“Now we’re cooking with gas,” Dex said with a smile. He was pleased to keep going; lord knows how important the show was to him, but I could tell he was the tiniest bit torn up about leading me up there and inviting the same kind of torment.
I was torn, too, but I determined to go through with it. One of those instances where turning back wouldn’t really make much difference. This ghost was appearing in his apartment for crying out loud. It was wherever I went. That thought sunk my chest like a heavy rock through water.
We walked up to the third floor and entered the hallway, which was still barely lit by the lantern on the ground. Some of his equipment lay scattered about, including the EVP gadget, which was propped up against the wall, lights blinking, obviously recording.
Dex held up the camera and motioned down the hall. “Now we’ll just try each door and see what happens.”
I nodded and walked forward into the darkness, the lantern now swinging from my arm. The only sounds were our footsteps and my heart in my head. We stopped at the first door. It had no numbers on it. I paused before I tried the handle and looked at Dex and the camera.
“Where is everyone, anyway?” I asked him in nothing more than a whisper.
“What do you mean?” his voice automatically lowered to match mine.
“When I was downstairs. I heard people in their rooms. But I never saw any nurses. Do they really leave people alone like that? Is that normal?”
He shrugged. “It could be. If they operate by different hours here and they control those hours, this might be their bedtime. I’m sure Roundtree is flitting about in her bat-like way, but that’s probably it. The place I was in had over 100 patients but I’m sure one head nurse could handle them all when they are supposed to be sleeping.”
“But how can they sleep now?” It was so fucking early.
“Kiddo, I don’t know. We can ask the doctor on Thursday. But for now, we’re running out of time, OK. Just…try the door.”
I sighed and turned to it. I placed my hand on the handle and it shocked me with a giant bolt of static electricity that left me speechless for a few seconds and unable to move. It was like I had been poking around a live light bulb.
“Jesus Christ, that was some shock!” Dex exclaimed. “I could see that as clear as lightening. Are you OK?”
I nodded when I found my nerves again but was a bit iffy about touching the knob. I stepped back and said, “You try it.”
Dex grimaced in the low light but he stepped forward, hand extended. He placed it on the knob….
…and shook back and forth violently, his teeth chattering loudly with his spasms.
“Dex!” I yelled and came forward, unsure of whether I should touch him or not.
But he stopped abruptly and took his hand away from the door. “Just kidding.”
He smiled at me. Enraged, I punched him on the shoulder. Hard. “That wasn’t fucking funny, you asshole!”
“It was kind of funny,” he said, still smiling, though it was disappearing slowly.
I crossed my arms and shook my head. “No, it wasn’t. And you’re opening all the doors from now on.”
He pouted but his lips reversed when he realized how angry I was. How dare he just make light of that, considering everything that had been happening to me. After everything I had just told him. What a fucking chump.
“Sorry kiddo, I was just-”
“Just open the fucking door,” I said.
He nodded quickly and tried. The knob actually turned and the door opened with a tiny push from his shoulder.
We stood in the doorway and I brought the lantern light forward. At first we could only see the swirling dust catching in the beam, but after it settled and our eyes learned to look past it, we could see a narrow room comprised of a single bed, a sink with a cloudy mirror above it, an armoire, a door to either a bathroom or a closet, and a side table. The window was covered by a heavy shade that blocked out most of the light from outside.
“So this is what they look like on the inside,” I said while breathing out. “This is terrible. To live like this…”
Dex didn’t say anything. He pushed the door open wider, pushing in the lock on the knob as he did so, and stepped in. I wasn’t too eager to follow him. I stood where I was in the doorway.
“Was it like this for you?” I asked. I couldn’t help but relate everything we were going through to him. It was hard not to. We were in a mental hospital, who better to know what was going on than someone who had lived in one. For two whole years. It still boggled my mind.
“A bit,” he answered hesitantly. “A bit bigger. It was New York. And I did have some inheritance at the time. But the same idea.”
And there I was, feeling sorry for him again while seconds earlier he had acted like the biggest jerk in the world. I breathed out a puff of angry air, annoyed at my stupid feelings.
“What is it?” he asked, his head turning toward me in the dark.
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “Now what? Film the room? There’s not much in here. I’m not sure what you were hoping to find.”
“Can you come in and close the door?”
I could. But I didn’t want to. “Why?”
“Just…do it.”
I looked back at the empty, black hall behind me and wondered if something was watching us play it all out. I shivered. I wouldn’t be safe anywhere.
I stepped in the room, still careful not to make any excess noise, and slowly shut the door.
“OK,” I said.
“Turn off the lantern.”
“Are you serious?”
He walked over to the sink and placed the camera on the edge of it. Then he walked across to the bed, which only consisted of a moldy-looking mattress, and sat down. He patted the space beside him.
“Sit down and turn it off.”
I didn’t know what his plan was but I knew I didn’t like it. I still did what he said, though. Mainly because Dex had an uncanny ability of being right when things seemed overly wrong.
I sat beside him, immediately feeling the cold seep in through my pant bottoms. I shivered from the thought of rampant mold on my ass.
Dex took the lantern from me, turned it off and placed it on the floor. Then he put his arm around me and pressed me up against him, shoulder to shoulder.
“Um, what are you doing?” I asked suspiciously.
“Trying to comfort you.”
Was he? I couldn’t tell in the dark, in this small claustrophobic room on the abandoned floor of a mental hospital. There could be no comfort here.
“I’m OK, Dex,” I said and lifted his arm off me. He took it back and didn’t say anything. I could tell his attention was already somewhere else.
“What are we-”
“Shhhh,” he hissed.
I shut my mouth, stopped my breath, and listened. At first I couldn’t hear anything except the rain outside and the occasional blast of winter wind.