Creaky Walls: A Short Story

by Leslie M. Joyner

about Jason.

  “No joke, but your hair is sticking up a little, but that’s not why we were laughing.” Joann looked at her mom, asking with her eyes if they should say anything, but before she could say anything, Elizabeth began.

  “Have you heard any unusual sounds while you and Joann have been in here waiting for me?”

  “Actually, I thought I heard a kind of creaking sound. And when Joann went to wash her face before you got here I thought that I heard a thud. Like someone being thrown against a wall. I just assumed that I was hearing things. I’ve been up for about 24 hours on stake out.”

  Joann’s eyes brightened. “I thought you didn’t hear anything. I thought that it was just me. Then mom heard the creaking to.”

  They all began laughing, which in any event is better than crying, which is what Elizabeth really wanted to do. They all pulled up chairs to the table and began discussing the strange sounds, which seemed to emanate from the walls about them. Many theories were put forth, from heating/cooling units and ducts, to ghosts. Joann was wagering on ghosts, but of course the adults found that unlikely.

  “Well, we don’t exactly have a lot of things to do, except wait. Why don’t we snoop around a bit?” Mark winked at Elizabeth. They both knew that this was going to be a long day, and this would keep everyone’s mind occupied.

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. What if we get caught by hospital staff? Worse yet the ghost finds us and didn’t want to be found?” Elizabeth questioned seriously, holding in complete laughter at the thought of such absurdity, but anything to keep her mind as well as her daughter’s off of the situation at hand.

  “I’ve got a badge, I go where I want. So that takes care of the staff. The ghost could be a different problem.” He puffed out his chest in a macho manner, like who’s to stop me, I’m the law, attitude.

  “Well if you’re sure...” Elizabeth let her voice trail, as she looked slyly at her daughter, whose eyes had nearly cleared from redness and now showed a brightness at the thought of an “investigation.”

  “Where do we start?” Joann was overjoyed at the idea. She just knew that there was a ghost here.

  “Let’s start here in this corner.” He started to walk towards the window.

  “I don’t think it was coming from that direction, it was more over here.” Joann walked to the interior wall, the one where the payphone hung.

  “Alright, we’ll start over there then.” Shelton marched over to the wall and stood beside Joann staring at the wall as though he had x-ray vision and could see right through it. The whole time Elizabeth remained seated and watched, trying not to start laughing again.

  While they stood staring at the drab colored wall a loud thump resounded throughout the room, louder than all the previous thumps. Everyone jumped and then began to laugh, although this laugh was not as joyful as the other laughs had been.

  “Well, I guess you were right kiddo, it’s coming from this wall whatever it is.” The creaking sound followed the thud and seemed to be even louder than Mark had remembered, but that could be because now he was standing directly in front of the wall and listening intently for noises.

  Joann placed her ear to the wall. “I can’t hear anything now,” she remarked. Mark shook his head in agreement as he walked closer to the wall and began knocking his knuckles against the plaster.

  “It sounds empty.” He rapped in several different places, and every place had a hollow sound.

  Now Elizabeth was up standing next to them and listening to the emptiness as Mark knocked on the wall.

  “It’s probably just a closet on the back side of the wall. I bet if we went through that door we would find housekeeping storage or nurses storage closet.” As she made the statement the creaking began again, and lasted for a longer duration than before as if someone was climbing an entire flight of stairs. She was starting to get a bit leery, this wasn’t as much fun as she had thought it would be. Joann on the other hand did.

  “I’ve been on that side of the door there aren’t any doors.” Joann stated matter of factly.

  “Well this hospital was originally a sanitarium. Perhaps they just closed in parts instead of demolishing them.” Mark suggested.

  “Why on earth would they do that?” Elizabeth looked at him and asked.

  “The owners may not know about it, it may be something that the contractor decided to do to save himself money on the demolition crews.” That did sound reasonable to Elizabeth and Joann.

  “Let’s see if there is any way in...” Joann began to insist they investigate further.

