Peek-a-boo:

Hi guys! This is actually my halloween nano...well, longer than a nano. I finished this on halloween, but I didn't get a chance to upload it. Enjoy!

Prologue:

Eighteen years ago…

“Dr. Carter,” called the nurse. “Are you almost ready?”

Across the room, Dr. Carter was putting on his mask and scrubbing his hands. After finishing, a nearby nurse helped him put on his blue “suit”. She quickly tied the string with a flourish; clearly, she had much experience with this, being Dr. Carter’s assistant for five years.

“Ready,” Dr. Carter announced.

The operation room was a packed; twenty other nurses bustled around, arranging and putting tools by the operating table.

Dr. Carter was beside the operating table in three strides. Reaching on a nearby table, he grabbed on some gloves and put them on with a snap.

Let’s get it over with then, thought Dr. Carter.

Of course, Dr. Carter loved his job and saving peoples’ lives, but lately…his mind was just…off. Sometimes he couldn’t think straight, and the more he would strain himself, the more frustrated he got.

The doors leading to the operating room opened, and the nurse wheeled in the patient. Quickly, Dr. Carter glimpsed over at the patient. He was young, in his teens. A few strands of black hair got in his face, and he looked quite peaceful sleeping.

Walking over just as some nurses put the patient on the operating table, Dr. Carter sighed and drummed his fingers lightly on the metal table.

Reaching up, he turned on the light that would help him see in the dim room. In his hands, a nurse put his operating tools.

“Let’s begin,” announced Dr. Carter as he made the first incision.

Two years ago…

The Cornell hotel, located a few miles south of Chicago, is one of the nicest hotels in the city. Fifteen stories and three hundred rooms, it was clean and comfortable. Every year it received high ratings. Five stars usually.

The manager for almost ten years, Erich Salazar was at his desk in his office, thinking about the hotel. He hadn’t hosted a huge event in so long—almost three years. He needed to get a big—huge—event that would invite people from all over the country to his beloved hotel.

A pet convention? No, too messy.

Dentist convention? No—he had been afraid of dentists since he was a little boy.

It had to be a convention of some sorts, he realized. A convention would bring people to his hotel, and in return, hopefully, they would tell their friends, and they would in return come to his hotel.

Aha! What about…a doctor’s convention?

I could invite many of the best doctors in the country, he thought to himself, and immediately began planning.

Two weeks later, sitting in his office again with a sheet in front of him, he began to make the right calls to one hundred of the best doctors in the country.

Chapter 1.

Why am I here?

Those words continuously repeated themselves in Kadyn’s head. There he was, standing next to his father while he greeted his colleagues—handshakes and friendly smiles.

Kadyn Carter, son of one of the top doctors in the country. Being so…famous—if such a word could describe that—had it’s up and it’s downs. Perks: Large house, people recognizing you on the street, feeling…special, almost. Cons: People always comparing you to your father, saying that you should follow in his footsteps. But what if you didn’t want to follow your father and become a doctor? What if you wanted to become a newspaper writer and then settle down in a small but comfortable house in the country? Being dragged to the many conventions that his dad received invitations to didn’t help. The people there were always saying things like, “Oh, he’ll be just as successful as a doctor,” or “You must be so proud to have Kadyn follow you into the medical field.” No one ever asked him that’s what he wanted to do. The many people just assumed that he would be a doctor that was at least successful as his dad.

“Kadyn.” His father’s voice was always deep and serious. Kadyn always associated his dad’s voice with his job: serious, no humor involved. Kadyn’s dad, Scott Carter, was that kind of guy. Never really talked to Kadyn, unless it had to do with his future as a doctor, which always ended up with the two arguing. Kadyn always knew that he wasn’t his father’s favorite child. No, that was his sister, Julia.

Julia was the child that his dad actually talked to, looked at, and showed the occasional smile and laugh to. Julia was actually interested in her father’s career. She often bragged about him—“My dad is Scott Carter”—and when she was a little girl, Kadyn would often find her sitting on the floor next to her father, asking him with wide eyes about what he did in the hospital today.

Julia would have followed her father, become a doctor, and Kadyn would have been left alone, if not for the fact that she died a year and a half ago.

