I used to want to stay in a haunted hotel. Used to.

Every hotel I stay in I secretly hope is haunted and this one seemed promising.
I was in New Mexico on a work trip and my employers were putting me up for a three-night stay in one of the biggest and best hotels in the city. I checked online and saw that the hotel used to be a hospital before it was condemned in the ‘80s and re-opened as a hotel in the 2000s. That was a great sign for its haunting potential.
It’s not necessarily that I want to see a ghost or whatever. I’m not even sure I believe in the paranormal but I’ve always been open to experiencing a ghoul or two. Not only that but “haunted†is usually shorthand for “really cool building with lots of history.â€
When I arrived on a comfortable, arid night, I could see that the hotel was certainly cool and wore its history proudly. The hulking copper and tan structure dominated the block it rested on. It looked like the building had willed itself into existence out of a sand dune and a whole city sprung up in the desert around it.
I approached the stairs leading up to the front door and discovered something that was disturbingly on brand for a place that was once a former hospital. There was a discarded IV needle laying carelessly on the sidewalk in front the building. I highly doubted it was a relic from the ancient hospital days and more likely a junkie who decided to escape from a local hospital…though I don’t know where the nearest (operational) hospital was. Naturally, I snapped a pic.
https://i.imgur.com/8VaiQqi.jpg
I checked in at the front desk and was ushered up to my room on the fourth floor, delighting in the fanciness of having an old-fashioned bellboy escort. The room was smaller than I expected but quite lovely. There was a bed, naturally, a little side table, some nice pueblo style art, and an ornate mirror on the wall opposite the bed.
I wouldn’t have guessed that this used to be a patient room in a hospital but given the hotel’s history, it must have been. It was certainly the right size. Plus, the “do not disturb†tag on the doorknob said “QUARANTINE: Do Not Disturb.†It was fun - the little ways in which the hotel embraced its weird, possibly spooky history.
Despite how bad I wanted to explore the little city block around me, I had arrived quite late and knew I should probably just get to sleep. I had two big works days in front of me. I cranked up the AC until the room was my comfortable level of freezing, climbed into the enormous bed and quickly fell asleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up feeling very weird. At first it took me awhile to figure out I was even awake. I blinked my eyes rapidly but couldn’t seem to get the thin film of gooey sleep off of them. Finally I could see just enough to make out the clock. It was 3:03 local time. I was disoriented cognitively but positively miserable physically. My whole body ached, I was freezing, and I could feel that my lymph nodes had swollen.
Everybody has the telltale symptom that they are capital “S†sick. Mine have always been my lymph nodes. If they’re swollen enough that I can feel them, then I know I’m ****ed. Some virus has compromised my immune system and I need to take action.
I didn’t have a thermometer on hand but just knew I had a fever too. Damn it. This was bad. This was a legitimate sickness and I had no idea how I was going to get through my work obligations tomorrow. Though the idea of moving at all seemed like the worst thing in the world to me, I rolled out of bed and pried open my suitcase where I had a handful of aspirin contained in a ziplock bag. I popped three in my mouth, adjusted the temperature in the room to be warmer and got back in bed.
It seemed impossible that I would ever get back to sleep. I felt so miserable. Somehow, however, I was asleep again within an hour or so.
When I woke up the next day, I was delighted to discover that I felt perfectly normal. Not just normal, but great! Nothing feels as good as normal does after a sudden sickness. I assumed that the aspirin must have really kicked some ass. I know they’re only supposed to address pain but it felt like they had thoroughly defeated whatever was inside me.
Following a hotel breakfast of mostly pastries, I took a shuttle out to complete all my work meetings and activities for the day. I felt fine for the duration of my meetings and conferences. When the evening rolled around I even got to explore the city like I had wanted to.
After partaking in some nightlife, I arrived back to the hotel around midnight and got into bed. I screwed around on my phone for about a half hour and then began the process of getting to sleep.
I woke up to myself dying. Or at least it felt like I was dying. Once again I could barely see and even after multiple blinks my eyesight was blurry. I was frozen solid. And also on fire. Sweat accrued on my forehead to the point where it began to drip into my eyes, which only improved my vision. My lymph nodes were golf balls shoved haphazardly into the top of my throat. If my temperature last night was 100 degrees, this must have been 102 or 103 at least.
