Chapter Six.
Connor
While I was concerned about what was happening with the band of idiots, Sunny’s crew, as I’d dubbed them, Callie trusted me to run this.
I wouldn’t let her down. Callie had been incredibly kind and generous in taking me in, and I’d break my back for her.
I’d hated what my previous team had succumbed to and loathed the poor-quality investigations they’d put out.
It didn’t make sense to me to fake footage, but they had.
Sure, all rumoured hauntings were active.
Rule them out and move on to the next, hopefully genuine choice.
Michelle had assured me that Callie was the real deal, and I’d been dubious about it.
But from what I’d witnessed, Callie appeared to be one of the most truthful investigators in the field.
She had a big heart, and Sunny made me laugh with how he acted.
An overprotective MC alpha male was not who you’d think to find investigating ghosts.
But here he was. Supporting her, without judgment.
“Do we call out for Jimmy again?” Bunny asked.
I nodded. “Sure. Jimmy might reveal himself.”
For an hour, Bunny and I called out, but Jimmy didn’t show.
“Let’s change to the Nurse,” I said.
Three hours later, the whole evening had been a bust.
“This happens, Bunny. And to be honest, we’ve had motion cameras and a night camera filming here constantly, and there’s been no activity. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t any, but we’ve not captured it,” I explained.
“Do we come back?” she asked, and I nodded.
“Yup. Something may happen after dinner,” I said, and she smiled.
“Never give up. Spirits march to the beat of their own drum. Lots of rumours of hauntings will be debunked. The nurse might be one of them.”
“Okay,” Bunny answered with a smile. As we walked off, the static camera caught sight of an enormous figure appearing and watching us leave.
Bunny
“Hurry up and eat!” I commanded Connor as he laughed.
“Bunny, Jimmy will be there when we return or not,” he replied. I sent him my death stare, but it didn’t work on him like it did on Pyro.
“Eat,” I ordered as Teri joined us. She held a tablet.
“Hey, you need to see this,” she said and pressed play.
My fork hit the table as I gazed at a gurney being pushed down the corridor with nobody there.
“Connor!” I growled out, and he smiled.
“They could be shy,” he suggested and took one more bite of the casserole that Harry had cooked.
Impatiently, I tapped my foot until Connor placed his utensils down and stared at me.
“Bunny, those spirits didn’t show themselves until we were gone.
We might get back and spend another four hours wasted there.
These things require patience and calmness.
We also need to build up our reserves. It’s very easy to meet something bad that drains your energy.
If you haven’t eaten and drunk enough, that can be dangerous.
You could pass out. Trust me, I know how eager you are.
I am too, but I’ve got the experience to be aware to stock my strength,” he chided.
Ouch, that hurt a little.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise, be clever. Now eat your dinner and make sure you feel refreshed. Because if shit goes tits up, which it often can, you’re going to need that energy to run!”
“Okay,” I agreed. Connor’s words made me think of the past, of how drained Magic and Sunny had been when they’d been attacked. Connor wasn’t wrong. I was just excited.
◆◆◆
When we headed back, everything was quiet again, but Connor had brought a large ball with him. After an hour, he rolled it away, and we waited to see if it moved.
I gaped when it was slowly shoved to the side.
“Injury. Fall.” The words came from the spirit box we grasped. It was a slightly larger version of the Ovilus, which we’d used before. Connor mentioned that this one held more vocabulary in its database.
“Sorry, I didn’t think of that. Are you a nurse?” Connor called out.
My eyes widened as the ball moved and was struck.
“Bad. Accident. Stop,” the spirit box chided, and a happy snicker was the reply.
Stunned, I sat up straight and exchanged a glance with Connor. That chuckle had been audible.
The ball was adjusted to one side again, and it was promptly kicked a second time.
“Two spirits and they’re arguing,” Connor said with a smile.
“Stop. Bad. Fall. Trip.” The words spilt from the spirit box, and I nodded.
“Someone is telling the other spirit not to play with the ball.”
In the shadows, something moved, and Freddie pointed. “There. Look, is that a child?”
I squinted but couldn’t distinguish anything.
“It’s gone,” Freddie said.
“Are you the nurse who haunts here?” Connor asked.
“Are. You. Hurt?”
“No, I’m okay, thank you for asking,” Connor answered.
“Shoo. Work.”
“Were we just dismissed due to her job?” I giggled.
