The imposing form of the old and supposedly haunted building loomed in front of Jack and his friend, Steve. Steve had convinced him that tonight was the night they went on an adventure, never mind that it was a Saturday night or that nothing exciting ever happened in their sleepy little Colorado town. Steve was determined to start something, and he had chosen the old haunted building as the place to start.
It was an old school building that had been
abandoned since the late fifties when a fire had broken out on the third floor.
Supposedly, three students and a teacher had died in the fire. That was the
legend anyway. It was also untrue; Jack had asked around and actually looked
through old newspapers on the fire.
Only a small part of the story was true. There had indeed been a fire, but
no-one had died in it. The fire had been long suspected to be the work of an
arsonist, but it had never been proven. The fire had started late at night
after everyone had gone home for the night.
None of that meant the building wasn’t scary looking
and more than a little intimidating. It was. It was also dark and there seemed
to be a palpable aura of unease that practically dripped from the building.
There was a crash in the building and the
windows on the third floor flared with an unearthly light. Jack stumbled back
in fright at the noise and the sight of the briefly glowing windows. There was
a noise behind him as rocks ground together, followed by the sound of feet
hitting the ground in rapid succession. Steve had run away and left him alone.
What a great friend he was! Jack thought
sardonically before focusing his attention back on the building in front of
him. His eyes were drawn to the third-floor windows as he thought about the
flash of light and the crash of noise. He wondered what could have caused it?
Another crash tore through the night air a
split-second before light flared white-hot through the panes of aged glass.
Before he could convince himself it was a bad
idea, Jack found his feet already carrying him towards the large imposing doors
of the building. They were monstrous things, large and heavy to the extreme.
One of them hung slightly open on a busted, twisted hinge. Jack squeezed
himself through the small gap between the doors and entered the dark building.
Jack thumbed the back of his flashlight,
illuminating the darkened interior with its bright light. Old, faded wallpaper
and posters lined the walls, mixed with vast splotches of water damage.
Weathered tiles full of holes hung from the ceiling, drooping chaotically.
Carpet clung to the edges of the room, everywhere else it had long since been
worn down or eaten by rodents leaving unpolished wood in its wake.
Darkened hallways lined either side of the
entryway leading into the unknown. A stairwell at the back of the entry-hall
dominated his attention as he stepped carefully over the creaking floorboards
and onto the first rotted step. He tested each step with care before settling
his full weight onto it.
Another crash sounded from above, causing Jack
to crouch in fright, with his feet on different stairs. His flashlight swung
wildly as his wide eyes looked at the ceiling. Clouds of dust fell in droves
around him, coating his face and dark-colored clothes.
Quickly, he stood and rushed up the rest of
the stairs, no longer bothering to test each of them before using them. A
large, open space greeted him as he crested the top of the stairs.
This particular set of stairs went no higher.
To get to the third floor, he would have to find a different set of stairs.
Jack swung his flashlight around, trying to decide which way to go. A large
classroom stood in front of him, its missing door revealing a black hole into
the room. On either side, he could see more classrooms extending down long,
dark hallways. The water damage up here was worse, causing the walls to bloat
outward in places. Some sort of thin off-white tile had been used to cover the
floor instead of the carpeting that had been eaten away on the ground floor.
The thin tiles curved up at their edges, threatening
to catch the feet of anyone not paying proper attention to where they walked.
The glue that had been holding them down was yellowed, and no longer affixed to
the tile in many places. The water had loosened and destroyed its bond over
time, warping the tiles and damaging the wood underneath.
Jack looked at the tiles warily. With only the
light of the flashlight to see by, he would have to choose his steps very
carefully. The tiles didn’t look sharp or anything, but he didn’t think
falling on them would be a pleasant experience either. It would be best to
choose a different route for now if he was able. The hallways to the left
seemed to have suffered the brunt of the water damage. With nearly all of the
tiles, he could see being warped and curled in places. The right while also
suffering from the same kind of problem didn’t appear to be as bad. There were
tiles that way that didn’t look warped at all.
