Chapter 20
Mathis and Gabe walked along their corridor. There were doors here and there and more faded picture spaces on the walls.
They arrived at the first room and walked in. It looked like an office, at least there was a desk and chair, but nothing else.
“Poor desk,” Gabe said, looking at it.
It must have looked stunning once, in mahogany, with three draws, and an area where a leather pad would have been. Instead, all that was left was a scratched empty space, with the draws open and empty.
“This room feels wrong,” Mathis said, looking around. The walls were covered in black mould and smelt of damp.
“It does, but the place has felt wrong since we arrived. I can’t imagine any old asylum feeling nice.”
“I pity those that have bought houses and flats in repurposed ones.”
“Yeah,” Gabe said, “and I thought my coven house was bad enough. Let’s try a different room.”
They left that one and carried on to the next one. This room was empty, as was the next one. They finally found a room that had something interesting in it.
“Somehow I wasn’t expecting this,” Mathis exclaimed.
“Me either,” Gabe said, walking closer. He looked at the floor, where a giant pentagram was painted on the floor in red. The middle of the pentagram contained a circle, at the point of each triangle was a circle, and what looked like runes were written around the outside.
“Do you know what the runes mean?” Mathis asked, walking around it.
“Protection, balance, health, healing and prolonged life.”
“Would chanting in here work for whatever?”
Gabe pulled his phone out and took some pictures. “It’s possible, it depends on the chant or spell used, or even what they were doing in here.”
Mathis knelt by a dark stain on the wooden floor. “This looks like dried blood.”
“Blood is used in certain spells; no matter the colour, it can require blood to activate them.”
“Virgin sacrifices?” Mathis queried, standing up.
“Possible. You know that doesn’t mean a person who’s not had sex, right?”
Mathis looked at him in surprise. “Really?”
Gabe nods. “Yeah, it just means someone whose blood hasn’t been used in a sacrifice before.”
“Huh, I never knew that. I always thought it was young maidens.”
“Nope. I wonder if Dave knows that. Remind me to tell him later.”
Mathis stopped walking and slowly looked around.
“What’s wrong?” Gabe asked, walking to his side.
“Can’t you hear that, that muttering?”
Gabe listened, and then he heard it, the hairs on his arms standing up. “We need to leave this room, right now.”
Mathis grabbed Gabe, and before he knew it, they were outside the room, just as the door slammed shut.
“Whoa,” Gabe muttered, clinging to Mathis’ arm.
“Sorry, little witch, you said we needed to get out of the room quickly.”
“Don’t apologise, vampy. I just didn’t see us move. I'm glad you’re fast. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in there. Who knows what that muttering would have achieved? ”
“Let’s check out the other rooms,” Mathis said, taking Gabe’s hand.
“I wonder how the others are getting on.”
Mathis grinned. “Hopefully having as eventful a time as us.”
Gabe laughed. “Here’s hoping.”
Jamie, Ivan, Olly and Adrian found nothing in the next few rooms. They walked into another. This one has a circle of chairs in the centre with more scattered around here and there.
“I don’t understand this place. You would have thought when this place closed, they would have stripped the place and sold things off,” Jamie commented.
“Nothing about this place makes sense. Like, why is there blood running down the wall?” Olly asked
“Move,” Adrian shouted.
The next moment, they were all outside in the corridor, the door slamming shut behind them.
“Whoa,” Jamie said, holding onto Ivan’s arm. “I didn’t even see us move.”
“Sorry, Jay, when a witch doctor tells you to run, you run.”
“I’m not complaining, thanks, honey, that was just whoa. Are you all alright? Did the blood affect any of you?”
“No, we weren’t in there long enough for it to affect us,” Adrian replied.
RUN a voice shouted. They looked at each other and took off towards the voice.
Kevin and Ian walked down their hallway, and the first door they opened was a staircase.
“A spooky staircase, nice,” Ian exclaimed happily.
Kevin grinned. “Let’s go and have a look.”
There were no lights on, but with their enhanced eyesight, they both saw just fine.
Ian followed. “How come Creed didn’t come?”
“He’s shadowing Derrick. I told him I’d tell him all about the haunted asylum when we got back.”
“I’m surprised Bert didn’t turn up with Gabe and the others,” Ian commented.
“Maybe he doesn’t know, I mean, I’ve not told him what we’re doing.”
Ian laughed. “He’ll find out and grumble.”
Kevin grinned at him. “Yes, he will.”
“I wonder why they hid this staircase,” Ian queried.
“Probably to hide the unethical experiments,” Kevin theorised.
“I thought almost everything that went on in these old asylums was unethical,” Ian replied.
“A lot of their experiments, I mean, treatments probably were.”
They carried on down the stairs and walked out into a large basement, filled with old beds, equipment and other weird stuff, with what once must have been white-washed walls, but that were now dirty and fading with age and splattered with dark stains.
“Well, this is all disturbing,” Kevin said, looking around.
