Chapter 2

2

FINN

W e continue our walk down the littered corridor and open a set of doors. Shining our lights inside, we try to understand the ground floor’s layout better. When we reach large, winding stairs, we stop.

“Do you want to go up here or continue down the corridor?” David asks.

“Let’s go up first.” Lea starts climbing. “Check out those bedrooms.”

“What about the basement?” Levi looks to where the stairs disappear into a black hole. “That’s what we came for, right?”

“No, Levi.” Lea’s voice is sharp. She sucks in a breath to control herself. “We’re here for the full experience. But you guys can’t seem to get that through your thick skulls.” She stomps up the stairs.

“O-kayy…” Levi huffs. “If you say so.”

I follow the guys from a distance, keeping the camera to my glasses. “Let’s go see where Laura DiSanti and the other patients had their bedrooms. That sounds less terrifying than going down to that basement.”

That’s an understatement. The mere idea of being close to the isolation rooms gives me chills.

The stairs creak and groan as we walk up them. We are welcomed by another dark corridor with more doors, some of which are wide open.

“Finn, come check this out,” Lea calls. She's already on her knees, searching through a pile of items on the floor.

“Be careful of mice,” Levi warns from over my shoulder.

Lea rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. And you? Doing anything useful?”

He snorts. “Yeah. I am your light, so you can dig around looking for old stuff.”

Ignoring him, she holds up an old shirt. “Look at this. It's part of a uniform those women wore. Let’s see if I can find a name tag or anything.” She fumbles around, humming as she goes through the entire pile. “Got it.”

“This belonged to Marie-Jo Hamilton,” I explain, reading the name from the tag. “We’ll be searching more about her once we get home. It’s amazing to actually fin?—”

“What the fuck?” Levi suddenly shouts. “Hey!”

He runs off and takes the light with him.

“Levi?” I turn back toward the corridor, one hand fumbling with the camera while the other searches frantically for my flashlight. “Levi?”

“Finn!”

I turn around. Lea is still in that bedroom searching for her light, the video catching her wide, fearful eyes.

“What’s going on? Where did you go?” She gets up, lighting up the corridor.

“David? Levi?”

“Over here!” Levi calls out.

“David?” No answer.

Levi suddenly steps into Lea’s light, and we both jerk back.

“What the fuck Levi,” Lea bristles. “You can't just run off like that.”

“Did you hear that sound?” He hisses.

“What sound?”

“There was a scream. Like from an actual person. I swear I’m not making shit up.”

Lea chuckles. “That’s impossible. This place is abandoned. It was David fucking with you. David!”

“David?” Levi starts searching the rooms. “Where did that moron go?”

“Just ignore him. He'll be back in a minute. He’s been fucking with us ever since we left.” She walks along the corridor like nothing has happened.

After a moment’s hesitation, I follow her. I’m not sure what to think. It’s freaky, for sure, but Lea’s right. Those two guys have been nothing but assholes who make my life hell.

“Check this out, Finn.” It’s a bedroom that has paintings on the wall. I film her tracing her fingers over the images. Behind us, Levi is still calling for David.

“Do you think a patient painted this?” She asks.

“I think so.”

“Look at this one. A self-portrait?” A stern-looking face with big blue eyes and a small mouth looks back at us. Around her collar, she wears the white broderie Lea found in the other bedroom.

“She sure was gifted.”

My hands reach out to touch the sheets of a narrow bed, pulled back and wrinkled. “The room is so small. It’s hard to imagine that a grown woman lived here.”

I look at the barricaded windows. I live ten minutes by foot from this place, which is carefully hidden in Richmond Forest. Is this the part of the asylum I can see from my window?

When Lea and I move back to the corridor, Levi and his flashlight are waiting for us. “David’s gone.” His voice is void of his usual mockery.

Lea huffs. “What do you mean, gone?”

Levi holds up his hand and shows his phone. “I just received a message from him. He left because of Jess. Said she wanted him to come out and go home.”

