While at the spa, you felt your cares melt away as the spa ponies massage the stress out of your pores. The gentle, yet firm touch of their skilled hooves drew you into a momentary bliss that nopony would ever be able to describe.
‘This is what I needed,' you hummed.
As your masseuse's hooves glide over your frame, your mind began to clear of all the negative things that have occurred so far.
‘Ms. Ready was right. I guess I've just been working too hard and just let my stressed mind play tricks on me,' you deduced. ‘From now on, it's just rest and relaxation.'
After your massage session, you headed to the steam room to sweat it out. To your surprise, you were the only one using it at the time, so the steam was abundant. As you soaked in the vapor, you saw a faint silhouette in the midst of the haze.
"Oh, hello there. I thought I was the only one in here," you greeted.
The silhouette remained motionless.
"Umm…hello?"
Though the figure remained silent, you had an eerie feeling that whoever it is was had their gaze squarely on you.
"You know it's rude to stare at someone and not say anything," you stated.
The figure remained silent. Annoyed you got up from your seat and made your way over to the silhouette. But when you reached them, there was nopony there.
‘What the–'
When you turned around the figure was now sitting where you were. Through the mist, you saw a toothy grin appear on the figure's face. You jumped back and stumbled onto the floor. Like a predator ready to pounce the figure lunged at you. You braced yourself for the impact, but when you opened your eyes, the silhouette was gone. With your nerves completely rattled, you decided it's time to leave. When you tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge.
"Huh?"
You try again, and the same thing occurred. You gripped the handle tightly and pulled with all of your might; the door would not move an inch. You banged repeatedly on the door.
"Hello! Is anypony out there?!" you cried out. "The door is stuck!"
After what seemed like fifteen minutes, you began to feel light-headed as the room itself seemed to be spinning.
‘I have to…get out…of here…' you spoke trying hard to remain conscious.
You weakly pounded on the door in the last ditch effort to garner help from the outside. With your last strike, you slid to the floor and slowly lost consciousness.
As your haze finally clear and your vision able to focus, you found yourself on the padded bench in the lobby of the spa. You looked around and noticed you're your head was resting on one of the spa mare's lap.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"I think so…" you weakly replied.
"You gave us quite a startle," the earth pony mare explained. "We found you completely passed out in our main steam room. You were unresponsive at first, so we feared the worst."
You tried to speak, but your dry throat made it difficult to do so. The mare quickly noticed and signaled for one of her co-workers to bring you some water. She then positioned you to where you wouldn't choke. As the bottle of water pressed against your lips, the cooling liquid flowed down your throat. The contents of the container were quickly consumed, and the mare ushered for another bottle.
"How long was I out?" you asked.
"About two hours?" she replied and gave you another drink of water. "May I ask what happened?"
Before you could respond, Ready had shown up to the spa in a panic. When she caught sight of you, she immediately ran to you.
"Oh my goodness, I came as soon as I was able," she spoke. "Please tell me what exactly happen."
You gave a weak frown as she stood next to you.
"I was locked in a steam room and almost died," you deadpanned as you drank another bottle of water.
"Locked?! But how is that possible?" she queried. "The staff know not to lock a steam room when in use. I will look into this."
You huffed as you rolled your eyes.
"But, I'm still puzzled about who was in there with me?"
This caused Ready's eyebrow to arch.
"What do you mean?" she pried.
"Well, while I was in there I saw a silhouette of something sitting across from me," you began. "When I tried to talk with it didn't respond. Then when I went over it the silhouette…nothing was there…"
You saw Ready's eyes widened slightly at your tale.
"Then what happened?"
"When I turned around the figure was now behind me. I stumbled back and fell to the floor. The last thing I saw of it was its eerie smile before it leaped at me. I brace myself for the oncoming attack, but when I opened my eyes it was gone."
After you told your story, Ready's visage was stoic, but you could see that this information greatly concerned her.
"I see…well in light of this news I plan to offer another voucher to one of Canterlot's premier restaurants as an apology for such a terrible experience," Ready spoke as she bowed as if to ask for forgiveness.
She bowed with complete imploring for your forgiveness.
"Please allow me to make this up to you," she pleaded.
"How exactly?" you asked a bit leery given what you just went through.
She proceeded to give you another voucher.
"This is for a free meal for any of the premier restaurants in the city," she offered.
You took with reservation as you knew it was a means to keep you happy and not cause a ruckus. Ready then bowed to you again.
"I'm truly sorry," she apologized. "If there's anything I can do-"
"I think I'll be fine," you spoke to cut her off. "I'm just gonna head to my room for now."
"Would you like a staff member to accompany you?" she offered.
"No thank you…" you flatly replied as you headed out of the spa.
Ready quickly ran behind you.
"Are you sure? Because it would be no troub–"
"I said no!" you sharply spoke.
When she slightly recoiled you tried to compose yourself.
"I didn't mean to lash out. I'm just a little on edge after my near-death experience," you stated. "Please, I just wish to be left alone."
"I-I understand…"
With that, you departed to your room.
As you walked in a trance-like state, you reflected on the events that happened. It wasn't your imagination, there was something in the sauna with you...something that had ill intent. But where did it go? Why did it choose to attack you? And more importantly, why is Ready trying to keep you quiet about this?
As you were lost in thought, you bump into something solid. After you composed yourself, you look up and saw it was the numberless door from before.
‘Wait, what? How did I walk into this? It parallels to the hallway?' you thought.
As you stood up, you took in the features of the door once more. It struck you as odd that such a luxurious resort would have such a dilapidated looking door. The cracks that covered the frame and chipped paint on the body showed no care had been put into it. Coupled with the how archaic the doorknob looked as well, you deduced Ready couldn't have been telling the truth about this room.
‘For your benefit, I'd suggest staying away from the storeroom or trying to look inside of it. Okay?'
Her words rang in your ears.
‘Why forbid me to look in this room?'
You shook your head and proceeded to your room. Just before you were a few feet from the door, you heard a voice whisper.
"You'll be next…won't you…" it softly whispered
You quickly turned around to see who spoke, but nobody else was around.
"H-Hello? Is someone here?" you called out.
There was no response. As you backed away from the door, the same eerie chill filled the hallway. Not wanting to be in this hallway any longer. You quickly made your way back to your room. As fell onto your bed, you tried to calm your nerves.
‘What did it mean by I'm next? Who was that? Where was that?' you spoke trying to gather your thoughts.
That voice…it didn't seem like it was threatening you. More like trying to warn you. But about what? What in Equestria is going on at this resort? You rolled onto your back and stared at the ceiling.
‘I know Ready is hiding something…but what?'
Your thoughts fell to the storeroom.
‘Something must've happened in that room,' you deduced. ‘But what?'
As your thoughts raced, your eyelids began to grow heavy, and you soon started to drift off to sleep.