The following story has not been embelished in the least. It is all true, and lemmee tell ya, if you lived it like i did, you wouldnt have to embellish anything it was the single most terrifying experience of my life.At the time of these events, i was a U.S. Marine, stationed in Oak harbor, WA (NAS Whidby Island). I was a 22 year-old corporal, and i can tell ya i was tough as nails. As a cocky young jarhead, i wasnt afraid of anything, man woman or child, that walked the earth. I’d already seen a little combat in Somalia and Kuwait.I had left the infantry and gone into avionics. So i was goin’ to school at the naval base in Whidbey island in October of 1997.

I met and was dating this cute sailor girl named Angela. We both lived in seperate barracks so we decided on spending a weekend at a bed and breakfast.Ya know? a little romantic getaway. So i called a place called the Queen Anne Inn, a quaint little mom & pop type place up in the foothills of western Washington. Beautiful country up there by the way. So i packed up the clothes, the wine the radio and all the necessary amenities for romance.(Fast Forward to Friday afternoon.

I arrived at the place with girlfriend in tow, we got our key from the front desk, and went to the room to put our stuff away.We got a good room, room 16,right across the parking lot from the ice machine and front desk.It was a simple room ,rustic in design, with wood panaled ceilings, and pictures or the pacific northwest rain foreston the walls. It was clean cute, and only about 35 minutes out of town. Perfect right? Not just no,but HELL NO!

The minute i walked into the room, i got the most dismal vibe. The sun was shining(a rare sight in Washington autumn) I had a beautiful girl, and all weekend ahead of me, but in that room, i felt like……hard to describe, melancholy,like lookin over the grave of a loved one or remembering a broken heart. the kind of emotional magic that makes you feel like a kid carrying home a report card full of F’s and knowing your butt- kickin’ is coming. There ya go ;somethings coming something grey and sad and morose. This was all a feeling i had and it sucked. But i didnt mention it to Angie because I wanted to have a good weekend.So I lay on the bed and looked up at the cieling,Odd,It looked like a hand print burned into the cieling.

I figured it was a planer burn that looked like a hand print.So we dropped off our stuff and went in to town.I left the room and immediatly felt better.We had dinner and shopped downtown Oak Harbor. It was a good time.And the bad feelin’ i got was forgotten.until we came back to our room.Iwalked into the joint and the feeling of yuckiness returned.I turned on the TV,poured a drink and the hocky game was on, So I’m settlin in, watchin the game and my girlfriend says”Do you get a wierd feeling in this room?”And i was like whoa, i’m not crazy!I told her i felt wierd the minute we stepped in here,I was excited that it wasnt just in my head! Angie said”It’s gonna be a strange night.” Suddenly this music started to play, its source was inconclusive:Not the TV or the radio or the AC unit so far as i can tell it had no origin, but it was sad and slow, kinda like a pipe organ funeral dirge.If i could replay those notes, i assure you it would be the soundtrack to genocide.A sad tune that lingured about the room,louder than the TV.Actually while the music played,i dont recall hearing anything from the TV. It faded away and left me courious.”OK I says.This is neat. Something is trying to communicate with us.Lets see what it wants.So I’m tryin’ to be an ambnassador for the dead and im real excited.This is a real solid haunting and it feels beniegn. I wasnt scared, i was fascinated.

