“Trying to comfort you.”
Was he? I couldn’t tell in the dark, in this small claustrophobic room on the abandoned floor of a mental hospital. There could be no comfort here.
“I’m OK, Dex,” I said and lifted his arm off me. He took it back and didn’t say anything. I could tell his attention was already somewhere else.
“What are we-”
“Shhhh,” he hissed.
I shut my mouth, stopped my breath, and listened. At first I couldn’t hear anything except the rain outside and the occasional blast of winter wind.
Then I heard it. Footsteps coming out from the hallway. Not like the ones I had heard earlier, the ones that belonged to the girl. These footsteps were slower, more discreet and even gaited.
I suddenly wanted Dex’s strong arm back around my shoulders.
“Wha-” I opened my mouth to speak again but he pressed his finger against my lips and held it there. Despite the circumstances and my rising fear, there was still a tiny part of me that was sorely tempted to put his finger in my mouth and suck on it.
We both listened, as still and quiet as statues. The footsteps came closer.
And closer.
Closer still.
Then they stopped, right outside the door. Dex took his finger away from my lips and put his arm back around my shoulder, holding me in such a way as if I was about to bolt. I wanted to, but if I went out the door, I’d run into whatever the hell was out there.
The door knob jiggled. The sound of it turning. Dex had locked it and now I knew why. The jiggling continued.
I nervously eyed the camera on the sink, which was filming the door and understood what Dex had done. But what would we do if the thing came inside?
The knob stopped rattling. It was followed by a few heavy knocks that filled the tiny room and made the window rattle. Then there was a scuffling sound, as if the person (creature?) was leaning against the door, trying to hear us.
Then it stopped. The footsteps picked up again and continued back down the hallway from where they came. We listened to them until they faded away into the night.
We waited for a good five minutes, breathing as quietly as possible. It felt like the longest five minutes of my life. Dex’s grip around my shoulder’s loosened and eventually he took his arm off me.
I leaned close to him, sensing his face wasn’t too far away, and whispered, “What the hell was that? Did you know that was going to happen?”
“Sort of. One of the things people had reported was that back in the day, a security guard had killed himself. Hung himself on this floor in one of the rooms. Apparently he had gotten too close to the patients and one in particular had been…mean. Played mind games with him. He killed himself, and afterward people reported him walking up and the down the halls, making sure everyone was in bed and asleep. I don’t think he means any harm but…I would have hated to see what happened if I hadn’t locked it.”
“But you heard that, right? The footsteps? You heard the doorknob turn?”
“Yes,” he said, sounding surprised, almost insulted. “I hope the camera got it too. That’s really all we need to make tonight worthwhile.”
The reason I had asked was that Dex hadn’t seen anything else this whole time. Sometimes I wondered if only I picked up on certain things. And maybe I did. But it was a relief to know what just happened was something shared by both of us.
“Can we go now?” I asked, ready to get the hell out of there, even though I didn’t feel like making it down three floors of dead security guard, mutilated bleeding girl, and one already suspicious doctor.
I felt him nod in the dark. “We’ve outstayed our welcome anyway.”
He got up and gathered the camera, turned on the lantern and we left the room. The hallway looked the same as it had earlier. Blissfully unoccupied.
He closed the door quietly behind us. I began to walk away.
“Hey wait,” he called out, reaching for my arm.
I stopped. He flicked a few switches on the camera until the infrared came on, the one that picked up heat sources. He aimed it at the door.
Through the viewfinder, I saw two large handprints lit up in a glowing pattern of yellow and red. They were fading fast.
“Are those yours?” I asked.
Dex reached with his hand forward and held it beside the handprint without touching it. The handprint was almost twice the size of Dex’s hands. They weren’t his and they most definitely were not mine.
“The security guard,” Dex whispered excitedly. “I think we’ve f**king got something here. Fuck G.J. Jermaine and his Douche Factory. We’ve got this.”
We both watched the camera screen until the colors on the handprint faded and the door looked normal again. That was some pretty awesome proof to have. That almost made everything tonight worthwhile.
Dex shut off the camera and looked at me. He was grinning. It lit up his face more than the lantern light did. He looked ridiculously manic and ridiculously handsome. I couldn’t help but smile back at him. Then I turned and headed down the hall before I got all mushy-eyed.
We made it down the hallway (Dex pausing briefly to collect the EVP he left recording), made it down the stairs and to the heavy front doors that led outside. This time Roundtree was at her post. She eyed us warily from her short seat.
“I hope you weren’t causing trouble up there. This place has no use for troublemakers,” she said.
“No way, ma’am. You’re probably the biggest troublemaker of them all, ain’t that right, sweetheart?” Dex said in his most sincere voice. He opened the door and we bustled out into the cold, wet evening before we could hear her response.
He looked down at me as we walked over to the car, adjusting his pack on his shoulder. “I could never get along with the nurses. Don’t know why.”
I shook my head. We got back in the car and headed back into the city and civilization, leaving the looming building with its layers of secrets behind us.
For now.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Perry? Kiddo, you awake?”
Dex’s voice entered my dreams and a light knock at the door brought my eyes open. I was on my back, in bed, in the small, dark den, trying to recall the fragments of the dream I just had. Jacob was in it, again. Jacob and Dr. Freedman.
“Perry?”
The door knob turned and Dex entered the room, covering his eyes with one hand, harsh daylight splaying inside. “Hey, sleepyhead, are you decent?”