As I waited for the coast to clear, I found myself alone with my thoughts. It was the first time since the hospital I had really taken the time to reflect on my situation. So much has happened this week. Wow, had it been less than a week? Damn, it felt way longer.

I grabbed the laptop and waited to see if anyone came in. I was having serious buyers remorse right about now. I hadn't even gotten to use this thing for it's intended purpose.

Funny enough, the first thing I did after buying this thing wasn’t checking out Alex’s CD. I had drained my bank account for one purpose and one purpose only. To play video games with my friends.

Once I picked up the computer, I went directly to my resident networking guru and neighbor, Ryan. He had told me that if I ever got a computer powerful enough to run games, he would hook me up with a bunch of them for free.

You see, on top of being our networking guy, Ryan also held monthly events at his parents house called lan parties. They were basically a get together where all of the neighborhood boys would huddle under one roof with our computers, pizza, and literal truck loads of mountain dew, then go play different video games all night long.

Until I got my laptop, I would attend the party and wait until one of the other kids got bored, then if I was lucky, they would let me borrow theirs. It was at his last party that I decided I needed to get my own.

Yeah, I knew I should have been saving for college. But, It was embarrassing to show up and have to borrow some other person's computer. Plus, I was going to need a computer for college, so I figured why not get a head start?

As soon as my account hit seven hundred dollars, I immediately went on the hunt.

I used teenager math to determine that if I bought the laptop and got six games for free, then the laptop basically paid for itself. That was assuming I ignored the legality of the situation, which I found surprisingly easy to do.

After a day or two of looking around, I thought I'd found the perfect laptop. At only five hundred bucks, it was an absolute steal and left me some extra money for late night taco bell. It felt almost too good to be true. Now that I'd seen how everything has played out, I’d say that it clearly was.

When I got to Ryan’s, he worked his network magic and set me up with some program called EZebra, or something like that. He claimed it would let us share files wirelessly without needing the internet. We just had to be on the same network. To be honest, I didn't care about the details; all I heard was, "download this and you’ll get Counter-Strike."

I can't believe i haven't even gotten to play a single game. This “gift” hasn’t left room for much free time. To be honest, I'd had little desire to game anymore. Or do mich of anything at this point.

I felt myself starting to spiral. Ok, that was probably enough self reflection for the day. The more I thought about this stuff, the more I realized how improbable it was that I was the unlucky guy to get this gift. Plus, If the doctor planned to come back, he certainly would have by now. I was in the clear. I listened for any signs of motion as I opened the laptop.

A new notification popped up. Apparently, a new WiFi network called “A11OurBseRBelong2Us” was available. Wait a minute, I recognized that network. That was the name of the hidden network Ryan had set up on his router so that the P2P app could work.

He had told me what it stood for, but I couldn’t remember. Something about a meme around a Japanese game and bases. He found it funny I guess.

So, why was it showing up on my possible connections list? There was no way that router could reach for miles. Shoot, my parents' router couldn’t even make it to the basement without being in the perfect spot. So what the hell was happening?

I clicked it, and bam, it connected instantly. My mouth dropped open. How the hell was this even possible? Hold on, why was I questioning a magical laptop? After all, this thing was able to literally teleport. By comparison, the ability to connect to a magical laptop was nothing.

A notification popped up in the bottom of my taskbar. It was from the EZebra app. According to the notification, a new file had been downloaded to my computer. It was a folder with the title "JoeLookHere".

That was weird. Someone knew I was here. Against my better judgment, I clicked on the folder. There was only a single photo and a text file. I focused on the text file first.

> “Joe,

>

> I heard you weren’t getting out anytime soon. Rumor was you snapped in there. That didn’t seem right to me. I hope you’re okay. I tried to use your laptop to do some research, but when I opened the screen, the computer got hot. It actually burned my hand. Then the whole thing vanished. I assumed it found its way back to you

>

> Don’t worry, I’m fine. The burn’s no worse than that time you scorched yourself on baked beans at Big Al's. Anyway, it looks like the laptop is back with you, which means it can’t fall into the wrong hands.

>

> After I found out you weren’t coming home, I started digging. There’s something seriously off here. I found an article about a group that sued Cottonwood in the eighties. Check it out—it’s in the folder.

