Prometheus Lie
More of the floor had fallen due to rot or fire higher up on the stairs. I nearly missed it in my climb, I was still taking the steps as I flicked the nightvision on and stumbled upon the gaping tear. It was a large jump and I had my doubts about being able to drag myself up on the other side, given the slick tile, but no other options were available.
This time I made sure the camera was secure in its pack before I put my back against the cool plaster and steeled myself for the short sprint. Focus on the leap, on footing, don't hesitate—
I hit the edge of the floor with more force than anticipated, I couldn't see in the shadows where I would collide with the edge. A sharp yowl burst from my lungs, painfully, but I recovered and was able to get my elbows under my chest and hoist up. My chest ached, as did my bad arm, nothing new. I would get through this. Had to keep going, couldn't stop, never again.
Softly glowing candles decorated the broken shelf across from me. The usual message Follow the Blood was painted on the wall above them. I leaned through the gate examining the closed in surroundings, a gate on my far left looked locked. Probably was. A lone battery had been left to me between the candles wax drippings. I took it feeling very little gratitude to my 'benefactor.'
It was like being given a brick in this place. Or a flashlight. Didn't help much but to keep me going.
I paused as I glanced to the darkened hall at my left. I thought… could've been 'Farther' Martin. But I didn't linger to certify this, blood was marked to the dark hall ahead. I adjusted my hand under the cameras strap and took my time, in no hurry and with no drive for my current objective. I wasn't certain where I was headed, only that I was in another one of the numerous and indistinct corridors. In a room someplace nearby, someone was shrieking as though their skin was peeling off. I shuddered, but felt no other sentiment toward the matter. Too preoccupied with that tingling in the back of my skull. I was anticipating the horror that awaited my presence but it never ceased to terrify me.
Blood was brushed across the floor curving to the right. Follow the Blood.
However, there was still a stretch of corridor to check ahead. It wasn't worth the trip at any rate, the corpse of another patient with his head nearly twisted off his shoulders, the air rich with copper, and a door boarded up.
Disquieted, I returned to my marked path and found the floor there wrecked by the fire, a light hung from above enabled me to store my camera away. I inched closer to the wall, the boards underfoot reduced to charcoal and dusted with white, creaked as I moved to the edge. A door sat nestled in the wall on the left, with the faint traces of blood marked on its sides. There was very little space to press my heels back onto, and maybe I just didn't give a damn how dangerous this stunt was on the unstable remains of floor. But it was my path and that was all my mind had locked onto.
The light overhead flickered occasionally, but its illumination remained steady. As I inched along, a shirtless patient began to patrol on the floor below bumping into walls despite the light and smashing his fist against doors. I grimaced as I moved, the path was not as stable as I had hoped and shifted under my weight. I didn't need to fall down there with him.
When I was directly across from the door, I braced for impact and leapt, hitting the ledge and freezing when the splintered wood punched into my chest. My coat absorbed most the impact, but I still lost my grip and slipped backwards. I barely snagged the edge with my hands and dangled, below the patient sobbed something about his shadows, I really couldn't jot it down. The wood lamented my weight and creaked, I held on for dear life trying to decide what to do.
It wasn't really up for debate. I growled between my teeth and pulled my body up as much as my arm would allow, then swung my leg up over the burnt timber. I fit my heel onto a little notch that held my weight, enabling me to lift myself parallel with the side, until I could get my elbow over. I scooted the rest of the way up until I had cleared the edge, and rolled far-far from it. I had to pause and catch my breath and let my muscles a moment to loosen. I felt the familiar spreading warmth in my backside. Damn.
Maybe next time I should just drop and run like a bitch.
I jerked up when I caught a flash of static, light flooded the next room. I regretted it and winced as my ribs pulsed. Damn it. I heard thunder and chalked it up to the fierce weather that raged on outside.
The room was large but cluttered by all manner of bed and furniture, most stacked in the center as well as along the walls. I paused when I cleared the doorway, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. It felt like someone was watching me, though I couldn't – could not detect a physical presence of any sort. The room was empty aside from me, and silent, the soft patter of rain outside hammered on the thick glass as my heart thudded in my chest. The feeling wouldn't leave and I was wary to travel further within the labyrinth of disorder, fearing something inhuman would lunge out at me and shriek as my brain erupted inside my skull.
I moved towards an open area on my left, crouching low and peering over the confusion of beds and mattresses. My battery was already getting low on power, I had to watch it and would probably need to change it soon anyway. Nothing was on this side, the shadows the nightvision couldn't penetrate revealed no hidden eyes, no shifting shapes. Absolutely nothing living.
I moved around the support pillar off center of the room, rising to my full height and slipped forward, ready to bolt at the first hint of movement.
