Hello new chapter.

Last edited: June 19th 2017

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Asylum

- Those Meant to Fear -

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Pennhurst State School and Hospital – formerly the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic – was located in the state of Pennsylvania, near the border between the counties of Chester and Montgomery. Construction had started in the very beginning of the 1900s, and it had only grown in size. On paper, it had been an institution for those deemed in need of specialised care, but in practice, it had become more of a dumping ground for individuals unwanted or unneeded by society. Back in its heyday, it had housed a large number of patients, and quite a bit of human suffering as well, if the evidence was to be believed.

A number of scandals had ultimately led to its closure on December 9th 1987.

Some – its current managers included – claimed the place was haunted, and such was likely the case; events like that tended to leave some type of scar upon their immediate surroundings. However, partially renovating and reopening some part of the place as a haunted attraction was, at least in Allen's humble opinion, more than just a bit disrespectful. Then again, he supposed that the dead probably wouldn't be faring any worse anyhow; they had likely suffered worse back when they were still alive.

The first patient had arrived on November 23rd 1908. Four years later, the institution was already overcrowded. According to some, they had been pressured to admit people who weren't their original target group; criminals, immigrants, orphans. Allen did not know whether it was true or not, and he did not particularly care either. Something which he did know however, courtesy of Bak, was that they had had a system of physical and mental classification which had determined its residents to be either epileptic or healthy, imbecile or insane. Allegedly, people were even classified depending on the state of their teeth.

All in all, it had hardly been a place to cure anyone. Regardless of original intentions, and regardless of whether those admitted were even in need of receiving such care to begin with, Allen sincerely doubted that any of them got any better solely from the experience. Truthfully, the mere thought of it made him quite ill, and particularly as quite a few of them were never discharged to begin with, withering away gradually or perishing suddenly. Someone – presumably Bak – had mentioned in passing that at least half of those admitted didn't make it. Allen did not know whether it was true or not, but all in all, he supposed that it did not matter all that much either; they were dead after all, and in some cases, some were better off dead than they had been when they were still alive.

For those locked up for whichever reasons, there were neglect, overcrowding, abuse, and even starvation. Subjected to some or even a mixture of all of those conditions, could one really expect anyone to be reformed from whichever flaws that they may or may not have possessed? Even with good intentions and the honest goodwill in the people who had worked there, a lack of funds had ensured overcrowding and overcrowding had led to neglect. Even now, it was a precarious blend; a spiral heading downwards, delving deeper into what could possibly be viewed as a textbook case of human depravity, and as an institution, it was hardly unique. Plenty of similar institutions – if not nearly all of them – had all had their share of it. As such, Pennhurst was neither the exception nor particularly unique; truthfully, it was but one of many, and at a quite significant scale at that. It was all quite sickening, truly.

With measured steps, Allen descended the case of stairs, treading behind Rikei, a member of Bak's so called study group, the so called Paranormal Research Unit, or PR-unit for short. All in all, Allen was not all too sure about the details as he had not bothered to delve all too deeply into them, very much like he had not bothered taking on the lead now that the group had split into smaller operating units.

For whichever reason – for the mere kicks of it, possibly – the pairs had been decided through them pulling a folded piece of paper from a jar. Thus, he had ended up with this Rikei guy, like Wong with Rohfa and Bak with Shifu. All in all, though Allen sincerely doubted that anyone was perfectly happy with these arrangements, he found that he still preferred the somewhat messy-haired and mildly temperamental Rikei over either Wong, who evidently didn't like or trust him very much, or Rohfa, the shy pigtailed girl with a budding crush. As for the last one, this Shifu guy appeared far more level-headed and collected than the rest of Bak's minions, which certainly wasn't a bad thing but was probably best invested in preventing Bak from doing something stupid in the name of science if for nothing else.

Then again, Allen was practically surrounded by people who referred to themselves as scientists or at least pseudo scientists of some sort, so pretty much everything was to be expected. They had brought along quite a bit of equipment too, some of which he could not even identify. It wasn't as though he actually needed to learn to use them though; Allen had no need to prove himself to anyone, and the people who had been his clients had typically been far more interested in him solving their ghostly problems than for him to provide proof of the haunting. Then again−

"Hey, you."

