ASYLUM PART 3
The brothers and the kids proceeded down the asylum's dark hallway towards the exit door. Dean grabbed the knob swiftly but almost ran right into it when it didn't open up. His face turned up into a sneer and he gave the knob a couple more forceful yanks and twists. It was clear though at that moment that they weren't getting out. There was some unseen supernatural force keeping the door sealed shut. It was probably the same with the other doors too.
"Son of a bitch." Dean slapped his hand against the door and groaned. "Why does this always happen?"
Sam saw the look on his brother's face and knew exactly what was going on when he couldn't get the door open. "Alright. I think we have a small problem," he said to the nervous kids behind him.
"Then break it down," Gavin insisted.
"I don't think that's gonna work."
"Then a window."
"They're barred," Dean said and turned around after giving up on the door. "We can't get out, but I'm starting to think that's the point. Right, Sam?"
Sam nodded sharply. "Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. I think something's here, and It doesn't want us to leave."
"The patients?" Kat asked in a hushed whisper.
"No. Something else."
Dean took in a deep breath and leaned his back against the locked door. "Well...this day just keeps getting better and better," he said dryly just as his phone went off. He wasn't expecting it at all so it made him jump a bit. "What the..." He brought it out and looked at the ID. "It's Alice. Hey!" he said urgently and answered it.
The line on the other end was bad and full of static that was cutting in and out. "Dean, it's me. I see it." Alice said but loud static made it difficult to hear her. "I think I need help down here."
Dean pressed his other ear close so he could focus on the call and decipher her voice more. "Where are you?"
"I'm in the basement. Hurry up!"
"Yeah, yeah. Sit tight. I'm on my way." The line died before he got the chance to hang up. "I gotta go."
"Where? Is she all right?" Sam asked.
"Can't say," he shrugged while pulling out a shotgun from the duffle bag. "She says she needs help though. Stay here with these two. I'll be back," he said before heading off down the hall and disappearing.
Alice treaded slowly down the musty halls and kept her ears alert to all the sounds that were around her. It seemed that the closer she got to room 137, the noisier the asylum had become. Whatever she was close to discovering, the spirits were starting to get excited about it.
She shinned her light up towards a door at the end of the hall and noticed immediately that all the creaking and light footsteps around her stopped in an instant. She breathed out a gust of cold air and quickly glanced over her shoulder when she felt over a hundred pairs of eyes staring at her. It had to have been from the unseen shadows though because as far as her eyes saw, there was no one but her around. Alice knew better than that though. She knew the feeling of being watched.
"Room 137, right?" she muttered and pressed her hand against the door. she shoved against it a little and heard the sound of wood scraping against the ground behind it. After a more forceful push, she managed to push away the broken furniture that was blocking the door on the other side.
The room was in shambles. The paint was peeling off the walls, filing cabinets were pushed over with loose papers scattered all over the place, and there was a distinct musty odor that reminded her of oxidized rust. Alice was quick to pin that smell on dried up blood that was never cleaned up. She took a couple of steps into the room when she accidentally kicked a metal nametag that was laying on the ground, half-covered by the loose papers. She moved them aside and shined her light down on the name.
Alice scoffed. "So we meet again, Dr. Ellicott," she said, snickering under her breath with her eyes gleaming with dark curiosity. "Now...what dirty secrets were you hiding in your office?"
She began very loosely looking through filing cabinets and scanning the papers on the ground when her eyes quickly caught a glimpse of something off. There was a small hole in the lower part of the wall, and when she shined her light on it, she noticed that it was actually hollow. A hidden space or something like that. She pried the loose panel off the wall and flashed her light into the hiding space. She was half expecting to see a body, but instead, she saw an old satchel full of papers.
"Ugh...I don't like where this is going." Alice frowned and pulled the satchel out. The moment she did so though, she heard the sound of shuffling footsteps and creaking become more active. Alice quickly closed the door to make sure nothing was going to sneak up on her while she looked through the papers.
