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The Asylum sat far up on the hill behind my house. Lee only lived a few houses down so we both knew the layout. In the late fall and on clear winter days, a few of the windows poked out between the forest trees and stared like eyes over the cul-de-sac. Even from the distance, it was foreboding and very much forbidden. Even my parents, who trusted me not to make stupid decisions, had forbade me from ever going near this place.
In the school, the kids told ghost stories about its abandoned halls and twisted brain experiments.
Lee and I had decided it would be a meaningful album cover for the Hallow’s Greed band competition. The access road to the abandoned property ran behind Lee’s house so she had the opportunity to watch and monitor it over the course of the summer. “Nobody ever comes or goes,” she explained now as we all huffed as sweat fought it’s way down our brows.
Sierra seemed to be the sole human on earth that was unbothered by eighty-five degree and humid weather. She strode easily in blue and grey camoed short-shorts I wished suited my tastes but for me, everything had to be black and long sleeved. I had opted for black jeans with gaping holes in them which helped some with air circulation but my skin was still roasting. The camera in my hands was heavy and even though I was keeping the weight off the strap around my neck it still made an uncomfortable pocket of sweat beneath my hair.
We trekked through the woods to the dilapidated building. It was hot enough that only the mosquitos were out and about and they buzzed annoyingly in our ears but we made it after several minutes.
The asylum had never looked so big from afar. It had always looked like a small but creepy building. Up close I craned my neck to see the top floor. Most of the windows were broken completely. Glass littered the ground in a perimeter that glittered wherever the sunlight touched. In my opinion, the building could have used a better architect. The front was flat other than the front entry which jutted out awkwardly. Even the window holes had no frames and no shutters. Above each column of windows the roof sloped up to form a peak, many of which were just a bit off enough that my brain hated it. Even if it wasn’t obvious which way(left or right) they were off by.
“This is awesome,” Lee said. “It’s perfect. It’s creepy and everyone will be in the mood for creepy at Hallow’s Greed.”
“Are you sure there aren’t any homeless people living there?” Chrisitan asked. He too was staring up at the building while his foot nervously shook a clump of dead leaves off.
“I told you, nobody come or goes from here. If anybody tried to live here like that, they would’ve starved to death by now.” Lee bounced excitedly. “This is awesome, I want to see what the inside looks like,” she started to pick her way through the last of the underbrush and stepped into the sunlight. The ground made a strange sound and with an experimental kick, Lee uncovered a fallen piece of chain link fence.
“Don’t trip,” she told us and continued on to the arched entryway.
We followed, less enthusiastic. I absolutely understood why this place has so many rumours about being haunted. It looked like it belonged in a horror movie. Dark black smudges of mold stretched between the eaves and under the windows. It looked like the asylum had bled out.
The door was locked, but its large glass window had been broken and Sierra produced some bolt cutters to cut the shiny chain coiled around the handles.
Inside was cooler, and despite the immediate profane and occasionally satanic graffiti, we all felt a breath of relief. It was humid and musty but it was bearable compared to outside.
“If we get separated, try to meet up here,” Lee said.
A loud rattle drew our attention to Ellias who was already shaking a can of green spray paint to leave his mark. Christian looked into the bag curiously and pulled out another can.
“Come on,” Lee groaned, “let’s find a proper place to shoot.”
Ellias, in a quick motion, sprayed a penis on the entryway and hurried to follow.
We explored room after room. Each one was a little bit less violated than the last. In the front hallway, every inch of the walls had been covered with spray painted words and symbols. Some of them more appropriate than others. The hall seemed to go on forever and as we walked through, the paint on the walls shifted from long profanities and inverted pentacles to even scarier things. Lee was fascinated. “That’s a summoning circle for Lucifer,” she said, pointing to a pentacle with several ornate symbols surrounding it. “I love it but we should probably be careful. Who knows what people have brought into this building.”
I wasn’t one to believe in ghosts or demons but this place still made my skin crawl. A lot of the graffiti was done in bright red and gleamed like it was actively giving off an evil aura.
In one of the larger rooms, way down at almost the end of the hallway, a bunch of old cots were strewn about. All of the mattresses were missing. Rust and spiderwebs coated each one in turn. A hot breeze blew through the broken windows.
“Well damn,” Ellias said. “This looks promising.”
“Gimme the pipe,” Lee told him. He produced it and Lee picked her way through the debris. She leaned against the wall, experimenting until it playfully slanted toward a the window and then she scurried back to my side and made a rectangle with her hands to view it.