However reluctantly, he shifted his attention back to Rikei who stood there with a protective mask – an air-filtering half mask, or something to the like. He also wore a helmet with a small flashlight attached to it, and the ray was now directed at Allen, illuminating the parts of his face that weren't obscured either by the mask or by the hood, which he had yet to lower.

"Could you walk in front of me instead of lurking behind me like that? It's creepy."

Hoh.

"How old are you anyway? You don't look old enough for college…"

Allen said nothing, pulling out the flashlight that he had been loaned, turning it on. "You talk too much," he finally announced, walking ahead now, allowing the ray of the flashlight to illuminate his path as the quietly fuming Rikei scrambled to catch up, carrying the equipment.

"Okay, look," the latter said, catching up to him with some amount of difficulty. "I seriously don't get what Bak sees in you, and I can't say that I've seen any particular proof of your skill in handling the paranormal, so I'll just say this straight up: You have a terrible personality and I don't like you."

That actually made him pause briefly in his step and to snicker quietly, though it sounded somewhat strange through the mask.

"Hey!"

Allen stopped snickering and turned partially, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "The feeling's mutual," he finally said, a certain degree of wryness to his voice. "Besides, I don't particularly care about what other people think of me and my twisted personality."

As a matter of fact, he had never particularly cared all that much about the vast majority of his fellow human beings. Besides, in their eyes, he had probably been a hopeless case to begin with. Then again…

Having begun walking again, Allen came to a sudden stop and thrust out his hand, stopping his decidedly displeased companion from advancing any further and silencing the other's protests with a verbal command. "Quiet."

Out of the corner of his eye, Rikei shifted slightly, looking decidedly uncomfortable and a bit spooked, eyes searching their surroundings repeatedly and seemingly coming up with nothing. Then, despite the scorn that Allen had received earlier, Rikei stepped closer, likely acting more out of instinct than out of any conscious thought, believing that it would somehow be safer to stay close.

Then came a small whisper, just as Allen closed his eyes in an attempt to focus. "Is there something out there?"

It was a stupid question, because there was always something out there. The only difference lay in the nature of what was out there; natural or supernatural, living, departed or some type of entity. After all, humans themselves were hardly harmless, and in comparison, most ghosts seemed as harmless as newborn kittens. Admittedly, there were – as he himself had experienced – obviously entities that were far more powerful and far more dangerous than they initially seemed, and judging from what had just tripped his senses, there was a distinct possibility that they were on the verge of running into something quite nasty.

Allen opened his eyes. He could see it now; the darkness just beyond the reach of his flashlight. "Is your camera still running?"

"Huh?"

"Is your camera running?" he repeated, and a startled Rikei fumbled with the camera.

"Yeah, it's running," Rikei uttered somewhat breathlessly, looking indecisive in regards to whether he ought to be scared shitless or excited. "What more should I−?"

It was another stupid question; Allen appeared to be the recipient of quite a few of those as of late.

"Get back," he simply ordered, pulling slightly at his mask, his eyes never leaving the darkness that lay beyond. "The way we entered is clear, so put some distance between us."

"Why?" Rikei automatically questioned.

Allen found himself resisting a sudden urge to roll his eyes. "Because pieces of equipment might end up broken otherwise."

For all that he had been sticking close to him mere moments before, Rikei sure wasted no time in stepping back and thereby away from whichever entity Allen knew himself to be staring at, despite the fact that there were still no distinguishable features to speak of.

Allen took a step forward, pointing the flashlight directly ahead. Still, he had not yet determined just what he was up against. After all, though it felt decidedly negative to him, it did not seem to harbour any sinister intentions as far as he was able to sense, for now at any rate.

Taking another step forward, the thing at the end of the underground corridor finally became clearer to him.