The floor shifted beneath me, I turned the camera down as the boards gave a horrendous groan and I fell. My spine jolted between my muscles when I hit, and I twisted in a stunned mess on the floor. Right in my ear something shrieked and I turned over in time to see that hazy form dart overhead, at the outskirts of the NV. I rolled aside and crawled behind a pillar, before I peeked out to watch it glide out of sight.
It was gone. Whatever the fuck it was, it was gone. It could come back. I had no sick desire to move around too much and draw attention, but I was becoming aware of the small room I was in and its lack of doors. And escape.
I moved away from the pillar scouting the open area visible. It was identical to the floor above, I'm sure, but less clutter, more boarded up doors and windows. A few items had been abandoned, a table cart and some bed frames stacked. I pressed my palm to the side of my head while examining the blocked double doors. This was one of many I had passed in the burnt out corridors, either those that had been locked inside had escaped, or there was nothing here to begin with.
On the floor around a sequence of stacked bed frames, lay rotted wood and masonry. I lowered my arm to peer up the way the shape had flittered, and saw a large hole where the floor had collapsed. Maybe patients had been trapped in here, and they found a way out?
The NV was dimming, I had to stop and change that before I could secure the camera and climb up. I was detecting a pattern here.
It was nice to actually grip something smooth for a change rather than the splintered and rough floor. I hopped up to the ragged floor boards and pulled the camera up before climbing onto the floor. The camera wasn't necessary, light flittered through the murky windows, allowing my eyes to perceive some of the dark edges. More beds discarded, empty of mattresses and patients. I kept low as I slipped towards the obstructions, trying to see the odd flickers just beyond the perception of dark, lights that flashed behind my eyes without the storm. That odd vibration in my muscles.
Maybe I just wanted the paranoia, maybe I wanted the delusions to be true. It felt more real than my current dilemma. Most of all, I feared what I was thinking.
I stopped when that churning sound occurred and felt myself quiver. There was nothing, I told myself. The room was empty, I was seeing things. I wasn't seeing things.
Or was I?
It sounded like scratching, or subtly rubbing. Over and over, in a constant rhythm until I wasn't sure if I was still hearing it or if it was the sound in my ears. I let it drone on and ignored it as I ventured around the thick pillar near the hole, and scanned the cameras visor for movement, eyes. A lone wheelchair sat beside the gaping hole I had fallen in. A few feet beyond it was a small connecting hall, with light cutting through the dark shapes I imagined shuffling around. Blood had been splattered along the floorboards, I shut off the NV to confirm the crimson hue before pushing the next door open.
Somehow this room seemed darker, the shadows pressing on the NV range and giving me a feel for claustrophobe I was not accustomed to. I took a few tentative steps forward testing the depth of my view, the black veil gave and retreated as I pressed further into the room. Beds upturned, blotched with dried blood, overturned desks and rushed shelf stacking. I took the open path along the wall at the left. On one of the beds beneath a shattered window, boxes had been dumped, more scattered files lay about the crusty mattress. I gave my perimeter a short glance before poking through what remained of the damp pages. I pulled out one file with two names that seemed familiar, couldn't remember where I might've read them.
(Excerpt from the diary of Shirley Pierce, Mount Massive Mental Hospital Patient, 1952-1964)
How can I not remember where the cuts are coming from? They hurt so deeply, even days later. Doctor Newhouse tells me that it's my fault, I'm subconsciously resisting the hypnotherapy. But I want so much to get better, I don't know how I could be doing this to myself, Dr. Newhouse says it's another condition of my bedroom-inspired hysteria. Poor Bruce, I make him suffer so.
I've tried, subtly, to ask Mrs. Jackson if she's had similar "issues" with her husband, but she is loathe to talk about it. Her husband, too, has found comfort in a younger woman.
I know the doctors mean well, and with the help of the government men who've joined the staff, I am in the very best hands possible. I should just take my pills and sleep, and hope for more pleasant dreams tonight.
I was unmoving for a time, unaware that I had been standing a full minute holding the side of my ear. The date on the page. That date barely came to me. That was long ago. Long-long ago. I reread it a few times before it finally began to sink in. God, I'm an idiot.
Mount Massive was shut down in the early 70s. Miles, you fuckin idiot. How didn't I see this sooner? It was staring me right in the face. Right in my face. Murkoff came along and 'reopened' it. What was I reading again?
She was committed to the Asylum from 1950 to 1960, before Mount Massive was shut down. But they were doing experiments before then. I didn't need to linger on the subject any longer.
