The door rattled. Someone was about to walk through that door, and ruin all of our plans. I realized we we only had a few seconds to react.

Luckily, as a teenage boy, I was well prepared for this exact moment. It wasn’t often that I was able to showcase how much was possible before a door opened. Without even thinking, my hand darted to the phone on the desk, unplugged it, then flipped it open in one fell swoop. I dialed Naomi's number, then I slid the phone out of sight, keeping my finger on the call button, ready to go.

The door casually swung open with the force of someone who clearly wasn’t expecting visitors. As it finished swinging, it revealed Dr. Klanderman. His face wavered in confusion for a split second, and man did I savor that rare moment where we had the upper hand.

Unfortunately, the moment quickly passed. As soon as he realized who was in his office, his expression tightened. It was impressive how quickly his demeanor had completely shifted. It was like some producer in the background had just yelled action. My old drama teacher would have loved him. Come to think of it, his entire life probably was basically one giant acting gig. Man, that had to suck.

Without saying a word, he strolled to the coat rack, removed his coat, and slowly placed it on the rack. Was he really trying to pretend like he had the upper hand right now? Yeah, that wouldn’t work, not after I saw him flinch like a cornered dog when Wyatt had threatened him.

That being said, I had to be careful. Right now, it was best to let him think his plan was working. I could wait until he started to get cocky, and then we could do whatever the hell it was we planned to do next. Shit, I hadn’t really prepared for what came next.

Instinctively, I reached out, intending to shield Courtney behind me, but she had no desire to move. Instead, she brushed my arm aside and stood shoulder to shoulder, or rather shoulder to head, with me.

I caught Josiah slowly moving away from the file cabinet in my periphery. His posture was feral and poised. He looked like a predator waiting for his prey to attempt a move before they pounced.

But the doctor didn’t move, instead he stood there examining the pile of paper strewn across the floor. It seemed like he was trying to make sense of what we were doing here before he revealed anything more than he needed.

Finally, after what felt like minutes, the doctor broke the silence. “So, I assume I have you three to thank for the reported bomb threat to my clinic?”

Bomb threat? My brain short-circuited for a second. I shot Courtney a quick look, and her expression mirrored mine. It was a look of complete confusion.

The doctor pressed on. “You know, calling in a fake bomb threat is a federal offense.”

A thought wormed its way into my brain. Had I done something like that while I was blacked out? It was possible. But then it hit me. No, this was his game. He wanted to mess with our heads, plant seeds of doubt. Hell, there probably wasn't even a bomb threat.

“Cut the act,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “We know what you are.”

Klanderman casually turned his back to us, then reached into a desk drawer to pull out a bottle of whiskey. I looked over to Josiah and all of my ghost companions. They seemed to be waiting for me to give the signal. That was humbling, but also stupid on their part. I had no idea what the hell I was doing. The doctor's voice brought me back to the moment at hand.

“Oh, he speaks? How interesting! Well, Mr. Raymond,” he said, his tone dripping with condescension as he poured himself a glass. “Why don’t you enlighten me? What is it you think I am?”

“A monster. And I don’t mean figuratively.”

He chuckled, “Tell me, Mr. Raymond, what sort of monster?”

“I... I’m not sure what they call it,” I replied. I reached up, wiping the sweat from my forehead. Shit, the nerves were back.

“I must admit, it’s very exciting to see you come out of your symptoms so quickly. To be honest, we thought you might never talk again. To be cured so quickly is quite the miracle!”

He walked towards us slowly, standing just on the other side of his desk.

“Unfortunately, jumping from PTSD to psychosis is very common. It's possible you've been seeing things.” he said, very subtly shifting between his two forms.

Courtneys brow furrowed as she yelled, “He’s not crazy! Screw you.”

Dr. Klanderman sipped his whiskey like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Interesting. Last I heard, you were locked in solitary. Did your little boyfriend here break you out?”

“Yes,” Courtney snapped, “and we’re going to make sure you can’t lock anyone else up.”

A smug smirk grew across his lips. He wanted us to keep talking. The realization hit me like a freight train. He was stalling. I didn’t know what he was waiting for, but it couldn’t be good. Shit.

I glanced at the cream in my hand. We couldn’t wait any longer. Hopefully this worked as well on him as it did on her, or we might all be dead.

“You're stalling!” I shouted.

“Mr. Raymond, I’m simply trying to...”

