Mack's POV

The hospital was disturbing, and that was putting it lightly.

It towered above the busses, seven or eight stories tall. It looked distinctly Western, with it's brick façade and all the trimming and gables.

Vibes and feelings assaulted me as soon as I stepped off the bus.

Anger.

Something that could only be identified as sadistic.

Fear.

Pain.

I could feel my lungs constrict, and the panic well up in my chest. My legs started to shake.

This was nothing like the friendly ride at Disneyland.

It'll be okay, Mack, I promise. We'll all be with you. Angel comforted me.

Dread pushed it's way into the chaos of my emotions. I didn't want to go in here.

"Okay, this place is officially un-cool," Fang declared over the coms in our ears.

"What do you mean?" I asked in a tight voice as all the scientists also unloaded.

"It's nasty up in here. I have no clue where you guys are spending the night, but it's gotta be better than the eighth floor." Fang elaborated.

"Is that the top one?" Max asked.

"Uh huh." He confirmed.

"Maybe you can use your invisibility power and come sleep with us," I suggested, but it came out as more of a plea. I wanted my brother with me in here.

Fang paused a beat. "Maybe."

Then he went on, "Listen, if being in here is too much, just come get me, and we'll go somewhere and hang out, make some excuse, until it's time to go to sleep."

"Okay," I squeaked.

Iggy's fingers brushed against my back.

"Thank you all for coming," called an American voice. I looked up to see a tough-looking woman standing on the steps of the hospital.

The Convention moved as one up the steps to wait to get in. The flock and I stood in the very back.

"This hospital was built in the late Meiji period of Japan. It operated from 1912 to 1967, when it was shut down due to revolts from the public. Oh yes. This hospital was so shady, it got a public outcry." The woman gave us all a smile, like this was something cool or funny. My whole body was trembling, and I felt like my chest would cave in on itself from fear any second.

"That era was medically known for it's growth and experimentation- something I'm sure everyone here understands. Except when these particular experiments failed, someone lost a life, or their sanity, or what remained of their health." The woman went on. "My name is Juliana, and I'll be your tour guide this evening. Who's ready to go see some ghosts?"

Everyone cheered except for the flock. They looked wary now, of the mob of whitecoats in front of us, and of the hospital itself. This wouldn't be easy for them, either, all this talk of medical and scientific experimentation.

Everyone went inside, and I tried not to think of all the times throughout history people had lined up and filed in, only to be slaughtered.

As soon as I stepped across the threshold, I felt so cold it was like a blizzard had randomly popped up. I almost expected to see my breath rise foggily into the air.

Goosebumps rose on my flesh, and hair stood up on the back of my neck.

"Do you guys feel that?" I breathed.

"Feel what? The ten thousand cobwebs sticking to my head. Yeah." Iggy grumbled, looking a bit like a spazz as he brushed them off his head.

"No. The cold." I breathed. "I'm freezing, I have been since I got inside."

The door slammed shut, and I jumped, then turned to see Juliana smiling wickedly at me, apparently catching my jump.

She moved to the front of the tour, then, and led us through the hospital lobby and into the emergency rooms, and other areas on the first floor.

Not caring who saw, I clutched Iggy's hand and focused on breathing.

"Here," Iggy whispered, prying my fingers from his and wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I reached up to grab his hand with a death grip. "In case you fall."

I nodded my thanks, and he held me against him tightly, for which I was very thankful. Flashlights were handed out, and I clicked mine on with shaky fingers.

"Getting sent to the quarantine section of the hospital was virtually receiving a death sentence," Juliana said, guiding us into a hallway on the right.

I got colder.

"People with tuberculosis and other general terminal diseases were kept here, and care was virtually nonexistent." Juliana went on.

I couldn't breathe. I had to get out of this hallway.

Visions flitted through my head; people coughing, blood dripping out of mouths, gurneys with covered-up bodies being rolled past, someone banging on a door and begging to be let out.

"Igs!" I gasped, trying to keep my voice down.

"I've got you. I've got you, okay, just a minute or two more and we can leave, if we left this early it'd be suspicious," he whispered back, his voice straining with worry.

More visions, this time of a body chute that a doctor had constructed because it was popular in a hospital back in the States, more blood, the feeling of lungs collapsing from disease, an ache in my chest that wouldn't go away.

"Help me. Get me out of here." A voice that spoke English and yet sounded nothing like English whispered in my ear, so close I could feel the ice cold breeze.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out, because that voice wasn't any living person's.

"Igs," I pleaded.

"Okay, we're leaving," he reassured me quickly as everyone turned around.

He rushed me out into the lobby, and I gasped in air, the visions fading from my inner eye. I was so dizzy…

"I don't know how much of this I can handle." I whimpered, and was thankful when the flock surrounded me, protecting me from the looks of the scientists who obviously thought I was a psycho.

I wondered vaguely where Dr. Lee was, and if this would blow the whole con.

Don't worry about him, Mack, Brigid's been keeping him busy all night. Angel said.

