Caleb held his iPhone up, using the flashlight to guide their way. “Juice probably got the floors mixed up.”
“Yeah, since he likes to test out his own product,” Justin said. “He probably got the location mixed up as well.”
“He does stay fried a lot,” Caleb said. “But he’s an all right guy.”
Caleb twisted his hand, sending the ray to the entrance of the fourth floor ward. They’d reached the landing, but the place still seemed deserted. This building should be filled with drunken college kids. But the only sounds he could hear inside the abandoned asylum were the howl of the wind through the broken windows and rats scurrying to get out of their way.
“I think we should go.” Justin grabbed the back of Caleb’s shirt and tugged. “There’s no one here. Juice is obviously playing some sort of prank on us.”
Caleb turned and flashed a smile of confidence. “We’ll be fine. I want to check one more floor, and then we can get out of here.”
“Look, we’ve been duped. It wouldn’t be the first time,” Justin said with bitterness. “Juice knew I would be with you. Can we just go? This place is freaking me out.” Juice didn’t like Justin. He knew that from the curl of the guy’s lip whenever Justin was near. He called Justin “ginger” and “loser” under his breath, but Justin had heard the guy.
“I shouldn’t have brought you here, Justin,” Caleb said as his eyes flashed from one darkened corner to another. “What if you get sick?”
“I’ll be fine,” Justin said. “I feel good.” Though this was one of his rare days where his body wasn’t fevered and he wasn’t vomiting everywhere. His good days were few and far between, and he wasn’t going to waste one of them sitting home. Justin had always been adventurous, even before his blood illness that rendered him as helpless as a newborn kitten on most days. But this place wasn’t something he had on his bucket list.
“For now you do,” Caleb argued and seemed pissed at himself for his foolish decision. Justin loved his best friend, but sometimes the guy was like a mother hen. “Though this place is creepy.” Caleb laughed.
His best friend swung his phone from one side of the stairwell to the other. The guy was right. This placed tipped the scale on creepy. “Why don’t you stay here, and I’ll check the last floor?”
“Are you nuts?” Justin squawked. “You’re honestly going to leave me standing here in the dark while you go upstairs with the only flashlight? I think I’ve seen this horror movie before, and I don’t care to act it out in real life.”
“Fine,” Caleb said as walked down a few steps so he could lead the way. “Let’s get out of here. Remind me to kill Juice when we see him.”
Both turned and headed back down the stairs, passing the second floor ward. Justin froze.
Caleb’s brows furrowed as he turned to look up at Justin. “Why’d you stop? I thought you wanted to get out of here.”
“Didn’t you hear that?” Justin leaned over the railing and glanced down at the next set of descending steps but didn’t see anyone. “It sounded like someone was crying.”
“I didn’t hear anything.” Caleb pulled gently on the front of Justin’s shirt. “Get moving.”
“But what if Juice tricked someone else into coming here, and she’s hurt?” It had definitely been a female cry. Justin couldn’t leave an innocent girl to suffer in this madhouse. It might be closed down, but the place felt haunted, as if the residents still roamed the halls.
“Why are we still standing here?” Caleb complained.
Justin began to shiver. He had a strange feeling that someone was watching them. He glanced up, but all he could see was darkness. Though he saw nothing, the nagging feeling of being watched hadn’t faded.
“Are you going to just stand there all night?” Caleb asked, bringing Justin out of thought. “This party is a bust. Let’s head out.”
Justin strained to hear the cry again, but save for the sounds of nature blowing through the place, it was silent. Caleb snarled and smacked his phone when the light flickered and then went out, leaving them in total darkness.
“What just happened?” Justin asked. He felt his way in the dark until he had something solid under his hands. He leeched on to his best friend, strangling the poor guy’s arm. Maybe they’d get that horror film ending after all.
“Phone died,” Caleb said with a sigh. “Just hang on to me while we work our way downstairs.”
“Does anything scare you?”
“Not much,” Caleb admitted, and Justin could hear the truth in the man’s tone. It was strong and steady. “Just stay close, J.”
“Trust me, I’m not letting you go.” Justin swallowed hard when a wave of dizziness washed over him. He shook his head, hoping to dispel it. This was not the most opportune place to pass out.
“You’re a bit hot,” Caleb said.