We were near the end of the hall when I heard something. I stopped and froze and Dex stopped with me. I listened hard, trying to quiet my breath.
A giggle.
The sound grasped my chest.
The giggle again. From right in front of me.
Then a pause. Silence, and after a beat or two, the quiet noise of our breath coming out slowly. The camera motor whirred.
The giggle appeared again, now from the other end of the hall.
“Are you recording this?” Dex whispered, meaning the EVP.
“Uh huh.” We both kept still. The giggle floated in and out. It sounded a lot like the one I had heard in the bathroom, the one belonging to Abby, but I couldn’t be sure. Did it matter in the end? I thought in this case, it might.
There was a bit more of a pause. Enough for me to straighten up and exhale loudly, not caring if it rattled the mic. I was feeling faint and dizzy and getting water seemed to be the most important thing.
“I think I need some-” I started to say but was cut off by a howling, deafening peal of laughter that came from the dark end of the hall and rushed toward us until it was coming from every direction, surrounding Dex and me. It was like we were trapped inside a cell of noise.
I waved my flashlight around wildly, trying to pinpoint something, anything, but there was nothing. Just Dex, looking more scared than usual, and the dust that was swallowing us.
“Are you getting anything?” I yelled above the laughter. It penetrated my ears and agitated the insides of my head.
He shook his head and fiddled with the camera.
And then as abruptly as it began, the laughter stopped. The silence sounded strange.
“Holy shit,” I breathed out.
Dex didn’t say anything, just continued to flip through his settings. I was about to ask him what he was doing when…
RATTLE.
At the end of the hall, a clanking, rattling sound, like someone was sliding a chain lock across. It was loud, metallic, echoing ominously in the depths.
Then it stopped and was followed by the slow CREAK of a door opening. Someone was coming out of one of the cells.
Once again, I felt nothing but fear and total, paralyzing terror. Self-defense wouldn’t make a lick of difference. I wanted to run, run away now. And fast.
I turned around to do so but Dex actually took a step toward the sound. I flashed the light on him.
“What are you doing?” I cried. “Let’s go!”
“Put that light away!” he hissed.
I couldn’t believe that after all he feared, he was walking toward the sound. And he thought I was the brave one.
He walked slowly down the hallway, eyes on the camera screen, which I could now see was in infrared mode.
I felt torn. I wanted to run but I didn’t want to leave him. I sighed, gathered up what little rope of courage I had, and followed him.
I looked at the screen. It showed way more of the hallway than my flashlight did. The infrared technology was adept at cutting through the atmospheric disturbances. It was grainy but you could still see most of the hall and the doors. They all looked closed, thank God.
Dex stopped walking and I did too. I was behind him now and felt the unknown nipping at my back. I put my hand to his waist and held it there, hoping it would bring relief to both of us.
I wanted to whisper in his ear that we should go but I couldn’t bring myself to talk. Something was showing up on the infrared.
At the very top of the screen, two faint yellow marks appeared. Two more appeared a bit below it. And two more below that. They were footprints. The outline of heels and toes.
Bare footprints.
Coming toward us.
I looked forward and was about to shine the light on whatever it was but Dex sensed this, held out his arm and pushed me behind him. We were both too afraid to speak but I knew what he was thinking. Either the direct light would scare whatever it was away.
Or it would show us what it was.
The footsteps continued and then stopped about a yard away. A strange, thick hush of air and silence enveloped us. It felt like my ears needed to pop. We both waited, crushed by the atmospheric pressure, disoriented and eyeing the screen for the footsteps to continue.
A cold, pointy finger touched the back of my neck and trailed down my spine.
I screamed. So loud.
I jumped on spot, away from the wayward hand and leaped forward into Dex.
He instinctively put his arms around me, camera in hand and all, and I buried myself into him as much as I could, trying to control my screams and the urge to vomit.
“What happened?” he cried out. I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t find my breath. “OK, come on.”
He took me under his arm and toward the door to the stairwell, putting me inside and shutting us in. It was ice cold again. He walked us into the corner of the landing, just beside the door and held me for a few minutes while I tried my hardest to gain some control of my lungs and my heart.
“Something just touched me,” I mumbled into him. “Ran its finger down my spine. From my neck to my lower back.”
Dex sighed loudly. He didn’t say anything and neither did I. This went on for a very long minute. I just kept myself huddled into his body, afraid for my life.
Finally he said, “You know what. There’s no reason I can’t do this episode by myself. You don’t need to be on camera for this. I think you should call it a day.”
I pulled back and looked up at him. I could barely see his outline in the dark hallway, the only light from the camera and flashlight.
