Alex shuddered and glanced over her shoulder, half expecting to see a set of soulless black eyes piercing through her. “So we shouldn’t just start shouting out Chase’s name, huh?”
“Probably not the best idea. I don’t feel good about this place.”
Neither did Alex. Who would? But they needed to hurry before they lost the dim light from the cloudy sky. Skye followed Alex through overgrown weeds, jagged stumps, and random furniture scattered throughout the yard, a chair here, a blackened file there. The building was like a stroke victim—from one angle the structure seemed perfectly healthy, unscathed, and from the other side it slumped lifelessly.
Alex didn’t want to tell Skye how scared she was. Rumor had it that during renovations, the builders became frightened after a series of accidents. They abandoned the project, labeled the building “damned,” and left it alone to rot. No one cleared the dirty surgical rooms for lobotomies or the beds with shackles for electroshock therapy treatment. Or so she had heard.
“Is there a door?” Skye asked. “I don’t want to go through the wall. I don’t want to touch anything.”
“I’ve never gone through a wall,” Alex admitted. “And I’m not sure I could think my way through it right now anyway.”
They found a side entrance where a door dangled askew, hanging by a hinge. One at a time, they ducked into the unknown.
Skye stumbled over the threshold and caught herself by grabbing the doorframe. She shivered violently and ripped her hand away. “Oh God,” she choked. “What’s wrong with this place?”
“Ironically,” Alex said, “people say it’s haunted.”
They weaved through the rickety end tables and metal hospital beds of an old infirmary, complete with bloodstains in the outlines of human forms, and Alex couldn’t help but wonder if the hospital was flooded with lunatics and banshees lurking around every corner.
Alex tried to make her voice sound determined, but it shook uncontrollably. “Let’s just find the boys and get out of here.”
A greenish glow tinted the hallway. The overhead lights flickered like dull strobe lights and buzzed at them in warning: Someone had been here. It stunk like a science lab, acidic and pungently chemical.
Alex trembled, and her pride blamed it on the chill, not her fear. They floated down a hollow hallway, passing dozens of identical black doors with tiny rectangular windows. Solitary confinement.
“Look,” Skye whispered, pointing to the ground. The dust they were sifting through had already been disturbed. Unfortunately, there were not footprints lining the dirt, but two solid lines. Alex pictured the way banshees traveled, dragging the tips of their toes, and the hairs stood up on her arms.
The hall seemed to stretch behind them for a mile. Each time the lights sputtered out, they were momentarily engulfed in darkness, and each time the hazy glow flooded them again, Alex was terrified there would be a monster standing before her. The horrible stench of burnt embers became stronger the more they walked, and Alex concentrated so hard on ignoring it that she almost didn’t notice Skye stop.
“Do you hear that?”
It sounded like flapping bed sheets, but it was impossible to tell from which direction it came. Suddenly, the lights zapped, and they were swallowed by blackness.
“Alex,” Skye whimpered, clutching her.
“Shhh.”
The lights pulsed on, slowly reappearing and going out again. In and out, in and out, like a morbid game of peek-a-boo.
Lights on. Alex saw Skye, her chin quivering.
Lights out.
Lights on. Skye’s eyes were darting every which direction.
Lights out. Flapping …
Lights on. An open door down the hallway.
Lights out.
Lights on. Shadows dancing. Alex’s breath escaping in short gasps.
Lights out. The sound of something dragging softly across the floor.
Lights on.
Alex slapped her hand over Skye’s mouth before the bloodcurdling scream could erupt from her throat. A dead-still form of a banshee slumped like a cat held by the skin of its neck. Strings of hair covered most of its sallow face while it cocked its gruesome head in question, no doubt wondering what they were doing, though it never completely lifted its black eyes.
Lights out. The bone chilling sound of its toes dragging across the dust covered floor.
Lights on. It was several feet closer. Its pallid hair fell back, and it slowly lifted its head. It was a little girl. Alex could see the purple circles under her macabre eyes, which rose and seemed to stare directly through Alex’s pupils and into her terrified soul. The corner of the banshee’s mouth sagged in a way that made Alex picture her pleading for mercy during her last few moments of sanity. Alex kept her hand over Skye’s mouth and began to back up slowly.
Lights out. Alex could feel the girl’s presence, her charge. It was moving with them, creeping closer.
Lights on. She was inches from their faces. Alex could hear the dulled hum of energy. The girl’s eyes rolled back in her head as her mouth opened in a wide O. Alex could practically see down her throat into the depths of hell. And then her head snapped up straight, narrowing those devil-black eyes. She lifted one hand, and Alex braced herself.
Lights out. ZAAAAAP! The electricity was so painful that Alex couldn’t hold on to Skye. A blue current erupted between them, and her ears were filled with Skye’s agonizing scream. The icy fingers of electricity grabbed Alex’s mind and twisted it, suffocating whatever life was left in her.
Somehow it hurt all over. She didn’t have a heart, but it constricted. She didn’t have a torso, but it burned. She didn’t have breath, but it stuffed her throat, asphyxiating her. And then blackness.
Lights on. The banshee’s bony hands were still lifted, ready to shock the girls again.
Lights out. Skye whimpered. Alex heard the stomping of feet against the unforgiving metal floor.
The girl electrocuted them again, and in the brilliant steak of the blue lightning, Alex could see shadows running towards them.
Lights on. Whooooosh! Boom! The banshee slammed into the wall and collapsed to her knees, lifting her head to snarl.
Chase jumped high into the air, his leg flying out directly in front of the banshee’s mouth. The force of it created a sickening thwack. Before the banshee could retaliate, Jonas swung his right arm down on her, immediately followed by his left fist. He ducked so Chase, behind him, could push the full force of his energy at the girl.
The banshee fell into the nearest room and bellowed in surprise while her body began to convulse in spasms of electricity. Chase slammed the door shut, containing her.
Jonas cursed loudly. “What are you doing here?”
Skye shook so violently it was like her body was seizing.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Chase murmured, but he pulled Alex into his arms. His embrace was like a drug, injecting courage into Alex’s soul.
“We need to get you two outside,” Jonas replied, looking around frantically, maybe waiting for another monster to appear. “Now.”
“What about you guys?” Alex asked.
Boom!
Alex jumped away from the door.
Boom! Boom! The banshee hurled herself into the metal door. The hinges creaked and popped. They heard a screeeeech of electricity from inside the room.
“Why doesn’t she just go through the wall?”
“She isn’t that smart,” Jonas murmured.
“Is she smart enough to use the knob?”