Content Warning: This chapter contains some descriptions of body horror. If you find such content disturbing or triggering, please proceed with caution. 

Broken glass littered the floor of the abandoned hospital where Meg, Johnny, Paul, and Ash had just broken into. The front doors, once locked, had already been busted open, allowing easy access to the waiting room where the group entered. Empty beer cans haphazardly thrown on the floor underneath indecipherable graffiti provided evidence of the previous intruders. Benches which might once have been comfortable were now shoved against a wall next to a receptionist’s office, which held stacks upon stacks of files which had been long forgotten.

            The group moved into the dark, eerie space. Johnny and Ash were practically bouncing up and down with excitement. Paul turned on his flashlight and surveyed the area curiously. Meg shivered despite herself.

            “Here begins our investigation,” Johnny said.

            “According to my maps, the operation rooms should be on the second floor, in the west wing of the building. That’s where all the interesting stuff should be,” said Ash. “I memorized them,” she added proudly.

            “Let’s find a staircase then,” said Paul. He opened the door in front of them and peered beyond to find a long empty hallway lined with more doors, presumably leading to various examination rooms. Half of them were hanging off their hinges, while others were missing entirely. Still others had simply been left open to swing back and forth when hit by a stray draft. The group ventured through this corridor, which only led to more endless hallways, forming a labyrinth throughout the facility. They wandered throughout the maze, stopping every now and then if one of them found something interesting until Meg spotted a fire door that led to a staircase leading up to the second floor.

            At the top they were met with more of the same. Signs on the wall pointed directions to various departments, but they were so damaged they were all but impossible to read. They simply relied on Ash’s sense of direction and accurate memory to lead them in the direction of the west wing. Finally, they reached a set of double doors that, upon opening, led into a large room that would have been wide open had it not been for the dozens of hanging cubicle curtains littered throughout the area.

            Paul pointed to the EMF reader in Meg’s pocket. “Turn it on,” he said.

            She did so. A green light flashed on the side. The dial started quivering but didn’t move very far. She tried pointing it around the room, performing a sweep from corner to corner. Nothing happened. She peeked around one of the blue curtains and pointed it at one of the beds. Still nothing. After all they went through to get here, it was a little disappointing. Still, she hadn’t really expected anything to happen in the first place.

            She looked at the rest of them and shrugged. “No spirits this time, I guess,” she said.

            Ash waved a hand dismissively. “Oh well. We can still have a look around. We came all this way, after all.”

            They wandered around the open room for a bit, peeking behind curtains and inspecting the dirty hospital gurneys. Every now and then there would be a bedside table with rusty medical equipment on it. It was a good thing the health inspector hadn’t visited in a while. Meg had tucked the EMF reader into her pocket and moseyed between the cubicles. After several minutes of this, though, she began to feel the itch of boredom and judging by the others faces, they were beginning to feel the same.

            Paul spoke up first. “I hate to break it to everyone, but I think we can safely say the expedition is a bust.”

            “I guess you’re right,” said Johnny. “I thought there would be something interesting here, but it’s all just normal hospital stuff.”

            “It was fun while it lasted, though,” said Meg. “I mean, I know it wasn’t all that exciting, but… I can’t say I hated it.”

            Ash looked at her excitedly. “So does that mean you want to come with us again?”

            “I mean, if you guys are okay with it, I guess I could.”

            “Yes!” she shouted. “Welcome to the team, Meg!” She raced after Paul, who was already on his way out.

            Johnny joined Meg behind the other two. “Thanks for giving us all a chance,” he said. “I’m really happy you’re warming up to them. And they seem to really like you, too.”

            She smiled. “God, I was difficult, wasn’t I? Sorry about all the drama I caused. Your friends are actually pretty cool.”

            “C’mon guys,” Paul shouted from in front. “Let’s get out of here. I hate to admit it, but this place does kind of scare me a bit.”

            He pushed against the exit door. It didn’t open. “Oh, crap. Guys, I think we might have locked ourselves in.”

            “Oh, quit messing around,” said Ash. “These doors don’t even have locks.” She pushed past him and jiggled the door. It remained firmly shut. “Uh oh,” she said.

            “What happened?” asked Johnny. “Is something blocking the door?”

            “That’s impossible,” said Paul. He started throwing his shoulder against the door, trying to force it open. It wouldn’t move even an inch. “There’s nobody else in here with us.”

            The four of them looked at each other, eyes wider than usual. “Okay guys, don’t panic. We’re only on the second floor. Look, there’s windows everywhere in this room. We can just find one that opens and climb out.”

            “Good idea,” said Johnny. He quickly rushed to the opposite end of the room to find one, but stopped in his tracks halfway, frozen. The reason for this was that he felt the same thing the others felt at exactly the same time. A silent chill, like a trickle of ice-cold water running down each of their backs.

