by Marty Chan
Copyright © Marty Chan 2020
Published in Canada and the United States in 2020 by Orca Book Publishers.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Haunted hospital / Marty Chan.
Names: Chan, Marty, author.
Series: Orca currents.
Description: Series statement: Orca currents
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200178768 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200178776 |
ISBN 9781459826205 (softcover) | ISBN 9781459826212 (PDF) |
ISBN 9781459826229 (EPUB)
Classification: LCC PS8555.H39244 H38 2020 | DDC jC813/.54—dc23
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020930587
Summary: In this high-interest accessible novel for middle readers, four young teens find themselves in serious danger during a role-playing game in a supposedly abandoned hospital.
Orca Book Publishers is committed to reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources in the making of our books. We make every effort to use materials that support a sustainable future.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
Edited by Tanya Trafford
Design by Ella Collier
Cover image by Gettyimages.ca/zodebala
Author photo by Ryan Parker
Printed and bound in Canada.
23 22 21 20 • 1 2 3 4
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ivaluecanadianstories.ca
In honor of Frank Nigro.
Thank you for inspiring me
to chase my dreams.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
The light from Li’s phone shone a path in the dark cemetery. She crept between the tombstones, trying to still her shaking hand.
Crack!
She spun around. The leafless trees behind her looked like skeletal fingers reaching for the bright moon.
“Who’s there?” Li asked.
No answer.
She zipped up her fleece jacket, bracing herself against the brisk wind. She looked at the text on her phone again.
Find Tamara Reyes
Her mission was to find the gravestone marked with the name Tamara Reyes. It was part of the game Spirits and Specters. Li and her friends were the ghost hunters. Li had been given a solo assignment. She had to find evidence of the supernatural to earn bonus points.
She aimed her phone light at a nearby gravestone. Not the one she needed. She pointed the flashlight beam at a second one. Nope. Another tombstone and another. She crept along the line of markers, scanning each inscription.
Crack!
Li froze. It sounded like something or someone stepping on a dead branch. Was she being followed? She held her breath for a moment and listened. Nothing but the wind whistling through the trees.
“Get a hold of yourself, girl,” she muttered. “It’s a game. Just a game.”
She picked up the pace. Soon her quick walk had turned into a fast jog. But even at her new pace, the light of her phone caught the tombstone she was looking for.
Here lies Tamara Reyes
1923–1971
Li grinned. “Found you,” she said.
She inched toward the marker. The beam of light from her phone caught a dark shape on the grass. It was a wooden box about the size of a shoebox. Strange etchings snaked across the rosewood top. They looked like demon figures writhing in pain.
She texted a message to the game’s referee.
Crypt Keeper, I found a box. Now what?
Three dots appeared on the screen. Li tapped her foot, waiting for the reply. She wanted to get out of the dead zone as fast as possible. Ping.
Open it.
Li stared at the box. Something about it made her nervous. Why couldn’t she just bring the thing back so her teammates could open it with her? Safety in numbers and all that. But Li remembered that this was a solo mission. And she wasn’t about to quit.
She carefully cracked the wooden lid open.
A bony hand shot out of the box. Li screamed and dropped her phone. She scrambled backward, slamming her elbow against a tombstone.
The skeleton hand bounced up and down on a metal spring like a creepy jack-in-the-box.
Li focused on slowing down her breathing. When she was calm, she started sweeping her hands over the grass until she could feel her phone.
Nice one, Priya. What now?
A few seconds later, the response pinged on the screen.
Ha! Did it freak you? Look inside.
Li crawled across the grass to grab the box. A folded-up piece of paper was jammed into one corner. Li plucked it out, opened the yellowed paper and read the scribbled words.
I cannot rest until I am reunited with my beloved.
She flipped the note over, but the other side was blank. She shone the light on Tamara Reyes’s gravestone, noting the inscription at the bottom:
Loving wife to Denton Reyes.
Li skimmed the names on the nearby markers. None belonged to Denton Reyes. She headed to the next row.
Crack!
She scanned the cemetery for the source of the sound. Nothing. Li grabbed the box and scurried away, keeping low and out of sight. She wasn’t about to stay in this spooky place a moment longer. The wind blew against her body, almost as if trying to prevent her escape.
Li’s friends, Xander, Omar and Priya, all stood at the gate entrance, clapping.
“We have…to find out…where…Denton Reyes is buried,” Li said, barely able to catch her breath.
Xander clapped Li on the back. Omar lowered the scarf wrapped around his face and took the wooden box from her. Priya strode over to a nearby tombstone and checked the binder sitting on top.