“It’s perfect,” she said. “Shoot it.” I squinted at the bright window but raised the camera to start adjusting the settings.
A few loud shutter snaps later I reviewed the photo. As I expected the majority of the foreground was silhouetted. I showed it to Lee who frowned. “Can’t you fix it?” she asked.
“I can’t fix the sun,” I told her.
She pouted. “Okay well… we’ll figure it out.”
“If we wait until it’s mostly dark, it’ll work.”
Lee shook her head. “It would ruin it. We need the contrast, you know. This rusty old pipe and the pretty sunlight behind it.”
“I mean, are we sure we’re going to go with ‘Rusty Ol' Pipes as a band name anyway?” Ellias asked. “We can be more general with the album art so we have options.”
“But then its not as polished,” Lee grumbled.
“Uh, guys,” Christian said. He was standing in the doorway, looking down the hall. “I think I hear a voice.”
Lee made a face and went over to stand next to him. “Oh yeah,” she said. “It sounds like an old man.”
I waited for them to finish confusing groaning old buildings with the voices of the dead.
“If I tried it at a different angle, we could maybe get some good photos. They wouldn’t be that much different,” I told Lee, but she was too focused on what was going on outside the hall.
With a few well placed steps, I crossed over and started to reshoot the photo. It continued to be imperfect. It was difficult to find a good place to stand as the floor was covered with old medical equipment. I gently scooched an old white shirt that I realized was a straitjacket. An uncomfortable shudder ran up my spine. I didn't like the idea of restraining someone against their will, but I could understand it was sometimes necessary.
I kept taking photos as I got closer and closer to the wall. There was a stain on the wall that disturbed me. I doubted it was actually blood, but it had the right dark brown color to be dried blood.
“Guys,” Lee whispered suddenly. Christian and her had crouched down close to the floor and had drawn back in to the room. “I don’t think we’re alone in here.”
I stopped. I was trapped next to the far wall and between me was enough clutter to give us away. Ellias started to approach me, offering a hand to help me balance in an attempt to silently move back to the door.
“Hello?” a man’s voice said somewhere far away.
I froze. I think we all held our breath as we realized we had to get out of here. We were going to get into trouble, and at best we would just be led out of the building. But at worst we’d all end up with juvie records. We were too young for that.
I took Ellias’ hand and he helped me take a particularly difficult step.
“Security, this is private property,” said the distant man. He sounded closer now. A moment later a loud bang echoed down the hall. I wobbled as I took the last step to solid, clear ground.
“Heelllloooooo?” came the voice again.
Lee waved us closer to the door.
“I think we might be able to get to the door before he finds us,” Lee whispered.
Ellias started to inch toward the door. “No,” he said. “Unless we run. I think he’s too close for us to sneak out.”
Lee looked back at me and Sierra, who was standing a few feet away. And then she held up her hand with three fingers. Her fist bobbed and then there were two. And then just one.
Her fist closed and she made a ‘go’ gesture. All of us, even Christian, bolted without question. I held the camera close to my chest and ran. I felt the expensive piece of technology bounce against my chest with every stride. We were making good time, but then the man came around the corner down the hall. He was between us and the front door. We skidded as a group. Our formation broke Ellias looked behind us, finding the dead end we’d just come from. “Split up,” he ordered. And started back the way we’d come. Christian followed him. Lee, Sierra and I saw a hallway a few paces down. The man had started to run toward us. We made it to the hallway and after a short distance, there was another intersection. “Go that way,” I told Lee and Sierra. I was faster than them, and would be more likely okay on my own. As I ran, I made no effort to be quiet. My feet smacked against the floor loudly. I couldn’t hear clearly over my own breathing and the blood pounding in my ears but I could hear the muffled shouts. I didn’t know what exactly he was saying but it didn’t sound kind. It didn’t sound like a simple halt or you, there.
I charged deeper into the halls. I reached the end of this one and turned, going full speed up some stairs. And then down another hallway. My foot caught on a stretcher blocking the hall. I stumbled, used the wall to rebalance and kept going.
My only thought was to get away. Get away, get away, get away.
I kept going, I was aware I was now on a second floor, and that I had to get down, but I saw an exit sign ahead, pointing to another flight. I took them. At the base it was dark and quiet. I stopped finally. There were no windows so I had no idea where I actually was. The only light was from the stairwell and the rest of the halls were black.