To the right then, Jack thought with a weak
grin. He hadn’t
been thinking clearly when he had rushed inside. Now that he had a chance to
calm down, he was beginning to regret his hasty actions. There was no telling
what he might be walking into. Ghosts or monsters of some kind, or maybe a drug
dealer cooking up some kind of drug. The possibilities were endless and the
chance of him getting hurt or worse grew with each new one, he thought up.
His feet wavered in indecision as he tried to
convince himself that it was nothing dangerous and that he should continue on
for just a little longer. Truth be told, while this was not the way he had
wanted to explore this building, he had always wanted to do so. He just would
have preferred to do it during the day, and not at night, while something kept
exploding above him.
He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his
teeth as he fought against himself. The supernatural world did not exist. There
was no such thing as ghosts and monsters. Whatever was causing the noise had a
logical and probably reasonable explanation, and that wouldn’t be drug
dealers. The flashes of light were much too conspicuous to be someone like
that. They tried to avoid attention, not draw it to them like these flashes of
light and noise were doing right now.
Jack felt the knot that had developed in his
stomach loosen at these thoughts and felt himself step forward at last. Opening
his eyes, he kept his flashlight trained on the floor as he began to carefully
weave his way down the long empty hallway.
Classrooms that were missing their doors, or just had them hanging open, crept
up from the corners of his vision as he tried to ignore them. He might have
convinced his feet and stomach that monsters weren’t real, but that
didn’t mean he was going to willingly look into the abyss and tempt it to prove
him wrong.
A creak sounded above his head, causing him to
stop and point his flashlight at the ceiling. The ceiling was bare and devoid
of any covering, instead revealing a mass of wires and old ductwork alongside
old, ratty insulation. His eyes caught on some motes of dust slowly falling to
the ground from where they had been disturbed. Something or somebody was
definitely up there.
More noise began to filter down as he
concentrated on his hearing, choosing to close his eyes once more. It sounded
like someone was talking, well cursing was more likely from the harsh tone he
could hear. It was impossible to understand any of the words; however, it was
obvious that whoever was up there was not in a good mood.
Feeling slightly more at ease knowing for
certain that it was a person and not a monster, he opened his eyes and
continued on down the hall. The sound of someone talking harshly above him
continued to filter softly down until he was able to discern that the person
talking was female. He still couldn’t understand what she was saying, but
he was now certain that whoever was up there was female.
The far edge of where his flashlight beam
illuminated caught his eye as he saw the end of the hallway. Hopefully, he
would find some stairs leading up when he got there. He found himself intensely
curious about what kind of girl would be in a place like this so late at night,
and he really wanted to know just what she was doing and why she was so mad.
His feet caught on the edge of a linoleum tile
in his sudden rush to find the stairs, causing him to stumble forward and onto
his knees. His dark jeans protected his knees as he slid onto them and then
slightly forward. A particularly loud explosion sounded as he finished his
short slide. Light filled the end of the hallway as it filtered down from a
stairwell that he couldn’t see just yet.
His hands clapped over his ears at the loud
noise, dropping the flashlight in his haste to protect his ears. The flashlight
spun when it hit the floor, causing the beam of light to illuminate the entire
hallway in rapid fashion. All around him, he could see clumps of dust and other
heavier things falling to the floor and coating him in yet another layer of
dust.
With a disgusted sigh, he pulled a hand from
over his ear and raked it through his shaggy hair. The movement dislodged some
of the dust and anything else that might have gotten stuck in it. His light
brown hair hung over his eyes as he ran his fingers through his hair a second
time before pulling it back into position once more. He liked his hair slightly
longer than was fashionable. It was only when something got into his hair that
he regretted having it longer than necessary.
His other hand finally dropped from his ear as
he picked up the flashlight from where it had fallen. He had just finished
standing when he heard a noise of a different sort than he had been hearing. It
was a deep, long cracking noise that he could feel at the very core of his
being. It rumbled through him like a large, deep bass drum.
Spinning in place, he shined the flashlight
back down the hallway from where he had come, not seeing anything but falling
motes of dust. The deep cracking noise continued pulling his eyes toward the
ceiling as he felt a rumble through his feet. There was a crash as a large
piece of ductwork fell from the ceiling and rolled across the damaged flooring.
