CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The rest of the day was uneventful. We passed the hours watching past seasons of Futurama, while Jenn slept her hangover away. Every little creak from the apartment, every blast from the monorail, or fart from Fat Rabbit had us both jumping in our seats. To say we were on edge was a bit of an understatement.
Finally, at 6 p.m. (a bit later than we left on Tuesday), we got into the Highlander and headed off toward Riverside. We were both mostly silent during the ride, too tense and overwhelmed to talk. I was scared of what we would find in the building. I knew there was some truth in what that Spook Factory chick had said about certain buildings and people being conduits to the unknown. Wherever I was, I attracted these things and it was bound to intensify in a haunted, historical place with a sordid past.
I eyed Dex occasionally as he drove, making sure he wasn’t overly tired from the Valium. So far, he seemed to be making good on my mix. The placebos obviously weren’t harming him, and the Valium would have just calmed him down a bit (which was never a bad thing), so all that was left was him dealing with his “visions.” But as long as he knew that I could see what he saw, we would be OK.
Still, there was something he had said earlier that I kept running through my thoughts during most of the day, and certainly on the drive over through the mounting darkness and the rain that occasionally splattered our windshield. It was “It’s not just Abby. I have a past that I can’t run away from.”
Not just Abby. What else was he haunted by?
But I couldn’t dwell on that forever. I was sure, especially now that he was off the pills, it would rise on its own, during some other time.
I wasn’t looking forward to that.
“You nervous, kiddo?” he asked as he pulled the car up the long, tree-lined driveway, past the cheesy Riverside logo and the flickering lamps.
“Yes,” I said, letting out a low breath.
“Me too,” he admitted. He pulled the car into the parking spot and turned off the car. Even though it was the same building as before (Block C was around the corner and in the woods a bit, naturally), it still looked scary and foreboding. I guess this time we knew exactly what – and who – lurked inside.
We sat in silence for about a minute, listening to the occasional gust of wind or sporadic rain.
“Having second thoughts?” I asked.
“Yes. You?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes.”
He reached into the front pocket of his black cargo jacket and took out the packet of rolling papers. From the other pocket he took out a small bag of weed.
He started cutting up the weed with a tiny pair of scissors he brought out of yet another pocket and shot me a quick, rather sheepish, look.
“You don’t approve.”
“I…just don’t know if now is the time to light up.”
“When was the last time you smoked pot?” he asked curiously, and started to divide the smelly grains into an open piece of rolling paper. I was amazed at how well he could see in the dark.
“I don’t know,” I started, and thought back. After high school, maybe. After the sessions with Doctor Freedman, after I crashed the car, after my parents freaked out. After the accident. “Long time ago.”
“I think this helps me. It at least makes me feel better. Maybe dulls one part of the brain while the other one lies open. My medication is obviously not doing its job anymore and I’ll be damned if I’m going into this situation totally unaware.”
I could understand that. “I’m not judging.”
“Oh, but you get that little Perry twinkle in your eye.”
I smirked at that. “I have a twinkle?”
“Oh yeah. It’s gorgeous.”
I felt embarrassed and looked out the window.
“No really,” he said. I looked back, caught by his sincerity. He rolled the smoke up, brought it up to his mouth, and ran his wide tongue along the length of it.
My inner thighs had been that joint at one point.
“Well…as I said, I’m not judging,” I told him, pushing that naughty thought out of my mind. “Lord knows I’m no angel.”
“So what was your drug background, if you don’t mind me asking.”
I kinda did mind. I really didn’t want to go dragging that back up. And I know I had explained some of it, the Cliff Notes version, to him at some point. But as he rolled down the window and lit up the joint with his gold lighter, it reminded me that I missed that part of my life. Not the drugs, but just being young and stupid. I was too afraid to be young and stupid again. At twenty three, I felt terribly immature and strangely old at the same time.
“I think I already told you.”
He inhaled and blew most of it out the window and nodded. “You did. You mentioned you did coke once or twice. Pot. Booze. Pills. Sounded like the normal teenage experience to me.”
Normal or not, it sounded heavy coming out of his mouth. But if he could be honest with me about his pills, I could be honest about this. And I really had nothing to hide, not from Dex anyway.
“It was a little bit worse than that.”
He turned in his seat to face me, undoing his seat belt and bringing his foot up on his seat.
“What was your accident?”
“My accident,” I repeated. Drugs were one thing. The accident was another.
“You always blamed whatever accident you had on the drugs. I just wanted to know what the accident was.”
Did I even remember what the accident was half the time? I remembered a fire. A shimmer in the air. I think I was just really high. Jacob was there. He started the fire and I got blamed. That was it, really. But I was having this conversation in my head and not with Dex.
“Someone started a fire at a party I was at. I got blamed. I mean, for the company I kept.”
I looked down at my hands, at the pale glow cast on them from the nearby lights.
Dex frowned while he inhaled and shot the smoke out of the corner of his mouth. His brow never relaxed.
“Reason I ask is that this morning, you were muttering something in your sleep. Which is why I woke you up.”
I looked over at him, startled. “What was I saying?”
“You were saying something about the drugs. That it was the drugs’ fault you saw…the demons.”
The word demons hit me like a brick. I felt breathless. Demons? It didn’t bring up any memories but it brought about the most disgusting, helpless feeling that crawled through my insides, just underneath the skin.
“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 f*ck 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. F*cking 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.
We were near the end of the hall when I heard something. I stopped and froze and Dex stopped with me. I listened hard, trying to quiet my breath.