  “I’ve got a friend at City Hall, I’ll call him and see if there are any prints to the building, original and remodel. Then we can see what was here and what should be here.”

  Ten minutes later a courier arrived with a long tube and handed it to Mark. Joann cleared the table of cups as Mark unrolled the blueprints and placed them on the table.

  “Let’s see.” Mark said as he leaned over the table. “Here we are in the new building, and here is where that would be in the original building.”

  Elizabeth gasped. The original blueprint showed an electro shock room in the same area as where they were hearing the sounds from. “Maybe they just didn’t disconnect all of the original equipment when they walled this area up.”

  “It shows stairs leading up as well in the old building. The new prints don’t show any stairs or rooms in this area.” Mark stared intently at the two sets of prints then turned to the wall. Stared at it, then walked to the door. He walked off the approximate length of what the prints showed. Then walked around the corner doing the same thing and returned to the waiting area while Elizabeth and Joann looked on in curiosity.

  “Joann was right, there isn’t any door ways leading to this area here. He pointed at the original prints. The measurements are the same but, the new prints show a wider corridor where this room should have been opened up.” Mark pointed at the original room and the new corridor that did not exist.

  “Well, what do we do now?” Joann was upset that they would not get to investigate further. As she spoke the creaking began again. This time they heard voices as well. At the same time a nurse came in to give them a report on Jason’s surgery. He was doing well, and the doctors where almost done. Mark decided to ask her if she had heard any unusual sounds in this area.

  “Actually, yes. I’ve been hearing things since I started here last year. But I haven’t told anyone...” she trailed off as though she was uncertain as to what to tell them.

  “What kind of noises?” Joann asked.

  “Like someone walking on old stairs mainly, but once in a while I can hear a thudding sound, and voices.”

  “That’s exactly what we’ve been hearing!” The excited teenager exclaimed.

  “I think this calls for more investigation. Can you contact the administrator and ask him to come down here?” Mark opened his wallet and flashed his badge. The nurse looked startled and shook her head and hurried out.

  “I told you being a police officer came in handy.” Mark winked at Joann, but looked seriously at Elizabeth. Five minutes later the hospital administrator arrived.

  “Nurse Grey said that there was an officer here that wanted to speak to me?” He looked at Elizabeth, Joann, and then Mark.

  “That would be me.” Mark stated as he showed his badge once again.

  “I’m Robert Thompson, Hospital Administrator. What can I help you with, Lieutenant is it?” Mr. Thompson offered his hand.

  “We are here waiting on Mrs. Monroe’s son to come out of surgery with Dr. Loftin.” Mark began.

  “Is there some problem?”

  “No, No. Everything is fine in that regards. But I have a few questions to ask you about this room, if that’s ok.” Mark gestured towards the table, where the blueprints had been placed, and chairs. They both sat while the ladies stood watching them.

  Mark pointed at the area that they were now sitting in and the area from which they were hearing the noises
and then the same area on the original blueprints, and explained the unusual noises that they had heard that morning and that the nurse had claimed to have been hearing for the past year.

  “I don’t really have an answer. I’ve only been here a few months. The renovations were completed about 5 years ago. But now that it has been brought to my attention, we will get to the bottom of this. If nothing else we will be able to explain the problem as well as gain some more space. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Robert got up and walked down the corridor to the nurses station.

  “Well do you think he is going to do anything, or is he just humoring us?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Who knows? I guess we will find out if he believes us or not when he comes back.” Mark stated matter of factly.

  Ten minutes later Mr. Thompson came back in with a maintenance man. “George, says that he has also heard the sounds. So I’ve instructed him to cut us a whole into the wall from the break room here so that we can look and see what’s going on without drawing to much attention.” As Robert explained, George plugged in his rotary cutting tool and began ‘dissecting’ the wall as skillfully as a surgeon.

  With the purring of the cutting tool the room began to smell of loose Sheet rock and a light powder cloud began to float about the room. Just when George was finishing the last side of the rectangle cut the cutting tool ground to a halt, sparks flashing from the hand held tool and the walls. Within seconds the wall was engulfed