Julia was born with a weak heart. Scott, since favoring her, would often fret about her, and sometimes stay in his office for extra hours researching what he could do. As one of the top doctors, he felt that he had to know how to help Julia.

Finally, when Kadyn was seventeen and Julia fifteen, there came an answer. A doctor somewhere in the east coast knew of an answer. He and Scott talked for hours, which dragged into days, which dragged into weeks. The doctor convinced Scott that he would perform an operation that would help Julia. Even Kadyn to this day didn’t know what the operation that was supposed to help Julia was about.

What he did know, however, was that the operation that was supposed to help her killed her instead. Whether that was the doctor’s fault, or an accident, no one will ever know. On the operating table, once the operating was done, Julia was found dead.

Kadyn remembered what had happened to his father after losing Julia. His father spent more and more time at his office, and Kadyn remembered not seeing him for days. When he did see him, there was this dead look in his eyes. If Kadyn looked closer, he could have sworn that there was panic in his expression as well.

“This is Dr. Langford,” said his father. Kadyn reached out his right hand and Dr. Langford grasped it.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kadyn,” he greeted. I hope you can be as successful as your father in the future. Kadyn could almost predict his next words.

“Your father is lucky to have you. Someone who can follow him in his footsteps.”

Close enough, thought Kadyn.

Scott and Dr. Langford then started talking about their different fields, and Kadyn was ignored.

Around the time that Julia died—give or take a few days—Scott received a phone call from an Erich Salazar, who was hosting a doctor’s convention, and invited Scott to come. Scott agreed, and Kadyn reluctantly followed, only after being yelled at about his future as a doctor.

And now he was here, at the Cornell hotel, with his father and around one hundred other doctors. They were supposed to spend one night there, and leave the next morning.

In the three hours since Kadyn and his father arrived, Kadyn was introduced close to half of the guests—doctors who thought that Kadyn should become a doctor just like his father. He heard the same thing every time.

“Kadyn,” came a voice.

Kadyn jerked up his head to look for the source of the voice. He spotted every doctor in the lobby exchanging words between each other. The only person who wasn’t was a man over at the front desk.

The man made a motion that indicated that he wanted Kadyn to come over. Looking to his left, Kadyn saw that his father was still engrossed in a conversation with Dr. Langford. Kadyn walked over to the man by the desk.

“Hello, Kadyn,” the man greeted once Kadyn reached the desk.

“Hello,” murmured Kadyn softly. He didn’t know who this man was or what he wanted with Kadyn.

“My name is Erich Salazar,” he said, putting forth his hand. Kadyn took it and shook his hand. While doing so, Kadyn realized that his name sounded familiar; perhaps his father knew him, although he didn’t look like a doctor.

“I’m the owner of this hotel,” he continued, and Kadyn realized where he had heard his name before. He was the man who had hosted this whole event. However, Kadyn didn’t associate Erich to be the manager of the hotel. He had assumed that the owner would be in his mid-forties, mustache, with light specks of gray and white in his hair. Erich Salazar looked just the opposite. With his long, black hair, and easy-going smile, he looked quite young. His face looked somewhat similar to a college student’s.

“Nice to meet you,” said Kadyn, trying to polite, while at the same time, discretely studying Erich.

Erich nodded, and then waved his hand in a circle. “Do you like the convention?” he asked. “I bet you’re the youngest one here.”

Kadyn nodded, but didn’t say anything. He was well aware that he was the youngest one here, and he didn’t need Erich pointing that out to him.

“So,” he stated, and looked at Kadyn in the eye. “Tell me about your dad.”

“He’s a doctor,” Kadyn said hesitantly; he was a little suspicious that Erich had jumped to that subject so quickly.

Erich laughed a hearty laugh, one that Kadyn associated with much younger people. “I know that—what else?”

Kadyn stared at the hotel manager.

Erich didn’t notice the odd behavior in Kadyn and continued speaking.

“Are you going to be a doctor when you grow up, too?”

Kadyn’s face fell, and bitterly thought, another one…

“If you don’t want to be a doctor, then you don’t have to,” said Erich, seeing Kadyn’s face.

Kadyn was silent.

“I heard of your father from hundreds of different articles,” Erich continued. “When I would see an article, I would always go, ‘Oh, there’s Scott again.’”

