In 1971 Chicago, a condemned 14-floor hotel hides a mystery that defies logic. Room 305—sealed shut and forgotten—is not on any blueprint. When a journalist investigates the haunting legacy of the room where a man once burned alive, she uncovers a chilling voice that whispers from the darkness: “It’s almost time. Let me in.” But the deeper she digs, the more reality begins to unravel—and so does the floor beneath her feet.
#nightfallcrypt #scarystories #horrorstories #truestories #urbanlegend #ghoststories #hauntedplaces #chicagohorror #creepytales #shadowwoman
#nightfallcrypt #scarystories #horrorstories #truestories #urbanlegend #ghoststories #hauntedplaces #chicagohorror #creepytales #shadowwoman
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CreativityTranscript
00:00I don't usually write about ghosts.
00:03That kind of thing was for tabloids and late-night radio,
00:06cheap thrills for the lonely.
00:08But in the winter of 1971,
00:11something happened that I've never been able to explain,
00:14let alone forget.
00:17Back then, I was a junior reporter at the Chicago Tribune,
00:21assigned to cover the demolition of the old Monte Vista Hotel downtown.
00:26Fourteen stories of faded grandeur,
00:28once a jewel of the 1920s,
00:31now hollowed out and crumbling.
00:33But there was a problem.
00:35One of the demolition crews reported a sealed room on the 12th floor,
00:39room 305.
00:41They couldn't open it, couldn't break it.
00:44Every night at exactly 3.05am,
00:47they heard knocking from the other side.
00:49Not banging.
00:51Knocking.
00:53As if someone was being polite about their imprisonment.
00:56I should have ignored it.
00:58I should have just filed the piece and gone home.
01:01But I went up there.
01:03I wanted to see for myself.
01:05And I heard her voice.
01:07It's almost time.
01:09Let me in.
01:09I've never told anyone what happened after that.
01:13Until now.
01:17The Monte Vista didn't look like much anymore.
01:20Just a crusted corpse of brick and metal clinging to the memory of jazz and flappers.
01:24My editor had sent me to get a photo and a quote.
01:28Nothing more.
01:29But when I arrived, I noticed the men standing outside weren't the usual gruff, cigarette-hardened types.
01:37They stood in a tight cluster, voices low, eyes often drifting toward the upper floors.
01:43I approached the foreman.
01:45A thick-necked guy named Ruben.
01:48They say there's a room on the 12th floor that won't open.
01:52His face tightened.
01:54We don't go up there after dark.
01:58Something's wrong with that floor.
01:59He didn't elaborate.
02:03The elevator had been deactivated, so I climbed.
02:06Twelve flights in a dusty, narrow stairwell that seemed to throb with every step I took.
02:11Each landing I passed felt colder.
02:14At the 12th, I stopped.
02:16There was no room 305.
02:19Rooms 301, 302, 303.
02:24Then a gap.
02:25Then 307.
02:26I touched the wall between them, expecting cool plaster.
02:31It rang hollow.
02:34There was a door.
02:35An outline, anyway.
02:37Walled over crudely.
02:39Something older than drywall.
02:41Metal, maybe.
02:43I pressed my ear to it.
02:46Nothing.
02:47I waited until nightfall.
02:50The building was supposed to be vacant,
02:52but a janitor let me stay under the pretense of archival interest.
02:55I had my notebook, a camera, and a flashlight.
03:00At 3.04 a.m., I stood outside the wall.
03:05At 3.05, the knocking began.
03:09Three knocks.
03:10Then silence.
03:13Then again.
03:13My flashlight flickered.
03:17The knocks came again.
03:19Methodical.
03:20Deliberate.
03:21And then…
03:23Her voice.
03:25It's almost time.
03:27Let me in.
03:29The voice was soft.
03:31Feminine.
03:33Just barely audible.
03:33It was as if it was being whispered, not in my ears, but inside my mind.
03:40I bolted.
03:42Back at my apartment, I spent the next day pouring through microfilm reels at the Tribune archives.
03:49That's when I found the 1948 article.
03:51Man dies in flame in hotel room, claims shadow woman urged him to act.
04:00His name was Ellis Warren, a traveling salesman.
04:04He had checked into room 305 for what would be his final night.
04:09According to witnesses, he'd been ranting about a woman in his mirror.
04:13Said she watched him.
04:15Spoke to him.
04:16Promised release.
04:17That night, he soaked the room in lighter fluid and set himself ablaze.
04:23I called the hotel's historical records office.
04:27A man named Dr. Fenley confirmed that room 305 had been retired after the fire.
04:33But he hesitated when I asked about the 12th floor.
04:37Miss, he said, the Montevista was built in 1917.
04:42It has 13 floors, not 14.
04:45I hung up.
04:46My hands were shaking.
04:49I returned that evening.
