A few questions raced through my mind as I watched Josiah hurl himself at Nurse Asshole, tackling the two of them to the ground in an epic fight.

First and foremost, who let him out of that room? Was it one of my ghost companions? There was one missing. If so, how did he know to do that? Maybe there was some sort of power I had yet to make sense of. Wouldn’t that be sweet? Either way, I welcomed the help.

The second, and probably more important of the questions was how the fuck had he learned to fight like that? I had watched some Ultimate Fighter Championship on tv, and these two were putting those professionals to shame.

He moved like something out of a nature documentary. He was both fast and efficient, like a cat toying with a snake. He gracefully dodged each attack like he could see it coming. Behind that unkempt beard and curly hair was clearly an animal, ready to get his revenge.

For all I knew, he was some sort of ex navy seal, or a marine, or even an undercover agent. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was all three after this display. And to be honest, if he was, that wouldn’t even make the top ten list of unlikeliest shit I’ve seen this week.

Whatever he was, I was grateful he was on my side. Sure, he’d tried to kiss my feet, but that felt like water under the bridge at this point. Heck, maybe if we lived through this and he got his voice back, I could learn more about his life.

Ok, I had to stop sitting around being useless, because who knew how long Josiah was going to be able to hold her off. I looked down at my wheelchair. Yeah, this was no good. In this chair, I was probably more of a liability than help.

I mean, I technically had a little fighting experience. Nothing like Josiah, but I wasn't a complete scrub. When I was around nine, my dad had signed me up for karate lessons. I actually made it to a blue belt, which was like halfway up the chart. I will admit, I loved the ritual, especially blasting songs like Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) from his Jeep as we pulled up to the dojo, but singing off key was about all I remembered from those lessons. Plus, I had never trained from a seated position.

Ok, so then how could I help. Hmm, if I got Courtney out, maybe she’d be able to escape. Then she could go and tell others what happened here. I rolled to Courtney’s side, fumbling with the straps holding her down.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to get you out of here,” I whispered.

She started to talk, but I held my hand up to my lips signaling her to be quiet. The last thing I wanted was to get the nurses attention.

As I worked, my ghostly companions circled around me, like bodyguards ready to pounce if anyone got too close. That was… weird, but also weirdly comforting. It did make me wonder, what the hell did they plan to do if she did come this way? It’s not like they could throw a punch. Or could they?

I helped Courtney get safely out of the chair then whispered, “Go. Don’t stop till you’re out of the building. Tell people what happened and how to find this room.”

Courtney started to protest, but stopped when she noticed what I had seen. Josiah was losing ground. “Go, I’m going to help.”

I went to wheel forward when my hand brushed against my lap, and I felt the needle I’d swiped earlier. A bold, stupid idea came to mind. This was it. This was how I would help Josiah. I wheeled closer.

She apparently saw me coming because she swiped at me with her needle. I blocked it, parrying it to the side. It wasn’t graceful, but it was effective. Apparently I had remembered a thing or two from those Karate lessons.

I made a mental note to hug my dad and thank him for making us go all those years. Those lessons possibly just saved my life.

Unfortunately, that block put me right up next to her, and up close, her smell hit me worse than the swipe. It was like a combination of rotting flesh, old lady perfume, and was that... fish? I held back a gag as I went to lift my needle.

But before I could react, Josiah appeared behind the woman, trying his best to grapple her from behind. Unfortunately that turned out to be an awful decision. Before he could get a good grip, she flipped him over her shoulder, and directly on top of me.

The impact knocked me clean out of my chair. As I hit the floor, I saw her grab Josiah and launch him across the room, her strength on full display.

If her rotting face and gross smells weren’t enough to convince someone she wasn’t really a human, seeing her, a woman in her sixties, launching a full grown man across a room should have done it. He slammed into the wall and stayed there, unconscious on the ground.

“Josiah!” I yelled. I crawled toward my chair, desperate to get back in the fight.

“I was told to keep you alive,” the nurse hissed, her voice like nails on a chalkboard. “Your friends, however, are fair game.”

I looked at the tall ghost and whispered, “Help him.” But he just stared at me, his eyes filled with sorrow.