>

> You should see the setup Ryan gave me. This backpack is fucking sweet. I hid the whole thing in some bushes outside of the building. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him why I needed it.

>

> Unfortunately, the battery my laptop and router are hooked up to can only last around six hours. So our window to talk is limited. I’ll swing by after school to see if you found this folder, then go recharge the backpack for the night. I sure hope you see it. If you do, please send me a note back.

>

> PS: Naomi says hello. That woman scares me. She’s working to try and pull you out, but whoever is holding you, they have strong connections

>

> - Murph”

I let out a sigh of relief. There were people on the outside still fighting for me, and now, I finally had a gateway to the outside world.

How the hell had Murph done it? I still had no idea what “it” was, but he had found a way for us to communicate. For real, what the hell would I have done without him? I’d probably already be dead.

I opened the image attachment. It was a scanned article from The Ravenwood Gazette. It was titled “A Hospital That Experimented on Its Patients?”

The article told of a collection of families who’d sued Cottonwood in the eighties. They’d accused the hospital of performing illegal experiments on their relatives, saying patients went in healthy but never came out. There were ten deaths in four years, and yet no one was held accountable. The case eventually got thrown out for lack of evidence. I had plenty of evidence in that secret room. They must not have seen it.

So, these ghosts, they must have been the ones I saw. I knew they were from the eighties! There were people who’d been experimented on, who never left. But why had these specific ones been held back? Based on the notebook I read, they had been doing this shit since the place opened.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

I wondered if that was when Dr. Klandermans father took over. It’s possible he was less careful than his father. Without more information, everything was just a guess at this point.

I opened notepad and started typing:

> “I’m still here. Bad things are happening. Warn Naomi! She’s in danger. Someone is out to get her. Also, check for anything you can find on real monsters. Specifically ones with zombie-like faces. Can’t explain right now, but I promise it’s important.

>

> You’re amazing for this. Don’t let Naomi scare you too much. Lol.”

I read over the message, removing the lol at the end before saving the document. That was a bad habit from AIM and now wasn’t the time to show humor.

I hit upload and watched the little icon spin. Nothing. It just sat there, queued up.

Come on! At this point, I could hear voices in the hall. I’m going to get caught if this upload doesn’t hurry up!

Finally, it switched to in progress. I exhaled, and it soon switched to complete. I closed the laptop, shoved it under my mattress, and laid back, just in time for Nurse Asshole to swing the door open.

The nurse walked in and started to get me into my chair.

“Well, well, I heard you got a little visit from Wyatt yesterday,” she said, her voice tinged with envy.

She unlocked the chair and began to push, “It’s a shame he wasted a visit on a worthless sack of shit like yourself. A god visiting with a worthless cockroach. He should have just killed you on the spot.”

She seemed different. Unnaturally angry about the encounter i had. That was odd.

We made it to the door, then stopped. “You know, he’s going to save us from your kind. We’ll no longer have to pretend to be worthless roaches.”

She leaned around, her face caught the corner of my vision. Her face shifted to that form I had seen from before.

What I hadn’t noticed before now, was the smell that emanated from her in her new form. Her body smelled almost rotten too. I tried to hold back the urge to vomit.

She smiled, “Do I scare you, boy? Look at me. Get used to these faces!”

I did my best to hold back any emotion as she studied me up and down. She looked for any break in my resolve. Finally, she grew tired of waiting for a reaction, then slipped her face back to her human form and pushed me out into the hall.

###

It didn’t take long to figure out where the loud boom from last night came from. Glass shards covered the floor of a now blocked off section of a neighboring hallway. From the looks of it, about a dozen fluorescent light bulbs had burst in the middle of the night.

As Nurse Asshole wheeled me past the mess, I picked up the tail end of an argument between two electricians.

“Musta been counterfeit bulbs. Fucking overseas garbage,” muttered a chubby older man, his beard as gray as the smudges on his overalls.

The younger guy, with a lumberjack beard and hair slicked back like he'd just come from a shoot for some rugged outdoor magazine, shook his head. “Nah, No way it was the bulbs. Must’ve been a power surge.”

The older man snorted. “A power surge that only affects this one hallway? Come on, newbie. Use your brain.”