“You want me to leave?”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I don’t like this. Don’t like how vulnerable you are. I’ll walk you out. Leave you with Ratchett. Or in the car. Then I’ll finish up and –
“No, Dex,” I told him. “Forget it. I’m not leaving you here with…her. And I am definitely not hanging out with Roundtree or in the car by myself.”
“But-”
“I said no. That’s not how this works and you know it. Either we do this together or we leave together. There is either us…or nothing at all.”
I was actually quite surprised I said that. But it was true. We were no good on our own. Only together did things make any sense.
He took one of his hands away from my side and slowly, deliberately scratched his chin. The sound of the hairs bristled in the space. I could tell he was licking his lips, maybe chewing on them. Thinking it all over.
Then he placed his hand on my face. It was gentle but the touch startled me in the dark. He rubbed his thumb lightly on my cheekbone. Back and forth, smoothly. Softly. He moved back in, closer to me, so my chest was against his chest. His arm around my back tightened, squeezing me. I sensed his face coming closer.
I was out of breath again.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Perry,” he murmured, his voice coming out low, rough and vibrant in the echoes of the dark stairwell. It was delicious and dark, burrowing pleasantly in my ear, making me shiver again. I couldn’t quite tell where his face was but I knew it was somewhere close. Very close. Like if I leaned in one inch more, my lips would meet his lips. That kind of close.
It was unbearable.
The thumb on my cheekbone slowed down in its gentle caress. The tension between us began to spark and stiffen, like whatever was keeping us apart was going to finally bring us together.
“Perry,” he said again, slowly, smoothly. He was so close. One inch. Just one inch. “I don’t think you have any idea about the way I-”
SLAM!
A door below us slammed shut, causing a billow of cold air to come rising up in between the stairs. We both jumped and pulled back.
Great fucking timing!
Dex kept his arm around me and his warm hand at my face but turned his head and yelled, “Hello? Doctor Hasselback?”
We listened hard but couldn’t hear anything. I could hear my heart whooshing loudly though. More from the way it had seemed like Dex was about to kiss me than from whoever just came into or left the stairwell. The way you what, Dex!?
The moment was gone, though. Dex let go of me completely and then shone the flashlight down the middle of the stairwell.
“See anything?” I asked, my voiced coming out all squeaky like a pubescent boy.
“No,” he said, drawing the word out. “But I think we should still check it out.”
I let out the air I had been holding inside me for the last few minutes. It floated away in the frigid air.
He turned around and placed one hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m serious about taking you out of here.”
I put my hand on top of his hand and gave it a squeeze. So we were just going to forget about what just almost happened. What else was new? Back to the damn ghosts.
“I know. I’m staying. Staying until we both go.”
He didn’t say anything for a few beats and began to move toward me again. My heart held still.
But then he hesitated, took my hand into his and led me to the stairs. He gave me the flashlight and told me to light our way.
We both made our way down carefully until we were at the second level. The door here was shut like it was before.
“Time to try floor number two. Same deal. OK, kiddo?”
I let out a small sound that sounded like a “yes” and we stepped into the next hallway.
This hallway was exactly like the one above. The same locked rooms. The same dust in the air. At least now I didn’t have to be a host in any way. Dex filmed with one arm, while he kept his other arm around me, holding me snuggly into his side the whole time. I was grateful for his protectiveness even though every other second I was worried some creature was going to touch me from behind.
Everything went more or less smoothly (considering the circumstances) until he stopped in front of one of the doors to a patient’s room. It was hard to tell from the light my flashlight was splashing on it, but it looked to be a different color from the other doors. A green instead of a white. The bolts also looked shiny and new. And the little slot window that you slid across? Well, that was open half an inch. You couldn’t see anything but…
“What do you think?” he asked me. He wanted to know if we should open the slot.
“I don’t think so,” I said softly, my voice barely registering.
“You don’t have to open it. I will. Just film me.” He took his arm off me and placed the camera in my free hand. I took it clumsily and tried to aim it in his direction. It was hard. I was shaking so much from the fear. I knew he was going to do this no matter what I said.
He stepped up to the door and first tried the deadbolt. It was locked from the inside like the others. Strange, when you thought about it, but I was relieved we wouldn’t have to be exploring a padded cell in the dark.
I kept the camera on his face, on close-up, as he looked at the slot inquisitively. Even through the grainy green light of night vision, he looked great on camera, better than I did. I wanted to think about that instead of what he was about to do.
“Give me the flashlight,” he said, with his hand extended. I placed it in it.
He raised it up to the slot, put his fingers on the small knob and slowly slid the window across.
I waited with bated breath for something to come jumping out, like a hand or something, but nothing happened.
