by Rick Kueber
“Who would have thought it would be this nice out? I think winter is finally ending.” She said returning to where we were congregated in the parking lot.
“I know. Maybe we won't actually freeze to death tonight.” Theo half joked, thinking about our first trip to the Infirmary. The sound of a passing car on the street in front of the apartment complex with its stereo cranked up and blasting 80's hair-rock music caught our attention. The music grew louder as Jenn pulled around the corner in her new silver convertible. The top was up, but the music was still quite loud. She whipped around us and took the nearest open spot she could find. Jenn waved as she stepped out of the car, sliding her sunglasses from their proper place to the top of her head.
“Hey kids!” She called out. Her tone was as perky and cheery as I had heard it in a very long time. “Who's ready for this?”
“ME!” Katie shouted back to her while Theo and I meekly raised our hands in acknowledgment. “Right on time as always.” I teased.
“Shut up, E-V-Prick... I'm not that late.” She rolled her eyes sarcastically as she passed by with bags in hand, bumping hard into me with her hard sided equipment case, knocking me off balance enough to stumble back a step or two. When she had her case securely placed in the trunk, Theo closed it and with a push of a button, unlocked the car doors and everyone began to open them, selecting their places. I was taking shotgun.
“Oh hell!” I jumped back out of the car. “I almost forgot to lock the apartment.” I took a few steps and turned back. “Anyone need to use the restroom before we head out.”
“Oh, me!” Katie popped out, followed by Jenn who chimed in. “Me too.”
“The slider's open.” I looked down to Theo, still in the driver’s seat, and shrugged my shoulders. When the girls finally emerged together, I went in and locked up the apartment. Being all loaded up and buckled in, we headed out on an adventure we could not even imagine being truly prepared for. The first interstate we headed out on, I-64, was the same one that led us to the Helmach house in West Virginia. There was an overwhelming and mutual feeling between us. The last time we were all headed down this highway, we were on our way to our most terrifying investigation ever.
The radio was playing quietly in the background, and was nearly drowned out by the hum of the highway. Very few words were spoken during the first three hours of the trip. When we exited onto I-71 the mood changed drastically. Even the air felt lighter. One stop for lunch and two rest-stop breaks later and we were pulling into the small town of Bangs, Ohio. It was still a gorgeous day, though it was nearing sunset by the time we were turning into the long driveway at Mike and Hilary's home.
“Well hell.” I thought out loud, pulling my phone out of my pocket. “I was supposed to call her when we left and text when we got close.” Jenn stuck her arm up between Theo and I, pointing to the house. “Well, we're close.” Her sarcasm had us all smiling, so I sent a text anyway.
“We're close.” -Rick “How close?” -Hil “About 100 ft from your door.” -Rick
Without another text, the front door flew open and Hilary rushed out. It had been a couple of years since the girls met Hilary and Mike. The reunion was emotional, exciting and carried all the way into the front room. When all of the 'good to see you's and 'welcome back's were through, we settled into the comfort of their overstuffed couches and the array of chairs they had assembled. Our talks bounced back and forth with no particular direction. The only constant was that after the first few minutes, it was focused entirely on the haunting of the Infirmary, Maddie, and even little Ash, the burning girl. I had only brought in a file folder with me, but I opened it and began to pass out the stapled pages of the spreadsheets.
“Well, this is going to be pretty interesting, exciting and even enlightening to probably everybody.” I began what would turn into a very long monologue, telling the story, as we knew it. “Unless you already know everything here.” I looked over to Theo with a smile.
“I'm sure it will be an education for us all.” He smiled back as he thumbed through the black and white printed pages. “I think you can follow along with me if you want, but I'm going to kind of 'ad-lib' so it flows together a little better.” And so, I began to tell the story that had even Hilary herself wide eyed and on the edge of her seat. The tale began with a dream that Theo had sent me as part of his time-line, a dream that took place in the very room where we now sat to learn the story as we knew it.