Ian walked to a table where there was an old-fashioned rusty hand drill and what looked like a rusty ice pick. “I’m sure I saw a film once with these kinds of instruments; they used them for lobotomies.”
Kevin walked over and looked, shaking his head. “I can’t even imagine how scared the patient must have been during those kinds of procedures.”
“Yeah, chances are they were awake when it happened.” Ian paused and then grinned. “Shall we take these with us and use them on Drake?”
Kevin burst out laughing. “He’s not that bad.”
Ian snorted. “Just think, he could have been your second and I could have been Bert’s.”
“Gerty would have smothered you in your sleep within a day.”
“Or me him.”
“Come on, there are no records down here, let’s see if the others are having better luck,” he said, turning away.
Just then, a metal table moved and started rolling slowly across the floor in front of them.
“I’ll be more impressed if you put the table back where it was,” Kevin said, crossing his arms over his chest.
The table stopped moving for a moment and then slowly moved backwards to its starting position.
“Nice,” Kevin acknowledged.
A shape materialised next to the table. By the looks of it, a young woman, in a white gown, three bloody wounds on her forehead. Her long hair softly moving, although there was no breeze, and her feet bare.
“Can you speak?” Ian asked her softly.
Her mouth moved, and a soft voice sounded. “Little.”
“So you can speak a little bit?” Ian asked.
The ghost woman nodded. She points up the stairs and then around the room. “Danger.”
Kevin dropped his arms. “You’re in danger?”
The woman shook her head. “You... friends... leave... danger.”
“Thank you for the warning. We’ll get our friends and leave. I doubt we’ll find anything here anyway,” Kevin replied.
The ghost woman tilted her head. “Search?”
“We’re looking for information on a previous resident called Derrick,” Ian told her.
The ghost lady seemed to float backwards. “Evil... demon.”
“He’s a demon?”
She shook her head. “Sold... soul.”
“He sold his soul to an evil demon?” Kevin queried.
The woman nodded as a table was thrown into the back wall.
“Run,” the ghost lady said.
“What about you? Come with us?” Kevin asked quickly, ducking as another table flew across the room, this time at him.
“No... RUN,” the ghost lady shouted, vanishing, and moving quickly as more equipment was thrown at them, they dashed across the room and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Ian grunted as he felt something hit him, but managed to get to the top of the stairs without falling. As soon as Ian was through the door, Kevin slammed it shut.
Ian moved to lean against the hallway wall, wincing.
“What’s wrong?” Kevin asked him in concern.
“Nothing, I was hit in the back with something, that’s all.”
Kevin moved behind him. “Damn Ian, you look to have that ice pick buried by your shoulder blade.”
They heard running footsteps and saw Ivan, Jamie, Olly and Adrian hurrying their way.
“Are you both alright?” Olly called to them as they got closer.
“Ian’s being a baby, but apart from that, we’re fine. How come you came running?”
Ian rolled his eyes.
“We heard a voice shout, run,” Adrian said, walking over to Ian and behind him. “You have something in you.”
“Pretty sure it’s a rusty ice pick type thing,” Ian said, wincing a little as he moved. “If you can pull it out, I’ll heal right up.”
“You seriously have super speedy healing?” Jamie asked him.
“We do,” Kevin replied.
“This might hurt a bit,” Adrian said, before putting his hand on the ice pick handle and pulling it out.
Ian gasped and closed his eyes, frowning. “Is it out?”
“It is. There is a bit of damage to some muscles. Let me fix that for you,” and with that, Adrian laid his hand over the wound and sent healing to Ian.
Ian felt a warm glow and then nothing.
“There, all fixed,” Adrian said, moving to Ian’s side.
“Thanks, Adrian.”
“Your hair has a few streaks of grey in it,” Jamie observed.
Adrian nodded. “The grey in my hair denotes how much healing I had to use.”
“Gabe didn’t get streaks in his hair, and he had a healing type glow. Is your healing different?” Jamie asked.
“It is. Gabe’s healing is divine; he can call upon celestial healing. My healing comes from inside of me. I literally use my energy to heal. I’m a witch doctor.”
“Like in the films, shaking rattles and the like? And your hair shows how much of your energy you used,” Jamie queried, trying to get it straight in his head.
Adrian smiled. “Exactly, but I use more than rattles.”
“Did you find out anything before you were stabbed?” Ivan asked them.
“We met a ghost in the basement. She told us Derrick sold his soul to an evil demon,” Kevin replied.
“Aren’t all demons evil?” Jamie queried.
“No, like any species, there are good and bad ones. Raz, Gavin and Mathis’ brother is mated to a demon,” Ivan said.
“Whoa, mind-blowing,” Jamie commented.
“We should message the others and get out of here. I’m pretty sure the demon is still in this asylum,” Ian suggested.
Laughter surrounded them. Your friends are dead. Thank you for the tributes. You’re all next.