by Marty Chan
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“That was the worst. People feeling sorry for me. Grown-ups looked at me with pity, like they only saw my disease. They’d ask how I was feeling, or they’d tell me I was so brave, but they just wanted to get out of talking to me as fast as they could.”
Xander stared down at the floor. “I wish you would have told me. I wouldn’t have pushed for the hospital location so hard.”
“But then you’d have known, and that would have changed the way you treated me,” Priya said.
“I wouldn’t have treated you differently. You’re better now, right?” Xander said.
“See? You’re already changing the way you see me.” Priya turned to the squatters. “Trust me when I say this. I don’t ever want to come back here again.”
Rainbow stepped forward and hugged Priya. “I believe you. By the way, I think you would have looked beautiful without hair.”
Quest glanced at Xander. “Can you keep our secret, dude?”
“You did save Priya’s life. We owe you for that.”
“You think your friends will talk?” Sage asked.
Li and Omar! They had forgotten all about them.
“Not when we tell them what you did for us,” said Priya.
Xander’s pocket buzzed. “My phone,” he explained to the others as he pulled out his device.
“Whoa, man. Never seen a phone like that before,” Sage said.
Xander checked the screen. There were quite a few messages from Li.
Omar and I are safe.
Where are you two?
Xander! Please answer. We’re worried.
The police are on their way.
Chapter Eleven
“We don’t have much time before the cops get here,” Xander said. “We have to get you out of the hospital.”
Quest crossed his arms over his chest. “No way, dude. We’re not leaving our home.”
Rainbow and the others started to file down the corridor.
“Quest, we have no choice,” Rainbow said. “They’ll arrest us and lock this place up. We have to split.”
Priya had an idea. “I know! Text Li. Tell her to call the police back and say it was a false alarm.”
Xander shook his head. “They’ll still come. They do it in case a criminal is forcing the victim to say everything is okay.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
“Happened to my dad when he butt-dialed 9-1-1.”
Rainbow took action. “We don’t have much time then. If it’s a busy night, we might have an hour before the fuzz show up. If it’s a slow night, less. Gather your stuff, everybody. Just take what we can’t replace easily.”
The others jogged down the corridor. Quest refused to budge. “This is such a drag, man. I worked so hard to make this place our home. I can’t just give it up.”
Xander’s stomach started to get queasy. He felt really bad for getting these people in trouble.
“They’re going to have to live on the streets this winter, and it’s all my fault,” Xander said to Priya. “All I wanted to do was play Spirits and Specters in a new setting.”
Priya cracked a smile. “That’s it. Good idea, Xander!”
“What? What did I say?”
She shouted after Rainbow, “Hold up! We can fix this so you don’t have to leave.”
The group turned around and looked at Priya.
Quest said, “They’re going to search the hospital. They’re going to know we’re here.”
Priya shook her head. “I know a place where they won’t look.”
Rainbow beamed. “Really? Well, it’s worth a shot.”
Sage pulled at his beard. “No way, man. The fuzz aren’t going to stop looking until they find us.”
“Not if we give them our explanation for why people are here,” Priya said.
Xander frowned, confused. “Why else would Li call the cops?”
“The game,” she said.
Her words hung in the air for a second before Xander figured out what Priya meant. “Yeah! It just might work.”
“I don’t get it,” Quest said. “How is your game going to help us?”
“Our friend called the police because she saw you here,” said Priya. “All we have to do now is make them think this was all a setup for our ghost-hunter game.”
Xander pulled the portable speaker out of his backpack. “We’ll say that the voices Omar heard were so realistic that his imagination got the better of him.”
“But the only way it will work is if we clear all your stuff out of the morgue,” Priya said.
“What are we waiting for?” Quest said. “Let’s split!”
The group sped through the maze of corridors.
On the way Xander texted Li.
The squatters are ok. We’re helping them. Will explain later.
A few seconds later, Li’s reply pinged back.
WHAT?
There was no time to explain everything right now. Li was just going to have to trust him.
Tell them you only heard people in the basement. You didn’t see anyone. And text me when the cops show up.
In the morgue, everyone was gathering their gear. They loaded sleeping bags, lanterns and tools into garbage bags. Ratty suitcases that were duct-taped together were stuffed with clothes just as ratty-looking.
Priya grabbed one of the lanterns and set it on the metal examination table screwed into the floor. “Leave this here.”
“Why?” Rainbow asked.
“We’ll need it for the story we’re spinning for the cops.”
“Hurry up, people,” Quest said. “We have no idea when the fuzz will get here.”
Xander shoved cans of food into a green garbage bag and surveyed the morgue. It was going to take at least an hour to clear everything out of here. His phone pinged. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. The text on the screen was the news he had been dreading.
Cops are pulling up now.
“We’re out of time!” he shouted. “They’re here! We have to go now.”
Priya led the group back to the stairwell. “No one is going to find you in my hiding spot.”
“Are you sure?” Rainbow asked.
“Positive,” Priya said.
They ran through the corridors, turning corner after corner. Xander, at the rear of the group, half expected a cop to jump out at every turn. Finally they reached a different wing of the hospital. “Where are we?” he asked.
