“Madeline, we have a job to do. Chances are she’s fine, just lost.”
“But you saw what I saw.”
“I know... I know...” Jake said as he popped his batteries out. Within seconds, he popped new ones in and shut the lid. “Okay, let’s go.”
Madeline shook her head. He was fast, she gave him that. Must have been all those magic tricks she’d heard about.
The third floor had cameras set up along the first corridor, but then they stopped. Several doors led to other hallways after that. Jake shook his head.
“How are we going to find her now?”
“Wait,” Madeline said as she shined her flashlight toward the floor. There were footprints in the dust.
“See? We can follow her.”
“Well, aren’t you quite the Girl Scout,” Jake said appreciatively.
“I was never a Girl Scout, but I read a lot of Nancy Drew,” Madeline said.
“Touché,” Jake said. “I should have thought of that myself.”
“It’s okay, Scarecrow,” Madeline joked.
As Jake led the way along the hall, Madeline fumbled in her waist pack for batteries. She finally found a few and was able to change them as they walked.
“So, she went through here,” Jake said, pushing open a door. “See?” They continued on.
“What was that?” Madeline asked, looking down the hall. “Listen.” They heard a distinct thumping sound. “It’s like someone banging something.”
“What if it’s a ghost?” Jake asked. “Do you think it’s more of those ghosts?”
Madeline stared at him. His eyes were wide with fear. She was astonished that he was actually afraid. She sucked in her breath. That made two of them.
“No, I bet it’s Diana,” Madeline said. She held her hands out in front of her for a moment, trying to feel the air. “I’m almost positive it’s her. Somewhere down this hall.”
“You’re the witch,” Jake said.
They hurried down the hallway toward the direction of the thumping. At last, they stood before a door. The noise seemed to be coming from inside the room beyond it. Jake put his hand on the knob.
“Wait,” Madeline said. She gulped, her nerves twitching so much she thought she was going to have a stroke.
“What?”
“Go slow, be careful,” she warned.
Jake slowly opened the door to reveal Diana tied to a chair. Her eyes were flooded with tears from crying. As Madeline reached for her gag, something smashed into the side of her head.
Madeline cried out in pain, and then there was a moment of darkness. She didn’t fall, but she did teeter and nearly lose her balance.
She held on to the chair and turned around. An old man raised a bedpan at her, ready to strike her again.
“Who are you?” she cried. The man roared and lunged at her. He was strong and agile. His quickness took her by surprise, and before long he had knocked her down and had her pinned to the floor.
He leaned over her, but was knocked away as Jake tackled him. The two men struggled with each other, hands pummeling while legs tried to find purchase on the floor. Madeline watched as the air above them grew thick with ghosts. The long, taunting tendrils of ethereal mist danced and tumbled over the quarrelling men.
“Stop it,” Madeline cried.
The men continued to roll on the floor. Jake managed to flip the older man over and pinned his arms back with his knees, while he grabbed the man’s thighs. Madeline noticed the man wore a lab coat covered in blood.
“We need some answers. Now,” Madeline said. She nodded at Jake to let the man up.
“Answers, my ass,” Jake yelled. “This guy is an asshole.”
“How do you know who I am? I’ve helped thousands,” the man said, standing up. He adjusted his lab coat, smoothly picking lint from the bloody fabric. He looked at Jake and Madeline as if sizing them up.
“You need to get this on camera,” the man said. “I’ve been waiting for my close-up.”
“Oh sweet Jesus,” Jake said. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“No. I will tell all if I can be on the show.”
Jake looked at Madeline, and then he looked over at Diana. “Can we at least untie her?”
The man shook his head. “No, not until the interview is complete. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.”
“Let him say his piece,” Madeline said as she looked over at Diana. She winked as she held up her camera. “Smile pretty for your close-up, Diana.”
Diana narrowed her eyes and fought against her bindings.
“I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve been all tied up. Just let the man here say his piece for the TV show and he’ll let you go. Won’t be long now. Enjoy the show.”
“Okay, let’s do this before we run out of battery power again,” Jake said, aiming his camera at the man. Madeline shined the flashlight on his face for more light.
“Oh my,” the man said. “The works, huh?”
He straightened his hair. Madeline noticed blood spatters on his shoes. Diana watched, her breath coming in short huffs.
“I’m Dr. Smith,” he said. “I was a rather accomplished surgeon in my heyday. And yes, Jake, you were right. I harvested organs on the side.”
“From those patients?” Jake asked.
“Yes. It was easy enough. No one cared about them. I was able to conduct experiments of all natures on them. That’s how I first started, you know.”
“Started what?”
“Getting into the job of saving lives. You see, I was studying brain abnormalities, which is why I worked at the hospital. If I should happen to perform an appendectomy or whatever, then so be it. Back in the day, people weren’t educated enough to know where the scar lines should be.
“There was some wonderful work being done in this hospital. Why, people came from all over the world to study new techniques in abnormal psychiatry. You know how California loves to be on the cutting edge of anything to do with the body. Movie stars, millionaires... people came in for all sorts of reasons. Some for plastic surgery, others for rehab purposes. You’ve seen the size of this place. We had a wing for each type of service.
