Vacancy by K. R. Alexander

Author:K. R. Alexander [K.R. Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2021-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Rohan, Mira, and I burst into motion, racing toward the far door.

The moment we move, the haunted kitchen attacks.

Butcher knives fly past us, pots and pans slam against the walls.

Mira shoves me to the side as we run, and something whizzes past my face; if she hadn’t pushed me, I would have been smacked with a frying pan.

A towering stack of plates topples in front of us, crashing to the ground and exploding in shards of porcelain. We cover our faces and leap over the broken pieces.

Finally, finally, we make it to the door and rush out into the hall. We’re going so fast we slam into the opposite wall and pause there, panting and staring as the kitchen door swings slowly shut.

Nothing comes out.

Just like before, all we’re greeted with after being chased down is silence.

No banging pots,

no crashing dishes,

no slicing knives.

Just our frantic breathing and the heavy, empty silence of the hotel.

When the kitchen door stops swinging, Mira steps away from the wall and walks tentatively up toward it.

“Mira, don’t,” Rohan hisses.

She doesn’t listen.

Instead, she reaches the door and pops up on tiptoes to peer in the round window.

She gasps. “No way.”

“What?” I ask. I walk over and join her. When I peer through, it’s easy to see why she seems shocked.

The kitchen is immaculate.

The tower of breaking dishes we leaped over is intact and resting beside the butcher block. The knives are all on their racks. The pots and pans glitter from their hooks. Everything is how we first saw it.

Impossible.

“What’s going on?” Rohan asks. “Are we just imagining it all?”

“I don’t think so,” Mira whispers. “I mean, how would that even work?”

“A gas leak. That’s how people say everyone died, isn’t it?” he replies. “They say there was a gas leak and everyone just died at once. Maybe the leak is still there and it’s making us hallucinate.”

“This is real; it has to be,” I say. “A gas leak doesn’t explain the locked doors or the fact that we couldn’t break the glass, or the lack of cell service.”

“But that’s just it,” he says. “If it’s all in our heads, we could be making all that up, too.”

“We aren’t making it up,” Mira says. “If we were, how would you explain this?”

We look to her, and she holds up her arm.

There’s a slice in her sleeve, and the skin beneath is glistening with blood.

“Mira, you’re hurt!” Rohan gasps.

“I’m fine,” she replies. “It’s just a scratch. It happened when we were running. One of the knives got me.”

Rohan’s wide eyes look even more lost than before.

Even though she says she’s okay, she doesn’t look it. Before she can protest, I rip off a bit of my scarf to wrap around her arm. Because as I watch, I see that the few drops of blood falling to the carpet are getting absorbed.

The hotel is drinking Mira’s blood.

I can practically feel the hotel’s hunger. Its satisfaction over trapping so many of us.

I can’t leave until I’ve found everyone.

I’m not going to leave anyone behind.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.