“Sometimes when I didn’t want to get another treatment, I hid in different parts of the hospital,” said Priya. “It got to the point where my mom wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom by myself because she knew I was going to take off.”
They jogged to the far end of a corridor. Priya stopped at the door and shoved it open to a stairwell. Barbed wire blocked the staircases.
“We have to go up,” she said. “You’re going to have to crawl under the wire.”
Priya pulled her sleeves over her hands, grabbed a coil of barbed wire and hoisted it high enough for Quest to crawl under. Rainbow followed him. The others passed their things through, then joined their companions.
Xander had to buy them more time. He texted Li.
Stall them.
He waited for an answer. Nothing. Not even the three dots. This was not good.
He followed Destiny as she squeezed under the barbed wire. Priya followed, carefully setting the wire back down.
Thankfully, the barbed wire was only on the first flight of stairs. Now they could move faster. Priya pushed her way ahead of the group and led them to the eighth floor. She opened the door at the top off the stairs and guided everyone through.
Then she led them along the corridor until she found the door marked Chapel.
“The police won’t look for you here,” Priya declared.
“You sure about this?” Quest asked. “I mean, it doesn’t look very hidden away.”
“Not the chapel. Let’s go inside. I’ll sho
w you.” Priya guided them to a door at the back of the room. It opened to the roof, where there was a patio overlooking the hospital grounds. The red and blue lights of the police car flashed below.
Sage smiled. “Awesome. The fuzz would never think to look for us here.”
“And we can see when they take off,” Destiny added.
“You just have to watch out for any weak parts of the roof,” Priya said. “And there’s a fire-escape ladder right there if you have to get down in a hurry.”
“Thank you, my lady.” Quest bowed to her and then held out his hand to Xander. “Gimme some skin. This is radical.”
Xander hesitated, not sure what to do, then slapped Quest’s palm.
“You only have to hide here for a bit,” Priya said. “When the police are gone, you can go back into your home.”
Rainbow hugged Priya. “Thank you. You’re good people. I’ll catch you on the flip side.”
Priya walked over to Xander and pulled him to the door.
“Now comes the hard part,” she whispered.
“What are we going to do?” he asked.
“We have to make sure the police won’t search for them,” Priya said.
Chapter Twelve
With her headlamp lighting the way, Priya navigated their route back to the morgue. Xander followed, panting for breath as he clung to the straps of his backpack.
She skidded to a stop at an intersection. She signaled Xander to duck. Ahead, light spilled from the hallway leading to the obstacle course of furniture.
“We’re too late,” Priya whispered.
They squeezed themselves flat against the wall and listened.
“Okay, now are you sure this is the hallway?” a female voice asked.
Li’s voice answered, “I’m not sure, officer. Everything looks the same.”
Priya snapped off her headlamp, lowered herself to all fours and crawled over to peer around the corner. Xander snapped off his light and followed.
Down the hall Li, Omar and two officers stood in front of the chairs blocking the double doors.
“And you say you heard the people down this way?” the officer asked.
Li answered, “Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s where they were.”
“Tell me again why you two were in the hospital.”
“Well, it’s kind of a weird story,” Omar said. “We heard this place was haunted. And we wanted to check it out. It’s part of a game we play.”
Another officer laughed. He sounded like a tuba. “I can’t believe they’re still telling stories about George Wickerman Hospital.”
“Do you know what they did?” Omar asked. “They say the doctors experimented on TB patients.”
The tuba cop shook his head. “Kid, you heard wrong. Trust me. My uncle used to work here. There were no experiments. There are ghosts, but not from any experiments.”
“Really?” Omar asked.
The female officer grunted. “Hawkes, stop pulling the kid’s leg. Stay here. I’m going to check out the basement.”
“Watch out for the ghosts, Perkins,” Hawkes said as his partner moved between the chairs.
Priya turned to Xander. “We have to stop her from going to the morgue or she’ll find Quest’s camp.”
“I have an idea,” said Xander, pulling the portable speaker out of his backpack and turning it on. “Find a room to hide in.”
Priya crawled across the hall while Xander thumbed through his phone screen until he found the app he needed—Sound FX.
“Psst,” Priya hissed.
He glanced up. Priya waved and pointed at the door beside her. Xander gave her a thumbs-up. He peered around the corner and slithered across the floor, hoping the officers wouldn’t spot him. When he was halfway across, a voice on the speaker announced, “Your speaker is now connected.”
“Hold up, Perkins! You hear that?” Hawkes asked.
Xander shoved the speaker behind him and scrambled toward Priya.
“Hide,” he hissed.
She slipped into the room with Xander close on her heels. Footsteps thudded behind them as the door swung closed.
Xander frantically scrolled through the sound-effect options in the app and stabbed at one titled “Ghostly voices.”
He waited for a beat as the crack under the door lit up from the officer’s high-intensity flashlight. The footsteps thudded closer to the room. Xander slid closer to Priya and grabbed her hand. They were going to be caught any minute now.
“You belong to us,” a chorus of ghostly voices echoed from the speaker. “You belong to us.”
