WARNING: HORROR THEMED CHAPTER AHEAD. READ AT OWN RISK.
Ch.4: Ghost Asylum
Danny parked his car a good distance from the abandoned insane asylum, looking up at it with wide, blue eyes. He released a breath he didn't know he had been holding as he pulled in, half-expecting something to jump out and scare him the minute he had entered through the gate. The large, towering entrance had been open but, even if it had been closed, he could've simply driven around it, since there was no fence to back it up. It was one of the worst designs Danny had ever seen.
Sam and Tucker shivered beside him while looking up at the towering building. They were staring at it uneasily just as Danny was, which was strange. The two ghosts had never been scared on a job, leaving Danny to feel anxious all by himself. They always blew off his worries but now they were second guessing themselves. Danny wouldn't put it past them that they could sense something he couldn't since his ghost sense wasn't the best. If that was the case, they were in for a load of trouble.
Parked farther up were Danny's companions on the case. He never would have come to St. Dymphna's Asylum by himself, even with his ghostly companions. A place like this was rumored to be haunted with dozens of ghosts, malevolent and benevolent. From what he could tell by the information his partners on this case, only a few were hostile but the spirit world was always different to a medium than a regular human.
Danny's partners on the case were the Tennessee Wraith Chasers and the camera crew that followed them around. One of the founders, Christopher Smith or Chris, had reached out to Danny after stumbling across the twenty-one-year-old's website and asked if the medium would like to help them along with their new, upcoming case on their TV show. Danny had said yes immediately, as this was his living and he figured he might as well get some business along the way.
Sam and Tucker had found the entire thing ironic, as many years before the trio had mocked all paranormal shows and now the young adult was going to star in one. Danny had merely rolled his eyes and said that he still didn't have his own, which was their original goal in life before they had gotten a little more realistic about their (after)lives and simply started their (technically, Danny's) small business of moving ghosts on through the ghost portal.
"Who's ready to be creeped out?" Danny asked his companions, turning his head to look at them. Humorously, he raised his hand and wasn't surprised to see Sam's and Tucker's follow after his. They all smiled at each reassuringly before the ebony-haired man opened his car door and slipped out, shutting it behind him. He opened the back door and grabbed his pet carrier with his two cats, calling to Firecracker and Lock to follow. The dogs did as they were told but Danny was surprised to see that they didn't take off exploring and instead kept to his sides. He brushed it off though and walked to meet the Tennessee Wraith Chasers.
Chris met him first, shaking his hand and greeting him warmly. Danny said his own hello and was quickly introduced to the rest of the team that consisted of Doogie, the cofounder, Porter, their historian, Chasey, and Brannon, their inventors. All of the Chasers were thrilled to meet the medium that had come to join them.
"And who's this little guy?" Doogie asked, bending down to look into the pet carrier. He yelped and jumped back when Hissy-Fit tried to shred his face, hissing loudly at him. The other Chasers laughed as Doogie backed away, laughing breathlessly.
Danny smiled at him reassuringly. "Well, you just met dear ole Hissy-Fit. I found her during one of my jobs and thought she was just scared. Later on, I found out she just hates everyone. My other cat is in there as well. Her name's Skittles. She's much friendlier than Hissy-Fit is and is the only one Hissy-Fit won't try to maul. She was adopted at the kennel."
"Well, isn't that pleasant?" Brannon said sarcastically, still snickering at Doogie's near heart-attack.
Danny smiled and hummed in an 'I don't think so' way. "Not when you live with the little demon, it's not. It can actually be considered hell on earth. I go through so many pairs of jeans…"
The group laughed again. Sam and Tucker were smiling at Danny's sides, watching the small meet and greet take place. The dogs still had yet to take off from Danny's side to investigate. Firecracker was shifting anxiously since he was the more active of the two. Lock was steady in his stance, though he shifted as well every once in a while.
Tucker slung an arm around Danny's shoulders, though the ebony-haired man didn't really feel anything except for his jacket shift a little. "I think you just made yourself an interesting batch of friends."
Danny couldn't help but chuckle. The Chasers looked at Danny with a questioning look since no one had said anything particularly humorous. No one had said anything at all, really. Danny merely smiled and shrugged. "I have a couple of friends that are ghosts. I talk to them a lot. Their names are Sam and Tucker and the ghost dogs are Lock and Firecracker."
"Are you kidding me?" Brannon questioned.
Danny continued smiling humorously, hearing snickering from his two friends beside him. "No. I wish I were joking sometimes-"
"HEY!"
"-but they're here and they follow me around. If you don't believe me, you can use one of your light-up devices." Danny said before telling his friends to stay there while he walked around the large building. Setting the cat carrier on the ground, Danny told Lock to follow him. Chasey asked where he was going and Danny answered "For a walk. Sam, Tucker, and Firecracker will test your equipment and I'm going to go check out the railroad in the back. I want to see if there are any ghosts."
"Why?" Chris asked, confused. He and his friends were looking between themselves in confusion.