*** The civil war was nearing its end when a confederate troop made camp in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. As the war efforts began to slow and the killing of brothers lessened, the negative, evil energies of war began to concentrate where it could. In this camp in particular, the evil became a beast, and that beast drained the life from every single soldier, save one. The evil energy had become an entity and that entity had intelligence. The man was left alive with intentions. The beast pursued him through the forest, but it knew there would be a chance that the elements would claim this man's life as well. The beast, conscious of the mortality of its newly found intelligence, split its energy in half. One half fled the wilds of the forest as swift as lightning and was drawn to the closest energy of the living... Summersville, West Virginia. This half of the entity again divided itself into several, slightly weaker, energies and attached themselves to average everyday people, not taking them over or causing irreparable damage...yet. The beast planned to let these individuals fall on hard times of one sort or another and seek help from the church. One by one they would infiltrate, and begin to bend and twist the minds of the congregation, eventually leading to a witch hunt that could destroy more lives and more faith from within, and to the beast, that was wickedly satisfying. It studied the townsfolk from within themselves and found two young girls with unique powers of their own, and it made a plan to control the energies and powers of these young souls. It would stop at nothing to have them.
The other half followed and soon caught the soldier. Its evil powers drove the man night and day until he had made it to a small settlement on the edge of the Ohio River, where he found refuge. Over the next several years, the man fell on a string of hard times, and bad luck. He went from town to town, begging for food and shelter until the constable or other authority would run him out of town. His final destination was Bangs, Ohio. There was a poor house and farm that took him in and he lived there, keeping to himself quietly, until his odd and nervous behaviors were noticed by the Infirmary psychiatrist who had him committed as an inmate. This half of the beast soon dispersed itself amongst the many insane inmates and even some of the staff. In the minds of the staff it would cause them to commit cruel and evil acts that went unnoticed or disbelieved by those who heard the tales from the inmates, assuming the stories were made up or caused by their mental disorders. This gave the beast a twisted pleasure that it craved like an addiction.
~ It was summertime in the mid 1870's, when a young girl named Ashley Sue Helmach made a new friend. She had been in town while her father was at the general store to pick up the monthly dry goods. She stood outside, as her father had asked, when she noticed a girl sitting alone at the corner of the store. She approached the young girl who was a few years older than she was and could sense her unhappiness. The girl was afraid of being judged and outcast, or worse, because she had the ability at times to see the spirits of those who had died as clearly as she could see the living. This had caused confusion and trouble in the past when her parents, teachers, and even her pastor had asked who she was speaking to or about. At her young age, she did not know that others didn't see them.
Ashley knew exactly how it felt to be different and unaccepted by others. To comfort her, she offered the girl her mother's blessed, moonstone and silver necklace to comfort and protect her. Ashley introduced herself to the girl, and the young girl replied, saying her name was Taylor Madison. Perhaps this has nothing to do with the story of Madison Taylor, or perhaps it is everything.
~ The years passed until one wintery day a
young woman around twenty years of age arrived, half dead, on the doorstep of the Infirmary in the early morning hours, well before dawn. She held a little boy in her arms and called out for help. So weak from not having eaten and having traveled so far, exposed to the elements, she placed the boy on the doorstep and pounded her fists against the door, screaming for help until her voice was in shreds and her hands began to leave bloody prints on the pristine white front doors of the Infirmary.
The night watchman peered out the window, hoping no one else would hear the pounding and cries of the woman. Her strength eventually gave out and she lost consciousness. When she had been motionless for nearly an hour, the watchman opened the door and scrubbed the bloody marks from it. After closing and locking the door again, he called out for the orderly on duty. The two men carried the limp body of the woman inside and placed her on a cot. The orderly checked her for a pulse and finding her to be alive, covered her with a gray woolen blanket. The watchman stayed with her while the orderly returned to where the boy laid still on the front step. He knelt down beside the boy and felt the cold, puddled rain soaking through the knees of his white uniform pants. The man's breath was a steamy white and as he knelt there, shivering, he noticed no winter breath coming from the child.
