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Evil Within
Evil Within

Evil Within

FabioLanzoniAaron Sebastians

Background: Winston Harting Psychiatric Hospital has been in open since the 1890s and then was forced to shut down in 1980 when unethical practices were reported. Documents of malpractices there show that some “subjects” were kidnapped who didn’t need psychological evaluation.
Those inside praise in fear upon “Shelah”, a spirit that wanders the halls and expels the living whenever and however it wants. Everyone lives in fear of Shelah, but those who don’t follow in fear are willingly to call upon Father. The man who brings those in fear to live free again in the glory and love from the gospels of God. Father must avoid not only Shelah for his disgrace towards it, but also Dr. Livingston, the mad man who is thought to be part of the mass killings of patients at the hospital.
30 years later, Willis, an investigative reporter, is on the scene in search of answers at Winston Harting documenting everything he finds of importance with his journal and camera. With only stories he has heard and read, he walks into the belly of the beast, not knowing who or what roams inside the hospital.


It’s a cold and rainy night when Willis is driving through the mountains. He can barely see anything through his windshield or hear his radio which is just static at this point. The rain was coming down as if a filled-large rain barrel just tipped over. The wiper blades were no match to the rate of the rain. Turning off the radio, Willis decides to slow down and to a complete stop on the shoulder of the road. “Can’t do much with this weather” he thought. When off of the road, he turns off the ignition, flicks the car lights inside on and decides to look over his files for reporting.
“Winston Harting Psychiatric Hospital” he read, “there must have been some strange wild people in there if I have to report on this”. Looking through the files some more, looking at personal notes, he doesn’t really worry about what he is doing. “As long as the hospital isn’t creepy looking, I should be good to go.” Willis has been to some odd paranormal-looking places. He recalls the times he has been to a morgue, Saint Bastatine Church where reports of children dying from the over-the-top-strictness of nuns, a cemetary and abandoned schools, but never did he enter in a mental ward before. This would be the first time for Willis when he takes a step inside the building of a madman.
The rain has finally settled down and the road could be seen somewhat. Willis turns on the engine and high-beamed lights down the road. Coming off the gravel shoulder, he pulls on the road and listens to only the windshield smacking the little raindrops as he cruises by.

Looking for a small opening in the trees and mountains is tough in the dark. The fact that it is so dense it doesn’t seem possible for there to be a driveway of somesort in this area. After driving for a while through the winding mountain roads, he finds a small opening. “Well,” he thought, “this is the only opening I have seen the whole time driving down this road.” The gap in the wilderness was encircled by old, weaving trees locking into each other towards the canopy as tall grass has colonized the ground blinding Willis what may be lying inside the grass. When turning into the “driveway” he measures out the spacing of the trees, “Oh...I might just get by” his car looks to just fit inside the opening. Encroaching ever so slowly, he is about to just get in between the trees and then he is stopped. “What?” Willis thought. “I can’t be stuck by the trees, I can open my door somewhat.” He pulls the handle and slightly opens the door out. The tall grass whipped inside the vehicle and some water droplets flung in. Leaving the door slightly ajar, he slowly backs up and tries one more time to pass through the opening. The car gets stopped again. “It has to be a stump,” he thought. Not able to fit through the door, Willis grabs his journal, camera, files and decides to roll down the window and crawl out and walk the unknown distance.

About 5 miles down the path, he comes across a tall stone wall. For a building that’s been shut down and abandoned for 30 years, it’s in really great shape. A few rocks sticking out of the wall, otherwise perfect. Walking along the wall, Willis is looking for a door or gate, he’s not really sure where to go. Pulling out his camera, he flips the screen open and turns on night vision. It’s green glowing light illuminates the camera and a part of his hand as the image itself is pretty clear. He aims the camera towards his files and turns the pages over.

Winston Harting Psy-
Blah, blah, blah
Estimated 300 bodies...
Located near High- blah blah
Entrance area is two booths of security, double fenced gate on the south side.

Looks like Willis is in some luck after all. He knows what to look for, just can’t recall which way is south. “I wish I didn’t come when it was dark,” Willis thought. So with only one option remaining, Willis shuts off the camera, gathers his materials and picks a direction to walk.

Not to many paces into it, Willis sees an outlining against the wall that looks like a fence. It seems to have barb wire on the top. Few moments later, Willis finds a plaque on the stonewall.