“Yeah, we did. Sorry for bothering you, we’ll leave you to work,” Connor offered.
“Shoo.”
“We’re shooing,” Connor replied, amused.
“Shouldn’t we stay? Push for more questions?” I asked as Connor hauled me up from where I’d been sitting on the floor.
“No, that’s the way to anger them. This spirit clearly thinks she’s working, and we need to leave her alone. How angry would you get if someone kept questioning you as you worked?” Connor said.
“True.”
We both stopped as we heard an infant’s cry. From behind us, we could faintly hear a lullaby being hummed in a woman’s voice. The nurse wasn’t evil at all — talk about rumours getting it wrong.
“Damn!” I exclaimed and turned to look. At the far end, near one of the rooms, stood a seven-foot shadow. Jimmy once more waved and then faded.
“Harry,” I whispered into the radio.
“Got it! Come back and review what you missed!” Harry replied.
Sunny
I was watching Magic with a beady eye. He carried a backpack, but from what I could see, he didn’t have a fuckin’ flame thrower in it this time.
Why the hell had Callie sent us to the psych ward with Magic?
Did she want us to lock him up? That would be my fuckin’ pleasure.
I wondered if there were straitjackets around.
As soon as we entered, I sensed this place would be active.
Phil and I exchanged a glance, and I knew we both felt it.
There was anticipation in the air. The usual debris and typical graffiti were present, but there was more.
The first room we peered into held a chair with electrodes attached to it.
“Shit,” I whispered.
We moved on and discovered a small room with a single bath standing over a drain.
An icebox stood in the corner. Repulsed, I shuddered to think of its purpose.
The next few rooms were padded cells, the padding torn open and scattered on the floor.
There were cells with beds and shackles remaining in place, and I winced. God, this would have destroyed people.
We crossed to the other side and discovered something similar. But instead of a bath and shock chair, there was a table with instruments lying beside it. I moved over, and my hand reached out to touch them before I snatched it back.
“Are those… damn, that’s an ice pick,” I murmured.
“Lobotomy tools,” Pyro said.
I stepped away in horror. It was then that I noticed the straps that would have held a person down while someone whacked an ice pick into their head.
“Jesus,” I hissed.
“Jesus fled this place a long time ago,” Phil replied.
“Amen, brother,” Pyro stated.
“What was this room?” I asked as I stared at the huge speakers on the walls.
“Audio torture. I’ve heard of it but never seen it,” Phil declared and made an appalled face.
“What is it?” Magic boomed.
“They would play the scriptures repeatedly with no pause for days on end to try to cure madness. If they hadn’t gone in crazy, they certainly came out of it insane. They were denied sleep, rest, and were constantly tormented,” Phil elaborated.
“No wonder this place is so haunted,” Magic quipped, but it was without malice.
“Was this a male or female ward?” I asked, and Magic shrugged.
“Mixed. Those who were really bad were locked in the isolation cells,” Harry’s stated.
“Christ, this hellhole should be burned to the ground. The misery in here can’t be imagined,” I hissed and avoided looking at Pyro.
“Lessons can be learned from institutions like this,” Phil declared.
“Like what? How to die in squalor and agony?” Magic boomed.
“More like how we shouldn’t treat the insane.
Do you think this shit has ended? There are places like this in existence today.
This is a legacy when being mentally ill carried a death sentence.
Our job isn’t to judge but to bring peace to those who suffer here and assist them in moving on if we can,” Phil stated.
“Well, damn, I thought it was to investigate,” Magic retorted.
“Yeah, it is. But it’s also to help. There are worse places than this; we’ve encountered them.
Where patients were experimented on without permission, or a woman thrown in with a pack of men and raped.
This isn’t the worst we’ve come across. But we try to find the light for the souls trapped and give them a voice and peace,” Phil added.
“That’s why we’ve the rule: don’t provoke. If we’re told to leave by a benign spirit, we do. We don’t risk anything that will cause more harm,” I said in a clear warning to Magic.
“Understood,” Magic snapped.
Huh, I guessed he felt a bit of an asshole right about now.
“My name’s Sunny, I’m sure you’ve been listening. Would you like to talk to us?” I called out. I peered around, not expecting anything; I’d be frightened of us, too.
“Can you tell us your name?” I asked. “Or how old you were when you died?”
“Why were you here?” Magic boomed, but made the sound friendly.
I rewound the recorder and pressed play. There weren’t any answers to our questions.