Anna hit the wood door hard. “Goddamn it,” she sputtered as she kicked the solid and unmoving barricade. Sadie wasn’t kidding when she said they were essentially prisoners in this room. The door was so firmly in place it was as if it had been welded to the frame. The windows were likewise a total bust, as the bars that covered them were welded in place and spaced too close together to allow either of them to slip through. Whoever built this place wanted to make very certain no one either got in or out other than through a few doors. The signs outside all read hospital, but Anna thought they probably should have read prison. It would have been a more appropriate designation.
“What the hell kind of place is this?” Anna spun to look at Sadie. “It’s like some kind fortress guarded by a psycho.”
Sadie shrugged. “The gatekeeper is most definitely a psycho. This whole thing is way outside my wheelhouse. I don’t even exactly know how I ended up here.”
“But?” Studying Sadie’s face, she got an unsettling feeling. Sadie wasn’t telling her something.
“But I think my great-great-grandmother drew me out here.”
Weird as everything was right at the moment, it didn’t explain the whole story. Something else had to be going on. “Sadie, she’s been dead for a hundred years, so how on earth could she draw you here? And more importantly, why? What can you possibly do decades after her death?”
In the odd shifting light of her flashlight, she could see Sadie roll her eyes. Normally, that would have irritated the hell out of her. She hated that expression and usually took it personally. Right now, she loved it because it was such a Sadie reaction and it made this abnormal situation feel a little like day-to-day. The fear of not knowing where she was or if she was all right made everything just a tad more special—even sarcasm and eye-rolling. The joy of seeing Sadie and of being able to touch her made everything else unimportant. Except perhaps getting out of this room and away from the crazy lady who’d locked them in here.
“That, my darling, is a duh. Doesn’t really matter which realm she’s existing in, because my great-great-grandmother is here. Maybe she’s always been here and what she needs is for me to set her free. I don’t know what’s going on in this place, only that I’m here for a reason, and I have to figure out what that reason is before something bad happens. The longer I’m stuck in this room, the more I feel a responsibility to put whatever it is right.”
It sounded crazy yet not, all at the same time. If she were sitting in her living room she’d have called it bull. Standing here, locked inside a room of an abandoned building, it felt all too real to make that call. Sadie might very well be right. All of this had to be for a reason, or why would it happen in the first place? “So we’re trapped inside a haunted insane asylum until we figure out why you’re here and what you have to do. That’s pretty much what you’re saying, right?”
Sadie nodded. “In a manner of speaking…a rather politically incorrect manner of speaking.”
Her eyes shifted to the rusted bars over the windows. “I didn’t mean any disrespect to your grandmother or anyone else who got stuck in this hellhole. It’s just what they would have called it back when it was built.” It was true. Hospitals for the so-called insane were located all over the country, and it was a term that didn’t apply to many of the people who found themselves committed to one. Still, history was history, and insane asylum was what people used to call places like this. Not to mention that what was happening right at the moment qualified for insane in her book.
Sadie took Anna’s hand. The touch of her fingers as they held tight to her filled her with welcomed warmth. It was comforting to feel her touch in a situation that seemed totally out of control, and out of control was a nice way of putting what was happening to them.
Sadie rested her head gently against Anna’s. Her hair was soft as tendrils fell against her cheek. The sensation brought tears to her eyes, and she blinked them back.
“I get what you’re trying to say, and it’s true. That’s what they named this place, even if many of the people here were far from insane.”
“Like your grandmother.” She had a hard time believing anyone related to Sadie could be anything except healthy and sane. She was one of the most grounded and exciting people she knew. Sure, she had a pretty unique job that had her thinking outside the box on a regular basis. That didn’t mean she was mentally unbalanced. On the contrary, it made Sadie that much more interesting. She had to believe her great-great-grandmother was just as sane.