So we smoke a few cigs and make out and i look in the mirror and see that the room is full of smoke.I looked up at the ceiling and where there was one hand print,there was now dozens ;a trail of hand prints led from the bathroom to the front door.It looked as if someone had crawled across the ceiling and out the door,burning a trail as they went.I looked at the carpet and watched it blacken and shrivel as a hand print appeared. Some invisiible entity was burninig and trying to get out.I spoke aloud “let us help you” what a dork i was …It was clear that a fire occured here and someone died.The bathroom was all new,new fixtures,new tile, new tub.How do i know?I’m an electrician,I Know rebuilds when i see ’em So i go to the bathroom.It seems to be the fulcrum,big mistake. i’m hangin around the bathroom and my coat starts burning,my t-shirt starts burning.(still got the jacket, burn holes and all…..A large painless blister appeared on the left side of my face.My girlfriend’s cigarette suddenly bursts into flames and expands to like 3times it’s origional size. It smoulders for about five minutes now it’s about 1 AM South Park is on and i jokingly say” I hope whatever is going on takes a break, ’cause i wanna watch South Park”At that exact second, that god awful music began to play again.The high-pitched keening went on and on a lot longer this time and Angie began to cry. She was yelling “Make it stop!!” and wrapping a pillow around her head to block out the sounds.It got louder and louder and i ran around the room trying to find a source.And all the while that sickening dirge is playing and the burning thing wants us to stay.And i’m really losing control now, it’s gone beyond fun and excitment,But the burning thing wants us to stay.

I tell Angie to go fill the ice bucket while i draw a hot bath to relax us.After all, i came here for romance right?Kill her. Get her out of the way,The burning thing was playing with my head.It was like someone jabbing me in the eye with a pencil.Shut her up, kill her .I was freakin’ out but i didnt want to look scared in front of Angie. She was crying and asking to leave.And my fury was rising.I said “go fill the ice bucket,we’ll have some drinks and relax” She left and came running back in a few seconds later,with a look of stark terror on her face and an empty ice bucket.I grabbed the bucket and said “What the hell?” “”someone is out there behind me”She blubbered and collapsed on the bed.I walked out of the room and the burning thing kept pushing,pushing me back to the room, I could feel it behind me trying to wrap around me, trying to get into me.It was awful i ran like hell back from the ice machine and it was breathing in my ear.The bath water came out smouldering hot. i had to put ice in the water to make it livable.we got naked and jumped in the tub.We were talking fast,tryin’ to seem normal just babbling along when the old man stepped into the bathroom doorway. He was nude with white hair and jaundiced yellow eyes.His back was hunched and his hands were withered and gnarled into obscene claws.His teeth were yellow like his eyes.He was a hateful evil thing that burned and burned but never went out.He looked me straight in the eye and vanished.At that point i jumped up, totally naked, couldnt’ breathe,was pretty sure my heart stopped.And i yelled “Get yer s##t, we’re leavin!!!

Angie was facing me and the old man appeared behind her, so she didnt see it. (lucky her)She’s cryin’ and yellin “What? What is it?” i says “Nothin’ Just get in the car.”As we walk to my car i wrap my arm around her and look over at her.The old man is walking in line with us on her other shoulder. I scream, pull her away, and make some excuse about being in a hurry.She screams something about someone grabbing her.We stumble into the night office,i says ” gimmee my money back for Saturday night cause i aint stayin’.A sleepy lookin’ teenage girl says”OK” and we split.We arriuved back at my barracks and fall into a fitful sleep.The next day, i told my friend and room mate,Pete,the full story.He responds in true fearless Marine fashion and sez “lets get some tape recorders,and video camaras and record this stuff!!!”I sez”dude i will never set foot in that room again”He calls me a sissy and i blow him off.

2 months later me and Pete are drivin’ around da mountains and we pass the “Queen Anne Inn” So i go by the front desk and ask for the manager. They say”the manager is not in but the owner is” So i sez “lemmee talk to the owner.”This old grey-haired lady shows up I sez “hey,I got a wierd question for ya: Has anything uuuuhhhhhh…..tragic ever happened here?”she sez “You mean the fire?” I sez “WHAT FIRE??????” She looks at me like i’m on crack and sez “The fire that burned up rooms 11 to 18, back in 1991 some old man named Robert Clark somehow started a fire in the bathroom of room 16.We think he was smoking in the bathtub and he dozed off and the wall paper caught fire and it just went from there” To this day my friend Pete thinks i set him up for a prank, he dosn’t believe it really happened.Angie and i broke up shortly after,She told me that she felt that if we had stayed the whole night, she wouldn’t have lived to see daybreak.I guess she kinda knew what it eanted and what it tried to make me do. but i still talk to her every now and then.She still has nightmares, just like me.