Descension

by Shani Struthers

  “Me? Oh, I’m just the lackey, good for carrying a bag of crystals, that’s all.”

  “Cash!” Ruby admonished. “That’s not true. You’re as valued as anyone on this team.”

  Cash shrugged, only slightly appeased. “Good to hear it.”

  What was wrong with him? Why did he need reminding? Or perhaps he was just mucking about; sometimes his sense of humour erred on the wicked.

  Eclipse was talking again, his excitement that he had a team of people onside, palpable. “Ruby, this is… brilliant. Organising this, taking me seriously – you’re amazing, do you know that? Crap! Of course you’d take me seriously, you’re psychics! But… thank you. It’s good to meet you. All of you.”

  Theo smiled indulgently at him. “Lovely to meet you too, and I’m loving your name, it suits you. I believe Ruby’s explained company procedure?”

  “She has, yeah; to project white light, to act with good intent, to go in with love and understanding.” He paused. “To be honest, that’s something I’ve always done.”

  Once again, Theo graced him with a smile. “Keep close to us when we’re in there, and don’t go wandering off, not under any circumstances. Ruby’s told us what happened on your last visit. There’s a lot of unrest, more than ever it seems; a lot of emotion. The light will protect us, but we need to protect each other too. That’s why there’s no splitting up; we go in, we try to connect, and if we possibly can, we help.”

  Eclipse nodded enthusiastically, his ponytail bobbing. He then showed them the way in, holding up the fence for all of them, including Cash. Theo complained bitterly at having to crouch so low but Jed disappeared straight through the fence, no crouching required. Theo eyed him. “I do envy that dog sometimes,” she muttered.

  “There’s more climbing I’m afraid,” Ruby warned her. “There’s a low window we have to get through.”

  Theo looked aghast. “Seriously?”

  “I’ll tell you what,” Cash began, “there’s a door—”

  Eclipse interrupted him. “Hey look, this door’s pretty rotten, I’ll see if I can get it open.”

  “Saves me a job, I suppose,” Cash said, nonetheless looking slightly peeved.

  Ruby hurried over to Eclipse accompanied by Theo, Ness and Corinna, all of them shining their torches on some kind of side door, which, as Eclipse had said, was by and large rotten.

  A few shoves and it was open, revealing a yawning chasm behind. Ruby took a deep breath. What was waiting in there this time, hiding in the darkness? What horrors?

  Ness turned to her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Are you?”

  Ness nodded, but she didn’t look fine; she looked as fragile as Gran.

  They filed in – Eclipse first, looking back at Ruby as if inviting her to enter next. She did, followed by Cash, Theo, Corinna and lastly, Ness. Jed stood at the entrance, unsure. Stay there if you want, Jed, stand guard. After all, there might be living people to worry about too, either those keen on exploring, or the police.

  Never one to shirk responsibility, Jed positioned himself squarely in the doorway. Facing the great outdoors, he stood there as if he meant business.

  The remaining six took their first steps over the threshold. Unlike the utility room of last time, they’d stepped straight into a corridor, one of those endless corridors that the building had been designed around. At the far end of the main corridor would be the doctor’s office, and the operating theatre, which Sir Ralph Gould, the eminent surgeon she and Cash had read about, could have visited in order to perform his lobotomies. If so, what effect would it have to call out his name in there?

  “Catastrophic,” Theo answered, reading her mind. Ruby couldn’t help but agree.

  “As I know this building really well, shall I lead the way?” Eclipse asked.

  “Ooh, he’s masterful too,” Corinna whispered to Ruby, giggling. Ruby knew well enough Corinna didn’t mean what she was saying; she was a flirt by nature. Heck, she’d even flirted outrageously with Cash when she’d first met him, but it was all just harmless fun. Unfortunately, she, Cash and Corinna were standing together and considering Corinna was going out with Presley, Cash’s brother, she wasn’t sure how much he’d appreciate that remark. Not much, judging by his expression.

  Theo thanked Eclipse for the offer and took him up on it. “It makes sense that you lead,” she declared. “Everyone okay with that?”