“Not bad, Li. Not bad at all,” Priya said. “I’m awarding you fifty experience points for that mission.”
“Fifty? Come on, Crypt Keeper,” Li said. “That was worth at least a hundred points. The bony hand! That’s got to be worth something.”
Omar asked, “What hand?”
“Open the box,” Li said.
“Okay. I don’t see what—yikes!” The skeletal hand shot out at Omar’s chest. He leapt back, dropping the box.
Xander laughed. “Chicken.”
Li chuckled. “Never saw anyone jump that high.”
“I wasn’t scared,” Omar said, eyeing the skeletal hand nervously.
“Yeah right.” Li turned to the Crypt Keeper. “C’mon, Priya, why didn’t I get more points? I finished the mission.”
Priya shook her head. “Li, the game’s called Spirits and Specters. Not Bicker and Complain. And actually you did not complete your mission. If you had found Denton Reyes’s grave, you would have picked up the extra fifty points, but you didn’t complete the task.”
“Not my fault,” Li argued. “There was no grave marker nearby. Plus, it sounded like someone else was in the cemetery.”
“Oooo,” Xander moaned. “You’ve angered the ghost of Tamara Reyes.”
Omar joined in. “She wants to feed on your eyes.”
Li sneered at them. “Act your age. Not your shoe size.”
Towering over Xander and Li, Omar cocked his head. “But my age is the same as my shoe size.”
Xander lifted up ghost arms and floated around Li. “Oooo.”
“Cut it out, Xander,” Li said, her nostrils flaring. Her nose stud sparkled in the moonlight. “So, Priya, where is Denton Reyes?”
The Crypt Keeper shook her head. “That’s up to the next ghost hunter to find.”
Omar shot his hand up. “My turn. I’ll do it.”
“Careful,” Li said. “I really did think I heard someone. Might be security.”
“So what?” Omar said. “We’re not doing anything wrong. Come on, Priya. Give me my mission.”
Xander leaned against the iron gate. “We do this every time! I’ll bet Priya’s big brother is lurking around, waiting to jump out at us. Same ol’ same ol’.”
Priya clutched her binder against her jacket. “You don’t like my campaign missions?”
Xander said, “No, they’re great. All I’m saying is that part of the fun of ghost hunting is visiting new and abandoned places. Right, Omar?”
Omar kicked at the ground with his high-top and glanced up sheepishly at Priya. “If there was a chance to hunt ghosts in another place…well… I guess…I wouldn’t complain.”
Priya turned to Li. “Do you feel the same way, Li?”
Li took a second to answer. “Well, I do love the jump scares.”
“Me too! But the setting is a little…you know… played out,” Omar said.
Xander sighed. “I wish we could find a new place.”
Priya lowered her binder. “Yeah, I guess the graveyard is getting a bit tired. Tell you what. Next week we’ll start looking around for another place. Whoever finds the best location gets to be the next Crypt Keeper.”
They all nodded in agreement.
“Sounds like a plan,” said Xander.
Chapter Two
The following week Xander peppered his friends with his ideas for new places to play. They ranged from the old Edmonton Oilers hockey arena to the river valley to an abandoned house a few blocks from the school.
None of his pitches landed with Omar or Li. Priya liked the abandoned-house idea until Li pointed out that the place was probably full of rats, cockroaches and dirty needles.
In language arts class, Xander tapped Omar’s shoulder.
“I’ve got it. What about our school?” he whispered. “Built in the 1800s. Old. Creaky floors. They say a teacher died of the Spanish flu at the end of the First World War and now her ghost walks the hallways. Doors slam and buzzers go off at weird hours. I heard teachers don’t want to work here at night.”
Omar leaned back in his seat and whispered, “I spend enough time at this place. Don’t make me come back more than I have to.”
“Well, at least think about it,” Xander said. “I heard the basement is super gross.”
“Yeah? So is the bathroom after my dad is done using it, but that doesn’t mean I want to check it out.”
After school Xander kept hounding his friends. “I’m telling you, the school is the perfect setting. Just look at the place. Twisted, right?”
Priya stared at the three-story building. Ivy covered much of the red brick walls. “It’s not a terrible idea, Xander.”
“Hating it,” Omar said. “It would feel like detention.”
“What if we got caught?” Li asked. “Dad already thinks I spend too much time playing Spirits and Specters. He’d hit the roof if I was breaking and entering to stay in the game.”
“Fine, fine,” Xander grumbled. “I’ll keep thinking.”
“You know what?” Priya said. “We might be able to do something around the old train tunnel by the university. I bet it looks pretty sick at night.”
Xander smiled. “I like that idea.”
Li shook her head. “They’re building condos on the site.”