Danny shrugged casually. "I read over the deaths that occurred here and one was an escaped patient that died via getting hit by a train. I'm just curious to see if he's still there."
They nodded in understanding and Danny turned around, walking away again. He called for Lock's attention one more time and the Irish wolfhound trotted up beside him, keeping an easy pace. The ebony-haired male found it strange but didn't bother to think too much about it. As the two neared the house, Danny jerked back as his footing faltered. His breathe hitched, as if he'd been punched in the gut. His blue eyes looked up at large asylum with shock.
His ghost sense had never been this strong outside of a building he'd been investigating before. Heck, ninety percent of the time it didn't work outside the building in question at all. Because he could see ghosts as he could see humans, his ghost sense was very underdeveloped. Having four ghosts hanging around him most of the time suppressed it even further. The feeling in the pit of his gut now was unfamiliar and strong. It actually frightened Danny.
Taking careful steps forward, Danny continued walking forward with Lock by his side. The wolfhound seemed to know the small turmoil flowing through the human's side and had his own storm going on inside him. Walking beside the large building to get to the back was almost unbearable for the two since the feeling was so strong.
After finally reaching the backyard, Danny and Lock walked to the railroad a ways farther. The walk was quiet, though the grass rustled under the human's feet. The farther they walked from the old asylum, the more the haunted feeling surrounding the two eased. There was some remnant of a ghost around the train tracks but it was not nearly as strong as the air surrounding St. Dymphna's Asylum.
Danny didn't hesitate to step on the tracks and stand in the middle of them, looking both ways for any oncoming trains. Seeing and hearing none, he looked out into the distance and saw the sun starting to set behind the mountains. If he remembered correctly, the insane patient had been killed around this time but it had been raining. They wouldn't have seen this view.
Danny perked when he heard the long sound of a train's whistle blowing. He looked to his left and was startled to see a long, black train coming for him, still blowing its whistle as it traveled along the tracks. Danny tried moving but his feet were literally rooted to the ground. Lock started barking at the train as Danny's pupils shrunk to tiny, black pinpricks. As the train quickly grew nearer, Danny instinctively covered his head with his arms, tensing his body as he waited for the blow as his eyes snapped shut. However, all he felt was the wind rush by him, blowing his clothes and hair. The whistle rang in his ears so loudly he was sure he was going to be deaf when it was over. Lock's barks were in the distance.
The ebony-haired man waited but the whistle started disappearing and the wind began dying down. His eyes opened and his head whipped back and forth, looking for the train. There was none, even though the whistle was still fading into the air like smoke. Lock's barks had died down to vicious growls as he stood protectively by Danny's side, having never moved from the spot.
The young man panted, still desperately searching for the train because if it wasn't there, that meant he had just had his first vision. That little gift that usually came with being a medium was just as broken as his ghost sense. He'd never before been able to have a vision, no matter how many ghosts had tried. It scared him.
"Come on, Lock." Danny said, turning around and eagerly stepping away from the tracks. The wolfhound's growls died and he followed after, still walking beside the human. He was close enough to brush against the older's leg. Unlike times before, his clothes not only moved away because of the dog's touch but Danny could also feel the pressure of the dog against him, which was another thing that never happened. According to the quick way Lock looked up at him in surprise said the wolfhound was just unused to the feeling as Danny was. The two walked on though, keen on getting back to the others.
The first thing the two saw upon getting back were Sam and Tucker laughing their heads' off while Firecracker stayed mesmerized with the lights that lit up whenever he went near the sensor. The 360 sensor was the most intriguing Firecracker found, running around it and watching all the different colors light up as he ran around it. The Tennessee Wraith Chasers were laughing as well, watching with fascination as the sensors went off and lit up with brightly colored lights.
Danny couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face, especially when Lock lunged over and joined Firecracker. The two bumped into each other a dozen times but they were too interested in the lights.
Sam and Tucker looked up when they saw Danny walking over and tried to stop their laughing. The young man waited quietly by the cat carrier as they calmed themselves, occasionally cracking up before repeating the process of calming down again. It took a good five minutes but Sam and Tucker looked at Danny expectantly.
"So how were the train-tracks?" Sam asked curiously, crossing her arms over her chest as she tilted her head to the side.
Danny glanced at the Tennessee Wraith Chasers before turning his blue eyes back to his long-time friends. Stuffing his hands in his red jacket's pockets, he nervously whispered "I had a vision of a train almost hitting me when I stepped onto the tracks."
The two ghosts' eyes widened dramatically at the young man. They looked like they didn't quite believe him, even though Danny was not the kind of person to joke about his job. He was always stating facts and was always very blunt about it. Danny didn't sugarcoat ever. It just wasn't in him.
"But you don't get visions! That part of your brain is as broken as that old CD player you keep around the house!" Tucker said, earning a glare from Danny. "How could you have gotten a vision?"
