Haunted Hospital

by Marty Chan

  The sheet of plywood was loose.

  Chapter Three

  Xander had found a way in. He pried the plywood sheet farther away from the window and crawled inside. His jacket snagged on a loose nail and tore a hole in the shoulder. Xander stuck a finger through the hole in the fabric and shook his head.

  “Mom is totally going to kill me,” he muttered.

  He fished his phone out of his back pocket and switched on the flashlight mode. He swept the beam across the walls of the dusty room. The place reeked.

  Xander headed to the door and pulled it open. The hinges groaned as the door swung inward. He poked his head into the hallway and flashed the light both ways. At one end was a large counter at the nurses’ station. Beside the black-topped desk a gurney sat on its side, rusted caster wheels dangling from the legs.

  At the other end of the hallway, double doors led deeper into the heart of the haunted hospital. The scene reminded Xander of an old video game his dad used to play. Silent Hill. He remembered once sneaking a peek as his dad killed zombie nurses and having nightmares for a month.

  A clang echoed from somewhere deep in the bowels of the building.

  “What was that?” Xander asked. “Get a grip. It’s nothing.”

  Talking aloud to himself helped calm his nerves. He took a breath and entered the hallway. The nurses’ station would make a perfect home base for the game, he noted, and took a photo. He flipped the gurney back onto its wheels and pushed it against the counter. The metal frame squeaked and groaned, but it could still roll.

  Suddenly a dark shape shot out from behind the station and scooted down the hallway. Xander aimed the light at it, his entire body throbbing with instant adrenaline.

  “What was that?”

  He crept toward the double doors.

  “Who’s here?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “Anyone here—”

  Hiss-ss-ss!

  Xander froze as a gray cat bolted past him and zipped behind the nurses’ station. Xander clutched the phone against his chest. He could feel his heart pounding.

  “Okay, kitty. Nice kitty. Stupid kitty.”

  Once his heart rate had returned to normal, Xander began to explore the maze of hallways that twisted and turned deeper and deeper into the building. He checked each of the rooms along the way. Some were empty. A couple still had beds in them. He took photos of potential sites that might work for Spirits and Specters.

  And it was giving him some story ideas. He tapped the voice-recorder app on his phone and spoke into it.

  “Alison Rigby died in this very room on a chilly winter night,” he said, recounting some of the details from the legend he had researched. They would be great for the mission setup. “Even though she had contracted TB, she might have lived longer if the doctors hadn’t injected her with experimental drugs. Her screams filled the hallways. The medical staff observed the poor woman gasping for air in her final moments. She died in utter pain and fear. Now her spirit walks the halls.” When he was done, he played it back. “Not bad, if I do say so myself. I just need more haunted rooms for inspiration.”

  He propped the door open with a rubber doorstop he had found on the floor and noted the room number—176. He navigated new corridors, identifying landmarks to help him find his way back. His light flashed on an Exit sign. The door opened to a stairwell. But Xander couldn’t go up or down. A giant tangle of barbed wire was nailed across both flights of stairs.

  Xander spoke into his phone. “Stick to the main floor. No sense in wrecking more of my clothes.”

  He headed out of the stairwell and explored the rest of the corridor. Another set of double doors loomed in the distance. He aimed his light at them.

  Two eyes reflected back at him from behind one of the windows. “What the heck?” When Xander looked closer, the eyes were gone.

  “Stupid cat,” he muttered. “Had to be the cat. Right? Yeah. And why are you still talking to yourself, man? Get a grip.”

  Xander’s feet suddenly felt like he had stepped in wet concrete. He raised the phone and aimed the beam of light at the closed doors again. No sign of the eyes.

  “Must have been my imagination.” He turned on the recorder app. “If I can figure out how to make something that looks like reflecting eyes, Li will lose her mind. Note to self—buy marbles and string.”

  Xander willed his feet to move forward. He inched closer to the doors, keeping the light trained on the windows. His legs tingled with anticipation.