“You sure?” Priya asked.
“Yes,” Li said. “My mom is selling the condo units. The whole area is chained off, and there’s a security guard on duty 24/7. There’s no way we’d get in there.”
“Too bad,” Omar said. “I like trains.”
They kept walking. Xander zipped up his jacket to protect himself from the wind, but the zipper snagged.
“The old museum,” Priya said. “What about there?”
Omar beamed. “Yeah! Now that all the collections have been moved to the new museum, I bet the old one is totally empty.”
“And there are plenty of cool places on the old grounds to run around in,” Li said.
Xander finally unjammed his zipper but accidentally smacked his chin with his hand and nearly knocked his glasses off. As he adjusted the frames on his face, he spotted a fenced-off building down a side street. Curious, he walked a few steps down the block to get a better look. A smile crept across his face. He raced back to his friends.
“Come check this out!” he said. “I may have found our spot.”
“Better than the museum?” Omar scoffed. “Doubt it.”
“Where?” Li asked.
Xander led the group to the building. Standing eight stories tall, the structure behind the blue chain-link fence towered over the teens. The main-floor windows and entrances were covered with sheets of plywood. Taggers had spray-painted the lower-level walls. Some of the second- and third-floor windows were broken.
“George Wickerman Hospital,” Xander announced. “The haunted hospital.”
Li shivered. “Oh man, I totally forgot about this place. Twisted.”
“Why would they shut down a hospital?” Omar asked.
Xander looked at Omar. “Right, I forgot that this went down before you came to our school. The hospital’s been closed forever.”
Li chimed in. “More like five years.”
“Sure, sure,” Xander said. “They say it was originally a place for really sick patients. People who came down with TB—tuberculosis. And that in the 1950s the government started to run secret tests on the patients.”
“Why?” Omar asked.
“Because it didn’t matter if they lived or died. There was no cure for them, so the doctors were free to do experiments to see how different chemicals would affect their bodies.”
“I heard it wasn’t TB patients,” Li said. “I heard it was orphans.”
“Can you let me tell the story?” Xander said.
“Sorry.”
“Anyway,” Xander continued, “they shut down the hospital when a bunch of bodies were found. The patients who didn’t survive the tests were tossed into a dumpster. After that normal people started to come down with a mystery disease. The doctors. Then the nurses. Then patients who went in for broken arms or something. It spread fast, killing several people. No one knew the cause or the cure, so the government shut down the hospital, like, twenty years ago.”
“Five,” said Li.
“Stop fact-checking me, Li.”
Li shrugged. “Facts are important.”
Omar peered through the fence. “Nasty.”
“Here’s the twisted thing,” Xander said. “They say the ghosts of the dead walk the halls even to this day.”
Li joined Omar at the fence. “I remember
hearing stories about this place when I was in elementary school. I can’t believe we didn’t think of it before.”
“We never walk down this way,” Xander said. “But it’s totally got what we’re looking for. Exciting new territory, a little danger…”
Priya peered at the building. “I don’t know.”
“I heard that this guy, Josh—you remember him?” said Xander. “A couple of years ahead of us? Yeah, well, I heard he went to check it out last year. No one has seen him since.”
“I heard his dad got a job in Saskatoon,” Li said.
“He vanished,” Xander said, glaring at his friend. “Without a trace.”
Omar pushed back from the fence. “I love the place. If it looks this creepy on the outside, I can only imagine what it looks like on the inside.”
“After five years it would be pretty run-down,” Li said.
Priya squinted at the building. “How would we even get in?”
“I’m sure they would have security,” Li said.
“You always think that,” Omar said. “If they did have security, how would the taggers have marked up the walls?”
“The windows on the main floor are boarded up,” Priya noted. “And no way are we going to reach the second-floor windows.”
“Too bad we can’t get inside,” Xander said. “That would be the ultimate.”
“Well, I guess it wasn’t meant to be,” said Priya. “But I can check out the old museum over the weekend. Even if we can’t get inside there, we should be able to at least explore the grounds.”
The four of them turned and started to head for their regular route home.
After a few paces Xander stopped. “You all go ahead,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
When the other three had gone around the corner, Xander turned back and circled the haunted hospital, searching for some way in. From the street the place looked locked up tight, but what about up close?
He glanced around for any witnesses. An old man was raking leaves in his yard, but his back was to Xander. The coast was clear. Xander climbed the fence and scurried to one of the boarded-up windows. He pushed against the plywood. Solid. He crept farther along the wall, testing each boarded-up window for a way in. No luck. Then he reached a section of the building hidden from the street by a row of bushes. As he neared the window, he began to smile at what he had discovered.
