HAUNTED HOTEL UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF, MONTHS after your travels, you discovered that the hotel you'd stayed in was believed to be haunted?Skipped a heartbeat? So did I.

- HIRAL PANDYA

It had been a perfect day in Rangeley, Maine—the kind of lake town that looks like it has been painted into existence. The water shimmered gold in the evening light; the hills stood still like they were holding their breath. We were four women on the road, travelling without a script. A friend had promised to book our stay for the night, but as dusk fell, we realised she hadn't been able to. No booking, no signal, no plan.

Famished and frustrated, we stopped at The Red Onion, drawn in by its glowing sign and the promise of WiFi. Over dinner, we scrolled through booking sites until one listing appeared: The Herbert Grand Hotel in Kingfield, a century-old property, 37 miles away, and miraculously affordable. My friend called. A woman named Dawn answered and confirmed our room.

By the time we set out, night had descended like a curtain. The countryside turned from idyllic to eerie, the highway flanked by looming pines, the headlights slicing through the dark. The road was deserted, the kind of silence that makes your own breathing sound loud.