  He carefully pushed one of the doors open. A rush of air and dust swirled up. He shone the light down the hallway.

  “Whoa. The gang is going to love this place.”

  Xander thought for a second about whether he should continue to explore. He swept the flashlight beam along the walls and doors. Two gurneys were off to one side, some large cardboard boxes on the other. The hallway looked pretty much like the others. He decided he had seen enough and turned away.

  As he made his way back through the maze of corridors, he switched his camera to video mode and filmed everything. A video map of the hospital layout would be useful for planning their stories.

  He neared a corridor blocked off with a web of yellow hazard tape, and the stench of mold and mildew shot up his nose. He shone his light through the web. Parts of the ceiling had fallen down, and water dripped onto the floor. The floor was shiny with some kind of gross green gunk.

  He spoke into his phone. “Watch out for places with yellow warning tape. Parts of the building aren’t really safe. Try to score some hospital gowns and bedsheets for set decoration and wardrobe. Maybe at the thrift store? Ooh, yeah. If we can find some surgical masks, definitely get those.”

  He stepped away from the yellow tape.

  “Working my way back to home base,” he said. “Rooms 176, 148, 112 and 129 are all great. Need some chalk to mark off the halls so people don’t get lost.”

  He continued to film until he reached the nurses’ station. Then he checked the video. Although the images were dark, they provided enough sense of the layout to help him plan out the missions.

  Xander’s chest tightened. Did he just see what he thought he saw? He rewound the clip. They only appeared for a second, but yes, he was almost certain he had captured a second set of eyes in a window as he filmed his return to the nurses’ station. But it must have been a trick of the light. Maybe all this talk of ghosts was making Xander see things. He didn’t really believe all the stories he told. He just loved getting his friends worked up.

  Xander looked around, unable to shake the feeling that he was being watched.

  “If there are ghosts here,” he shouted, “show yourselves!”

  The cat growled from behind the counter.

  “You got some friends back there, little kitty?” Xander asked.

  The cat hissed.

  “No? Okay, I’ll leave you in peace. Next time, if you’re nicer to me, I’ll bring you some treats.”

  Xander headed out. He glanced down the corridor one last time. “This mission is going to be so great.”

  Chapter Four

  The next day Xander waited outside the school for his friends. He couldn’t wait to fill them in. Omar and Li arrived first. Right behind them was Priya, an overstuffed backpack slung over one shoulder. She leaned so far forward she looked like an old woman walking against the wind.

  “You aren’t going to believe what I found!” Xander said.

  Omar’s face lit up. “The winning lottery ticket for the fifty-million-dollar jackpot? The answers for next week’s math test? My missing Nintendo Switch?”

  “No. I found a way in!” Xander said.

  “To what?” Priya asked.

  “The haunted hospital.”

  Li gasped. “No way. How?”

  Xander explained how he had discovered the loose sheet of plywood over the window and described the creepy hallways he had explored. Omar and Li hung on every word. Priya stared at her feet.

  “So would it be ok
ay if we cut Priya’s mission short and started a new one in the hospital?” asked Xander.

  “I am in,” said Omar and started doing a little dance.

  Li laughed. “You are such a goof. Okay, Xander. I’m in too.”

  “What do you say, Priya?” asked Xander.

  Priya frowned. “I don’t know. I still haven’t checked out the museum. Might be even creepier than the hospital.”

  “Come on,” Xander pleaded. “The hospital is perfect. We don’t have to worry about bad weather. And it is as twisted as anything I’ve ever seen.”

  Omar clasped his hands together. “Please, Priya.”

  Priya frowned. “But we haven’t even given the museum a chance. Let me scout it out before we make any final decisions.”

  Li looked at her friend. “Maybe we can use the museum for our next mission. But this location sounds exciting. And we all agreed that the cemetery was getting boring. I say we put this to a vote.”

  Xander and Omar nodded.