The dawn was breaking over the horizon, casting a dull glow on the damp world below. The attending psychiatrist had awakened a short time earlier and still in his robe, wandered down the stairs. He had made it a habit of visiting the industrial kitchen to acquire a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee before preparing himself for his day. When he reached the main floor, near the entrance he encountered the watchman and was informed of the orderly's whereabouts. Still barefoot, he ran to the front door and found the orderly leaning over the boy.
“Dead.” The orderly said, showing no emotion.
“And the woman inside, what of her?” The Dr. asked with a grim look.
“She was alive when we carried her in, but she didn't look well.” He said coldly. “Call the caretaker. Get the boy buried before anyone sees. I will talk with the night watch and we will tell no one of the boy. If the woman survives the day, we will tell her therewasno boy. Perhaps she will not remember how or when she arrived here. I think it would be better for her to not know, than to think this child was dead.” The psychiatrist assumed to know what was best, or perhaps there was a deeper evil driving his decision, unbeknownst to him.
Maddie's time as an inmate at the Infirmary passed painfully slow. The ghosts of the Infirmary were distraught, and called out for her help, and with each passing month, their numbers grew, as other inmates passed away. There were two spirits that troubled her the most... two spirits that she never saw, but was always looking over her shoulder for and nervously darting looks out of the corners of her eyes at every movement. One spirit she hoped she would see, and the other, she prayed she would never face. These unsettling visions and absences, combined with the lies she had been filled with about the fate of the child she arrived with, gave the doctors the predisposition to commit her permanently for a disorder that was labeled in the 1800's as 'Nervousness'. Something that would have been treated with simple medications in modern times, and would have allowed a normal and productive life... something Maddie had been denied since childhood.
Late one night, when the Infirmary had gone nearly silent, Maddie was locked in her room, still awake. The full moon was high and bright, and there was a stellar energy in the air. Another energy was in the air that night...yet not so heavenly. The evil force that shadowed the residents and caretakers at the Infirmary was growing stronger this night. The entity that had split itself into so many different bits of negative energy had slipped from its 'home' in the attending psychiatrist, and was once again assembling its shattered energies to maximize its power and carry out a most heinous act. When the beast was once again whole, it slipped past the few awake attendees and night guard and directly into the room of a former civil war soldier named Adam. When the beast had taken over Adam's body, he was able to do simple tasks that were impossible from the spiritual plane. As Adam unobtrusively passed the dozing guard, the beast grew confident of its plan. It would soon take the life of the second gifted little girl, and it was certain it would then have her soul. A patient of the infirmary, who was not committed, spotted Adam in the hallway. The elderly man stepped out to call for the guard, or an orderly, knowing the inmates weren't allowed to roam the halls so late at night, and never unattended. Using Adam's flesh as his own, the beast wrapped Adam's fingers around the man's throat and found it so effortless to squeeze the life out of him. The beast smiled through Adam's face, his eyes glazed in a sinister and insane stare, while he watched the old man's face turn beet red, while his struggle diminished. He glared into the man's eyes as they lost their color, becoming gray and hazed over.
The beast was not able to steal the man's soul, it was free and passed into a light that was so brilliant, the beast could not bearto be in its presence. The evil entity retreated in rage and a tinge of fear. Its pace quickened as the beast brutally murdered two more innocent people in its quest for Madison. When Adam, and the beast within, were trapped in the room next to Maddie's, the beast grew frustrated. The popping sound of the night guard's pistol surprised the beast with a new sensation. There was a burning feeling in the borrowed flesh of Adam. The beast cast the physical body of Adam aside, discarding it out of the fourth story window without a second thought, like a stale and unwanted crust of bread thrown to the trash.