  There were general murmurs of consent, and, as a unit, they moved forwards, various torches doing their utmost to breach the gloom, but as before, not having much of an impact. The plan was to explore the downstairs first, cataloguing psychic experiences and trying to make a connection; to grab on to a unique experience if possible – that of an individual. Theo had called it trying to provoke the ‘herd response’: if they were successful with one spirit, others might be encouraged to come forward, and they’d be successful with them too.

  As they walked, slowly, carefully, Ruby tried to banish the memory of writhing walls; to think of them would make her uneasy, putting her at a disadvantage. She needed only light to fill her mind – light and love – and to project that outwards with no hint of fear. At the bottom of the staircase the group stopped.

  “Is everyone all right?” asked Theo.

  They were, or at least they acknowledged Theo with a yes.

  “The dayroom’s through here,” Eclipse informed them, setting off down the corridor again. Beside her, she felt for Cash’s hand, registering the warmth of it as his fingers closed around hers and gave them a gentle squeeze. She squeezed back – a gesture to show him she was fine – for now. But the pressure in the atmosphere was mounting; surely they could all feel that? It was as though a thousand pairs of eyes were watching from behind a murky veil.

  “Ruby and I have explored in here already,” Eclipse explained, shining a light just below Ruby’s line of vision, putting her in the spotlight almost. “You didn’t feel anything in this room, did you?”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary,” Ruby replied. “In fact, I was fine until…”

  “Until what?” Ness prompted.

  Eclipse answered for her. “Until we were in the doctor’s office, that’s when everything changed. We really need to take care of her when we go in there.”

  Ruby heard Cash’s intake of breath. She turned her head but he was looking straight ahead, at Eclipse, as if to say something. Theo beat him to it.

  “We realise that, Eclipse. As I said, we all need to take care of each other and also ourselves. If it gets too much for anyone, we retreat – all of us. There are no exceptions. I don’t want anyone volunteering to stay behind. We haven’t got one shot at this; we can come back multiple times if needs be to try and make inroads.”

  “The demolition date…” Eclipse reminded her.

  “Is hopefully not immediate,” Theo remained undeterred, “but even if it is, none of us are to put ourselves in danger. We’re not superhuman, and we’re not stupid.”

  Eclipse nodded, not chastised exactly, but certainly more aware.

  Rather than a huddled mass, as they’d been up until now, they broke away from each other, but only in the confines of the dayroom, each exploring a different part of it. It was such a big room. Space hadn’t been something to worry about on the Cromer site; rather it had been made the most of. Ruby tried to imagine what it had been like in the past with the patients that had been there milling about. She didn’t have to try too hard as an image abruptly flashed in her mind, similar to a photograph. There were three huge windows, just as there were today, but in her mind the panes were intact, with no boards across them, daylight doing its best to filter through, but like their torches, not having much success. There were chairs lining the wall by the windows, wooden benches too, and on them sat an assortment of figures in various states of repose; women, they were mainly women. Were some of them asleep? Ruby shook her head. It was more likely they were drugged. Her gaze shifted to the floor, as hard then as it was today,
an unforgiving floor. On it another woman lay, her body curled in a foetus position, her arms wrapped tightly around her, the soles of her bare feet black with filth. Ruby knelt. Who are you? What’s your name? Was the woman’s rocking beginning to slow? Was she turning her head to the side, and responding? Tell me your name, Ruby urged, all I want to do is help. Are you still here, still suffering? Look at me.

  “Is everything okay?”

  It was Eclipse, kneeling too; reaching out a hand just as she was doing, but towards her. It came to rest on her arm. At his touch the vision faded.

  She forced a smile. “Yes, I’m fine.”

  “Did you make a connection?” His blue eyes were so eager.

  “Maybe, but it’s gone now.” His arrival had seen to that.

  “Shame,” he muttered.

  “Yeah.” It was, for Ruby, but more for the woman who’d lain on the ground. She was gone now; she’d flown back into the shadows to join the others.

  “Here, let me help you.”

  Before Eclipse had a chance to raise her to her feet, another hand reached out – Cash’s. “Ruby, what’s the matter?”

  ‘Nothing,” she said, suppressing a sigh of exasperation. She had not just one man fussing over her, but two. Asking them both to leave her alone would sound rude. But she had to admit, while there were pros to being part of a team, there were also cons, the main one being that sometimes she needed to focus, to concentrate, have no other distractions. Who was that woman? What had she been admitted for? And the women that lined the seats – there was one man, or maybe two – but otherwise they were all female and of varying ages. Why had they been here?

