Day 2,519

Did I ever tell you about the time I stayed in the wrong hotel and nearly died?

I got the last two letters of the postcode wrong and thought it was the right travel inn, even if the colours looked slightly off and the staff seemed slightly off and the whole place looked like something out of the titanic's lobby rather than a cheapish hotel chain.

Still, I was exhausted and they seemed to find my booking just fine so I took the moist keycard and left. Thinking back on it, everything there was a little damp to the touch and the carpet felt like it was swaying underneath my feet but I assumed it was all in my head and I'd be fine in the morning.

I woke up to the headboard creaking as the ceiling pushed down on it, the floor utterly drenched and the whole room smelling like decaying meat. I barely managed to grab my suitcase and run, completely forgetting about my shoes as I ran down to the lobby - vaguely remembering you don't use elevators in an emergency and a collapsing room seemed like an emergency,

Only when I reached the lobby it was flooding and the staff were just standing there. As I got closer I saw that the water around them didn't look right, their lower legs and feet didn't look right - they looked like they were being held up by a thick stalk and the word "Anglerfish" came to mind.

It all clicked right then and there - they weren't human and the hotel wasn't a building. It was all a lure and I was on the verge of being consumed by a nine storey tall creature that spoke english well enough to make casual conversation. I had to run.

If you've ever tried running on wet sand you'll know what it felt like when I ran the length of the lobby to reach the front doors that seemed to peel out of the way before I could touch them. It knew that I knew it was alive and it clearly didn't want food that fought.

I must have spent the rest of the night wandering around barefoot and drenched, passing out somewhere along the line as I woke up in a nearby park with a concerned stranger and a couple of officers standing over me. I played it off as a drunken night gone too far and let them help me to the airport.

To this day I haven't been able to find that travel inn again - there isn't even a building where it used to be.

I wonder if I scared it off and made it move on to another dark street to trick another tired traveller.

I wonder how long its been doing this for and how many others like it are out there.

I hope I never find out.