Marinette walked into the dining room the next morning to a silent room. All eyes upon her. News of the séance got out and the entire building now knows. Naturally, they all think she's a witch or something. She's pretty sure, if anyone had stood up and yelled stop, it would have, right?
Oh well, fewer people to annoy her or want something from her. It was getting a little too crowded, anyway. Amanda still likes her. In fact, she likes her even more now. Marinette's not sure if that's a good thing, or a bad.
Sitting down at the table, she smiles at the other girls, who all get up and move. Wow, she really has no luck in life.
"I swear Amanda. Trouble follows me everywhere..." She sighs as she sits down across from her.
"I can see that about you. Considering your boy- never mind." Amanda looks up at Marinette's pained look at the mention of Adrien and coughs.
"So, I say we explore the haunted wing and see if we can find anything." Amanda whispers to her, as she hands her the juice.
"Wait, you want more after last night?" Marinette squeaks as she looks around at the people. "They all already think I'm a freak!"
"A girl who beat up a classmate surrounded by her friends, doesn't care about people's opinions." Amanda laughs as she finishes her juice.
Well, she does have a good point. Marinette has never cared about people, especially not loons in an asylum.
"Fine, let's do it. If only to prove to myself I'm not crazy. Well, crazy in that aspect." She eats a few pieces of toast, then drinks some juice. Before getting up, Amanda following her.
"Now, while everyone's at lunch. But, I'm telling you. Something or someone's in there." Marinette walks out of the dining room, with Amanda practically skipping behind her.
How does she get herself into these situations? Sometimes she wonders if she should have left the Ladybug Miraculous with Ayla. Then again, she'd have outed herself in days and been dead. Guess it was always her destiny to spend her life alone. She wonders sometimes if she knew he was going to die. If she'd ever have allowed herself to love him. Shaking her head, she chuckles. Of course she would have.
"How do we get in? It's boarded up?" Marinette turns to Amanda, but she's gone. "Amanda?"
"Over here..." Amanda whispers, from a random door Marinette has never seen before.
Blinking, she walks over to her. Looking through the door, she sees a long, dark, spooky hallway.
"What's this?" She asks Amanda.
"A side entrance. The entrance is boarded up. But it's not out in the open, so we can take them down without being noticed." Amanda winks and walks to the end of the hallway. And opens another door.
Marinette sighs and follows her. What are the punishments in a psych hospital? she wonders? Hopefully, she doesn't find out.
'Marinette, don't go down there. You'll die!' The voice whispers in her, sighing she rolls her eyes and helps Amanda take down one board. Making a hole big enough for them to climb through.
Standing up in one of the burned out bedrooms, she looks around. What a strange sensation it is, to be in a room where someone died a horrific death like burning. Then again, they say it's the smoke that kills you first. Turning, she helps Amanda through the hole.
"Ok, let's investigate!" Smiling, she walks to the door and opens it.
"Right." Sighing, she follows her. Maybe she shouldn't have beaten Lila and her mother.
Bending down, Marinette picks up a picture frame and wipes away the dirt from the glass. A woman's smiling, while holding a baby girl in her arms. Setting the picture on the table, she walks out. Trying not to imagine the life the baby has, without its mother or family member.
"When did this all happen again?" She touches the wall that has charred patterns.
"About a month before you got here. I was at home for a visit and missed it. Totally not fair." She chuckles at the wording of that sentence. "You know what I mean."
Nodding Marinette, looks around the hallway. There were footprints in the ashes, all leading up to the boarded up entrance to the wing.
'Probably firefighters, survivors, workers. Yeah, that's it.' Marinette thinks and steps into a random room. It's one of the rooms at the far side of the hallway. One of the last rooms to be hit by the fire. She couldn't imagine the fear, knowing that the fire was coming for you, and not being able to do a damned thing to save yourself.
Looking at the window, she doesn't see any attempts to pry it open. No clawing at the walls, nothing. Closing the door, she looks at the back of it. Nothing, just a black door. Now, she doesn't know much. But she was told the patients were awake when the fire spread. And she knows she'd be clawing at this door to get out. Nothing, not a claw, scratch, dig or bang.
'Maybe the smoke had overwhelmed them by then? Who knows?' Opening the door, she steps into the hallway. Stepping over some debris, she slips and grabs the wall for support. Feeling something rough, she gets up and looks at where her hand rests. Five long claw marks were on the wall. Sure, they could be old. It is a psych hospital. But something about them made Marinette suspicious.
"Hmm..." She places her hand on the claw marks and digs her nails in.
"Help us! Don't leave us here!" A scream erupts from the end of the corridor.
Turning, Marinette is overwhelmed by smoke everywhere, the sounds of fire, and screams, screams for help.
"No, don't walk away. What are you doing! Come back... please!" A woman screams as she bangs on the door that locks the wing up.
Gasping Marinette, looks on the blood in her veins turning ice cold. Is this a vision, a flashback, a delusion?
Slowly the woman turns from the door, to face the inferno behind her. "Please..." She whispers. Turning, she locks eyes with Marinette as she's consumed by fire. Her screams are enough to turn anyone's blood to ice.
Screaming, Marinette pulls her hand from the wall and lands in a dirt pile behind her.
"Are you ok? Did you see a ghost?" Amanda asks excitedly, as she looks around.
"In a sense, yeah, I did. Didn't you say the patients were locked in their rooms when the fire started?" Marinette takes Amanda's hand and gets up. Dusting herself off. Stepping back into the original room, she picks up the picture. The woman, the woman she saw die, is the woman from the photo.
"I saw her, this woman, right here. She was up at the entrance banging on the door, begging for help. It sounded like she was talking to someone, but they just walked away. Leaving her there to die." Marinette shows Amanda the picture, who frowns.
