It was safe to assume that since the time seemed to be stuck in place, the dawn wouldn't be coming. Waiting in the broken elevator would only result in Xavier getting more sleepy and losing body heat.
Of course, it was just a theory. All that Xavier had were just random guesses. Based on his horror knowledge, pretty much anything was possible. Based on his experience…
There was no experience to speak of.
Xavier didn't have a habit of investigating urban legends or anything, and had never ended up in such a situation before. It had been just one stupid drunken decision.
If it could even be called a decision. It had been more of a sudden impulse, really. Something that he might regret for the rest of his life.
Which would last longer than a few minutes, hopefully.
Either way, he had no other option but to investigate, had he? Perhaps he should try to look for the stairs. Whether he would be able to use them to descend, it was hard to tell, since he was on a non-existent floor, seemingly high above the hotel building, but that was the best idea he currently had.
Better that than just waiting for death.
"This is so stupid," he muttered, standing right at the elevator door. He was feeling like a complete idiot for stepping out into the corridor. Considering everything, though, no choice seemed exactly 'smart' at the moment, and by moving around, he should at least be able to stay awake. And warm up a bit.
He took a deep breath, and took a step forward.
Then another.
And one more…
Nothing was happening. There was no movement, nor was there any sound other than his footsteps. Just him, the cold, stale, dusty air, and the empty corridor filled with the yellow light coming from behind his back…
Flick.
All of a sudden, the elevator lights went off, drowning the corridor in absolute darkness.
'Ah, shit.'
Xavier stood still for a moment, holding his breath, fully expecting something to happen. Any second now, a monster would appear and…
Nothing.
Time passed by, but absolutely nothing happened. The corridor was just as quiet and still as before, the only sounds that could be heard were those of his heart beating heavily in his chest and his ragged breathing.
"Huuuu…" Xavier exhaled slowly.
Of course, just because his surroundings were silent and nothing attacked him, that didn't mean that there wasn't anything skulking in the darkness. The monsters, ghosts, or whatever, could simply be toying with him, feeding off his fear. It was far too early to assume that he was 'safe' in any way.
But at least he wasn't dead yet.
He rushed to unlock his phone, getting the password wrong twice out of nerves, and quickly turned on the flashlight. Once he could finally see again, he moved his phone left, right, front, back, up, making sure that nothing was out of place.
It wasn't. Honestly, it was rather underwhelming. Xavier felt almost stupid for being so scared.
At the same time, he knew that he couldn't lower his guard. Not until he found a way out.
Slowly, he took a few steps back to check whether the lamp in the elevator would turn on. His phone still had 46% battery left, so he should be fine for a while, but he still wanted to check, just to see.
It didn't work, though. Even as he stepped back and forth, and waved his arm to trigger the motion sensor (if there was any), nothing happened. The elevator remained dark and unresponsive.
Had he made a mistake? Perhaps he shouldn't have left the elevator, after all…
Well, making the right decision in a (possibly) haunted place was harder than he thought. It was like trying to play chess when you didn't even know the most basic rules. At this moment, Xavier wanted to apologize to all the horror characters he had insulted in the past (and their creators).
Or, at least some of them. Because the others were still objectively dumb.
Regardless, now that the lights were off, staying in the elevator seemed even more pointless. Xavier lifted his phone, lighting the way, and started moving forward again.
The 13th floor had a completely different layout from the floor where Xavier was staying. The elevator, rather than being located in the central part of the corridor, was instead at the end of it, facing a long stretch of tiled corridor with multiple closed white doors on both sides. Then, at the other end, there was a window, and what seemed like other corridors stretching on both sides.
Xavier decided to check the window first. An escape from the 13th floor through it likely wouldn't be possible for obvious reasons, but he wanted to at least check if he could see what was outside.
Besides, he was hardly tempted to open any of the doors, as he had no idea what could be lurking on the other side.
His steps reverberated among the empty walls as he moved forward, his whole body tense as he listened intently for any other sound, no matter how faint. His eyes slid over every door he passed, searching for the staircase symbol - as the layout of the floor was so different, he had no idea where to look for the stairs - but there was nothing. Each door was the same, all eighteen of them, nine on each side. Covered in peeling white paint, with no numbers or anything to distinguish one from another.
Even the way that the paint peeled off of each of them looked oddly similar.
Eventually, Xavier's steps came to a halt. After what felt like forever, he reached the end of the corridor. He quickly glanced back, scanning the path he had just walked, before slowly leaning forward, holding his breath as he took a peek at what was behind the corner…
Just another empty stretch of corridor, both on the left and on the right. Except that this time, the doors were just on one side, while on the other, there were dark windows.
Most importantly, though, there were no monsters. Or ghosts. At least not as far as he could see.
Relaxing a bit, he stepped towards the nearest window, squinting his eyes as he tried to see through it. When it didn't work, he tugged on his sleeve and rubbed the glass, in perhaps a foolish attempt to try to clean it…
SLAM!
His heart almost jumped out of his throat when, behind his back, one of the doors opened with so much force that it smashed against the wall.