I had no idea what to do. Aspirin was apparently a miracle drug but how on Earth would I muster the strength to get off the bed and retrieve it? With great concentration and concerted strength, I fell from my side onto my back to be in a better moving position. When I was on my back, however, I noticed something in the mirror at the foot of my bed.
There was a person in the room with me. A red-haired woman wearing white, standing next to my bed. I could barely make her out through the haze of the fever and my blurred vision but I was sure she was there. She seemed…faint and intangible. I couldn’t move any further. I was paralyzed, whether through my shock and fear or sheer sickness, I don’t know. I couldn’t move my head to the right or the left to even see if there was indeed another human being in the room, I could only observe everything through the mirror at the foot of my bed.
In that mirror, I watched as the white-clad figure drew closer to me, bent down and maneuvered a small object towards my right arm. It wasn’t until I felt the sting that I realized it was a needle. Warmth coursed from my arm through the rest of my body and I passed out.
I woke up gasping the next morning like OD’ing heroin users do in the movies. I was shivering, but not because it was cold. I could tell right away that I was no longer sick yet again. Did I just experience a fever dream? But why did I have a fever in the first place…and was I really dreaming? Something was clearly horribly wrong here.
I was due back on the shuttle and off to another round of working meetings in a couple of hours. Working today felt insurmountable but I still had to do it, there was just something else I needed to do first. After another round of breakfast pastries, I approached the front desk of the hotel and politely asked for another room. I told them that I knew this was a hassle but I really felt like I must be allergic to something in my current room or something. I explained my feverish episodes the two nights prior but naturally downplayed some of the details so I didn’t come across as a lunatic. They said they’d see what they could do.
The day’s round of meetings and presentation was miserable. All I could think about was whether the hotel would be able to find me another room. If they couldn’t, would I have to find another hotel? That seemed like such an expensive hassle over something that had to have some kind of logical explanation.
When my work day was over, I booked it back to the hotel and straight to the front desk. Good news! They had found me another room on the first floor near the back of the building. It seemed as though this room was much more exclusive and pricey, so they must have been startled by my talk of allergens and sickness.
The new room was lovely. There was a mahogany bookcase by the wall and to my delight: no mirror at the foot of the bed or anywhere else for that matter. Perhaps this was some sort of office or maybe even doctors quarters in the old hospital. Whatever it’s original purpose, the room felt like a refuge now so I declined any opportunities to hit the town once more and spent the evening getting some work done and replying to emails.
As midnight rolled around, I was hesitant to even go back to sleep at all. This was the last night of my stay and just pulling an all-nighter sounded appealing. Exhaustion overcame me though and I realized I would need to get at least a few hours of sleep. Around 1 a.m. I created a little oasis of water, aspirin, and my phone on the nightstand next to me, just in case I needed any of them during an overnight emergency. I settled into the cold bed and quickly fell asleep.
When I woke up an hour later my whole body burned. It felt as though my heart was pumping thick molten lava throughout my body instead of life. This time I could open my eyes fully and take in my surroundings. I knew I had a fever again but it was the least of my concern. I had reached a level of sickness previously unknown to me. My mouth was so dry which seemed impossible because I was covered in sweat. Each breath was agony but I took deep gasping breaths anyway because I was afraid any one would be my last. I was terrified.
With all my strength I sat up in bed and reached out to grab my phone to call 9-1-1. As I grabbed the phone, an impossibly pale, impossibly white hand placed itself on top of mine and with little effort forced my hand and the phone back down. I mustered the last of my strength to look up and see who the hand belonged to. A woman’s face looked down upon me. Her faced appeared to be covered in a thick pale layer of makeup base. It made it seem as though her features glowed in the dark...or maybe they just did. Her hair was bright red and she had dark circles under her eyes. She smiled, removed her hand from mine and then gently covered my nose and mouth. She smelled like nothing. I gasped for air, didn’t get enough, and passed out.
