Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The dull sound of knocking rang unusually clear in the dead of night.
Eve's breath caught slightly.
At some point, someone had appeared outside the hotel doors.
She glanced instinctively toward it.
Through the frosted glass, a blurred silhouette was faintly visible.
A woman, perhaps.
Long hair.
A slender frame.
Standing quietly outside.
Not knocking again.
Just standing there.
The fog outside was thick.
Under the dim yellow light, the figure looked hazy, almost as if it might dissolve back into the fog at any moment.
A chill crept up Eve's spine.
She suddenly remembered the rule from before.
—Do not open the hotel's front door until a guest's identity has been confirmed.
"...Udon."
She kept her voice low.
"What do I do now?"
Behind the front desk, Udon lay sprawled lazily across the tall stool without even lifting his eyelids.
"Check the registry."
Eve looked down at the guest register on the counter.
A line of black writing had appeared on the page that had been blank only moments ago
[First Guest: Willow (Vera)]
[Status: Eligible for Check-In]
And below that.
A faint line of grey text, so pale it was barely visible.
As if it had surfaced slowly, afterward.
[Do not let her wait outside for more than one minute.]
Eve's breath tightened.
"...What does that mean?"
Udon finally opened its eyes.
Its palm-green gaze drifted lazily toward her.
"Exactly what it says."
Outside—
the woman knocked again.
Knock.
Knock.
This time, the sound was softer than before.
As if she had little strength left.
Eve peered through the glass.
The woman's head was bowed.
Her soaked black hair clung to the side of her face.
Rainwater dripped steadily from the hem of her dress, gathering into a small puddle at her feet.
But strangely, though she was soaked through and her face utterly bloodless and pale, her body wasn't shivering from the cold at all. She simply stood there, perfectly still.
An inexplicable chill settled in Eve's chest.
"...Is she even human?"
Udon licked its paw.
"The Long Night Hotel never guarantees its guests are human."
Eve: "..."
She was starting to understand exactly why Udon kept looking at her like she was an idiot.
Outside, the woman spoke softly.
Her voice, muffled through the door, sounded faint.
"...Excuse me. Can I still check in?"
Eve glanced instinctively at Udon.
Udon's tail gave a lazy swish.
"Name matches."
"The register says she's eligible."
"In theory, she won't die."
Udon paused for two seconds.
"Not tonight, at least."
Eve: "..."
That wasn't reassuring at all.
The woman outside remained where she was.
She didn't urge them to hurry.
She didn't knock again.
She simply stood there with her head lowered.
Meanwhile, the writing on the registry was slowly beginning to fade.
[Time Remaining: 00:31]
Eve's pupils contracted slightly.
"Wait — what is this now?"
"The check-in deadline."
Udon yawned.
"If the time runs out, the hotel will assume she's forfeited her eligibility."
Eve's heart sank without reason.
"What happens if she loses it?"
Udon finally lifted its head.
Its palm green eyes gazed at her, calm and quiet.
A few seconds passed.
Then, unhurried, Udon spoke.
"The things outside will start noticing her."
The lobby fell silent.
A chill suddenly crawled up Eve's back.
She noticed, all at once—
the fog outside had thickened without her realizing.
As if something.
Was slowly drawing closer within it.
On the counter, the handwriting kept fading.
[Time remaining: 00:24]
Eve's fingers curled tight without her noticing.
The woman outside was still standing there.
No urging.
No more knocking.
Just her head lowered.
Her soaked black hair fell across her shoulders, and beneath it, her chin — pale almost to the point of bloodlessness — was faintly visible in the light.
She didn't look like a monster.
If anything, she was almost too beautiful.
But that only made Eve more uneasy, not less.
The fog churned slowly beyond the doors.
As though something
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
were watching from deep within the darkness.
"...What if I don't open the door?" Eve asked quietly.
Udon remained sprawled across the tall stool.
"Then she'll lose her eligibility."
"And then?"
Its tail swayed once.
"Then she won't be considered a guest of the hotel anymore."
Udon's tone was as casual as if it were talking about the weather.
Stops being a guest.
What did that even mean?
Eve didn't want to think about it any further.
Outside.
The woman finally spoke again.
Her voice was very soft.
"...It's cold."
Eve's breath caught.
The woman slowly lifted her head.
The dim yellow light fell across her face.
She was almost unrealistically beautiful.
A soaked black dress clung to her slender figure. Her lips were pale, yet there was an inexplicable touch of color at the corners of her eyes.
She looked like the kind of woman who might appear in a rain-soaked scene from a late-night film.
Fragile.
Dangerous.
Impossible to look away from.
"My name is Vera."
She said it quietly from outside the door.
"...Can I still check in?"
The handwriting on the counter surfaced again.
[First Guest: Willow (Vera)]
[Verifying eligibility...]
A few seconds later.
[Verification complete]
[Eligible to check in]
Eve glanced instinctively at Udon.
"Can I open the door now?"
Udon finally opened his eyes fully.
"If you'd like to let her die out there—"
It added leisurely,
"you can keep hesitating."
Eve: "..."
Eve took a deep breath.