Danny huffed and looked up at St. Dymphna's Asylum looming over them. The feeling he got when he walked closer had faded when he approached the group still lingering on the outskirts of the property. Turning his gaze back to his friends, Danny answered "There's either a really power ghost here or a good frikkin amount of them that have shared their power levels with each other. I can sense the spirits inside the closer I get to it. Walking to the back was a nightmare. Even Lock had trouble with the overwhelming power."
Tucker and Sam grimaced, glancing at each other. Sam shook her head, rubbing her arms uncomfortably. "This is not going to be a fun night, is it?"
Danny sighed and shook his head. "I don't think so. Not this time."
Sam sighed. "Wonderful…"
Tucker crossed his arms and looked closely at his friend, recognizing the expression Danny wore and listening to the tone he used when he spoke. "Alright Danny, tell us whatever plan you've got going on in your head. You've got that look on your face again. You know, the one that screams trouble?"
"It's not trouble and it's not even really a plan." Danny assured, rolling his eyes and looking back towards the abandoned asylum.
"Oh…" Sam said, leaning against her cocoa-skinned friend. "It's going to one of those plans. We're not going to like it."
Danny turned his eyes back to glare. "It's a good thing I've trained myself to ignore you because it is going to one of those times. We're not staying together when we enter this building. They're probably going to split up into two groups and you're both going to go with one of them. Lock and Firecracker are going to stay with me and the cats are doing whatever they want."
"Hey, we don't split up during our jobs!" Tucker stated, thinking back to all the jobs they had been on and it was true. Sam, Tucker, and Danny had never split up before. Lock and Firecracker were usually the ones that liked going off and tracking the ghosts down, barking to alert Danny of the ghost presence in the building.
"But we're never done a job like this." Danny stated. He was loud enough to catch the attention of the Tennessee Wraith Chasers that had hardly realized he'd come back with the dogs playing with the sensors. Firecracker and Lock stopped as well, looking at the man curiously. "We've never worked with a team and this place-" Danny pointed to St. Dymphna's Asylum looming a distance away. "-is so much more different than any other place we've worked at. This place scares me. I want to be able to protect them-" Danny pointed to the Chasers. "-from things they can't see. I have my protection in the form of Firecracker and Lock. You two can communicate with other ghosts. The dogs can't but I can. Please guys."
Sam and Tucker were quiet. Danny looked at them pleadingly and he mouthed 'please' again. The three were locked in a battle of wills but, as usual, Danny held out the longest and the two ghosts caved. They agreed but threatened Danny with his life that if something happened to him, they were killing him so they could beat the crap out of him in the afterlife. Danny only smiled gratefully before getting closer to the Wraith Chasers and asking if they had a plan.
Chris, ignoring the odd display Danny had shown them, explained that they were going to split up into three groups of two for each level of the building and, right then and there, Danny was already interrupting him, saying he would like to work alone on one level. The Chasers tried to object but Danny insisted, saying he didn't even want one of the cameramen around. He just wanted a video camera to record what he did so he could talk to the ghosts one-on-one with a less chance of scaring them off and to save his dignity since he didn't want to look like an idiot, talking to air and all.
The Chasers finally relented and Danny smiled and said his thanks. He let the five know that Sam and Tucker would be with them but would stay well away from the sensors so not to get in the way. Danny told them that unfamiliar ghosts sometimes brought out the resident spirits, which finally made the Chasers interested in having a ghost with them at all times. Danny also said the cats would roam the building and, if you ran across one of them, to make sure they weren't staring at thin air.
Chris laughed when Danny was done talking and said "Man, you know how to hijack a plan, don't you?"
Danny smiled humorously. "Sorry. I didn't mean to. It's just that most people, even other mediums, hate working with me. I like to do my own thing and I make up my own terms for things because I never studied this crap."
The group laughed and Danny went off to grab a video-recorder, microphone, tape-recorder, a walkie-talkie, and flashlight from the camera crew's table of equipment. He saluted them before they could object and moved on. Danny rejoined the Tennessee Wraith Chasers again. Before they entered the building, Danny was pulled aside anyhow by the camera-crew so he could explain, on camera, who he was and what he did since he was, technically, a guest star of sorts. Once the little experience was over, Danny was back over with the Tennessee Wraith Chasers and Chris was going over the plan again for the camera. Danny took his cues like a pro, which Sam and Tucker both thought was hilarious.
Once they started inside again, Danny had a hard time approaching the building, flinching away from the structure and grimacing as he tightened his hold on the pet carrier. Lock and Firecracker stuck close to the human as he led them inside while Sam and Tucker flanked his sides. The other Chasers were ahead of him and didn't notice the mediums hesitation and obvious discomfort at going inside.
As they entered, one of the camera-crew quietly shut the door behind him, allowing Danny to open his pet carrier and let the cats out. He was surprised when he practically had to drag both of them from the crate and close it so they wouldn't try to crawl back in. When the two cats saw their haven was inaccessible, they roamed around Danny's legs nervously. Hissy-Fit wasn't even attempting to use his leg as a scratch-post. The two hardly noticed the dogs, Sam, and Tucker.