Jack stumbled backward in fright at the noise,
catching the heel of his foot on a piece of warped tile and falling hard onto
his back. Pain shot through his back as it crushed the sharp edges of tile that
had been pointing upward as he fell. The air in his lungs exploded outwards
with a gasp as he lay there in shock.
Over his head, he could see an actual crack
forming in the ceiling that continued to grow, snaking its way down the hall.
His eyes widened in terror as he realized what was about to happen just before
it did. Forcing his sore and breathless body into a roll, he hugged the side of
the hall as the ceiling began to fall down around him. Curling into a ball, he
tried to protect himself during the long moments that seemed to stretch into
eternity as the upper floor fell around him. The sound of wood falling around
him and the loud crashing of metal filled the air and deafened him momentarily.
Jack kept himself curled up tightly until the
wood had finished settling around him. Carefully, he began the long and
laborious process of extracting himself from the mess that now surrounded him.
Somehow, during everything that had just happened, he had managed to keep his
grip on his flashlight. The air was heavy with dust and other particulates that
clogged his mouth within seconds. He was forced to cover his mouth with his
shirt in an effort to get any air that he could actually breathe.
Right away, he could see just how lucky he had
gotten. Where he was had been hit lightest of the rest of the hallway, with
most of the floor still holding strong above his head. The rest of the hall,
though, was blocked from where the third floor had actually collapsed.
Hopefully, the stairs he was near would allow
him to go down as well as up, otherwise, he was going to have a problem. Then
he remembered the voice he had heard above him earlier. Whoever had been up
there might be buried in the mess in front of him, requiring his help.
Choosing his steps carefully, he made his way
to the pile of debris that now blocked the rest of the hall.
“Hello?”
He called out before coughing from the thick layer of dust and grime that had
clung to his tongue and esophagus. “Hello? Are you alright?” He tried again,
calling out after covering his mouth with his shirt.
He remained quiet as he strained his ears to
hear through the still-shifting rubble. A low moan reached his ears as he stood
there. With a sudden burst of energy, Jack surged towards the top of the pile,
his feet slipping and sliding as he struggled to the top. From the top, he
could see that only a small portion of the floor above had collapsed into the
hallway.
The bottom of the third floor was still a few
feet above him, even at the top of the pile. He had been expecting to see much
more damage than there was. The sound of everything falling around him as he
hugged the wall still filled his head with noise minutes later. Another moan
trickled through the air and reached his ears. The noise was slightly muffled
and the thick dust that filled the air made everything more than a few feet
away, hazy and indistinct.
Choosing his steps carefully, he began his
descent from the top of the debris pile and back to the ruined floor. The pile
stood just over six feet in height, slightly above the top of his head. Each step
needed to be carefully placed, otherwise he would find himself stuck or
slipping onto one of the many sharp or pointy pieces of metal and wood.
A shallow cough and groan buried beneath
rubble echoed up from beneath his feet. Marking the spot in his mind, he looked
forward and leaped from the pile, landing on a warped piece of old aluminum
ductwork. It crumpled beneath his feet as he landed cushioning his fall and
helped to prevent him from sliding into anything dangerous.
Stopping to catch his breath, he looked back
at where he had just jumped from. It was probably a good thing that he had
jumped from where he had, everything below that point was covered in a thick
layer of chalky dust and pieces of insulation. The chances for him to slip and
injure himself would have been too high.
Carefully, he extracted his feet from the
crumpled and malformed aluminum, taking care of where he placed his feet. With
his flashlight firmly in hand, he studied the edge of the pile, trying to
decide where he would most likely find her.
She hadn’t been at the top of the pile, so
that meant that she had fallen down and then been covered. From where he had
heard her coughing, it seemed likely that she was near the edge and had been
further covered when everything had settled.
A rasping cough came from the floor near his
feet.
“Hello?”
He called out, crouching near where he thought it had come from.
“Is
someone there?” A raspy voice asked weakly.
“Are
you alright? I’m going to try and get you out. Just hang on!” Jack found himself
calling out as he began to panic at the thought of the person being hurt. He
had no medical training, he had no idea what needed to be done for anything
serious.
“I…
I think I’m fine, but everything is pressing on my stomach, so I can’t breathe
properly.” The raspy voice forced out in a weak rush.
