“Oh,” I replied, feigning relief, “there are spiders and roaches here, too. Wouldn't want to smash that thing and harm this lovely ecosystem.”
Jake, desperate to talk about anything but the asylum itself, started to stammer. “Y-You ever seen those bug-fighting videos on YouTube? These guys in Japan collect big bugs and p-put them in tanks together, watch them duke it out. It's pretty gross.”
Elizabeth socked him in the side to shut him up. “Enough of that, you're rambling. I want to know more about the asylum.” Clearing her throat, she tapped the groundskeeper on the shoulder. “I understand that during the infamous murder that took place here, the killer was found dead in the front lobby. Would it be possible for us to see the front lobby?”
That was one hell of a conversational shift.
Terrence looked back at her like she'd just asked him something insane and distasteful—and, in a way, she had—and then pointed at the hallway ahead. “We'll be passing by the front entrance pretty soon, in fact. Around the next bend, we're going to find ourselves in a hall where the cafeteria and kitchen are situated, and then we're going to find ourselves in the lobby. After that, there's the laundry services, followed by still more of the first ward rooms. Though, why anyone would want to go and see a place just because that happened there is...” He shook his head, at a loss for words.
Undeterred by Terrence's reaction, Elizabeth sped ahead of the pack. “Really? Well, let's go, then! Come on, guys!” she said, waving to me and Jake. “We'll just go on a little further! I want to see the cafeteria—and the kitchen! That's where Enid found the cleaver, remember?”
For Elizabeth this was apparently like a trip to Disneyland. Her exuberance clashed wildly against our dark surroundings, and I hesitated to follow. “Let's slow down for a minute,” I said.
She showed no signs of listening, though, and barreled down the hall.
Like a deer stuck in headlights, Jake paused, stared at me with wide, nervous eyes, and then bolted after his girlfriend before she got too far away.
I had no choice but to follow suit. “Sorry,” I told Terrence as I broke into a jog after them. “I'll be heading off with them for just a bit. We'll catch up with you later.”
The groundskeeper fixed me in his narrow gaze and nodded. “Just don't go into any of them taped-off areas, ya hear?”
With that, I joined Elizabeth and Jake at the far end of the hall, arriving at yet another pair of double-doors. Elizabeth had already propped one open, and she waved us through impatiently. “Come on, you two! Hurry it up!”
22
I've seen many cafeterias in my time, but never had I seen one as dreary as this.
There were a couple of high-set windows in the place—or, more like glass bricks that allowed a bit of light in—but it was otherwise dark. The lights in this section, despite the flipping of numerous switches along the walls, didn't come on. We were going to have to rely on the flashlights to see our way through the massive space.
And believe me, the place really was massive.
It was a cafeteria built to feed hundreds of people—staff and patients alike, I wagered—and old-fashioned benches had been piled into one corner of the space in stacks a dozen high. The floors were smooth, brushed concrete, except near the counters where more of the white tiles had been applied. There were rusted metal sinks built into the lengthy counter space, as well as deep metallic basins where containers of food had once been kept warm. As the flashlights passed over the edge of that counter, I thought I might at any moment find a frowning, hair-netted lunch lady staring back at me.
We stood in the cafeteria's center, the vast dimensions of the room eating up our feeble light with their abundant shadow, and tried to decide where to go next. This particular room, large though it was, had been stripped of anything interesting. After some wandering, we found ourselves on the other side of the counter, where a large metal door labeled KITCHEN—STAFF ONLY was found.
Elizabeth raced towards it at once. So quickly, in fact, that she nearly overlooked the red tape that had been left in neat lines across the door's seams. “Damn,” she spat. “It's blocked off.”
Pretending to be disappointed, Jake shrugged and pointed back the way we'd come. “Ah, that sucks. Guess we should go back and rendezvous with Terrence, huh?”
To my surprise—and annoyance—Elizabeth gave the door to the kitchen a tug anyhow.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” I asked.
She backed away from it, grinning sheepishly. “Oh, come on. I was just... I mean, do you really think it's dangerous back there? Would Terrence really notice if we just went inside to have a quick peek?”
I'd taken Elizabeth's enthusiasm in stride up to this point, but it was time to put my foot down. “Listen, and listen well. We promised Terrence that we wouldn't go into any of the taped doors, remember? And when I arranged this visit, I assured Mr. Blake we wouldn't do anything stupid in his building. Now, I don't know what's back there, or why it's been blocked off, but if Terrence tells me it could be dangerous, then I'm inclined to believe him. Just because we aren't being watched doesn't mean that we ought to do something stupid, all right? Seriously... this whole time you've been banging on about how excited you are, about how cool this place is, but you need to rein it in a little. Running down these halls, doing whatever you please just isn't going to fly.”
For the bulk of my lecture, Elizabeth listened with a dour expression, taking her lumps.
But at some point, I looked over and found her gaze riveted to that door outlined in red duct tape. She'd tuned me out. Raising a finger to her lips, she took a step towards the kitchen door. “Quiet.”
Jake stiffened, approaching her cautiously. “What is it?”
