When they reached Marie Rose Memorial Hospital, Rachael couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of excitement, yet that excitement came to an abrupt halt as she looked at the abandoned building the bright sun shined down on them and yet a sudden sense of dread rested on her shoulders. It was a feeling she couldn’t shake.

It was the middle of the day, and the hustle and bustle of a busy city could be heard all around them and yet… that all felt insignificant, as though the building was the only thing that mattered here. As though it would swallow her whole.

Over four floors in total, with the fourth floor looking to be slightly smaller than the other three and was predominantly made of red brick and cement. At a glance, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was abandoned right on the offset with how little damage or vandalism there was on the outside. But if you looked closer at the state of disrepair, it was clear that this place hadn’t been in use for a long time.

Originally built back in 1952 and then renovated with a fourth floor and a new wing built back in 1972. Marie Rose Memorial Hospital wasn’t one of the largest hospitals in Ontario, but it certainly was a contender for its time. At least from the research that Rachael was able to find.

It had two parking lots, four entrances, an ER, seven operating theatres, three trauma centers, a maternity ward, and enough room to house at least one hundred and fifty beds for patients who needed to stay overnight. There was even a built-in gym for rehabilitation and a garden/park area built on hospital grounds.

She had seen pictures of it back when it was thriving, but somehow, seeing it in person felt different. She didn’t know how, or why, but something deep within her told her to be careful.

Rachael stumbled back but stopped when she felt two hands resting on her shoulders.

“Careful,” Taryn says, her hands remaining firmly on the other girl’s shoulders. “It’s pretty intimidating, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I’m so glad I didn’t suggest we come here at night! Her thoughts practically screamed as she looked up at the old building. Only to turn and see Isabella driving off. “Where is she going?”

“To park the car,” Taryn answered with a questioning stare. “Just because it’s an abandoned building doesn’t mean we can park wherever.”

“Oh…” was all Rachael could say. Then looked to the parking lot that was beside the hospital and what she saw slightly surprised her. “There are other cars here.”

Taryn’s brows faintly furrowed. “Other abandoned explorers maybe.” She then squinted at the cars as if trying to get a better look. “I think I recognize some of them.”

Before Rachael could ask, someone called out suddenly from above, making the girl jump. “Hey, Taryn! Is that you!?” they both looked upwards to the second-story window. And the young man with brown hair and sandy blond highlights laughed. “It is you! I didn’t know you’d be coming here.”

“Hi, Damian,” Taryn called back. “This was kind of an impromptu trip with my friend.”

“Your friend?” he then saw Rachael. “The girl with the bun and glasses right? She’s cute! Hi, Taryn’s friend!”

“Oh uh…” she waved shyly. “H-hi!”

Taryn leaned to the side and with a teasing smile she whispered. “He thinks you’re cute~!”

“Shush…” Rachael muttered her face bright red.

Taryn chuckled in response as Rachael went on ahead of her, the moment she passed, Taryn’s smile faded as she looked up at the building.

For a moment, Taryn recalled a certain man who worked in this place a long time ago. A man by all appearances looked like a kind individual doing what he could for those in need as a doctor in this hospital.

But the truth of a person, their real self, was always just below the surface.

And what that man was really like, was nothing short of what many would call a monster.

“Taryn, what’s the hold-up?” Rachael asked when she realized Taryn hadn’t moved from where she stood.

“Just thinking of some places that I can show you,” Taryn said as she joined Rachael’s side. “I’ll see if Damian can show some of his photos. Seeing as he thinks you’re cute, I’m sure he’d be more than willing.”

Rachael felt her cheeks heat up with warmth as she remained silent.

“That didn’t sound like a no~.” she teased.

“You’re enjoying this…” Rachael muttered.

Taryn gave her a sly smile. “What gave that away?”

Isabella stood at a distance watching her charge interact with a new friend, a friend that she was still skeptical of, but it was good seeing Taryn act a little more like her age.

However, something bothered her.