04:51Room 305 was still sealed.
04:54I brought a crowbar, my notebook, and a portable recorder.
04:58I wanted proof.
05:00I wanted to believe that there was a rational explanation.
05:04Faulty blueprints.
05:06Sleep deprivation.
05:07Maybe mold spores.
05:09At 3.05 a.m., the knocking began again.
05:12This time, it didn't stop after 3.
05:17I pressed record on the device.
05:20The voice returned.
05:22It's almost time.
05:24Let me in.
05:24My flashlight dimmed, then died completely.
05:29I fumbled for the crowbar and struck the wall where the door outline was visible.
05:34With a sharp groan of metal, it gave way.
05:37The air that poured out was suffocating.
05:41Thick with heat and something that smelled like old copper and melted wax.
05:47Inside, room 305 was pristine.
05:51No soot.
05:52No burn marks.
05:53No evidence of a fire at all.
05:56A standing mirror leaned against the far wall.
05:59And in it, I swear to God, I didn't see myself.
06:04The woman in the reflection wore my coat.
06:07Held my flashlight.
06:09But her eyes were pitch black.
06:12Her smile was too wide.
06:14And her lips were moving.
06:16She was whispering.
06:19But I couldn't hear the words.
06:22Then the door slammed shut behind me.
06:25I turned.
06:26There was no knob.
06:28I beat against the door.
06:30I screamed.
06:32When I turned back, the mirror was closer.
06:36Not by much, but unmistakably moved.
06:40It was at the foot of the bed now.
06:41I backed into the corner, recorder still rolling, heart pounding in my ears.
06:49That's when she whispered again.
06:52You opened the door.
06:55Now it's your turn.
06:57The mirror rippled like water.
07:00Something moved on the other side.
07:03Slowly.
07:04Like it was dragging itself across a floor that wasn't ours.
07:09And then it emerged.
07:11The figure that stepped through was neither shadow nor flesh, but both.
07:16Shifting in and out of the room like smoke wrapped in skin.
07:20Her eyes locked onto mine.
07:23Not just looking.
07:25Consuming.
07:27A thousand whispered voices seemed to rise from her body, speaking all at once.
07:31I stumbled backward, knocking over the chair, the flashlight rolling in a slow, spinning arc across the floor.
07:39She didn't walk.
07:42She glided.
07:44She moved toward the mirror again.
07:47But this time, she didn't go through it.
07:50She pointed at it.
07:53Watch.
07:54She said.
07:56In the reflection, I saw myself.
07:59But not in that room.
08:00I was back at my apartment, staring into my bathroom mirror.
08:04But something was wrong.
08:07The reflection didn't follow my movements.
08:09It just smiled.
08:11Then, slowly, it raised a hand and touched the glass.
08:16Back in room 305, I was shaking.
08:20The entity turned back to me.
08:21You're the door now, she whispered.
08:26Then, she stepped back into the mirror.
08:29The surface stilled.
08:32I was alone.
08:34Or I thought I was.
08:36A moment later, the mirror began to hum.
08:40Not audibly, but in my bones.
08:44My body ached like every nerve was being plucked by invisible fingers.
08:48I backed toward the corner, hands trembling.
08:53From behind me, another voice.
08:56Male this time.
08:58You shouldn't have opened it.
09:01I turned, but no one was there.
09:04The mirror rippled again.
09:06A new face.
09:07Mine, but older.
09:09And behind her, shapes.
09:12Moving.
09:13Watching.
09:15And then I blacked out.
09:17When I woke.
09:20I was lying in the hotel lobby.
09:23The sun streaming through broken windows.
09:26No one believed me.
09:29The recorder only picked up static.
09:32But that night, at 3.05am, I heard it again.
09:37Three knocks.
09:39Then, it's almost time.
09:41Let me in.
09:41The Monte Vista was demolished six days later.
09:47The report listed it as a 13-story structure.
09:51I checked the blueprints myself.
09:53No 12th floor.
09:54No room 305.
09:56Not even as a storage closet.
09:59But I still have the recorder.
10:00It still plays that voice.
10:03My voice.
10:05Every year on March 5th at 3.05am, it starts playing again, even without batteries.
10:11I don't remember what happened in that room.
10:15But sometimes, in my dreams, I see her watching me from the mirror.
10:20Smiling.
10:21Waiting.
10:22And so, the shadows stretch further, and the mystery only deepens.
10:30But this is far from the end.
10:33It's merely the beginning.
10:35What lingers beyond the door?
10:37Who is whispering your name?
10:40And what is that shifting in the corner of your eye?
10:43The answers await in the next chapter of these chilling tales.
10:47Subscribe to Nightfall Crypt, and hit the notification bell.
10:53Because the crypt's secrets are endless, and the darkness never sleeps.
10:58Until next time, stay in the light, if you can.
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