The inside of the journal was full of morbid stuff that Dr. Ellicott had written himself. There were hand-drawn pictures of medical treatments that have been discontinued a long time ago for being deemed too cruel. It appeared that Ellicott didn't get the memo though and was still in practice of these methods, even going so far as to test out anger management ideas on his patients. No wonder the ghosts here were all angry.
"You freaking document every little detail like a damn schoolgirl? Come on, man." The more Alice learned about this man's convoluted theories, the worse this dark feeling in her heart grew. "Nah... I'd say you're worse than a schoolgirl." She breathed in deeply and rubbed her chin. She left the room a minute later after figuring out all she needed to know.
Sam was sitting by the exit door with Gavin and Kat, having nothing better to do and just passing the time tossing his shotgun back and forth between his hands. Everyone became alert though when there was a distinct sharp echoing noise that was coming right towards them from down the hall.
Gavin immediately sat up in a panic. "The hell is that?"
Sam was quick to stifle the kid's worry when he noticed how familiar the sound actually was. "No, wait. Hold on. I know that noise." He realized quickly that it was the sharp echoing of heels tapping against the floor. "Alice?" he called out down the hall, hoping his guess was right.
"Sam?" Luckily, Alice did respond back and came walking around the corner, only to notice that they were one man short. "Wait. Where's Dean?"
Sam cocked a brow. Now he was confused. "I was just about to ask you that. You called him and said you were in the basement and needed help."
"What? No, I didn't." Alice looked down at the journal she was still holding when a sudden look of clarity stretched across her sharp blue gaze. "Why are you guys still here? Can't you get out?" she asked slowly as the gears began to spin inside her mind.
"All the doors are blocked," Gavin said.
"I think something's keeping us in here." Sam followed up, not much to Alice's surprise.
"Yeah...I think I'm starting to understand what's going on. Basement, huh?" She passed the journal on to Sam and took his duffle bag with lighter fluid and salt inside. "I'm gonna go hunt down your brother. Stay here and keep an eye on things."
"Will you be alright? Things are getting a little dangerous."
Alice was just about to leave when she stopped still. She looked at Sam with cocked eyebrows and scoffed. "Sam...here's a little know-how when working with me. I can handle a situation no matter how hard it gets. I rarely need help." And with that, she turned back around and left to go hunting.
The deeper Alice went towards the basement the quieter the spirits around had become. They were active and loud all up to this point and stuck close to her side without being seen, but now it was like they were refusing to go any farther. No doubt in Alice's mind that it was probably Ellicott's influence at play here.
"Dean? Dean!" Alice's voice echoed down the halls. "If you don't answer me in the next five seconds, I'm leaving your ass down here!" She groaned loudly with venom and irritation at the tip of her tongue.
Just as those words left her mouth, Alice rounded a corner and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Dean standing there. She wasn't expecting him to just show up out of nowhere and was a single twitch away from blasting him. She registered her thoughts quickly though and lowered her weapon.
"Did you not freaking hear me?" she hissed before pressing her thumb against her forehead to ease her headache. "Are you alright?"
Dean shrugged and looked down at his uninjured self. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"You know it wasn't me who called you, right?"
"Yeah, I know that now." he nearly snapped in annoyance. "Something lured me down here."
Alice watched him cautiously and held her shotgun close by her side. In her eyes, he was acting fine but there was still something off. His demeanor appeared strange and his voice sounded aloof. "Yeah, it was, uh...Dr. Ellicott. That's what the spirits have been trying to tell us. You haven't seen him, have you?"
He shook his head. "No. How do you know it was him?"
"Found his freaking diary. That's what he's been doing here...experimenting on his patients in inhuman ways. Nasty stuff that even got my skin crawling."
Dean furrowed his brows. "But wasn't it the patients who rioted?"