The next thing I remember is a burst of light and sound. Machines beeping. People yelling. I could breathe now but barely. This was a dream. Another dream. They’ve all just been dreams. Please tell me they’ve just been dreams. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.
“Wake up,†I muttered aloud groggily.
The action slowed and my eyes started to make sense of the shapes around me. There were three men in the room with me. Two wearing white coats, one wearing scrubs. Doctors.
“Buddy, you’re awake. God knows how,†one of the doctors said.
I took in some more of my surroundings as best I could. I was unmistakably in a hospital. I was laying in a gurney and there were lime green vinyl dividers on my left and right. Next to me was a cart with some medical equipment on it, perhaps a heart monitor but there wasn’t the little line heads up display that you see on TV. On the cart was what seemed like dozens of spent gloves and opened packages for needles, stents, or whatever else they do to you in a hospital. I looked down to see a limp blanket covering my body and a tube protruding past a bandage on my left hand.
A doctor with a heavy, carefully maintained beard approached me, sat on a little chair next to my bed and placed his hands on either side of my neck, feeling my lymph nodes.
“Did you bring anyone with you to the hospital today, Mr…†he asked.
“I…didn’t. I don’t know how I got here. Am I sick? Am I better now?†I stammered.
The doctor closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and nodded.
“Is there anyone who would want to hurt you?†he asked.
“No,†I said. “I don’t think so.â€
“Do you or anyone you know have access to thallium chloride?â€
“I….no.â€
“Do you know what thallium chloride is?â€
“No.
The doctor stood up and crossed his arms, his eyes darting back and forth as though examining me, searching for a lie.
“Excuse me one moment,†he said.
With a jerk of his head, the doctor motioned his two colleagues out of my little cubicle, and closed a curtain behind him. Beyond the curtain I heard the men talking in hushed voices. I could only make out the phrase “It’s her. I’m telling you. It’s her.†After a couple of minutes, the lead, bearded doctor emerged back through the sheet.
“I need you to listen to me. Can you do that?â€
“Yes,†I said.
“You were very sick. Very sick. In fact, if you were here one more night without our care I think you might not have made it. But you’re stable now. You’re going to be OK. Do you understand?â€
“Yes.â€
“Good. Now I need you to leave.â€
“What?†I gasped. The doctor closed his eyes and held up his hand to quiet me.
“No matter what we do, you’re not going to be safe here. You’re OK now but to stay OK you have to leave. Do you have someone who can pick you up?â€
“No. I’m…I’m not from here,†I said.
“Can you get a taxi?â€
“I can get an Uber.â€
“A what?â€
“A Lyft.â€
“Yes. Get a lift,†the doctor said. “I’m going to leave you here now. I need you to count to 100 and after you do that I need you to walk out the front door and leave. Can you do that?â€
“Yes,†I said. I was so disoriented and scared that I was willing to comply with such a strange request. Plus, the man wasn’t lying. I really did feel OK.
Without another word the doctor retreated back behind the curtain and I counted to 100. As I crawled out of my gurney I noticed for the first time that I was fully dressed in my usual clothes - jeans, button-up, even socks and shoes. Seems weird that they’d dress me before a hospital stay. I exited my space, expecting to see the signs of a bustling hospital all around me but I appeared to be the only one on this ward now. The lights were even turned off.
I walked out of the room and down the hall in a daze. I was moving fast towards an exit that I somehow knew exactly where to find. I encountered nobody else on my way. I found the set of double doors leading to the outside world and pushed through them to enter into the blistering New Mexico morning.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket to order the Lyft. As I did I was aware again of the tube protruding from the adhesive on the back of my hand. It was now connected to nothing. Had it always been? Ignoring that for a moment in my disorientation I opened the app to get my ride. As I prepared to type in the address of the hotel I saw on the map that a little blue dot was hovering right above the hotel I had spent two and a half tortured nights in.
When I turned around towards the doors of the hospital I discovered that they were the doors of the hotel. Looking inside the small window pane on one of the doors, I could see the hotel lobby. A bellboy carried some bags toward the elevator.
I gingerly pulled the needle out of my hand and because I couldn’t think of anything else to do: dropped it on the sidewalk in front of me.


Source.