A giggle.
The sound grasped my chest.
The giggle again. From right in front of me.
Then a pause. Silence, and after a beat or two, the quiet noise of our breath coming out slowly. The camera motor whirred.
The giggle appeared again, now from the other end of the hall.
“Are you recording this?” Dex whispered, meaning the EVP.
“Uh huh.” We both kept still. The giggle floated in and out. It sounded a lot like the one I had heard in the bathroom, the one belonging to Abby, but I couldn’t be sure. Did it matter in the end? I thought in this case, it might.
There was a bit more of a pause. Enough for me to straighten up and exhale loudly, not caring if it rattled the mic. I was feeling faint and dizzy and getting water seemed to be the most important thing.
“I think I need some-” I started to say but was cut off by a howling, deafening peal of laughter that came from the dark end of the hall and rushed toward us until it was coming from every direction, surrounding Dex and me. It was like we were trapped inside a cell of noise.
I waved my flashlight around wildly, trying to pinpoint something, anything, but there was nothing. Just Dex, looking more scared than usual, and the dust that was swallowing us.
“Are you getting anything?” I yelled above the laughter. It penetrated my ears and agitated the insides of my head.
He shook his head and fiddled with the camera.
And then as abruptly as it began, the laughter stopped. The silence sounded strange.
“Holy shit,” I breathed out.
Dex didn’t say anything, just continued to flip through his settings. I was about to ask him what he was doing when…
RATTLE.
At the end of the hall, a clanking, rattling sound, like someone was sliding a chain lock across. It was loud, metallic, echoing ominously in the depths.
Then it stopped and was followed by the slow CREAK of a door opening. Someone was coming out of one of the cells.
Once again, I felt nothing but fear and total, paralyzing terror. Self-defense wouldn’t make a lick of difference. I wanted to run, run away now. And fast.
I turned around to do so but Dex actually took a step toward the sound. I flashed the light on him.
“What are you doing?” I cried. “Let’s go!”
“Put that light away!” he hissed.
I couldn’t believe that after all he feared, he was walking toward the sound. And he thought I was the brave one.
He walked slowly down the hallway, eyes on the camera screen, which I could now see was in infrared mode.
I felt torn. I wanted to run but I didn’t want to leave him. I sighed, gathered up what little rope of courage I had, and followed him.
I looked at the screen. It showed way more of the hallway than my flashlight did. The infrared technology was adept at cutting through the atmospheric disturbances. It was grainy but you could still see most of the hall and the doors. They all looked closed, thank God.
Dex stopped walking and I did too. I was behind him now and felt the unknown nipping at my back. I put my hand to his waist and held it there, hoping it would bring relief to both of us.
I wanted to whisper in his ear that we should go but I couldn’t bring myself to talk. Something was showing up on the infrared.
At the very top of the screen, two faint yellow marks appeared. Two more appeared a bit below it. And two more below that. They were footprints. The outline of heels and toes.
Bare footprints.
Coming toward us.
I looked forward and was about to shine the light on whatever it was but Dex sensed this, held out his arm and pushed me behind him. We were both too afraid to speak but I knew what he was thinking. Either the direct light would scare whatever it was away.
Or it would show us what it was.
The footsteps continued and then stopped about a yard away. A strange, thick hush of air and silence enveloped us. It felt like my ears needed to pop. We both waited, crushed by the atmospheric pressure, disoriented and eyeing the screen for the footsteps to continue.
A cold, pointy finger touched the back of my neck and trailed down my spine.
I screamed. So loud.
I jumped on spot, away from the wayward hand and leaped forward into Dex.
He instinctively put his arms around me, camera in hand and all, and I buried myself into him as much as I could, trying to control my screams and the urge to vomit.
“What happened?” he cried out. I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t find my breath. “OK, come on.”
He took me under his arm and toward the door to the stairwell, putting me inside and shutting us in. It was ice cold again. He walked us into the corner of the landing, just beside the door and held me for a few minutes while I tried my hardest to gain some control of my lungs and my heart.
“Something just touched me,” I mumbled into him. “Ran its finger down my spine. From my neck to my lower back.”
Dex sighed loudly. He didn’t say anything and neither did I. This went on for a very long minute. I just kept myself huddled into his body, afraid for my life.
Finally he said, “You know what. There’s no reason I can’t do this episode by myself. You don’t need to be on camera for this. I think you should call it a day.”
I pulled back and looked up at him. I could barely see his outline in the dark hallway, the only light from the camera and flashlight.
“You want me to leave?” >
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I don’t like this. Don’t like how vulnerable you are. I’ll walk you out. Leave you with Ratchett. Or in the car. Then I’ll finish up and –
“No, Dex,” I told him. “Forget it. I’m not leaving you here with…her. And I am definitely not hanging out with Roundtree or in the car by myself.”
“But-”
“I said no. That’s not how this works and you know it. Either we do this together or we leave together. There is either us…or nothing at all.”
I was actually quite surprised I said that. But it was true. We were no good on our own. Only together did things make any sense.
He took one of his hands away from my side and slowly, deliberately scratched his chin. The sound of the hairs bristled in the space. I could tell he was licking his lips, maybe chewing on them. Thinking it all over.
Then he placed his hand on my face. It was gentle but the touch startled me in the dark. He rubbed his thumb lightly on my cheekbone. Back and forth, smoothly. Softly. He moved back in, closer to me, so my chest was against his chest. His arm around my back tightened, squeezing me. I sensed his face coming closer.
I was out of breath again.