A Haunting...//October 274th, 2025

 I think I've always believed in ghosts.

From monsters under the bed, to energies in particular spaces. 

I've seen things. I've felt things. Some people believe it and some don't, and that's of no real concern to me.

You can invalidate the existence of ghosts in the spiritual sense all you want; maybe it's hard to prove, for some people. Maybe it really can all be explained away, if you want it to be. Need it to be.

But ghosts can exist in other forms as well.

I think that most buildings are haunted. Not all in the traditional ghostly sense, but by the ghosts of what they once were, and memories left imprinted by the people who made them that way.

As I walk through the corridors of an old hotel, one I knew long ago as a place where many prestigious events were held, the ghosts call loudly to me from every corner.

The halls now house people on budgets; perhaps even those with nowhere else to go. The outside is overgrown; only a gazebo and an ornate gate to nowhere give any impression that photoshoots may have once taken place here.

The outside lights seem to be struggling now, no longer advertising this as 'the place to be', but rather beckoning like little searchlights, hoping they attract some intended target. The bar is closed, on a Saturday night, as the man working the front desk seems to ponder if guests will disappointed, or if the owners should be relieved that the  bartender will be one less person to pay. 

The walls seem to breathe; seem to utter the phrase, I used to be somebody, like a celebrity no one's given a second thought in twenty or thirty years. And I can see it all so perfectly in my mind's eye.

Banquets where a small continental breakfast of some bagels and yogurt is now served. Wedding guests filling the halls; blushing brides standing atop the staircase to the second floor posing for pictures, then taking more outside by the gazebo, perhaps with the entire wedding party. A 'who's who' of local business laughing at the bar; lines outside the public restrooms past the front desk because there is just so much going on. And everyone is smiling. 

And the rooms...they are bigger than any other hotel room I've stayed in in my adult life. The bathroom may be bigger than the one in my home. Though the rooms look dated now; look like the ones I stayed in with my parents in the 90s when we traveled to visit relatives or go on our weekend trips down the shore, I can see all the signs that they were once the height of luxury for those staying in the area. These were the rooms that my parents would not have sprung for, because a hotel is a place to put your head at night. 

But I see them. I see the partygoers, the businesspeople, the wedding guests, the newlyweds, and everyone in between. I lay down on the bed and I feel the giddiness of a wonderful night out, and the calm of a luxurious place to stay. 

People move outside the door, in the hallways, but I don't just hear them. I hear the echoes of times long gone. They are all around the hotel. Outside, in the lobby, in the bar, the banquet rooms...

I didn't see any mysterious figures, or feel the presence of something otherworldly, but..

I don't think I've ever known a building quite so haunted.