"Do they do that often?" Chasey asked humorously before he noticed Danny looked shocked and nervous.
The medium looked at his anxious cats, shifting dogs, and the expressions Sam and Tucker wore on their faces. Though they hadn't had as much trouble approaching the building as Danny did, the amount of energy surrounding the building was unsettling. Even they were a little afraid to see what was inside the building.
"They don't ever do this. Hissy-Fit and Skittles always go off on their own. I can't blame them for hating this place though…" Danny mumbled, looking around the large front room. Everything was faded and looked like it came straight from a black and white photograph. The front desk looked menacing and the only furnishings were a few wooden chairs that would surely break if anyone attempted to use them. Cobwebs hung in the corners and dust floated in the air like snow frozen in time.
Chris looked at Danny curiously and in questioning, though there was a reassuring smile on his face. "What? Is this creepier than you imagined?"
Danny took a deep breath and nodded, looking around the room. He didn't see anything too out of place but he could faintly hear whispers. The words were lost to him though, too quiet to actually understand. "Yeah, actually. As a medium, I can sense spirits' energy but my ghost sense has never been very good because I can see ghosts. The amount of energy in here makes it feel I got hit by a truck."
"Will you be ok?" Doogie asked carefully. He was the kind of person that wouldn't dare make a person do something they weren't up to doing.
The raven-haired medium nodded and took another deep breath. "Yup. I'll be fine. It'll go away. What floor do you guys want me on?"
Chris answered that Danny could stay on the ground floor. The medium nodded, flipped on his audio-recorder, and held up his camera, ready to start video-taping. Chris directed the rest of the team and they split. The camera-crew followed after their respected groups with Sam and Tucker hesitantly in following after. It left Danny alone in the front room with Lock, Firecracker, Hissy-Fit, and Skittles huddled around him. The medium sighed before saying "Well… Here goes nothing."
Turning on the camera, Danny walked towards a window. The horizon in the distance was pitch-black. However, the color grew lighter as the sun in the west tried to penetrate the darkness in the east. Danny sarcastically asked the air around him why all these TV shows had to be filmed at night before moving on. Apparently, all the hot-spots the Chasers had mapped out during the day while Danny tried to get to the asylum before filming started were on the higher floors. The young man didn't care honestly. The entire building was just one giant hotspot on its own.
Sighing, Danny began walking throughout the halls of the lower floor of the asylum. He had to take his flashlight out to navigate through the growing increasingly dark hallways. His little animal posse followed only a few paces behind him religiously. They were never more than three paces away, hovering near Danny anxiously. The medium understood the feeling perfectly well.
As Danny weaved in and out of the halls, he occasionally would call out to anyone listening. He could still hear all the ghosts' murmurs in his ears but didn't see any of them. Neither the cats nor the dogs were much help in pinpointing where the ghosts were since their heads were always pivoting to a different location every five seconds. The human half-wished he could see everything they could. It'd make his job a little easier.
"If you're there and I know you are," Danny called, looking around and willing any spirits to appear in front of him. None did. "I just want to talk to you. It's not like I can hurt you…"
Danny whipped his head to look at Firecracker as the Belgian sheepdog skittered away from a doorframe, bumping into his leg and barely pushing him away. Firecracker looked up at the human, shocked, and Danny shared the same look. The ghost had actually touched one of the few living beings around and had pushed Danny a little. That did not happen often.
The human scoffed and looked around the dark hallway with wide, blue eyes. Feeling the small prods of terror creeping into his mind, Danny quickly let his flashlight wander over all the surfaces of the hallway in front of him before doing the same behind him. All he saw were small flashes and he couldn't even make out what they were. Danny frowned at the darkness around him. Carefully, Danny bent down, put his equipment down so they faced him, and hesitantly put his hands on the dogs' head. They were physical beings under his hands. The three shared startled looks. Danny mumbled "How many ghosts are here?"
The only reason Firecracker and Lock had been able to touch Danny was because of the energy drifting through the air. There had to be hundreds of ghosts if they gave off enough energy to make the two dogs tangible enough for Danny to be able to touch them. Who knew what the other ghosts could do with that kind of power?
Hissy-Fit and Skittles watched the whole encounter with their wide eyes, still sticking close to the man's side. They made no move to touch the dogs as Danny had done and preferred to stay with their living master.
All of the beings jumped when they heard a loud bang! Danny grappled for the flashlight, shining it around the hallway. Again, he only saw flashes in the various doorways and that was all. Danny hesitantly picked up the video camera again and stood up straight. Tiptoeing down the hall, Danny tried to keep himself calm. He knew Lock and Firecracker were more than capable of fending off hostile ghosts; they'd done it before. It was still terrifying to be in his situation without another person to talk to for comfort.
