June 1,
There’s been something strange going on up here for the past week or so. Every now and then some of my nurses will hear sobbing coming from some of the maintenance closets only to find the closets are securely shut and locked with no one in them. The water is almost always found left running or the tub is found completely full of water. Nurse Leery says it might be a ghost but I don’t believe in that bullshit. I think someone is pulling a prank and I want it to stop. I know some of the nurses hide in those closets to smoke, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re just making that fuss to cover up for their behavior. Two nights ago a sock was found on the floor in one of the closets after it was investigated for what sounded like sobbing. The sock is the same type that belongs to the mothers that rest in the post-pregnancy rooms, so it’s possible it’s some young mother pulling a prank, but I still think it’s more likely one of my nurses. I wish I had more time to deal with this, but Nurse McPherson went missing last night after her smoke break and she hasn’t come in for work still. I swear, I thought working with babies and new mothers would be fun and relaxing, but some of these people just suck the joy out of everything. Oh! Great! I hear sobbing coming from one of the closets now. I’m going to catch who it is tonight, even if it’s the last thing I do!
“If I remember correctly there was an incident that took place up here where a mother drowned her own child in one of the maintenance closet sinks.” I explained as I handed Sal the journal, “It happened in 1975 according to the newspaper clipping I found a while ago. I’m guessing that this journal was written around the same time.”
“This is fuckin’ weird, fellah…” Sal commented as he finished reading, “I thought the basement was bad, but this place is even freakier with that music playing constantly.”
I tore the last page out of the journal and pocketed it along with all the other articles I’d found. I thought it was funny that Sal compared this floor to the basement because I found myself doing the same thing. There was something evil on this floor. I didn’t need the frigid air and frost along the glass walls to tell me that.
“Where do ya suppose Selena and Barbara are?” Sal asked peering around as we approached an intersection in a hallway.
“My guess is the chapel.” I suggested as I pointed at a small plastic sign showing the way to the chapel, “If they’re not there I think we should get out of here and try and figure out a new plan. There’s something not right about this place.”
Sal and followed the sign until we reached a T intersection in the hall. As we round a corner I heard someone crying not far from where we were. The crying sounded like it came from a woman. I traded glances with Sal and knew he was thinking along the same lines as me. It could very likely be a trap, but we had to check it out, because it was possible it was Selena or Barbara. We followed the sound of crying until a maintenance closet came into view about a little less than a stone’s throw away. The maintenance door was stuck open due to a pale white leg sticking awkwardly out from inside. As we got closer I heard Sal draw his handgun from his waistband. Once we got within range I saw that it might be Barbara’s leg and it looked like she was hurt.
“Barbara?” I quietly called out, “It’s Michael and Sal. Are you okay?”
The leg withdrew into the closet leaving the closet ajar. I made a hand gesture at Sal to watch my back as I crept closer to the closet door. Upon getting within arm’s reach of the closet door the sobbing suddenly stopped. A hideous grayish blue face with sickly orange eyes and greasy black hair peered back at me for a moment with clenched mossy teeth and then the door was shut closed. I fell back from shock and barely managed to catch myself from tripping.
“W-What the fuck…was that?” I asked unable to pull my gaze from the closet door.
“I’m not waiting to find out.” Sal said as he gripped the handgun so tightly that his hand went white. “I say we kick the door down and blast the freak, before it comes after us like that fucker in the basement!”
I tore my gaze from the closet and nodded at Sal in agreement. It made sense. Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t friendly, and I was beyond the point of worrying about doing the right thing. We had the firepower now that even if one of us missed with our first shots we’d have a second chance.
I unslung my shotgun and pointed at the closet door. Sal edged along the side and reached for the handle.
“When I open the door, you blast anything that you don’t like.” Sal instructed as his right hand gripped the closet’s door handle. “I’m gonna open it on the silent count of three.”
I nodded quietly and prepared myself. I was so scared that the shotgun shook in my hand. I couldn’t get the image of that ugly face out of my mind. It was now coupled with the face of the beast from the basement and the two psychos from the first floor. I felt like even If I managed to escape this nightmare, I might not walk away completely sane. I watched Sal quietly mouth the number one. Then the number two, and then he turned the handle and wrenched the door open.
I saw something huddled in the closet and fired. The shotgun’s recoil dug into my shoulder and the smell of gunpowder filled my nostrils. The gunshot rang so loud I thought that I had lost hearing in my right ear.
I looked at my fallen enemy only to realize that I had shot Barbara. There was nothing else in the closet except for a couple of broomsticks, cleaning supplies, and a sink that was overflowing with water.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ! You shot Barbara!” Sal exclaimed as he ran over to the girl’s corpse.
The shell had taken the top half of her head clean off. You could barely tell it was her. My entire body went numb. I couldn’t believe I had just killed someone as innocent as Barbara. Why didn’t I think before shooting? I knew I was scared, but that was no excuse. I was now responsible for her death. She could’ve survived and walked out of here, but now she was gone. It was all my fault.
