Checked In Before We Arrived

Three construction workers - Ethan Blackwell, Mara Whitlock, and Daniel Cross - are sent to inspect a stretch of tunnel beneath a crumbling highway overpass. What they find instead is a hotel, fully lit, fully staffed, wedged into the concrete underbelly of the road like it has always been there. The receptionist smiles as they step inside and greets each of them by name, though none of them has ever set foot in this place before. As the three try to find their way back out, they realize the hotel has rooms prepared for guests who checked in decades ago, ledgers with their own names already signed, and hallways that rearrange themselves the longer they stay. Something under that highway has been waiting for them, and it already knows exactly who they are.

Connor Hayes CH writes thrillers and paranormal horror that dwell in the overlooked corners of everyday life - underpasses, empty hallways, forgotten doors. Drawing on a fascination with liminal spaces and the unsettling idea that ordinary places can hide something patient and aware, Connor crafts stories where dread builds quietly before it strikes. When not writing, Connor is usually driving past old highways, wondering what might be waiting just beneath them.