He and Phil were on a road trip. To where? Even they didn't know. After years of knowing each other, the two have finally decided that it was time for them to go on. It was a 'must-do' on every best friends' list. They didn't plan much. They just knew what day they were leaving and what day they were coming back. And with a few sets of clothing, essential toiletries, and extra pocket cash, they were off to go on an adventure.
It was currently 2 in the morning and both Phil and he was tired from driving all day. They couldn't just stop along the road to catch some shut eye, though. It was simply too dangerous and Phil would much rather keep sipping the last of his energy drink and continuing driving than wake up to a broken car window with all of their money and clothes gone. It was too risky, and Phil didn't want to take it. Dan went along with it, it's not like he's going to drive right now anyway. But for as far as they could see, there were no rest stops or motels in sight. They still had to drive for a few miles before they could get anywhere and Dan mentally groaned.
Not only did Phil had to stay awake to drive, Dan had to be awake as well. He had to keep his travelling partner from falling asleep for obvious reasons. He didn't mind though. It's easy to keep him awake, but it certainly was not easy to prevent them from being robbed while being asleep. And it wasn't that bad of a thing. They used to talk up to 4 am on the phone all the time. As strange as it sounded, it wasn't weird to them. They always had something to talk about. Whether it be funny stories in school or pokemon or even if they're telling each other the lamest joke they've heard that day, they always had something to say. But if there was a time where they didn't have anything to talk about, or if one just didn't feel like talking, they'd stay on the phone together in a comfortable silence. They'd listen to each other's soft breathing until one fell asleep. So as of right now, their situation in the car was not a problem.
Minutes passed and they were still on the road and conversing.
"My butt is sore. I don't want to sit on this hard seat anymore." Dan whined.
Phil sighed. "Yeah? Well, at least you're not the one driving."
Dan shrugged. "True. But that doesn't mean I can't complain still."
"You're such a brat," Phil said to him.
Dan gave him a cheeky grin. He then turned away from him and looked forward to stare at the road ahead of them, leaving the two of them in silence.
After a few miles, they finally see an old motel off to the side of the road. Phil is about to pull in, but Dan quickly stops him.
He gets an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. He's not sure as to why, because between the two of them, Dan wasn't normally the superstitious one. He doesn't believe in the worst of things immediately, but he is very cautious of strange things that are happening. He isn't sure what this feeling was, but he knew it didn't make him very comfortable and seeing a run down, deserted, and shady looking motel, did not help him in the slightest.
"Hey… We should go find a different place," Dan says slowly.
"Why do you say that?" Phil replies.
"I don't know… I just- I don't feel right about this place." He replied.
Phil let out a tired laugh. "It's just a motel. We'll be fine. I'm sure we won't find a dead body in the bathtub or something."
"You don't know that!" Dan said quickly.
"You're being ridiculous." Phil rolled his eyes.
"It's just old looking and it gives me the creeps."
"Are you willing to drive further for me then?" Phil asked him irritatedly.
Dan sighed, "Fine, let's go into this creepy motel and possibly die."
"Stop thinking like that," Phil says as he drives closer to the building.
Phil parks the car in the motel parking lot. The two men step out of the car and walk around to the trunk. They grab their bags and slip them over their shoulders. He feels uncomfortable, but follows Phil into the motel anyways.
The two are met with an dusty and old looking lobby. He gives Phil a knowing look. Phil ignores him and walks up to the front desk. There's a young lady around the age of 25 with sleek and straight blonde hair. They approach the girl. Her soft brown eyes sparkle and it seems like there's a genuine aura around her. Phil takes care of all of the booking because Dan couldn't be bothered, and to be quite honest, Phil was more of the adult one out of the two anyways.
The lady hands Phil the key to their room. She speaks with Phil a little longer than Dan expected but wishes them a good night. Just as they were about to walk away and find their room, the lady stares directly at Dan.
"By the way, if they ask you to let them in, just ignore them. It'd be for the better." She gives them a soft and innocent smile before she begins focusing on her paperwork on the desk.
"Sorry?" Phil asks.
Dan jumps in."Wait- no. What? What do you mean 'they'?"
The lady doesn't even look back up to them and continues working. The phone rings at her desks rings. It's a shrieking sound and is loud enough to actually hurt Dan's ears. The lady picks up the phone and walks away.
Dan gave Phil another look and Phil knew what that meant. To be honest, he was starting to get an odd feeling as well. But he brushed off the feeling due to his tiredness. All he wanted right now was to sleep, and he was going to sleep.
"What was that? What does she even mean? I'm starting to get really creeped out here," Dan says.
"Calm down. She probably gets bored in the middle on the night and this is just another one of her many sick pranks. Probably, yeah," Phil says reassuringly. Although, he's also trying to reassure himself as well.
Dan tries not to think much about it. He lets out a deep breath. "Okay, yeah. Sure," he replies shakily.
The two leave the old lobby and into the hallway of motel rooms. They find their designated room with ease. Dan opens the door using the key. They stepped in and he immediately noticed that the room temperature was much colder than the musky hallways. He tries to shake it off as he enters the room. The door squeaks loudly behind him and that only adds more to the eerie feeling he began to have again.
Phil shuts the door behind him with a loud slam and sighs loudly. "Finally, a bed! And I don't even care if this bed smells of naked old people and dead rats, I just want to lay down."
He tries to laugh softly, "And what if the bed feels like a brick?"
"Then a brick I shall lay on then!" He exclaims as he flops onto the bed. It must be comfy as Phil actually bounces up from the soft mattress.
"Right. Anyways, doesn't it feel a bit cold in here?" Just as he finishes his sentence, a shiver runs through his back.