Winston Harting Psychiatric Hospital Entrance

At least he’s on the right side of the place to get in. Now he just has to get inside. Nothing much to go off of. There’s just a stone wall that can not be climbed, a fence that can’t be climbed over because of the barb wire unless he wants to get tetanus. Willis then walks over to the otherside of the fence and looks around. Hidden in the overgrown green grass a part of the fence was folded over like someone cut it to get inside. Not sure why someone would want to get inside. Usually people want to get out. Willis drops into the grass and army-crawls through the opening. Not breathing at all, he gets through as quickly as possible to avoid his allergies of pollen. One fence down, one more to go. He looks around and sees the same thing. An opening that is cut and folded over. Down on the ground again, he crawls through as quickly as possible. Getting off the wet ground, he is amazed to see the building and it’s grounds to be...scary. The building is massive. From the fence, it didn’t look so big along with what was shown in the file. The building has to be 300 meters in distance and 4 stories tall. Willis didn’t notice before, but there is some lighting inside the building. Not the brightest thing, but it was some light which threw him for a loop and started to jump his nerves. “How is a building shut down 30 years still have lights on?” Willis hasn’t the slightest clue of how that could be. Looking around the greens, he sees a fountain with no water spouting out, some windows are boarded and broken, scaffoldings with tarp along some stretches of the building and not a single tree inside, but a lot of shrubbery exists. Looks… normal so far. Something you would expect for a building that has been down for decades. It may look pretty good on the outside, but the inside is gonna be the most terrifying part because who knows what happened in there, or what’s happening right now. Willis is getting goosebumps just thinking about it. All the ghosts he may capture, all the paranormal activities infesting the place, it’s a chance at great discoveries he may come upon. Taking steps towards the entrance doors, his body starts to shake with both joy and fear. Walking up the cracked concrete steps, his mind is going through all the fame and glory that he will be enriched with from all the press coverage of his adventure. The moment has finally come. He reaches out towards the door and grips the brass handle and turns the knob.

Locked.

He tries again and again. Can’t get in. He tries to look through the door glass, but it’s too dark and there is caging just on the other side of the door. Turning towards a window, he tries to look inside that too, but it’s still too dark and there was also a metal cage. He trots back down the concrete steps and walks along the edge of the building. “There’s got to be another set of doors or a basement door. Walking along the tall, weeded grass looking at the spectacular sight of the hospital and it’s aging characteristics, Willis notices a dark open window. All the way at the top. It also just so happens to be next to the scaffoldings that reach that height. “Well,” he thought, “either something got in or something got out.” Chances of it still being in there is realistic, but doesn’t seem plausible that he would encounter whatever is in there. Willis rolls up his sleeves, straps the velcro camera onto his wrist and tucks the files inside his pants, then scales the scaffolding. Every tapping sound coming from his shoes onto the metal rungs is terrifying him knowing that his height is increasing and the structure is rusted. Just hope that it doesn’t break at the top. After climbing the rungs and passing by windows on the way up, he pushes himself up onto the platform and lets out a sigh. Waiting there for a while, he crawls through the window opening and proceeds into the darkness. Pulling his camera up, he flips the screen and turns on night vision. It’s green glowing screen shines on Willis’ face as the only good source of light in the area that he is in. Gathering his surroundings, it looks oddly normal. There’s a few papers scattered about and a wheelchair that is sitting in the middle of the hallway, but otherwise, it just looks like a building that is pretty well kept-up which is surprising. Scanning from side to side, Willis is searching for room names or signs, something to guide him where he is.

Room 423
Room 422
Room 421

Willis tries to open the doors, but none of them did. What was really strange though is that the doors have a marking on them. A white cross with the word, “Salvation” written beneath it. Willis thinking it was some teenage punks who got inside doing some weird religious ritual or something were the ones to blame. After a while of a slow casual walk, Willis stumbles upon an open door. He peeks inside with his camera. The metal door squeaking open, allowing him to get a bigger picture. “Woah…” he thought, “something did go down here.” Dried blood stains showed up on the screen as it painted the floor, walls and even the ceiling. Willis focused on the blood stained room, reaches against the wall and searches for a switch. He found the switch and flicked it up and down. Nothing. No power for the 4th floor. Looking around for a while inside, there isn’t much except for the dramatic amount of blood. An iron bed frame was bent in, blood-soaked mattress torn, sink half broken and a mirror that is cracked in a spider web shape. Most likely someone's head was bashed into it. Walking out the room, Willis closes the door. He now ventures down the hallway still looking at the doors as they now start to have less of the white crosses on the door. After cautiously moving about, he stops at the end of the hallway and looks out the caged window. It’s starting to rain again. The light sprinkles start to become bigger and bigger drops. Willis just stared out the window almost in a trance.

