Ghostland

by Duncan Ralston

  Despite his fear, despite his repulsion, the sound of her voice prickled the hairs on the back of his neck and he felt himself stiffening again. He willed it not to happen, but like his flushing cheeks it was impossible to control once it had started.

  He turned to the others. They were too concerned with what was going on inside the room. No one saw the nun walk right through the glass and stride toward him, her pale flesh covered in red slashes, her dirty-nailed toes floating inches above the linoleum.

  As much as he wanted to, Ben couldn't look away. He didn't dare.

  She pressed her cold, fish-belly lips against his with the sickly-sweet smell of death on her breathy moan.

  Lilian heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow a moment before blood-red footprints appeared against the white, approaching Niko where he stood by the door. They were small footprints, a young girl's or possibly a small woman. The ghost had the power to control weather and had cut the junk off the guy on the floor. If Niko and Leonard were smart, they would hustle out of there before she decided to mess with them.

  "Uh… guys?"

  "What do you mean it's not him?"

  "I mean it's not him. It's someone else."

  "Well, who is it then?"

  "How the hell should I know?

  "Guys!"

  Niko and Leonard stopped bickering and spotted the footprints. Leonard backed away from the dead man on the floor while Niko drew his stun gun.

  Crunch. Crunch. The footsteps came closer.

  Lilian stepped back to give Niko room as he got into a wide stance, aiming the stun gun with both hands.

  He pulled the trigger. He frowned and pressed it again.

  Nothing.

  He twisted it around to look at the power indicator on the side. "Shit," he muttered. "Out of juice."

  "I told you it needed eight hours to charge," Leonard said.

  A whimper came from behind her. Ben was shaking, staring into the empty space in front of him. She called his name but he didn't react. His lower lip pooched out and stretched as if something had pulled at it and then snapped back against his teeth with a slight plip.

  She shook him by the shoulder. "Ben!"

  He startled, rousing out of his stupor. It was like he'd been sleepwalking. He turned to her, his cheeks flaring red. His shamefaced glance down at his crotch drew her attention to the tent in his pants. "W-what? What's happening?" he stuttered.

  "Come on," she said, consciously ignoring his erection. "We have to leave."

  Inside the room, Niko said, "Leonard, we got it cornered, brother. Stun it!"

  Leonard had pressed himself flat against the wall, gripping it with both hands flat. "I… can't… move."

  "What d'you mean you can't move?"

  "It's got me, man." He shot them a terrified look. "Something's got me!"

  Niko looked down at the footsteps on either side of the door, as if the ghost was preventing him from entering. "Ah, hell," he said, and stepped into the room.

  An invisible force launched him back so violently he knocked Allison to her knees and was thrown against the far wall, cracking the glass with the back of his head.

  Lilian uttered a frightened yelp as the door swung shut and crashed against the jam. The lock clicked. Leonard's muffled cries echoed within.

  Niko rose from his knees, pulling up his sleeves with rage in his eyes. He rushed the door and slammed his shoulder into it. "Hang on, brother! I'm comin' for ya!" He shouldered the door once more before stepping back and examining the handle. "Damn thing swings out, doesn't it?" He grabbed it and pulled. It wouldn't move. "Come on, guys, help me pull."

  Leonard's screams grew louder behind the door, frantic. A howl of female rage rose to match it. The bedsprings rattled and twanged. Something thudded heavily against the door.

  Silence followed.

  "Len, don't you die on me!"

  Lilian grabbed Niko's flexing shoulder muscle and Allison took his other arm, and the three of them pulled, their muscles straining. "Ben!" she called over her shoulder. "We need your help!"

  The locked clicked open and the door came swinging outward. The three of them stumbled back as it slammed against the wall.

  Leonard stood in the middle of the room, his back to the door, looking down at the dead man on the floor.

  "You all right, brother?" Niko said.

  Leonard's head rose. He spoke without turning. "I'm fine, my good friend. This man is dead. We can do nothing more for him."

  Niko frowned. Something was off about Leonard. It sounded like he was doing an accent.

  "All right, cool," Niko said. "Let's blow this joint then, huh?"

  "Yes, let's."