I lost my train of thought as I knelt beside the bed, staring at the page. I was certain of what this note pertained to, but I couldn't focus. Was that what the patients meant when they talked about sleep therapy? I thought this over carefully, ignoring that buzz in my head. The Whistleblower said "Sleep therapy going too deep." The experiments were happening before Murkoff came along, the government was involved before Murkoff commissioned Dr. Wernicke. Was I just blocking this information out? Everything that started here. Could this go any deeper? The Hypnotic transgression to alter individuals thought patterns, and the Project named Walrider for those side effects? It seemed to lock together, yet the same old holes remained in my theories. Murkoff never started this.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. One mass hallucination. Nothing more. And I was buried deep in the center of it seeing what the patients saw, feeling what they felt. For them it was real, and for me it felt real. Too real.
I lowered the camera and pressed my forehead into my palm. A massive hallucination. That was all it was. But… hallucinations didn't tear people to pieces. Had I really seen the MHS cops murdered? I was drugged at the time, my recollection wasn't the most credible.
I stood off the bed and continued around the room, passing between stacked beds and mattresses. They must've been storing all this away when Project Walrider took its wrong turn, they butchered up most the patients and needed to put they vacant beds someplace. What a grotesque thought.
Even though some of them did NEED to die, they were still human beings. I think. I had no idea what the female patients were like, aside from the one transgender I had come across. I hadn't had the privilege thus yet to run screaming from a woman. I'm such a man.
Another small connecting hall appeared to my left, but the door that would lead to the next room was blocked by something large and unmovable. I couldn't budge it with my weight and gave up to resume my path to the front of the room.
The sunken outline of smashed out double doors loomed ahead, and a corridor beyond that. I hastened my steps, but jerked to a halt when that dark shape drifted by. I recorded that - I SAW THAT! That was no hallucination! NO! You can't tell me I didn't see that!
I backpedaled around the corner, until I toppled backwards over a table cart and lay staring up. That buzzing in my head was getting obnoxious. If I didn't think about it, it would dissipate somewhat, but it was there at the back of my mind scratching at my thoughts.
I sat the camera on my chest and pulled up the most recent recorded file and played back the last few minutes. Yes! A clear shot between frames, as it was at the center of the door. I stared at the image trying to make sense of what I was looking at. It looked….almost skeletal and corporal, at the same time. Like black dust, or a statue carved from obsidian. I could almost describe it as beautiful, if my mind were not so fractured.
Time to go. I pulled my legs off the overturned cart and stood. It was going to the right, maybe I should try the left.
The hall extended a distance and took another left. Double doors sat in the corridor to my right, but as with many doors they had been boarded up tight. I blinked as I turned, and felt a searing blaze of light behind my eyes as though I'd been hit. I didn't understand it, I knelt to my knees and waited for the pain to subside, it didn't actually hurt. Felt like the memory of a hard punch, like when Trager beat me out of the dumbwaiter, I was shaking all over again and my breath came labored.
Anxiety attack. Just an anxiety attack. Not shock, just relax, deep breaths, get it under control Miles. I was in a bad place for this, I was totally exposed and if a patient happened upon me I would be done for. Get it together, deep breaths, rhythmic breathing. My chest felt like it wanted to splint open, and I dropped the camera beside me as I fell over. The dust tickled my nose but I kept trying to drag myself back into focus, my left leg went numb. Just anxiety, not shock, not heart attack. I'd know if I was having a heart attack.
The pain in my head died somewhat and the feeling slowly returned to my leg. Good, good. Get up and move, walk it off.
I fumbled in the dark for my camera and picked it up. I half expected a face to be staring right in the visor, it was almost a shock that there was none. I pushed myself up and resumed walking.
Chairs, broken beds stacked, more doors tempting but going nowhere. On the wall there was the occasional dark arrow, still seeping with the fresh lines of its making. I took another left, coming to realize I was going in a circle if this route endured. Some open double doors, at least I was still headed somewhere, and apparently I could not have gone in the wrong direction. A few feet away the flicker of candles caught my attention, yes, I was going the right way. Though I think I could've come the other way, and still reached this place.
This door would still be here when I came back, the blood stained arrows were still running thick lines down the plaster. The door left ajar, inviting me.
It could wait. I crept slowly down the corridor, always aware the thing could be at any turn and suddenly spring from nowhere as though from thin air. The hall took a right and a ways down I could see light, wavering from an open door.
Inside was the mother load of files. Shelves stuffed with boxes, and binders full of notes. Boxes stacked around the room, many had been torn to pieces, some still had scraps of folders and pages littered everywhere. None of them looked complete, exerts from Frankentein's Monster, and more letters from family to patients and vice versa. Some of the pages I handled felt brittle and were yellowed with age, a few dates on letters read as far back as 1950. On the wall was a cross painted in blood and the familiar word in bold
LIE
The red was fresh, it still trickled down around where a trash chute was set into the wall. My shoes squeaked on the tile as I checked down the opening, then proceeded to go through the boxes.