Sadie stepped back and nodded. “If I had to guess, I’d say she probably had some issues, maybe depression or maybe she was bipolar. No way to really know for sure. The way they treated women back in the day, who could blame her if she was depressed. What I do feel in my heart is that she was not insane, not clinically or otherwise. She was trapped here just like we are now. She needed help, and all she got was a prison.”
“She’s not trapped anymore, and she could help us leave.” Anna couldn’t deny the feeling that this long-lost relative of Sadie’s had lured them here for some reason only the mysterious ghost knew. It was all so crazy, and if she wasn’t experiencing it, she wouldn’t believe it. Ghosts or other paranormal anomalies were not something she put much faith in.
Well, she’d held that line hard, until today anyway. The truth was hard to accept and equally hard to ignore. She wanted to believe this was nothing unusual, just an unfortunate set of circumstances that had led them to be locked in an old room. Unfortunately, too many things weren’t adding up, like Sadie’s missing car, the locked and then unlocked front door, and creepiest of all, Nurse Thompson. The truth, as hard as it was for her to stomach, was that they were at the mercy of otherworldly spirits. God, she hoped Lorna would listen to her voice mail really soon and come back out here to save the day or, more accurately, the night. She wanted out of this place right now.
“She can’t help us leave.”
Sadie sounded so certain, and that certainty didn’t fill her with warm fuzzies. “Why?”
This time Sadie shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. I haven’t been able to figure out that part yet. So far, I just know that she needs us to do something important before we can leave. I’m also pretty sure we need to do it before that bitch of a nurse does something to hurt us.”
That didn’t strike Anna as possible. How exactly could a spirit from the great beyond even touch them? Seeing ghosts was one thing, but physically interacting was another. “If this is what I think it is, she’s a ghost, Sadie. That means she can’t harm us.”
Sadie put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. “Of course she can’t. Just like she can’t turn the lights on and off. Just like she can’t keep us locked inside a room. Can’t imagine why I didn’t think of that.”
Okay, so maybe she had a point.
Chapter Fourteen
Lorna didn’t have to tell her twice to haul ass. Renee took off at a run and headed toward the back of the big building. She figured she’d find plenty of places to hide there. As she rounded the corner of the reception desk, she smacked her hip on the edge. She winced at the pain and thought that’s gonna leave a mark as she blazed by.
The first door she went through squeaked on hinges that hadn’t been used in years. It squeaked again when she kicked it shut, which made her heart race. Would that awful woman be right behind her, drawn by the sound of the loud hinges? How would she know? She’d appeared out of nowhere without so much as a whisper of a footstep. Like a ghost.
She stopped as it hit her hard. Like a ghost. Holy crap. It was John McCafferty all over again. What was that story by Ray Bradbury? Oh yeah, “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” Well, Ray, truth can be stranger than fiction, she said to herself. Something wicked was right on her heels.
A year ago, this would have been impossible for her to believe, and now, it was simply another night in her exciting life at Lorna’s side. In the time after her divorce she’d hoped, though not truly believed, that she’d find lov
e again. That she’d be able to make a comfortable life with someone who touched her heart. Her dream had come true, just not exactly as she’d imagined. She’d found a greater love than she believed possible, and what came with it had turned her life into one big adventure.
Like right now as she stood with her back against the closed door inside a dark, musty room. The small flashlight she held wasn’t a whole lot of help. It gave off only a small sliver of light to cut through the black interior of the room. It was like using a match in the depths of a giant cave. Didn’t smell much better than a cave either. How she wished for something like the big light Katie had produced from her patrol car. Now that was a flashlight. It would fill the room like daylight. Wishing wasn’t going to help much. There was no big light to be had, no daylight to banish the dark. She would have to make do.
Here in the rear of the building it was pitch-black and eerily quiet. It smelled of dust and disuse, like a place that hadn’t felt the brush of fresh air in years. No sounds of running steps, no creepy ghosts in old-fashioned nurse uniforms. Only the sound of her own quick breathing broke up the silence. Slowly she moved away from the door and swept her little light back and forth, looking for what, she didn’t really know. She just felt like she needed to do something.