Kadyn stared at the man. He just seemed to be going on and on, not realizing that Kadyn wasn’t even commenting or talking.

“I knew Scott personally from around eighteen years ago,” Erich went on, oblivious to the fact that Kadyn obviously wanted to leave.

“He was a good man,” said Erich, and Kadyn suddenly noticed that his tone grew somber, depressed, almost outraged, “even though he made very bad choices.”

Kadyn looked up. “What do you mean?”

Erich paid him no attention. “Ah, yes, he did, didn’t he?” It was almost like he was talking to himself, as if Kadyn were invisible.

“He was too arrogant, too proud of himself…” Erich mused.

“What?”
“And he should…get…what he—”

Erich didn’t get to finish his sentence, however.

At that moment, the lights overhear flickered five times before the lobby was blanketed with blackness. In the middle of the room, a scream cried out before the lights flickered back on again.

Chapter 2.

The whole event happened so quickly, that when Kadyn blinked twice, the lights were back on. Kadyn turned his head to look at where the scream came from.

“Oh, my,” came the voice of Erich.

Kadyn looked back at Erich and found that his face was pale. “What’s wrong?” asked Kadyn, afraid that Erich would collapse.

Erich stood still, and Kadyn followed his gaze to the middle of the room. When Kadyn saw what had happened, he staggered a bit backwards.

In the middle of the room, lying face down, was a woman. Kadyn faintly recognized her when Scott introduced him to her in the beginning. Nearby, there was a little pool of her blood slowly getting bigger.

Erich swayed, and then fell against Kadyn’s feet in a dead faint. Kadyn sighed, dragged Erich to a nearby couch—he wasn’t that heavy—and then cautiously walked over to the woman. People were already gathering at her side, people checking her pulse and some even took out their medical things.

Kadyn gasped, wondering how the event had happened. One minute Erich was talking to him, and the next, the lights flickered and went out. And when they turned on after a second, a woman was lying in her own blood.

Then another scream rang out, and Kadyn frantically wondered if another person had been murdered.

Instead, everyone’s attention turned to the wall, where a message awaited who ever read it:

Peek-a-boo,

I see you.

…

One person here, is the one I seek tonight,

The others here I don’t care about,

It is only the person that put me in my burial site.

…

I have come tonight for my revenge,

For my death I want to avenge,

All will be trapped in here,

Until the room is filled with blood and fear.

The room was suddenly still and quiet; you could almost hear a pin drop, like the saying went.

The message was in red chalk, and seeing it written on the pure white walls made it seem like it was blood. Around the room, the different doctors gasped and reread the message to make sure they read correctly. They did.

Kadyn looked over at Erich, who was still unconscious on the couch.

One doctor approached—from closer inspection, Kadyn recognized him as Dr. Langford—and gently flipped the dead woman on the floor to her back. As Dr. Langford flipped her to her back, Kadyn saw that a sheet of white paper had been taped to her shirt. It only contained one letter: S

Kadyn saw that in the back, one younger doctor was slowly inching toward the door. He looked both ways to see if there was anyone watching him, and when he saw that everyone—besides Kadyn—was occupied with the dead woman, he walked forward.

He climbed the stairs quickly and smoothly, and then reached the door. The door was the kind that went around in a circle. He stepped inside and pushed forward.

Then the lights flickered five times and went out.

A minute later it came back on.

The man that had tried to leave was now lying on his back, unmoving. However, there wasn’t any blood this time. Five doctors rushed to his side, repeating the same procedure they had done with the woman. Two minutes later, one doctor stepped back and announced to the crowd, “He’s dead. Looks like he hit his head pretty badly, and somehow it was enough to kill him. I don’t think that he bumped his head into the door; I think something hard hit him.”

“L-look,” stuttered Dr. Langford. He pointed to the window near the door, and everyone’s gaze followed his finger. On the window, there was a bit of fog.

There was also a message written on the window, made visible with the fog.

Uh-uh-uh…

There will be no escaping…

At least, not until I fulfill my revenge.

A hint?

Five people will die, and in return,

The letters attached will spell out the person whom I seek.