"I recognize the handwriting. Father Martin killed a man here. Are the "LIES" he's talking about all the files missing from these boxes? The facts? The records? They look like government agency material, at least thirty years old, probably older. I start thinking MKULTRA, CIA. Mind Control. The buzzing won't stop."
There was a file about patients claiming to see a Dr. Wernicke in their dreams, though they had never known a man by that name. There was a file of one individual that screamed so much his tongue and throat had swollen, and he had perished. Another about a violent individual that had eventually died from blood loss when he had worn the skin from his fingers away, and tore his entire face off.
I started feeling sick, I wanted to stop and sit down, rest a moment. But I couldn't. There was no telling what lay ahead, everything was coming together now. Or maybe it was the feeling I was having about this place, the hallucinations. The whispers.
I returned to the marks on the wall, the door left ajar encouraging my progress. As I moved forward to push it open, someone shut it from the other side. I drew my hand back. Was the door now locked? No, it couldn't be, this was where I was supposed to go.
That just sounded insane.
I took the handle, it turned easily in my mutilated hand, and I pushed the door open just a bit. My movement wasn't unheard by the occupants of the room, and I cued in on soft foot falls just before they entered the range of the nightvision.
The twins!
I slammed the door shut and pulled the little cart with the candles on it and put it between the door and I. Why I did this, I'm not sure. I took a few steps back as the door opened and the first twin gave the small cart a baffled look before he scooted it aside with his machete.
I took the hall I had first come down, through the double doors and paused to look back. The twins stepped into the hall, glancing one way then the other. I crept behind the corner and watched, they couldn't see me I was certain but they knew I was here, or someone was here. The candlelight, they might have seen me standing in the doorway!
One twin began down the opposite hall, while the other turned and moved in my direction. They were going to corner me like they tried in the caged hall, but this time there was no window for me to use to get around them.
They were counting on me coming this way, with no other option but to follow the Priests blood trails. This didn't hardly seem fair, but I wouldn't get a word in edge wise if I was caught. I might still beat them back to the other room, but it didn't change the fact I had to get by them to that door and with the two of them patrolling, it was only a matter of time before I was caught.
I ducked aside when the twin reached the open double doors. I needed a way to get around them, someplace to hide and double back.
The stacked beds I passed. I dropped down and scooted under them until my shoulder was to the wall. My camera was getting low on power again, damn. Why now?
I held still as the bare foot falls grew louder with each step. I shut the camera off and tucked it into jacket, gritting my teeth hard when the fibers caught on the remains of my index finger. At least the bone was exposed only on that finger, the camera and loop somewhat protected it in my travel. I shut my eyes and focused on the sound of the brittle wood as the twin stalked past. Couldn't see me, couldn't know I was here. I exhaled a low breath when his steps faded down the hall, and I began a count once I could hear them no longer.
One-one thousand. Two-one thousand. Three one-thousand. I was still counting as I slid out from under the bed and moved towards the door, and the candle light. Four one-thousand. Six one-thousand. A sharp pain filled my skull as the candlelight clashed with the NV. Couldn't pause. Keep moving. Eight one-thousand. Nine one-thousand.
The door to the room was left open, I could barely make out the extending edges through the failing nightvision. I entered and flung the door shut, all the time keeping by the wall and straining to pick up early warning I heavily relied on. I couldn't gamble that the other twin was unaware of my intentions, and would still be out to corner me off at his brother. With the door shut I was more likely to hear of their return.
Now it was impossible to see through the visor, I had to fumble and get the batteries switched out before proceeding. It was another room identical to the previous ones I cut through, the few items of furniture scattered about, broken night stands, beds along the far wall. I crept around the thick pillars, wary of what might be lurking.
A door to the side of the room was jammed in its frame, another on the opposite side gave false hope. Through the window I could see broken wood and the dusty tile on the floor far below. I tried the handle out of habit, locked. It didn't matter, there was no visible way to climb down. I pressed my palm to my head, the stress caught up to me as the revelation hit. I could easily die if the twins returned this moment, and I had still not gotten my shit together. Keep moving, keep moving. Where didn't I check yet? It was obvious enough.
The back of the room? I moved close to the wall and the windows. It sounded like the storm had lessened for a short while, but boards nailed against the wall made it impossible for the meager amount of light through. The joining corridor was on the right side, and the door beyond open. Boards had been torn away allowing chunks of light through, enough to pick out the jagged floor where the fire had eaten through the wood.
The wood protested my weight but the structure seemed stable enough for my weight, at least where the damage was not as sever. Each gap of ruined floor was a distant, I couldn't tell from a glance what sections were solid enough. I tried not to think of it either.
