“W-what do you mean Louis’ missing?” I managed to stutter out. “He was just there.” I shook terribly and my head felt light. Not only were we locked in, but Louis was missing. Time was going all wonky and even Zayn’s attitude was out of whack. Not to mention that weird fog on Harry’s camera. Everything was messed up. Nothing was going right. “I-I left him in the room. He wasn’t going anywhere.” I swore up and down that Louis wasn’t getting up and going anywhere. He was ill. He didn’t want to move and leave the hotel before, which we can’t do anymore anyways now. 

“Niall, are you sure he didn’t say anything before you left?” Liam asked, setting his bag down on the ground. Harry was standing next to him, still flipping through pictures. He would get this weird look on his face and then huff in annoyance. 

“I’m sure. I told him I would be right back.” I started to pace around, scuffing some dirt up off the ground. It was like this place had taken a total one-eighty. The once pristine foyer and front desk was now old and dingy. The lights flickered every once in a while too. This definitely wasn’t the same place we had come to the night before. 

“We need to find him.” Zayn spoke, throwing his bag to the floor. “It’s just like Louis to run off.” He grumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking off towards the staircase. I wanted to follow him, but he was in one of those strange moods again. The Zayn I knew was caring and sometimes unsure about things happening around him. This Zayn was determined and was almost angry about something, or rather, everything. So I stood there and watched him walk away, up the stairs and off into the hallway. 

I glanced over at Harry and he was breathing on the lens of his camera. “What are you doing?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at my friend. He wiped the lens with his sleeve and then I realized he was trying to clean it. “Will you just put that thing down for once? We have a big problem here. Louis is sort of missing, Harry.” I grumbled at him and he finally looked up at me. 

“Well that fog is still on my camera and it’s not my lens.” He snapped a photo of me standing by the door and then showed me his camera. “See?” He pointed at the photo. Behind me the door was lighter and blurred slightly. 

“Okay, so you have a defective camera, Harry. Come on. Zayn just ran off without us.” I tugged Harry’s sleeve and then grabbed Liam as we left our bags behind and followed after Zayn. Thankfully we found him in the hallway that our rooms were. He was standing outside of the room Louis went missing from. 

“What are you thinking, Zayn?” Liam asked, standing next to his friend. He popped his head into the room and I heard a small gasp come from Liam. “What the hell is going on here? This place is trashed.” 

Harry and I looked at each other before walking up to the room and looking inside. Just like the foyer, the rooms looked old and worn like no one had kept up with the building for a long time. It was impossible. The room was perfectly fine, a little outdated in decorations, but it wasn’t ravaged like the room in front of us. 

“I’ll go check the other room.” I spoke up, walking over to Harry and I’s room. I peered inside the open door and it was the same as the other room. The painting above Harry’s bed was ripped and the one above mine was slightly askew. Something about it caught my eye. Like I had noticed before, the painting was of a girl with a basket full of something, but when I looked this time the painting was completely different. There was no girl in the painting. Just a basket full of what looked like… “Cell phones…” My heart stopped in my check and my head felt heavy as the room spun around me.

“Niall, you okay in here?” I turned to see Zayn standing in the doorway and then the clouds rolled into my vision. The room spun one last time as did my body as it came to the floor. “Niall!” Then it was black. 

I don’t know how long I was out for, but when I woke up I wasn’t in the room I had passed out in, and I wasn’t with Zayn, or anyone else. I sat up and I was in a hallway, much like the one our rooms were in. It was long and symmetrical, looking like something straight out of The Shining. I shook my head to rid myself of the dizziness I felt and managed to get to my feet. I held the wall for support and began walking. I didn’t know where I was going exactly and I was still disorientated from passing out. 

The painting in Harry and I’s room freaked me out to the point where I got so lightheaded that everything stopped working, including my brain. Why would the painting change to something so strange. Did someone swap it out for another painting to scare us? Was this all some sort of sick joke? 

I looked around the hallway for any cameras, but them must have been hidden or something. They locked us in here, took Louis and now their trying to scare us. Well, whoever it was was doing a damn well job at it. I’ll admit it. I was scared out of my mind and to make things worse, I was alone. 

The thought hit me that it could be Louis who was messing with us because he hadn’t shied away from being the joker back at school. Sure, I didn’t know him personally, but I wouldn’t put it past him. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that it was impossible. There was no way that Louis could do everything and have no one see him. I don’t know. Everything was so messed up. 

The most pressing matter at the time was to find the others. I didn’t recognize the hallway I was in, they all looked the same, and judging by the size of the hotel from the outside, this place went on for a while. “Dammit.” I cursed, biting my bottom lip. “This is ridiculous. How the hell did I even end up here?” That was another thing that worried me. I passed out in my room, which meant that I should’ve woken up in that same room, not on the other side of the hotel. 

“Zayn? Harry? Liam! Oh, hell, Louis?” I called out all of their names, not receiving a single response. I was utterly alone. A creeping feeling made it’s way up my spine and I spun around quickly to see if someone was behind me, but no, it was just an empty hallway. And the paintings that lined the wall scared the crap out of me. 

Some were of older men and families. Another with some children. The weird thing about the paintings was that not a single one matched the other. People wore different types of clothing until I started realizing some of the painted clothing was modern. Normal t-shirts and pants. Printed tees and tennis shoes. They didn’t fit the style of the run down hotel at all. I gulped and kept walking, feeling as though the people in the paintings were staring at me. 

I quickened my pace and shouted once more for the other boys. I rounded a corner and was met with another long hallway. I jumped when I saw someone standing at the end, staring at the wall. I squinted so that I could focus more on who was standing there and sighed with relief when I saw it was Zayn. I added speed to my pace and ran up to him while he just stood there and continued to stare at the wall. “Zayn, thank god.” I breathed, doubling over to catch my breath. I looked back up at him and he was still looking at the wall. Blankly, I might add. “Zayn?”

“N-Niall.” He was barely audible. He lifted a finger and and pointed at the wall, which had a large painting adorned to it. “I-I think I found… Louis…” I followed the direction his shaking finger was pointing and looked up at the painting. It was much like the other ones that filled the place, but this one made my whole body chill to the core.

There was Louis, face blank and body rigid within the painting. And it wasn’t some picture blown up to size of Zayn’s friend. No, it was a full blown, thick brush strokes painting. This wasn’t happening. This made no sense. “Zayn, we need to get out of here.” I urged him, grabbing his hand. He was shaking terribly. I squeezed his hand to let him know that I was there with him, but it did little to ease his trembling. “Come on. We need to get out. We need to find the others and get the hell out of here.” I yanked Zayn away from the large and strange painting of Louis. 

I looked back and I could say that for absolutely sure that the painting had changed, moved, and that Louis was watching us, staring right at us. 

A/N: Well, Happy New Year. I actually got a split second of internet and thought I would post this for you! Please vote and comment! 

Much Love

Jachxx