#HauntedHotel 10th Entry - Hoods in Red

This story was told to me by an older cousin some years back. It was supposed to be one of those horror stories you told kids to frighten their pants out of them. He had just finished the mandatory one-year service to the nation and had returned home about a week ago. There was something quite different about him from the last time I had seen him. Maybe it was the bright red scar on his arm, or the way he now walked with a slight limp, or the way he always seemed nervous and jerked his head anytime he heared a voice from behind but he wasn’t the fun and jovial cousin we always knew him to be. Anyway, one night, we gathered outside, I and my siblings, to relax under the moon and receive fresh, cool air. Stories were exchanged and in the middle of my story, he came from inside the house to join us. We all lost interest in the story I was telling and begged him to tell us one of the stories from his experience.

“Tell us a scary one”, quipped my younger brother, Ikemefuna. My cousin stared at all of us and then replied, “Okay, I will tell you of how I got my injuries but you must promise never to repeat this story to your parents or anyone else.”

We all promised never to repeat a word. My cousin is quite a story teller. He took one look around and adjusted his sitting position. We could all see the fear in his eyes as he was about to begin. Then, all of a sudden, it vanished and in its place, was a sort of calm which was even scarier than the earlier look on his face. He looked like he was possessed. It was then, on this bright moonlit night, he told us this blood-curdling story.

“When I left home for NYSC, I had never felt freer in my entire life. I had always felt like I was caged by my parents. Everywhere I went, they always monitored me, right from primary school to university level. Even their choice of university was so they could restrict my movement and monitor me when necessary. So when the NYSC posting came up and I was posted to Ondo State, I couldn’t have been happier in my entire life. Anyway, I enthusiastically packed my things and looked forward to the trip. Of course, my parents thought it would be a bright idea to get one of our uncles to accompany on the trip but I strongly rebuffed that suggestion. “I’m a man now not a baby. You can’t always babysit me all the time”, I remember saying.

And they, surprisingly, obliged and let me go on my own. It was a thrill to be finally free from their clutches for once and I looked forward to more evidences of the freedom I was now experiencing.
On the day I was to leave the house, my parents called me in the morning and gave me the final bits of advice they could give and prayed for me. All these fell on deaf ears as my newfound excitement now served as ear-plugs and blocked whatever thing they were saying. I said my farewells, left the house and headed towards the park to begin my journey.

Looking back now, I probably shouldn’t have joined the rickety bus but at the time, it seemed like an awesome idea. It was heading for Akure and was almost full, just two spaces left and I gladly filled one. It was a bargain also, I was going to save 1,300 Naira which could be spent on food and other things. I squeezed myself uncomfortably and sat in a position which seemed the best I could possibly fit in. But I wasn’t going to kid myself, I could have gotten a very convenient cab with better seats but I was in a hurry to leave home and also, to save money. I had to endure the discomfort, ‘You had to break eggs to make an omelette’, I constantly reminded myself. Halfway through the journey and I began to regret my decision. I had changed my sitting position countless times, I was beginning to suffer cramps, my left feet couldn’t feel a thing, like it was dead and to be amputated, my buttocks were aching from sitting on hard wood and my back was feeling all kinds of pain. I kept telling myself to ride through the pain but it seemed like it was going to take an eternity. And to top off the misery, the bus got spoilt in the middle of the road, under the hot sun. We had to come down while repairs were being carried out and…”

“Stop telling us the boring parts and tell us the interesting and scary parts”, I said impatiently to him.

“You think this is a joke?!”, he thundered. I could hear the anger in his voice. We could all hear the anger in his voice. And in a sudden, it was replaced by that eerie calmness and the next thing he said was, “Okay I’ll skip that part. Anyway, by the time, we managed to leave that place, it was already dark and by the time we got to Akure, we were way into the night. I knew I couldn’t get to the camp that night. It was still 2 hours away in a town called Ikare-Akoko so I decided to pass the night in Akure. The idea to spend it in a hotel creeped into my brain and seemed like a wonderful one. It was going to be the first time I slept in a hotel. I wanted to know what it felt like. So I walked up to a cab driver and asked, “Oga, do you know any good, cheap hotel around?”

Looking back again, it was probably the worst idea I ever had to ask that particular driver. He looked out of place when compared to the others. While there were vibrant young men in their cabs, running around, looking for passengers, this particular man was old and worn and sat quietly in his cab.

“Omo mi, you said?”, he replied

“I said if you knew any good, cheap hotel around here?”

“Oh, if it is hotel you are looking for, there are plenty cheap ones around but I know one you will like. It is not inside the town. You will be treated like a king there.”

I liked the sound of that very much so I told him,

“Take me there, oga.”

I put my luggage in the backseat of his car and sat in the front seat beside him. We drove for about fifteen minutes before we arrived on the outskirts of town. This place was very quiet compared to the town. Very few people could be seen walking about. We veered off the main road and swung into a path on the right and he drove straight down till he arrived at the end of the street.

“This is the place. The name of the hotel is Evon Inn and Guesthouse.”

