I’m writing this as I recall it, but I have been having trouble remembering so I ask for your assistance.

Last night I had a dream, but it was like those dreams where you are at your grandmother’s house, at your old high school or even at your place of work; what I mean by this is that I have been before in the place I dreamt, I’m just not sure when.

How do I know this? Well somehow I seem to remember more details of the place now, after waking up. But it’s just like back then, the details seem to slide like the sand in an hourglass.

The important thing is that that place felt off and quite bizarre, yet real. It was a hotel, but what woke me up in cold sweat last night was the elevator.

I have a vague memory of the hotel being somewhere in Canada, but I might be mistaken. I do recall being with my family in the lobby. The whole entrance area was cavernous with white walls and incredible wide columns, the comparison might sound silly but if were to compare it to a place you might be familiar with, it would be the interior of the palace in Aladdin, but unlike in the movie, here there was no tapestries or curtains to adorn the room; just plain white walls and perhaps a fountain, but I might be mistaken on that.

The first time I rode the elevator, I did it by myself while I scouted ahead with most of our luggage.

I clicked the button, nothing strange there until I read the sign posted on the side. It mentioned that the Elevator had a one in ten chance of stopping in a random unrequested floor, as part of some sort of attraction of the hotel, some distinguishing quirk. At the front desk they did mention that the owner was quite the “prankster” but it didn't seem to matter then.

Now, I remember the building being at least twelve stories high because the accursed floors I got to see were floors 2, 5, 10 and the numberless floor.

The elevator itself had no mirror in it, and nothing stood out unless you ignored the fact that each corner of the roof had a monitor. They seemed to be old television screens, remnants from the 90's. They displayed different hallways from what I assumed was the hotel, which reminded me of a surveillance room.

Anyway, I got in with our luggage and pressed the button for whichever floor our room was supposed to be in back then. The elevator barely got on its way when it came to a sudden halt on the second level; as the only one riding, I assumed someone was coming in, but it wasn't the case.

The doors open to reveal a small room. No hallways, no windows, just this small room in shadows but not completely immersed in them. I peeked out of curiosity but wasn't foolish enough to step out of the elevator. There, in front of me, lay a row of seats with their backs to me, facing the projection of some sort of film on a screen; all of them empty but one, a man who appeared unresponsive and staring at the film. The clip consisted of several clips tied together in a loop, each one of no more than 5 seconds long. They went as follows:

A man whose face has been edited out gets on the elevator, said man presses a button to a floor, the elevator stops at the second floor, said man steps out, said man sits in this room, a pair of hands reach from behind and slit his throat open.

I clicked the “close doors” button like a maniac and by God I made it up to my floor. Still paranoid, I got to my room which gladly seemed to be perfectly normal. I was struck frozen by the fact that we were staying in the hotel the whole length of our holiday; and just how many times we would need to go up and down through that elevator. The claim from the sign in the elevator that this only happens once every ten rides had me believing that I might have nine safe trips ahead of me, but I was soon to discover that my judgement was dead wrong, as the second floor was only the first of the accursed floors I saw.

But before I go into describing them, I would like to make something clear.

I keep thinking about the place; the harder I try to remember, the more memories escape my grasp and somehow I feel that perhaps the place itself intended it this way.

As they say, to remember is to live again and maybe tonight I will be lodging again at that accursed hotel.