  Leonard turned rigidly on the spot. He blinked several times, like a man who'd just removed his glasses and couldn't quite focus on what he was seeing. Then he crossed to the door. Blood oozed from his nostrils and dropped onto his nametag. He wiped his nose with the back of his right hand and studied the red smear on his finger. "Do any of you happen to have a handkerchief? I appear to be bleeding."

  Allison watched him cautiously as she handed over a folded tissue from her jacket pocket. He studied it a moment before pressing it to his nostril. "Thank you," he said, his voice nasal from the pressure.

  "Welcome," she said with narrowed eyes.

  "Let's not tarry a moment longer, eh, chum? No rest for the wicked." He slapped Niko on the shoulder. Niko flinched, looking at him with distrust. Leonard grinned and headed off toward the end of the hall, leaving the rest of them bewildered.

  "That's not Leonard," Niko said quietly.

  "No shit, Sherlock," Lilian said.

  "I feel I should point out he's got the only working stun gun," Allison added.

  Niko nodded. "We'll have to snatch it off him."

  Turning at the door, Leonard smiled warmly back at them. "What's the hold up, boys and ghouls?"

  "Nothing, brother," Niko said with a nervous chuckle. "Just making plans."

  Leonard clapped his hands together cheerfully, an oddly dainty gesture for such a tough-looking dude. "Wonderful! I love a good plan." He daubed the Kleenex to his nose and gave the blood a look of disgust. "Shall we split into pairs? Of course, we appear to be uneven so one of us will have to play the third wheel."

  "I think we should stay together," Lilian said. "Right, Ben?"

  Ben looked up as if he hadn't heard her. He nodded. There was blood on his lip. "Yeah," he said. "Whenever people split up in horror movies somebody always dies."

  Leonard looked confused. He blinked hard and shrugged. "Very well, together we shall remain. I believe I know a faster route to the exit, anyhow." He turned and stepped briskly into the next corridor with the gait of an English butler.

  "Soon as he lets his guard down we rush him," Niko whispered.

  "I don't think that's a good idea," Allison said. "He could be dangerous."

  Niko gave her a smug look. "I can deal with Leonard. We've scrapped a hundred times."

  "But that's not—" Allison began, but Niko was already rounding the corner. She scowled and followed him.

  Lilian heard the stun gun discharge a split second before Niko came lurching back into the doorway, his entire body seizing. He staggered back and toppled over a gurney, knocking it to the floor.

  Leonard had grabbed Allison and spun her around. He held the stun gun to her head, the crook of his elbow pressed against her throat. Blinking angrily, he spat out a mouthful of her hair before attempting to speak. "No sudden moves, children, or the dame gets it."

  "Let her go!" Lilian said.

  "I'm not much for sharing, unfortunately. I'd much rather play with this one on my own."

  As he spoke a drop of blood spilled from his nose and spattered on Allison's forehead. She flinched and whimpered.

  "Not another peep from you, my dear," the man who'd possessed Leonard said. "Or you'll get the shock treatment too. Ta-ta, children."

  He raised the stun gun with and twiddled his free fingers. B
linking repeatedly, he backed Allison down the dim corridor. Her shoes scuffed on the tiles until the two of them disappeared around the next corner.

  DR. DEATH

  BEN RAN FULL speed down the hall, chasing Allison and the ghost possessing Leonard. Lilian helped Niko to his feet and they followed him deeper into the asylum, their footfalls echoing down the long dark corridor.

  Lilian caught up with him in the front foyer and they rushed up the stairs two steps at a time to the second floor. From there they followed trickles of Leonard's nosebleed on the black-and-white checkered tiles to a set of double doors leading into another long hallway. The overhead lights flickered and buzzed with crackles and arcs of wild electricity. Here, Ben took a moment to catch his breath. They had to wait on Niko anyway, who was climbing the last few steps holding the railing, puffing tiredly. Directly ahead of them was a lime green metal door with a small porthole-like window just above eye level. The trail of blood stopped below it. A large bloody handprint streaked the metal push plate.

