By the time we all ate the sandwiches we'd packed and got ready to investigate, my nerves were wound so tight my neck had started to hurt. I reached up to try to loosen it, stretching my neck from side to side in an attempt to pull out the tension, which must've caught Nick's eye.

"Need some help?" he asked with a smile.

“Um—” as tempting as his offer was "—no." He was always flirting with me, but he flirted with every girl he came in contact with, so I never thought anything of it.

"Okay, then, let's get going."

We decided to split into groups of two this time so we could cover more area, with Alex picking who went with who, since he was the leader of our motley paranormal crew, which helped keep everyone on track and organized. I ended up with Nick, which I was thankful for, since being alone in the dark with Erik would've been awkward and Mark talked too much. I liked investigating with Tanya, too, but here I'd rather be with someone braver than I was, which Tanya was not. Aside from our looks, with her having blonde hair and me having red, and her being several inches taller than I was, we were a lot alike. I caught her attention before we split up and smiled and waved at her like it might be the last time I ever saw her.

"So long, girly," she said with a pout, waving back at me. "I'll come find you for bathroom breaks."

"Please do," I replied.

"What? I'm not good enough to piss with?" Nick asked like he was really offended.

I ignored him, shaking my head as we started to walk back up the stairs that we'd last escaped down. Once the door closed, I turned on the flashlight that hung around my neck, filling the stairway with an eerie, green glow.

"So, what caused you to run?" I asked, knowing Nick never ran. Now that I think about it, I'd never seen him run on an investigation until that moment.

"I don't know. It just felt like something—" He cut his words off as he opened the door and cool air smacked us both in the face. "I thought it'd be hot as hell up here."

"Yeah, I did, too." Wasn't heat supposed to rise? "It's like we're in the basement, not on the top floor."

The stairwell door slammed shut behind us, leaving us standing in the silent hallway, huddled inside my green glow. "Well, it feels good," Nick said, "so I'm not complaining." It did feel nice, causing my sweaty skin to chill. "Where do you want to go first?"

"You're asking me? Usually, you take off and tell me to come on," I admitted with a laugh, which echoed down the hall, causing the hairs on my arms to stand up.

Note to self: no loud laughing.

"Yeah, well, I know this place freaks you out more than the other places we've been, so I thought I'd be nice," Nick replied.

"This place must be getting to you, too." Nick wasn't mean, but he was never really nice, either. "Um, let's go this way," I said, pointing to the opposite end of the hallway from where we'd gone earlier. "We can see what all's down there, since we ran like wusses before we got to that area."

We passed several rooms before walking into the last one, wanting to start at the end and work our way back around. Nick turned his flashlight on, which was brighter than mine, lighting up a bed, some files that were laying on the window sill, and a few toys, which freaked me out. Toys are supposed to be fun and childish, but not in a place like this. In a place like this, they screamed you're about to die by the hands of a demon child.

"Why would this stuff still be here?" I asked, knowing the asylum hadn't been in operation in fifty years.

"I'm sure some of it's been placed by people who've been here, or the people who own the hospital." He flipped through the files that had been laying on the window, dropping them onto the bed once he'd nosed through them. "Or these are actual things from patients. Look at this."

I walked over to see what he was looking at, surprised that it looked like an actual patient's file. "Joseph Darby... age 35... Bipolar Disorder. It lists his address and everything." I looked up at Nick. "How can they just leave this stuff laying around for anyone to see?"

He shrugged. "Maybe he's dead, now, so it doesn't matter." He sat the file on the bed with the others. "Maybe he was one of the ones Eleanor killed."

A laughed echoed from down the hall, creeping into our room and gripping my spine. "Please tell me you heard that," I whispered, chills popping up on my skin as I shivered, grabbing ahold of Nick's arm.

"Oh, I heard it, alright." He shivered, too. "Let's go see where it came from."

I reluctantly followed him out, staying close by his side as we stood at the end of the hallway. After a minute of listening to my heartbeat thud in my ears, I pulled out my night vision camera so I could see better, as well as document any further activity.

"See anything?" he asked once I got it turned on.

"No, just a lot of dust floating around."

Suddenly, it sounded like a door slammed at the other end of the hall, but when I looked through the viewfinder, I didn't see anything. Without saying a word, Nick gently held onto my arm and started pulling me with him as he slowly walked down the hall. Each room we passed made my skin crawl, like someone was about to reach out of one of them and grab me. Trying to shake that bad feeling off, I focused on looking at my camera, which made everything seem a little brighter and less scary. After taking a couple more steps, however, something showed up on the screen, appearing to stand at the other end of the hall.

I grabbed Nick's arm, causing him to stop, and held the camera out so he could see. "What is that?" he whispered, looking from the camera to the supposedly empty space in front of us. He turned his light on, pointing it down the hall, but it didn't reach all the way to the end, so he turned it off and looked back at the camera. "Look, it's getting closer."

I looked back down at the camera and what had once been just a dim form at the end of the hall was, in fact, closer to us. "Please don't leave me. Do not run and leave me," I demanded with the sternest whisper I could muster.

"I won't leave you."

I was surprised when he took a step forward instead of backward. "What are you doing?"

"I want to see what it is."

I tried to hold the camera as steady as I could, wishing I'd have taken the thermal camera instead of Erik taking it. At least then I'd be able to see if it was an actual person, animal, ghost, or... something else.

Feeling like a target, I turned my flashlight off, which enabled me to see the camera screen much better, but plunged us into total darkness. I stepped behind Nick, stabilizing the camera against his shoulder, watching whatever was at the end of the hall as it watched us.

After a few seconds, it appeared to step back into the room at the end of the hall. "It's gone," I whispered.

"Let's go." Nick grabbed my hand, entwining his fingers in mine. This was more like the Nick I was used to—bossy.

"But what if it's... what if it's...." My mind didn't seem to want to form a coherent sentence at this point, so I stopped talking and held my breath as we neared the end... of the hallway.

"Hello?" Nick yelled, causing me to jump.

"I really wish you'd stop doing that."

"Doing what? Trying to communicate with whatever's here?"

"No, communicating so loud, and without any prior warning. Tell me next time."

"Okay, Amber, I'm about to talk again. Is that okay?"

"Smart-ass." I rarely, if ever, cussed, but he seemed to make it easier.

"Asssss...."

"Something just mocked me. Did you hear it?" I asked. "Like a hissing sound?"

"Yes, I heard it." He raised his voice slightly. "So, you think I'm an ass, too?" He walked into the room, causing me to follow so I wasn't left in the hallway alone. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"Oh, my word. There's a bed in here, too," I noted.

"Too bad Erik's not here instead of me, huh?"

"I don't like Erik," I lied.

"Whatever."

Before I could reply, we heard a distant scream, which sounded like it came from below us. "Was that Tanya?"

"I don't know."

"Nick... Alex?" The muffled voice came from inside Nick’s bag. "Are y'all there?" It was Mark on the walkie-talkie.

Nick dug the walkie out of his bag. "Yeah, what's going on?"

"Let's regroup at central. We've had some major activity on the main floor."

"Okay, we'll be down in a minute," Nick said, followed by Alex, who said they'd had a lot of activity, too. "All of us have had activity? It's gonna be a good night."