I Will Never Go to Another Hotel Ever Again

My friend Jack and I booked a hotel room in the northern part of Toronto, Canada. We were staying there for a week, as we both had a week off of work and we decided to vacation somewhere. We arrived to the hotel and started bringing our luggage to the counter. I was given the key to our room, and when we arrived there we started unpacking our things.

Everything went well for the first 2 days. The breakfast they served was good, and the service wasn’t disappointing either.

But the third day, everything changed.

I was walking back to my room late at night carrying a bag of Nintendo Switch games I brought from Best Buy. On the way there I saw a strange man painting the wall near my room. He was old, with greasy hair. He was wearing a strange black T-Shirt and jeans. He used paint that had such a putrid smell, and he had a radio on the floor that was playing “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5. Right next to it was a Game Gear.

He looked at me, and gave me what I can describe as a horrifying smile. It’s a smile that would be given to someone right before they’re raped. It was a smile that sent me dashing to my room promptly and locking the door faster than I could breathe. Jack was sitting on his bed, watching TV.

“Luke, what happened...” said Jack nervously.

I dropped the games I brought and explained the strange man who gave me the hideous smile. Jack laughed it off as me being paranoid. He thinks I was overreacting about a man just giving me a kind smile. I would laugh it off too, but I have the weird feeling that humans don’t normally smile like that...

We both heard an ear screeching scream that made Jack jump out of the bed in fear. He understood now, that this wasn’t a joke.

There was a knock on the door immediately after. I decided to ignore it, but whoever was knocking later gentler said “open up.” I was a bit startled, but I chose to ignore it again. There weren’t any more knocks.

I reported what happened last night to the person at the front counter. Jack was next to me as I told him about the incident. He said that couldn’t be possible, because there were no paint jobs scheduled on that floor. We both agreed to change our room. I immediately called 911 once we got to our new room.

The police came later that day to our room to ask us questions. When I described the man in detail, one of the officers stopped and had a look of unease and fear on his face, as if he knew something I didn’t. He started explaining things to me that made the situation all the more creepy.

20 years ago in this same building, a painter was allegedly kidnapped late at night. Everyone on the floor heard a loud scream, but when a few hotel employees went to check it out, they couldn’t find him. That painter was known to have a creepy smile, and when he was last seen, he was painting that exact wall. He wore the same jeans and black t-shirt, and he was listening to “I Want You Back” and had a Game Gear as well....

The painter was never seen again. The police at the time assumed it was a kidnapping considering what was investigated at the last spot the painter was seen in.

I was confused as hell. Why was the man I saw so similar—no, EXACTLY like the painter who was allegedly kidnapped? What paranormal activity was going on in this hotel? But there was one question I really needed answers for:

What was the knock at the door yesterday?