As he passed the doorframes, Danny looked inside and pointed the camera in, showing what was inside the room. So far, he still saw nothing and doubted his camera was picking anything up. Sighing, Danny called again "I know you're there! Can you please come out? I don't think I've ever been this terrified in my life. And I wish I was joking when I said that."
Nothing happened.
Danny flashed the camera in another bare room, looking through it thoroughly to make sure there were no ghosts in the room. Sighing, he turned back to the hallway, screamed, and jumped back. The flashlight fell from his hands and rolled across the ground with the video-camera quickly following in its flight. The cats pressed up closely against Danny's legs while the dogs growled viciously.
Oh, Danny had never wanted to see anyone that had hung themselves, much less a teenage boy at that!
The medium fell to his knees and grabbed for his flashlight again. Once it was in his grasp, he pointed it up and the teenager was gone. The dogs quieted and drew closer. The cats meowed and whined unhappily. Danny calmed his breathing, looking around for the ghost but finding him gone. Brushing his ebony hair out of his face, Danny felt sweat on his fingertips. He grabbed his camera before getting up again. There was another bang! in the distance, making the small group jump again. Danny gestured for the small caravan to follow him and moved down the hallway slowly. "I hate this place…"
As they were passing another doorway, they heard a bang! inside and leaped out of fright. Danny muttered a curse under his breath and flashed his light inside the room. He raised an eyebrow in questioning when he saw that it was an office that was fully furnished. It was dusty, yes, but still completely furnished, unlike all the other bare rooms. The medium moved the flashlight to the door where a plague that read Warden was screwed into the rotting wood.
Carefully stepping inside the office, Danny scanned the room again with his flashlight. He found what had caused the ruckus: a filing cabinet. Three of the four drawers were shut. The fourth hung open, revealing the forms inside that had probably long since decayed. The edges of the papers were yellow and curling in themselves, revealing its age.
Danny placed the camera on one of the cabinets and set it up so it watched the whole room. He placed the audio-tape next to it, in case a ghost appeared. It had been rolling since they had gotten in the old, abandoned asylum but Danny had no idea if it had picked anything up. He knew the only ghosts he had heard so far were the two dogs.
The medium began investigating the room, wondering why the ghosts roaming the building were causing a ruckus in this room. The first things he saw were the pictures across the walls. Some were of patients. Others were of, what appeared to be, the last warden of St. Dymphna's and some of the nurses. How they were relevant Danny didn't know, unless the warden was one of the ghosts that lingered in the building. It was stated that he had died here, having been killed accidently by an out-of-control patient.
From what he had read, Warden Walker had it coming to him though. He wasn't known for being very passionate or caring. Walker had run a tight ship or you were out before you could plead for forgiveness.
After looking through the pictures, Danny went through the desk. He stopped and moved away when the pair of scissors on the top of the desk moved ever-so-slightly. Just as the scissors moved, Firecracker and Lock growled menacingly at the filing cabinet. The cats hid in-between Danny's legs, fur standing on edge as their eyes gleamed in the low lighting.
Seeing where they were barking, Danny moved over to the cabinet and began going through it. As he had thought before, the paper was old and ink was smudged on most of the sheets. Decay had managed to creep up on the old pages, eating away whatever had been written.
Danny found nothing in the cabinet but the dogs were still growling at it protectively. He asked them what was so interesting about it, even though doing such a thing was useless. Firecracker and Lock couldn't answer him, even if they wanted to.
The medium sighed and figured he should probably move along before he spotted something sticking out behind the back. Danny moved closer and looked in the small crack. He jerked back and took a step away, almost tripping over Hissy-Fit in the process. The Oriental cat didn't try to rip him to pieces after his accident, which was surprising since she liked to blame him for everything.
Danny gulped and braced himself against the cabinet. He pushed and winced as it screeched against the ground, groaning under his hands. After he had moved it aside, he stared with wide eyes into the dark abyss that had been behind it. The stairs that led into the pitch black were inviting him to walk on down, even though the medium was terrified to know what was beyond the staircase.
Lock and Firecracker began barking loudly and Danny covered his ears, tensing his muscles. Their yaps were the loudest sound in the universe. In the darkness, they sounded much more menacing than they did when it was bright out and Danny even knew they were not directed at him. Spinning around, the medium yelled for them to shut up. The loud barks fell back into low growls.
Now that it was quiet again (Danny half-wished the dogs would start barking again; the silence was suffocating), Danny heaved a breath and looked into the dark abyss again. He debated with himself about going in, ignoring how both cats were clawing at his jeans in a 'don't go down there' way. Both of the dogs had stepped in front of him, daring him to go down.
Chris's voice started over the walkie-talkie, scaring the crap out of Danny, who had gotten used to the quiet. He asked his friends on the second level how they were doing, getting good news from them. Danny was asked next and smiling nervously into the dark void in front of him, he nervously said "It's all good down here…"
"You sure? You don't sound ok." Doogie stated.
Danny hummed and nodded, rubbing his head. "Yeah… Doing great. Just working really hard done here. The ghosts have found that it's fun to scare the literal crap out of me."
