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“What is it?” he asked.
I shook my head, not sure how to even answer that. “I don’t know.”
He watched me for a few beats, then nodded, satisfied. He put the joint out in the car ashtray and stuck the rest in the baggie with the weed and put it back in his pocket.
“Well, I suppose we should go in,” he said, and opened the car door.
We got out into the chilled air and walked over to the building. I kept thinking about the demons. What did it mean? Had I been seeing things back then? Actually seeing things? And what, if anything, did they have to do with the accident? My brain was sluggish and slow, like memories were trapped around certain corners and it would take a lot of poking about to finally discover them. I didn’t like that idea. There were some parts of my head I felt were better left undiscovered. Hidden, buried away.
We approached the front doors and were surprised to see Roundtree on the other side of them.
“Looks like Nurse Ratchett was waiting for us,” Dex said out of the corner of his mouth. We waved and she opened the heavy doors with a grunt.
“You’re back. I was told. I’ll go get the doctor.”
She turned and scuttled down the hall.
“Still think she likes you?” I asked him, poking him in the side.
He squirmed. “Yes. I’m telling you, I win over everyone, sooner or later.”
He pointed his finger at me like a gun and cocked it with his thumb. “You included, kiddo.”
I rolled my eyes. As silly as he could be at times, I was grateful for the playfulness dispersed among the other topics. Sometimes I wondered how things would be if it were just Dex and me on some tropical beach somewhere, free from games and ghost hunting and lies and responsibility. I actually thought about it quite often. It was kind of my happy place when the chips were down.
Soon Doctor Hasselback was coming toward us in a heavy overcoat with a fedora on his head, looking like something out of a classic film like The Lost Weekend. He waved the keys at us.
“I’ve got to let you in,” he said, stepping out into the cold and nodding at Roundtree. She went back to her post, the door slamming shut behind her. Hasselback gave us a terse smile.
“Nice to see you two again,” he said. “I trust that everything went well the other day.”
“Yes,” Dex said, smiling. “And I’m assuming everything went well on your end.”
The doctor shrugged and walked off toward a path that led around the building. We followed him and his coat that billowed behind him.
“So what did you find?” he said, yelling over his shoulder at us.
“We’re pretty sure we found the dead security guard who killed himself,” Dex spoke up.
“Which one?”
Dex and I exchanged a look.
Hasselback continued his way past manicured gardens and hedge animals that looked straight out of The Shining. Everything looked extra eerie in the dark of night and the unpredictable rain that hit the ground added to the effect.
After a few minutes of walking, we came across a building nestled among tall, swaying cedar trees.
Hasselback paused a few yards back and looked up. We all did.
The building was a bit smaller than the main one, but was completely dark and unkempt. Hasselback turned around and smiled at us. It looked sinister in the shadows. That could have just been me being paranoid.
“This is it,” he said, and placed the keys in Dex’s hands. “Run these back to Roundtree when you’re done.”
He started to walk away.
“Wait, hold on,” I called out, stopping the doctor. “That’s it? Aren’t you going to warn us about certain things? Tell us where we can go and can’t go?”
The doctor smiled again. “You can go anywhere. And there’s nothing to warn you about. I know you two are worried; it does look rather foreboding in the dark, but we still have our janitors clean in there once a week. They never report anything. It’s empty, cleaned out, and absolutely free to explore.”
I wasn’t sure about that. This was the building where dangerous killers were housed for years.
He nodded at Dex. “Just bring your car around here; there’s a small parking lot at the side. You can bring out your equipment, get set up, and go to it.”
“You’re sure? You don’t want to give us a tour, maybe a small one on camera…” Dex said.
Hasselback laughed, pressing his hand against his abdomen. “You kids are not going to find anything. That’s why I don’t mind. Now, if you both will politely excuse me, I have to go home. Roundtree will be around if you need her, but I’ve got a cocktail party at the Four Seasons at eight, and I’m already running a bit behind.”
He gave us a short salute and walked off into the night, his coat waving like a stiff flag.
“Well…that was…” Dex said, not finishing his sentence.
“Weird? I agree.”
Dex rubbed his chin hair, making a scratchy noise that stood out against the vague and constant wind.
“I shouldn’t complain though. Free rein of Block C. Let’s see Spook Factory compete with that.”
It didn’t really matter if this was about our competition or not. It was unnerving to have access to an abandoned part of a mental hospital, even if the administrator was sure we wouldn’t find anything. Actually, it was that fact that was the most unnerving of all. This was the perfect set-up for a horror movie.
I looked at Dex. He stood there gazing up at the building, hands in his pockets, his shaggy hair spiking up in the breeze.
“Are you thinking about backing out again?” I asked.