  Theo called time on their exploration of the dayroom. “We can always come back, but for now let’s keep moving. We don’t want our energy getting as stagnant as the energy that’s in this room.”

  With Eclipse in the lead again, the rest of them followed. Ruby reached upwards to touch the tourmaline necklace she’d put on earlier that evening. They all had their talismans. Cash had on the obsidian necklace she’d given him when they first met and Corinna her malachite. Ness favoured obsidian too, of the snowflake variety, and Theo rose quartz – the colour of the stone an exact match for her hair.

  In the corridor it was Cash who grabbed her hand now, not because he was scared, but for another reason Ruby suspected, but which she couldn’t contemplate right now. She just wanted to focus. The corridor was as littered as ever with debris which all of them trudged doggedly through or around. Either side the walls were blackened, but as a result of mould rather than something preternatural, with layers and layers of paint peeling off them. Ruby wondered what colour they’d been in their heyday. Grey, a voice whispered, making her flinch with surprise. Everything at Cromer was grey.

  As quickly as it had come, the voice disappeared, but it was encouraging, she decided, and made her curious as to what Theo, Ness and Corinna were experiencing – if anything, although they soon would be, the further they ventured.

  “What are these other rooms leading off the corridor?” Ness asked, her voice also making Ruby jump. In such heavy silence anything above a whisper was deafening.

  “There’s a kitchen, more utility rooms, a gym, and this…” Eclipse said, opening a set of double doors to a room that he and Ruby had bypassed on their first visit. “It’s quite a grand room,” he continued, standing back so they could enter. “Cromer described it as their ballroom. It was used, you know, for dances and stuff like that; for socialising I guess. It’s so odd to have a ballroom in an asylum.”

  The light from various torches revealed a room that did indeed seem to be at odds with the rest of the hospital. Cavernous, it had a vaulted ceiling, punctuated at regular intervals by arches that ran to a series of columns either side. Between each arch was a ceiling rose, several of them and all intact. There were also several large windows and beneath Ruby’s feet, wooden floorboards rather than concrete.

  “Wow!” Corinna was as amazed as the rest of them. “It can’t have been that bad a place, not if they had a ballroom.”

  Ness gave a derisory laugh. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”

  “I’ve said this before,” Theo replied, “not all doctors and nurses who worked in asylums were monsters. There were some very good people; people who wanted to help, to make a difference, to find a way to cure the afflicted.”

  “Not all of them needed a cure.” Again Ness’s voice held contempt.

  “Some of them did,” Theo insisted. “You know that as well as I do, and it’s not odd to have a ballroom in an asylum. In the twentieth century dancing was regarded as a way for patients to express themselves physically in what was otherwise a restrained environment. It offered an incredible release. And if mixed dances were held, who knows, romance may have even blossomed in here! Can you imagine that? There’s a song, isn’t there, by Rihanna? What’s the name of it? My granddaughter loves it. Oh, hang on,” to everyone’s surprise, Theo started singing, “’We found love in a hopeless place, we found love in a hopeless place.’ Rather apt lyrics, don’t you think? Being here puts a whole new slant on that record for me.” Before anyone could comment, she continued, “Sound therapy was another method of treating patients from the end of the nineteenth century. Music can be very calming to some.”

  “Not when Theo’s singing, it isn’t,” Cash, more like his old self, whispered.

  As Theo raised an eyebrow Cash suppressed a laugh, but Corinna did no such thing; she giggled loudly and as she did, Ruby heard more laughter. As had happened the first time, the dark receded and the light from past years began to filter through the windows. People other than the team filled the room, mainly women, as before, dancing with each other; shuffling. At the far end of the room was a band, a three-piece with someone playing the piano, someone else a violin and the third person a cello. It was a moving image Ruby was experiencing, not static; a glimpse into a different age. Far from unpleasant, the atmosphere did indeed seem calm and the room – it was beautiful. Not simply beautiful, but wholly decadent. It was a wonderful scene, and yet… if you looked closer, you could see the cracks. They came in the form of vacant eyes, slack expressions, and feet that weren’t nimble but heavy. On seeing this, Ruby shook her head. Putting on a dance every now and then did NOT make up for having your liberty stolen from you. And music might have a calming effect, but so did lobotomies and drugs; they destroyed you.

