haunted motel room 12 story — Submitted by: Erika B. from Reno, Nevada
Back in 2018, I was driving cross-country to visit my sister in Portland. After about ten hours on the road, I pulled into a quiet town in western Nebraska. The place felt stuck in the past—faded signs, empty streets, and a strange silence that hung in the air. It was already dark, so I found a small roadside motel—“The Red Pines Inn”—with flickering neon and a sleepy man at the front desk who barely looked up when I checked in.
He gave me Room 12.
When I entered the room, I noticed a faint smell of something stale, almost metallic. The decor looked like it hadn’t changed since the ’80s—faded wallpaper, a bulky old TV, and a bedspread with burn marks. But I was too exhausted to care. I locked the door, set the chain, and crashed on the bed without even changing clothes.
At around 2:15 AM, I woke up shivering. The heater had stopped working, and the room felt ice-cold. But more than that, something felt… off. The kind of off that makes your skin tighten.
Then I heard it.
Footsteps. Inside the room.
I sat up, heart racing. I was sure I was alone. But the noise—slow, deliberate steps—was coming from the corner near the bathroom. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight.
There was no one there.
But now the bathroom door was ajar. I had left it fully open.
I walked over and pushed it. Empty. Just a flickering fluorescent light above the mirror.
I turned around and noticed something that made my stomach drop.
The front door chain was hanging.
I had locked it before sleeping. I was sure of it.
I rushed to the door. The bolt was still locked—but the chain was off. Someone had been in the room.
Panicking, I tried to call the front desk. No signal. I opened the door and ran barefoot across the freezing parking lot to the office. The man at the desk looked startled.
I told him someone had broken into my room.
He blinked, then said slowly:
“You said Room 12? That room’s been locked from the inside for weeks. We never rent it out.”
I showed him my key. He paled.
“That’s not one of ours,” he whispered.
We went back together. When we opened the door, the room was empty—except the chain was locked again, from the inside.
I never got an explanation. I left that town before sunrise and never looked back.
I later searched online. That motel had several reports over the years: strange noises, people being assigned rooms they never booked, and a woman who vanished from Room 12 in 1997.
Her name was Erika.
Same as mine.
The Mystery of Room 12: A Haunted Motel Room 12 Story
This haunted motel Room 12 story is one of the eeriest real horror encounters we’ve ever featured. The matching name, the untraceable key, and the ghostly activity in a sealed room all point to something paranormal. At Bella Dark Tales, we bring you chilling true stories that make the shadows feel a little closer.
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