  “Well, it’s obvious how that’s going to go.” Priya crossed her arms.

  “Who’s in favor of the hospital for our new mission site?” asked Li.

  Everyone but Priya raised their hands.

  Xander beamed. “Okay, it’s settled. I’ll be the next Crypt Keeper. Saturday night, we meet at the front of the hospital.”

  Priya didn’t say another word.

  On Saturday afternoon Xander returned to the hospital with his gear to set up for the mission. He double-checked to make sure no one was watching before he climbed over the metal fence.

  He jogged across the parking lot and found the window with the loose plywood. He pried the wood open enough to toss his backpack into the room, then climbed inside. He strapped a headlamp around his head and snapped it on. The room reeked of mildew and cat urine.

  Xander pulled a bag from his backpack and shook it.

  “Hey, kitty, I got you some tuna nibbles. Want some?”

  Xander’s plan was to corner the cat and put it into some room away from the action. He knew Li was allergic to cats, and Omar would end up spending the entire game trying to befriend it.

  “Here, kitty, kitty,” Xander said as he shook the bag again.

  The cat didn’t come. After a few minutes Xander gave up. He pocketed the treats, grabbed his backpack and headed to the nurses’ station. He stopped and stared at the overturned gurney beside the counter. Hadn’t he set it on its wheels last time? His nerves were getting the better of him. He probably knocked the gurney over when the cat scared him. Or maybe it was defective.

  He unloaded his backpack on the counter and sorted through the props. He laid out a couple of hospital gowns he had picked up from the thrift store, a box of chalk, surgical masks, a few plastic trays and a portable speaker. He also pulled out a makeshift map of the hospital layout that he had drawn up from his video footage. His plan was to start at the far end of the hospital and work his way back.

  He scooped up the speaker and chalk, then headed around the corner. A desk and some chairs blocked the hallway doors. He cocked his head to one side, puzzled.

  “Was this stuff here before?” he whispered.

  He looked around, wondering if he had walked in the wrong direction.

  “Weird,” he said after a moment. “Must be my imagination.”

  He shoved the furniture out of the way and approached the first of the rooms he had staked out earlier. Room 176. The door he was sure he had propped open before was closed. He cracked it open, and something shot out between his legs. Xander shrieked and nearly dropped his speaker.

  “Stupid cat,” he muttered.

  The mangy feline scampered to the nurses’ station and hid behind the counter. Xander pulled the bag of treats from his pocket again. He shook a few out onto his palm, then tossed them on the floor.

  “You hungry, little guy? Come and get it.” He created a trail of treats on the floor, leading into one of the empty rooms.

  After what seemed like forever, the cat came out and sniffed the treats. Xander inched back and watched as it scarfed one treat and sniffed the next. Slowly the cat followed the trail of treats. Xander got ready. When the cat was a few feet into the room, Xander closed the door, trapping the cat inside.

  The cat yowled through the door.

  “It’s okay, kitty. I’ll let you out when the game’s done. Then you can have the rest of the treats.”

  He headed back to room 176. He turned on the speaker and placed it under the bed so that he could broadcast creepy sounds from it. Then he left a message in chalk on the wall—You’re Next. As he wrote, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He ignored the impulse to look behind him.

  Suddenly a female voice boomed from the speaker. “Your speaker is now connected.”

  Xander dropped the chalk and spun around. It took him a few minutes to calm down as he glared at the portable device. He’d forgotten about the auto notification. “Get a grip, Xander,” he said as he picked up the chalk.

  He went back to sketching. He glanced over his shoulder a few times to make sure he was alone.

  Chapter Five

  That evening Xander’s friends gathered in the haunted hospital. Xander’s headlamp illuminated his hand-drawn layout of the place, which he’d spread out on the counter. Priya adjusted the light strapped to her head. Li and Omar directed the glow from their phones onto the map as well.

  “Awesome!” Omar said. “I’ve got goose bumps.”

