My camera bounced on my chest as I hiked up the hill. I was determined to take care of this, even if the asylum put a swarm of angry bats in my chest. They flapped and thudded and even clawed in there. It took effort to not panic.

It was cooler today, and overcast so I felt less miserable physically, at least. As I broke free of the tree line, I saw the glitter of glass again. In a way it was beautiful, and I booted the camera up and started adjusting settings to capture that. It took some effort before I could catch the gentle sparkles perfectly so that the glass no longer looked like just dangerous garbage.

And then I started to head inside. I stopped in the threshold, suddenly realizing if I was wrong, I could be getting myself into a lot more trouble than just a mild misdemeanor. After all, maybe it hadn’t been a prank but maybe it was. Just in a different sense. That could have really been the security guard and he could’ve schemed up this horrifying plot so that teenagers would stop breaking in here.

Then again, I felt like if he had made it out of the building, the chain around the door would have been replaced by now. But it was still dangling uselessly where Sierra had lopped it in two.

“Hello?” I called. It echoed down the long halls and through the empty rooms.

A couple steps in, I tried again. But there was no answer except the breeze whistling through cracks and windows.

Alone, I could see the beauty in the decrepitness. My camera dinged to remind me I’d left it on and I snapped back to artist mode and started to frame the images in my brain. A few photos later, I remembered what I had come here for.

Finding the dark hallway where it happened would take some time though. I followed the route I remembered taking, but quickly found myself lost in the twists and turns. The halls converged often and a lot of the crossroads looked confusingly similar. I had to start keeping track of individual pieces of graffiti to remember which one was which and looped the second floor many times before I found the stairwell.

Each step down made my pulse hitch up. I stopped on the first landing to take a few photos of a dead rat that still looked almost alive. It almost looked like it was sleeping, except they were absolutely still and a small clot of blood on the neck showed where something had bitten into it.

I shuddered when I pulled myself back to my task. This was grim business. I wasn’t sure if I was about to encounter a dead body or a murderer. Possibly it would be both.

The steps ended at the start of the dark hallway. I powered down the camera and adjusted the strap around my neck to pull out my phone and used the light.

It was almost creepier this time, knowing what I may or may not see. But I needed to snap a photo if I needed the police to believe me. With each step, I brought myself closer. The floor was still littered with medical debris and I had to step over broken gurneys and even some syringes and needles I wasn’t sure were from the sixties, when this place had supposedly shut down. At least, that was what the rumors said. 

The door was coming up. The red and white lettering stood out against the grimness of everything else.  My light swept across the floor but this deep in only dust and some crumbled bricks were lying about.

I swallowed.

“Hello?” I asked. My voice bounced back at me from the walls in a hollow echo. I meant to call out but I’d faltered.

There was silence in the dark.

“Is anybody there?” my voice wavered. I started forward again toward the maintenance door.

There was a quiet scuffle that sent another shudder down my spine. It sounded like a rat somewhere in here. That wouldn’t surprise me given I’d found a dead one.

I reached the door. A bad smell like a rotting corpse was permeating the air around it. That wasn’t a good sign. I took a deep breath, swallowed and tried to turn the handle. 

It was locked.

I stared at it. This door had been open the last time I was here. Somebody must have locked it. I backed away. There was a not insignificant chance a murderer or even a monster was hiding somewhere in these dark depths. I didn’t want to be caught alone with them.

Backing away, I didn’t dare take my eyes off the door. It being locked was somehow scarier than being able to waltz in here like I owned the place. Someone else was here.

I tripped on a brick chunk. My lower back screamed in pain as it hit the hard concrete and I sucked in a ragged breath.

Oh god it hurt. I wondered if I’d just somehow managed to break my back and gingerly started moving my toes, then my knees and legs. Everything was working. Hopefully then, there was no nerve damage.

I froze as I realized the red and white sign down the hall was moving. I grabbed my phone and shined it down there while I scrambled to my feet. That hurt too.

Two pink eyes stared back at me from the darkness. As my light passed over them, I saw a face. It was a human face, a young woman, maybe even another teenager like me. Those eyes blinked slowly as I stood frozen.

Was this the murderer? I wondered. Or maybe, this is the partner to the guard so they can prank trespassers.

The face was so still and so blank I wondered if it was real.

“Hello?” I asked.

The eyes vanished and were replaced with a scuffling noise that withdrew into the dark. My breath trembled as I started to slowly back up, more careful about the debris. I got to the steps without seeing the eyes again. And then I fled up them.

I’d done what I wanted to. I had seen something yesterday and I wasn’t sure what that something was but I knew I wasn’t crazy. I didn’t think it was fake, even if all of the alternatives were completely insane. Maybe that had something to do with it being inside an insane asylum. I didn’t know much about demons or ghosts, but maybe I was seeing the imprint of somebody else’s hallucinations.