We were quickly approaching the old hospital. I had a good feeling about tonight, and yes, we were going to an old building at night. But hey! We're teenagers. Snotlout was driving everyone across town in his father's van, the twins in the back, Fishlegs up front and me and Astrid in the middle. It wasn't a long drive but we thought it best so as to not get separated. Plus, we were staying the night this time. Sort of a way to say goodbye to summer, as school started back in a few weeks.
"Fishlegs, break it down. What are we up against." Astrid inquired.
"So the hospital closed down after an emergency evacuation thirty years ago. Apparently, it was thought that one of the boilers was about to explode and when nothing happened they just never opened back up. Literally everything was left behind; beds, medicine, equipment, and maybe even some bodies in the morgue."
He shuddered as he said the last part. In case you haven't noticed yet, we do this a lot. We've been to old prisons, abandoned outlet malls, you name it. The only one's who actually believe in ghosts however, are Ruffnut and Tuffnut. The rest of us are just in it for the adventure. Besides, what better way to bond with your friends than being scared out of your wits right? The twins had however, convinced me to bring my dog Toothless along in hopes that he would pick up on some supernatural substance.
We pulled up about a half mile away from the hospital, we'd have to walk the other half. It was getting dark out witch made the twins happy and poor Fishlegs was about ready to have a heart attack. Not that I was super comfortable either. Weird things happen around me. Some say I'm jinxed others say it's just a coincidence but no one has ever said it isn't true.
We walked up to the old building and just stood there for a while, taking it all in. It was five stories tall and most of the windows were broken. The sidewalks were covered in leaves and completely overgrown and vines had managed to climb all the way to the roof. It was earie to say the least.
"Come on." Astrid commanded, leading us into the building.
It was even worse inside, dust covered everything in sight and the wall paper was starting to peel in a most creepy fashion. But the worst part was the silence, it was deafening and the air was as still as the dead. I could practically feel eyes on me, and not the eyes of my friends. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I shivered. Toothless didn't seem to like it either, as he gave a soft growl. Well, at least the twins were having fun. They could hardly sit still.
"Okay, we'll go to the top and work our way down, all the way to the basement. You ready?" asked Astrid.
We all nodded our head if some what reluctantly. Well, all except for Fishlegs who was gripping tightly to my shoulders.
We made our way up the stairs all the way to the fifth floor. The stair well was dark and I was glad we had packed the extra flashlights and batteries. Thankfully Toothless had settled down at least a little bit as we opened to door on the top flight of steps. We entered a long hallway with several wheelchairs laying about and some emergency medical equipment stacked along the far wall. I was pretty sure this is where they did operations and such.
"Hey guys! Come check this out!" called Tuffnut.
We all walked over and found an operation table, still set up, waiting for a patient. All the tools were laid out and several medicine bottles sat ready for use. It was very cool to look at as most people are asleep when occupying this sort of room. Fishlegs seemed to have temporarily forgotten his fear by the way he was studying the vials of pain killers and examining the different bits of equipment.
"Cool!" approved Snotlout.
We didn't stay here long however, we were to eager to explore the old building. This felt different than all the other times we explored old creepy places, this felt like something was calling me, almost like a magnet pulling at a nail. I tried to shrug it off but the farther we went the stronger it got. Of course, Fishlegs jumping at every little noise didn't help much either.
We made our way down to the second floor, witch seemed to be where the pediatricians offices were. All the rooms were decorated with cartoon characters and flowers in a sad attempt to be comforting. Yeah, because dragons painted on the wall is going to help a small child about to have blood drawn.
As we descended floor by floor, the twins and Snot had picked up some meds to sell online or in secret when school opened up next month. I thought it best not to question how legal that was.
We walked along, peeking in the different rooms hoping to find something interesting, but the place was like a maze, every room the same as the last. As we got closer to the ground floor, the strange activities started to pick up, a door slammed closed, the flashlights flickered, and I'm pretty sure a vial of hand sanitizer flew across the room.
"Hiccup!" my friends shouted at me.
"Sorry!"
Some call it Murphy's law, the twins say I'm fallowed by ghosts, (I'm beginning to question the possibility of that) what ever it is, I've gotten used to it. I just don't remember it being this bad before. On the rare occasion it happened at home or out on the town, Toothless would start growling and pace in a protective manner around my legs. Call it what you will, I'm used to teasing nick names.
We were down to the first floor. I was behind the desk fooling around with the old technology, Fishlegs sticking close to Toothless, the newly daubed guard Dog. The twins were trying to talk to ghosts, and Astrid and Snot were arguing over where to go next. I paid them no mind, I was to wrapped up in this old computer. And they called me crazy for carrying a screwdriver!