*crash*

A sound off in the unknown distance disrupted Willis and brought his immediate attention towards the end of the long hall beside him. He raises up his camera and looks at the screen. Not much to see. It’s so dark that even night vision doesn’t help much. Luckily he has a miniature flashlight on him. He won’t forget a flashlight again after wandering around an abandoned high school that was burned down with students and staff inside.

*click*

The flashbacks of being lost in the school go away as a white light hits the ground and makes a dot on the gray tiled floor. Willis raises it up parallel with his sight and flicks his wrist to direct the light on both sides of the long hallway. Still can’t see anything. “How long is this hallway,” Willis thought. Deciding to do some more moving around and not sit there like a duck by a window, Willis takes miniscule steps down the hallway scanning the area high, low and side to side.

“There are some interesting photos and paintings,” he mutters to himself, “just wish they didn’t have so much blood on them.” his mind starts to go on it’s own in deep thought of this place, “what the hell was going on here?...It all looks normal, but the blood is just insane! It’s as if cows went through a slaughterhouse and the leftover material in the carts was just painted on the walls.” His mind gone so far, he passes by the janitor's closet and comes back to reality and takes a few paces back. “Maybe,” he thought, “maybe there's a power box in here because I’m not walking around blind. Anyways, if someone or something is in here with me, I’d rather have it see me and I see it in light than have it see me and I don’t see it in the dark.” That is another thing he has learned from his previous adventure at the school. Don’t think you're safe from others in the dark.

Discovering a powerbox inside, he starts to debate whether or not to turn it on. The building is 30 years old. Who knows if it starts on fire because of an electrical failure? Willis takes his chances though. Pushing the lever up, lights turn on and fills the halls with a humming sound. “Well,...nothing exploded yet so I should be good.” Willis walks out the door and closes it behind him. Turning around towards the end of the hallway, Willis freezes and turns wide eyed. There is a person at the end of the hallway standing there. The person doesn’t look to be in great shape. Hair is long and thin while the skin was just pale gray and corroded and callised looking. Willis is just staring at the stranger and didn’t even take a breath for every sense in him turned to utter shock. “Was this person watching me the whole time? I could’ve just walked right by them or right up on them…. What am I supposed to do now?” Willis begins to make small movements with his hand and eventually moves his arm in a consistent slow motion. The stranger doesn’t seem to respond to movement. Is the person blind? The stranger didn’t move at all. The person is just like a statue, standing there. Willis proceeds to back down the hallway keeping an eye on the stranger. “I guess they're blind.” Doesn’t really settle his nerves as it only intensifies them.

Walking down a few meters backwards, the person is just standing there, still not moving or breathing it seems like. Willis lays his hand along the wall to guide him, he accidentally hits a hanging picture and spins it around on the nail it’s hanging on. Quickly turning to keep the picture in its place and not fall, he gives full attention to the picture and stops it from falling. Having it pressed against the wall, he turns back to see the stranger is still standing in the same position and spot. Willis proceeds to give focus on the picture and bring it back up and place it on the nail. With hope and prayers that it doesn’t fall, Willis gently pulls away from it with endless thoughts generating through his mind. “Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall, please just stay on or hang on by an inch, just don’t fall.” He begins to back away slowly from the picture and the person. Willis makes it to the end of the hallway from which he came and turns down the other way. Swiftly moving like a mouse, he hears a crash and clatter behind him,
“SHIT” he blurted out in his mind as his lips made the movement. He begins to walk even faster, still light on his feet. A high pitched laugh like a madman was heard down by where the person was standing saying, “I’m gonna getcha’. I’m gonna find ya’. Ha ha ha.” The laughter was filling the hallway and getting louder and closer. The footsteps proceeded to become faster and faster as the sound of bare feet slapped the tile floor coming for Willis. Turning back, he doesn’t see the person by the corner of the hall yet. Willis looking for a place to hide tried a few doors, but none of them opened. His camera started to fall off the velcro so he pulled it off and held it in his hand while looking for a place to hide. Willis finds a hospital gurney a little ways down. It’s his only hope to hide from this insane person.