“But those days ended, slam-dunked by the recession. Plus, it was trendy to go to Betty Ford, not some secretive old crazy house,” Jake said.
Dr. Smith nodded. “I was let go. There was nowhere else to do my work. By then, my work was saving lives.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean that if I harvested an organ, I was selling it to someone to save a life. The person giving the organ didn’t have to die. Or if they did die, there was a reason.”
“What kind of reason?”
“Everyone has a sin. And I absolve them of it.”
“What sin did that poor PA in that plastic room do to you?”
“Oh, promiscuity will get someone every time. So will many other sins.”
“Who are you to play God?” Jake asked.
“I’m not playing God. I’m just balancing things. The leveler. Besides, I didn’t always kill my donors. Far from it. But sometimes, when I thought they might tell on me, I had to resort to a slow and steady poison.”
“I knew it.”
“Of course,”—The doctor leered into the camera.—“I wasn’t the only one killing people around here.”
“You had a partner?” Jake asked.
“Not really, but I have friends.”
He looked up, and the air was thick with ethereal beings. Jake gasped.
“I can see them,” Jake said.
“Yes, you can, because there are so many of them. Think of a small auditorium and then imagine all those people crammed into a tiny room such as this. They were bound to show through somehow.”
“What do they want?” Jake asked.
“They are waiting to do my bidding. I just have to say the word.”
Madeline shook her head. “How is that? Why are you the almighty king of the spirit world?”
“I learned how.” The doctor put his hands into his pockets and brought out several gemstones and satchels tied with string. He waved them at the cameras. “These items protect me from the sprits, and, even better, they give me the power to control them. Of course, their power is combined with my own knowledge.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Madeline asked in her best TV voice. “You aren’t saying that a man of science believes in ghosts?”
“Look around you. Can’t you see them?”
“The question is, can your audience see them? Probably not. And if they can, they’ll think we did something about it anyway. You can’t win. So put away your magic rocks,” Madeline said.
Dr. Smith frowned. “No, I prefer to keep them on me. They are my only protection from being ripped apart by these vengeful spirits.”
“If they want to rip people apart, why am I not dead yet?” Madeline asked.
“Because it’s me they want. They see me, but they can’t have me. They wait for me to screw up, like rabid dogs, drooling and slurping, waiting for me to fail. I never fail.”
“Fail?” Madeline asked.
“You know, forget to wear something or do something and break the vibration that keeps them away.”
“You really believe in that stuff? What happens if you don’t wear them?”
“I’m dead.”
“Just like that?” Madeline said.
“Yes.”
“With me sitting right here?” she said.
“Yes.”
“Well, that would be something to see. I wonder how many of our viewers think he would die,” Madeline said. “What about you, Diana? Do you see any ghosts?”
She aimed the camera toward Diana, who glared at her.
“I don’t know what I see anymore,” Diana said. “Maybe there are ghosts. Maybe there’s a bunch of crazy people playing ‘let’s make a movie’ instead of calling the cops on this whack job.”
“All righty then,” Madeline said, turning the camera back toward the doctor.
“I have something more to say,” Dr. Smith said. “There needs to be more funding for the research programs. Most of the money I made from the organ transplants, I put back into the research we were doing on abnormal brain development.”
“I suppose that was great fun too,” Madeline said. “Tinkering with the mind.”
“I was a doctor, a surgeon, a psychiatrist. I studied long and hard, and I continued schooling for years. I know everything anyone ever needs to know about the human body, the nervous system, the rational, the god spot...”
“The god spot?” Madeline asked, zooming the focus in on the doctor.
“Yes, the god spot. You know what I’m talking about.”
“I’ve heard of it. I thought it was a New Age term, not something a medical doctor would discuss.”
“Oh, sure, there’s a god spot. It’s in part of the brain that isn’t used. Or so they think. I did a lot of work with the god spot. That’s why I have so many friends here.”
Dr. Smith pointed up at the ceiling. Madeline had to cover her ears, the shrieking was so loud. She noticed that as a couple of the spirits tried to get close enough to touch Dr. Smith, they would be pushed back, as if there was some kind of barrier around him.
“Thank you for your kindness,” Dr. Smith said to the ghosts. “So few people understand what I’m going through.”
The ghosts wailed and flailed. Their rage created thick static energy, and it was getting harder to breathe. A few swooped close to the doctor but recoiled before they could touch him.
“You think people you murdered are your friends?” Jake asked. “Somehow that doesn’t seem right. In fact, that sounds downright... unique.”
“I told you, I have them under control. I can have them destroy you right now, if you wanted.”
“That’s quite all right, “Madeline said. She looked closely at Dr. Smith. “You know, Dr. Smith, I could get a better angle of you over by the wall. See how clear it is? We might even be able to pick up on your aura with the infrared.”
She led the doctor over to the wall. Jake followed, filming it the whole way.