We were all interrupted however, by Toothless growling at this one door. Nailed to the door was a sign that read 'Employees only' across it. It wasn't uncommon for Toothless to growl, just not this aggressively. My mind went to the logical explanation, a homeless person or a drug dealer was down there, while the twins started yelling about ghosts again.
Astrid, always the brave leader, grabbed the flashlight and started down the stairs, Toothless running ahead of her, his teeth bared. The twins were hot on there trail followed shortly by Snotlout, me and a soon to be crying Fishlegs bringing up the rear.
It was very dark as we headed down the basement stairs, even darker than the other stair well. That strange feeling of being drawn was back and intensifying. I was beginning to question weather or not it was a good idea to be down here. I don't get scarred very easily but even my teeth were chattering. Something didn't feel right.
When we caught up to every one, we saw them stopped watching Toothless paw at a door labeled 'Morgue'. I'm not sure what was worse here, Toothless's reaction, or the visible fear in Astrid's eyes; she never gets scarred. In spite of her unease, Astrid opened the door allowing the mutt entr e. As soon as he was in, he was scanning the room, snarling softly.
It wasn't a very big room, just two tables, a counter with some cabinets and the cooling unit where the bodies were once kept. Nothing special really. So why was I so freaked out?
"Oh guys, check it out." Said Ruff, crouched down next to the cooling unit, "This thing has a backup generator! It's still on!"
Though I felt like I could pass out from the fear, I decided to humor this mysterious force, walked over to the unit, and opened it. It was clear the rest of our group was just as scarred yet just as curious, as they gave me my space and watched in silence.
It opened with ease reveling several empty wracks. All empty but one. I noticed what seemed to be a full head of hair, making my heart stop. I carefully reached out and began pulling it back.
"What are you doing?!" screeched Snotlout. But Astrid was to caught up in what was happening and quickly silenced him by putting her hand over his mouth.
I pulled the wrack out far enough to see all of the face. I didn't blink, I didn't breath, I didn't scream. In spite of the shocked gasps behind me, all I could do was stare in utter horror at what lay in front of me. The face was of a teenage boy about my age, he had a mop of auburn hair, freckles, and a crocked smile plastered across his lips. It looked just like me.
"Woah!"
"Freaky!" the twins chorused.
It was like looking into a mirror. In a really gross morbid kind of way. But, the pulling stopped so I let it go and pushed the whole thing out of my mind. Or I tried to. I closed up the cooling unit and we all went back to our exploring. No one said it but I think seeing a dead body outside of a funeral home really shook all of us, the fact that it looked like me only made us more uneasy.
But we went about our business and wondered through the rest of the basement. There really wasn't much to see, a few storage rooms, the laundry room, and the boiler. We went back up stairs and decided to set up camp in the waiting room down the hall where we could make a quick get away just incase.
After unrolling the sleeping bags and breaking out the snacks, everyone had settled in and were listening to Tuffnut tell a horror story about Big Foot around a flashlight. I had gotten a bit antsy just sitting around, so I started flipping through some of the papers stored by the front desk. The image of that face in the morgue made my head spin and I was trying to distract myself.
I found many records and documents, some interesting, some not. Most of them were rather dull but every now and then I'd come across something like a hiking accident or a tree falling over. I even found one where some kid thought it would be a good idea to have toast while soaking in the tub. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that one.
"Hey."
I looked up to see Astrid walking up beside me.
"Hey." I said, "Is the story actually over or did Tuffnut just run out of words for the first time?"
"Neither." she laughed. "You were just gone for a long time. Is that thing that happened in the morgue still freaking you out?"
"Would it be stupid if I said yes?"
"Of course not. That was pretty freaky. I'm just worried about you."
"I'll be fine. Maybe he was a long lost relative, who knows. It's not like I know any of my blood relatives after all-"
I looked down at the document I had come across. My hands started to shake, my eyes widened and my teeth began to rattle. It wasn't possible, there was no way this was accurate.
"Yeah, I mean who knows right- Hiccup? Are you okay?"
She looked over my shoulder only to gasp when she laid eyes on the piece of paper trembling in my hands:
Name: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock
Age: 18
Hight: 6'1"
Weight: 120lbs
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock was brought in at 2:17 PM on Thursday May the 27th after a car accident. Diagnosed with head trauma and a shattered femur of the left leg and extensive blood loss. Emergency surgery failed. Life signs tested negative.
Time and date of death: 3:32 AM Friday May the 27th.
