My Night in the Basement by Jonathan "Mad Hatter" Rabkin

What you don't know can't kill you, right? I guess I just didn't know how scared I was supposed to be or else I might not have done it. I'd heard plenty of stories from Blair about ghostly sightings and floating orbs around the hotel, plus all the stuff about a baby being buried in the basement. But I'd been down there and either because I was so dense or because for some reason I was granted immunity, I never felt the chill that others seemed to. Don't get me wrong: the place is a pit. Dank and wet. And I have seen the bones that were unearthed during some of Blair's mad midnight search sessions.

So when Blair starting making jokes about staying the night down there -well, visions of B-movie horror shows danced through my head. I had to do it. But not without some support. I borrowed heavily from Native American tradition for my preparation. Hours before it was time to go into the basement "for the night", I lit what must have been close to 100 incense sticks and staked them out over the entire basement. I also burned half a dozen white sage "smudge" sticks. We left the hotel so the spirits could flee -or so I hoped- in peace. When we returned, the upper floors of the hotel had filled with the smoke rising from the basement. Little did any of us know at the time what else had come up with the smoke...

But first, as my final means of protection, I made a circle of blue corn meal. With that, I settled in for the night with a blanket to keep me warm and a weak-beamed flashlight to peer into the farthest corners of the basement's dark soul.

When I first lay down, I was sure every little drip was a ghostly footstep moving toward me. But time passed and sleep overtook me. The night, for me, was uneventful. Really not much anything occurred. But when I emerged from the basement there were stories of quite a restless night in the rest of the hotel.

So for now, I've been the only one "mad" enough to stay the whole night. But who knows what it'll be like for you?