"No? It feels just fine to me. Perfect temperature actually," Phil replies.
"Oh. Well okay then."
"Yeah, so I don't know about you, but I'm about to be knocked out any second now. I'm taking this bed already, so that one over there is all yours- unless you wanna snuggle or something." His friend barks out a laugh.
"Uh- no, I'll pass. But, yeah. I think I'll sleep right now too actually. Goodnight," he says.
"Night," he yawns. "See you in the morning."
He doesn't reply as he climbs into the bed and pulls the covers all the way up to his chin. He was freezing and he didn't know how the other man could handle the coldness. He shivered violently and tried to sleep. He snuggled deeper into his bed and it wasn't until twenty minutes later when sleep took over him.
He was awoken by a quiet tapping sound. He keeps his eyes closed and tries to fall back asleep. He knows he hasn't slept for long, so he wants to spend the most time trying to rest. The tapping gradually grows louder. He internally groans and finally opens his eyes. It's almost pitch black, but he could still see Phil across the room bundled up beneath his sheets on his bed. Phil was snoring loudly, yet the tapping sound was overpowering his snoring- which was strange as he normally snores up a storm.
He sits up and looks around. He attempts to locate the tapping. He realizes that it's coming from outside, almost as if the tapping was right on their window. He slowly gets up from his bed to check for the source of the sound. His feet quietly pads across the room and he looks out of the window. He sighs when he sees nothing. He shifts back his side of the room. Just as he's about to crawl back into his bed when he hears a moaning voice. He freezes as he listens closely to it.
"Please… Help me. Let me in," the voice softly says.
"By the way, if they ask you to let them in, just ignore them. It'd be for the better." He remembers the lady from the lobby. His blood goes cold. He thinks about what he should do.
The voice calls out to him again. It's a girl's voice, no older than fifteen.
"You have to let me in." He then wonders if he's just hearing things due to being so scared when he got here. He crosses the room again and wakes up Phil.
"Dude, you have to wake up. Do you hear that?" He says to his sleeping friend.
Phil groans and groggily replies, "What? What's happening?" He tries to rub the sleepiness away from his eyes.
"Shh, shh. Just listen."
His friend lazily sits up and stays still.
"There's someone after me. Please help. Let me in." the voice says. The pleading in her voice is almost painful for Phil.
His friend quickly walks to window and looks out of it. He follows behind him and they both gasp when they see a frail pale looking girl on the ground outside the building, covered in blood. Dan definitely knows now that this is real.
But as bad as the girl looks, he feels like he shouldn't help her. Something seemed extremely odd and unsettling feeling sinked into the bottom of his stomach. Ever since he saw this motel, he's had terrible feelings.
However, Phil had different ideas. He sprinted to the door and was about to leave before Dan stopped him.
"Wait! Where are you going?" He calls out to his friend.
He turns around and replies, "I have to help her."
"Did you not hear that lady?! This is exactly what she was warning us about! This is all to weird, don't leave, please."
"There's a little girl out there that is practically dying. And you're expecting me not to go and help her?"
"Go call for help then, just don't go out there." He tries to reason with him.
Before Phil could reply, the girl's voice interrupted them. "Please, let me in!" The tapping turns into loud smashing.
"No one who can help her is awake right now. We can just drive her to the nearest hospital," his friend says.
"Are you insane? We don't know her. Come on, Phil. Why would a young girl be out there covered in blood? She could be a killer or something."
"You're crazy! Someone is dying out there and you're being so superstitious about this just because some lady is playing pranks on us. I don't know about you, but I'm leaving." Phil runs out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
"Wait! Phil, please-" Dan tries to stop him.
Dan runs up to the door and tries to open the door only to find it's locked. He's confused because motel room doors can't be locked from the outside. He struggles to open it. He shakes the doorknob and almost breaks it. He's sweating, but then gives up and looks to the window.
He didn't realize that all sounds have stopped. The girl's voice, the tapping; it all stopped. He takes another glance to the window. He sees something glowing red. He walks closer to the window to get a better look.
Suddenly, the tapping continues again, but only louder this time. He jumps back, the sound frightening him. He almost falls to the ground. Then he sees it; he sees the red. It's the girl's eyes, or whatever that thing was. The voice yells at him through the window.
"Let me in! Let me in now!"
He tries to open the door again. He still can't get it to budge. Panic fills him and he can hear it going louder and louder. A pair of footsteps can be heard from outside. His friend's voice is recognized. He can hear Phil asking the girl is she's okay. He's confused. Can't his friend hear the girl screaming? Or see the girl's demon red eyes? Why isn't his friend running? Why isn't he scared?
"Phil? Phil! Phil!?"
Dan calls out his name. He was trapped, and he couldn't get of the room, but he can hope that Phil can hear him. His screams are not louder than the girl though. Tears prick his eyes as he realizes that he can't help his friend. He kept calling and calling until his voice reduced to a whisper. Full streams of hot tears ran down his face now. He can't hear Phil's voice anymore. In fact, he hears nothing, but through his blurry vision, he can see that the red eyes are still in sight. Everything is silent except for his slight whimpering and hiccups. He sinks to the floor and hits the ground with a soft thud.
A blood curdling scream echoes through the air. He recognizes it as Phil's. He quickly gets up and calls for him again. He runs to the window. The red eyes aren't there anymore. He frantically searches for any sign of his friend. He sees nothing and can't hear a thing besides his heavy breathing.
He stares out the window for what seems like hours but he knows it's only been a few seconds. His pants become quicker, yet heavier. His eyes are stained from all of the crying. As he continues looking out the window, his breath catches in his throat. The red eyes slowly fade into view once again. He hears a cool voice that can only belongs to Phil.
"Hey… Let me in."
He screams.