"They were rioting against him, Dean." she corrected. "He was working on an extreme rage theory, sort of thing. He thought that if he could get his patients to vent their anger then they would be cured of it. Instead...it backfired all up in his face. It made things worse and the patients only got angrier and angrier. Even after his death...he apparently didn't stop. So everyone who steps into this place. Into the south wing...they ended up running into this guy. Their anger ends up turning homicidal."
"But how? The police never found his body."
"The logbook said he had some sort of hidden procedure room down here somewhere where he'd work on his patients. So...it ain't hard to get into his patients' headspace and figure out where they all dragged him to. Bet you they went to town and did a little work on him themselves." Alice patted him on the shoulder and gestured him to follow. "Come on."
They walked towards the last door at the end of the hall and headed inside. Alice was on high alert the whole time though and made sure to keep a close eye on Dean. It may be a gut feeling, but something just didn't feel right about the way he's been acting. His words and the way he spoke...it was like he was trying to stop her from finding the secret room.
Dean walked into the center of the room and opened his arms to show that nothing was there. "I'm telling you, Alice. I looked everywhere. I didn't find a hidden room."
"That's because you weren't really looking. It's called hidden for a reason." She ignored his pestering and stood perfectly still. She listened closely to every little sound and could make out a sharp but faint whistling noise. Like wind blowing through a small passageway. "Use your ears if you can't use your eyes to find it." She followed the noise to a wall and could feel a cold breeze coming through a crack at the bottom. "Ah-huh. Freakin' knew it. There's a door here."
Dean stood back as Alice examined the hidden door. His eyes gleamed darkly under the dim light of their torches as they fell down to the gun in his hand. "Alice," he spoke coldly and pointed his weapon at her. "Step back from the door."
Alice froze and glanced over her shoulder for a brief moment before pulling her hands away from the door. She closed her eyes and tightened her jaw. "Dean...you know I have a low tolerance for being threatened, right?" she said in a steady and calm voice, pulling her arm out of his line of sight. There was a distinct metallic click coming from her direction that followed with a loud blast. She fired her own shotgun through the blindspot of her jacket and struck Dean right in the chest and sent him flying. "A really...low tolerance."
Dean laid paralyzed on the floor, enveloped in this pain that worsened every time he took a breath. He tried to take in sharp gasps of air but it didn't seem to be enough. He could see Alice staring at him from the other side of the room with a snarky look on her face. She was calm, like completely calm, and not surprised at all about his betrayal. In the end, there was no way Dean could've gotten the jump on her. Without him even realizing it, Alice was already one step ahead and planned out a countermeasure.
Alice got up from off the ground and looked down at her jacket. Since she shot him from a blindspot, she ended up blasting a large hole right through her jacket. She looked back to Dean and saw him weakly roll onto his stomach while still holding his throbbing chest. "Don't be such a wuss. Rock salt ain't gonna kill you."
She looked back to the hidden door and pressed her hand against it, feeling the old wood creak under the slightest bit of pressure. She took a strong step forwards and rammed into the door with her shoulder, busting it off the hinges, but once she did, she smelled the familiar scent of musty rot in the air. There was a body in the room, but where was still unknown. The place was just as much as a mess as the other rooms were, but it was clearly used quite often by Ellicott whenever he...did his experiments.
Alice pulled back some of the old plastic curtains that separated the room and thoroughly searched every little corner. She left no cabinet untouched and tried to use the musty smell of rot to narrow down the location of the body. Finally, she caught a glimpse of a tuft of hair poking out from the corner of a closed cupboard. She moved in close and carefully grabbed the handle, yanking it open and taking a step back. She gagged from the smell, now as strong as ever. Inside the cupboard was Dr. Ellicott's body, now shriveled up and mummified from the years.
"Oh, ain't that nice," Alice mumbled while covering her nose with her hand.
Alice promptly got to work by unloading everything she needed to set fire to the corpse. She completely doused him in kerosene and made sure that the body was swimming in lighter fluid. After that, she reached back into the bag to grab the salt.
Dean was still in pain but slowly limped his way into the room, dragging his feet and stopping to lean against the door frame. "You know what? I think I got you all figured out. Both you and your family," he said spitefully, still under Ellicott's control.
