Chapter 1

The Video


The video, which was released by Cecil Hotel to aid police investigation, is about 4 minutes long. It has since been posted and reposted on Youtube  hundred times by various people. The video is believed to be the only remaining recording that capture Elisa Lam's final hours of her life before she was found dead. 

Bryan accidentally found the video one day while going through his Tumblr posts. Being a fan of all things wicked and supernatural, he relish in digging through the darker corners of the internet for strange tales and coverage of mysterious crimes. 

Bryan clicked on the video link, simply titled 'Elisa Lam Video', which automaticcaly direct him to Youtube, where the video starts playing.

[the video shows a young woman wearing a bright red shirt and black skirt enters a small elevator. In this case, the elevator of a hotel. Then she lower her body to take a closer look at the panel where all the buttons are. And....it looks like she press a row of buttons before quickly standing upright again.]

[Next, the video shows her standing still in the elevator, as if waiting for the doors to close. But....they didn't close. And then, she did something peculiar.]

[She lean forward slightly, and peek out the elevator, in both directions, before retracting]

Was she expecting someone? 

[and then, even stranger, the young woman begins to shift her position inside the elevator towards the wall next to the buttons. At this point, she looks like as if she's trying to hide from someone...]

[After a few seconds has passed, she cautiously peer out of the elevator again, her attention was focused on the right side of the corridor outside. Then, she took a candid step out the elevator, move one step to the left and took another step back towards the elevator]

What was she doing? Is she being playful? Or is this a manifestation of a mental breakdown?

[Next, the surveillance video showed her stepping out again, this time she leans on the wall to the left side of the elevator. At this point, we can only see part of her body and her right arm]

[About ten seconds passed before she once again enter the elevator, and.....]

Was she smiling? It's hard to tell due to the poor quality of the video. Some might argue that she looks like she's panicking.

[As she enters the elevator, she once again proceeded to push a row of buttons. It also looks like she's trying to speak into the emergency panel. Was she calling for help?]

At this point of the video, Bryan is asking himself this one question : why didn't the elevator doors closed? That is indeed strange.

[The young woman at this point exits the elevator for the second time, where she once again lean on the left wall, as if she's talking, or even possibly waiting for someone. ]

[And this is where it gets really strange...]

[She started moving her hands in a weird way, twisting, or more accurately, contorting her wrists and fingers as if she's trying to explain something to someone. She then appeared to be clasping her hands and bending her fingers for unknown reason.]

[About 10 seconds later, she turned to the left side of the corridor and walked away]


The remaining portion of the video shows the elevator doors finally closing and going down a floor, opened, and closed and moving down again...


[And that was the last time Elisa Lam was seen by anyone.]


****************


Having finished watching the video, Bryan leans back in his chair as he is trying to make sense of what he's just seen. He takes a deep breath and exclaimed loudly to himself: "boy that is weird. That is soooooo weird."

He clicked 'Add to Favourites' on the Youtube video, and tweeted the link to his friend, Calvin. "You have to see this!!!!" His messaged to his friend.

Half an hour later, Calvin replied him on Whatsapp. "What's this? Elisa Lam? Dude is this porn?"


"No. Just watch it. And tell me what you think."

"...k"


A few moments later, Calvin messaged him again.


What the heck did I just watch? Who is this Elisa Lam chick?"


"Read the news i put in the link. She died in February 2013."


" Suicide? She crazy or something?"

"Hmmmm...hard to say. Nobody knows."

"Thats is fucked up, man."

"No kidding."

"And this video is creeping me out. I mean, did you see see her hands?? WTF???"

"Definitely something weird going on there."

"You think , maybe, she might be killed by someone?"

Bryan ponders over that possibility for a moment....

"Hmmmm...it's...i dont know. It could be"

"Man have u google the hotel? It has a bad rep."

"No....Celia hotel, right?"

"Yeah..it's in a bad part of LA though..in a crime-infested neighborhood called Skid Row. What kind of a name is Skid Row. Lol."

"Hmmm."

"You know you should send this to Melissa. She would absolutely love this. She still writes on her blog right?"

"Good idea. I might just do that. 
And yes, she still writes....occasionally."


"Gtg, dude. See ya."


"Ok. Later."


Bryan closed his Whatsapp, and go back to his laptop, where he send the video link to Melissa on Facebook.


Then he goes back to watching the video one more time. 


Strange, he couldn't describe how or why, but watching the video for the second time, he feels a chill run up his spine.


He clicked his mouse to stop the video at minute 1:58, when Elisa start moving her arms in crazy manner. Bryan rewatched that particular scene a few times, and then read a few comments posted by other viewers. 


Just like him, most of them had no clue why she's moving her arms that way. 

And for some reason, it creeps them out. It definitely creeps Bryan out.

Bryan look at his watch, where it reads 11.39pm, and decided he has had enough of this for now, and shut down his laptop.


"I'm going to have nightmare because of this, oh boy" he thought to himself as he climb into bed, getting ready for sleep.