Murmurs broke out, wondering what this meant. Was there really someone that the person who killed the other doctors wanted? This was too weird, realized Kadyn. No way could this be real. This had to be a practical joke.

Dr. Langford cleared his throat, and that drew Kadyn’s attention. Kadyn walked slowly toward him.

“Here,” he muttered, and shoved a rumpled piece of paper into Kadyn’s hands. It only showed one letter, like the previous one: C

“What could this mean?” shouted many people.

They were scared, Kadyn realized. What had seemed like a simple doctor’s convention was turned into a hostage convention, and the murderer was seeking someone in this room.

Chapter 3.

The letters S and C were their only hints. The person, whom Kadyn called “Peek-a-boo”, was looking for someone.

Suddenly, Kadyn realized something.

Someone who put me in my burial site.

Peek-a-boo had written that on the wall. Did that mean that Peek-a-boo was searching for his…murderer?

Could Peek-a-boo already be…dead?

No. Kadyn shook his head vehemently. This was the stuff from horror movies; it couldn’t be happening in real life.

“S and C,” said someone in the room. “His name starts with an S and C. SC—what?”

“It has to be five letters,” said someone else. “He said that five will die and in return we will have his victim’s name.

“But who?” someone else whispered frantically.

Kadyn sighed, and decided to go back to see how Erich was. Truthfully, Kadyn was scared out of his wits; he couldn’t understand why—and how—some of the others could stay so calm. He guessed that those whose names didn’t start with an S were safe and calm.

Kadyn walked back over to the couch, but on the way, he noticed something.

Out of his right eye, he noticed that his father was standing near the far wall, staring off into space. Kadyn immediately recognized the look on his face from the look he wore right after Julia had been killed. Except that this time, the fear was greater than the look of despair.

Kadyn turned a right and walked toward his father. When he approached, his father didn’t even flinch.

“Dad?” asked Kadyn cautiously.

His dad didn’t say anything back.

“Dad?” repeated Kadyn.

Still, no answer.

“Scott!”

This time, Kadyn’s father blinked, and then the glazed look in his eyes were gone. He blinked once more, as if just realizing that Kadyn was standing in front of him.

Kadyn’s father may have looked at him, but still he didn’t respond.

“Dad, snap out of it!” Kadyn took his father by the shoulders and started shaking him, not too hard and not too gentle.

“Julia…”

“No, it’s Kadyn, Dad.”

“Julia…”

“Kadyn,” repeated Kadyn. “Julia is dead.”

“No!” Kadyn’s father yelled. Although it was loud, barely anyone else paid him any attention.

“He killed my daughter…”

Kadyn wondered who he was talking about. Was he talking about the doctor who performed the operation?

“He killed her….”

“Dad?” asked Kadyn nervously. His father was never one to admit things to people; things like his beloved daughter had died. No, he just kept them bottled inside.

“He came to punish me…”

“Why did he punish you, Dad?”

“Punish…”

And then Kadyn’s father’s eyes were glazed and full of fear once more.

Kadyn sighed, frustrated and scared. He had never seen his dad like this before—all vulnerable and scared. Julia died around a year ago—why was he suddenly bringing it up?

Kadyn looked over at his father again, and saw that he would not move for a while. He went over to Erich and wanted to check on him.

He went over to the couch where Erich was lying down, but found it empty. Did he already wake up? Wondered Kadyn. He looked around the room for Erich, but couldn’t find him.

Weird.

A hand suddenly touched Kadyn’s shoulder. Kadyn jumped, and would have screamed if he had not seen who was there.

His father.

His father looked worse than a minute ago, Kadyn realized. His eyes were more glazed over, and he was trembling slightly.

“Dad? Are you alright?”

“Eighteen years ago…he came in, ready for me to operate on him…”

“Dad?”

His dad didn’t pay him any attention. He just stood there, eyes glossed over, and shaking.

“I…didn’t feel right that day….” he continued.

“Dad?”

“I operated…on him…but it all went wrong.”

Kadyn stared at his dad. How could something go wrong? From when he was little, others and his dad all told him that his dad didn’t make mistakes; it was if he were perfect.

“I killed him…” Scott mused.

As he spoke those words, everything fell into place for Kadyn.

Peek-a-boo was looking for his father. SCott.