“Oh, Jess.” Lea snorts. “Our hero. I seriously wonder why she came along to begin with. Well, we won’t let them spoil our assignment. Let’s go down to the basement.”

I follow behind, reporting as I walk. “This place is truly sad,” I say. “The thought that women were kept here, often against their will, is just mind-blowing.”

We walk down the stairs until we’re back on the ground floor. But rather than going directly down to the basement, Lea pauses. “I know you guys want to go downstairs now, but I’d really like to check out the other side of this floor first. Is that okay? I’ll be quick.”

Levi mutters his agreement, and I sure don’t mind. They take the lead, and I follow while I give my future audience more facts about the reason we came here in the first place.

Suddenly, there’s movement in the corner of my eye. I turn the camera, heart lurching in my throat. There, in that room.

I see a rocking chair, and it’s moving.

“What the—” My tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. The chair is still rocking, slower now, until it finally stops. I let out the shuddering breath I hadn’t realized I held.

“Doc,” Levi calls from further down the corridor.

“Coming.” My feet feel heavy as lead as I catch up with them.

“I believe this is the kitchen,” Lea says. Her voice sounds excited as she searches the area. “Remember that photo in the old newspaper article?”

“Yeah,” I croak. I’m still feeling on edge. My brain tells me the rocking chair was a trick of the eye, but my mind doesn’t buy that.

“What photo?” Levi asks.

“The photo of one of the crime scenes,” I explain. “The kitchen had smears of blood everywhere.” I shiver. This place is slowly getting to me.

“Can you film this?” Lea has opened a few drawers, showing remains of old cutlery. “There are even a few notes here. Look at that, a shopping list. The handwriting is like my grandma’s,” She chuckles.

“I’ve got to take a piss.” Levi checks the corridor. “Did you see any toilets here?”

Lea snorts. “You’re not seriously thinking of using the restroom here?”

“Well, where do you suggest I piss? In a corner?”

“I don’t know, can’t you just hold it?”

“Dude, come on.”

“Alright, fine.” Lea strides out of the kitchen. “Let’s go and find those damn toilets, then we’ll head down to the basement.”

“There,” Levi lets out a sigh of relief at the broken plate on a door. “‘ Re..ooms ’. Fuck me, it’s creepy as hell, but at least I can piss.”

Inside, toilets stand in a long row, the chipboard separations mostly crumbled or left with big holes.

My hands are getting tired so I stop recording and leave the camera on my chest.

“Look through the cabinet mirror,” Lea murmurs in awe. “You can see all the way to the end of the corridor and through the window. See the dark forest through the glass?”

I glance through them. “Wow, that’s…pretty?” And creepy. The view is eerily clear since the full moon lights the outline of the trees and…

A face.

My heart stutters in my ribcage, and I blink, then blink again.

Someone’s standing there, right in front of the window. He’s blanketed in an obsidian, golden glow and has light hair and eyes dark as the night. And he’s staring right at me.

Am I—am I going crazy?

“It’s not real,” I mutter to myself. “It’s not real.” But my eyes burn with trepidation.

Fumbling with my camera, I put it to my face and press record. Whoever he is, I will have him on camera.

If he’s really here.

Then the guy smiles. Right in the fucking camera.

And starts walking my way.

“Do you see that?” I hiss at my future audience. “There’s someone there. Someone—” I lower the camera. I can’t say the words.

He is coming my way.

A hand on my shoulder makes me jump.

“Jeez, buddy, calm down.” Levi shakes his head, laughing. “You’re freaking out.”

Lea leaves the closest toilet. “Okay, that wasn’t that bad. If you’re into filthy, old toilets with color-stained walls on which things are written and… what ?” She stares at me, eyes widening. “Finn, what’s going on, sweety? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“There’s someone out there,” I whisper. My skin crawls, anxiety shooting through my veins. “I s-saw him. And he’s coming this way.”