Though they didn't do it over the walkie-talkie, Danny had a feeling the Tennessee Wraith Chasers were laughing at him in the other parts of the huge asylum. Though it wasn't uncommon for them to get scared, they still found it pretty comical when it happened. It was just one of those unexplainable traditions they had.
There were no other voices over the device and Danny sucked in a breath. Hesitantly, he grabbed his equipment again, walked through the dogs, and shivered when he felt their bodies' around his legs. Firecracker and Lock whined but followed Danny as he slowly made his way down the stairs while the cats were having none of it and retreated. Whether they would find one of the other groups or rip their way into the cage was a mystery.
The staircase seemed to go on forever but that could have easily been because Danny was going so slowly. Firecracker and Lock were following behind one pace religiously. They wouldn't dare get even one more step away, brushing against the back of his legs over and over again as they slowly climbed down the staircase one step at a time. The medium kept waiting for the staircase to give way but it didn't.
As Danny finally made it to the level under the creepy, old asylum, the walkie-talkie buzzed with static but Danny could faintly make out Brannon's voice saying something about his cats. He didn't bother to answer, not even sure if what was said was directed at him.
The medium moved his flashlight around the hallway in front of him and suddenly felt much sicker than before when he saw iron bars with rusty doors barely hanging on their hinges. The dogs pressed against his sides, whimpering and whining as they looked around the forsaken cells and unforgiving hallway.
The smell was the worst. Not only was the air stale as a crouton but a metallic scent added with sweat, rust, and decay lingered on. It gave Danny a headache and he was sure he was going to vomit if he continued to stay there. However, Danny took steps into the hallway, flashing his light around and looking into the cells. He was horrified to see some had dry skeletons inside while others only had brown blood stains clinging to the floors, walls, and cots.
Even worse, some of the cells had ghosts in them that were beyond helping. They stared blankly, whispering incoherent words under their breaths. Some didn't seem to notice Danny was there while others looked at him with these calm but murderous gazes, still mumbling whatever mantra they had lowly. Their blank and haunted gazes would follow him until he disappeared.
Firecracker and Lock stiffly walked beside the tense young man, growling lowly at all the ghosts they came across. They were acting very much like body-guards, not willing any of the ghosts to even approach the iron bars that kept them inside the cells. Nothing was keeping them there but they remained in their dark cells, watching anything that moved or, in some cases, they didn't watch at all.
Danny was sick to his stomach, holding his camera unsteadily. He was starting to feel achy throughout his entire body and sweat poured down his face. It could easily be the fact that the stuffiness of the air was starting to get to him but he had a feeling it was because of the information he knew. There had been many disappearances in Warden Walker's time and no one had figured out where the patients had disappeared to. Sometimes they popped up again, others were never seen again. After Warden Walker died, none of the missing patients appeared but no more vanished either.
Well… Danny knew where the missing people went to: right down to the pits of hell.
At the end of the hallway were an iron door and another hallway off to the side. Danny had the hardest time pushing the door open and fell flat on his face when he did. The dogs were beside him immediately, hovering over his fallen body protectively as they looked into the abandoned room that was hotter than the hallway for the cells. Danny got up, shining his flashlight around and trying to keep his camera steady as the heat got to him.
The room looked like it had been used for shock therapy with beds lining the walls, rusted and broken restraints on most of them. Along the back wall, large cabinets lined the cement bricks behind it. Old syringes and rusted scalpels lay across the counters and who knows what else was stored inside those cupboards? The sheets on the beds were slowly being eaten away by bugs that found themselves in the hot basement. A couple of the sheets had brown blood stains across them, obviously not having been used for shock therapy.
The smell hit Danny like a truck. It was identical to the one he smelled in the hall, just stronger. His flashlight caught a skeleton lying on the ground in the back, wearing a dirty, faded white dress that was slowly being eaten away by the same bugs eating at the various sheets. The blank face was facing the medium and, while he suppressed the urge to vomit again, he wondered why he was still recording.
A gasp escaped Danny's mouth when the room lit up with a low, blue light. He tried backing away but found he was frozen, just like on the train tracks. The edge of his vision was black and dripping dead ink. What he could see of the low-lit room was like an old recording before TV was a thing, skipping occasionally as the tape reeled.
People disappeared in and out of the beds within seconds of fading in and out. Some he saw more than once; other people he did not after the initial first time. All wore the same hospital gown, some dirtier than others. Echoing screams and gasping breaths fell from their mouths. They fought against the restraints holding them down, trying to escape whatever horror they were going through.
Throughout all this, a nurse stood in the back with a sad expression. Her brown hair was put up in a pristine bun at the base of her neck. Her hands were clasped in front of her, hanging limply. Her ruby-red lips were turned into a sad frown. Hazel eyes were sad, tears dancing around the edges of her visions. She listened to the screams and the echoes, barely keeping it all together. Without her even moving, her throat and wrists suddenly split open, blood seeping from both and staining her perfectly white dress. Any life in her eyes that remained drained away instantly and she dropped to the floor.
