earth worse than death – and Odendale Hotel was one of them. She watched as he left the coffee shop and prayed to God that he wouldn’t become just another one of the people who disappeared never to be seen again.
Stephen’s shift started at 10AM and things went smoothly despite the creepy, dark, oil painting of agonising saints and avenging angels behind him that made his skin crawl. Out-of-towner guests checked in and out throughout the day giving him enough work to keep him busy, and despite working for what only felt like two hours, Stephen stated in an affidavit that would later form part of a police investigation, that night fell frighteningly fast. His digital wristwatch indicated that it was just after noon, but the digital clock on the wall opposite the front desk indicated that it was just after 22:00.
Confused at what had happened, Stephen stepped out from behind the front desk and only then realised how cold and deadly quiet the foyer had become. He stepped out onto the front steps of the hotel, stared up at the full moon and then inspected his watched that seemed to be in working order.
When Stephen stepped inside again he noted that his wristwatch was now synchronized with the watch against the wall and indicated that the time was 22:09, but he couldn’t help but feel that it was much earlier than his watch would want him to believe it was.
He stepped back behind the front desk and as he reached for the telephone receiver, he heard the elevator doors open. Despite it being out of sight, he could see shadows emerge from the elevator and after a moment of waiting for the guests, he stepped out from behind the front desk to investigate.
The elevator doors closed as they came within his line of sight – the elevator was empty and there were no signs of the guests who cast the shadows. No matter where the guests would’ve gone – whether they would go to the main door, dining hall or stairway – they had to walk past the front desk.
“What the hell?” Stephen glanced around him at the empty foyer.
It was about that time that the night guard entered from the stairwell to Stephen’s relief.
“Did you see any guests just now?”
“Nope.” The guard said.
“The strangest thing just happened and I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Try me.” The guard chuckled with his own history of strange occurrences within the hotel.
“Well,” Stephen said, “It was lunch time just a few moments ago and now it’s the middle of the night. I’ve tried, but I can’t think of how I lost track of nearly eight hours.”
“That happens from time to time.” The guard said bluntly, “You’ll get used to it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve also found myself swamped in work that I don’t even notice how long I’ve been working.”
“This isn’t like that.” Stephen insisted, “And then there’s the elevator.”
“What about it?”
“I could’ve sworn I saw someone step out of it.” Stephen said, “But when I stepped closer for a better look, there was nothing.”
“Oh… that.” The guard said nodding, “I’ve seen that as well; shadows getting off the elevator – shadows without bodies to cast them. You’ll find the person who cast the shadows in the dining hall.”
Stephen glanced in the direction the guard pointed at and a cold shudder ran down his spine at the sight of the dark and ominous-looking doors of the dining hall. When he turned to face the guard again, he was alone in the foyer.
He stumbled back a few feet rattled at the sudden isolation and glanced at the dining hall doors that now stood open with an uninvitingly dark dining hall behind it. The lights of the foyer flickered and an echoing whisper said, ‘come and see’.
Stephen stepped closer to the dining hall as if being drawn in like a moth to a flame. Though the dining hall was empty and the chairs all stacked upside down on the tables, he had the undeniable feeling that he was being watched from inside the dining hall.
He stopped at the doorway despite the feeling of being pulled towards the darkness and that was when he noticed it; there was a shadow figure standing in the middle of the dining hall. Though he couldn’t see the figure’s face, Stephen could feel its eyes on him.
“Come and see…” the whispers appeared to come from the shadow figure and the feeling that he was being pulled towards the darkness intensified. He tried to resist the urge to disappear into the darkness, but the more he resisted, the stronger the darkness pulled at his soul until he could feel his soul being plucked from his body. Stephen kept fighting back until he snapped free from the unseen force and stumbled back as the dining hall doors slammed shut with a bang.
Still on the floor, Stephen scampered back and stumbled to his feet as he rushed over to the front desk in a desperate attempt to call the police. When he dialled 911, the operator stated, ‘the number you have dialled does not exist’ and the line went dead.
