"Dee... You okay? You look like hell."
Laura Mirkwood took a seat next to her roommate in the student lounge. Deanna had been up almost the entire night searching for more information on her lost relative.
"I'm alright" she said. "Alright as a person can be after discovering a big-ass skeleton in the closet."
She handed Laura the freshly xeroxed research she had compiled.
"Her name's Ellie" Deanna said heavily. "She died in that asylum when it caught fire. She was one of the youngest patients there. And apparently she was my great great aunt."
Laura did not bother to read the research. Her eyes could only linger on the post mortem photograph that took Deanna three hours to find.
The sad remains of Ellie Burrows lay on metal gurney. Every inch of flesh had been reduced to charred tissue. Her once pretty head, a mottled mass of weeping burnt meat with only a gaping eye socket and a mouth set in a silent scream.
Swallowing her bubbling lunch, Laura lay the appalling evidence down.
"I hate to be the bearer of creepy coincidences, but have you seen these."
Digging through her notebook, Laura handed Deanna a day-glo yellow flyer.
"They're all over campus, Dee."
The girl grit her teeth as she read the flashy words.
COMING SOON
THE VANNACUTT ASYLUM MUSEUM
See the Sanitarium of Slaughter!
Over Fifty Different Exhibits!
Come Opening Night
Stay Until Morning and Receive a Free Artifact
"I don't believe this!" Deanna snapped. "People died there! Now they turned into some tourist trap museum?!"
"People build museums on murder all the time" said Kelly. "Remember the trip to Europe this spring?"
"Please. Aushwitz is a memorial. This has gift shops and animatronic zombies."
A charcoal gray sky hung over the old college campus that afternoon. Bundled up against the crisp autumn chill, Deanna made her way back to her dormitory. The red and yellow leaves swirling in little cyclones around her ankles. As she blew into her palms, the girl's thoughts continued to gravitate to the forbidden house. It's foreboading image sending a strange pulsing shock wave through her body.
Shaking her head Deanna extinguish the fevered thoughts as she strode past the courtyard. All she wanted was to get back to her room.
Suddenly she came to a halt.
He was there.
Sitting of a cement bench under an oak tree, he sat.
Dante Fisher. The one who sat infront of her in English Lit, completely unaware of the wistful eyes that gazed upon him from behind. Deanna had come to know his appearance down to the tiniest freckle. His skin the silky color of coffee and milk. That black hair coifed into perfect effortless dreadlocks.
She had been smitten since day one.
But in an instant Deanna, felt her daydream shatter. Dante looked up and their eyes met. Brimming with embarrassment, Deanna lowered her gaze and bid a hasty retreat to her dorm house.
Once behind the door, Deanna took in the safety of the dorm house. With most of the students out, it was a rare blessing for the place to be so quiet. Savoring the silence, Deanna made the long hike upstairs to her room.
squelch... squelch... squelch...
The hallway carpet was soaked.
"Toilet must be broken. Again." Deanna sighed
But the more she looked, a tingling sense of fear raced up her spine. The kind of fear that was usually dulled by her medication.
Forcing herself to kneel, Deanna ran her fingers across the saturated carpet.
BLOOD!
That was it. Forgetting her books, Deanna bolted headlong to the familiar shadows of her room, locking the door behind her. Collapsing on her bed, she rocked back in fourth trying to get the horrible image out of her mind.
"Its not there... It isn't real... It isn't real... It isn't-"
"Deanna..."
Her heart stopped dead in her chest. A chalky white hand shot out from under the bed and gripped her wrist.
"We need you, Deanna."
Like a bomb going off, a barrage of images flickered through her head. Dark hallways, demonic contraptions, but most of all, an overwhelming sense of agony. Something so dark and evil, it swallowed up any hope or happiness into a void of despair.
But just as the ghastly apparitions appeared the were gone. All was quiet again
Eyes rolling back, Deanna collapsed into a deep faint.
