Chapter 36 Full Party Dynamics
Full Party Dynamics
Night fell.
The sanitarium’s windows darkened one by one, as though some invisible hand extinguished each light.
Shadows lengthened across the polished floors, stretching into grotesque parodies of human forms. The temperature dropped several degrees—not the natural cooling of evening, but something deliberate. Calculated. Designed.
Levi felt the change like a physical presence against his skin. They had hours before the building fully activated, but he could already sense the subtle shift in air pressure as hidden mechanisms stirred to life behind the walls.
“This place feels different at night,” Maddie whispered, shivering despite her heavy sweatshirt. “Like it’s... watching us.”
“All old buildings settle after dark,” Owen replied, adjusting his glasses with nervous fingers. “Temperature variations cause the materials to contract, creating auditory phenomena that the human brain interprets as—”
“It’s watching us,” Jasper confirmed, nodding seriously. His pupils were dilated, either from the dim lighting or whatever he smoked during their equipment setup break. “You can feel it, right? The way it’s... hungry.”
Levi exchanged a glance with Asher, who leaned against the wall with practiced nonchalance. The others couldn’t see what they saw—a building designed as a trap, its guts already beginning their nightly reconfiguration.
“Where should we start?” Elliot asked, fiddling with an expensive EMF detector. “The third floor has the most reported apparitions.”
“No,” Levi said quickly. Too quickly. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I mean, the most interesting energy readings are likely on the second floor. There’s a section called the Research Wing that looks promising.”
He’d spent the daylight hours studying Dr. Faine’s journal, piecing together fragments from its cramped handwriting and medical diagrams, comparing them with his notes and trying to figure out what they were missing.
“How do you know that?” Tyler asked, brow furrowed in suspicion.
“Research,” Levi improvised. “I did some digging on this place before we came. Standard preparation.”
Asher’s mouth curved into a slight smile at the lie.
“Well, look at you, being all professional,” Maddie teased, bumping his shoulder with hers. “No wonder Asher couldn’t keep his hands off you earlier.”
Heat rushed to Levi’s face. The storage room incident had spread through the team like wildfire, transforming into jokes and knowing glances that made him want to die.
Worse, Asher seemed to bask in the attention, standing closer to Levi than necessary, letting his fingers brush against Levi’s when passing equipment.
“Speaking of hands,” Jasper chimed in, “let’s pair up. Buddy system, right? Safety first.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Levi and Asher.
“Yes,” Levi agreed, seizing the practical suggestion. “We should split into teams. Cover more ground efficiently.”
“I’ll go with Levi,” Elliot said, moving to stand beside him. “I’ve got the best equipment, and he’s done the research. Makes sense.”
The temperature dropped another few degrees—not from the weather, but from Asher’s sudden stillness. His expression hadn't changed, but something in his eyes became flat and cold.
“Actually,” Levi said carefully, weighing his options, “Asher and I should probably take the Research Wing. He’s... familiar with the recording equipment we need for that section.”
The lie was transparent, but it avoided the immediate danger of Asher’s jealousy. The brief flicker of satisfaction in Asher’s mismatched eyes confirmed Levi made the right choice. For now.
“Fine,” Elliot huffed. “Tyler and I will take the east wing, then.”
“Owen, Zoe, and I can check out the patient rooms on this floor,” Maddie offered.
“I guess that leaves me with the sweet equipment monitoring setup,” Jasper said, gesturing to their base camp of screens and receivers. “I’ll be your eye in the sky, keeping watch over everything.”
Levi nodded, relieved. The arrangement was the best he could come up with for where they were at in the game, keeping the group close enough to help each other, but separated enough to cover more ground before the building’s nighttime reconfiguration began in earnest.
“Stay in radio contact,” he instructed. “If anything feels wrong—anything at all—head back to base camp immediately.”
“Ooh, listen to Commander Levi,” Maddie teased. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”
Neither did Levi. But having information and the memories they didn’t meant they’d all die without his guidance. “Let’s move out in fifteen,” he said. “I need to check the equipment.”
As the others dispersed to gather their gear, Asher’s palm pressed against the small of Levi’s back, guiding him toward a quieter corner of the entrance hall. “Elliot’s still interested in you,” Asher grumbled. “I counted six separate instances of unnecessary eye contact.”
Levi sighed. “We don’t have time for this.”