  The scene faded; became black again – too black.

  “Brace yourselves,” Theo instructed, clearly noticing the same phenomena. “And project white light – you as well, Cash and Eclipse. Imagine vast swathes of it, all-powerful, swirling around us; formidable in its brightness, completely able to protect us.”

  They did as instructed, Ruby didn’t just imagine ‘swathes’ but an entire wall of light, and just as solid. Against it, black figures hurled themselves; maddened figures. And who could blame them? If you hadn’t been mad before entering the asylum, you’d surely go mad whilst in here; you’d be driven to it. Those in charge may have subdued that madness in life, thanks to so-called treatments and prescription drugs, but death had pulled the recipients out of stupefaction; it had released their inner rage and brought it crashing to the fore. If ever love had blossomed within these walls, as Theo had suggested, there was no sign of it now.

  “There’s just so many.” Ness was looking repeatedly from left to right.

  “Too many,” Theo concurred. She raised both her hands and her voice. “We’re sorry if we frightened you, that wasn’t our intention. The only thing we have in our hearts is respect and a desire to help. This place was a prison not a home. You’ve somewhere else to be now – your true home, which is in the light.”

  Having addressed the spirits, she addressed the living. “Back out everyone, towards the corridor. I don’t think they’ll follow; I’m getting the impression certain spirits have attachments to certain rooms. There isn’t a great tendency to wander.”

  They followed her
instruction, keeping their footsteps deliberately slow, not wanting to arouse further alarm or show fear thus giving the blackened shapes something to feed on. Her boot connecting with something on the floor, a chunk of masonry perhaps, Ruby stumbled. Cash’s hand shot out but it was Eclipse who made first contact. “Easy,” he said. “I’ve got you.”

  “I’m okay,” she assured him.

  Cash intervened. “Take my hand.”

  “Like I said,” she reiterated, to both of them, “I’m fine.”

  The words had barely left her mouth before an assault was launched. It wasn’t the blackened figures, the shapes, the shadows, for they seemed to recede; rather it was more visions – the figures in them as substantial as anyone living and breathing. There were faces close to hers, an array of them; some looking straight through her, others with mouths wide open and screaming, their hands reaching up to tear at their hair; tearing bloodied clumps from their scalps. Ruby closed her eyes, but it made no difference – these pictures were in her mind’s eye, and that one she didn’t know how to close.

  Shit! Shit! Shit!

  Having not made it to the threshold, she was in the ballroom still, the walls not grey, but a serene green, making her feel as though she were in a deep, deep ocean, cut off from the world and all who resided in it – all except those who were trapped beneath the waves with her. Not an observer this time, she was in someone’s arms; she was dancing. What a rare thing it was, a mixed dance! How she’d been looking forward to it. She liked men. She missed them. Well, that’s why she was in here in the first place, wasn’t it, because she liked them so much?

  Who are you, Ruby whispered, but as quickly as her consciousness surfaced it faded, the stranger taking over again. The man that was holding her smelt nice; clean. She marvelled at that. In the asylum it never smelt clean and nor did the patients; rather there was an unholy stench, and it tainted everything and everyone, but not this man. Not tonight. Why was he at Cromer? What was wrong with his brain? Oh, what did it matter? Who cared? He was a good dancer, that’s all that mattered, that and his nice smell. She giggled; couldn’t help it. ‘You’re a flirt,’ that’s what her mother used to say to her, and not affectionately, but with disgust in her voice. ‘It pains me to see what you’re like. I didn’t bring you up that way. Act proper. Act like a lady.’ But being a lady like her mother – to be so repressed, so prim – was boring. Besides, she wasn’t doing any harm, just having fun, so much fun. What had happened, could she really be called the devil because of it? That’s what her mother had said, and worse besides. Another giggle escaped her. Was there anything worse than the devil? A whore maybe; a slut, a harlot? ‘Lock her up and throw away the key,’ her mother had instructed. ‘I never want to see her again,’ neither her nor what was in her daughter’s belly – the devil’s spawn. Regarding the latter, her mother needn’t have worried. It was born dead. Here, in the asylum. A tiny grey thing, as grey as the walls, as dead as the rest of them, even those who walked, talked and danced.