I didn’t let him finish. With a flick of my wrist, I hurled the cream at him. It splattered against his neck and chin, sizzling and smoking like acid on contact. I felt relief wash over me as the doctor stumbled backwards, slamming into his bookshelf.

Dr. Klanderman howled, his glass crashed to the floor in a symphony of shattering shards. His hand shot to his face, but it was too late. The disguise rippled showing his true form.

“Holy crap,” I muttered. “That actually worked.”

I turned to Josiah. “Now!”

He didn’t need to be told twice. He launched himself at the doctor, slamming the man against the door and knocking them both into the hallway. I handed the phone to Courtney.

“Call Naomi, tell her to hurry and bring backup. I already typed in the number. We’ve got proof of what they’re doing here,” I said, pointing to the binder on the floor.

Courtney hesitated. “No, let me help.”

“Trust me, we’re going to need all the help we can get. You saved my life, but this is bigger than us. Naomi’s the only one who can take this place down if we don’t make it.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Reluctantly, she nodded, pressing the phone to her ear. “Fine, but take this.” She handed me the syringe she’d used on the nurse earlier.

“You kept this? Nice.” It wasn’t much, but at least it gave me something sharp to work with.

###

Maneuvering a wheelchair over splintered wood wasn’t easy. I wasn’t a runner, but for the first time in my life, I wished I had the option. Sadly, running wasn’t going to be an option today. On the bright side, at least my arms had gotten a great workout this week. Maybe that would come in handy.

Ahead of me, Dr. Klanderman and Josiah were in a heated battle. Unfortunately, if the slick red streaks on the floor were any sign, Josiah was barely hanging on. From the looks of it, he had already lost a lot of blood. That was definitely not great.

We barely beat Nurse Asshole the last fight and this time around we didn’t have the knockout liquid to finish the job. Shit, I should have told Courtney to run and grab another needle. I looked back. It was too late now. If I didn’t think of something soon, Josiah wasn’t going to make it.

The empty needle laid on my lap as I raced towards the fight. I tried to be sneaky, but that wasn’t exactly possible in a wheelchair. The front left wheel squeaked as I rolled. Luckily, neither man seemed to notice.

Over the past week, I’d gotten better at this wheelchair thing, but at this point my arms were starting to get sore. I had to keep going though, to push through the pain. If Josiah was willing to fight one on one with a monster for this long, there was no way I was going to let a little fatigue stop me.

I propelled myself as fast as the chair could go, grabbed the needle in my hand, then leaped off the chair with my one good leg and straight onto the doctor’s back. I grabbed onto him with my left arm, swinging the needle into the back of his neck with my right.

I felt like a complete badass as I held onto the doctor's back. The needle sunk right into the side of his neck. But something was wrong. It was as if my action had been little more than a bee sting to him. If anything, I was pretty sure I heard him chuckle when the needle went in.

Well, maybe I should have planned this out more. Shit, what else could I do?

Before I could even think of letting go, Dr. Klanderman grabbed me and hurled me over his shoulder like a rag doll, launching me towards the concrete wall at what felt like an unnaturally fast speed.

I sped toward the wall head first, unable to do anything to stop my momentum. Fuck, this was going to hurt. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for impact.

But it didn’t come.

My body hit the ground with a loud thud, but I felt no pain. Instead, groans spilled from my mouth that didn’t feel like mine. My body convulsed, my hands spasmed, and for a second, I thought maybe I’d died and just hadn’t gotten the memo yet.

But that felt doubtful, I had seen the other side, and this wasn’t it. Slowly, I stood up and started to dust myself off. I noticed the needle was still in my hand, I guess I had ripped it out when he threw me. Not that it was going to be any help.

Wait, what the hell. How was I standing? I looked around, something was missing.

The tall ghost who had been with me wasn’t standing where I had remembered him. He must have jumped into me, absorbing all of the damage. If so, It was going to hurt like hell when he left, but that was a problem I could deal with when this was all over. For now, I was just happy to still be alive.

“Go!” my voice shouted, but it wasn’t me speaking. Well, that confirmed my theory. He had saved me. It was also clear that he or me, or whatever you called this was having a rough time. I could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke.

“Thank you,” I whispered. There was no response, just another groan. That was fair. Still, I’d owe him big for this. Hopefully, taking out Dr. Klanderman and allowing him to leave this world would be enough to make us even.