Alice hardly paid him any mind and continued working. "Oh, yeah? Humor me then."
Dean shook in a deep breath but winced from the pain. "That you guys...are nothing but a bunch of self-sacrificing assholes who leave behind a mess, rather than help people." He glared with deep resentment and saw Alice's shoulders stiffen. She stopped what she was doing for only a couple of seconds before going right back to work.
"You don't know what you're talking about, Dean. Ellicott's controlling your mind right now," she said coolly while fumbling through the bag for a lighter.
"No. I see things pretty clearly. More than ever. What did your dad leave behind when he died: a broken family and a wife dying of cancer. What did your mom leave behind when she died: two kids who weren't even adults yet. And Aiden...but we all know who he left behind. He left behind you..."
Alice flicked open the lighter but didn't move. She stared at the dancing flame as it reflected in her eyes. She knew Dean didn't really mean it but that didn't stop her from feeling hurt by them. The pain embedded itself deep within her core and lingered there, repeating and mocking her.
She silently thought things over for a moment before letting out an audible sigh and snapping the lighter shut. Alice stood up slowly and turned her body around. Her face hardened up and those eyes of hers had never looked so dangerous and cunning until now. They were cold and merciless, and any kind of emotions that were once held was sealed away behind the blue. Dean glared back but his gaze didn't even come close to the coldness upon her sharp features. There wasn't necessarily chilling ice behind those eyes. Instead, there was an angry fire.
Alice suddenly hiked her leg up and kicked a rolling table across the room right into Dean. It didn't hurt but it did distract him long enough for her to leap over the table and climb onto his back. She locked her arms around his neck and tried to choke the air out of him so he would pass out. Dean clawed the skin at her arms to try and get her off, but her strength was unreal and iron-clad. She wasn't budging at all and was too hyped up on adrenaline to notice how much her arms were cut up to the point of them bleeding.
Dean couldn't get her off in time and the corners of his eyes were starting to fade. Out of options and air, he slammed her against the wall behind them a couple of times as hard as he could, and only for a moment, Alice's grip began to loosen. He took in a deep breath and grabbed her arms, yanking her off his back and slamming her against the rolling table. He didn't stop there though, despite the electric burn in his lungs, he knew better than to give Alice time to breathe and think. If he even so much as gave her a second, then it was game over for him.
He roughly grabbed the front of her face and began to ruthlessly slam her head against the table as many times as it took. He did it to the point of memorizing the sound of a skull being struck against metal, again and again until he changed his tactic and went to wrap his fingers around her neck. Alice fought back though in that fraction of a second she had and slammed her forehead against his with all her might. Her eyes continued to blaze with anger and determination that was almost inhuman. She didn't care how many times she got hit. If she had that one second to herself then it was more than enough for her to fight back.
Alice lifted her legs up between them and shoved him off. She slid off the table and almost crumbled there when her vision swayed a bit. She bit down on her lips hard and stood up, moving her body to the side and bringing her fist all the way around. She struck Dean hard across the jaw with all the momentum she had built up and caused him to stumble back, staggering and nearly blacking out after getting his brain knocked silly. He couldn't keep the strength to stand and fell to his knees, shaking and a little out of it.
Alice's shoulder slumped and her bloody arms swayed weakly at her side. She breathed heavily but the fire did slowly begin to burn out in her eyes. She limped towards the lighter she lost in the tussle and picked it up before heading back over to Dr. Ellicott's body. She flicked the lighter on and tossed it onto the corpse, watching it burn up and finally putting an end to this rage-inducing case.
"You back with us?" she asked after hearing Dean shuffling to his feet behind her. She wasn't surprised and knew he would be able to walk it off.
Dean grabbed his sore jaw and groaned, but his mind did feel a whole lot clear now than it did a few minutes ago. Be it by the body burning or the brain-rattling he got. "Yeah," he said in an exhausted sigh.
