Marvin enters.

Walking into the stairway, Marvin makes his way to the second floor quickly. He wasn't quite sure how he planned to make this work, but he would managed.

Pushing the door open, Marvin stepped onto the second floor. The bright white walls shined brightly making the dark hall seem much brighter. Judging by the darkness, the lights must not be on.

Marvin looks to the map, and then to the wall. He begins to walk down the hall until he reaches the room he was searching for. He finds it, 204. The door had a small indention at the bottom right, like it had been kicked or something of that nature. He took the key, and jammed it into the lock. It must not have been used recently due to the fact that the key and lock made a creaking sound when connected.

Turning the key and forcing the lock open, Marvin pushed his room open.

Light streamed into the small entryway from the room that glowed brightly with the shine from the small chandelier. It hung gently on the high ceiling in the center of the room. Straight across from the door on the north wall was a large window covered by pure white curtains and there was a king sized bed on the right when he stepped into the room. A small television sat squarely on a large classic mahogany dresser at the far end of the room across from the bed. A small nightstand sat on the right of the bed while the bathroom hid on the left past the window. The walls were a gentle beige color that seemed to crave company. The lights were all on as if the room was expecting him as if it was just waiting for him to come open the door and walk in. It gave off a warm inviting feeling but the room was surprisingly frigid when you stepped in for a closer look at the vintage fixtures and décor.

A small booklet was sitting on the night stand. It had a black leather cover protected it from the outside world. It had an eerie presence that seemed to pull everything in the room towards it and only throwing chilling air back into the room. The air around the book seemed to create a small void that would take your breath away by the initial contact with it. A small glimmer on the cover was the only definition on the cover. With a closer look the shimmer of letters could be read as Sacraments.

He looks around. He couldn't believe how well things were going, this was just too perfect.

He quickly pulled his sweater and undershirt off and threw them into the corner by the window. He turned and walked toward the bathroom and looked into the mirror.

His face was just simply filthy, he instantly felt bad for appearing to the nice man this way. He turned and looked around the bathroom. Seeing nothing of much interest beside the scratches on the wall, and the terrible color of the shower curtain, he turned and walked to the room. He looked around and then toward the window. As he was going to look out, he had the sudden urge to turn around and look to the book. It hadn't interested him at first but he suddenly had the urge to go and look.

He steps closer to the bed, the floor boards creak loudly with each step and seeming to grower loud each time as well. He stares at the book for a long moment before he slowly lowers his hand to grab it from the night stand. He grabs the book from the night stand and looks curiously at it. Noticing every small dent and scratch in the cover, he flips the cover over.

The pages had been written in what looked like red ink.

" My journey has led me to the conclusion that the order has things that we should take advantage of. The Old Gods are powerful. They have the ability to bring the world into a new light. The world is corrupted and they will need someone to spread their wisdom. A messiah that will lead a revolution using this ancient yet powerful wisdom. Will the world accept this knowledge willingly? It does not matter. They might have failed once, but I will not make that same mistake. I will create a vessel. He will be hidden within the flesh made of kindness. He shall bring the mother of his siblings back to us. Then we shall have the order remake the world."

As he finish the last word in the paragraph there was a chill that ran down his spine. Never has he ever felt something so sinister and soul-crushing as he does now. The power cut out and all that remained was a dim light from the now creaking chandelier. It swung slightly from side to side, leaning as if something was making one side of the chandelier heavier than the other. A red puddle pooled underneath the tilting chandelier as he stared at it. There was something wrong... Something distinctly wrong with the sudden change in the atmosphere.

But that wasn’t all that was happening. As the images around him assaulted his senses, he hears giggling at his door.

Marvin dropped the book upon the bed and glared at the door. Something was very wrong and Marvin wanted to know what was going on.

He began to look around the room and than toward the door. He slowly crept closer as he reached about five feet from the door and dropped to the floor. He peered through the bottom in curiosity.

He felt silly for being so hesitant over giggles but with the sudden change of things, he felt it was required. And he felt this way do to the fact that when he first entered the hall, not a sound was heard.

As he began to think about it even more, he didn't recall hearing anything during his reading session either, but he wasn't sure since he was so focused into it.

Feeling worried but silly, Marvin leaped to his feet and walked toward the door. He would have simply opened it and looked out but he felt a feeling he wasn't used to, he felt scared.

He stepped from the door. This feeling was to much for him, it was simply overwhelming. He dug his right hand into his pocket and pulled out his zippo light and some tissue. He reached his left hand for the door knob and placed it on the cold shimmering knob. He slowly inhaled as he slid the knob to the right allowing it to click open.

