The following chapter contains elements of horror and gore, as well as a depiction of an adult character committing suicide. If you find any of these topics disturbing or triggering, please proceed with caution.

The lobby of the hospital was the same as Johnny remembered it. It had been completely undisturbed since their previous intrusion just days ago. He never thought he would come back willingly, and yet here he was. He could feel his pulse racing, and his breath threatened to come in short bursts. He gripped his sword, doing his best to slow and control his breathing; it wouldn’t be good to lose his nerve now. Beside him, he could hear his friends trying to do the same. At least he wasn’t alone. His friends were here with him, terrified as they all were. That had to count for something.

            “Stay alert, kids,” said Grandpa. “It knows we’re here. Be ready for anything.”

            Right, Johnny thought. It kidnapped Ash’s dad. It has to know we’re coming after it. What’s its plan? Bait us here, then kill us? If it’s so powerful, how come we’ve been able to survive so far? Is it just dumb luck or something else?

            These weren’t questions Johnny really had time to think about. His and his friends’ lives were all at stake. He glanced over at Ash, who looked even more tense than the rest of them. Of course she was. The stakes were doubly high for her. He had never met Arnold Arnault personally, but from what he’d heard, he thought the man sounded like a bit of a dick. Ash had talked about how much she hated him more than once. And yet, when he had gone missing, she had run off to save him without a second thought. Johnny wanted to think he would have been brave enough to do the same, but his mom had died from something that not he nor anyone else had been able to save her from. His grandpa was the only family he had left, yet their relationship was a cold one. Friendly mostly, yet distant. They didn’t really know each other at all. When the time came, if the time came, would Johnny be able to put his own life at risk like that? He shook his head to clear away the speculations. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about those things.

            “Should we go up to the second floor? That’s where we saw it the last time we were here,” he said.

            “Good idea,” said Paul. “Let’s go.”

            They ventured down the hallway towards the stairs leading upwards to the room where they had met the ghost earlier. At least, Johnny had been telling himself it was a ghost. There was really no other explanation. After his grandpa’s story, he was sure it wasn’t human. That had put any reservations he has about killing it to rest. In any case, it was either them or it that was making it through the night alive.

            They reached the stairs and started to head up. The hospital was eerily quiet. The entire place felt as if it was tensed up, waiting to strike. The room was just as they had left it. Hospital gurneys with pale blue curtains covering them lay around the area, creating a sort of labyrinth. One of them was still knocked over from when Meg had struggled with the monster earlier. He wished she was here now. The others had only just met her, but without her here, they felt incomplete somehow, as though the night could only be conquered with everyone together.

            “Well, this is the place,” said Paul. “I don’t see anybody, do you guys?”

            “It’s here,” said Tuesday. “Has to be. What happened the last time you were all here?”

            Ash spoke up. “We wandered around the room for a bit. When we tried to leave, though, it wouldn’t let us. It chased us down before we were able to jump out that broken window.” She pointed to their haphazard escape route.

            “Split into two groups and search the room,” Tuesday said. “We can’t let it make the first move —”

            The floor splintered and split where he was standing. With a yelp, the old man was sucked through the floor like a vacuum where he crashed onto the ground below.

            “Gramps!” yelled Johnny. Immediately, he jumped through the hole after him. He landed on the hard linoleum floor, allowing his legs to absorb the shock of the fall. He winced in pain, knowing the fall for his grandpa would have been much worse. There was blood dribbling from the man’s forehead. Johnny felt a wave of panic hit him. He felt the old man’s neck, looking for a pulse. With a sigh of relief, he felt one thumping on his fingers. It looked like he had been knocked unconscious, but thankfully still alive.

            Ash looked down from the room above. She saw Johnny panicking and feared the worst, but after a few moments, he shouted up at them. “We’re alright! We’re both alive, for now at least.”

            “I’ll come down to help,” said Paul.

            Good idea, thought Ash. We should all try to stay together. We can’t let it find us split up like this.

            Unless it had already found us.

            And this was exactly what it had been planning.

            “Paul, hold on!” she shouted turning. Paul had been halfway through the doors when they slammed shut, trapping him on the other side. She ran towards them and tried to force them open, but they wouldn’t budge. This was what it wanted. No, they still had a chance. She could jump down the hole to Johnny and Grandpa Tuesday, then they could all go find Paul.

            When she turned back, though, the hole was gone. In its place was a smooth hardwood floor, as though that was the way it had been all along. Oh no, she thought. The monster had won. It had won before they had even had a chance to fight back. They were split up and trapped, and at the complete mercy of something that they had no idea how to fight.