Before him was an inhuman blob of some sort – simply crowding the tunnel – and it was not even staring him down or even eyeing him hungrily or angrily or anything. There were no eyes to speak of, nor any discernible humanoid, mammal or reptile features to speak of. Ultimately, the shape of it – as he now came to view it – looked remarkably much like a crossing between a slime monster and a giant jellyfish, neither of which was particularly appealing as far as Allen himself was concerned.

Unable to help himself, Allen wrinkled his nose in disgust before forcing the feelings of revulsion aside. Instead, he focused on the task at hand.

The creature – whatever it was – was moving closer, albeit slowly. However, it – whatever it was – did not seem all that dangerous, and it certainly wasn't demonic in nature. Then again, it wasn't as though it was a human spirit either as far as he could tell; rather than a spirit, it was more of a strange… blob?

Behind him, Rikei gave rise to a slight hiss. "What is that?!"

Oh, so he was seeing it now, was he?

Allen straightened up from where he had moved into position, relaxing his posture ever so slightly. "It's a manifestation," he responded, suddenly certain and no longer as wary. "Neither quite human nor quite demonic in nature."

Swiftly coming to a decision in regards to his next course of action, Allen took a step forward, followed by another, followed by yet another. Then – when they were less than a metre apart - he came to a stop, looking up at the thing as it practically towered over him. "Well, this is new…"

"New?! What the Hell is that?!" Rikei sputtered, voice echoing between the walls.

"You're loud. Be quiet."

"Hah?"

"Calm down," Allen offered him simply, remaining where he was, with his eyes on the thing in front of him. "If you don't, then it might try to latch onto you."

Truth to be told, Allen didn't actually think it would happen, seeing that there ought to be a fair number of more attractive targets. Then again, perhaps Rikei along with the others – barring Bak and probably also that old guy – were actually really attractive targets seeing that they had either received little training or were not putting it to good use. After all, their emotions seemed to be all over the place, which was probably the reason as to why the Blob – a temporary name, yes, for the sake of convenience as Allen currently didn't know what to call it – had turned up. Then again, with it being neither demonic nor human in nature, it was debatable whether it actually possessed anything that could be viewed as intelligence; if Allen's initial readings were correct then it was drawn to strong emotions and especially strong negative emotions at that. Then again−

Allen now stood before it, likely blocking its intended route, and now it had stilled for the most part, towering over him, seemingly looking down upon him even though there were no eyes or anything else for that matter. Then, perhaps because Allen had possessed the audacity to consider it however briefly, the shape began to change. Soon, the creature opened its forming mouth whilst the rest of its features began taking shape, morphing into something that could with a bit of imagination be assumed to be a human, albeit a twisted caricature of one. "You−"

"Hey you! What the heck are you trying to−?!"

"Rikei." Allen still did not tear his eyes from the face that was now in front of him, hollow eye sockets and all. "Seriously. Calm. The. Fuck. Down."

"Hah?"

"I'm currently in the middle of trying to communicate with an entity," Allen said, barely resisting the sudden urge to snap at him. "Either do as I say or I'll step aside and let Blob−" He made a slight gesture towards the aforementioned. "−get past me, since he really isn't after me as much as he's after you."

"Why's he after me?!"

Again, Rikei was asking stupid questions.

Allen turned his attention back to the aforementioned blob. "I do have a nice little theory about that actually, unless you've got anything to add?"

The blob – not so much of a blob anymore, so it definitely needed a new name – opened its mouth, but again, there was no sound.

"You're too emotional," Allen said, remaining where he was. "This… golem was made from emotional residue. He's not a human ghost or a demon or anything like that; he doesn't have a proper soul as far as I can tell, but he does possess a rudimentary awareness which compels him to seek out things that he perceives as similar to himself…"

"Hah?" he heard Rikei stutter from a bit of a distance. "I've never heard of−"

"Actually−" Allen said, cutting him off and putting his hand out slightly to prevent the golem from advancing any further. "This is my first time seeing something like this."

And it was his first time, and quite a novel experience at that since he didn't feel like he was in any greater danger than usual. Then again – as he had come to learn from experience – appearances and first impressions could definitely be misleading.

