
Alone. Awaiting the arrival of Thisbe, who went to get beer and cigs. Turned on HBO and checked out the bathroom, including behind the shower curtain. Hallways are dark. Very dark. It was actually quite hard to find the room number. Thisbe just came and noticed a smell of diarrhea in the room. “Baby diarrhea. Ghost diarrhea.” 10:30 PM
The door just opened on its own. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, however we were having trouble opening the door earlier because it had just been recently painted. That, and we’re hunting ghosts. Let the games begin! 11 PM
Thisbe takes a Coke from the minibar. The show on the Discovery Channel is about exorcism. Coincidence? You decide. 11:30 PM
Some friends stop by. We contemplate food. Ghost sushi or ghost Italian? 12 AM
We just ventured out into the hallway with a walkie-talkie while one of us stayed in the room. We went to another floor to check things out, and felt some heavy vibes. Turns out the bad energy was just a Eurotrash guy walking from his room to the elevator. Upon returning, Tim, who was alone in the room, reported that the door had opened on its own again. 1 AM
We ventured into the massive ballroom here, which was totally empty with the exception of some hanging lanterns. Some of the lanterns were rapidly swaying while others remained still. It was probably just the air conditioning, but still it was eerie. On the fourth floor hallway there is a definite energy shift and I feel lightheaded every time we go up there. Getting the sad, sinking feeling that nothing wants to reveal itself. Time to bust out Ouija! 2 AM
Ouija was being slow and we got bored. We put a voice-activated recorder in the fourth floor hallway and left it there for an hour. Upon its return, we hear sounds of girls screaming and laughing, as if partying. It may very well be… just that. 2:30 AM
We decide to go to the bathroom and play Bloody Mary. That’s where you turn the lights on and off really fast, turn around, and say “bloody Mary, bloody Mary, bloody Mary.” If you do it just right, you will see a ghost in the mirror. After three attempts, there it was: a ghost looking back at us. A ghost that looked curiously like the big orange blobs you get in your field of vision when lights go on and off a few times rapidly. 3 AM
Made our own Ouija board in a circle on a glass table. Thisbe felt lightheaded halfway through and had to lie down. The words spelled out were “save” and “pay.” Seriously. Obligatory Jewish-ghost jokes are made. One of our walkie-talkies turns on and we hear people talking. Our other walkie-talkie isn’t even on. We listen to the crackly voices closely. Could it be teenage girls trying to contact us from beyond the grave? We listen. It sounds like security guards. It is security guards. They are on the same frequency as us. 4 AM
I fade in and out of sleep while Thisbe and our friend Brant Google furiously to find out more info on Rainbow House, teenage runaways, ghosts, and where to find the best chicken gyro in Center City Philadelphia. 5 AM
My nose starts bleeding. Is it a ghost, or is it allergies? I guess we’ll never know. 6 AM
Not able to fully sleep or fully stay awake, and becoming increasingly unscared, we decide to leave. We do not, I repeat, do not leave because we are “chicken.” As we gather our belongings and venture into the unseasonably cold hallway, the baby diarrhea smell is back. Mysterious. We check out at the front desk and tell the guy we were too freaked out and had to leave, just to see what he’ll say. “What’s up with all the ghosts you have here? I guess you must get a lot of complaints, huh?” “Ghosts?” he says. “No, not really.” Findings: Ghosts are more scared of us then we are of them. That must be why we didn’t see anything. We’ll just have to try again. On Halloween. At midnight. DEB SCOTT & THISBE