***

            “Get in there! Backs against the wall!” Chief Jackson yelled. He and another officer, a short man with a pronounced underbite, had their guns trained on Meg and Agent King as they forced them back against the wall. They were in the lobby of Jefferson Hospital; the place Jackson had determined was to be their grave. So, Meg thought. He knows this is the monster’s lair. I wonder how much else he knows. He must’ve been in cahoots with this thing the whole time, just like Johnny and his uncle thought. But why? And how?

            “Heh, you two really screwed up, didn’t you? This is what happens when you stick your noses in where they don’t belong,” Jackson laughed. “You’re in his house now. He really doesn’t like to have strangers in his house.” The arrogant bastard probably thought he had them trapped. But Meg had seen Grandpa Tuesday’s car on their approach to the hospital. Jackson had been too busy gloating to notice, but she knew Agent King had seen it, too. That meant the others were here already looking for it, maybe already trying to fight it. Things were actually working in Meg’s favor. She had initially wanted to stay behind and help, and now she could.

            But first, Meg wanted some answers.

            “Alright, you got us. We’re all out of tricks. Now why don’t you tell us why you brought us to your spooky funhouse?” she said.

            Jackson scoffed. “As if you don’t know. I know all about how you and your friends came here partying. I’ll bet you’ve all become quite the experts on the Sleepy Man by now, haven’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure everyone who was here that night keeps their mouths shut.”

            “The who? What are you talking about?” asked Meg.

            “That’s enough stalling, now. Let’s get out of here,” he nodded to his partner. “Have fun.”

            The short man pushed open the door. Or at least he tried; it wouldn’t budge. He pushed harder, throwing his shoulder against the door. It was shut tight. He looked at Jackson and gulped, suddenly looking very nervous.

            “No…” muttered Jackson to himself. “No, no, no, no, NO! What the hell is this shit?! I’m on your side, moron! I brought these idiots here for you!” He paced across the room animatedly, screaming at the ceiling and the walls.

            “Looks like you’re trapped in here, same as us,” said King. “Maybe you weren’t as in control as you thought.”

            “Shut up, you cocky asshole, shut up!” Jackson screamed, cocking his gun and aiming it right at King’s forehead. “Do you know who I am? I’m this town’s goddamn savior! My old man kept this town safe his whole life, and I’m following his footsteps. So what if a few people die every once in a while? It’s all worth it if it keeps the monster satisfied!”

            “Hey, Chief…” said a voice from behind him. The chief’s partner was shaking in his boots, but he couldn’t move. His feet were stuck to the floor, literally. The tile floor under him had begun to smoke and bubble and now the man was sinking into it like quicksand.

            “What’s going on?” he asked. He was struggling more and more, and the more he moved around, the faster he began to sink. The chief was frozen in time. He didn’t seem to know what to do. He just stared at his sinking partner, as less and less of him became visible. He had his arms up in the air, gun in one hand, the other reaching everywhere to find something to grab on to. But he was in a wide-open space, and there was nothing to save him. The floor was up to his chest now, and he was struggling to breathe.

            “Chief, do something!” King finally yelled. “The man’s about to die!”

            Jackson turned on him. “You’re going to shut up and stay right there!”

            BANG! All three of them recoiled as the deafening sound ricocheted across the room. The desperate man had taken the only weapon he had and shot himself in the head with it. The only things that were left of him were a ruined head sticking up from the ground that had been choking his neck, and two limp hands on either side.

            Blood quickly pooled on the floor. Meg felt a sour taste build in the back of her throat. She covered her mouth with her hand to keep herself from retching. The sight of a mangled body was something she never thought she would ever have to see, and she realized then why people who had seen death often refused to speak of it. It was an indescribably sickening experience. The idea that a living, breathing human could be reduced to nothing but lifeless matter in seconds is not something a teenager should have ever had to face; and yet, the image of a man killing himself was burned into her mind regardless.

            Luckily, Agent King was more accustomed than her to these sights. While Jackson was distracted by the grisly scene in front of them, he grabbed the chief’s gun arm and twisted it behind his back, causing the man to wince in pain. Twisting his arm even more, he wrenched the gun from Jackson’s hand and pushed him away, tucking it away in the seat of his pants. Pushing him away happened to have been unnecessary – it was a technique King had learned for dealing with armed opponents – as Jackson seemed to still be processing what had just happened. So, for good measure, King punched him in the face before grabbing him by his collar and throwing him against the opposite wall.

            “What the hell? What’s wrong with you?” the chief grunted.

            “I’m asking the questions now, chucklehead,” growled King. “A man just died and as far as I’m concerned, that blood is on your hands along with the blood of who knows how many people have died here. So, you had best start giving me some answers.”

***