Her lavender eyes stared up at the hospital, and for a moment she thought to have seen someone, possibly in a doctor’s lab coat, but as she squinted in the harsh autumn sunlight trying to get a better look, that person was gone.

This place, even though she wasn’t a skeptic, she felt deep in her bones that this was a place to be warry over. Given who resided here. Her gaze then went back to Taryn, Isabella only hoped that the girl knew what she was doing.

* * *

Taryn showed Rachael around some areas of the abandoned hospital’s first floor. Seeing the medical rooms, lounge area for patients or family members, operating rooms, gym and even the local garden/park in the center courtyard that was still being maintained by those who snuck in and secretly grew veggies or other plants.

Out of what she had seen so far, the garden was her favourite. It felt peaceful and safe.

Though the building was abandoned, what surprised Rachael was just how little had been tampered with, destroyed, or outright vandalized by others who came here before them.

They even came across old construction equipment, probably when the city was trying to turn this place into something else after its foreclosure.

During all of this, Damian showed Rachael his photos of some of the places he went to in the hospital, giving her suggestions and a few photography tips or what to look out for if she wanted to recreate it with her drawings. They even swapped emails so he could send her some of his photos, all the while ignoring Taryn’s knowing smile.

But things took a strange turn when Josh brought something up in conversation.

“Hey Taryn, I know this might be awkward to bring up since it’s been almost a year, but I wanted to let you know that Aaron’s doing better.”

Rachael looked a little puzzled. “Did something happen?”

“He started freaking out,” one of Damian’s friends, Greg, answered. “He kept saying his face was taken. That he couldn’t see.” He shrugged. “No idea why, but he started going on like that when he came out of the basement.”

“Taryn found him there at the bottom of the stairs, she managed to pull him out,” Damian added. “But he’s doing better now.”

Rachael looked at Taryn’s back, she hadn’t said a word about the whole thing.

“I’m glad,” she said after a moment. Then asked an odd question. “Is the door closed?”

“Yeah,” Greg answered. “It looked closed when we passed it.”

“Good.” Was Taryn’s only response.

Rachael looked very confused, so asked to get some context of this conversation. “You guys said Aaron was in the basement when he started to act that way. Do you know what he was down there?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“He went down there to take photos,” Taryn answered. “Aaron’s always been good at photography, I even learned a few things from him. He read from some online forums that he could get some interesting pictures if he went into the basement. Since that’s where the morgue and even an incinerator, which supposedly still works, are kept down there. But it’s not a place anyone should go.”

Rachael looked at Taryn, rather puzzled. “Is it falling apart?”

“No, I’m told it’s rather pristine, it’s just not safe.”

Before Rachael could ask anything else, the makeshift group had their attention pulled to look at the end of the hall when one of the young women, Alice, drew their attention.

“Hey! I found the observation room for the operating theatre!”

“For real?!” Greg replied, excited by this sudden find. “Where is it? I’ve been looking all over the place and couldn’t find it!”

“It’s on the third floor near the wall of photos. Right by Old Faceless!”

Faceless? Rachael thought, only to glance at Taryn, noticing the faint change in Taryn’s stance, her back straightened at the mere mention of… whoever this was.

“You guys haven’t been upstairs yet, have you?” Damian asked.

Rachael shook her head while Taryn answered. “Dude, we just got here.”

“So, she hasn’t seen it yet,” Damian said, looking at Rachael, who then took Rachael’s hand and led her. “Come on, stairs are this way.”

Taryn did her best not to smile when seeing Rachael’s flustered expression, but what smile she did have slowly faded to a blank slate as her gaze shifted to the broken glass that was beside her. Her eyes moved as though she was watching someone, yet no one was there.

“Taryn?” Isabella’s voice drew Taryn’s gaze to her. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” she answered honestly. “But, stay near Rachael, just in case.”

“Taryn, that’s not my job.”

Taryn looked at her guard with a firm gaze. “I can handle myself with those of the dead, Rachael can’t. If something goes wrong, help her first. I won’t forgive anyone, not even myself if something were to happen to her.”