“No,” I begged. “Don’t hurt him. Your fight’s with me.”

She smirked, raising her needle as she approached Josiah’s unconscious body. “Don’t worry, Mr. Raymond. I’ll make sure you have a good view.”

It hit me just then, there was something that the nurse and I failed to notice in all of the chaos. There was still someone else in the room, someone much sneakier than either of us had given credit.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. They were close. I did my best to keep the nurse’s attention on me, really pumping up the theatrics to distract her. “Please! I’ll do whatever you want! Just leave him alone!”

“It’s too late for—” Her words cut off with a gasp as Courtney plunged a needle deep into her arm.

I watched in awe as Courtney stepped back, her body shaking with adrenaline. Holy crap, she was a complete and total badass. I was so glad she hadn’t listened to me when I told her to run.

The nurse turned to lash out, but her balance wavered. She swayed, then collapsed to the floor.

“What have you done?” the nurse tried to scream, her voice fading as her body betrayed her.

Courtney screamed, the emotions of the past few minutes erupting all at once. I let her have it. She’d earned that release.

When she finally quieted, I pulled myself back into my chair. “Help me get her into that cell,” I said. “I don’t think we can kill her with normal methods, but this should buy us time.”

Together, we dragged the nurse’s body into the cell and locked the door. I coated the lock with the burn cream. We had maybe one or two coatings left. But If someone was going to come looking for her, they were going to have to go through hell to unlock this door to get her out. That seemed worth it.

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“Is that… my burn cream?” Courtney asked, glaring.

“Uh, yes,” I admitted. “I noticed she seemed scared of your arm. I figured the silver in there must have some effect on her,” I finished. Realizing that didn’t make up for the actions I had done.

“So, you broke into my room? And you stole from me? That wasn’t cool man,” she said.

“I know, I’m sorry,” I replied.

“Also, you had this needle on you that knocked her out, and you had a laptop that burned my arm and just vanished. What the fuck are you?” she asked, holding the needle up in a defensive position.

“Human… I think,” I said, not meeting her gaze. Was that a lie? Was I even a human anymore? Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could say that confidently, and that was terrifying. Yeah, that was a path I did not want to head down right now.

“The needle was from the doctor’s stash," I continued. "There’s secret rooms all over this place. I found them after he tried to turn me into the same thing as Josiah.”

She backed up, the needle still in her hand. “You think? What does that mean? And why the hell should I trust you?”

I had the phone on me. Maybe if I called Naomi, she could clear this all up. I pulled out the phone, it was dead. Well that sucked.

Courtney looked at my hand with a shocked look in her eyes. “And you have a phone?”

“Listen, I have a friend named Naomi, she can help answer any questions. But first, we need to get you out of here, and this stupid phone is dead. Trust me, I have no desire to hurt you. But these people do.”

I tried forcing myself to stay calm. “If we can get this phone charged, I can get a call out to my friend and she can help us.”

“Naomi? That name sounds familiar," she said, looking deep in thought. "Was that the same woman you asked me to reach out to?”

“Yeah. She’s also Sharon's cousin, if that helps. She can shut this place down and explain all of this,”

Courtney lowered the needle slightly, contemplating my response.

“Ok, fine. I want to hear from her. There's normally a charger on Dr. Klanderman's desk. I would bet it's the same kind of charger.” she said.

“You’re a genius.”

"I know," she replied.

Josiah stirred then, his eyes fluttering open. He stood without a word and joined us. That was a relief. I didn’t want to just leave him there.

“Let’s crash the doctor’s office,” I said.

“Fine. Let’s move,”

###

Apparently, the room we were in was directly beneath the cafeteria. I hadn’t known this place even had a basement, much less a torture chamber. This building was absolutely full of secrets.

We crept up the stairs and along the hallway, careful to remain quiet as we moved. I let Courtney and Josiah take the lead because they didn’t have people out looking for them like I did. That and I had no idea how to get there.

As it turned out, it didn’t seem to matter. The halls were eerily silent. No orderlies, no staff, not even another patient. I knew they were short staffed today, but this seemed different. Where the hell was everyone?