In the apparent middle of the room, she stopped and stood still. Listening, she heard nothing. Not Lorna, Katie, or…or, what did she call her? A ghost? The devil? The silence let her know she was alone. Her pulse was racing and her heart pounding. Cold fear made her hands shake. Closing her eyes, she breathed in and out, forcing herself to embrace calm. Years of practicing yoga had distinct advantages. The calm she called forward flowed over her easily. Yes, it was exactly what she needed. Feeling better, she turned and retraced her steps to the door she’d come in through. She didn’t see that she had a better option.
Cringing as the door squeaked again when she opened it, she peered out into the hallway. Empty. Yes! She stepped out and began to quietly walk in the opposite direction of the entryway. It seemed to her that the farther back in the building she moved, the more the presence of evil seemed to flow away.
Renee would like to say it felt safe here, but it didn’t. Not that it felt precisely scary either. It was more unsettling than anything else she could put a name to. If a person was standing in front of her, she’d say they had a troubled aura. The building didn’t have an aura she could read, though she felt it embodied a spirit, and its spirit was most decidedly troubled. Bottom line—something wasn’t right here.
Why was the question that kept rolling around in her head. Most buildings were inert and gave off little in the way of energy. This one was completely different. It didn’t take a big brain to figure out that tragedy had occurred between these brick walls. Tears had been wept in these rooms and hearts broken. It was the nature of the beast, and the way its patients had been treated was all a consequence of its time. Closing the doors and pretending it had never happened didn’t change the facts or make amends. Most of the people who’d worked here more than likely had the best of intentions, even if their methods sometimes did more harm than good. Others, like the one who chased her now, had simply found an outlet for the darkness in their souls. It shouldn’t be surprising that the darkness lived on. Some actions couldn’t be ignored or forgotten and instead waited for the day when the scales would be balanced. She suspected that was the case here.
It wasn’t just the reality of what this place had once been that made Renee look around now. Not that she could see a thing that helped. It was an empty shell that somehow wasn’t that empty. It was just that she couldn’t see what still filled this place to the brim. How she wished she had Lorna’s psychic powers. Then maybe she could make sense of what she was feeling.
Then again, earlier she’d been able to feel a little of what was flowing through Lorna. Playing her light against one of the walls, she had a thought. It might work, and it might not do a thing. Then again, she didn’t have anything to lose.
She turned the flashlight off and slid it into her pocket. Taking a deep breath, Renee laid her hands against the walls. Lord knows, she was no psychic, not even close. She was, however, sensitive, and it occurred to her that this place was trying in its own way to reach out to her just as it had already done to Lorna. Just as it had flowed into her when she’d held Lorna’s hand. Secrets screamed out from the spirit of the building, begging to be brought into the daylight and old wrongs made right. She was absolutely convinced of it.
Her hands against the cool plaster walls, she closed her eyes and concentrated. It was her hope that something would come to her, some bit of guidance to show her the way. She wanted to experience the same sense of connection she’d had earlier with Lorna. Except nothing happened. There was no pulse of energy, no vision of what was or what was to be. Nothing but the rough feel of old plaster against her palms. Her hands fell away and she took a step back.
“Renee.” A sharp whisper came from out of the darkness.
Her heart raced at the familiar voice. “Lorna?” she whispered back as she snatched the light out of her pocket and moved the beam in the direction of Lorna’s voice. When her light fell on Lorna’s face, she cried out and ran to her. She didn’t think she’d ever been happier to see her.
Lorna wrapped her in her arms and placed a kiss on top of her head. “You okay? I just about killed myself without a flashlight. It’s fucking dark in this mausoleum.”
She laughed and hugged her back. How she loved her voice and the way she told it like she saw it. It didn’t hurt that hugging her was also the best feeling on earth. It never failed to give her strength and courage. “I’m fine. Where’s Katie? Is she all right? Did that thing get her?”