Willis slides underneath the gurney and pulls the red stained sheets on it down to conceal himself best as possible. The footsteps and chuckling from the psycho came closer and closer and started to slow down as it came within meters of him. Willis heard the person laughing and say,
“I know you came from the window, I heard you jump in.”
a quick laugh comes out from the psycho,
“Don’t worry though,” chuckling again and walking past the gurney Willis is under.
Bare feet are showing as its body is casting a shadow on the red stain sheet, Willis is just staring at its bloody and skin torn feet with long yellow nails that are like hawk talons. The person goes on,
“I like when I hunt my prey. HAahHA,”
The psycho gives a big sniff in the air and gives a loud, hungry sounding moan, still standing next to the gurney.
“I can smell you’re near by”.
The psycho drops to the floor instantly on its knees and bends down with its face coming down and licks the dried blood ridden tiling. The psycho’s eyes were glazed over white for the person is blind with a tongue that is long and has a sharp point to it with dissolved and crooked teeth. Willis, with short shallow breaths controlling the best he can with making noise when seeing the person lick the floor with a long tongue that is dripping with saliva hoping the person doesn’t see him. Will then takes his miniature flashlight and quickly, short passes it down the hall from which they came because of terror and fear that the person may have found him. The flashlight makes a few echoes and scraps along the tile as it spins around. The psycho’s malformed face with sewn pieces of skin attached shot up while its bloody red feet and shadow jumped in the air. Turned around, this insane person starts to laugh maniacally and runs down the hall.
“I’m gonna getcha. I’m gonna find ya. HaHAhA,” shrieking its high pitched laugh down the halls and Willis watches this person turn the corner with his arms wrapped around from the jacket and is gone out of sight only hearing the faded echoes of laughing and slapping footsteps in the distance.

Willis lays underneath the gurney for a while concealed by the bloody sheet still thinking what he has just witnessed. A madman is running around the halls and is hunting him down. Blind to Willis, the person can still hear and smell him with great perception and also senses with the tongue. Willis comes back to life with long big breaths that are slow. Looking down the hallway again from under the gurney, he checks to see if the person is coming back. No sign of the insane person. Willis cautiously slides out from the gurney and gets back on his feet. Willis decides this is over. It’s done, he’s getting out. Walking back to the window which he came through, he wonders how people are living here, how these people came to be what they are if there is anymore. Just a short distance from the window, loud screams came down from the hall where the madman went and were coming right for him. It sounds like the psycho he just encountered, but now it seems that person is in danger as the screams become words.

“No!...NO!...NOOO-”

A powerful snapping and cracking sensation invaded the air.

Silence.

Not even the lights were humming after that cry. In the midst of the silence, Willis stops his body, mind and even his heart for a moment. He can’t function properly. His legs trying to move, but are cement as his breath turns to suffocating air. The silence changed into a sound of feasting, like hunger and thirst took over a man who hasn’t seen food or water for days. Willis isn’t gonna take his chance by exiting out the window. Whatever was over by the hallway corner, he didn’t want to know. So Willis turns around and exits the hall calmly and quietly as possible through a pair of conjoining doors that leads to a stairwell.

The lights are dead in the stairwell. Willis flips his camera open and turns on night vision. He would rather have his flashlight to see, but that is gone, and besides, he’d rather not tell anyone where his location is from the flashlight so....it’s a win loss scenario for him. Looking at the screen’s green light, these steps are quite a path. Making a circular shape down, Willis discovers some more dried blood on the steps and walls.
“Where’s a janitor when you need one?” Willis thought trying to calm his nerves with jokes.
Making his way down the steps, he has gone one floor down to the third level. Before opening the door, he peeks inside the door window.
“Damn,” he thought, “lights are out except for a few dim ones.”
Giving a courageous breath through his nostrils with deep emotion, he opens the door and peeks his camera inside. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not a soul in sight. Willis spins inside and closes the door. Looking down the hall, he sees that it splits in a T-shape. Walking warily through the hall, he investigates every door. Not a white cross on any of them, but there is sure a lot of blood and litter. Walking down the hall, Willis sees a vending machine and a few garbage cans. Nothing really drastic. Making his way to the end of the hallway, he looks down both directions. One way has a few lights on, but are dim. The other is dark, but through the camera screen, it looks pretty darn short. Not knowing where an exit might be, he decides to take the short dark path.