            “Tell me you all didn’t feel that, too,” he said, glancing back. They all shared the same nervous expression. The temperature in the room had just dropped twenty degrees. At that moment, two sounds broke the silence simultaneously. The first was a mosquito-like hum from Meg’s pocket. The origin of the sound was the EMF meter, whose needle was now fluctuating rapidly in and out of the red zone. The second sound was that of Johnny saying “Holy shit…” as his gaze focused on something behind Meg, Paul, and Ash. Before either of these noises had fully registered in their brains, they saw Johnny’s horrified expression form as his gaze shifted. The three slowly turned around towards the exit door to find the source of his terror.

            Standing in front of the door was a woman, dressed in a white gown and barefoot. She was looking down at the floor with her arms at her sides. Her fingers twitched unnaturally, showing long, filthy fingernails on the ends. Long black hair hung down to her waist, greasy and unkempt. She slowly lifted her head, showing a face that might have once been pretty, but now was flaked with dry skin that cascaded off her face and bloodshot eyes. She grinned at them, a wide toothy smile that stretched from ear to ear, but with nothing behind the eyes.

            In that moment, for Meg, everything else in the room ceased to exist. Pure survival instinct took over. She turned and ran in the opposite direction. In the back of her mind, she could vaguely sense the others doing the same. She dashed between the curtains, zigzagging to get as far away from the threat as she possibly could. Diving over a gurney, she scrambled beneath it and crouched down, trying to make herself as small as she possibly could. Trying to control her breathing, she looked left and right, trying to find the closest exit, any way to escape, even if she had to jump out a window. But all she could find was an endless maze of beds and curtains.

            Freezing wind blew above her head, sending a chill throughout her body. Another breathing pattern, different from her own, filled the air. Just above her shoulder, long, bony fingers curled around the edge of the bed she had hid under. Before she had time to scream, the woman in white leapt forward and pinned her to the ground. The woman again gave that sinister smile before reaching into her gown and pulling out a long metal syringe with a hypodermic needle on the end.

            For a second, she fixed Meg with her terrifying bloodshot eyes. Meg knew that there must have been nothing but fear in her own. The woman took the needle and pointed it at her own face. Slowly she inserted the needle into her own eye and pulled out the handle. Deforming and deflating, the white of her eye was sucked in to the syringe until there was nothing but a dark, gaping hole in the socket, with the gelatinous mass that once occupied it now floating in glass casing.

            Meg tried to stir herself from her shock and fight back against the deranged woman, but all her strength had left her. She watched as the woman took the eye-filled needle and slowly aimed it toward Meg’s face. In an attempt to summon a last bit of resistance, she grabbed the wrist of the approaching hand and tried aiming it away from her face, but the creature was too strong. It was getting closer and closer. Just as the needle was inches from her cheek, she heard footsteps barreling towards her. A dark shape hurtled itself through the curtain behind them and tackled the woman, wrapping her in the cloth and throwing her off Meg.

            As she scrambled to her feet, she saw Paul struggling on the ground with a massive object. It seemed he had managed to completely entangle their attacker in the curtain and was now trying to tie her up. “Meg!” he shouted. “Thank God we found you! Give me a hand over here so we can get out of this place!”

            Meg rushed over and helped him wrap the woman in the cloth until she was completely subdued. She thrashed around on the floor and they could hear muffled shrieks coming from inside, but it seemed she was incapacitated for the moment.

            “Where’s Johnny and Ash?” Meg asked frantically.

            “They’re busy trying to get a window open. Come on!” he said.

            He led them through the maze of cubicles to the back of the room, where Johnny and Ash had successfully managed to force one of the windows far enough that they could all fir through it. They looked up as the two of them ran towards them.

            “Are you guys okay?” Johnny asked.

            “What happened to the weirdo nurse lady?” asked Ash.

            “We’re fine, but she’s going to be back soon if we don’t hurry,” said Paul.

            The four of them took turns going out the window and making the eight-foot jump into the grass below. Meg was thankful for the previous rain making the ground soft to land on, but it still sent a jolt of pain up her legs when she hit the ground. The other three followed behind her and they all bolted back to the hole Ash had made without saying so much as a word to each other. They didn’t stop until the lights of town were close enough for comfort.

            By the time they reached town, they were all gasping for air. Johnny sat down on the gravel sidewalk, breathing heavily. They all stared at each other, uncertain of what to say or how to break the silence.

            “What the hell, man?” said Johnny. “Was that all real?”

            Paul was struggling to speak. “No, nothing about that was normal. I think… well, it sounds ridiculous to say it out loud, but…”

            “Oh my God, was that an actual… like an actual ghost?” said Meg, feeling like a fool saying it aloud, though as she looked around, she realized everyone else was thinking the same thing.

            “So… does this mean that our mission was a success?” said Ash.

At this, somewhat nervously at first, Meg started to laugh. Perhaps it was the insanity of the situation, but she just couldn’t help it. Then, Johnny and Ash started to join in, before finally Paul began to crack up along with them. For what seemed like hours, they stood there laughing alongside one another before finally it slowly faded out. Not one of them said a single word to each other, but it seemed everyone somehow understood the other’s feelings. Being attacked by a supernatural entity is not something Meg reckoned most people survived, but if you did, it was pretty hard not to feel a little closer to the people you survived it with.