“Of course. You?”
I walked over to him and looked up. The place was scary as fuck and seemed to radiate an intense paranormal energy that I had rarely come across. D’Arcy Island, the dead heart of it, had something very similar.
I told Dex that and he agreed.
“I know, kiddo. And I don’t think any amount of drugs is going to save me tonight.”
My heart started beating a bit faster at that admission. I placed my hand at his back and leaned in, “It’s not too late to back out.”
“It kind of is,” he said sadly. Then he exhaled, rolled his shoulders up and down. He pasted a cheesy grin on his face. “OK, let’s do this, get it done, and get out.”
It was moments like this I wish we had some theme song. I just nodded and we went back to the car, driving it down the slight winding driveway and parking at the side of Block C.
We spent the next ten minutes gathering up all of our equipment, including the EVP gadget that we hadn’t even listened to yet. Sometimes I wondered if we were the absolute worst ghost hunters on earth. We were at least close.
We entered the building after trying the key several times in the old lock. The doors were just as heavy as the main building and though there was a tiny hint of Lemon Pledge in the air, it had a terribly musty and damp smell that flew out from the depths and hit me in the face.
“Pleasant,” I said, coughing a bit at the dust that our movement scattered in the air.
“It’s probably more pleasant now than it was back in the day,” he said. The door slammed behind us, causing more particles to fly forward. It was surprisingly colder inside and I had this gross feeling of dampness that clung to my skin. Immediate clamminess. I shuddered and Dex nodded.
“Yeah. Fucking gross,” he agreed, reading my expression. He flicked on a flashlight and handed it to me. Though we needed it to see, it made everything even eerier.
“Let’s start on the top floor and work our way down,” he said, gesturing to the nearest stairwell. I nodded. Slowly. Not wanting to at all. He handed me the EVP recorder and told me to have it running the whole time. Then he attached a small wireless mic to my leather jacket collar, tested the sound quickly with his ear buds, and we were ready.
Of course, I had to walk first, being the host and all. It helped to have the flashlight and that Dex had the green night vision running on his camera, but it didn’t make me feel any less like shitting myself.
The stairwell was cold. Ice cold. I shivered uncontrollably and jumped a bit as the door shut behind us, sealing us in this freezer.
“Now this is a cold spot,” Dex muttered, aiming the camera at me. I knew he wanted me to do most of the talking.
“It’s like being in a walk-in freezer,” I said, trying to speak clearly for the microphone. “At least a few degrees colder in here than it is outside.”
I pointed my flashlight up the stairwell and walked up, carefully, my boots sliding a bit at the strange dampness on the steps. It was gross and grimy and I had a feeling that the janitors never cleaned this place at all.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the door to the third level. I opened it up and was immediately blasted by an Arctic breeze that rushed past me from behind. It was enough to knock me over slightly and cause me to let go of the door. It shut in our face.
I turned to see Dex on the step below me, trying not to blind him with the flashlight. “Did you feel that?”
“I did,” he replied uneasily.
I took in a few deep breaths. “That was like…the wind was racing us up the stairs.” Wind. Or a ghost.
Dex nodded, knowing what I was saying. “Time to keep going.”
I swallowed and let out a sharp breath through my cold nose. I opened the door again, expecting the weird wind spirit to brush past me again. But when nothing did, I pushed it further and we both stepped out onto the top level.
“So, we’ll just walk to the end and back,” he said.
“Just like last time.” I could handle routine.
“Just like.”
I aimed the light down the long hallway. The dust here was rampant and obscured most of the light, like it was eating it alive. The thought made me shiver. It felt very wrong to be there. The dust itself was like some sort of entity, pushing us back.
“I don’t like this,” I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. “I can feel something here…something that wasn’t in the other building.”
“Good,” he said. “Keep saying what’s on your mind.”
Ah, Dex was already just thinking about what sounded best for the show. I wish I had the ability to shut down the fear and let my logic take over. Then again, his voice didn’t sound as steady as it usually did.
I felt him take a step toward me, his presence more than comforting.
“I’ll be right here. A few feet behind. You can do this.”
I let out another deep breath and started slowly walking. The dust swirled and danced, creating weird shapes and clouds in the vague light. The floor was clean but greasy and stuck to the bottom of my feet.
Occasionally I would shine the light to the sides to show the rooms that were there and I could hear Dex craning the camera to follow. The doors were all closed like the other building but there was one major, and spooky, difference. Each door here had several deadbolts on it as well as a little window slot that you slid open from the outside. Just like you’d see in prison. In solitary confinement. I wondered if the insides were padded cells but I didn’t want to open the slot to find out. I had a feeling if I pointed it out, Dex would ask me to do it.