“Wait a second.” Sal stated as he examined my victim’s body, “I don’t think you killed her.”
“R-Really?” I asked with shocked hope.
“Yeah,” Sal replied motioning me to come over to him, “Look at the body. It’s already cold and stiff. She’s been dead for a while. I’m assuming that bell went off because she died.”
“It would make sense since that guy downstairs didn’t drag anything back with him.” I concluded as my senses returned, “But how the fuck did that thing escape? We had it trapped in this closet, it’s impossible.”
“Beats me,” Sal shrugged as he looked up at me.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” I asked as Sal suddenly began to pat down Barbara’s body.
“What’s it look like?” Sal responded, “I’m checkin’ her pockets. It’s possible she came across something while we were in the basement.”
I didn’t mind checking the corpse of the psycho in the basement or of the man we had also found in the basement, but I felt disgusted to be checking Barbara’s lifeless corpse for some form of advantage. Maybe it was because we had met, and I had seen her alive at some point. As disgusting as it was, I agreed with Sal, in fact I was grateful that Sal had the stomach to do what would’ve probably taken me longer to do.
“Hmmm, she doesn’t have much.” Sal concluded as he stood up, “I’ve got the vial thingy with the paper inside it, and it looks like a picture of some people I don’t recognize…” Sal handed me the photo, “Does this make sense to you at all?”
I took the photo and looked at it. Strangely enough it was the same photo Lee had when we first checked our pockets on the twelfth floor.
“This is Lee’s picture.” I explained despite my befuddlement, “I don’t know how she got his picture though.”
“Her and him musta bumped into each other at some point, I guess.” Sal suggested, “Is it important at all?”
“I’ll hold onto it,” I answered as I pocketed the picture, “Let’s head for the chapel. With any luck that freak show won’t pop up again.”
Sal handed me Barbara
’s vial and I took the note out and threw the vial away. Keeping track of all the notes made me feel like I was getting somewhere with this hospital. It was like I was some sort of detective trying to piece all the clues together. None of it really made much sense still though. I kept my shotgun unslung and Sal made sure his handgun’s safety was off and at the ready. The maternity ward was much more open than the basement had been, so I felt a little more confident than before. We left Barbara’s lifeless body in the closet broken and bloodied. I imagined that raspy voice in my head telling me “One more down, six to go!”
Sal and I continued to make our way toward the Chapel. We were already pretty close so we knew we’d be near it. As we reached an intersection, I turned and saw the front doors to the chapel. Attractive panes of glass decorated the either side of the wooden entrance to the room. Candle-light could be seen flickering from inside through the paned windows.
All of the sudden I heard soft footsteps and breathing behind me. Before I knew it I felt a sharp pain shoot through my back. I grunted in pain causing Sal, who had been standing next to me to turn toward me.
“What the fuck!?” Sal shouted in surprise as he raised his gun.
I grabbed at the pain in my back and turned around to see the thing from the closet running away down a hall with an empty syringe clutched in its hand.
“You mother fucker!” Sal shouted in fury as he ran after the thing, “I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you!”
I ran after Sal. The pain in my back vanished and was replaced by something else. What did that thing put in me? I saw Sal round a corner and heard a gunshot go off. I ran as fast as I could to catch up. Upon making the turn I saw we were in a long hallway.
“Where did the bitch go?” Sal shouted in frustration as his violent eyes searched for his quarry, “I want out of this fuckin’ place. NOOOOW!”
All the violence, the freaks, the death, and the fear had finally gotten to him. Sal was losing his mind. For some reason I couldn’t find my voice. As I approached him he suddenly fell flat on his face. I looked down and saw a large vent had popped open and the thing was in it pulling on Sal’s legs beckoning him to sweet oblivion.
“Fuck! Get it off me!” Sal shouted as he was pulled into the vent, “I ain’t dyin’ like this! No, no, NO!”
I rushed over and grabbed Sal’s wrists and pulled with all my might to pull him free from the vent. Over half of him was already inside. I heard a ripping and tearing noise come from the vent which was followed quickly by Sal’s screams of agony. I could hear insane cackling echo through the vents.
“Michael!” Sal looked into my eyes with sheer terror, “I don’t wanna die!”
I felt something strange going through my body. My body was becoming numb. It was becoming harder to breathe. Sal’s face became blurry. My hands began to tingle, and despite my best efforts to ignore it all, I felt myself going limp. In the flash of a heartbeat I knew that it was over. I wouldn’t be able to save him. I fell to my knees and my arms went completely dead.
“NO!” Sal cried as the rest of him was pulled into the vent, “NO! NO! NO-AAAAAAHHHHHH!”
The world became muffled and my head drooped. I looked down and saw the empty syringe that had been shot into me. I couldn’t read the label. Not that it would’ve made any difference at this point. My breath became shallow, and suddenly I found myself falling into oblivion. I had no doubt that I’d be joining Sal very soon. My eyes closed and I embraced the inevitable.