"That's weird. There was no one found outside of their rooms. They were all found dead inside their rooms. Smoke inhalation, they said. The fire was put out before it touched any of the patients. Except for the guy who started it." Amanda takes the picture and looks at her.
"How did you see this?" Amanda asks, as she looks at Marinette.
"I... I... found scratch marks on the wall. When I touched them, I had a flash. A vision maybe? And it was of her." Marinette points to the picture.
"Normally, I'd just say you're crazy." Gestures to where they are. "But strange things have been happening since you showed up. So, I'm not so sure anymore."
"And why don't the doors have scratch marks on them? If you knew you were gonna die and there's nothing you can do. Wouldn't try at least? Claw at the door in desperation. Hit it with furniture? Pry at the windows?" Marinette gestures to the clean door.
"Let's see if there's anymore claw marks in the hallway." Amanda says, as she sets the picture down.
"Can you take a picture of this?" She gestures to the picture.
Amanda nods and snaps a picture with her phone before taking a picture of the wall marks.
Marinette walks towards the entrance where she saw the woman. Looking around the edges of the doorframe, she notices a few more marks. Despite her better judgement, she places her hands on the marks.
"Please, why aren't you helping us. Please! I don't want to die here. I have kids who need me! Please!" A woman's voice screams as she bangs on the door. Looking over, she sees a few patients digging at the hinges around the door. Some clawing at the plaster, trying to dig through.
Marinette looks at them and counts at least ten people crowding around the door. Turning away, she looks down the hallway. All the doors were open, some people standing in them. Some on the ground already. But, the thing that Marinette notices the most. Is that the fire, is at the end of the corridor. Not the front, like it's told. Looking into the bedroom beside her, she notices a man placing a book behind the wall. Before he turns and looks at her.
"Marinette!" Amanda whispers, as she pulls her hand free of the wall.
Marinette gasps and stumbles into Amanda. "Oh dear, something is very wrong here. Where did the fire start?"
"In that room, there. Then it spread down the corridor to the end." She replies, observing her.
"Then why do the walls down here look so clean compared to the walls down there? Also, the room we came into was the last room. So, why was it so badly burned?" Walking into the room, she saw the man in. She sees its furniture all intact, just charred.
"That's... an excellent question." Amanda walks off down the hallway.
Marinette looks at the wall the man had opened, biting her lip. She reaches out and touches it, pushing down as it springs open to reveal... a book. A journal, just like the one she writes in.
"No way..." Reaching in, she pulls it out and looks at it. It's got some smoke damage and is a little soggy in places. But, in good condition.
"No way, the fire started in here." She whispers as she slips the journal into her bag.
"Marinette!" Amanda calls from down the hall.
Closing the wall, she walks down the hall towards her. Looking around. "Amanda?"
"Here!" She pops up, suddenly beside her.
"Geeze! Don't do that," Marinette squeaks, as she holds her chest.
"Sorry." She giggles, not sorry at all. "In here." She pulls her into a side room Marinette had not noticed before. It's a storage closet, a small one.
"Look at the burn patch on the floor." Amanda says, as she sweeps some of the debris aside.
"Strange... almost like it had something burning here for a while on its own. If the fire started up here. That'd explain why they were all gathered down by the door. I counted at least 10 people." Marinette bends down and touches the burnt patch.
"It smells funny in there, I'm telling you Dr," A voice said, as they opened the door.
"No, don't open it!" The Dr yelled. As the door opens a flash of red filled the room.
"Damn it!" The Dr yelled as they ran off down the hallway.
Marinette in the vision stood up slowly. Looking down, she sees herself still kneeling there. Stepping around the terrified patient, who's mesmerised by the fire. She steps out to see the Dr rush down the hallway to the entrance doorway.
Marinette looks out the window and sees black, all black. It's night, It must be bedtime.
The woman from the picture comes out of her room and sees the smoke. "Fire? FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE, EVERYONE OUT!" She screamed as she ran to the end of the hallway.
Marinette turns and watches her. She notices the Dr reach the door. She opens it and steps through.
"Hold it open, so we don't get trapped in here." The woman yells, as she reaches the door.
The Dr looks at her, smiles and shut the door in her face. Locking it from the other side.
"Wait, wait, what are you doing... wait!" The woman screams.
Marinette pulls away and lands on her butt. "The Dr locked the patients in the wing, to die..." Looking up at Amanda, she freezes when she hears a voice from down the hall.
"I'm telling you, I heard voices." A voice says from behind the boards at the entrance.
Marinette holds a finger up to Amanda to stay quiet. She nods.
"Don't be stupid unless you can hear ghosts?" The second voice says, as they make ghost noises.
"Very funny. Let's go. We have to meet the doctor." As the voices walk away.
"They're gone. Let's get out of here." Marinette whispers, as she stands up, wiping her butt off.
"Good idea." Amanda giggles and follows her.
Back in their own dorm, Marinette sits on her bed, as Amanda goes to shower. Marinette frowns as she thinks over the 'visions' she had downstairs. Looking down, she pulls the journal she found out of her bag. Opening it to the first page, she reads:
This Journal Belongs to Bartholomew James.
'The Drs have locked us in this wing to die. I can hear the fire and smell the smoke. My poor friend, he's going to think this is all his fault. It's not. Why have they locked us in? Why?! We're all going to die, aren't we? They're just staring at us through the door. Some are even laughing at us. Maybe, maybe it's a joke and they'll let us out before we die. Please... I'm getting sleepy. Maybe I'll just lie down and-'
The page just ends abruptly, with a long line that looks like someone fell asleep while writing. Whoever this Bart was, he's definitely dead now.
"They did lock them in to die... oh my god!" Looking up, Marinette shivers for reason other than being cold. What kind of place is this?
