’s wedding. I had been on the road for twelve hours, only stopping every four or so when I needed to use the bathroom, grab a bite to eat, or just stretch my legs. Against my better judgment, I decided to attempt driving through the night. By about I’d say hour twenty I came to regret my decision as my eyelids began feeling heavy.

I groaned at my stupidity and the fact there wasn’t a place around me I could stop at or so I thought. While going up a hill I saw it slowly come into view. It was almost as if it was appearing out of thin air. It read “Mike’s Motel”. Relieved that I had found a place to sleep, I pulled into the parking lot. Once parked, I got out of my car and went inside.

Instantly the smell of must invaded my nostrils. Under most other circumstances I would have left. However, I figured beggars couldn’t be choosers. I went over to the desk and rang the bell. From out of a room with its door marked “hotel staff only” came an older-looking man. I assumed he was either the manager or a worker.

“Do you only want a room for the night?” He asked.

“Yeah, how much does it cost?”

He pointed to a sign that listed the prices for how long someone was to be staying. Once I paid, he handed me the keys to my room. It was located in the middle of the right side. Walking down the hall towards it only made the musty smell more noticeable. Outdated doesn’t even come close to describing that place.

Granted, I wasn’t expecting the five-star treatment but from the looks of it, this place hadn’t gotten anything new in years. There wasn’t even a TV in the place. Weird light brown and yellow stains covered d the walls and ceiling. My shoes stuck to the floor a little which made me apprehensive about taking them off and walking on it in my socks. The bed didn’t seem any better. The thoughts that passed through my mind were wondering how many STDs had been caught by someone while in it and when the last time its sheets had been washed was.

“Jesus Christ, this looks filthy,” I said and noticed some black dots on the sheets. “I hope those aren’t bedbugs.”

I briefly wondered what I would see if I were to use a black light inside the room and quickly repressed the thought. Some things are better left unanswered. Anyway, the only thing I could think to do to improve my sleeping situation a little better was to pull the sheets off and shake in order to get any pests off. When I no longer saw any black dots on the sheets I put them back on the bed. Despite the condition of the room, my tiredness caused me to fall asleep almost instantly.

For a short while, my slumber was relatively peaceful. That is until I was woken by a loud noise coming from above me. It was as if someone had dropped a large weight in the room above me. My eyes shot open. Annoyed, I pulled out my phone and checked it to see that I had only been asleep for four hours. I put my phone back in my shirt pocket and attempted to ignore it and go back to sleep only to hear it again.

This time it was louder. I could feel the vibrations of it through the wall and thought I heard glass breaking. I considered complaining to the man at the front desk. Somehow I found it doubtful that would’ve solved the problem. When it happened a third time, I had reached my limit. From the nightstand, by the bed, I pulled out a Bible.

“Shut the fuck up,” I yelled, throwing it with all my strength against the ceiling.

It slammed against it with a hard thud and fell to the floor. I waited for another thud to occur. When it didn’t I thought that was the end of the matter. Then I heard some footsteps coming from the end of the hall shortly later.

“I swear to god if this asshole wants to start some shit with me after waking me up I’m going to…”

My thoughts seized when I heard growling coming from the door.

“Of course I have to deal with a drug addict in this godforsaken place.”

I searched for something to use as a weapon. The closest thing I saw to one was the lamp. The issue with using it, though, was that would leave me in the dark. I thought that maybe if I waited they would go away. This was disproved when a loud slam was heard at the door, making it rattle.

“They must be running against it. I may need a weapon after all,” I thought.

The only other place I could think to check was the bathroom. Naturally, I wanted to avoid entering it at all costs. As they say though, desperate times call for desperate measures. The smell nearly made me vomit. I was able to suppress that feeling long enough to find the towel rack that had fallen off the wall.

I picked it up, taking care to not touch the rusty parts. I could hear yelling when I came out of the room. I recognized it as coming from the man at the front desk. I thought he was chastising the one at my door. Then he started screaming.

I felt my stomach sink because I knew it was from him being in pain. This was followed by another slam against the door. This time it was much stronger. I didn’t notice what was happening at first. Soon, I realized what was happening. Splinters were forming in the door.

“They must have a weapon. Just my luck not only do I have to deal with an addict, but I also have to deal with one that probably has a baseball bat or something.”

The reason for my assumption was that for all the motel’s faults the doors were at least fairly durable. Regardless of any drugs, somebody happens to be on there was no way they could that much damage to it without some sort of weapon or….if they aren’t human. The slamming continued until a part of the door was broken away. I was able to sidestep in time to avoid a flying fragment of wood that hit the window behind me. The hotel guy had been shoved through the door head first.

Splinters were stuck inside his face and one was even in his eye. His body was hanging limp halfway into the room. That was all the door could take. It fell off its hinges to reveal something that made my breath catch in my throat and drop the shower rack that I doubt would’ve been much help against what was standing in front of me anyway. It was something I can only barely classify as canine.

First off, it was furless save for a tuft of white on its head. Secondly, it was tall. It was so tall it had to walk on its hands and feet and even then it was nearly touching the ceiling. Yes, I said hands and feet, not paws. It had long black claws protruding from them that were so sharp they dug into the floor.