"Wanna go round two?" she asked with a lazy half-grin.
Dean snorted. "Nah. I'll...I think I'll tap out for the day."
After the long night of body hunting and burning, the doors finally unlocked, and everyone was allowed to leave. Luckily no one was really hurt, aside from Dean and Alice. Dean had it worse though. His body was bruised up from the harsh pummel he got from Alice and there was a sharp pain in his chest when she shot him with a shotgun full of rock salt. Needless to say, they have had enough of the day and were ready to head home. The moment they got outside it was like their bodies had finally exhausted all their strength and left them feeling sluggish.
Sam saw Gavin and Kat off safely while Alice and Dean headed over to the bike and Impala. Dean tossed his duffle bag in the trunk and slammed the lid shut. He just stood there though, his mind ensnared within deep thoughts and concerns.
"Ah, Alice?" he looked over at her just as she pulled out her riding jacket.
"Yeah?" she responded back but didn't turn around. There was nothing odd within her voice but there was also no sarcasm either. She sounded neutral.
Dean sucked in a deep breath and felt a pressure against his heart. "The things I said about you and your family. About Aiden. You know...you know I didn't mean it right. I know how much they meant to you and...I wasn't thinking straight at the time I said it." He tried to apologize but it didn't feel good enough. Even though he wasn't himself at the moment, he still crossed a line that was known to be a sensitive topic.
Alice slipped her jacket on and paused after zipping it up. She peeked over her shoulder and buried her calm blue gaze into him. She didn't look angry and her voice was confident and gentle. "I know that. Dean...I'm not gonna hold something like that over your head, so don't worry about it," she assured him.
Her calm demeanor set his heart at ease, but he knew he shouldn't forgive himself just yet. He saw the look in her eyes back in the asylum. The way they burned with a rage that could scare ghosts and kill demons. "But...It doesn't stop it from hurting, does it."
Alice pressed her lips shut and averted her gaze. "Well, yeah, I guess. To be totally honest though. Beating you up like that, yeah you pissed me off, but it did make me feel a little better afterwords."
"Totally deserved it, not gonna lie." He held up his hands in a comedic defensive manner. "So...we're good?
Alice turned back to him and smiled. "Yeah...we're good."
Dean lowered his arms like he was asking for a hug. He was even sporting his usual flirtatious grin.
"You serious?" Alice laughed.
"Come on. Bring it in," he said while gesturing her over.
"You seriously wanna hug it out?"
"Once in a lifetime opportunity. Come on."
Alice laughed as her face melted into this warm and gentle expression that made her sharp eyes soften. "Alright. Fine. But don't you dare grab anything."
Dean's grin widened. "That's my girl."
Alice walked right into his open arms and he immediately took full advantage of it by squeezing her tightly so she wouldn't be able to escape. He buried his head into her neck and took in everything about her. From the earthy smell of her clothes to the light fragrance of citrus on her skin. Something began to pull at his heart though as he held her close, a sensation of fear mixed in with his longing for her. He couldn't explain where this sudden feeling was coming from but it urged him to hold her close for as long as he could.
Author's Note Important:
I want to start off by thanking every single one of you for taking an interest in Alice's story. I know my stories aren't as popular but seeing over 100 people follow and favorite it had brought me so much joy and motivation. I love writing for Alice's story, and though we have a long way to go to get to the end, I hope you will stay with me on this journey. I'll keep on writing for this story if people continue to support it.
I know the number will fluctuate over time but that's fine with me (Though I do get a little hurt to see the number drop by even one percent, but that's just me overthinking things.)
For celebration and a change of pace, the next THREE chapters are going to be a three-part original, starring Alice and Aiden from the past! I always wanted to tackle a random supernatural case with these two siblings and have you check out their dynamic. It's a nice change of pace and we'll get a better idea of who Aiden is, so I hope you'll find the three-part chapter arc to be interesting!
That's all I have to say for now. I'm not one for author notes anymore. So until then, take real good care of yourselves!