Then she walked toward the hotel doors.
One step at a time.
The closer she came to the entrance,
the more clearly she could feel the cold outside.
Not the ordinary cold of a rainy night.
It was something damp and unnatural,
seeping slowly through the cracks around the door.
Eve stopped in front of it.
The moment her fingers touched the handle.
A strange sensation washed over her.
As if there weren't only Vera standing outside.
In the fog.
Something else seemed to be there too.
Watching.
A chill crept up her spine.
And at that exact moment.
Udon's voice suddenly came from behind her.
"Eve."
"Once the door opens—"
Its palm-green eyes watched her, calm and quiet.
"—don't look into the fog."
Eve's fingers stiffened slightly.
But the countdown on the counter.
Had only seconds left.
[00:05]
[00:04]
She gritted her teeth.
Forcing down the unease rising inside her, Eve twisted the handle.
Click.
The door opened.
Cold, damp wind rushed into the lobby.
Fog, thicker than before, rolled across the ground outside.
Vera slowly raised her head.
Up close—
Eve realized she was even more beautiful than she'd thought.
Skin pale as bone. A soaked black dress. The faintest trace of red at the corners of her eyes.
She looked like someone who has just stepped out of a long, hopeless dream.
But for some reason.
Eve couldn't shake the feeling that something about her was wrong.
Too pale.
Pale in a way no living person should be.
Vera looked at her and spoke softly.
"Thank you."
Her voice was soft.
Vera slowly entered the hotel.
Her heels struck the wooden floor.
Tap.
Tap.
And the instant Vera stepped fully inside—
Bang.
The doors slammed shut behind her on their own.
Silence returned to the hotel.
Then—
the guest registry on the counter suddenly began flipping through its pages.
Rustle, rustle, rustle—
At last, it stopped.
Black writing slowly appeared across the page.
[Room 101 — Checked in]
[Guest: Willow (Vera)]
And after the name.
A small stain of dark reddish-brown slowly bled into view.
Like blood, long since dried.
Eve's pupils contracted.
"...What's that?"
Udon glanced up at it.
Its tone was calm.
"A check-in mark."
"It means she's died once before."
Eve: "...?"
She almost thought she'd misheard it.
But Udon didn't seem to find anything strange about what it'd just said.
"Plenty of guests at the Long Night Hotel have died before."
He licked at his paw.
"Some of them more than once."
Eve felt the cold creeping steadily up her back.
Vera, meanwhile, seemed not to have heard any of their conversation at all.
She stood quietly in the middle of the lobby.
Her soaked black hair fell across her shoulders.
Several seconds passed.
Then—
she suddenly turned her head.
Her gaze fixed on one of the corridors leading deeper into the hotel.
As though she'd seen something there.
Eve followed her gaze.
There was nothing there but dim amber light and an empty wooden corridor.
No one.
But Vera's expression slowly changed.
For the first time, fear appeared on her beautiful, almost aloof face.
As if something.
Were standing at the far end of that corridor.
The next instant.
She spoke, her voice low and trembling faintly.
“…Why are you here?”
The air went still.
Eve's heart dropped.
"Who?"
Vera didn't answer.
She only stared, unblinking, down the corridor.
Her pale fingers curling tighter, little by little.
And behind the counter.
Udon — who had been lazy this entire time
lifted his head, slowly, for the first time.
His palm green pupils narrowed slightly.
His tail stopped moving.
The whole cat had gone unnervingly still.
An inexplicable chill crawled up Eve's back.
She turned instinctively to look down the corridor.
The dim yellow light stretched quietly into the depths.
The old wooden floor gleamed faintly.
Empty.
There was nothing there.
And yet—
for some reason,
Eve suddenly had the strangest feeling.
As though something in the darkness
really was watching them.
Then—
from deep within the corridor,
came the faint sound of a footstep.
Tap.
Eve's breath caught.
Then came another.
Tap.
Slow.
Like someone walking barefoot,
Vera's face turned instantly, deathly pale.
She stumbled half a step backward, almost without meaning to.
"It's not possible..."
Her voice began to shake.
“…Why are you here?”
Eve frowned.
“Who is it?”
But Vera seemed not to hear her at all.
Fear rising steadily in her eyes.
As though she were finally seeing
a nightmare that had been haunting her for a very long time.
Then—
a figure
slowly stepped out of the darkness.
The dim yellow light fell across it.
Eve's pupils contracted sharply.
It was a woman.
A soaked black dress.
Skin pale almost to the point of bloodlessness.
Tangled hair falling across her shoulders.
And that face—
was exactly the same as Vera's.
The air went horribly still.
The real Vera's breathing turned ragged.
She stared at the other "her,"
as though even the blood in her veins had frozen.
And the other Vera.
Stood quietly in the middle of the corridor.
Her wet hair clinging to pale cheeks.
Slowly, she tilted her head.
The movement was almost perfectly synchronized with the real Vera's.
Then—
she smiled.
The corners of her mouth curling upward, slowly.
Like something imitating a human smile.
And somehow, deeply unsettling for it.
"Found you."
Her voice was soft, hoarse.
Almost identical to Vera's own.