  The hallway to the left of the doors was blocked by a pile-up of roller coaster cars that had caught on a portion of track torn from the floor and bent sharply upward. The tour guide, dressed in a red Ghostland T-shirt and black Ghostland vest, was impaled on the jagged metal and badly burned, having closed the circuit on the electrified track before it must have shorted out. A few broken bodies lay beneath upturned tramcars, burning like guttering candles or smoldering like the tour guide. A fire extinguisher lay nearby, its hose loose, as if someone had already tried to put out the blaze. The smell made Lilian gag.

  She stepped cautiously over the tracks and peered through the wired-glass window into what looked like a recreation room, the walls painted a soothing baby chick yellow. Melancholic piano music trickled out from within, one of the songs her music teacher used to play between students while Lilian waited in the foyer for her lesson to begin. The dead lay draped over sofas and in chairs, another under the table, more sprawled on the floor. Books and games had been pulled from the shelves, their pieces scattered. Lilian recognized the group of Japanese teenagers she'd seen taking a photo with Demont at the park entrance. They held hands, their red-rimmed eyes wide in horror, white foam oozing from their mouths. Lilian remembered what Allison had said about flash mobs and wondered if these kids had been a part of some suicide club.

  She waved Ben over. "Come look. Watch the tracks."

  Ben approached the window in the second door and squinted through. His eyes widened.

  Niko stepped in behind them, panting. "Hey, guys. You're alive."

  For now, she thought. She looked into the room at the scattered corpses. Something had killed those people and there was no reason to expect whatever it was wouldn't return. It could still be here, waiting for the right moment to pounce. Every part of her screamed at her to leave this place and never turn back.

  But they couldn't keep running forever. They needed to find Allison. They needed that stun gun. They needed the code for the security hatch.

  She pushed open the door, checked both ways before stepping through and then moved directly to a door beside a glass passthrough, where she guessed staff would hand out patient meds. The handle wouldn't turn so she walked up to the counter. On it was a clipboard with a checklist of names and medications: lithium carbonate, chlorpromazine hydrochloride, imiprimine. Beside the clipboard was a display with pills of various colors and the illnesses they would have treated.

  The asylum was huge. They needed a clue to who they were dealing with, to whoever had possessed Leonard, if they hoped to find Allison alive.

  Lilian pushed the pills aside and leaned over the counter. Within the small room was a medicine cabinet with glass doors, a wheelchair and a large rolltop desk. She jerked her head back out, watching the bodies on the floor, suddenly certain she'd seen one of them move in her peripherals.

  "Anything?" Niko asked.

  "It looks like a nurse's station," she said, returning her attention to the passthrough. "Just looking for anything we can use. A scalpel. Anesthetic. Something."

  "Smart," Ben said. "I'll check the trash cans for money and ammunition."

  Lilian laughed in spite of herself and climbed through to the nurse's station.

  Niko chuckled. "Nerd humor. I get it."

  Inside the medicine cabinet were some rusted tools that looked sharp but nothing that would be easy to use: a corkscrew-looking thing with a large wooden handle, a metal spatula, calipers, a rusty speculum. It was locked anyway, and breaking the glass would make too much noise, likely to alert whatever had killed the others. Discouraged, she crossed to the rolltop desk and tried the lid. It wouldn't open, no matter how hard she pulled and grunted.

  "What's going on?" Ben asked.

  She unlocked the door and stepped aside to let him in. "The lid's jammed," she said, nodding toward the desk.

  He glanced at the cabinet. "Whoa, is that a skull drill?"

  "Gross. Just help me with this, okay?"

  Together they pulled on the brass handle.

  "Need a hand?" Niko asked, leaning up against the doorjamb.

  "We've got it," Ben said with undisguised hostility.

  On the third try, the lock snapped and the lid rolled back into the desk. It was stuffed with stacks of yellowed paper and old ledgers. While Ben crossed to the medicine cabinet, Lilian picked up a leather-bound book at random and flipped through its musty pages, hoping to figure out who'd possessed Leonard, or come across a case history for Morton Welles, in case their paths crossed again.