I didn't remember falling, but considering I was on the floor I clearly must have. All I knew was that my lungs were burning and my heart was pounding and I think I even threw up. There was a migraine drumming on the inside of my four head and my hands felt tingly and numb. The others must have heard all the commotion because I slightly registered people rushing in and asking what was wrong. Reality came crashing back onto me when I heard Astrid speak again.
"This makes sense." It was barely a whisper, in fact I'm not even sure I heard it.
She was trying and kind of succeeding to explain to everyone what we had found. But I couldn't pay attention to that, any thoughts I managed to conjure up were of fear and confusion:
What was that?
How is this possible?
What happened?
"I say we nook the place from orbit," panted Tuff, "It's the only way to be sure."
They were about to bust out of the front entrance when Astrid pulled in front, turned and planted her feat squarely on the tiled floor, effectively stopping us all in our tracks as I struggled to my feet.
"WAIT!" she shouted,
"No! Don't wait!" screamed Snotlout, "There is a thing down there! We. Have got. To move!"
"No we don't! Think about it, this explains so much. The crazy things that happen around Hiccup, Toothless loosing his mind. It all adds up!"
"What?!" I asked, "How does any of this make sense to you?! That thing-"
"Is probably your body! Hiccup, Your parents picked you up on the side of the rode four years ago and nobody knows where you came from! Think back, you can't remember anything before that, can you? Hiccup, you might be..." I could tell she didn't want to say it, "Dead."
"So what?! I was probably just in a wreck! Or maybe a car hit me! Astrid, this is something out of a horror film! If we don't leave now, we might not leave ever."
She got a very annoyed look on her face, if I hadn't been so scarred already I may have felt nervous. She walked up to me, grabbed my arm, and began pulling me towards the basement door.
"Fine!" she said, "Then well just go back down there and see if the thing that I think that I know is really the thing that I think that I know!"
I tried to protest, but before I knew it we were all back down stairs in front of the morgue. I was vaguely surprised at how bold she was being, I mean, how was she not freaking out! She shoved me inside before beckoning everyone else to fallow as Toothless resumed his growling. I didn't want to do this but I was almost more afraid not to.
I walked slowly over to it, before opening the cooling unit and pulling the wrack out all the way with shaky hands and shallow breath. I was shocked to see the thing was missing it's left leg. I had all my limbs so if Astrid's theory was correct, and the thing was in fact my body, then I must have been in some terrible accident.
I looked back at everyone behind me. The twins stood with their mouths open, Snotlout was hiding behind Astrid and Fishlegs was about to puke. Encouraging. Astrid waked over to stand beside me, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. She gave a short nod and I looked back down at the table.
I gently and very hesitantly reached out and touched the mess of hair. Much to my surprise it wasn't horrifying. The hair was soft though slightly knotted and quite unruly. As strange and perhaps disturbing as it may sound, my interest was perked so I let my curiosity take over and guide my actions. I let my finger glide down and run across the four head, slide down the cold noes and feel the freckled cheeks. It was very odd to feel my face without it being connected to me. I touched the dry blue lips and the small chin, gliding over the jaw line before stopping at the ear. It was by far the weirdest thing I had ever done. But it was comforting in a way, like I'd found some strange missing piece of myself.
"You knew this whole time, didn't you bud?" I knelt down asking Toothless.
He gave a happy bark before licking me in the face, his tail wagging as I pet his ears.
"Useless mammal."
"Wait!" Exclaimed Snot, "We're all just going to except the fact that Hiccup is dead? Just like that?"
There were collective murmurs in the affirmative going about the room. He seemed baffled by this but sank back and let what happen will. It did make a twisted sort of sense I suppose, Toothless acting up when strange things happened, the strange things themselves. It was all very paranormal. And now that the incisal shock has passed, I some how found myself feeling... okay with it.
In case you're wondering, we didn't sleep at all that night. We stayed up in the morgue which lost it's original creepiness after 'the Great Discovery' as the twins now call it. I continued to examine my body, mostly to make Snotlout uncomfortable. We asked questions no one had answers for and even cracked a few jokes. Fishlegs, of course, vowed to work on his research about all things paranormal and later mumbled about returning me to my body somehow.
The next morning when we finally realized what time it was, began our hike back to the car. I felt a bit bad about leaving my body there in that freezer, it felt almost like a betrayal in a way. But that could wait for another time.
"Are you sure you want to just leave it there?" asked Astrid.
I only looked back briefly before answering her.
"Yeah." I said, "Fish is gonna do some research and who knows? Maybe we'll find a way to get it back. Until then, we know where it is, it's not like it's going anywhere right? We'll be back, we'll be back."
And we would. We would work on our knowledge of all things supernatural and come back when we were ready. I still had a lot of questions about my past after all. But that was a different journey, one I couldn't wait to explore.