“Hold
on, I’m going to get you out of there!” Jack said as he began pulling pieces of
wood from the pile and throwing them behind him. If the speaker was having
trouble breathing, then he needed to work as quickly as possible.
With that thought in mind, he began talking
aloud, letting his voice fill the air as he continued moving the pile of
debris.
“I
came here tonight on a mutual dare from my friend. We thought it would be
interesting, maybe even a small adventure. The rumors about this building have
everything from ghosts to monsters living here. I even heard one once about a
fire-ax wielding psychopath. I don’t think anyone takes them seriously anymore,
but no-one is allowed in the building normally and we hadn’t heard of anyone
exploring it either, so we decided that we were going to.” Jack stopped talking
for a moment as he grunted under the weight of the wood he was moving.
“Anyway,
we get here and practically right away we see lights flashing on the top floor
and this loud crashing sound. He ends up running away in fright, while I
stupidly decide to come inside by myself. For all I know, you really are an
ax-wielding psychopath who is going to eat my face as soon as you’re free!”
Jack paused at that thought. “You’re not, are you? I mean, you’re not some
crazy person that is going to kill me as soon as you’re free, right?”
The bubble of laughter that sounded forth from
the pile was clearer than before. He must be nearly there.
“No,
I’m not going to eat your face or kill you!” The now clearly female voice
laughingly said.
“Humph
never can be too careful.” Jack sniffed as he resumed moving the pile. “Can you
breathe easier yet? I’m not entirely sure where you are.”
“Yes,
there isn’t as much weight on me now as there was before. I can feel everything
shifting above me.” The words came out as he moved another large piece of
flooring from the pile.
With how much had ended up on top of her, he
was amazed that she was still alive. He shuddered to think what would have
happened to him if he had been the one to have this much weight fall on him.
She must have gotten supremely lucky to have survived, or maybe she was just
tougher than him. It wouldn’t be that hard. He may have been six feet
tall, but he was fairly scrawny.
He was built more for speed than for strength,
and he was, fast, that is. He had been on the track team since middle school,
running in all the events. Speed is all he had, however. He had tried
cross-country once, and it had nearly killed him, he was not built for that
kind of endurance either. No matter how hard he tried to push himself, that had
never changed.
With one last heave, he managed to shift
another large piece of smashed ductwork to the side, revealing a lightly tanned
hand with bright purple, almost lavender painted fingernails. Before he could
stop himself, Jack found himself reaching for the newly revealed hand, praying
that it belonged to whoever he had been speaking to and not to someone else.
The skin was warm, and the fingers wrapped
around his own, and then everything went white as he felt his body being thrown
backward with an impossible force. He felt his back impact a wall and then
something hit his stomach, stealing the remainder of his breath from his
battered body.
Flashes of white suffused his vision as he
struggled for breath. He had lost his grip on his flashlight and saw it laying
on the ground, its beam of light pointing away from him. His eyes caught on the
figure standing before the pile of rubble.
She was glorious looking in her pair of
smudged tan cargo pants and tight black top, revealing tight muscled arms. Long
dark blonde hair clung to her face and fell in waves down her back, a layer of
dust and grime caked her face except where sweat had run through it. She was
beautiful, and she was sparking with electricity.
Jack felt his breath hitch in his throat as
there was a sharp pain from deep in his stomach. Glancing down, he saw a long
piece of metal sticking from his stomach, blood dripping down its length.
“I
thought you said you weren’t going to kill me!” He managed to gasp out as he
felt gravity begin to pull heavily at his eyes. The pain was there distantly in
his mind, but the sudden cold he felt throughout his entire body was managing
to keep it at bay. His eyes flickered open one last time, and he saw the girl
from before running towards him in slow motion.
Silly, he thought, if she was just going to
move that slowly towards him, then why even bother. He should have stayed home,
he could have been in his bed asleep and warm right now. Instead, he had a hole
in his stomach and was colder than he had ever been in his life. A shiver swept
through his body, causing his stomach to spasm around the metal sticking
through it, tearing the wound open more.
Jack felt
his eyes close as everything began to grow dim, and then he knew nothing more.