Stephen grabbed his bag and ran out of the hotel. He made a statement at the police station the following day before moving back home to his mother’s house; telling the police officer that he was too spooked to even stay in Haysville in fear that the ‘overwhelming darkness’ of the hotel might get to him.
Edmond Harry, the jazz singer, was just the popularity booster the hotel needed, but also the person to shed some light on the eerie going-ons within the hotel.
In an interview with Jazz Magazine, Edmond Harry said that he checked into the Odendale Hotel on March 4th, 1982 after a shot carburettor stranded him and immediately upon entering the hotel uncontrollable feelings of despair and hopelessness besieged him for no apparent reason. Sensations of oppression and whispering cold breezes tugged at his ears as he approached the front desk and its angels and saints painting with its endless, ominous, palpable aura of gloom that caused an asphyxiating, disconsolate and uncomfortable sensation that seemed to intensify the closer he got to the front desk.
“Though it was daytime,” Edmond Harry said in the interview, “It felt as if it was nearly midnight as I stood in front of the front desk while the clerk – whose demeanour suggested that he wanted me to feel intimidated – filled in the paperwork and handed me the key card to room 85. Taking the elevator to the third floor, I couldn’t help but get the sensation that the elevator was going down instead of up and when I reached my floor, the elevator stalled. When the doors finally opened, the sign up against the wall had an 8 on it while the elevator indicator was stopped on 3. A woman got into the elevator with me and pressed all the buttons from ground floor to 20… which I found very peculiar as the hotel only had four floors detectable by the windows one could see from the outside.
“The woman whose hair was ruffled and dirty turned to me with a jerk and said, ‘We can’t get out. There’s no way out.’ And just as the doors closed she ran out of the elevator again.
“The doors closed, but the elevator didn’t move again and when I stepped closer to investigate, the doors opened to reveal a wall with a 3 on it.”
Edmond Harry further claimed that the elevator wasn’t the only surreal experience he had in the hotel and that he struggled to finally get out of the hotel with fears that he might never get home. According to his interview things only got more bizarre once he retired for the night and the odd happenings started with the room door that refused to stay shut – he finally had to put the chair up against the menacing door to keep it shut.
“Tired from a long day, I decided to take a long bath.” Edmond said in his interview, “About six minutes into my bath, I heard the chair falling over and the door creaking open again, so I got out, wrapped a towel around my waist and went back into the bedroom only to discover that the bedroom door had disappeared. The chair lay on its side and an entirely new wall was erected where the door used to be. I called the front desk to alert them to what was happening and when I told the clerk in what room I was trapped, he said that they had no room 85.”
Edmond Harry claims that if it weren’t for his faith in God that he might’ve died trapped in that room from wh
ich there seemed to be no escape.
“Concerned about the situation I was in,” Edmond said, “I tried to call 911, but the operator said that the number was no longer in use… so I called the only person I could think of – my father who is a pastor back home. I told him what was happening and we both said a prayer over the phone. When I opened my eyes I found myself standing next to the road about sixty yards from the hotel.”
Edmond Harry decided to go public with what he experienced in hopes of warning people to stay away from Odendale Hotel, but his plan backfired as more people than ever were interested in visiting the haunted hotel of Haysville.
During March and November 1982, the hotel saw an influx of guests thanks to the free publicity it got from Edmond Harry’s interview, but novelty quickly wore off when people dismissed the claims as mere shadows, cold spots and an elaborate publicity hoax as none of the guests reported seeing or experiencing anything out of the ordinary.
The Odendale Hotel only had twenty guests during December 1982; including Mr and Mrs Swanson and their ten year old son, Thomas – they were the first to experience supernatural occurrences as the hotel finally woke up and got back to its old tricks.
Mrs Swanson stated in a statement, which would later form part of a police investigation, that walking down the hallway with her family she could hear a
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