My breath was ragged and I leaned on the wall. My fingers came away covered in cobwebs and dirt. The man was quiet. He must not’ve been nearby. In this brief moment of safety I pulled my phone out and looked at the maps. Unfortunately there was no service in the basement. I couldn’t see the location sharing. I hoped they had made it outside.
I started, feeling overtired, into the darkness. There had to be windows somewhere. I was on the first floor. And even if there was only a broken window, I’d be able to get out. That was my hope.
As I continued and it only got darker, I had to rely on my phone’s light. I knew it made me stick out but I needed to see. As I kept going, I was losing faith that I was actually on the first floor and not in the basement. It was comfortably cool down here and damp. And then I heard the footsteps.
I turned and covered my phone light. There was another light far down the hallway where the stairwell was.
I held my breath as the beam started to sweep back and forth. And then it caught on me.
“You,” the man shouted. “Get back here.”
I started running again. I had to sacrifice my camera’s security in favor of the light. I tried to balance both of them. As the hall got darker and darker, the floor got clearer and clearer.
Up ahead, a door looked promising. A red and white sign was mounted there and then I skidded to a stop.
No. I stared at the word there. No, no, no.
“Maintenance.” The door mocked me. The word mocked me.
“Gotcha,” the man said finally. He was huffing as he sneered. “Finally got one of you punks.
I saw a night stick in his other hand which he pointed at me. “Come with me,” he ordered.
There wasn’t a choice. I was cornered now. I highly doubted the maintenance room would go anywhere useful.
I started to take a step. The man moved his light from my face to the door behind me. He frowned.
“You, too,” he said to the darkness.
Oh no, I thought. Who else was getting in trouble?
Turning, I saw the door creaking open. It was slow enough I may have believed it was simply a breeze. But there were fingers along the edge. Pale as bone, they almost looked skeletal in their frailness.
My stomach lurched. This wasn’t anyone I knew.
“That’s right, bitch, come on out,” the man grinned. He was enjoying this.
A musty smell seeped from that room. The man’s face faltered, falling to an uncomfortable frown. With another glance behind me, I saw why. The eyes of the creature were red. They glowed a dim cerise.
I knew I had to get away. I didn’t know much about demons or ghosts, but that thing was not human. I took a few shaking steps backwards, toward the man.
“Who’s?” he asked. I heard fear in his voice and then he pushed past me with his baton.
The eyes narrowed at him, scrutinizing him.
“Come out here you mother –”
The eyes vanished as he was cut off mid sentence. I heard a wheeze as his back hit the floor hard. The creature was a black blur.
The man screamed. It was an awful sound. It wasn’t a yell of pain, nor of surprise. It was a scream of someone who knows they’re about to die. A scream that came from deep in the soul.
In a second, the creature was pulling. The man scratched at the floor, trying to hang on.
I was frozen as he slid into the darkness. His screams continued. The creature had dragged him somewhere into the darkness.
And then with a final hanging note, it went silent.
My heart pounded. There was a dark smear on the ground I didn’t dare shine my light on for fear it was fresh blood.
I almost managed to stomach the scene when the ripping started.
Get away. I convinced myself. Get. Away.
The sound was going to haunt me forever. Not because it was particularly bad. It was a quiet tearing, like pulling the skin off a piece of raw chicken. But knowing that it was a human that it came from turned my stomach.
My legs wobbled as I finally convinced them to move. One step after another toward the other end of the hall, toward the stairs, toward the light. Before I processed the aching of my muscles, I was sprinting, up and then around, back down another flight and I threw myself out of a window, falling onto a pile of broken glass on the other side.
The sun beat down, and my eyes burned from the sudden contrast after the dark and the gloom. I put a hand up to shield myself and stumbled, now bleeding on my hands and knees, down the hill.
He was an awful man. But I never meant for him to die.
AN: Hello people, I'm new here so I though I'd introduce myself. I am SRFox on ScribbleHub, WatashiNoKitsune or WNK on some other websites. I've been writing for a long time now. Please leave any constructive criticisms you have in the comments or reviews or whatever.
I need to give credit to TheSundaeSundae over on webtoons for that wonderful cover illustration, she did a really good job and I have a lot of respect for her craft. If you like the darker side of things you can check out some of her webcomics here:
https://www.webtoons.com/en/creator/sundae
She does really good work.
Thank you for your support <3