The next six levels of the building was torture. The seventh and eighth were off-limits due to unsteady construction ("Gee, how comforting," Fang muttered). Then we went back downstairs, which was the only place visions and spirits didn't assault me.

I had seen a few, and I was pretty sure I would never sleep again for as long as I lived.

"Now we're going down to the basement, which is where the psychiatric ward was," Juliana announced. "When we come back up, we'll begin the long night till dawn here in the lobby."

When it was the flock's turn to go down the steps, my knees buckled completely. Iggy caught me easily, as a young Japanese woman appeared in front of me, looking as if she were screaming, with matted hair and ropes tied to her wrists to keep her restrained. The strongest vibes of all, and the worst, assaulted me. I was surprised I was still conscious.

"Fang, come get her," Iggy grunted, holding me upright.

I wasn't sure how long it took Fang to get to me, but it seemed like an eternity. An eternity full of hellish visions and earth-bound souls too traumatized to move on.

I wasn't aware of leaving Iggy or the flock, or of anything they might have said. All I knew was that I was suddenly outside, in a completely different section of town.

Fang had sat down on a bench by a bus stop in the busiest section of the city, where all the night life and shopping centers and restaurants and businesses were.

Surrounded by all this life, I slowly came back to my senses.

I slumped over on the bench, and tried to get my heart rate back to normal- for a bird kid, anyway.

"You okay?" Fang asked, his vibes concerned and wary.

"I can't go back there, Fang." I whispered, feeling weak and somewhat pathetic.

"You don't have to," he shrugged nonchalantly.

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep, either, though," I continued.

"You don't have to do that either." Fang said.

"Be sure to tell us where you're going," Max said, and I knew it was a jibe from her about disappearing with Monk Akihiko yesterday.

"Come on Mack," Fang said, standing and holding out his hand. I took it, and he somehow managed to flag down a cab.

"Roppongi Hills Mori Tower," Fang instructed the cab driver. The said something in Japanese, and held out his hand.

Ah. He wanted money.

Fang looked at me, and I dug through my backpack and handed the guy a twenty. His eyes turning greedily satisfied, he said something else, and then started to drive.

"Where are we going?" I asked quietly.

"The fifth tallest building in Tokyo," Fang answered back just as softly.

I gave him a questioning look.

"Lots of restaurants and shops are opened 24 hours there. We can hang there all night, with lots of other people who can't sleep." His vibes were frustrated, probably from having to talk so much.

"How close is it to the hospital?" Max asked, and I shuddered.

"Close enough we could get there on foot in about thirty minutes, but get there by flight by about three." Fang answered.

I laid my head over on his shoulder. He stiffened, but didn't do anything to make me move. Progress.

"You better fly then, if anything goes wrong." Max hissed.

"You okay, Mack?" Iggy asked.

"I'm okay." I whispered.

"You scare the hell out of me when you do that," he muttered.

"Language!" Nudge and Angel hissed together.

"Well she does!" Iggy snapped defensively.

I smiled a little.

The cab driver eventually pulled up to the humongous tower, and we hopped out.

Fang guided me over to a directory. "Alright, so, you want food first, or you wanna go shop? Some of the stores are open until nine, and it's only eight twenty."

"Um, let's shop since those aren't open all night, then we'll restaurant hop," I decided.

He nodded.

"Ooh, look, Fang, there's a Lapis here!" I enthused, pointing.

His eyebrows creased a little, so I knew he didn't know what that was.

"It's a writers' and artists' heaven," I explained. "They sell everything there you could ever artistically need."

Fang's expression didn't change, but his vibes got excited.

"Let's go there," I decided, glad there was something we shared besides looks.

I bought a thick notebook with pages that were practically impossible to rip out, and about fifty different pens of all different sizes and colors of ink. Fang examined the different brands of colored pencils and sketching paper like an old pro, which fascinated me.

Did my brother like art so much because he wanted to be an artist?

The idea was intriguing.

When we had paid for our stuff, we found another directory. The bright lights and the people and the general modern, friendly atmosphere of the building was helping me immensely to not feel so panicky.

We found an Italian place that was open until eleven, and ate pizza like there was no tomorrow.

Then we found a Starbucks that was opened 24 hours, and we decided to stay there the rest of the night, drinking coffee and other caffeine filled products to keep ourselves a wake; not that I would have a problem doing that, anyway.

Fang got out his new sketch pad and pencils and began drawing, refusing to let me see no matter how much I begged. I wrote enough to fill eight pages- poems, bits of prose, random dialogue, feelings, thoughts, anything that sprung into my head- before I made myself stop, knowing I didn't have paper to waste.

Holding a pencil again felt odd; my handwriting was way messier than it had ever been before.

But I was writing again, something I hadn't done since I had fled my father's house, and it felt good. I felt like me.

So, her and Fang leaving the hospital for the entire night was not in the plan. But you try sitting up in the middle of the night and writing all that creepy stuff, with even creepier research and images pulled up courtesy of Google! Them going to Starbucks was much better for my mental health, really.

But we return to the hospital in the next chapter…

DUN DUN DUN.

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