The vision stopped.
Danny took another gasp and stumbled back, ramming into the wall. He heard his equipment drop to the floor again and he vaguely wondered why he kept lugging the camera around. The poor thing was going to break at the rate he was going.
The medium kept his eyes closed for the longest time, not daring to look back into the room and stare at the blank gaze of the nurse's skeleton. The dogs hovered around him anxiously, whining for his attention. Danny instinctively patted their heads, basking in the simple fact he could feel them.
Only when he felt a little bit better did Danny push off the wall and shut the iron door again. The way it creaked was eerie and the slam that followed was terrifying. It honestly made Danny want to run and never look back.
For the umpteenth time, Danny bent down and scooped up his poor camera and the banged up flashlight. After assuring himself that Firecracker and Lock were still standing protectively by his sides, Danny began carefully stepping towards the swinging doors at the end. He felt he came upon it rather quickly but it wasn't like the hall was long. As soon as he began pushing one of the doors open, it fell off its hinges with a loud crash!
The whispering in the cells behind Danny began louder, letting him make out one word before they all fell back into quiet murmurs.
…Walker…Walker…Walker…Walker…
In the room beyond the swinging doors was one of the smallest rooms Danny had seen in the asylum. It had its own set of cabinets and one examination table in the center of the room. Thankfully, there were no aged skeletons lying around the room. No one had died in here.
One thing Danny noticed was the immediate drop in temperature. It was freezing beyond the swinging doors, though they shouldn't have been able to retain the cool temperature. The medium pulled his light jacket around him tighter with his flashlight hand, pointing his camera where he could while keeping his arms close to his body.
Stepping inside hesitantly, Danny set the camera on the cabinets as he walked around the small room. Though the air was just as stale as the rest of the sublevel, it almost completely lacked the smell of blood in the air. It was actually a nice change of pace for the ebony-haired young man.
The medium stopped beside the examination table, shining the flashlight across the surface. It didn't shine because of all the dust and grim that had collected but it wasn't covered in dried blood either. That was a pleasure in itself.
The longer Danny stared at the table, the more he became mesmerized with it. He hardly noticed Firecracker and Lock whining and, occasionally, yapping at him to get moving. The human's blue eyes became unfocused and Danny pulled himself onto the table, lying down while dropping the flashlight, yet again. Danny stared at the ceiling blankly, hardly noticing the dogs barking in his ears to get his arse out of the room.
The dark atmosphere fell away, becoming lit lowly with blue light. The feeling that he was watching an old movie through reels started up again and, as the images skipped a dozen times, faces of Warden Walker and the nurse with brown hair appeared above his face. The warden looked just as menacing as his pictures while the nurse continued to hold back her tears. Voices drifted through Danny's ears and, though he knew the words they were saying, he didn't catch the meaning. His feeling of calmness was replaced by pain in an instant, making Danny scream in shock, fear, and pain.
The medium rolled off the table and Danny landed on the ground harshly. His hand fell on top of the fallen flashlight, his fingers instantly wrapping around it. The dogs were above him instantly, barking and growling at something viciously as they took on defensive stances. Danny rolled onto his back, flashing his light in the direction Firecracker and Lock were barking.
Danny screamed again.
A black figure was standing over the table. The features of his face were lost in the utter blackness of his skin and the mist surrounding him. However, Danny knew exactly who it was without even needing evidence to confirm his thoughts.
…Walker…Walker…Walker…Walker…
The medium's screams were cut short as his throat closed up. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to breathe, the occasionally hitching gasp falling from his lips. The dogs barking was suddenly much louder than it should have been before everything in his vision became fuzzy and blurred. All the sounds he knew started becoming very far away. The words that Walker spoke, which most people would remember vividly later on, were also lost to him. Then everything became blessed black.
…
The nurse stood at the end of the hallway beside the iron door, gesturing for him to follow her.
Then it was blessed black again.
The nurse stood at the end of the hallway at the bottom of the stone staircase, gesturing for him to follow her. Murmurs whispered in his ears.
Then it was blessed black again.
The nurse kneeled beside him as he struggled to climb the stairs, assuring him everything would be ok with her soft voice.
Then it was blessed black again.
The nurse stood in doorframe of the large asylum, gesturing for him to come her way. He could see the concrete porch and the black sky behind her.
Then it was blessed black again.
…
"Danny! Danny, wake up! Danny! Danny, come on! Wake up! Danny!"
Blearily, the young adult opened his tired blue eyes and found himself staring at someone's kneecaps. A bunch of different voices were talking above him, which only made his head pound worse. His stomach rolled and his body ached all over, especially his throat. He felt like he had caught the flu and tried to close his eyes again. He was not allowed to when someone smacked the back of his head.
"Don't you dare pass out on us, you little idiot!" Sam's angry voice rang in his ears.
