The Abandoned Hospital

Though the external damage was significant, it was only when you entered into the cavernous halls of the old hospital that you felt a true sense of foreboding. The silence was oppressive, every step, every crunch underneath your shoe almost painful. A breeze cut through the building from one of the missing windows, yet there was no whistle or echo as the air blew through the rotting corpse of a building. All it brought was the cold.

“So,” Tina started, frowning about, “on the scale of one to ten, how haunted do you think this place is?”

“There are probably no ghosts,” you answered, careful about where you walked. Glass and debris littered the floor. “Can’t say the same for asbestos though.”

She looked unimpressed by your joke, but didn’t offer any more complaints as your group walked through the labyrinthine halls. Marcus was more upbeat than either of you, looking in every room, peering through every hole in the wall. In his hands was a crowbar that he had borrowed from his dad’s garage and you got the distinct impression that he was eager to smash something with it.

“Either of you guys see that movie…” he tried to recall the name, smiled when it came to him, “Session 9?”

“Nope,” you answered.

“That’s a big ten negative,” Tina said, “what’s it about?”

Marcus lightly twirled the crowbar, “ Well, it’s about a bunch of guys who go to an abandoned mental hospital and weird shit starts to happen.”

“I don’t think this place was ever a mental hospital,” you answered, shining your phone light into what looked to be the remains of an old maternity ward. “Just run of the mill medicine.”

“Yeah, but it was 1930s medicine,” Marcus insisted, “so, like…they probably did lobotomies and stuff like that, yeah?”

Truthfully, you weren’t sure. You know the hospital that your grandfather worked at, over at Darabont crest, was a pretty modern, respectable place but you couldn’t say what the old days were like. And from what you had looked into, no one could discern the cause of the fire either.

“Wonder why no one tore this place down,” Tina said, kicking over a piece of broken tile and watching it crumble. “The place is a shithole.”

“The Cult probably pulled some strings,” you answered, feeling a tug in your ring that drew further into the bowels of the building.

Part of the building had collapsed in on itself and was completely inaccessible, but you found that there was something of a path cleared which led to the basement levels. Normally you’d be worried about things collapsing in on you, but you reasoned that if the cult was using the place as a regular hangout then it must have been reasonably safe to traverse.

“So many steps,” Marcus huffed as the three of you ventured down the stairway.

“It’s good cardio,” Tina countered, moving down briskly. You had to smile at her, feeling that familiar pang of admiration and overwhelming affection that got whenever you looked her way. Love, that was the only word for it.

You were one final set up steps from the bottom when you heard a noise that stilled you in your tracks. Tina and Marcus froze where they were. None of you dared to utter a sound as you listened. Voices came from below, echoing up the stairwell speaking to each other harshly.

“No more excuses. The next girl has to be ready by the week’s end.”

The voice was deep, masculine and laced with anger.

“That’s too short notice, Don,” a woman, slightly accented but from where you couldn’t discern. “And besides, you already have this bitch here…can’t we use her instead of going to all the trouble of finding another?”

“Your laziness appals me, you know that? Why don’t you try applying a little fucking brain power for once. This one,” there was a grunt, “is down to her last dregs. She hasn’t got enough juice for the ritual.”

There was a grunt of exasperation. “Fuck it, fine. But it can’t be tonight, there’s too much heat right now.”

“Just get it done…or it’ll be you that we have lain out on the alter this Friday.”

Silence, then. “…you’re a piece of work.”

“That’s what they tell me, now why don’t you make yourself useful and take this little lady and prepare the chamber. It’ll feed into the ritual come Friday.”

“You said she didn’t have enough juice-“

“Not enough for the big ritual,” he corrected, “but your can fertilise the field, so to speak, with the few drops she has left.”

There was a sigh, then the woman muttered, “can’t believe you’re gonna make me do this…”

“Yeah, yeah, chop chop.”

A full body shiver ran through your being. Whether it was the ring or just some natural sixth sense, you felt drawn to move downwards, knowing that you had to witness what was to come. One step, then the next, just enough until you could peer down and into the basement. You saw a giant symbol painted in blood, a man in a suit with his back turned to you, and two naked women moving over the heart of the symbol. Your ring warmed, magic filled the air.