I sprang forward clearing the gap easily, the floor creaked under me and I tottered as wood snapped and clattered somewhere below. Needed to stay sharp, none of this floor was stable. For now it held.
I crossed to the corner where the fire had done 'less' damage, and maneuvered around a bed as the wood groaned, warning its lack of patience with my weight. The wall beside me had burnt out, leaving the skeletal remains of the framework within. I leaned against it certain I saw something at the edge of my vision, something there without the NV. There was comfort in my dependence of the camera, a trick of the light. A voice reverberated from the floor below and I moved the camera over the demolished room, seeking its source.
A bright beam flashed over me and I met eyes with 'Father' Martin. "Only God needs be so mysterious. Be patient, hold faith." As he spoke he turned away, looking across the edge of a gap of where he stood upon. I couldn't be sure, but I doubted he was speaking to me.
I moved on, reinforcing my resolve. I needed to get out of this area, with the twins geared to hunt me down. They wouldn't hesitate to gut me on the spot, and I felt in my deepest fears that they wouldn't kill me before they went to work.
Shuddering, I edged myself onto a thin path that ran flush with the wall, I had very little room for my feet but the edge felt stable enough. The ruined timber moaned as the structure shifted under the malicious storm, it sounded like the whole place could topple at a wrong move, yet still it stood. I used the NV to make sure that I was scraping onto a solid surface, the charcoal was black and blended with the shadows. The floors center between the support pillars was still intact, not a big surprise. Another break in the floor separated me from the next door, by a distance I was leery to attempt jumping, but I was certain that I had leapt farther previously this evening. There was no easier way over.
Lamps undamaged by the fire gleamed down, revealing the tile floor of the room below. I focused on the door trimmed by light, wide open and inviting with only the ominous abyss of dark beyond. I would have a moment to gather myself before I pushed resumed. The floor didn't seem stable enough on my island, I shuffled near the edge and tested the thin boards. It made quite a bit of noise, but it felt solid. Maybe made from a different wood, from whatever comprised the asylums charred sections? I clicked off the NV and put some distance between myself and the edge, then dashed forward and threw myself out over the fissure.
I hit the other side with more force than anticipated, the wind gushed out of my lungs and my arms hit the boards. Hard. I didn't have a chance to inhale, my body began to slip backwards. I panicked and slung the camera out of my grip a safe distance and braced my hands and elbows against the splintered wood, sweat trickled into the corner of my eye obscuring my sight. I think I might've snapped a rib.
It sounded like it. Or was that the floor creaking against my weight? As I pulled myself up, the board snapped and I fell catching the next piece with my hands. A streak of light flashed through my eyes as my ragged finger tips locked into the timber.
The whole floor was falling!
I clambered up, kicking and clawing for a stable grip, and finally got my torso over the edge in time to witness—
My camera!
My camera was skidding backwards, off the slanting floor! No! I shuffled along trying to reach it before it fell. Visions of it hitting the black tile, dashed into a million pieces of plastic and metal. All my evidence! My only source of light in this shit hole! I reached, scratching it with my remaining fingertips as it tipped, then flipped jolly like over the edge.
Down, down, and down it went. Everything in slow motion as I was stuck up here, watching it get smaller and smaller, the further it descended. Any minute now, a millions pieces scattered everywhere. You wouldn't be able to tell what it was in the first place. Scattered to the far corners. I'd never be able to find them all and put it back together.
But it didn't scatter. I watched as it bumped against a board, and held my breath, right before it hit the other side of the floor above a thin black hole. Then, vanished into the dark abyss. I reached for it. I could still feel it in my hands, solid and comforting. This couldn't be happening. It was in one piece but it was gone. Fuck! Why didn't I secure it? Why didn't I remember to protect the damn thing? It was gone forever and I was the one to blame. Fucking idiot, Miles! Your life is over! The damn camera was the only thing keeping you—
The floor whined as the boards gave out, and a piece clattered hollowly in the open room. I shifted, dragging myself up just as I saw the door to a room below swing open and a dark figure creep into view. Shit!
Another panel snapped away before I had latched onto the next, and I was hanging by my hands snarling as hot needles pulsed through my fingertips. GET UP THERE MILES! I clawed my way up as the floor crumbled out from under me. I dug my fingers into what I could reach and braced myself, launching forward as everything under my feet snapped free. I was running on literal open air as the ground dissolved under me, I dove into the awaiting doorway and locked my hands on the frame as I spun about, to witness the last of the floor break away. I took a few deep breaths, and gazed at the open door with light pouring through. No evidence of the prowler below, I'm not sure if it was a twin or someone else hunting me.
I was still shaking when I turned to the dark corridor awaiting my trespass. I had become so dependent on the camera, the total blackness was like a wall I could never pierce with my conviction. Memories of those inexperienced cavers returned to my thoughts, how they had been lost for days before they succumb to hunger and thirst.