  No luck. The book contained the patient history of a woman named Emma Lou Amesbury[xvii], a former nun believed by the members of her convent to have been possessed by the devil. The words "violent sexual proclivities" had been repeated on several pages. Tucked within were several black and white photographs. In one, a sad, plain-looking woman in a long plain dress and frumpy bonnet sat in an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair. In the next, the same woman's head was wrapped in bandages between two glass plates on black metal poles. The third was a snow globe with a Christmas tree inside, the words O Tannenbaum etched on its base.

  "I bet this is the patient in that room," she said. "If we could just find her snow globe—"

  Ben slammed the book closed, raising a cloud of dust. She scowled at him.

  "This isn't a game, Lilian. There aren't any trophies for completing side quests. There's nothing that'll help us in here. We need to find Allison before something happens to her."

  Lilian looked at the books. The urge to take them with her was strong but there were far too many to carry. They wouldn't be of any use outside of the asylum anyhow, aside from the one she was least likely to find.

  "Fine," she said, and she followed him out of the room.

  Niko stood with his big arms crossed over his chest. "Where to now, guys?"

  Ben pointed to a door at the far corner of the recreation room. "They must have gone that way."

  Niko led the way, weaving between the bodies on the floor. "Such a shame," he said. "They're just kids. Who's gonna tell their parents?"

  Lilian didn't know what to say. She watched her feet instead, trying not to look at the bodies. A cell phone lay in her path. She glanced at it just long enough to see it was playing a short handheld video of the dead Japanese kids hugging, singing, laughing, flashing peace signs and making duck faces. She turned away as the video looped back to the beginning and replayed.

  Niko drew open the door at the far end of the room and peered inside. "Coast is clear," he said, holding it open. Lilian stepped into the cramped doctor's office. Ben and Niko crowded in behind her. The office belonged to a DR. HAMMERSMITH[xviii] according to the nameplate on the large oak desk and the framed diploma beside the bookshelf. Several drawers had been left open, and notes were scattered across the desk. Drops of blood had spattered the blotter and the floor leading to the far door.

  Leonard and Allison had come through here.

  Lilian paused a moment and look
ed over the photos on the walls, each one featuring a balding man in doctor's whites with round wire-frame glasses. In one, he stood over a man receiving electroshock. In another, he stood beside a strange metal tank, a woman's head stuck out of the single hole, her mouth open in anguish. In a third, he held his arms behind his back among dozens of patients standing out front of the asylum. Placed in intervals between these photos were newspaper clippings, also framed. One headline read Dr. Death Murders 18 Patients. A second read, Dr. Death Sentenced to Electric Chair!

  "Dr. Death," Ben said. "I wonder if that's who possessed Leonard?"

  Niko balled his hands into fists. "Whoever it is, I'm gonna perform an exorcism with my fist up his ass."

  A grainy photo of a familiar-looking man on one of the clippings stood out to Lilian. She stepped around Dr. Hammersmith's desk to get a closer look and her heart began to race. It was him. Younger, far less maniacal and lacking the lobotomy scar on his forehead, but it was definitely Morton Welles. Above his photograph, the headline read, Dr. Death's Lobotomized 'Zombies' Claim 7 More Victims.

  "Morton Welles was one of his patients," she said.

  Ben came around the desk to join her and scanned the article. "Whoa. That's cool."

  She glowered at him.

  "What? It is pretty cool, if you don't think about how twisted it is."

  "This door's unlocked," Niko said behind them.

  The other door led back into the hall. Lilian hurried past Niko, following the drops of blood to a set of double doors at the far end. The green copper plate beside them doors was labeled OPERATING THEATER, and a dark realization overcame her: Allison was behind those doors with Leonard, possessed by the sadistic Dr. Hammersmith, and the reason why Dr. Death had brought Allison here made her skin crawl.

  "He's gonna make her into a zombie," Ben said, echoing her thoughts.

  "Not if I have anything to say about it," Niko grunted.

  Lilian pushed hastily through the doors, no plan, just hoping she could convince the ghost occupying Leonard's body to let Allison go. She knew the chances were slim, but she couldn't just let Allison die. Though she'd never admit it, after all they'd been through today, she was actually starting to like her. The woman had forced her to face some hard truths, and if the park hadn't gone into meltdown, bringing her here might actually have helped. She would be sorry to lose Allison, no matter their differences in the past.