Haunted Hotel: The Evil Inside

**Haunted Hotel: The Evil Inside** is the fifteenth installment in the *Haunted Hotel* series by Elephant Games.

## Plot

As the game begins, we see Rachel Collins and her team of paranormal investigators, the Ghost Seekers, arriving at the run-down Alexander Valentine Hotel. It's been the site of multiple disappearances over the years, and believed to be incredibly haunted, so the group is hoping to capture some really interesting footage for their viewers. Rachel has also invited her cousin, paranormal researcher James Blackthorne, to join them and tell her friends about his adventures. But as they enter the house, the doors slam shut behind them.

James arrives and finds the team's abandoned van. As he enters the house, he sees Rachel briefly before she's essentially swallowed by the elevator. Among the items he locates is a handheld device identified as P.A.T.R.I.C.K. (**P**aranormal **A**ctivity **TR**acker and **I**nteractive **C**omputing **K**ernel), which helps him detect sources of paranormal energy. Making his way through the ramshackle rooms, James gradually pieces together the history of the place. It was once the home of the wealthy Valentine family, who were brutally murdered in the 1920s; since then, a few developers have attempted to renovate the structure and turn it into a hotel, but it always ended with the place being shut down after various guests went missing. Alexander Valentine, the young man who had been murdered, was deeply in love with his wife Bella, and it seems to be his ghost which has been terrorizing anyone who disturbs his rest.

James first finds the body of Claude, the cameraman, who has frozen to death in the unnaturally frigid billiard room. Next he encounters the body of Dolores, the hostess of the Ghost Trackers' show, who has been sealed behind a wall. She left behind a note asking whoever found her body to please tell Christian, the screenwriter, that she loved him. In the next room he finds Rachel, thankfully alive but tied to a chair, and a malevolent spirit attacks James and drags Rachel away.

After escaping from this room, James enters the main part of the mansion, where he finds a large portrait of Alexander and Bella; he realizes that Rachel looks almost exactly like Bella. Once he's able to enter the hotel's barbershop, he finds the body of Christian in the barber's chair, choked to death by poison gas. The fourth and final member of the crew, Paul the electrician, is found strangled in a large curtain, with a note near his body begging someone to tell his children that he loved them.

James locates the family graveyard, including the beautiful chapel erected to house the body of Bella Valentine after her murder. The body of Alexander, meanwhile, is in the same basement chamber where Rachel is chained to a chair; it seems that he wasn't murdered, but rather wasted away from his grief over losing his adored wife. James frees Rachel and gets her out to his van, then returns to the chapel to perform a ritual. He summons the spirit of Bella, who confronts her husband and pleads with him to stop his madness now that they've been reunited. A relieved Alexander thanks James and asks him to burn the house to the ground, so that all those who died there can rest. The game ends with James and Rachel driving away, the burning building reflected in the rear view mirror.

### Bonus Chapter

It's been a few months since the tragedy at the Alexander Valentine Hotel, but Rachel is still having terrible nightmares. She decides that she needs to return to the house and pay tribute to her fallen friends, which she hopes will free her from the bad dreams, and calls James to accompany her. Once there, they watch in horror as the burned timbers of the structure rearrange themselves into a building once more, and this time it's James who disappears before Rachel's eyes. She (as the player character now) must explore the ruins and try to find what's needed to put an end to everything.

Rachel finds the spirits of her friends, in the same order in which James found them in the main game, and realizes that they need to have certain items returned to them in order for them to be released into the afterlife. To the shivering spirit of Claude she provides a blanket, then gives him back his video camera. Next, she returns Dolores's tape recorder, then gives Christian his screenplay. She cuts down the curtain which is still strangling Paul's ghost, and gives him his spotlight. Each ghost thanks her and bids her farewell before going into the light.

Outside, Rachel reunites with James, who has figured out that they need to open the nearby dam and completely flood the area in order to finally bring it all to an end. They locate a rowboat and have it ready for their own escape, then take charge of the dam controls and set loose the pent-up water. As the ruined house is swallowed by the rising water, James rows them to safety, and Rachel feels certain she will now be able to move forward from the trauma.

## Characters

* James Blackthorne: the player character, who has come to assist with the investigation.
* Rachel Collins: James's cousin, who has asked him to help with the show her investigative team is filming at the old Valentine mansion.
* Claude Donovan: the camera operator for Rachel's team.
* Paul Summers: the electrical expert on Rachel's team.
* Christian Lowland: the screenwriter for Rachel's team.
* Dolores Shane: the hostess of the show Rachel's team produces.
* Alexander Valentine: the ghost of a man who can't know peace until he's reunited with his wife; decades of isolation have driven him murderously insane.
* Bella Valentine: Alexander's beloved wife, who was murdered in the 1920s.

## Trivia

* Although James is the recurring character in the *Haunted Hotel* games made by Elephant, this is the first time he has appeared as the player character.
* Andrew Hindle is the voice of Alexander Valentine, Christian Lowland, and also the handheld ghost-hunting device called P.A.T.R.I.C.K.
* Shannon Torrence voices both Dolores Shane and Bella Valentine.
* Duffy Weber voices both Claude Donovan and Paul Summers.

## External Links

* *Haunted Hotel: The Evil Inside* at Big Fish Games
* *Haunted Hotel* at TV Tropes
* Elephant Games on Facebook