Oh-No and Halloween at the Stanley Hotel
An autumn wind howled through the cold air as ponderosa tree branches shook over the Estes Park night sky. The Stanley Hotel sign seemed to grow larger and larger as Oh-No and Sweet Pea approached.
Thunder.
Lighting.
A witch’s laugh and cat cackle.
And for a split second, the Stanley Hotel sign flashed “the Overlook Hotel.”
Sweet Pea and Oh-No walked into the pristine Stanley Hotel lobby. An antique chandelier dangled from the ceiling over a crackling fireplace.
“Oh-No, did you know the Stanley Hotel is haunted!” Sweet Pea said wearily.
Oh-No was so excited! “Wow, I always wanted to play tag with a real-life ghost!”
“I don’t know, Oh-No. That doesn’t sound like such a good idea.”
“No, it will be fun. Let’s go find one!”
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A ding echoed, and the elevator door slowly opened. Oh-No and Sweet Pea entered the old musty elevator. With a hitch, it began to lift.
“Sweet Pea, what is our room number?” Oh-No asked.
Sweet Pea looked down at the key. Her face turned pale. “It looks like we are the famous, haunted room 217.”
Unaware, something was above Oh-No and Sweet Pea, watching from the elevator ceiling above.
An opaque, white hand lifted one of the ceiling panels, and eyes poked out of the darkness. Then a filmy, white mouth appeared and made a dreadful blow on the back of Sweet Pea and Oh-No’s necks.
Goosebumps ran up and down Sweet Pea’s body. “Oh-No, did you feel that? Something cold shivered down my spine.”
“Yeah, the hair is standing on the back of my legs. It’s so cool!”
Ding. The elevator doors opened.
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Oh-No and Sweet Pea exited the elevator and walked down the narrow, red-carpeted hallways of the craggy Stanley Hotel. As they approached room 217, a chilling wind whipped through the hallway like a tunnel.
“Here, I’ll go in first,” Oh-No said to Sweet Pea, as he took the key from her hand. Oh-No put it toward the keyhole, but before it went in, the doorknob twisted on its own, and the door slowly opened.
Oh-No was so excited. “Come on, Sweet Pea, let’s go look for a ghost!”
Sweet Pea turned pale with fear. “I don’t know, Oh-No. It looks scary in there.”
“No, Sweet Pea, it’s not scary. It’s fun!” He said as he took his sister’s hand.
“Ah. Ah. Ok,” Sweet Pea said reluctantly as Oh-No led her into room 217.
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A bedside lamp dimly lit the small room. A leather sofa rested against the wall beside an old wooden bed frame. A large mirror hung over a dresser on the adjacent wall.
Oh-No wasted no time searching for a ghost.
He looked under the bed.
He looked in the dresser.
He looked in the bathroom.
No ghost.
Then Oh-No heard a noise coming from an old, antique chest on the floor at the foot of the bed. Oh-No wasted no time and quickly flung the chest open.
Strange. The chest was pitch black inside. No bottom.
Then suddenly, a pair of white eyes appeared in the darkness.
“Sweet Pea, look… I found a ghost in the chest. Come quick!”
“Ah, Ah, I’m coming,” Sweet Pea stuttered.
Oh-No looked back into the chest, and the eyes were gone. “Where did the ghost go?”
Oh-No then did something that Sweet Pea should have expected. He wasted no time and dove into the chest, disappearing into the darkness.
“Oh-No!” Sweet Pea gasped. “Where did you g,g,g, go?”
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Oh-No travel passed through a trap door and skipped and bounced off the floor. “Oh, what fun!” He exclaimed as he popped to his feet.
Strange noises, machines, dimly lit flickering lights. Where had the trap door taken, Oh-No? He was in the Stanley Hotel boiler room.
“Come out, come out wherever you are, Mr. ghost.” Oh-No said as he crept quietly on his toes, searching like a game of hide and seek.
“I know you’re around here. You can run, but you can’t hide.”
The ghost poked the bottom of his face, just enough to see his mouth. The, with a smile, he blew on the furnace, causing the flame to loudly ignite.
Oh-No quickly turned toward the furnace. “Ah, ha!” He spotted the ghost’s tail going around the furnace. “I see you! Get back here!”
But the ghost disappeared.
“Hey, where did you go?”
Suddenly, the wind came surging through the boiler room window. The rusty hinges creaked like screaming witches.
Then Oh-No saw the tail of the ghost escaping through the window. Oh-No reached out to touch it but couldn’t quite reach far enough.
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Back in room 217, Sweet Pea looked into the chest only to find it empty. “Oh no, where’s Oh-No?”
The wind blew through the open window, and a howl echoed throughout the Stanley Hotel. The gas lantern on the dresser blew out. The front door of room 217 slammed shut, leaving Sweet Pea alone inside, terrified.
Suddenly Sweet Pea heard a noise. “Is s,s,s somebody there? I’m looking for my brrrr.. brother”
Suddenly an old radio turned on, startling Sweet Pea.
Sweet Pea walked towards the radio and turned it off. She lifted her head and, outside the window, spotted Oh-No in the garden hedge maze.
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The walls of the haunted, paranormal hedge maze sat a towering eight feet tall. The green junipers making it impossible to see through the walls.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Oh-No said as he slowly crept around each turn.
Suddenly, Oh-No spotted the ghost’s tail around a hedge maze corner.
“There you are! I spotted you!” Oh-No said excitedly as he ran around the bush. But the ghost was gone.
“You can run, but you can’t hide.”
Then, suddenly, Oh-No spotted the backside of the ghost. He wasn’t in the maze anymore. He was on the outside of the Stanley Hotel on the second floor. He was headed back to room 217!
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Still outside in the hedge maze, Oh-No quickly poofed back into room 217.
When he arrived, Sweet Pea was so relieved to see him. “Oh, thank heaven,” Sweet Pea sighed at the sight of Oh-No.
Oh-No was distracted and, on a mission, almost like he didn’t even notice his sister.
He looked under the bed.
He looked in the chest.
He looked in the bathroom.
But no ghost.
“Sweet Pea, where did the ghost go? I saw him come back in the room.” Oh-No said confused.
“Oh-No, I think we should g,g,g..go. This place is really sc,sc.. scaring me!”
Suddenly, they both heard a sound from behind them. Slowly, Oh-No and Sweet Pea crept closer and closer to the old, wooden dresser.
Oh-No flung the top drawer open, but no ghost. “Dang!” he said with disappointment.
Above the dresser was a mirror. And suddenly, as Oh-No looked lifted his head and in the mirror, he finally saw the ghost’s face looking back at him.
Th ghost was pale and opaque. Oh-No could see right through him. He was fully in the mirror, except for part of his hand. It was like he lived between two worlds.
The ghost smiled.
“Oh, heavens!” Sweet Pea sighed with relief. “He is a friendly ghost!”
Then, suddenly, Oh-No reached through the mirror and touched the ghost. “Boo! Tag! You’re it!”