Third and what I found the most disturbing about it was its mouth. It seemed nearly too big for its body and curved upward as if it was smiling. With its giant maws, it picked up the lifeless man off the floor. With one backward tilt of its head, it got his entire body into its mouth where it began chewing him up. As my ears were invaded by the sound of grinding bones and flesh and I was too scared to even scream only one thought entered my mind.

“I can’t believe I paid $50 to sleep here.”

The beast, having finished its snack, focused its attention on me. I started slowly backing up as it came further into the room.

“Nice...Whatever you are. You don’t need to eat anyone else right?”

I’m not sure if what it did next was in response to what I said or if it was something it would’ve done anyway. It twisted its head in a clockwise motion, making it sound like it was breaking its own neck. This was my signal that I was a goner. It got ready to lunge at me when something made it stop. It looked to be in discomfort.

I didn’t understand why it was acting this way. Then my eyes fell on the bathroom door. It was at that moment I understood the cause for its behavior. Due to its canine attributes, its sense of smell was incredibly strong. Thanks to the poor maintenance of the bathroom a strength of it had become a weakness.

Knowing this, I quickly went over to the bathroom door while it was dazed and opened it. Even though the smell was suffocating I knew that it was even worse for it. Now it was having trouble staying on its feet. Capitalizing on the opportunity I pulled the sheets off the bed and threw them over the creature. This caused it to become tangled up. As it was wrestling with the sheets I grabbed the nightstand and swung it against the window, smashing it into pieces.

I leaped out the window. I wasted no time in sprinting towards my car. Unfortunately, it had managed to shake off its fatigue as well as the sheets. With a roar that I’m pretty sure I heard cause some windows to shatter it gave chase. Thankfully my car wasn’t that far away. The problem was I didn’t think I could reach it before it caught me.

By another stroke of luck, I came across a ladder that was resting along the side of the building. Although I was slightly curious about this that was trumped by the overwhelming fear that was running through my body. I leaped onto it and was able to climb it as that thing attempted snapping at my heels. Fortunately, it didn’t have enough time to get a hold of me. It too tried climbing the latter only for it to break under its weight.

Reaching the rooftop showed me the answer to my curiosity. There were cracks running all throughout the rooftop. I felt bad for anyone unfortunate enough to have gotten a room on the top floor while it was raining. How that motel hadn’t been shut down already I had no idea. Still, I was safe from it...for about a minute.

It roamed around below me. I was hoping it would eventually wander off. Instead, it did something that made me wonder if there was a god, and if he wanted me dead. It paused and glared up at me. Then squatted down on its legs.

“No…”

With its leg strength, it was able to reach the roof in a single jump. It crashed down with a thunderous boom, causing me to fall back. I only had the strength to lift my head and stare at it as it was barreling towards me. As it was only a couple feet away from tearing me to pieces, part of the roof collapsed under its weight. It let out a surprised growl before falling and I could smell the strong scent of smoke that seemed to be coming from the area of the motel, the room I was sleeping in had been at.

“What could’ve caused that?” I wondered. “The lamp.”

You see I realized that in my haste to acquire something to break the window of the room I was in I must’ve accidentally caused the lamp to fall off the nightstand as I was grabbing it. This led to its bulb shattering, and its filament touching something in the room that was flammable, thus creating a fire. It spread quickly and in combination with the damages already present aided in the roof’s collapse. The beast tried holding on pullings itself up to no avail. I seized the moment and I kicked it hard in its nose, making it lose its grip and fall into the flames below.

Its agonizing screams as it writhed in flames made me feel like my eardrums were going to burst. I didn’t have time to worry about this since the rest of the building was collapsing due to the fire. Eventually, the part of the roof I was on collapsed as well. I yelled while sliding down. Somehow the building had fallen apart in such a way that allowed me to slide down safely to the ground.

I wasted no time in getting back to my car. This was because I wasn’t sure if that monster was dead. Also, since I had technically caused the fire I wanted to avoid complications with any cops that were going to show up later. As I drove around the building and towards the exit leading to the road I glanced back at the motel. Hanging out of the window above my room’s floor were three men.

They were dressed in cloaks and their faces had been damaged beyond recognition with shards of glass sticking out of them except for the middle one. For a split second, I thought I saw his head move a little. I didn’t stop to confirm this. I pulled out of the parking lot of that shit hole and sped down the highway. I have no idea what those three men were thinking.

I thought people usually do drugs in places like that or hire prostitutes. Personally, I don’t care if they do. If they want to do that kind of stuff it doesn’t matter to me. However, summoning demons is where I draw the line. I just hope that thing died in the fire and that motel stays closed. I made sure to take an alternative route on the way home.

Sure it may have added another two hours to my trip home but I wasn’t going to take any chances of running into any cops in that area. If there’s any advice I can leave you all with it’s this. Don’t wait till you’re nearly falling asleep at the wheel to find a place to rest. You may end up avoiding an encounter with a demon or something almost as bad or even worse. Also, don’t do rituals.

Most of them probably don’t work and when they do all that happens is people get killed by whatever gets summoned. Anyway, that’s it. See ya.