She shook her head, insisting, “Quiet.”
I was getting seriously annoyed. I felt like an elementary school teacher stuck on a field trip with a bunch of problem kids, rather than adults. “Elizabeth, cut the shit, OK? If we're going to do this, we're going to follow the base rules. I'm not going to have us—”
Elizabeth placed a hand against the door and spoke over me. “There's someone on the other side of the door.” She gulped, nearly pressing her ear to the dirty metal. After a time, she glanced at me in her periphery, making a slight come-hither motion at us. “Listen. I can... I can hear someone on the other side.”
Sighing, I took a step towards the door. I was about to tell her she was full of shit when, from somewhere beyond the kitchen door, I heard what indeed sounded like footsteps. They seemed far-off, were very faint, but in the silence of this enormous building even small sounds stood out. I joined her at the door, listening closely, and tried to figure out where they were coming from. “I'm sure... I'm sure it's just Terrence,” I said. “I'm not falling for this again—I'll bet Terrence is just walking around in some adjacent room and we're hearing his footsteps through the door. It's nothing.”
Jake, his face having grown pale, bobbed his head. “Y-Yeah, babe. There's no one over there. Why would there be? This place has been empty for years and years...”
Elizabeth's hand fell to the knob. Barely breathing, her attentions focused on the ebb and flow of those far-off steps, she attempted to pull the door open despite my protests.
It was locked.
“Damn it!” she blurted, giving the door a kick.
“Leave it alone,” I warned. “It's locked, and probably for good reason. I'm telling you, sound travels in this place. We're hearing Terrence back there. That's all it is.”
Elizabeth wasn't convinced, and she remained at the door for a long time, listening for the footsteps until, eventually, they stopped completely. “No,” she replied, “there's someone back there. And it isn't Terrence. Terrence wouldn't cut through this sealed-off room to meet us. He's probably still poking around the first ward, anyway.” Stepping back, she unearthed her cell phone and queued up the camera app. With a bright flash, she took a picture of the door.
“What good is tha
t going to do?” asked Jake.
Elizabeth combed a Sunkist-colored length of hair behind her ear and studied the picture closely. With a sigh, she pocketed it. “No orbs or anything. I was hoping I'd pick up some sort of spiritual anomaly in the picture.”
I hiked a thumb back the way we'd come. “Well, sorry to be a spoilsport, but I think we need to get back to Terrence. Let's go, you two.”
“No, wait,” pleaded Elizabeth. “The front lobby is just ahead.” She scanned our surroundings and stepped out from behind the counter, zeroing in on the hallway that would lead us to the next stretch. “Let's go and have a look. After that we can double back and meet with Terrence.”
“I'd rather wait. I don't think I can trust you,” I said. “You're lacking in common sense today.”
Rolling her eyes like a petulant teen, she folded her arms. “I won't mess with the blocked doors anymore, OK? Scout's honor. But can we please go and see the front entrance? That's where Enid was found dead. I want to see it in person.”
Maybe it was just my ears playing tricks on me, but at the mention of Enid I thought I heard the footsteps on the other side of the kitchen door make a brief reprise. “I'm going to hold you to your word,” I said. “Come on, let's go and have a quick look.”
The three of us left the cafeteria and started for the next passage, slipping through the doors. As we walked, the light scarce and the sounds of our advance amplified in the stillness, I couldn't help but think back to the Third Ward Incident. There was a power outage. Things must have been terrifying and chaotic then... And the route we're taking probably isn't so different from the one Enid took. We were about to have a look at the room where her spree was cut short by an unknown assailant, and in the dense darkness, I found I could almost understand the dread that the patients and staff must have weathered back in 1989.
Twenty-eight years after that fateful night, the asylum was pitch black once again, and here we were, groping our way through it.
23
We entered into a room fronted by doors of thick glass, through which we got a look at the darkened grounds outside. But it wasn't the doors that arrested our attention just then. Rather, something on the floor, pointed out by Elizabeth, turned my blood cold and incited me to throw out my arms to block their passage into the entranceway.
“W-What is that?” gasped Elizabeth. It was the first time all night she'd actually shown any fear. Staring ahead at the floor, upon which was crumpled something large and moonlit, she waited for me to step forward and investigate.
A touch of cool, fresh air entered into the room from the seam between the doors. I didn't find it refreshing, though. Under the circumstances, it only added to my gut-churning discomfort. Taking a careful step into the room, which featured also a pair of large wooden counters on both sides, I held my breath and extended a foot. The tip of my shoe sank into the white, billowy thing. It gave no resistance whatsoever and didn't move in reaction to my touch.
From across the room it had looked to me like a slender human body, garbed in a white gown.
Giving it a harder nudge with my foot, I realized that it was in fact a balled-up white sheet.
I gave myself permission to exhale. Kicking the linen across the floor and running my hands across my face, I looked back at the other two. “Jesus Christ. It's nothing. A frigging blanket.”
Jake studied the walls with his flashlight and turned up a panel of switches, the flipping of which brought about a scant light. The wrought iron chandeliers overhead were lacking in bulbs, and their slow swaying in the draft made the already weak light all the less reliable. “It looked like a...”
