My wife and I are interested in the paranormal. We never really had “close contact” with spirits or anything like that, but we knew we wanted to. This was why we booked a two-night stay at the Stanley Hotel. We, being avid Stephen King fans, specifically requested Room 217. That’s the room he “found” inspiration to write The Shining.
When we arrived, we were amazed at how grand the hotel looked on the outside. Imagine a four-story tall Colonial house, except as a giant mansion with a red roof. On top of that, the backdrop is the Rocky Mountains. It took our breath away. Now, we went into this expecting not too much. After all, going into things with high expectations usually meant high room for disappointment.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened on our first night there. We went on a ghost tour, explored the hotel, and had a delicious dinner in the lounge. It was our second and last night when things got…hairy.
I woke up around 3 AM to a loud thud. I sat up in my bed wondering what in the heck could’ve made that noise. Then, hearing creaking above me, I assumed it was a guest upstairs suffering from insomnia (or too scared to sleep) walking around in their room. But that couldn’t explain what I experienced next. All of a sudden, I was overcome with a bout of lightheadedness. Then I felt like something had gone terribly wrong. I felt anxious. Terrified, even. I heard what seemed to be electricity crackling in my ear. I swear I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I quickly threw the covers over my head and hid. That was when something whispered my name.
“Teddy?”
I almost pissed myself, but I recognized the voice. It was my wife.
“Teddy,” she whispered. “I had a weird dream.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Someone was bent over the bed, I can’t really remember who, but I remember it was a woman…or something. This thing was whispering something in my ear. Teddy, I can still feel its breath tickling my ear.”
Forgetting about my lightheadedness, I jumped out of bed and ran to the light switch. I must’ve made quite a commotion because as soon as I hit the switch, the creaking ceased and the feeling of dread slowly dissipated from the pit of my stomach.
My wife shook her head when I told her what I had experienced. “That was something,” she said. “I don’t care to ever experience that again.”
“Me neither.”
We ended up staying awake for the rest of the night and watched some late-night shows. This entity, or woman, or whatever it was, kept itself away from us.
When we checked out, I asked the concierge if anyone had stayed above us. She looked it up on her computer and said, “No, it looks like it’s been empty all weekend. Did you want to book that room for another time?” 