How do you get lost in a cave? The darkness is disorienting, and even when you feel you must be turned in the right direction, it is impossible to be sure. You can run in circles for days before you realize you've been in a room of nine by nine.
I didn't stand a chance navigating the dark totally blind, while the patients strolled about, conditioned to the dark halls that was their world. Aside from all the evidence I could not afford to lose. It would be better if I died trying to find it, rather die getting beaten to death by something I couldn't identify.
The ruined floor echoed a strange sound as the wood settled, almost like the shriek of a dying man. I pondered it, as I pondered how to go about locating my camera. I reviewed my recent progress through the asylum, deducing if I returned the way I came I would not be able to access the floor below where the camera should be. That was not considering the twins, I didn't doubt they were still hoping to stumble upon me in that section of the hall. I wiped some sweat from my eyes, and recoiled at the blood soaking my palm. Oh god!
After scrapping some of the fresh blood from my hands, I picked my way down what remained of the floor. At least 'if' I returned, I could still climb up easily. Small miracles. There was no sign of the creeper, this made me uneasy. He could as easily have been a spy for Father Martin, as he could have been one of the violent lunatics that's only purpose was to shatter skulls. He had to have come from somewhere, I doubt he came from the floor above or had a way up there.
This was all speculation, I had no reason to believe there was a way to access the lower floor through here. I planned to turn back if it became too dangerous, or if there was no visible way to progress. I don't know which way I preferred more.
The room was dim, light pouring through broken windows offered miniscule guidance, cutting dark lines over the beds and furniture that looked jammed into the space. I heard no sound, nothing to indicate a living body present. The path on my left was packed high with bed frames, to my right was a space I could slip through. I didn't want to attempt climbing over anything unless I absolutely had to, my hands were shaking against my sides. They felt hollow and light without my camera.
A flash of lightening pulsed from the windows, I crouched down when I though there was a shape peering over the shelves on my right, but it was already gone before my eyes adjusted. It felt like the ringing was getting louder, maybe my heart thudding harder in my chest. I crept along listening to the sound, trying to blot it out with thoughts of the mountains. How calm the night had seen before the storm. I climbed over a bed and scanned the front of the room as it brightened with a blaze from the windows.
Shadows raced back into place as the light died, I thought eyes were staring back at me but I didn't have the NV of the camera. Couldn't be anything there. Just the noise in my head making me feel like there was something that should be there, but couldn't be.
My camera. Think about that for a bit. Where would it be? Fell through the floorboards, would be on the floor below here if it didn't shatter into a million pieces. My quest seemed lost, everything I had been through, everything that I had witnessed was on that camera. I would go completely insane, and they'd find my body with my last words scrawled into the notebook and they'll scratch their heads, no clue of what the hell happened here. What horrors were witnessed.
The camera will be there, in one piece, because I will it to be so. With my fuckin mind!
Bed frames and shelves. They filled the gaps on either side of me as I moved towards another set of open doors. It amazed me how comforting furniture could be in a place like this. It looked like the doors had been blown apart, I couldn't find where the other had fallen. A sound startled me, the clatter of timber as something came down hard on the floor above. I knelt down and listened to the noises of footfalls overhead, silt trickled down getting into my eye.
I blinked it out then checked beyond the doorframe, a soft whimper wheezed out of me at the black veil that greeted me. I would get lost forever and die of hunger, or get beaten to death by someone in the dark. By a shape in the dark.
My spirits were lifted when the frail light spilled from a crack in the wall. I crawled to it, on my hands and knees, and peered inside hearing water running from somewhere. Another shower room. Lockers had been torn from the walls and stacked in odd areas, some were left along the floor. I tested the stability of the plaster that blocked me, and found I could tear the chunks out. Enough that I could easily slip myself under.
I entered and stood up and made my way along the side of the room that was open, and into the shadows that devoured my form. I used my less torn up left hand and set my fingers on the wall feeling where I was going and tried not to get turned around, but my fears were unfounded, the wall gave way to the other side of the washroom and a light blazed from the ceiling.
I checked a few of the stalls that would open, confirming there was no one hiding, nothing to surprise me. The drum of the water intermingled with the buzzing in my head, my body quivered despite how dry the top layer of my coat had become. It was bone quaking trembles, stemming from my muscles. I needed to shut the water off, stop the insistent white noise. I tried to figure out how to work the faucet, but the valve was snapped and spun uselessly in my grip.
Beneath the spout was a tear in the floor, the wood exposed under the tile and something under that. I went to the next stall over, the door taken somewhere left the access open for full view. Inside was a large hole to the level below, and where my camera must be.