Behind him, he heard Rikei make a somewhat muffled but no less surprised sound. For a brief moment, Allen considered ignoring it, but then he snapped his head up and turned to look, the hair on the back of his neck already standing on end.

There was a massive shadow person standing there, hovering just over Rikei's shoulder.

Allen reached into his pocket. "Rikei…" he began, willing himself to remain calm even as he simultaneously sensed how the golem behind him had begun moving about. "Code red. Duck."

Surprisingly, Rikei obeyed nearly instantly, ducking down and protecting the camera equipment while Allen, having mostly unscrewed the cork of the tiny bottle of Holy Water he'd had in his pocket, flung the aforementioned item off in their approximate direction, aiming for the wall.

The bottle broke on impact, splattering his contents about. A slight sizzling sound could be heard, but it was swiftly drowned in the hissing that followed and gradually morphed into growling.

A couple of years prior, the growling would probably have stirred him a bit. Now however – made cynical due to all the crap that he had been through – Allen only took a step towards it when Rikei continued to cower down on the floor, probably with a bit of water splashed across his back.

The creature hissed at him, but Allen was undeterred, stopping only once he was within the range of one metre, looking up at it but staring it down all the same. "Leave."

Again, it growled at him, attempting to make itself look bigger and more dangerous than it really was. Allen wasn't fooled though, because it was small fry compared to stuff that he had encountered years prior. Granted, that in itself did not make it harmless, and especially not to other people, who could very well be influenced or even possessed. If one allowed it, that is.

Allen continued glaring up at the thing, even as it attempted to expand its influence and instil a sense of terror in them. "Rikei, stop freaking out," Allen snapped, without shifting his attention in the least. "Your fear is making it stronger."

And this, this was exactly why he generally preferred working alone – or not at all, if such an option was available.

"No really," Allen said, directing himself back to the entity. "Scram. I don't feel like dealing with you bloody entities every goddamned time that I step out onto the goddamned street, and I don't bloody care if I seem awfully tasty from a distance. Attempt to feed upon me and I will end you. Attack me, and I'll retaliate, and the same goes if you attack any other humans under my protection."

Again, it hissed at him. The shadows grew and fluctuated in response, both upset and wavering as Allen, without taking his eyes away from it, dropped his flashlight onto the still cowering Rikei's shoulder, hoping to implant the idea in the other's head that it would be just marvellous if he would move over just a bit. Rikei became more motivated about it when their surroundings became drowned in a flurry of different sounds, the sounds of scraping, knocking and footsteps. He scrambled away from them whilst at the same time retaining some sensibility – or curious foolishness, perhaps, along with a somewhat lacking sense of self-preservation – pointing the camera back at them, seemingly intent on getting the whole thing recorded. Seriously – scientists.

Then again, Allen supposed that they were better than the flimsier type of mediums he had come into brief contact with following his arrival in the states. Though on the other hand, the aforementioned mediums probably hadn't enjoyed the exchange a whole lot either.

Then, somewhat unexpectedly on Allen's part, there was a slight stinging sensation on the side of his neck – like a bug bite, almost. Soon thereafter he experienced the familiar sensation of a few droplets of blood running down it, emerging from the shallow cut that the entity had just inflicted; as a warning perhaps, or as a test. In either case, Allen wasn't having any of it.

Pulling off one of his gloves, he lifted his now bare hand to map out the injury with his fingertips, confirming then what he had already anticipated; even though it bled, it wasn't much more than a scratch, but since it bled he knew that he would have to patch it up fairly quickly to minimise the risk of it getting contaminated. After all, they wearing the masks down there for a reason; said reason was contamination, including asbestos and probably even some type of mould as well. And – truth to be told – Allen was probably a whole lot warier about those than about the supernatural, whether it was rational to feel that way or not.

"You shouldn't have done that," he finally said, addressing the entity anew. "Not if you knew what I did to the last demon that did that to me."

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"Are you scared yet, Allen?"

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"Scared? Me? Of what?" It was a stupid question. After all− "If anything, they're the ones who ought to be scared of me."

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