I came out, paid the driver who reversed and jetted off with furious speed and then, I was alone. I was face-to-face with a huge black gate. It looked deserted. There was no light in front, the sign beside the gate was barely visible. I was beginning to rethink my decision but then it was too late to start looking for somewhere else. The black gate swung open immediately, without me even going towards it and I proceeded to walk through the gate. I did not see any gateman or any mechanism that could have opened the gate. But I thought to myself that my mind was just unsettled from being in a new environment and was playing tricks on me.

The reception was not far from the gate and was a dimly lit office just at the entrance of the compound, on the right side of the gate. I walked in and was greeted by a very beautiful lady. She was dressed in a red suit, with a white shirt underneath. She had a charming smile, her teeth were a perfect set of whites. She was fair in complexion and had a pointed nose that didn’t seem like anything I had ever seen. She had radiant eyes that also portrayed the quality of her smile. She couldn’t have been older than 28 years.

“Welcome to Evon Inn and Guesthouse. I see you are here to spend the night. What type of room do you want?”

I managed to throw off my initial inhibitions about the place and smile back.

“I would like one of your cheap rooms, please. I’m a newly posted corper here. I haven’t even been to the orientation camp. Circumstances forced me to come here for the night.”

“Oh, you are an otondo,” she said, laughing, “Don’t worry. You will never forget this night.”

Words I go on to remember for the rest of my life.

She took down my details and checked through the list of available rooms.
“You will be in Room 118. I will call a bellboy to come and help you with your luggage.”

She ran a bell and a young guy jumped in from outside the reception.

“Tomiwa, help this man take his luggage to Room 118 and make sure he is comfortable.”

Maybe it was my eyes playing tricks on me but it looked like she nodded and winked at him and he also replied in kind. He picked up my luggage and said,

“Oga, make we dey go.”

The guy Tomiwa had one of those faces which you were quick to forget. Dark, bland, plain with a square jaw kind. Anyway, he took my bags from the reception and we went outside, walked through the compound and stopped in front of a long row of rooms. He searched for Room 118 and then handed me the keys.

“This is the key. We have a spare in the reception. The bathrooms and toilets are at the end of the line,” He pointed to the end of the rows of rooms, “The room has all you need for the night. Our bar and restaurant are inside the compound. You can’t miss it. Have an unforgettable night.”

I nodded my head and went into the room. It was a simple room with a single bed, a wooden chair and table, a wardrobe and a waste basket in the corner. The lights were on and bright. The room looked recently painted and I could see smudges of paint on the floor at the ends of the walls. I had eaten at the car park before I got here and was not ready to eat any other thing. I was also too tired for a bath and decided to go to sleep right away. The bedspread looked worn but clean and when I sat in the bed, it seemed soft enough and quite right for a good night sleep so without hesitation, I kicked off my shoes and settled in to sleep.

Whether it was the flickering light, or the straight noises I heard, or even the vibrations coming from under the bed that woke me up, I can barely say. All I know is, in the middle of the night, I suddenly bolted up and right in front of me, standing in front of the bed was a red-hooded figure holding a pitchfork. I was stunned and dazed. ‘What in God’s name was going on?’ I asked myself. I tried to scream it but it felt there was a vice on my throat. I screamed but no sound was coming out. I jumped out of the bed and edged into a corner. It was then I realized that the figure was saying something. In my fear-addled brain, I could barely make out the words it was saying. It sounded like something alien and the language didn’t sound earthly. It raised its pitchfork and started coming for me. Adrenaline surged in me and I suddenly determined I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. It brought down the pitchfork on my head and would have split it open had I not jumped to the side in an attempt to avoid it. I, however, was a bit slower and the fork grazed my arm which tore open and spurted out blood. The swing must have been quite heavy because the figure swayed off balance and I seized the opportunity to lunge at it with both arms and grapple it from behind. When I jumped at it, my right knee hit its arm and knocked the pitchfork out of its hands. When my right knee hit it, I felt something crack in my knee. I still its arms from behind and grappled with it. I had no plan for what to do, I just knew I had to hold on to it. It was like the creature knew what I was thinking and fell on its back. I was on its back and fell too. I landed on the ground and hit my head on the hard floor and passed out.

I woke in the morning with barely an idea of what transpired the night before and hardly could recall where I was. I saw the injury I had sustained and knew I had to get out immediately. I packed my bags and managed to limp out of the room into the compound. As I passed the reception, I saw nobody there and I walked out of the compound. I took one last look at the gate and I saw the sign beside it which said:

“OUT OF ORDER. CLOSED DOWN”

I was scared shitless. I trekked to the bus-stop where I took a cab to a hospital. They kept asking me for what happened but when I told them, they never believed me. In fact, one of the nurses told me,

“That place has been closed down for five years now.”

That night, my siblings and I were scared to death. Sleep didn’t come and when it did, it came with nightmares. I remember waking in the middle of the night and seeing a hooded figure outside my window, funny thing is I shared a room with my younger brother, UPSTAIRS.

• Written by Ikechukwu Adindu (@iAm_WyzEST)