With astonishment I looked at the buttons on the elevator, which was looking rather old-fashioned and rusty. There were ten buttons, and every single one displayed the number thirteen. The receptionist had indeed referred me to floor number thirteen, but I didn’t find that very helpful now. I decided to press a random button. As the elevator took quite some time to get to the right floor, I inspected the key I was handed. It was shaped like a starfish and had the number five on it. The elevator came to a stop with a loud “ding”. I stepped out of the elevator and found the way into the hallway blocked by a large, wooden gate. It was decorated with many colourful flowers, and in the centre of one of these flowers I found a keyhole. My starfish key didn’t fit, however. I figured I must be on the wrong floor, because there were ten possible options. I decided to try another floor. Of course I could just go bother the receptionist again, but what was the fun in that? If I was to be stuck here, I might as well explore a little before going to bed. I immediately suspected the next floor I visited wasn’t the right floor either. This wooden gate was very colourful, with balloons and garlands painted all over it. My starfish key seemed a little out of place here as well. And I found myself to be right; it didn’t fit in this lock in a painted balloon either. I moved on to the next floor, and found a large wooden gate decorated with fish, seahorses, and sure enough, starfish. I put my key in a keyhole inside a painted starfish and opened the wooden doors successfully. My room was not far into the hallway, as it was room number five. My entire room was painted blue, with many different types of marine animals painted on the walls. I was not sure whether to find it beautiful or just too much, but for a few days it was alright. I thought about all the different floors I came across, and how they all appeared to be floor number thirteen. It was as though this hotel was a collection of all floors from other hotels that would have been the thirteenth but had been skipped because of that reason, as I knew happened a lot in hotels.

When I woke up the following morning, I was feeling a bit hungry. Deciding I should go see if I could find some breakfast, I quickly dressed myself and stepped out of my room into the hallway. It was just as quiet as it had been the night I arrived. When I stepped into the elevator again, however, I wondered what the other floors looked like. I decided to visit one more floor before going to the ground floor for breakfast. I pressed a button, and it took me to the highest floor. When I stepped out of the elevator, I found a very sinister-looking metal gate. It was covered in skulls and black ravens. To my great surprise, I found that the gate was slightly opened. I pushed it further open and stepped into the hallway. With a loud clang it closed behind my back. Immediately I stepped back and tried to open it again, but it would not budge. I had become rather hungry by now, and wanted to have breakfast, but it appeared I was trapped in this dark, sinister-looking corridor, with a starfish key that would most certainly not fit into a skull lock.