Madison cowered in the corner of her room and watched the beast pass straight through the wall, something it could not do in the confines of Adams physical body. The blackness of the beast towered over her, instilling its fear into her heart. She trembled with fright, shooting glances all about the room, looking for another soul, who she assumed was controlling this devil. Silently, the tears streamed down her face as she prepared to have herself shredded into ribbons of red lifeless flesh. There was no desire for death in her heart, and a fear of the hell that awaited her in the afterlife consumed her thoughts. In spite of those fears, Maddie opened up. She leaned back, spread her arms wide and waited for the beast to deliver its stinging and tormenting death. When her arms opened as wide as she could spread them, she arched her back, protruding her chest. The tie at the neckline of her drab gown came undone and the silver and moonstone necklace was exposed. Infuriated and confounded the entity cowered away from the brightly glowing pendant. Some form of powerful magic, that the beast was unfamiliar with, protected the woman-child, and a feeling it had never known had it befuddled... until this moment it had never truly known fear. The dark and evil beast retreated into the shadows, dispersed itself into the living tenants and patiently waited for opportunity to call it back into being.
While the time passed, the beast found ways to pacify itself by possessing other inmates and causing them to take their own lives. It reveled in the feel of the cold and broken shard of glass in the hand of a man locked in his apartment on the fourth floor one night. It made the man press the razor sharp and burred edge against his neck, slowly slicing and ripping at his own throat until he bled out. His soul, very aware of the powers of this demon, remained at the Infirmary under the control of the beast, like so many others before him had done.
On a fateful night in January, when two orderlies were put on the task of the hot and cold bath therapy for Madison, the beast knew his opportunity had arisen. The evil entity gathered itself together into one, as it had done before.
“Come on princess... time to get you stripped down, scrubbed up and down in the therapy baths, then off to bed for you.” Harold said in a cruel tone.
“Princess? She ain't no princess, my friend. This here's Queen Madison, but I think 'Maddie' is more appropriate.” Spouted the second orderly, Edgar,
“Oh my! Well, beggin' your pardon madam. I didn't realize you were royalty!” Harold said as he let go a boisterous laugh.
“Yes... forgive him, your Royal Madness!” Edgar t
aunted as they pulled her from the floor, unwillingly. It followed the men as they dragged Maddie reluctantly into the therapy room. Inside the room, with the door closed and locked, the beast divided its energy between the men, and having the convenience of flesh and bone, it was able to forcefully torture and abuse the young woman until she had nearly no fight or life left in her. She had been stripped of her gown and was completely naked and exposed. The protecting necklace hung limp from her neck, mimicking her lifeless body on the table. Using the flesh of one of the men, the beast was able to rip the necklace from her, dropping it to the floor, where it would remain while they dressed the battered and mistreated woman. The two men escorted her back to her room, soaking wet, bruised and ashamed. They locked her in her apartment, but not before taking her blankets and pillow, out of inhumane cruelty.
Moments after the men had left Maddie's room, the beast left them. Realizing what he had done, Harold rushed to the therapy room, snatched up the necklace and returned to Maddie's room. He entered the room, and the small framed young woman crouched away from him, whimpering when he came close. The chain was broken, but ruefulness and embarrassment over took the man, and he gingerly laid the necklace against her still damp flesh, and retreated, backing out of the room sheepishly. Upon entering the corridor, he locked Maddie's door and with his face turned to the floor, quickly left the fourth floor ward.
The evil beast was enraged by the cowardly weakness of human emotion and regret. Once again his plans to take the life and soul of this woman-child had been undone. Though the power of the necklace kept him from entering her, there was another way. The beast used the negative power of its energy like an unimaginably powerful electromagnet, causing the tubes within the radiant heater to collapse in on themselves, blocking the flow of steam. The beast filled the corner of the room and grew larger and stronger while the room grew more frigid by the minute. Soon, Madison's breath poured from her like smoke from raging inferno, and frost began to cover the inside of the windows. She tried to warm herself by pulling herself tightly into a fetal position. Sinister laughter filled the air as Madison's heart slowed and the moisture from her 'therapy' began to form icy crystals in her hair first, then her eyelashes, and then on her frostbitten and frozen fingers and toes. Hours were spent in excruciating pain while she felt herself slowly freezing to death.
