Mike Enslin, a writer who once studied with James Smiley, dreamed of being a Yale Younger Poet, and "starved on the payroll of The Village Voice," is reduced to hacking out stuff like "10 Nights in 10 Haunted Houses." For a follow-up, he visits room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in the hope of gaining more information for his new book,10 Nights in 10 haunted Hotel rooms".

Five women and one man have jumped from that room's window onto 61st street below, one hung himself, another slit his wrists, and 4 overdosed with pills. A total of twelve suicides in 68 years, along with at least 30 "Natural" deaths holds this apart from any ordinary hotel room. The last time it was occupied was in 1978, and since then it has been the motel's only unoccupied and un-upgraded room.

There is a presence in there, not exactly a ghost, but a strangeness. Even digital watches, mobile phones and pagers dont work properly. Even the human mind does not work properly in Room 1408.Lucky for Mike, he has remembered his lucky Hawaiian shirt, it's the one with the ghost repellent, and an unlit cigarette is tucked behind his ear.

In a bloodstained basement of the Ministry of Information Fletcher, a reporter with the New York Times is questioned by Escobar and his assistants,Ramon and the Bride of Frankenstein. He asks them for a last cigarette and understands that he might be dead before it burned down to the filter.

There is a chance that he could get out of this nasty mess, but the guard behind him, with a loaded gun, makes it difficult, especially without a weapon. But he has a weapon, a cigarette. A Cigarette with a hot tip, and an inviting eye close enough to reach.

Published by Simon & Schuster, 1999

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws