“I’m going to the old Grady Hospital to prove to you, Mom, Dad, and everybody else that I’m not scared of anything.”
Marvin burst out into uncontrollable laughter.
“What’s so funny, Marvin?
“You’re funny. There’s no way you’re going do it. You’re going to chicken out at the last minute. Say you do go inside, Willie McNair will be waiting for you indefinitely.”
“That’s just a story, and I bet you made it up, just like you do with everything else to scare me.”
“If you say so. Just in case you don’t make it out alive, can I have your computer?” he asked, grinning from ear to ear.
“Get out of my way,” Parker said, quickly brushing past his brother. He ran down the stairs and yelled to his parents that he was going to Sammy’s house for the night. They told him that it was okay, and for him to text them as soon as he got there. He promised he would and left the house. He checked his watch and it was a couple of minutes after nine. He hopped on his bike and rode toward the abandoned hospital. Ten minutes had gone by, and he had just joined his friends at the hospital.
“Hey, what gives?” Sammy asked.
“Yeah, Parker?” the girls said in unison.
“I’m ready to go in here. I’m getting tired of everybody calling me a chicken and a scaredy cat.”
“But you don’t have to go in here to prove that,” Melody replied.
He looked at her with sympathetic eyes. “I know that, but I think this is a perfect way. We’ll leave at sunrise.”
“You cannot be serious right now, Parker,” Melody said.
“I’m being as serious as a heart attack right now. Marvin said this place was shut down because of some lunatic. He said that the guy eats and kills people, even children. We’re gonna go in here and stay the entire night. Besides, I’m curious to see if there are any dead bodies left.”
Pfft. “I doubt that. If people were killed or something in there, then I would hope there weren’t bodies left,” Melody replied.
“I’m hypothetically speaking.”
“Hypothetically speaking, if there are any bodies, they are definitely decayed and rotten. Probably smells awful in there. But, we will never know,” Melody added.
“You’re right about that. We will never know, because we’re afraid to go inside,” Parker said.
“Not the fact that I’m afraid, but there is also a big sign that says no trespassing. I am not breaking the law to do something I may regret later on in my life. That is, if I live to make it.”
“So, you’re not coming?” Sammy asked Melody.
“Nope. I’m not going in there, Sam,” she said, crossing her arms like a stubborn brat.
“Well, let’s go then,” Patty said, as she was the first one to hop off her bike. They all leaned their bikes up against the gate before making their way through. Patty stood there as everyone else walked through the gates. She felt an eerie feeling wash over her body and ran to catch up with her friends.
“Okay, I’m coming, too,” she said, grabbing Patty’s arm. “No way am I staying out here alone.” They were getting ready to head up the steps, but Parker stopped them.
“Wait, you guys,” Parker said, pulling out his cell phone. “We gotta send the text to our parents that we made it to each other’s houses.” They all followed in tow as they sent out their messages. Melody was the only one that didn’t, because she told her parents that Patty was coming over anyway. They turned back towards the creepy hospital.
“Everybody ready?” Sammy asked.
They all looked back and forth at one another before they all replied, “Yep.”
Parker led the way and Patty and Melody held onto one another as Sammy followed closely behind. They forced the rickety hospital door open and closed it back so no one would notice that somebody had gone inside.
“See, this isn’t so bad,” Sammy said as he waved the flashlight around at different parts of the room. Melody freaked out when she saw how close she was to touching a spider web. She shrieked and became upset, because she could have easily ruined her new cashmere sweater.
“Let’s go, guys,” Parker said, waving his hand to his friends. They walked closer together as they walked further into the hospital.
“Ahhhh,” they all yelled at the top of their lungs when they heard the door of the room they had just entered through slam.
“We need to go back,” Parker said, breathing heavily.
“We’re not going anywhere, Parker,” Sammy interjected. “You said you wanted to face your fears and stay until sunrise. And as for that, we have eight hours before that happens.”
“What about our parents, Sammy?” Melody cried.
“Chill out, Melody. They’re probably asleep by now. Besides, they probably think you’re in your room hanging with Patty anyway. Remember? So, come on,” he said, starting to walk again. Melody, Patty, and Parker exchanged worried looks at one another. They all knew that they should just leave, but Sammy didn’t want to. And what kind of friends would they be if they just left him?
As they walked further down the halls, the lights suddenly flickered on. “Who did that?” Parker asked, stammering over his words. They all clicked their flashlights off.
“I don’t know,” the girls said in unison.
“I thought this place was supposed to be abandoned, Parker?”
“It is,” he replied.
“Then how does it have power?” she asked in a panic.
“Will you all just calm down? Sheesh. It might have just been the generator,” Sammy replied.
“A generator in an abandoned building? Really, Sammy? Does that make any sense to you at all?” Melody exclaimed.
“No, it doesn’t, Melody, but what else could it be? Do you have a better explanation than mine?” he asked, staring at her. Melody just stared back with angry eyes and remained silent. She stormed off a few feet down the hall. Patty went down the hall after her to try and calm her down.
“Hey, guys wait up,” Parker yelled behind them. “We have to go after them, Sammy.”
“Man, they will be fine. They’re just being girls. They’re being scared for no reason whatsoever.”
“If you say so.”
They walked past old and molded gurneys with dried up blood stains. It seemed as if the further they walked, the stronger the stench was. They covered their noses but that didn’t solve anything; the smell continued to burn their eyes. They walked into another one of the hospital rooms. There were medical charts thrown around the room, old clothes, old heart monitors. The place was in complete shambles.
“Hey check this out,” Sammy said ,picking up one of the files from the floor. They both looked it over and was shocked. “Isn’t Willie McNair the one that allegedly went crazy and killed everyone here? Isn’t that what Marvin told you?”
“Yeah,” Parker said, swallowing the big lump that had formed in his throat. “And he was never found. Rumor has it that he still wanders these halls, killing trespassers that want to come here and play around.”
“We’re not trespassers, Parker,” Sammy said laughing a little.
“Then what are we? Because we’re not supposed to be here.”
They heard a loud scream echoing through the halls. They both ran out of the hospital room and listened to see which direction it had come from. They heard the screams again. This time is was two different ones. Melody and Patty were in trouble. They heard footsteps coming towards them. Patty and Melody ran up to them.
“What happened?” Parker asked Melody.
“Somebody grabbed Patty’s shoulder back there,” she said, crying hysterically, trying to catch her breath.
“Somebody? What are you talking about? There is nobody here but us,” Sammy said in defense.
“No, it’s not. I saw him with my own eyes. He looked like somebody from the Walking Dead. He was big and had burns on his hands and arms. We need to get out of here befo
re he gets back.”
“We are not leaving, Melody. You guys play too much,” Sammy replied.
“What are you talking about?” Parker asked. “She said she saw somebody here. What if it’s Willie McNair?”
“Oh, please, Parker. You’re just afraid to stay here all night, that’s all,” Sammy replied, leaning up against one of the walls. “Remember, it was your idea to stay all night. So why leave now?”
“That’s because I didn’t think anybody was here, Sammy,” Parker replied. “The girls wouldn’t play about anything like this.”
“Right,” Patty said in agreement.
The room fell silent. They heard light footsteps and groaning coming towards them. They heard a loud thud, and the four kids went running out of the hospital. They all hopped on their bikes and never looked back as they sped down the street. They were riding so fast that they had all separated.
Parker reached his house and hopped off his bike as soon as he pulled up to the gate. He tiptoed on the grass and leaned his bike on the side of the house between the trash cans. At least if his parents headed out before he did, they wouldn’t know that he was home already. He walked to the front of the house and looked up to his parents’ room. He saw that the tv was still on due to the light on the wall. Why are they still awake? he thought as he looked at his phone. It was almost midnight. His parents never stayed up that late. Instead of using the front door, he decided to climb up to his room. He didn’t want Marvin to snitch on him either.
He made it to his room and walked as quietly as possible. He put his phone on silent and texted everybody to make sure they were home. Within fifteen minutes, everyone sent a text back.
Everyone but Sammy.
He called Sammy’s phone and didn’t get an answer. He waited a few minutes before trying again: still no answer. He had an idea. He peered out of his other bedroom window that faced the street. He looked across the street towards Sammy’s house. There were no lights of any sort lit in his house. No tv lights. No bedroom lights. Not thinking much of it, he just figured Sammy had fallen asleep as soon as he got in the house. He took off his clothes and laid down. He had to ease his mind and heart rate. He thought happy thoughts to help him fall into a deep slumber.
Around the corner, Patty and Melody had already made it into Melody’s house unnoticed. They were sitting on the floor and taking turns looking out the window as if someone had really been chasing them.
“That was scary,” Melody said, finally getting up from the floor after they saw that the coast was clear. She grabbed her pajamas and went into her bathroom.
“Yeah, that was pretty scary,” Patty agreed as she swapped her street clothes for pajama pants and a t-shirt. “Did you see how scared Parker was?”
“That wasn’t funny, Patty,” Melody said, rolling her eyes at Patty as she hopped on her bed. “Did you notice that Sammy didn’t text anything in the group chat?” she said as she scrolled through her message threads.
Patty grabbed her phone and did the same. “Yeah, I did notice that. He’s probably playing the game or something. You know how Sammy is. He answers messages late all the time, especially on the weekend. Or, maybe he’s asleep. They do have baseball practice in the morning.”
“That is true,” Melody replied as she plugged her phone up to its charger. “Wanna watch some tv before we go to bed?”
“You bet,” Patty said, grabbing the remote control and hopping onto Melody’s bed as well. “Let’s watch the horror movie marathon that they have on AMC.”
She flipped through the channels until she came to the correct one. They sat and glued their eyes to the television screen as Saw 7 caught their attention.
“I really like this movie,” Patty replied as she grabbed a pillow from Melody. “It makes me laugh sometimes. Whoever thought of this movie is a freaking maniac,” she said laughing.
“You are one sick individual, Pat. The Saw movies are good, don’t get me wrong, but they gross me out. They’re not even that scary, honestly.”
“I know, but it’s better than nothing. It’s not boring, so it keeps ahold of my attention.”
“Just don’t go and get any ideas and try any of this stuff.”
“I’m not making any promises,” Patty said, laughing maniacally. Melody just stared at her. For the first time in her life, she was actually scared of something. And it just had to be her best friend and her twisted mind. Melody knew that Patty was just kidding, but, then again, sometimes she wasn’t too sure. She thought about it again. Nah. Patty wouldn’t hurt me. I have never even seen her hurt a fly. I had nothing to worry about whatsoever.
Back at the abandoned hospital, Sammy was screaming for help. His throat had become dry from the countless hours of screaming. He was scared out of his wits right now. He had made it out of the hospital earlier, right behind his friends, but he didn’t make it away. He was running so fast, and wasn’t paying attention, he tripped over the broken concrete stairs and sprained both his ankle and his arm. Before he could even grab the attention of his counterparts, they had all rode away on their bikes in fear. Whatever it was that was inside the hospital, had appeared outside and picked him up. Sammy had fought to get free, but the figure was not letting up. He took him back into the abandoned hospital, and out of the possible bystanders’ hearing range.
Sammy’s heart was racing a mile a minute. He had broken out into a sweat and was panicking. He thought about running away as the hermit looking guy stepped away for a while, but he knew he wasn’t gonna make it out. Even if he did, there was no way he was gonna be able to ride his bike to safety. He adjusted his eyes as best as he could in the darkness. At the end of the hall, there was a little dim lighting. The creepy guy was down in one of the rooms. He could see his shadow on the walls.
He dug around into his pockets, feeling for his cell phone. He found it down in the side pocket and pulled it out. He saw that he had missed calls. He went to dial Parker’s number back. Breathing heavily again, he listened closely as the phone rang. As soon as Parker picked up the phone with a sleepy, ‘Hello,’ the call dropped.
Sammy’s phone had died.
At that moment, his heart skipped a couple of beats. That was his only hope. How was he gonna escape now? He looked down the hall again and listened. The guy was banging and grunting. Sammy could hear tears of what was probably human flesh or something. Thinking he was gonna be next, he decided to crawl out.
He used his arms to pull himself across the dusty floor, over old and rusty hospital tools. He made it to a door and pushed himself up far enough so he could reach the door knob. He tried twisting it, but it wouldn’t budge. He overheard people laughing and talking on the other side of the door. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself but he didn’t have much choice if he wanted to get out of their alive. He saw a window next to the door. He grabbed a brick that was in his grasp and laid down on the floor, aiming for the window. Once he knew for sure that he had a good shot, he threw his phone straight through the window. The glass shattered everywhere and he heard the chatter stop.
“Help,” he yelled. He was hoping that the people heard him.
“Did you hear that, Bobby?” Sammy heard one voice ask.
“Yeah, I did, Larry. You think somebody is really in there?”
“Probably some kids playing a prank.”
“Maybe we should go check it out,” Larry said.
“I don’t think so, pal. You can go ahead though.”
Sammy listened. He could hear the two guys voices getting lower and lower.
They were leaving.
He yelled again but they never came back. He heard the stranger coming back. He grabbed Sammy by the arms and pulled him down the hall to the room he was in.
Now what am I gonna do? Sammy thought to himself. Now what?
Chapter Two:
Facing My Fears
P
arker heard his alarm clock go off. He jumped out of th
e bed, remembering not to make too much noise, because he wasn’t supposed to be here. He put his ear to his bedroom door. There wasn’t any movement going on just yet on this bright Saturday morning. T here hardly ever was, though; it was only 8 o’clock. He tiptoed downstairs, wearing the same clothes he had on the previous night. He went to the front door and opened and closed it. As he was trying to creep back up to his room, his mother startled him.
“You’re back early, Parker,” she replied. She was coming from the basement carrying a large hamper in her arms.
“Oh, yeah, hey, Mom. I, uh, got baseball practice this morning. Remember?” he said breathing heavily.
“That’s right,” she said, placing the hamper on the floor. “Well, you’re gonna need this,” she replied pulling out his baseball jersey and tossing it his way.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart. Would you like me to make you some oatmeal?” she yelled up the staircase.
“No, I’m okay,” he yelled back to her. He quickly showered and dressed in his baseball gear. He opted to put his cleats in his backpack instead of wearing them out the house like he usually did. He ran back down the steps and saw his mom in the kitchen. He ran to give her a kiss and grabbed an apple out of the fruit basket. He locked the front door on his way out, hopped on his bike, and headed to the baseball field for practice.
He rode by Grady Hospital and stopped. He examined the building and all the crows that were lingering about.
“This place is so freaking creepy,” he said aloud. He placed both feet back on the pedals and continued on.
****
After another successful practice, it was time to head back home, but something didn’t feel right to Parker. Sammy had missed practice this morning. He tried calling his cell phone, but got no answer. All he kept getting was his answering machine. He called three more times and the result was the same. As soon as he hung up, his phone began to ring. Without looking at the caller ID, he quickly answered.
No Trespassing Page 2