With his camera up and looking at the green lighted screen, he turns back to look towards the light to see if anyone was behind him. Not a person in sight. Making his way down the hall, a low rumbling sound is made. It sounds like it’s coming from above in the ventilation system. The sound is going back and forth, loud and quiet. “What’s going on?” Willis thought. As the rumbling sound started, lights in the hall started to light up and go dark. The lights couldn’t make up their mind if they wanted to live or not. Willis sees in the flashing lights a door that says, ‘EXIT’ in bold red lettering. Amazed that he can get out of this insane asylum, he dashes for the door. Freedom smells and birds are chirping in the sun in his mind not caring how much noise he is making. Following the vents to the door, he is so close, but still so far away. With long strides his legs can’t reach out far enough for all the energy he has. He is gonna smash through that door with all his might. Leading up to the door he smashes the push-bar, but is stopped cold in his tracks. He pushes again and again and again. He lets out a sigh of despair. It’s locked.

Turning around to the sound from the vents back towards Willis, he stared at the ventilation channels. Someone scattered across the open vent and gave Willis a glimpse of who it was. Willis can’t go out the ‘EXIT’ way as it lies to him, so he goes back down the hall from which he ran, still keeping his ears keen for the sound of rumbling in the vents. Some doors were broken in and the windows on them were smashed with some rooms not even having a door anymore for they were ripped off seeing that the hinges are bent and torn. Whatever did that had to be pretty strong. Willis looking into the rooms doesn’t see much to note or anyone that is in sight. He takes his camera and pulls it up again and is recording his progress. Feeling much safer with lights on in this part of the hall, he starts to settle in for what may be a goose chase in finding an exit path that isn’t blocked or locked.

A little ways down, the hallway opening turns into what looks like a large open room. Maybe a common gathering center for visitors and employees. He starts to wander in that direction looking at all the damage done to the place from the rooms to just the walls and ceiling. Some parts of the walls are caving in and making large concerning cracks that lead up across the ceiling. Entering into the new area, Willis is on top of a balcony that encircled the opening room allowing him to see the first floor.
“Pretty large room,” he muttered to himself.
Standing on the old, dry, wooden balcony he notices it’s oddly quiet up here. Willis looks from side to side and looks behind. No one. Just some shelves and barrels that are lined up against the walls and a huge chandelier light in the center of the building that reaches towards the top held on by a cable. Willis walks to the edge of the balcony and reaches the railing that makes some moaning sounds. With his camera still out, he takes it and leans out looking at the bottom with the railing holding him. “Long ways down,” as his fear of heights starts to kick in. A clattering sound erupts behind Willis and with instant reaction, he pushes against the old railing and snaps it causing him to fall two stories as his scream fills the stale empty air.

All dazed and confused from the fall, Willis has moments of blurry vision and total darkness. He’s starting to see different halls and scenery, finally realizing he’s being dragged. Willis’ head falls back and sees a strange man pulling him from the collar of the shirt. In and out again, he can’t come to terms of life. With a few more moments of sight, Willis notices that he has been dragged past many people. Insane people. Those in straight jackets or chains, with a mask or some even just naked. They all stare at him. Willis’ head falls back one more time and darkness has taken his mind.

“Are you okay my son?...Are you alive?”
The sound of someone’s voice is invading Willis’ empty mind as the words echo inside. Willis forcefully opens his eyes as wide as he can allowing light to infiltrate. Blinking with intensity and speed, he comes out from mental sleep.
“My son,” the person goes on, “you are okay.”
Willis jumps back off the ground and falls.
“Get away!” Willis shouts, “Get AWAY!”
“Shh shh shh,” the man says to him like a mother would do to calm down a child, “nothing to worry about here,” he gently speaks as he holds Willis’ shoulder with his pale hand. A fearful Willis stares at the man in the eyes. He is younger looking and bald and has some natural clothing on as if a normal human citizen of modern society.
“I need you to help us.” The man held the ‘s’ sound for quite a while, “we are being abused and attacked and even murdered in here.”
Willis unsure of what is being said or what is going on gives a look of concern and confusion towards the man, “who are y-”
“I go by Father,” the man interrupted, “and we need your help.”