I dropped down onto a plank of wood, and felt the hollow vibrations of lockers through my feet. For a moment I listened and waited, that had been loud. The drum of water above enveloped my senses, I few droplets of icy water splattered my neck. Along the ceiling the thick pipes transporting the water crossed, thick calcite had formed along edges where water seeped. Rather wait and confirm my isolation I crawled down onto the next floor.
It was a sizable closet to store supplies and some furniture. Everything had been dragged out into halls and used to board up doors, it was empty but for the lockers gathered into the center of the room. I walked around it before I located the door, it was a relief to escape the consistent sound rattling my mind. I gave no consideration to someone waiting outside, how reckless I was being. I didn't care. I peeked out into the dark hall.
The edges of a broken bed came into focus, the light from the closet didn't tread far but the glow of another lamp did reach around a corner some distance away. It was impossible to tell with the wall of black. I opted to follow the light for now, until I needed to get lost in the dark. I'd save that as last option if I could. The hall that cut right was too bright for comfort, I lingered by the wall briefly, the light didn't extended far. Beyond the shadows bars were stacked, or bed frames, silhouetted against soft light a large window. I really wanted to know that lights origins.
I climbed over a broken bed frame and listened, as the crackle of thunder and the flash of static illuminated a figure darting across the room far ahead. It looked like he had some destination in mind, but I wouldn't just stand at the edge of the shadows and wait for him to come this way. Couldn't be certain of what I saw, I wasn't confident in the stability of my mental faculty.
A door boarded up on my left thudded as something hit it, or fought to get through. I picked up the pace before they could get through while I was there. Those boards had held all through the shit storm, there was no reason for them to give now.
Light pulsed through the bars of the beds stacked at the end of a hall, cutting me off from the room. But I was certain the figure I'd seen had been there as well. A hall was to my left with light spilling like cold silver between the bars of a gate. It was too far up out of sight, I couldn't see where the light filtered down from.
I hesitate when I thought there was a voice, or someone mumbling. I listened, trying to get past the ringing in my own head. The silence without the constant drum of rain on windows to drown out my thoughts, made the walls vibrate with a resonance of silence that was almost as thunderous as the sound of clatter. No longer could I hear the voice, but it was probably my paranoia diluting my senses. I was on high alert and couldn't shut myself out.
As I neared the corner, leaning forward—
A man lunged out at me snaring my neck and bad shoulder. I gave half a yelp as the air was cut off in my throat, the man yelled in my face and shook me. My vision buzzed with static as he applied pressure, I couldn't decide which was hurting worse. The blood flow had been severely hindered by his grip on my neck and my ears started ringing. I slapped my hands down over his elbows and struggled to pull his arms off, get them unlocked as he pushed forward nearly causing me to topple. When I fell it would be all over, I wouldn't have the leverage to throw him off. I didn't have it now.
When I reached my limit, I knew I couldn't take much more of this, I dropped to my back on the hard tile and somersault backwards. The patient, placing all his weight against me fell forward. I jammed my foot into his stomach and propelled him along as he tumbled over me. Weak and stunned, I rolled aside not prepared for what would come next. I only heard the man climb to his feet and dart off screaming about the coming and Billy. That went well…
I coughed into the floor until my throat reformed, the cold and dusty air of the Asylum a welcomed return.
I was still rubbing the soreness out of my neck as I CAUTIOUSLY ventured into the next room. I felt the walls as I went, making sure I wasn't missing any doors that could lead to the room my camera was in. I had no idea where it might have fallen, I would just go through the rooms I could find and then go into more detailed search once I was comfortable with the layout.
The patients spent all of their time in this place, skulking through the dark, hiding in the shadows. No wonder they could track me in the dead black. With no other option, they had adapted to this way of life. A scary thought.
A wild blaze burned through the room, and for a brief moment I could see figures, men shaped. One crouched on a table holding bars, fully focused on the world outside, a far away world. I slunk forward, the second one seemed to be staring across the room directly at me but made no action. I kept along the side of a bar, or some sort of countertop on the opposite side of the room. I lost track of the other figure that had been in here, but as the windows pulsed with storm I located a door to the side of the room.
I lurched back and dropped to my side when something flashed in my vision, what exactly I couldn't be sure. But I felt nothing, no punishing blow and heard no sound of feet. I couldn't even be certain I had seen anything to frighten me, only that I had fallen on my side and felt the warm spot on my back. I just wanted my camera. It didn't matter if I made it out alive, I just wanted my camera back.
I crawled pathetically through the double doors that awaited, there was one tall window at the end of corridor, but the oppressive shadows huddled at the very breath of its light. It appeared to be the connecting hall, where I saw the figure dart through. I lifted to my feet and held my arms out, unable to see an inch in front of me. I kept on my toes ready to run at the sound of movement, anything that indicated I was not alone. I didn't feel alone, but I couldn't believe I would miss another living presence in the small space I now occupied. The concept that this was an error of my thought, terrified me. I was probably not alone, just kidding myself again.