By the time we reached Dr. Klanderman’s office without a single encounter, I couldn’t hold back my unease.

“The lack of people around is weird, right?” I asked, closing the office door behind us.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Courtney said, her voice taut.

Josiah, ignoring our conversation, stormed over to the doctor’s desk. He started yanking drawers open and tossing papers one by one onto the floor. He was clearly looking for something specific.

I guess there was no point in trying to be careful. Either we accomplished our goal, or we didn’t and we probably died. There was no use hiding at this point.

What were all these papers anyway? I reached down, picking one of the pages up off the ground. It was some sort of receipt. How the hell do you read this thing? There were clearly addresses, but that was about all I recognized. That and a word.

Stamped right on the top of the document in red ink was the word Strigon. That word again. It was the same one I found in the doctor's notes. But what the hell did it mean?

“Does the word Strigon mean anything to you?” I asked Courtney.

She hesitated. “Isn’t that and old Romanian word for vampire?”

I raised an eyebrow. “How would you even know that?”

Her cheeks flushed. “I had a small vampire phase, okay? It’s embarrassing. Please don’t judge me.”

“No judgement at all, I had a small emo phase a few years back myself,” I said, trying not to smirk.

“Really? You?” she said, looking me over.

“Harsh, but fair.”

“Well, it looks like this Strigon thing is some kind of secret project to get blood. There were machines in the other room. I bet that’s where they got it from. Plus, I saw it mentioned in a notebook, too,” I said, steering the conversation back to the topic at hand.

“That’s really weird,” she said, her tone matching my growing unease.

“Right?”

Courtney held up a charging cord she’d found in the mess Josiah was making. “Here, see if this fits the phone.”

I plugged it in, and the little screen flickered to life. “Perfect. We’ll let it charge, then call Naomi. After that, we’re getting you out of here.”

Courtney's eyes lit up, as if she had solved part of a puzzle. “Sharon. When I came back the second time around, she had bruises on her arms. Bruises that weren’t there on my first visit. I thought maybe she fell. Do you think…?”

“That they’re doing experiments on the elopers, and that's why they make it so they can’t talk to defend themselves?” I finished for her. “Absolutely.”

“Those bastards, I’m glad I stabbed that woman with the needle,” she replied.

Before I could respond, Josiah shoved something into my lap. It was a binder. It was thick and heavy, and filled to the brim. I flipped it open.

The first few pages were innocent enough. They were filled with different order forms. A lot of addresses I recognized as well as other red stamped names. It looked like they had other projects with secret code names tied to this building. What else were they doing here?

It didn’t take too long to find out. As I turned the pages, they quickly turned from innocent invoices to pictures, but not ordinary photos.

There were men and women locked in small cells and hanging from animal hooks, their mouths taped shut. The images made my stomach churn. I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t. I had to keep going. Each page seemed worse than the last.

There were body parts circled around some of the photos. What the fuck did that mean? Wait, in one of the photos, I saw a picture that looked like the one from the old carpet shop. Holy hell, what was I involved in?

Finally, I hit the back of the binder. I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn’t going to ever sleep the same again, but at least I had learned something. Inside the fold of the last page, there was a group photo. It looked to be a few years old. It was of Dr. Klanderman, Nurse Asshole, and… another familiar face.

I swallowed hard. “Does Aubry keep a journal? A little blue one?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I found it. Around the same time I found the burn cream. I… I might’ve looked inside.”

She looked at me like my mom did when she was disappointed in me. “Seriously? That’s a massive violation of privacy.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. But there was something in there. It was a table of initials, blood types, and reasons why certain people were candidates. There were also doodles of the doctor, with little hearts around them.”

Courtney’s eyes narrowed. “No. You’re wrong. Aubry would never.”

“I didn’t want to believe it either,” I said, my voice shaky. “But look at this.” I turned the binder around to show her the photo.

Courtney froze. I watched as life momentarily left her body. She sank to the floor, hands wiping the tears from her eyes.

What does someone do or say in a moment like this? I really needed Alex to make a guide for how to deal with people.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” she finally said.

Before I could respond, the door handle rattled. Someone was coming in.