“He came to me the day…Julia died….I saw him…”

His father, Scott Carter, killed a patient.

“I saw him in my office, and he said to me, ‘This is only part of the revenge I have planned for you. You will live, knowing that your precious daughter has been killed. Some doctor operated on her, and made a mistake, so she is dead.’”

Kadyn took a deep breath. Julia…his dad loved her; in his eyes, she was his perfect child. She was ready to grow up and become a successful doctor, and was actually interested in her father’s job. Did that mean Peek-a-boo killed Julia? To cause pain for the doctor that killed him? But that didn’t make any sense…

“And now he’s come for me…”

Chapter 4.

“He’s come to kill you?”

“His name was Erik, except he spelled it with a K at the end. His last name was

Razalas. Erich…Salazar. Salazar is Razalas spelled backwards,” he muttered.

Erich Salazar was Erik Razalas? The patient that his dad killed?

“But you killed him!”

His dad shrugged. “I guess I did, didn’t I?”

“Dad!”

“And after that, I’ve lived my life keeping a dark secret. I never told anyone; he didn’t have any family, so I didn’t get sued. I thought it was over—I lived seventeen years after that date, when Julia was killed.

“Erik came to me with a weak heart, too. He was born with the same condition as Julia. When Julia was born, I was faintly reminded of Erik. When Julia was killed in an operation, the bomb inside me exploded. It just seemed too weird that Julia and Erik had the same condition, and were killed in almost the same way, too.

“I thought I saw Erik’s ghost that night after Julia died,” Scott continued in a monotone. “He came to me, and I somehow got the impression that he made it that Julia died the same way that he did: on the operating table. Ironically enough, the doctor that I spoke to was named Erick. Weird, huh?”

He’s delusional, Kadyn realized.

“Come on, Dad,” announced Kadyn. “Let’s go talk in another room.”

He looked around and saw that some doctors settled down, and most of them thought that it was just one, horrible joke. However, as Kadyn noticed, not one doctor dared to go to the door. No one would realize it if Kadyn and his father disappeared.

Kadyn put his father’s arm around his shoulder, and led Scott down the hallway, toward an open hotel room.

When they reached the room, Kadyn sat his father on the bed, and closed the door.

“Now, tell me everything,” said Kadyn.

“I did tell you everything…” muttered Scott.

“Do you really believe that Erik is coming to kill you?” demanded Kadyn. Frankly, Kadyn just thought that his father was delusional. “Because if Erik is dead…”

“I did kill him…but he’s out to get me…for revenge.”

“That’s not possible, Dad.” Kadyn wondered if his dad truly believed that, or if he was just making it up.

“Oh, it’s true…” came another voice.

Kadyn jumped and turned around, staring into the eyes of Erich Salazar…or was he Erik Razalas, as his father said.

Kadyn looked down at his right hand, and found that he was holding something shiny. Kadyn shuddered and stepped back.

“Peek-a-boo, Scott,” said Erich, and raised the item.

Epilogue:

Three years later…

The Chicago Gazette

"After three years, the Cornell hotel mystery is still unsolved."

Officials went into the Cornell hotel and found two people dead in the lobby, and others asleep. The ones that were murdered were Dr. Lindsey Hayes and Dr. Henry Gillford, both renowned doctors in the country. From what families have said, around one hundred doctors were invited to the Cornell hotel for a doctor’s convention. They were invited by the hotel manager, Erich Salazar.

In the morning, when police went inside after receiving an anonymous call saying that something was up at the hotel, they found two dead bodies and everybody else asleep.

Further inspection revealed that in a nearby hotel room, there was another body. Police came to the conclusion that the body was none other than Scott Carter’s body, another renowned doctor, probably one of the best.

When the doctors who were asleep woke up, police asked them what had happened. Turns out, they didn’t know.

All of the guests in the hotel, especially the doctors who were invited for the convention, did not remember anything about that night. Police did not find the host and hotel manager, Erich Salazar, either. Every year, officials would ask the guests what they remembered, but they always came up blank. It was as if their memories were completely wiped about that night.

Three years have passed, and the Cornell hotel mystery is still unsolved to this day.

Written by:

Kadyn Carter

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Midnight-Wolfe