"Xiang, what are we doing here?" Peter asked, getting out of the car himself. Alfred was hesitantly following behind. "We're not allow to be here. This place is supposed to be torn down."
"Yeah, multiple times over the past few years," Xiang cut in, tossing his backpack over a fence. "Yet this place is still standing tall. If rumors are correct for once, the workers should be at city hall, complaining about all the spooky stuff here."
"Y-you don't really think all that stuff is true, do you?" Alfred stuttered, gulping when seeing Xiang climb over the fence. He then saw Peter do the same. "Peter!" Alfred was filled with internal conflict. Part of him wanted to hightail out, but he couldn't leave two 15 year olds to some abandon building with ghost. Being the responsible adult he was, Alfred followed their actions and climbed over the fence.
"Xiang, really, what are we doing here?" Peter asked once again. Xiang still didn't answer, digging through an old pot of dirt that held dead plants. The English teen's eyes widened when seeing him fish out a key. "How'd you know that was there?"
"You guys ask a lot of questions," Xiang mumbled, unlocking the front entrance. Slowly, he opened the door, a dreadful creak sounding through the air. The sharp noise made Alfred jump.
When the door opened completely, the three boys were met with an empty, dusky room. The lobby. There were still furniture around, covered up, along with pictures covered up still hanging on the walls. The grand chandler was still hanging above them, covered in webs.
The floors creaked just like the door. A draft blew through the hotel, making the covers flow in an eerie way.
Peter and Alfred's head shot to the entrance once hearing it loudly creak again, shutting them in. Alfred exaggeratedly gestured towards the door, eyes wide.
"The door does that to keep cool air in or out depending on the weather," Xiang called to them, already heading up the stairway.
"Xiang, there's something you're not tell us," Peter called back, upset. He quickly followed his friend, jumping from fright at the creakiness of the stairs as well. It felt like the whole place was going to fall before the workers had time to do it themselves.
"You guys, I don't think this is safe," Alfred called after them. He was never one to call off an adventure, but Peter and Xiang were just kids. He sighed, deciding to stay put just in case.
Back upstairs, Peter continued to chase after Xiang. "How do you know about all this stuff? The key, the door," he asked.
"Because I used to live here," Xiang answered, continuing down another hallway.
"What do you mean you used to live‒" Peter began asking another question, but froze. He picked up a faint sound of a music box, slowly turning to his head the open door room beside him. There stood a dresser with a toy set on top, music no longer playing. Peter noticed the cracked window in the room as well. The wind must've somehow made it play.
"W-wait up!" Peter called after his friend, running down the hall. He caught glimpses of curtains and covers moving once in a while, but it all had to be the wind. The whole hotel was drafty. "Xiang?"
Peter suddenly jumped out of his skin at a scream. He heard loud footsteps over the creaky floorboards, turning around when hearing it come towards him with fear. It was Alfred, sprinting over to him. "W-w-w-what!?" Peter cried.
"S-s-s-something in the other room moved downstairs!" Alfred stuttered, shaking.
"C-could it be the wind m-making the curtains move?" Peter suggested a reasonable excuse. "T-the wind's been doing that all up here, too."
"R-right," Alfred nodded. "T-the wind. It had to be. K-know what, how about we get Xiang and head out for some nice hot cocoa at a nice, well lit Starbucks, huh?"
"I wouldn't object to that," Peter answered, still shaky. "L-let's get him now." Peter and Alfred continued down the hall, tightly side by side. "Xiang?" Peter called again, peeking in each room they passed. Each room they passed just seemed to get creepier and creepier despite being the same.
"I'm up here," Xiang called down from higher up. He heard his friends racing up to get him, shaking his head at their urgency.
Xiang was many floors above the ground floor, the floor where he and his family stayed on. The Chinese teen may have only been two when he had last seen the place, but everything looked like how it did in his memories, though more run down. He first made his way to his old room. It was a child's room. The painted walls were now faded and the furniture left behind were covered like every other room. He used to play with his old toys right in the middle of the room where the dusty rug was. With a sigh, Xiang moved on. He wasn't there to look at his old room. He was there for something more important.
Xiang hesitantly made his way to the door at the end of the hall. That specific door had always been closed, or at least supposed to be left closed. He had always snuck into the one room in the middle of the night as a toddler. Right when Xiang was opening the door and crossing the threshold, his friends finally reached him.
"Xiang, let's go, please," Peter called. "I admit it, I'm terrified! Even Alfred's freaking out!"
"Oi!"
"Can we please go!?" Peter yelled, but he noticed Xiang wasn't listening. "H-hey, what's wrong?" Xiang had continued walking into the room, stopping right in the center. "X-Xiang?" Slowly, the Chinese boy turned around, staring right back at Peter and Alfred with lifeless eyes before collapsing onto the floor.
"Xiang!" Peter and Alfred shouted at the same time, running for their friend. The door suddenly slammed on them before they could reach him, the drafty breeze suddenly picking up. The rest of the doors started slamming shut right after, one by one.
"Crap! We got to go!" Alfred shouted, grabbing his cousin's arm.
"What about Xiang!?" Peter shouted back, trying to pull free. "We can't leave him behind!"
Alfred took a breath, still panicky though. He pulled Peter aside and ran to the door Xiang was behind, kicking a hole right through it. Right when he was about to break it more to get through, the door suddenly fixed itself, the hole completely gone. "What?"
A burst of air suddenly pushed Alfred back. His shoes slid against the ground. "That's it." The American boy picked his cousin up and hauled him over his shoulder, sprinting out.
"We can't leave Xiang!" Peter shouted, trying to break free.
"We're not!" Alfred shouted back. "We're getting help!"
Everything went by like a giant rush. Alfred had made it all the way down back to the lobby. He grabbed the doorknob to the front entrance, thanking all that was pure in the world that it was unlocked, and dashed out. The door slammed behind them.
"What the hell, Alfred!?" Peter yelled, finally back on the ground. "That sure looked like we left him behind!"
"Peter, please!" Alfred yelled, already pulling out his phone. "Arthur! You gotta get over here! Now!" the American urgently shouted through the phone. "It's an emergency! Me and Peter are at the abandon hotel outside of town!" A pause. "There's no time for questions or saying how stupid we are, just get here now!"