“Well shit, then maybe it’s a poltergeist,” the young guy said.

“Polterwhat?” The old man frowned.

“You know, evil ghosts. My cousin’s barn had one when they first moved in. They had to bring in an exorcist.”

“God, you’re dumb,” the older man muttered. They kept bickering as we turned the corner.

Poltergeist? Wouldn’t that have been something. From what I’d seen in the guide so far, there was no signs of that stuff being real.

Still, he was right about one part. Something supernatural happened there. Whatever it was, it saved my life. Poltergeist or not, I was grateful for them.

As we reached the cafeteria, I noticed it was packed with ordinary people. There wasn’t a single ghost around. I felt a pit open up in my stomach. Where had they gone? There were no signs of vengeful spirits around. Shouldn’t they be back by now?

Nurse Asshole parked me next to a few people I’d never talked to before. Not that it really mattered. None of them ever talked outside of Jeremiah. Even that was just random chanting. Although, It hadn't escaped me that he was noticeably absent from the room.

Courtney and Aubry were here. They were sitting a few tables away. I noticed Courtney had her hand bandaged. I felt a sudden pang of guilt. Murph had mentioned something about burns when he’d opened my laptop. I had asked her to go find it for me last night, right before it showed up in my room.

Shit, had Courtney tried to open it? Great, I felt like a complete asshole.

I shoveled some of the cafeteria slop into my mouth, realizing I hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

Courtney came over, plopping herself down next to me, her eyes focused on someone else across the room. She didn't want it to seem obvious that she was talking to me.

“Hey, new guy,” she said, voice light, but with a tinge of frustration. “I tried to get your laptop, but something weird happened. You really need to fill me in if you want any more help.”

I looked ahead, it wasn’t safe to talk. I had dragged her into my mess and now she was hurt. That was my fault. Fuck, all I’d done since gaining these powers was put my friends in danger. I had to be better.

“Also,” she continued, with a smirk that had a bit of edge to it, “I do take apology gifts. I’ve always been a big fan of pink monkeys. Stuffed would be fine.”

Pink monkeys? That seemed out of character for her. I guess I had no idea what was out of character. I realized I barely knew the girl.

“Hey, don’t worry about me,” she said, noticing my expression. “It’s just a sting. One of the nurses gave me some cream for it—silver something. I’m used to pain.”

That didn’t make me feel any better. Something behind us caught my attention. Someone was there. It was nurse Asshole.

“What are you doing over here, young lady?” she barked.

Courtney stammered, “I—I was just…”

Nurse Asshole moved toward her but hesitated when she saw Courtney’s bandaged hand. For a split second, her face flickered, revealing the distorted, nightmarish version of herself before snapping back to normal.

That was weird. Something about Courtney's hand caused that reaction. It was just a burn. How could she be scared of a burn?

“You shouldn’t be over here,” she said, her voice cold. “Go back to where you belong.”

“But I was only trying to help him talk again—”

“Now, young lady!” Nurse Asshole’s voice was sharp, and she backed away, keeping her eyes on Courtney's hand. She looked terrified.

I watched her walk off, my mind racing. Whatever was up with Courtney's hand, it had rattled the nurse. Wait, what was it she said she used on her hand?

Silver. Courtney mentioned silver. Was there silver in burn cream? Or was that just the name? Surely she wasn’t just allergic to creams. I had to get my hands on that cream to test it out.

Courtney would probably let me borrow some of it. But how would I even explain that without dragging her deeper? The last thing I wanted was for her to get hurt again. No, I had to do this on my own.

I guess I could try and burn myself. But with what? The laptop won’t burn me and matches weren’t exactly on the cafeteria’s list of amenities. Plus, I had been burned before once when I spilled boiling beans all over my arm while at work. I still remembered the pain I felt. The itch that couldn’t be scratched. I preferred to not have that feeling again.

Were there any other silver things in a mental hospital? If something had silver in it, did that mean it was coated in silver? Fuck, who knows. This cream was my best bet. At least I was sure either this or the bandage had terrified the woman. That meant I’d have to find my way into the medical closet and snag some.

Great, well, at least I knew of a potential weakness. Or at least a potential lead. Now I needed to figure out a plan.