I once worked in a hotel that offered staff accommodation in a lesser-used wing. To get to my room, I first had to leave the main foyer and walk a short distance along the side of the building. It wasn’t dark, but it was cold. When the winter chill had frozen me just enough, my room was still two self-locking doors away.
Perhaps it was the frigid, lonesome walk to get there. Or maybe the oppressive silence of the all but abandoned area was to blame. Whatever it was, every time I walked down that hallway, I was just waiting to hear those doors unlocking behind me. In all the months I lived there, I saw perhaps five people coming and going to the nearby gym. Yet still, in all that time, I never once felt that I was alone in that hallway.
I never attempted to find out if the hotel had some ghastly history (we all miss opportunities in life), but I’ve never forgotten that gut-squirming urge to run. It’s all fun and games when it’s not happing to you, isn’t?
Just keep in mind that, while you’re reading our collection of shorts and you get that creeping feeling that you might not be alone anymore—you might not be wrong.
After all, we’re not always as alone as we think we are.
Terror in the Shadows Volume 9 is now available on Amazon, priced at 99c for a limited time only!
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See you in the shadows,
Sara Clancy