“Not sure where she is exactly. She took off the other direction. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this place is huge. I’m surprised I found you, especially without a flashlight. My night vision isn’t exactly special-forces ready. I guess I sensed you. It’s like we’re tuned into each other. Go figure.”
She hugged her tighter. “We are so tuned into each other. It’s awesome. And yes, you are totally special-forces ready. I’ve heard stories about the military using psychics for warfare. Baby, you’d kill it.”
Lorna groaned. “Oh, good God, that’s the last thing I need. It’s bad enough doing this shit to help friends. I sure as hell am not going to go all army. I am definitely not military material.”
That was her Lorna talking, and the normalcy of the conversation steadied her. Her strong, beautiful, and talented psychic woman was absolutely military ready, but that was a discussion for another time. They had closer and more pressing matters right in front of them. “Something here needs us,” she told Lorna. “Needs you. It’s very strange. I get the feeling we are meant to be here and we’re not going to be able to leave until we can do whatever we’re supposed to.”
Lorna blew out a long breath and ran her hand over Renee’s hair. “Yup, I feel it too. I’m beginning to think none of this is coincidence. We’re all here for a reason. You, me, Sadie, Anna. Who would believe becoming a psychic would be so complicated?”
“You got this, baby,” Renee said, then kissed her on the cheek. “And we all have your back.”
“I might need you to cover my behind before this is all said and done. Some kind of new weirdness is going on here, and I’m not quite sure how to handle it. What am I saying? I never know how to handle this.”
“You will,” she told her and meant it. Lorna liked to sell herself short, but Renee knew better. When they walked out of here, and she did mean when, Lorna would have worked her very special brand of magic.
Lorna squeezed her hand. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now let’s figure out where we go next. Preferably somewhere that crazy woman isn’t.”
Both of them jumped when a voice whispered, “Here.”
A beautiful woman in a long white nightgown stood across the room, holding open a door. She was bathed in a dim otherworldly light tha
t hadn’t been there a moment before. “We must hurry,” she whispered. “She is coming. You do not have much time. Please. Hurry.”
Renee held on to Lorna’s hand so tight she wouldn’t be surprised if she broke her fingers. “You see her, right?”
*
Jeremy’s head jerked up, his eyes blinking, and a tiny line of drool hung suspended at the corner of his mouth. He wiped away the drool with the back of his hand and looked around the darkened hospital room. It appeared exactly as it had when he’d laid his head down earlier and went to sleep. He and Merry were all alone, the door slightly ajar just as it was when he first sat in the chair he’d pulled next to her bed. It let in a little light and a lot of the noise from the hallway but wasn’t open nearly wide enough to allow someone to slip inside.
The initial shock of being abruptly awakened passed. He couldn’t let go of the feeling of unease because he didn’t imagine the strong grip on his shoulder. Someone had taken a firm hold and shook him awake. Yet no one was here. No one he could see, anyway. Funny how paradigms shifted once a ghost or two appeared. He used to be such a down-to-earth, logical guy. Now, he looked at everything in his world differently. Like shadows. Instead of being only plays on light and dark, these days they might be simply shadows or something else. Something that might be alive.
The shadows in Merry’s hospital room didn’t feel sinister or threatening. He studied the movement of light and dark and took nothing from it. Whatever, or whoever, thought he should be awake had accomplished its goal and moved on. He was certainly alert now, and an unsettling feeling was threading its way through his body. He’d had this feeling before, and it meant one thing, at least to his mind: Lorna needed him.
They’d always been close and had become even more so after their relocation to the west side of the state. That house of Aunt Bea’s had transformed them both, and he still wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He did lean more toward good, given how it had helped to bring so many lost souls home. It was weird, though, to be intimately wired into the world beyond, and there was no other way to explain what had constituted their altered reality. He and Lorna were tapping into a dimension he had previously thought of as the stuff of folklore.
Twisted Screams Page 16
