The Paranormal Streamer Chapter 1

I'm a paranormal livestreamer. Based on my followers' recommendations, I regularly visit allegedly haunted locations for my streams.

To put it bluntly—I'm asking for trouble.

I never believed in ghosts or spirits, until I came to a motel plagued by a series of bizarre incidents following a suicide. There, I accidentally discovered a shocking secret...

As I investigated what happened, the truth turned out to be...

...

A while back, a girl in a white dress jumped to her death from the building. I was there at the scene. Watching it all unfold, my head was buzzing. The girl had become a puddle of gore, blood everywhere. Her once-white dress was soaked bright red. Her skull had split open—horrific. Beside her lay a man who'd been hit by her falling body. The coroner declared him dead on impact.

That day I returned home in a daze, still unable to process the horrific scene. Though I livestreamed for a living, I'd never actually seen anything truly strange during my explorations.

I was a small-platform streamer. I usually made money by visiting abandoned rural towns and crime scenes, earning donations from followers.

Then today I saw this news story. Opening my phone, my follower group was already buzzing with discussion. Some were even telling me to explore this place. I thought, you guys trying to get me arrested? There was just a death—I'd go straight to jail if I showed up there now.

But curiosity got the better of me. I Googled to understand what happened. According to reports, after the incident, many tenants in the building moved out. The owner couldn't convince them to stay no matter what. Now barely anyone still lived there.

Seeing this news gave me an idea—why not just rent a room in this building? Who knows, maybe I'd catch some viral content.

That day I arrived at the building. Looking up at it, I felt genuinely uneasy. I found the rental office where the owner sat.

"How much for a night?" I asked.

"$150!"

I was shocked. "What? $150? That's way too expensive. Can you go lower?"

I thought, are you crazy? Nobody's renting here now—I figured it'd be cheap. But you're price gouging!

The owner got defensive. "What's the problem? Other motels charge way more."

I said urgently, "Look, I'm here taking my driving test. There aren't any other motels nearby, and this is closest to the DMV. I didn't bring much money. Can you cut me a deal?"

The owner scratched his head. "I've got a budget room. $50 a night. But it's small, furniture's beat up, no appliances—just a bed. Would that work?"

I figured I was only here to explore anyway. Who cared about amenities? As long as I caught some good footage, that's all that mattered. So I took it. The owner dug around forever before handing me a key, warning, "This is the only key for this room. Don't lose it."

I found that odd. Don't motels keep spare keys? How could there be only one? Later I learned the girl who'd jumped had been living in that exact room.

I reached the elevator, heading to the fourth floor. A cleaning lady rode up with me, curiously asking, "Going to the fourth floor, young man?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing." I noticed the lady seemed evasive, not explaining. Then she suddenly asked, "Which room on the fourth floor?"

I blurted out, "Room 404."

The broom dropped from the lady's hands. She stared at me, stunned.

I picked up her broom. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing, young man. You're staying alone on the fourth floor?"

When we reached the fourth floor and the elevator opened, I said, "You take care. I've got to go."

The lady seemed to want to say something but couldn't bring herself to. After hesitating, she said, "Well... I'll head back down then. You be careful."

The elevator doors closed. I wondered why she told me to be careful. Not thinking much of it, I saw it was getting dark. I needed to hurry and set up my room—I had to stream tonight.

Just as I reached the fourth-floor landing, the lights suddenly went out. My scalp tingled. I thought, it's just motion-sensor lights, what am I afraid of? Laughing at myself for being paranoid, I calmed down.

I took two steps forward and coughed a few times. The lights came back on. After walking a bit further, they went dark again. I was speechless—the light quality here was abysmal.

I walked along, searching for room 404. Following the sequence, I determined the room at the end was 404. I headed toward it. Before I even got there, I smelled something foul. I thought about finding staff, but decided against it. Curiosity drove me toward room 404.

The closer I got to 404, the stronger the stench. The air seemed thick with the smell of death.

Finally reaching the door, I looked up—404 at last. The room number looked pretty new, unlike the others.

It was dark now. I quickly pulled out my key. After all, I had streaming to do tonight. I needed everything ready. As I turned back to grab my suitcase, I saw a white shadow flash past me, incredibly fast.

I froze. Had my eyes played tricks? My hands trembled slightly as I told myself it was just an illusion.

I slowly slid down against the wall by room 404, sitting on the floor. The stench filled the air again. I looked around—the surroundings were dark and gloomy. Cold gusts of wind blew occasionally, making me shiver.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the emergency stairwell. My heartbeat accelerated. The sounds grew closer, almost at the door. Then a face appeared right in front of me. Damn near scared me to death.

It was the cleaning lady from earlier. She asked, "What's wrong, young man?"

"Nothing. I thought you were someone else. Turns out it's you."

The lady said, "Don't be scared, young man. The owner told me earlier to be responsible for customers, so I came back up. I left my cleaning supplies in the stairwell. I came up that way. Did I scare you?"

I asked quietly, "Did you see anyone in white clothes when you came up?"

"No, young man. Maybe your eyes were playing tricks?"

Had I really imagined it? But I definitely saw something.