The flashlight faded from the crack under the door, and the footsteps retreated from the room.
“Over here, Hawkes,” Officer Perkins called.
“You belong to—” The voices were cut off in mid-chant.
“It’s a portable speaker. Kids, this thing belong to either of you?” Perkins asked Li and Omar.
“Sorry. Never saw it before,” Omar said.
“Does this sound like the voices you heard?” Perkins asked.
“Maybe?” said Li.
Xander whispered to Priya, “I think it’s working. As long as Li and Omar play along, we might pull this off.”
Before she could respond, the door swung open and a figure appeared in the doorway. A bright light flashed in Xander’s eyes.
“Show me your hands!” Officer Hawkes ordered, his flashlight aimed at both of them.
Xander immediately obeyed, his phone still in hand. Priya slowly raised her hands too.
“Who are you?” Hawkes asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Sorry,” Priya said. “We’re with the other two.”
“Get up,” he growled.
The pair slowly climbed to their feet.
The steel-jawed Hawkes motioned at Xander. “You. With the phone. Explain yourself. Why were you hiding in here?”
“Sorry, we didn’t know you were the police.”
“Out,” he barked.
They stumbled out of the room. Hawkes herded the pair down the hallway. Li and Omar stared helplessly at their friends.
“This yours?” Perkins asked. She held up Xander’s portable speaker.
“Yes,” Xander mumbled.
Hawkes grunted. “Care to explain yourselves?”
Priya jumped in. “It’s complicated. We’re in a live role-playing game called Spirits and Specters. We pretend to be ghost hunters who explore abandoned places in search of—”
“No, wait, let me guess,” Perkins said. “In search of spirits and specters.”
“Yes,” Priya said. “To spice things up, we try to scare each other.”
Xander added, “I was using my speaker to play creepy voices so that Omar and Li would think the ghosts were here. I thought we might be able to scare them out of the hospital, but I didn’t think they’d call the police.” He shot a glance at Li, hoping she’d take his cue.
She caught on. “You jerk,” she said. “You could have let us off the hook before I ran off. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”
“Sorry,” Xander said. “I just wanted to make a good jump scare.”
“Well, congratulations. You pulled it off,” Omar said.
Perkins handed the speaker to Xander. “You know you kids aren’t supposed to be trespassing on private property.”
“We didn’t know,” Xander said. “We just thought the place was abandoned.”
“It’s dangerous. Old building like this, you could get trapped, and no one would know you were here.”
“I told you we shouldn’t have come,” Priya said.
The police officers sized up the four teenagers. “We could haul you in and see if the owner wants to lay charges,” Perkins pointed out.
Xander’s eyes widened. Priya turned pale. Omar’s lips trembled. Li was the only one able to speak. “Please don’t. My mom would kill me. Please.”
Omar joined in. “We won’t come back here—we promise.”
Perkins let her
threat hang in the air, eyeing the panicked kids. She took her time, switching her gaze from one scared face to another. Finally she spoke. “This time I’m going to let you off with a warning. Clear out of here and don’t come back.”
Omar said, “Yes, officer.”
The others nodded and agreed. “Yes. We’re not coming back. Ever.”
“Okay. Let’s get you out of this place,” Perkins said.
Hawkes led the way. “Yeah, we don’t want those ghosts to get us. Oooo.”
“Shut up, Hawkes.”
Xander cracked a grin at Priya as they headed down the hall. They had saved Quest and Rainbow’s home.
Chapter Thirteen
Perkins climbed into the police car parked outside the hospital, grabbed a clipboard and a pen from the seat and began writing. Hawkes stood with the kids at the side of the car, the red and blue lights striping across his face.
Omar stuffed his hands in his pockets and approached Officer Hawkes. “You said there were ghosts in the hospital. Who are they?”
Hawkes glanced at his partner filling out paperwork, then turned to Omar. “Do you really want to know?”
“Please,” Omar said.
“Okay, I’ll tell you. But you have to keep it to yourselves.” Hawkes stepped away from the car, drawing the kids nearer to him. They gathered around.
“Were there really experiments done here?”
Hawkes shook his head. “No. There were no experiments of any kind. My uncle worked at the Wickerman as an intern in the 1960s. He said this was just a normal hospital until one day when disaster struck.”
“What happened?” Li asked.
“There was a fire in the psych ward,” Hawkes explained. “The firefighters tried to rescue everyone inside. My uncle said they got most of the patients out, but there was a group of people who were convinced the firemen were government agents. They locked themselves in one of the rooms. They refused to come out, and the fire got to them before the firefighters did. They all died in that room.”
“Then what happened?” Omar asked.
“After that night, my uncle said, the ghosts of the dead patients haunted the hallways. They would follow people through the hospital, but you’d only hear footsteps. They also liked to push furniture around. Beds would roll by themselves across a room. Chairs would be stacked on top of each other. Gurneys would flip over on their own. The nightshift nurses were so scared, they asked for an escort whenever they had to walk to their cars. Sometimes the ghosts would whisper strange things in people’s ears. My uncle said once he heard a ghost tell him he’d catch him on the flip side.”