Danny's head throbbed painfully and he groaned. Danny mumbled "Sam, don't yell."
Someone clamped his shoulder before Danny was forcefully pulled into a sitting position. He shut his eyes tightly when he felt another roll of nausea and felt sweat drip down his face, matting his ebony hair against his forehead. The medium heard someone ask "Hey Danny, you ok?"
"I feel like I got hit by a truck." The medium drawled, opening his eyes as the nausea became a little more bearable.
Doogie frowned at him. "Dude, what happened to you? You never answered our calls over the walkie-talkie and when we started wrapping up for the night, we found you lying in the middle of the yard, passed out."
Danny looked around and, sure enough, he was sitting in the grass a good distance from St. Dymphna's Asylum. Heck, he was almost to the parked cars. Lock and Firecracker were sitting behind him, peeking their heads over his shoulders as they whined. They brushed against his clothes but he couldn't feel them physically anymore.
The medium sighed and said "I need to think for a minute."
Falling onto his back again, Danny suppressed a groan at awakening his nausea again. He closed his eyes, blocking his view from Sam, Tucker, Lock, and Firecracker. Thinking back over the night, Danny tried to piece together the fragments of his memory. He found himself walking through the halls again, looking in all the cells, seeing the horrors inside the iron door, and being lured onto the examination table by Warden Walker. After that, he was physically attacked and quickly fell unconscious after that. Then there were the few flashes of the nurse he saw in his visions, standing in various places around the asylum.
"Where are Skittles and Hissy-Fit?" Danny asked, still keeping his hands pressed against his closed eyes. He didn't want to get up from the cool grass but he knew he was responsible for the cats.
"We put them in their carrier. They're waiting in one of the cars." Chasey's voice answered.
Danny gave him a thumbs-up and mumbled "Awesome…"
"Alright dude, just tell us what happened already." Tucker's voice stated, hovering over Danny's lying form.
The medium sighed unhappily but didn't make a move to get up. "I'm going to make my story very short, ok? My throat hurts… Anyways, some of the ghosts led us to the warden's old office and I found a staircase behind his stupid filing cabinet. After walking down, I found a bunch of cells. Some of them had skeletons in them. There were tons of ghosts beyond help in the cells and they'd probably rip you to shreds if you tried.
"Beyond that, I saw an iron door and opened it. You don't even want to know what was in there. I had a vision of that room and saw a nurse… I think she slit her own throat. Beyond the door, there were two more and I went through them.
"I think that room might have been Walker's personal laboratory… I don't know for sure. I put my camera down and, stupidly, got on the examination table in the center of the room. I had another vision of Walker and the nurse standing over me before I fell off the table because I felt shooting pain throughout my body. Then I saw Walker and he's turned into a literal demon over the years. He tried to choke me to death and I passed out.
"After that, it's pretty fuzzy. I saw the nurse in a bunch of places, always gesturing for me to come to her in between blank spaces. Then you all are waking me up, screaming in my ear, and making my headache worse."
"Aw Danny, you idiot~!" Sam moaned, falling onto her back and mirroring her friend's position in the ground. Tucker looked like he wanted to sock his friend in the head but was unable to do so.
"Dang man, you got hit hard, didn't you?" Chris asked.
Danny merely nodded. "That I did. Now, I need you guys to promise me something before we pack up and leave, ok?"
"And what do we need to promise?" Brannon asked.
The young man opened his eyes and stared at the Tennessee Wraith Chasers. "Promise me you won't go back in that ghost infested hell-hole. I have no doubt Walker will find a way to lure you to the underground level and find a way to kill you all. Other places may have demons and hostile ghosts that only push you guys around but Walker tried to choke me to death. I am not keen on letting anyone go back in there."
The five looked at each other surprised. Danny continued to stare at them seriously. He wasn't joking when he said he wanted no one to go back into the asylum. Someone in the future would, he knew that, but at least he could keep five people from going on a suicide mission.
The Chasers shared a look and silently argued amongst themselves before Chris sighed and promised not to go back. Danny smiled, nodded, and allowed them to pull him up. Chris led him to their truck and told Danny he wasn't driving until he felt less likely to be sick. The medium agreed and hopped in the car, giving Chris the walkie-talkie, audio-recorder, and microphone for investigation. The flashlight and camera were still underground.
Looking out the back, Danny saw Sam, Tucker, Firecracker, and Lock in the bed of the truck. The cats were beside Danny, meowing softly.
Knowing everything was going to be ok, the medium fell into a peaceful slumber.
THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER, I SWEAR! I just watched a little too much Ghost Asylum one day and then the idea spawned like a virus or something. ...on that note, don't watch Ghost Asylum for three or four hours before going to sleep. You will not sleep, you will forget to make half of your bed the next day, and after putting on your socks, you'll try to put your flip-flops over them. Genius, no?
And now that this chapter is over with, I shall be writing one more one-shot before I leave for New England tomorrow! ... I have to wake up at five tomorrow! *starts crying*