12:02 AM
Maddy Axel couldn’t tell how long she’s been in this room. Despite the heat wave on the streets of Midtown New Geneva thirty floors below, it was frigid inside this art deco hotel room. Everything about it had the old-world charm. The seventeen-year-old set up her vlogging cameras and started filming. Her dedicated fans tuned in three times a week at twelve thirty on all the platforms to watch her antics. In less than a year she’s built up twenty-five million followers with each videos and posts earning her a hundred thousand dollars each. Despite her amassed new fortune, she still used her cheap cameras that she bought second hand when she was a broke schoolgirl. Her videos went viral from day one and people loved her fresh original content.
Few months back, her viewers began commenting and recommending that she spend a night in the most haunted hotel in New Geneva and the world, The Provincial, on the Thirty Fourth Street. Naturally, Maddy took on the challenge. So, for the last four weeks, Maddy delved into her new project. That was her style, go all in. She researched day and night on the Hotel Provincial and its colourful history. Since the conception in the 1850s there has been countless murders, suicides and general mishaps. Maddy loved it. Most of the deaths occurred in this room, 6174. Maddy didn’t know what the big deal was. It was quite a pretty room, floral patterned wall papers, nice plush carpet and beautiful antique style furniture that would have cost a mint.
It was 12:02 AM, and she started her live stream. She had her main camera running on the tripod and after her usual chirpy, high-energy intro, she began walking around the hotel with her phone, showing her viewers the grand tour. Maddy could see peoples’ comments flick up faster than she could read them. The thing she craved more than the money she earned from vlogging was the attention. She didn’t really have any friends in school. Now she felt like she had millions of friends who genuinely loved her.
As she slowly panned around the hotel room, going from the living room to the bathroom to the bedroom, she saw comments like “look behind you Maddy!” and “get out of the room Maddy!”. She laughed it off and continued her live stream. Fifty million people were watching including several massive media companies. Despite their unbelievably awesome offers, Maddy enjoyed doing her own thing and the freedom to make her own content.
The viewer count went up to a hundred million within an hour. Maddy checked her diamond encrusted watch. It was 12:02. Maddy was having the time of her life. Her fans were going nuts. After about an hour of talking into her phone, she took some live questions. That’s when she realised that something wasn’t right. As soon as she turned on the sound for the fans, all she heard was unintelligible frantic screams and every few seconds, she could make out phrases like “Maddy, get out of there” and “Maddy helps on the way!”. Maddy was starting to get stressed and turned everything off. She saw the notification on the phone. She made half a million dollars in less than an hour. She was ready to hit the bed. She checked her watch. It was 12:02 AM.
Outside the Hotel Provincial was a sea of people screaming Maddy’s name and telling her to get out. The hotel has been out of commission, since the big fire in 1922. Rows of police and fire fighters held the thousands of people back. The hotel was due to be imploded in the morning at nine to make room for a new apartment complex and a shopping mall. Through millions of screens around the world, Maddy’s millions of fans saw her walk around an abandoned, rotten room surrounded by ghoulish figures that floated in and out of her. The video got three billion views.