CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Perry,” he murmured, his voice coming out low, rough and vibrant in the echoes of the dark stairwell. It was delicious and dark, burrowing pleasantly in my ear, making me shiver again. I couldn’t quite tell where his face was but I knew it was somewhere close. Very close. Like if I leaned in one inch more, my lips would meet his lips. That kind of close.
It was unbearable.
The thumb on my cheekbone slowed down in its gentle caress. The tension between us began to spark and stiffen, like whatever was keeping us apart was going to finally bring us together.
“Perry,” he said again, slowly, smoothly. He was so close. One inch. Just one inch. “I don’t think you have any idea about the way I-”
SLAM!
A door below us slammed shut, causing a billow of cold air to come rising up in between the stairs. We both jumped and pulled back.
Great fucking timing!
Dex kept his arm around me and his warm hand at my face but turned his head and yelled, “Hello? Doctor Hasselback?”
We listened hard but couldn’t hear anything. I could hear my heart whooshing loudly though. More from the way it had seemed like Dex was about to kiss me than from whoever just came into or left the stairwell. The way you what, Dex!?
The moment was gone, though. Dex let go of me completely and then shone the flashlight down the middle of the stairwell.
“See anything?” I asked, my voiced coming out all squeaky like a pubescent boy.
“No,” he said, drawing the word out. “But I think we should still check it out.”
I let out the air I had been holding inside me for the last few minutes. It floated away in the frigid air.
He turned around and placed one hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m serious about taking you out of here.”
I put my hand on top of his hand and gave it a squeeze. So we were just going to forget about what just almost happened. What else was new? Back to the damn ghosts.
“I know. I’m staying. Staying until we both go.”
He didn’t say anything for a few beats and began to move toward me again. My heart held still.
But then he hesitated, took my hand into his and led me to the stairs. He gave me the flashlight and told me to light our way.
We both made our way down carefully until we were at the second level. The door here was shut like it was before.
“Time to try floor number two. Same deal. OK, kiddo?”
I let out a small sound that sounded like a “yes” and we stepped into the next hallway.
This hallway was exactly like the one above. The same locked rooms. The same dust in the air. At least now I didn’t have to be a host in any way. Dex filmed with one arm, while he kept his other arm around me, holding me snuggly into his side the whole time. I was grateful for his protectiveness even though every other second I was worried some creature was going to touch me from behind.
Everything went more or less smoothly (considering the circumstances) until he stopped in front of one of the doors to a patient’s room. It was hard to tell from the light my flashlight was splashing on it, but it looked to be a different color from the other doors. A green instead of a white. The bolts also looked shiny and new. And the little slot window that you slid across? Well, that was open half an inch. You couldn’t see anything but…
“What do you think?” he asked me. He wanted to know if we should open the slot.
“I don’t think so,” I said softly, my voice barely registering.
“You don’t have to open it. I will. Just film me.” He took his arm off me and placed the camera in my free hand. I took it clumsily and tried to aim it in his direction. It was hard. I was shaking so much from the fear. I knew he was going to do this no matter what I said.
He stepped up to the door and first tried the deadbolt. It was locked from the inside like the others. Strange, when you thought about it, but I was relieved we wouldn’t have to be exploring a padded cell in the dark.
I kept the camera on his face, on close-up, as he looked at the slot inquisitively. Even through the grainy green light of night vision, he looked great on camera, better than I did. I wanted to think about that instead of what he was about to do.
“Give me the flashlight,” he said, with his hand extended. I placed it in it.
He raised it up to the slot, put his fingers on the small knob and slowly slid the window across.
I waited with bated breath for something to come jumping out, like a hand or something, but nothing happened.
We waited a few moments. Dex eyed the camera and gave it a little wink. Then he leaned in closer to the slot and aimed the flashlight in there to get a better look inside.
I kept the camera on him, the focus coming in and out, trying to catch him, but took my eyes away from it and watched in real life. I leaned forward for a better view. Part of me wanted to see what was inside, no matter how scared I was.
We both huddled around the slot as Dex illuminated a dark corner of the room.
We couldn’t see too much, but what we could see was in fact a padded cell. The walls looked like a fresh, clean mattress under the concentrated light. It faded and fuzzed out into a heavy mask of blackness on the sides where the light wouldn’t reach.
We exchanged a look and I leaned in even closer. This was as creepy as anything. A pristine-looking padded cell. He nodded, understanding what I was thinking. Then he shone the light over to the other corner of the room.
A small, bald man was standing there. Still as death. His back to us. Staring at the wall.
I felt an immense flow of evil seep out of the window and take hold of my body in a paralyzing grip. I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t look at Dex or check if I was aiming the camera correctly. I was stuck, my eyes locked onto this man in the straightjacket in the murky depths of the locked padded cell.
The man turned, slowly, to look at us. His face was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. It burned itself in my memory. He had only a wide, black mouth filled with bloody, wet teeth. No eyes and no nose. Essentially…no face.
Then the spell was over.
The man moved so fast toward us that he almost disappeared, until his gleaming, gaping mouth appeared at the slot, snapping and yelping horribly in our faces.
Dex and I both screamed in unison and turned to run for our fucking lives. Dex held me up as I almost went down; I dropped the flashlight but couldn’t care. We booked it down the hallway, moving as fast as humanly possible, our screams still emanating from our lungs, following us as we went.
We piled into the stairwell and ran down the steps two at a time, running and jumping until the stairs stopped and we slammed into a door.
Dex quickly flung it open and we burst inside a large, dark space, both collapsing onto a concrete floor. It scraped up my knees but I didn’t care. I rolled onto my back, whimpering, unable to think, to breathe, to talk. The terror was taking hold of me and bringing tears to my eyes. I kept seeing the faceless face of the man in the cell, those bloodied, slightly pointed teeth. The smoothness where the eyes and nose should have been.
“Perry?” I heard Dex spit out. I opened my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. It was dim in here, wherever we were, but my eyes were quickly adjusting to some type of light. Natural light.
Dex laid his hand on my stomach causing me to jump.
“Sorry,” he said between gasps. “I didn’t know where you were.”
I grabbed hold of his hand and held it. Held it so tight that it must have hurt him, at least a little bit.
He grunted and I felt him adjust himself beside me.
“Can you sit up?” he asked.