“I disagree.” Asher’s fingers traced up Levi’s vertebrae, coming to rest at the nape of his neck. “We have thirteen minutes before we ‘move out.’ Plenty of time to discuss the fact that he wants to fuck you.”
Levi flinched. “He does not—”
“He does,” Asher interrupted, his grip tightening. “All I need to know is if I should remove his eyes now, or if you’d prefer I wait until we’re deeper in the building where the others won’t hear him scream.”
“No one dies,” Levi hissed. “We need them alive. All of them.”
“Why?” Asher’s lips brushed Levi’s ear, sending an unwelcome shiver down his spine. “We know more than they do. They’re liabilities.”
“They’re resources,” Levi countered. “More eyes watching for danger. More hands to help if something goes wrong. Jasper especially, he notices things the rest of us miss.”
Asher hummed noncommittally, his breath warm against Levi’s neck. “And Elliot? What’s his purpose beyond making me want to peel his skin off in strips?”
Levi swallowed. “He has the best equipment. EMF detectors, thermal imaging, all his stuff is top of the line.”
“Fine,” Asher conceded, though his fingers remained possessively curled around Levi’s neck. “But he stays away from you. Or I can’t promise he’ll keep all his fingers.”
“Asher—”
“I’m being reasonable,” Asher insisted. “I’m not killing him. Just... establishing boundaries.” His thumb rubbed the sensitive skin behind Levi’s ear. “Speaking of boundaries, you still owe me three minutes from earlier.”
God dammit, Asher.
“Not now,” Levi managed, stepping away from Asher’s touch. “We have work to do.”
Asher’s eyes gleamed in the dim light. “Later, then. When we find somewhere private in the Research Wing.”
Levi didn’t answer, turning instead to check the battery packs for their cameras. He could feel Asher’s gaze on him, heavy as a physical touch.
The Research Wing smelled of formaldehyde and old paper.
Levi swept his flashlight across the abandoned laboratory, revealing dusty specimen jars and antiquated medical equipment.
The beam caught a row of filing cabinets against the far wall, their metal surfaces dull with age.
Everything looked roughly the same as it had the last time they were down here.
“Faine mentions keeping records of his ‘special projects’ in cabinet thirteen,” Levi murmured, consulting the journal.
“Thirteen?” Asher’s eyebrow arched. “Bit on the nose, isn’t it?”
“Says the guy with heterochromia in a haunted hospital,” Levi replied without thinking.
Asher’s laugh was startlingly genuine. “Touché.”
Levi tried to ignore how natural it felt, the moment of shared humor amid the horror. How easily they fell into a rhythm of working together, moving through the darkened halls with synchronized caution.
They located cabinet thirteen in the corner, its metal face distinguished by a small, etched symbol—a triangle within a circle.
“It’s locked,” Levi sighed, rattling the handle.
“Move,” Asher instructed, producing a small leather case from his pocket. He unrolled it to reveal a set of lock picks. “Standard tumbler lock. Won’t take a minute.”
“Where did you—?” Levi began, then shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
The lock clicked open with surprising ease, and Asher pulled out a stack of manila folders labeled with patient numbers rather than names.
“What are we looking for?” he asked, thumbing through the first few files.
“Anything about the basement,” Levi replied, taking half the stack.
They worked in silence for several minutes, the quiet broken only by the rustle of paper and occasional distant sounds from elsewhere in the building. Levi tried to focus on the files, but his mind kept drifting back to the storage room. To Asher’s mouth on him…
Focus, he chided himself. This is literally life or death.
“Found something,” Asher announced, holding up a yellowed diagram. “Looks like a floor plan for a sublevel not on the blueprints.”
Levi moved closer, peering over Asher’s shoulder. The diagram showed an elaborate laboratory beneath the main building, accessible only through a private elevator in Faine’s office.
“Look at this,” Levi said, pointing to a notation on the margin. “Security Protocol A-7: Full biometric authentication required.”
“Biometric?” Asher frowned. “Like fingerprints?”
“More than that, I think.” Levi shuffled through more papers, finding a technical document labeled ‘Access Protocols.’ “Listen to this: ‘Access to sanctum requires three-point biological verification of Administrative Identity. Samples must be retrieved to trigger unlocking sequence.’”
“So Faine built a security system keyed to his own biology,” Asher summarized. “That’s... excessive.”
“And this,” Levi added, indicating another page, “is a maintenance log for something called the ‘Specimen Storage.’ Dated fifteen years after the sanitarium closed.”
“He kept working after the building closed?”