Isabella clenched her jaw, but she wasn’t about to argue with her charge, yet this was an anomaly for Taryn. Normally she’d keep others, besides family, mostly, at arm’s length. And she had, emphasis on had. During these past few days, the two had become closer, possibly due to both being in the artistic field. While with others it was a cordial friendship that wasn’t in-depth.

Still, she had a job to keep Taryn safe.

And if worse came to worse, she’d sacrifice that girl to keep her charge safe. Even if that meant never being forgiven. No matter how much that thought hurt…

* * *

The operating theatre wasn’t as grand as Rachael thought it’d be, but it was interesting. There were even seats like the stands of a stadium to watch the surgery. Though seeing the operating room from here made her feel slightly uncomfortable, she wasn’t sure why. Yet while taking photos, she noticed Taryn leave.

With a slight frown, Rachael followed only to find her standing in front of a wall with her hands in her pockets.

“You okay?”

Taryn glanced at Rachael, the expression she had when looking at the wall, was one that Rachael couldn’t identify, yet she seemed so far away.

“I’m alright,” Taryn answered with a faint smile. “What about you?”

Rachael looked at her puzzled. “What about me?”

“This is your first time exploring an abandoned building. What do you think of it so far?”

“Creepy.” She answered without a moment of hesitation and with a serious look in her grey eyes, Taryn stifled a laugh. “Well, it is!” she added. “Being in a place where people used to be but aren’t now… it’s weird. Just remnants of them. It feels wrong. And… sad.”

“Life can be sad.” Her gaze then went back to the wall of photos. “But it’s just proof that this place existed, that there were once people here. If you want, you can look at it like an archeological dig. This is just something that people up and abandoned.”

She looked at Taryn with a flat expression. “Really?”

“I’m serious. What’s the difference between ten or two hundred years anyway?”

Still holding that same flat expression, Rachael answered in a deadpan tone. “One hundred and ninety years…”

Taryn laughed faintly. “True, there is that.” her expression sobered slightly, with only a hinting smile remaining. “But it’s still true in some regard. After all, this place will never be used as a hospital ever again. It will simply be left to rot.”

Rachael didn’t know what to say to that.

Then her gaze drifted to the wall of photos that looked to be of the staff that worked in the hospital. This included not just the doctors or nurses but anyone and everyone who had worked at the hospital. Like an honorary wall of fame of sorts.

They had come up a set of stairs where they hadn’t seen this supposed wall of doctors since Alice had merely taken them up a set of stairs that she had come down from. But seeing this wall with so many faces that she didn’t recognize, the names on the frames all covered over with black paint. Though if she looked hard enough, she could spell it out. Yet one photo was different from the others.

The photo was of a man, the plaque for his name had been completely removed, ripped off with perhaps a crowbar and his face had been completely covered in black spray paint, making it look like his face had been swallowed up by a void.

Nothing else but that. It was freaky.

“That’s Faceless,” Taryn said suddenly, causing Rachael to jump.

“W-Why is he called that…?” the defacement of a photo she could get, but completely removing the plaque with the person’s name? Why not just remove the photo itself?

Only to answer the question herself, when she saw that every photo had been bolted into the wall and that a special kind of tool would have been needed to remove it.

“It’s because no one wants to remember his name, and the defacement of his photo, made the nickname stick.”

Rachael still couldn’t understand why but then remembered what Taryn’s mother mentioned about the hospital.

“It was discovered that something was happening behind the scenes, and because of it, it was closed down. Several groups and organizations tried to revive the building for different uses but it never got off the ground and was left to rot… I noticed something was off about the hospital, so I looked into it. Which brought about an investigation which inevitably caused it to close its doors…”

Something about that bothered Rachael. Like it was some kind of open secret that she wasn’t privy to. Nothing that she found online revealed any information, at least from what she could find about the hospital itself.

“Did he do something?”

Without even five seconds gone by, she answered. “He killed people.”

Silence hung between them before Rachael finally found her voice. “Wh-what?”