Chapter Six: Down the rabbit-hole
“Hey there, can you hear me?” A gentle voice whispered gently to me, “If you can hear me, try and open your eyes.”
I opened my eyes and saw a man standing over me. Everything was still a little blurry. The man wore what looked like a white lab coat. He was tall and imposing, but his face made him look friendly enough. At the very least I knew he wasn’t about to kill me.
“Ah, there you are.” The man smiled, “You’re finally waking up.”
“What’s going on?” I asked groggily as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, “Who are you? Where’s Sal?”
“I’m not sure who Sal is, but my name is Mark.” The man replied, “I found you convulsing on the thirteenth floor next to a syringe used for Botox injections. I figured there’d probably be a serum here, so I took you down to here, the fifth floor, to treat you. How are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling some strength come back to me.” I replied as I attempted to move my achy muscles, “Thank you for saving me.”
“No problem, happy to help.” Mark smiled again as he pulled out a different syringe and prepared it for injecting, “I’ve got a little something that should help you feel better in no time. You’ll need all the help you can get, since you’ve been unconscious for nearly two hours. Now this may sting for a second.”
Mark stuck the needle in my arm and injected the fluid. I didn’t feel anything different right away. Suddenly the siren went off and the temperature in the air dropped slightly.
“Damn!” Mark swore as he looked up at the loudspeaker, “I was hoping they’d wait a little longer.”
“What do you mean ‘they’?” I asked as I attempted to rise, “What’s going on?”
“No time to explain,” Mark said as he turned he quickly bandaged the injection site, “Your clothes are on the chair next to you. Unfortunately your shotgun fell down the stairs during my attempt to get you here. It should be in staircase D if you want to get it back, although I’d be careful.”
“What!?” I asked with the sudden awareness I was lying on the examination bed naked, “Are you leaving? We should stick together. There’s strength in numbers.”
“Of course, of course,” Mark replied soothingly as though he thought I was a raving lunatic, “I forgot something from earlier. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Without further ado, Mark rose and ran out of the office. I hopped out of the examination bed and saw my clothes neatly folded on a metal chair a few feet away. I quickly got dressed and checked my pockets. All of the documents I’d been collecting were gone! Did Mark take them? I didn’t see how else they all could’ve gone missing, but why would Mark take them? The man was definitely strange. I assumed he was Sal’s “roommate” when we all first arrived at the hospital. I felt naked without the safety of my shotgun, but I’d worry about that later.
My head was throbbing, but I just assumed that was the after affects from the poison that got injected into me. I was lucky Mark knew how to help me. I walked over to a sink and mirror. I saw that the scratches on my face and neck had been bandaged neatly by Mark as well. I turned on the water and splashed some water on my face. As I reached for a nearby paper towel, to dry my face, a sharp pain shot through my right arm. I clutched it in agony, but the pain left just as quickly as it had come. As I looked at my arm I suddenly realized that my hands were covered in thick red blood! I looked up at the mirror and saw my face was dripping with the same blood as well! I looked at the water I had splashed my face with and saw a stream of pinkish red blood pouring out of the faucet. I took a step backward in shock and looked at the mirror again.
The monster from the basement was standing right behind me about to sink its teeth into my neck! I shouted and flung my arms out to protect myself, but when I turned around to face my attacker I saw nothing was there. My eyes darted around and I saw that I was quite alone. I looked at my hands again and saw they were clean and that only water dripped from them. I needed to move as quickly as possible, before one of those freaks came looking for me. I would make my way for stairwell D and retrieve the Nihilist. After that I would continue my search for Lee and Selena. Despite my previous confusion I was almost completely certain that Sal was gone for good. The very thought made me feel as though I had a hole in my chest expanding wider and wider.
I opened the office door and stepped out but immediately discovered something that I could not believe. The fifth floor was gone and I was now standing in the mossy depths of a jungle. It was dark out,
but I saw a torch burning quietly on a muddy patch of ground. I walked over to the torch and picked it up. I blinked my eyes several times. What the fuck was going on? I turned back to the doctor’s office and saw that it was gone now and bushes and trees had taken its place. I could hear birds and insects chirping noisily and off, in the distance, I heard what sounded like a jungle cat roar.
What looked like a large lake was nearby. I walked over to it to see if there was anything off in the distance that resembled human life. It was all so strange, and yet… I felt like I’d been there before.
“Miguel, what are you doing? Now is no time for enjoying the scenery.” A voice spoke to me in Spanish.
I turned around and was taken completely by surprise. Did I know Spanish? A group of deeply tanned men wearing military uniforms stepped out from the brush. They all wore jungle caps and carried assault rifles. The one leading the group had a pencil thin mustache and a green bandana covering his head underneath his cap.
“The General wanted us to make sure that you escaped in time before the Americans arrive.” The leader said, “We must not waste time. We’re only fifteen miles from the boarder to Colombia now. If we get there, we should be fine. The Ochoas have sent some of their men to meet with us on the other side. Please hurry, sir. Panama is no longer safe.”
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