Willis, still looking with some concern in his eye asks Father, “What help?”
Father stands up and gives almost a theatre act of what he is saying.
“Shelah is here. Shelah is coming for us. God has made us his guilty innocence and is teaching us the wrongs of the earth that should have never escaped from Hell.”
Willis gives wide eyes realizing that Father was really a Father, a priest, a preacher.
“You,” Father points at Willis, “you are the chosen one. You my son, will save our tortured souls and free us from all man’s sinful world.”
Still confused by what Father is saying, Willis asks, “I’m the chosen one,... who will save you?”
“Not just me,” Father becomes passionate and sincere in his words, “you will save everyone in here, including the sinners. Shelah has no place on God’s human earth.”
“Who is Shelah?” The mentally-ill people all gave Willis a look when hearing the name.
“An evil spirit,” as he begins to pace back and forth, “that will take every man, woman and child who steps one foot in here and feeds on their souls and well-being hearts while life is drained by their own insanity.”
“So I have to defeat Shelah?”
“No my son, God will not accept death for it is wrong.” Father comes closer to him and almost makes his words into a dramatic whisper, “You must show Shelah the light.”
Can’t believe what he’s hearing, Willis goes with it because he doesn’t want to be on anyone's bad side at this point. “How do I do that?”
Father stands up,
“Don’t worry my son, God will guide and protect you for you are the chosen one,” and he walks away turning around adding one more note, “and don’t forget this.”
He gives a breath of fearful hope, “Don’t let Dr. Livingstone see you,” and walks into the darkness.
“Wait...Father, who is Dr. Livingstone?...Father!”

For a while, Willis just layed on the floor. Layed on the floor giving up trying to get out. Now people inside want him to save them by defeating something that can’t be seen along with some doctor that he apparently has to watch out for. It doesn’t make any sense. Why is a doctor in here? Is this person an actual doctor? What is Shelah and what is it’s motive for being here? Is Shelah real or all just a dream? All of Willis’ investigative reporter questions just popped as thoughts.
After much thought and consideration, Willis decided that maybe it is best to just “free” the people inside here. There’s no way he can get out if he doesn’t know where he is.

Getting up, he looks around to see his surroundings by opening his camera which has survived the fall. He’s in a large room that has doors evenly spaced out at every side and people are out, but don’t seem to be aggressive or aware that Willis is even there. He then walks around looking at the people recording them. Some look to be normal, while others, not so much. One person took to his attention. When he walked inside a room, someone fell to the ground and crawled underneath the bed and started whimpering in fear of Willis who just came in. “Okay,” Willis thought, “I think it’s time for me to back away”. And in doing so, he shuts the open door and leaves the person in peace. Deciding this is time to get some information in his journal, he pulls it out and clicks the pen.

------Strange people in here. Some are “safe”, some are dangerous. It is vastly different here with a bunch of characters. I had some psycho try to hunt me down with smell and taste, while another person, Father, is said to be a man of God. Father said I was the chosen one and that I have to free their souls by defeating Shalah, an evil spirit. I also have to note that I have to watch out for a Doctor Livingstone, who I don’t even or have a slightest clue who this person may look like.-------

Looking around and up towards the ceiling, he sees that there are a lot of floors above the opening with the same kind of chandelier emitting small amounts of light. Around the next floor opening, there is a cage. A full cage that surrounds it making it impossible for someone to enter into this area through the opening. Still looking for a way out, Willis sees a set of stairs that lead up to the next floor. Taking his time up the steps, he pushes against the door.

It’s locked.

He backs down from the steps and is pondering how to get out. What struck him though was, how did he get in? Father dragged him into this room, but there is no way to get in unless he went through the stairs, but the door is locked. In the midst of his pondering, the insane people got familiar with him being around and began to creep closer towards Willis. Noticing that, Willis without a word, stomps his foot on the ground and the people backed away still looking curiously at him.