“A body,” finished Elizabeth, striding into the room with renewed confidence. She stared down at the brick floor, scanning the ground as though something of great import was about to materialize at her feet. The bricks were different colors; some red, some grey and others nearly black. It was an unattractive job, and I doubted that it had looked especially good even before the asylum's decades of abandonment. “So,” she said, kneeling down and running her hands against the bricks. “This is where it happened, huh?”
I leaned against one of the counters, rapping against it with my fingers. Dust clung to my fingertips, and I took some time in wiping them off on my pant leg. “So it's said. Enid Lancaster fled from her room in the third ward, took out a few people as she went, and then bought the farm as she tried to escape through the front door. Just who was responsible for putting her down was never brought to light; the staff working that night didn't own up to it, but she got bludgeoned, by the sounds of it. Had she escaped, she probably would have tried to wreak havoc elsewhere.” I looked through the panes of scuffed glass in the doors. “Though, it's one hell of a walk to any major city from here. She'd have had to hitchhike.”
Elizabeth kept touching the bricks and then looking at her fingers as if she expected to find blood clinging to them. “This is where she died, guys. This is what we've been waiting for. If we want to make contact with Enid, then this spot offers us the best chance.” She dropped her backpack to the floor and dug out her recorder, urging us to stay quiet. Jake stood near the door, seemingly comforted by the moonlight, and watched as she repeated her EVP spiel. “We wish to make contact with the spirit of Enid Lancaster. Enid, if you're here, please give us a sign. Speak, so that we might hear your voice. We want to know more about you, Enid.” She paused, let the recording run a while. “If you're here, Enid, give us a sign.”
There was only silence, of course, but Elizabeth was not deterred. She explained that, on listening to the recordings later, it was possible we'd pick up some speech fragment our ears had missed in the moment.
I'd seen enough of the lobby and was more interested in the open air outside. Hoping that we might wrap up this session quickly, I suggested we go back and find Terrence, rather than continue down the next hall. At that moment I had trouble recalling just what it was I'd hoped to find in this Godforsaken building. Information about Enid Lancaster, Dr. Corvine? It was clear that this empty hulk had no answers to give. It was an eerie setting—as all large and long-abandoned structures are—but all traces of the past with any relevance to the Third Ward Incident had been scrubbed away long ago. There weren't even any blood stains on the bricks at our feet, where Enid had supposedly met her end. Moreover, we'd walked through a considerable stretch of the compound already and hadn't seen a single telephone. The calls Dave Thackeray had gotten couldn't possibly have come from here, though the number seemed to imply otherwise.
“I'd like to keep going,” said Elizabeth, motioning to the next hall. Terrence had told us that this hall would lead to laundry facilities and more patient rooms. If we followed it long enough, we'd probably end up back at the rear entrance, where we'd first come in. “Terrence has a lot of work to do. Better that we not slow him down, you know?”
I grinned, scratching at my stubbled chin. “My, that's awfully considerate of you, but it would probably be wiser for us to turn around right now.”
Jake paced nervously about the room, and seemed to be eyeing something just beyond the edge of the next hall—a narrow wooden door. After staring at it a long while, he finally brought it to our attention. “Guys, where does that door lead?”
Elizabeth and I wandered over to it. The placard at its side, though quite faded, appeared to read STAIRS.
Though, for the excited yelp Elizabeth gave, it may as well have read FREE MONEY HERE.
“The stairs!” she cried, whipping the door open without a moment's hesitation. “Come on, guys! Let's take a peek at the upper stories! Or, we could even head into the basement!”
Jake grabbed her by the wrist, keeping her from bounding into the unlit stairwell. “Whoa, come on, the groundskeeper said we should stay on this floor, babe.”
“He suggested it,” replied Elizabeth. “That doesn't mean we have to. I mean, what's he care, so long as we stay out of his special, taped-up rooms? This isn't his building, and the owner didn't give him
directions to watch over us, so we should just explore whatever we want.”
“No,” I placed my palm against the outside of the door and eased it shut. “I'm getting real tired of arguing with you guys. We need to go back and find Terrence. This place is a labyrinth, and if we get too deep into it it's possible we'll get lost. I dunno about you two, but I'd rather not spend the entire night in this building. Let's go.”
“Well, why don't I go alone, then?” offered Elizabeth, pulling the door open once again. She took an exploratory step into the stairwell. “We're all adults here. You aren't a babysitter, professor. Just let me have a look around. If you guys are too chicken, I understand.”
That did it. “If your stupid ass falls through a rotten floor, the Moorlake faculty are going to look at my job real hard and wonder why the hell I brought one of their tuition cows to such an awful place. You think I want that? You think I want to have to talk to the cops about why one of my idiot students decided to go off on her own in an abandoned fucking building just to snap some shitty photos and break her neck in the process? There's nothing waiting for us in this place except some necrotic spider bites and possibly some asbestos, OK? Let's get moving.”
Asylum: The Afterlife investigations #1 Page 14