  Li beamed at the new site for their game. “It’s perfect,” she said, sounding a bit stuffed up.

  “I could do without the smell of cat piss,” Priya snapped. “And the building looks like it’s about to fall down.” She was still unhappy about being overruled.

  Xander ignored her comments. “George Wickerman Hospital was used in the 1950s to experiment on patients who were going to die anyway. A doctor working with a secret government agency injected a chemical compound called Digi-Tox into the patients to see what it would do. The government wanted to use this chemical to cure TB, but it did more harm than good. Within hours of the injection, the test subjects went into shock and started throwing up. Their eyes bled, and they experienced so much pain, all they could do was scream. They died within a day.”

  “Brutal,” Omar said. “Remind me never to go to a hospital when I’m sick.”

  Li shushed him. “Not all hospitals are bad.”

  Priya didn’t comment.

  “This one is,” Xander said. “And one of the patients who died was a woman named Alison Rigby. She had a promising career as a concert pianist.”

  Omar chuckled. “Heh, heh.”

  “Pi-an-ist,” Xander said. “Anyway, Alison dreamed of playing in all the great concert halls around the world, but her dream ended tragically right here at the George Wickerman Hospital. In room 176.”

  Li peered over her shoulder at the dark corridor. “What happened after she died?”

  “They say you can hear screams from the room at the exact moment she died—9:07 p.m.”

  Li checked her phone. “Seventeen minutes from now.”

  Omar shot his hand up. “I’m first. Let me go.”

  Xander pointed at his makeshift map. “Okay, Omar. Your mission is to get to room 176 and record any sounds. You have to stay there for at least fifteen minutes.”

  “No problem,” Omar said.

  “But be careful,” Xander warned. “Avoid any areas that are blocked off with yellow tape.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they’re unsafe,” Xander said. “For real.”

  Li leaned into Omar. “Mom said this place got major water damage from some heavy rains a few summers ago. That’s why no developer wants to renovate it. Don’t get yourself killed.”

  Omar took her hand. “If I don’t make it back, my Star Wars collectibles are yours.”

  Priya sighed and rolled her eyes.

  “Something wrong, Priya?” Xander asked.

  “No. I
t’s your mission. Run it the way you want,” she replied.

  “Maybe you would like to go on the mission first?” he asked. He assumed Priya was still mad about not being Crypt Keeper.

  “No, I’m good,” Priya mumbled.

  “Okay,” Omar said, holding up his phone. “The recorder is ready. Wish me luck.”

  “Good luck,” Li said, wiping her nose with her sleeve. Even with the cat tucked away, her allergies were acting up.

  “You’re going to need it,” Xander said with a grin. “Text me when you’re in the room.”

  “This is so awesome,” Li said and then sneezed. “Even with the cat dander, this place is the creepiest.”

  Priya tried to smile.

  Omar crept down the hall, his phone casting light across the dusty walls. He turned the corner and was gone. Xander rested his phone against his backpack and waited for the first text.

  The moments ticked by. Li paced back and forth. Priya slouched against the counter. There wasn’t a lot for them to do as they waited for Omar to finish his mission.

  “How long has it been?” Li asked.

  Xander swiped his phone screen awake. “Three minutes.”

  Time had turned into a slug, barely inching forward and sometimes remaining completely still. Xander glanced at his phone for the umpteenth time. It was now 9:05. Omar should have texted by now. What was taking him so long? Xander resisted the urge to call his friend. Part of the fun of the game was the tension of being alone and out of contact.

  Li fidgeted from foot to foot. “Has he texted yet?”

  Xander shook his head. “You know he hasn’t. My phone’s right there.”

  “Omar probably can’t see the room numbers,” Priya said. “At least the gravestones were clearly marked.”

  Xander bit his lower lip to keep from snapping at Priya. He swiped the phone screen again. Still no text.

  A low moan echoed from down the hall.

  Li stiffened. “What was that?”