“More accurately, he was a serial killer. An Angel of Death.” Taryn continued, as though she didn’t hear Rachael speak up. “This hospital was his hunting ground. You could say he was invisible, at least his crimes were. But this isn’t talked about in the open. It’s pretty much a secret of what this man had done. Or at least it was. There’s a memorial table downstairs. Those who died from malpractice which caused this place to close. But some of them were his victims.”

Rachael just looked at the photo.

“When he realized that the police were on to what he had done, he killed himself in the hospital morgue.”

She turned to Taryn, slightly confused. “How do you know that?”

Taryn looked right at Rachael and told her. “Because I was the one who outed him to my Mom. While I was at this hospital for something unrelated, I learned by chance what he was doing and told her. I was only five at the time…”

Shit. Rachael looked around the empty halls of the hospital, the wear and tear of it, as it had been left to rot for over ten years. “Your Mom mentioned that the government has been trying to turn the building into something else and failed several times. Do you know why?”

“Probably because of the ghosts.”

“Ghosts?” Rachael repeated, taken aback by this sudden nonchalant declaration. “People think this place is haunted?”

“It is haunted,” Taryn replied softly. “The man I mentioned, people have said to have seen him in the hospital’s basement, it’s where the morgue is located.”

Rachael frowned. “Why aren’t you saying his name?”

“Because he doesn’t deserve it. People like him, don’t deserve to be remembered. I’d rather him be a faceless individual for the rest of time. Instead, it’s the victims that should never be forgotten. But for whatever reason it’s always the other way around. And as time passes, those stories of those people will become nothing more than entertainment for others to watch.”

Rachael flinched at the amount of vitriol that Taryn had in her voice, but then quickly put two and two together realizing what Taryn was getting at. “Wait, are you saying that someone found out, and tried to turn his story into a TV show?”

“Yes.”

That baffled her. “Why?”

“Because he was handsome,” Taryn said in the most disgusted tone Rachael had ever heard from her. “Do you know what kind of mess that would cause? The damage it would do to the families of the victims and even those who barely managed to get away alive? So many streaming platforms don’t give a shit about the integrity of the victims. They just want money.” Taryn looked at the defaced picture of the man with contempt. “My Mom told me that she’s been trying to get the Prime Minister and other leading bodies of government to pass a law that such platforms need to have the families of those who were tied to such a loss, no matter how far back, even if it’s one descendent remaining, to ask for permission in allowing to tell their family’s story in connection with a killer. Along with ample monetary compensation for going forward, but if that family member says no, even if it’s just one, it must end there. And if there are none then a chunk of that money the companies get from their revenue goes to relief programs. But as of yet, no one seems remotely interested. My Mom’s still trying, even if it’s more or less a side project of hers.”

Heck of a side project. Rachael thought as she looked at the photo. “Taryn,”

“Hmm?”

“He didn’t…” she hesitated for a moment. “He didn’t go after you, did he?”

Taryn glanced at Rachael. “If you’re asking if I was his ‘type’ then no, I’m not. I wasn’t even remotely on death’s door when I was brought in. Some might say otherwise given how I looked at the time… Though I’m sure if enough time passed, and if he was never caught; then he could have very well escalated to that point with healthy people.”

She gripped the strap of her shoulder bag with both hands. “Do you know how many he did that too?”

“I wouldn’t know. Too young at the time.”

He killed twenty-six people that we know of in three hospitals, and irreparably harmed at least another seven. Isabella thought. Those seven now have chronic health issues as well as debilitating disabilities. At least five that died were children, close to her age back then. She signed the cross and made a silent prayer for those five children and other victims.

“But that’s pretty much ancient history now, you know the memorial I mentioned?” Taryn added noticing Isabella’s silently praying. “Several explorers tend to come and leave things for those killed hoping their souls will find peace. It’s one of the places I wanted to show you. It’s on the ground floor by one of the other entrances. Want to go see it now?”

“Sure,” she said with a nod. “I’d like that.”

As Taryn led the way, Rachael found herself looking at the defaced portrait of the man one last time. And was glad that such a monster no longer exists in this world.