Old friends from my hotel childhood.
My name is Christian and I am 24 years of age and currently work at the Comfort Inn & Suites in the city of Long Beach, California. My job is pretty cool and I have been here for three years. I come here everyday with a smile on my face and enjoy the company of our guests. I make sure to have them leave comfortably and satisfied with our services and have a feeling of joy to see them smiling. This place really does feel like home to me. In actually it was my home. I used to live here for five years of my life as a child and perhaps it is the reason why I care so much for this place. It once stood as the International Inn a home of memories for me and at times fear.
You see my family had fallen on hard times and this hotel was the only resort for our savings. My mother has been the manager here since I was 8 years old and we lived here rent free. Me, my two brothers and sister slept with my parents in one room for a year. I have made plenty friends with the children growing up here and their parents, some who also worked here, as well. Life as a child in a hotel was fun but along with all the action/adventures I have taken, I had my unfair share of horror stories.
This hotel has a hidden history and sometimes unregistered guests occupy these rooms. I can count 10 deaths in the time of my stay here as a boy. I knew half of the deceased exclusively and strangely, I still do. The following entries are true reports from the employees of our establishment. The reports also consist of complaints of our guests that sadly are also true.
(Note: I have changed all names in respects to my friends and family. No stories have been altered besides the names of the witnesses.)
First report: Ron still walks around (Room 123)
When I was 11, my friend Jamal's mom Rita passed away in their room and left Jamal, his sister and father alone. Exactly one year and one week later, Ron (Jamal's father) followed his wife. My friend and his little sister went off to live with their elder sibling for that fall. Ron was the house person of the property and he would clean up trash, carry luggage and help fix things in the hotel. He was a tall quiet smoker and kept to himself most of the time. I was only 12 when he passed but I did have some fond memories with him. He was a good man with a good heart. His son Jamal and I are still friends to this day.
During my first days of working here (age 21), our maintenance and housekeepers would report strange occurrences while at work. Someone closing the door in front of them or someone calling the room phones during their service hours and only "wheezing" on the phone. Some even reported being locked out of the room while they were cleaning it.
Apparently in mid-service, Maria walked back into the hallway to grab some fresh towels when the room's door slammed shut right behind her. She inserted her master keycard and the scanner declined it. The scary part was that a voice of a man inside called out to her and said, "Go Away... Come back later" (exact words). Maria was worried that a homeless man had somehow snuck into the room without her knowing and was scared that he would harm her. So she ran down the hallway to get the manager (still my mom).
Of course we have a way to get into locked rooms with our key machine so we engaged. Mom walks up and knocks on the door and the voice said "No!" so then mom triggers the machine and the lock opens. As the door swung out, there was no one in the room! The blinds were shut with the window locked and the smell of cigarettes filled the room. Coincidentally, that very room was the death place of Ron and his wife Rita both heavy smokers.
Room 123 became an unwanted room for the rest of our cleaning crew. Maria's sister Laura was a new hire so then I issued her room 123 on her cleaning list. As trained, she commenced her vacant room service and was finishing the bathroom when a voice called to her. "Go away... Come back later" it said and she crawled out the bathroom to see who was in there with her. To her surprise, a tall, skinny, black, shadowy figure sat at the foot of one of the queen beds there. She yelped an "aye!" and the figure stood up. She ran screaming down the hallway and started a giant scene in the housekeeping room. And cried about what she saw and how frightened she was. She quit at that very moment. My mom tried her best to assure the rest of the crew that all is ok and that maybe she just thought too much into the stories. But her big sister, Maria, did not ever mention any of the stories to her.
Some agents have been reporting uncomfortable feelings of fear at different areas in the hotel. It is a numbing sensation that forces you forward by the back of your head and temples. Our agents have also have experienced forceful whispering and whistles into their ears. I, myself, have experienced the whistle blowing into my ear in our gymnasium. It is also a new attachment in our property. Before it was built, the area was vacant. A sitting area for guests to enjoy a meal or purchase from the vending machines. My only lead to where this random act would originate would be Ron. He often cleaned and watered the plants in that area. He would water twice a day and clean in the afternoon. While he'd clean, he'd take his smoke break before clearing out the ash trays. Perhaps he may be the "whistler" trying a shot at fun with unaware guests.
When the event happened, I was using the suspended weights machine while watching Animal Planet's Orangutang Kingdom on the room's monitor screen. Out of nowhere the whistling sound rang in my ear and I could feel the vibration in my ear drum. I froze and so did the room temperature around me. Staring into my reflection in the large mirrored walls of the room I couldn't help but reassure myself that it is only me here. I could see the bathroom door in the reflection and the motion sensored bathroom light turned on. You could see the room was lit under the bathroom doorway. I slowly got up and grabbed my stuff and paced towards the exit when I turned around and set my line of sight to the bathroom door. I then said goodbye to Ron and and bathroom light then turned off. It caused another wave of chills through me and forced me to leave the room. I tried to explain what happened to Richard, the maintenance man. Richard has had many experiences with the storage rooms so he did not want to hear my story.
Another guest stayed upstairs above 123. She was a nice lady from Virginia. The lady was enjoying her room after a long day at a convention center in town. During her stay, she awoke late in the evening because of a sense of discomfort. As she scanned the room from her bed she noticed a black cloud of a man standing in front of the bathroom door. She rubbed her eyes and the figure then walked towards her. She froze like I did. The next morning (my shift) she passed the front counter to the breakfast room and couldn't resist confronting me about the property's history. Perhaps embarrassed, she kept shy of saying the word "ghost" until I asked her if she saw a tall guy. She sighed in relief and said that she was a medium and said that he was nice. "He just wanted to see what was going on in my room and then left peacefully", she said. I still get reports of him but not as grand. Guests only say they feel someone in the room with them or they would see a shadow person passing through.
The last time I seen Ron was November of 2011.
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