ROOM 312

You shouldn't have come up here.

The radio said 3:14. The key was in my pocket the whole time, and I told myself I never tried it. That was a lie. I try it every night.

There is a chair. There is a window that looks onto a town that isn't there in the morning. There is the smell — you noticed it on the stairs. It is worse in here.

If you are reading this, the room let you in. It does that, sometimes, when it is lonely. Be polite. Do not touch the walls. Do not turn around when the static stops.

— THE RECEPTIONIST, third floor