He begins experiencing what may or may not be hallucinations the breakfast menu on the night-stand changes languages first it's in French, then Russian and then Italian. He looks again and the door appears to be straight - then he looks again, and it appears to be crooked, now to the right.Īs Enslin enters and examines the room, and begins dictating into a hand-held tape recorder, his train of thought immediately takes unwelcome and chaotic turns - he compares it to 'being stoned on bad, cheap dope'. Olin reluctantly leads him to the 14th floor, unwilling to accompany him farther than the elevator.Įnslin's problems with Room 1408 begin before he even sets foot through the door in fact, the door itself initially appears to be crooked to the left. Enslin is shaken, but his determination to follow through with his research and to not appear frightened before Mr.

Olin pleads with Enslin to reconsider, believing that a skeptic such as he is even more susceptible to the room's curse. Olin also reveals that due to the superstitious practice of never recognizing the 13th floor (the room is listed on the 14th), it is a room cursed by existing on the 13th floor, the room numbers adding up to 13 making it all the worse. While remarking that he doesn't believe there are ghosts in 1408, Olin insists there is 'something' that resides inside, something that causes terrible things to happen to people who stay within its walls for anything but the briefest periods of time, something that affects various electronic devices, causing digital wristwatches, pocket calculators, and cell phones to stop functioning or to operate unpredictably. Olin (who has purposely left it vacant for over 20 years), room 1408 has been responsible for at least 42 deaths, 12 of them suicides and at least 30 'natural' deaths, all over a span of 68 years.

At first Enslin is unfazed by 1408's morbid history. Nonetheless, he arrives at the Hotel Dolphin on 61st Street in New York City intent on spending the night in the hotel's infamous room 1408, as part of his research for his next book, Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Hotel Rooms.

His book series, Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Houses, Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards and Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Castles, prove to be best-sellers, but Enslin internally reveals some guilt and regret at their success, privately acknowledging that he is a believer in neither the paranormal nor the supernatural elements he espouses in these books. The protagonist is writer Mike Enslin, who writes non-fiction works based on the theme of haunted places.

1408 short story