I grabbed the burn cream from my chair as I sprinted forward. The ghost was taking all the pain I should’ve felt, but his cries tore through me anyway. If I made it out of here, I had to make sure I found out who he was. I had to make sure I found out who all of these ghosts were.

They had made so many sacrifices to help me. Someone needed to tell the story about what happened to them in this hell hole. How they had been wrongfully hidden away from humanity. But first, I had to make it out of here alive.

Josiah was down with the doctor standing over him. He looked like he was about to feed on Josiah's unconscious body. Yeah, fuck that. Not on my watch.

My scream tore through the air, “HEY!” The doctor turned just in time for my face to smash into his, transferring a generous smear of burn cream from my cheek to whatever his face was called.

He screamed, pain shooting through him. I had to admit, it felt good to hear those screams of pain. He rippled, revealing his true form the same way Nurse Asshole had when Josiah had stabbed her.

He looked over at me, touching his hand to his face, staring at me in his monstrous form. His face slowly rippled, turning back to human.

“So you know what you are,” he sneered. “How unfortunate.”

The ghosts around me surged, trying to protect me, but it wasn’t enough. Dr. Klanderman reached out, slamming me to the ground. The ghost in me was ripped out like a soul being torn in two. The pain hit instantly, every nerve in my body lit up like Christmas lights, and I screamed like a dying animal.

Dr. Klanderman loomed over me, “This is the reaper?” he sneered. “This is what we’re supposed to fear? Some scrawny kid?”

Had he just called me a reaper? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

He continued, “So, all of the tales they told us as children were just bullshit? You’re nothing more than a little child.”

He extended the needle from his hand. Seeing that needle extend out of him gave me an idea. I turned over shielding my movements from the doctor. I took the empty needle I had used earlier and pushed it into the cream, pulling as much of it into the needle as I could. This was my last shot.

I stayed down, my back to the doctor. I heard him chuckle as he walked over to me.

“Oh, now you won’t even face your death like a man. Fine, have it your way.” He swung down, trying to hit me with one final blow. My plan was to flip over at the last minute, puncturing his chest with the needle. He might still kill me, but at least I would go out a hero.

But then right as I turned, something happened. Or rather someone. I hadn't even had time to register what was unfolding in front of my eyes. Josiah had apparently gotten up during this encounter and jumped between us, forming some kind of human shield.

“NO!” I screamed as the doctor’s needle went straight through Josiah's chest. He collapsed, and I was too stunned to move. I had to do something, but I couldn’t.

A voice from down the hall broke through the haze. “Back away from the boy!” Holy shit, I recognized that voice! It was Naomi! She’d made it. But the doctor barely glanced at her, his focus was still on me.

She fired a shot in our direction, causing the sound to ricochet through the hall. That sound broke the doctor's focus, and he turned to look up at the woman.

Apparently, that was all the tall ghost needed. He surged into me again, taking control, and plunged the burn-cream-loaded needle into the doctor’s chest.

The monster screamed. He tried to take a swing at me, but instead he lost his balance and collapsed to the floor. His body convulsed, and he let out one final set of words that came off like some sort of twisted children's fairytale, “Fear he who controls the dead”, before finally, he closed his eyes. His true form rippled through him one last time before he crumpled into a lifeless heap.

The ghosts disappeared, just like they had with Nicole. All four of them. I hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye.

Naomi rushed over, wrapping her arms around me. Courtney too. Naomi started to speak, but no words made it to my ears. I was shocked, too stunned to listen. My eyes caught sight of something I had hoped I would never see.

A new ghost had formed. No, it couldn’t be!

The ghost stood above his own body, a flickering echo of the man who had just tried to save me. My chest ached as the weight of it hit me. I called out.

“Josiah,” I whispered, tears falling. Courtney grabbed my chair and wheeled it over. The two girls pushed me into the chair.

Naomi stood in front of my face. “You two have to go. You can’t be here, do you hear me!?” she yelled.

“No, I can’t leave him,” I said.

Courtney started to push us away. I tried to reach back to protest, but I was too exhausted.

“I’m sorry, but you have to go. Hurry, get out of sight quick,” Naomi said.

“I’ll figure this out. I promise,” I whispered to Josiah's ghost as Courtney pushed us around the corner and out of sight. Dr. Klanderman was dead, but this still seemed far from over.