“That’s much better. Fewer shadows. Now we can really see what’s going on,” she said.
“Good,” Dr. Smith said. “I want people to know about the great work we’ve done.”
“Like the god spot,” Madeline said. “Tell me more about it.”
“It’s a spot in the unused portion of the brain. Well, some say unused. Some say there’s movement there, electrical documentation. Everyone is different. Some of the patients that came here, well, they were different. I guess you could call them witches or psychics. They could see things, but it made them mad. Totally bonkers. They would have uncontrollable rages. They had to be locked up for their own good. I was able to explore some of their brains. To see... was the god spot activated when these visions came? Or the rages?”
“What did you find?”
“I want to say yes, most definitely. But the funding was stopped, and the findings were inconclusive. Not enough data had been organized in time to further our case for more research. We were shut down.”
“But you still harvest...”
“Money. I’m sorry to say, money. I gave up my quest for the god spot as so many have done before me. I grew to be a slave to shiny new cars and giant TVs.”
“Where on earth do you sell these things?”
“I’m not going to reveal that. Needless to say, eBay isn’t the place.”
“I guess not,” Madeline said. She looked over at Jake. She couldn’t catch his eye. “Well, Dr. Smith, do you have any final thoughts about this asylum and the ghosts in it? Do they come from the god spot, or do we see them because of our own god spot?”
As Dr. Smith started to answer, Madeline hit him on the head with her flashlight. He fell to the ground, and she jumped on top of him. He was dazed but still tried to push her off.
“Get his jewels. Get the necklace. Get it all,” she shouted to Jake. Together they fought the man while picking his pockets and tearing off his satchel. Jake punched him in the mouth for good measure. The man lay sobbing on the floor while Madeline put the collection of trinkets on a table.
“No, please don’t, they’ll kill me,” he pleaded. Madeline raised her camera.
“Let’s see them do their best,” she said as she watched the scene unfold through her viewfinder.
The spirits descended on Dr. Smith with an ear-splitting screech. Then Jake and Madeline watched as the doctor was torn into shreds.
The spirits worked rapidly and messily, tearing chunks of flesh from his body and tossing them aside.
When there was nothing left of the doctor, they faded away.
Madeline was shaking and sat down. She put her head in her hands and tried not to cry.
“Hey, what about me?” Diana cried. “Let me out, for fuck’s sake.”
Jake went over to Diana and tried to untie her. “I don’t know how he did this, but I need a knife.”
“Well, there are plenty over there.” Diana tossed her head to the side. Jake shined his flashlight on a table full of knives and scalpels.
“I was next, you know. It’s a good thing you came when you did. He was babbling at me about kidneys and god spots.”
“We thought there was something wrong,” Madeline said. “You were gone so long.”
“It was stupid of me to go off alone. I know better. Just stupid.” She sighed. “I wanted to find something cool.” She laughed bitterly as Jake sawed through her bindings with one of the surgical tools. “I guess I did find something cool.”
The three of them nodded at the irony.
“Oh my God,” Madeline said, putting a hand to her mouth.
“What?” Jake asked.
“That poor PA. We need to tell the others. I feel so bad I don’t even know his name.”
“I know. He’s just the dude that was going to go out and get us all breakfast... what a w
ay to go.”
Jake helped Diana stand up. “We should go,” he said to the ladies.
“I agree. Go far, far away from this place.”
“You’ve got that right,” Madeline said.
“Well, first we have to get back to the others. Tell them all that happened,” Jake said.
Chapter Fourteen
Venus reminds you to take a chance on love.
.
“I don’t want to be here anymore,” Madeline said as she gathered up her gear from around the cafeteria. “I want to go home.”
“But you’re here another night, Madeline,” Jake said. “Remember your schedule.”
“How on earth can you want to continue after everything that’s happened?”
“But that’s the history. If we quit now, the building has won. Don’t you see?”
Madeline stared at him. “We caught the serial killer. It’s over.”
“That part is over,” he said. “But there are still the ghosts. We have to record how the rooms are after decades of madness are finally finished.”
“We can’t even get over to Ward 18 with all those cops crawling around.”
“That’s all right. We can explore the other wing. No one is over there,” he said as he hoisted a heavy knapsack onto his back. Madeline followed him. She was going to protest, but what could she say? He would logically point out that in the end, there was nothing they could do for the dead. They did their duty. They made the phone calls. These were not family or even close friends. A life comes, a life goes. You are touched by others, and the next thing you know, they’re dead. You’re dead. Madeline knew all too well how it all went down.
“Do you think Diana will be okay?” Madeline asked.
“Sure. She’s tough as nails. I’ve known her for a few years. She’s the little sister of a buddy of mine. We kept in touch after she moved away to college and I went to California.”
“I see.”
“She’s like one of my best buddies. I can tell her almost anything.”
Madeline nodded, not liking the sour clenching in her stomach. “Funny how you both ended up in the same profession.”
“I suppose. But she’s good at her job. I hope this experience doesn’t scare her away from future work.”
Aquarius: Haunted Heart Page 15