I took a shallow breath as I felt around the edges of another door, a lamp from outside glistened off the metal bars of shelves. I blinked, and saw red, blood vessels in my eyes as the storm blazed. My breath was labored and dots evaporated at my vision, contrasting with the shadows. I blinked but I still couldn't see.
I moved around the shelves trying not to linger long in the light. Another doorway opened in my path, on the other side windows cut long shapes on the tiled floor. I crouched down and put my face just far enough past the opening to see what lay ahead, but was met with the invading veil of black. I thought I heard movement, a voice, but as I bided my time and listened trying to perceive what my eyes failed to, it felt like my mind was playing tricks on me again.
Something glint in the corner of my eye, and I drew back to spin on it but saw nothing. Just the beads of the metal shelves as the light hit their sides. I took a deep breath, I was shaking badly and my head pounded with the soft prattle of rain. Or was that the humming in my bones? Why'd I keep thinking of these things?
I forced myself to leave the doorway and scoot away from the wall, into the indiscriminate shadows. It was some sort of commune room with tables bolted to the floor. Maybe the patients cafeteria, or some sort of indoor recreational area? Being in this room right now unsettled me, like being in an orphanage after some sort of catastrophe killed all the children there. Almost the same difference, if you considered the less violent patients. Just mentally wrong, and locked away from their families that might've been trying to do the right thing for them.
The cold seeped through my coat, I had not nearly dried out yet, even so it just seemed to burrow into everything. It was getting darker as I moved from the windows, into areas of boarded up doors and the suppressive veil tightening over my shoulders. I slipped over a broken counter, a frame with glittering glass sat before metal slats for trays. This might've been the patients cafeteria, or where medicines was dispensed. It was the same thing, wasn't it?
I saw something in the furthest distance flicker against the black wall. I paused to stare and barely believed my eyes. I blinked. Was it possible? On that table beside a large cooking pot?
I let out a small whine, it was! My camera! Right there, not no more than a few feet away.
Okay Miles, keep it together. There's the camera, don't go running over there and tripping and tearing your fingers open again.
But… My camera! I edged towards it, pushing my senses into the wall of black, working to determine if there was anything I could stumble over, anything left lying in my path. Something clattered to the floor, echoing off the walls in the next room. I had no idea what that was from. Might have been the floor above, the broken room my camera fell from still settling in my absence.
I could sense movement. I couldn't be sure if this was my paranoia or the unnatural state this room was in, where I was accompanied by a threat. The big fucker? I wouldn't know until I picked up the camera, and by then it might be too late. It sounded like something was being smashed on hollow metal, or someone was trying to flush something out.
I dithered for a moment, debating what I should do. It was getting me nowhere, so I continued forward trying not to imagine what was beyond the black lurking at the edges of my senses. I was distracted in my elation, finally the comfort of the camera back in my hands. But I had not reached it yet, I was still vulnerable. Too vulnerable. Keep calm, deep breaths. I was shaking, the nerves in my muscles buzzing into my mind. Get the camera, it'd clear things up for me.
I began to pick up on something else as well. The typical rot of the asylum, of old bodies left to decompose into the carpet and wood, which was constant in the back of my mind. But I was sure I smelt the patients. Don't think I'm being weird, you can go fuck yourself – but, it was that musty smell they had. The baked on sweat, filthy clothing and the disregard for hygiene they shared, with this place going to hell. It was the smell of something alive, and it was getting stronger.
I put my hands on the pale light of the desk, where the NV poured out of the visor. I couldn't quiet my breathing, I had to get the camera and turn it, locate what it was in the dark. My hands quaked on the cool wood, and I shuffled around to the backside and set my hands over my camera.
It was like reuniting with an old friend that I thought was lost forever. Such a strong feeling for an inanimate object, but it still brought tears to my eyes. I gently picked it up and fitted my ruined finger under the strap, then fixed the visor; it had been jarred before it dropped through the floor. Slowly, I brought it to my eyes, reveling in the familiarity of seeing the distorted green hue of my surroundings. The buzzing in my head was now thunderous, and I slowly turned from a solid wall on my right to the open room that I could now see.
Miles seems to be having a hard time keeping track of all those docs he read in the earlier chapters. But he's pretty scramble, so its forgivable.
As always, muchos gratitude to my readers and reviewers, you peeps are so awesome. These chapts are hard to get done what with trying to be thorough in their construction, and my classes have priority over recreation. (But I don't wanna!) I upload Outlast chapters on Deviantart also, if you want to defeat this cliff hanger, go there. As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to support the DLC release : )