The Cursed of the Grandfather Clock ... Expanded
(This version expands on the original idea, all I did was give it more meat)
Within a popular part of the sunny and warm state of California lies a hotel with deep dark secret. Though most rooms are well kept and open to visitors and guests, there is a seldom used room that is closed off from the rest of the hotel. Room number 13 is simply closed with a "DO NOT ENTER" sign. There wasn't anything wrong with the room despite the fact that it was the best furnished room, The room remains, superstitiously, un-usable.
Within any of the rooms of the hotel, one would see something like a time capsule from the 1910's. The motel has maintained its unique decor for those to whom the modern world has become too intrusive. The current owners of the hotel had sought to modernize the hotel when it was first purchased. What they didn't know at the time was the previous owners had left out an important bit of information.
The geographical location of the hotel was in the center of dead area of all types of electronic signals. The geological surveys of the ares showed no abnormal mineral deposits that could cause electronic interference. Even land based telephones and buried TV cable would not work in the area. It was if someone wanted this hotel to remain isolated from the modern world. The only modern convenience was natural gas. Not only did it supplied the fuel for the gas operated steam pump, and its byproduct hot water, it also was used for lighting.
The silence of the nearby country side was only broken by the grandfather clocks sitting in each room. Despite the lack of communication from the outside world the hotel soon became a very popular "get away from it all" place. On any given weekend all the rooms were full, except for one.
However, the clock in room 13 retains a yet unknown curse. Randomly the broken clock would begin to work again, playing a deep, dark noise in tune with a swing of the internal pieces. Sometimes the clock will issue its curse once every ten minutes, and other times it will issue forth a curse up to five times.
The only thing the owners know for sure is that each time an individual is in the room and hears the toll of the grandfather clock, they age 10 years over the course of five minutes, the effect only stopping if the individual leaves the room. Of course the ownees never told their patrons of the cursed room, other wise no one would stay at their hotel.
Today, there are more guests, and of course curiosity strikes one of them, later at night, to venture downstairs and explore the prominently enclosed room, and brave the unknown curse...and perhaps drawn in to some extent by its mystical power.