There was a little girl laughing and running around in the hallway to the left of his room. She stopped as she saw him peak out the door. Slowly, she turned around to face him, her small figure clothed in a tattered bleach white dress. The fog outside the window in the hallway allowed only enough light to shine upon her to see that the smile that she held the bottom of her small heart-shaped face. She seemed familiar to Marvin, however, he could not place his finger on just her petite smile.The thoughts of wonderment began to past through his mind. He had an excellent memory, and he felt he had seen or met this young child before. It caused him great distress in the gew seconds he stood staring at the girl staring at him. His thoughts then turned to the parents. Where were they...? Why were they letting this young five year-old girl run around in a powerless hotel at night? The room beckoned him to come back inside and to shut the door. The girl's situation was not his problem and he might have just ran into her on his way into town. It did take him awhile to get to the hotel. But as the thought of closing his door made sense to him, the girl held out her hand. It was small, pale... Almost lifeless.... Then the pale hand then gave a motion and her lips made a small movement.

He couldn't hear her but he saw, "Follow me... "

She turned and ran towards the stairs the moment after she finished her statement. Her giggles was soon joined by others as she turned the corner. As the young girl dissapeared out of sight a slow moving fog rolled in ouside the window while the moon gave off the eerie glow across the hall. The hallway wasn't as boringly white as he remembered from moments before. No... there was now red splatters all along the walls... They gave off a metalic red glimmer as the moonlight touched them. To topple the courage he had at the moment that was keeping his breathing steady, was the sudden howl that came from his right. The breathing that followed the howl was to say the least inhuman.

Marvin stood in place for a moment unsure what to do. This was quite odd how the hotel seemed to change in so many manners. He looked behind him and then forward again. He was puzzled by this little girl.

Slowly nudging forward, Marvin placed one foot before the other as he took his time walking toward the direction she had went too.

Not caring about the fact that he had no upper clothing on, he ignored the feeling of the cold and continued. He than begin to think of the sudden fog rolling in and the other giggles that had joined.

"Am I making a bad choice? Should I blindly follow this little girl in this powerless hotel. The whole thing seems stupid but what if she needs me, what if something bad is going to happen to her?"

Looking back again, he stared at his room. He felt he was making a bad decision but he didn't care. He didn't think much bad could come from following a little girl. The worst he could foresee was tripping in the dark stairway and falling and breaking his neck, and then that wouldn't even be a concern to anyone, more likely just a burden to the hotel manager.

He began walking toward where the girl had went once again, and with each step, he thought more of what he was doing. He quickly stuffed the tissue back into his pocket but kept the lighter out.

Placing his thumb on the metal top of it, he flipped it open as the light omitted itself. He, now being able to see a little better, looked at the splattered red on the wall as he approached the stairway where the little girl had gone.

The hallway became dank and humid as he went further down the hall after the little girl. The plants that had once earlier decorated the clean hallway now joined in on the disarray. Some were dead, some were overgrown, and the rest lay across the hallway spilling their dirt and other contents from their pots across the floor. The walls loomed around him like dark voids trying to trap them in their mist. The lights in the hallways flickered as Marvin came closer to the stairway. If he was took look up at them each light bulb had become a small flickering flame. They seemed to taunt him but made no sound. The hallway near the stairwell had a peculiar smell but it was pungent and distinct like he had smelled it before but couldn’t exactly put his finger on it. Singing could be heard from the other side of the door. Soft voices with a happy ring…
” Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down…”
The sound of giggling girls was echoing within the stairway while no other sound could be heard. They started to start singing the rhyme again. There were three distinct tones, or at least to Marvin there was, telling him that there was three girls. With each step he took he felt hotter and it wasn’t from his insides churning… It felt like it was coming from the stairwell… It feels like the heat of flames. The last time he felt this much heat was when he…

He quickly the thoughts for his hand and focused on the task at hand. He needed to figure out what was going on.

He began walking down the stairs slowly, each step filled him with a paranoid feeling that kept him quite shaky. He continued to close his eyes as it seemed to grow darker. He stepped down feeling the heat grow hotter. He was quite glad he had left his shirt and sweater off.

He stepped down to the first floor ground as he frowned. He looked forward and stared at his surroundings. He felt very uneasy and felt suddenly sicker than ever before. Looking back at the stairs, he bite his lip and lite the lighter to omit more light for him to use.

He stared at the colors of the wall, and the odd way they looked. He began to sweat heavily and felt very uncomfortable about the situation. He felt like maybe he should have come more prepared for something.

He thought back to his days with his family, the thoughts just seemed to pry into his head. He bite down hard on his lip trying to distract himself from the pain. He could feel his teeth biting directly through a part of his lip but he didn't care, all he wanted to do was rid himself of these memories so that he would continue to leave guilt free.