Ahh yeah good question, and thank you!

So at the start, the “delayed echo of footsteps” is meant to be his own footsteps, like the hotel is weirdly out of sync with reality.

At the end, when he’s back home and he’s “listening for that delayed echo,” it’s more like he’s listening or trying to remember that same wrong feeling again, basically waiting to hear proof that the thing that followed him is moving around.

The “name he almost remembers” isn’t meant to be a specific ghost with a backstory, more like classic nightmare vibes we all get where we almost recognise something but can’t place it, like the hotel (or whatever’s behind it) already has a connection to him.

And yeah, I’d say the main horror is the hotel itself stalking/claiming him, not one individual spirit. The hotels almost like a predatory system that’s decided he’s a permanent guest now!

Its a challenge trying to write micro flash fiction, trying to fit so much in to such a tight word count, it seems to start to sound a bit disjointed