Willis decides to check all the rooms. “There’s gotta be something in one of these rooms,” he thought. After a long time checking rooms and keeping away from the crazy people, he finally walks into a room and finds a way out. In the room he is in, the wall was cracked open revealing a passage on the other side. Narrow, but big enough for him to slide on through. Not knowing where this goes, it’s better to get out of the insanity than to stay in it.

Making his way out of the room, he believes he is in the basement or the lower floors, because of all the piping and valves around. Willis takes a few steps in the hall lit by kerosene lamps on top of barrels or anchored into the wall. It didn’t do much, but it’s better than nothing. Still pondering how he got down there, Willis takes his attention away from his surroundings. A man hunched over in a crouching position was sitting above him along the wall bracings and shadows watching Willis move past. Willis took his camera out as it began to get darker and spottier with lamps. It is an oddly long hallway and he doesn’t know which way he is going. Looking along the walls to see any doors that could give him any clue, he found a plaque.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

“That would explain it,” Willis said to himself.
He continued down the hall to find a few steel doors that were shut with many locks that were all different kinds of styles, dead bolt, mortise locks, knob locks even magnetic locks. He tried to open a few, but none of them opened. So he went down even further into the dark hallway to find more doors and opened one. Looking inside them, he saw some disturbing things in there. Dead bodies of those who were insane. Some torn in half from the torso, others hanging from straight jacket sleeves and straps, some with heads ripped and eyes removed, a metal pipe lodged inside their throats. Willis immediately backed out not only because of what he saw, but the smell was horrendous. A fly wouldn’t even go in there. Who knows how long the bodies were in there. Just for information purposes, Willis sticks his camera-held arm in there, but shuts the door so it closes as tight as his arm can stand because the smell is permeating like a breeze from an air conditioner. Pulling his arm out, he shuts the door fast with a loud bang echoing through the hall. The putrid air gives one last kick out of the door and comes right at Willis. He couldn’t hold it in anymore. His body hurled as he started to move to the opposite side of the hall leaning into the stone blocks and retched out his digested food with eyes burning from the strong odor as his lips quiver. Willis can hardly breathe and believe what he just encountered.

After a moment of recollecting his body and mind, he leans back against the wall and starts to shiver from the sight he just recalled. Pulling his body off the wall, he walks down the path a little faster trying to get away from the area, not opening any more doors down there. Light started to pour back in as a small stair set that leads to a door has a caged lightbulb above it shining down on a door that says Upper Level.
Making his way up the stairs and to the door. After turning the knob and entering halfway, Willis is thinking whether to keep the door open or shut. What if he needs to come back? What if he finds a key for the door in the caged area? Only problem is, he doesn’t know if it locks or has a magnet lock inside. So after some decision making, Willis retreats back out and looks for something to block the door from closing. Finding a small block of wood not too far from the door, Willis places it by the door frame and shuts the door, leaving it open for the time being.

Inside a room that is well lit, Willis sees that this part of the hospital is pretty open. No chairs, no tables, no file cabinets, rooms, nothing. Just a marbled floor. Willis is looking around and wondering, “what happened to...everything?...where did the things go? Surely there were things in here.” There’s not a lot of blood in here, which is odd considering the whole building he has seen is just painted with it. With a strange feeling coming on, he walks into the center of the room and sits on the floor quietly. Willis wasn’t sure what he was doing, he was just doing what his mind told him. “Sit,” his mind said, “stay quiet”. Willis knows he’s sitting, but why? The feeling came off and he stood back up and snapped back to himself in actions he would agree to be him.
“What the Hell was I doing?” he said muttering and thought he should write down his experience.
-------I’ve never witnessed such disgusting filth in my life. Bodies torn and ripped, hanging from the ceiling with objects shoved down their throats. They weren’t just dead, they were...play things at that point. Just ragdolls. I don’t know if they did that to themselves or if someone came in. Either way, it’s not a fine way to go.
The strangest feeling came over me. It was like I was in a trance as I sat down in the middle of a room and stayed quiet. I don’t know for how long, but I “came back” if that is what I can say. Something truly bad is in here and it’s not just the mentally ill. It quite possibly be Shelah. Shelah may be real, but I hope that isn’t the case.-------

Forgetting where he was, he checks around and realizes he is still in the cleaner room than what he has seen so far. His mind flicked as he just realized something. He looks down at his camera in his hand. Rewinding the tape he has so far on it. Watching the recording, he sees all his actions up to this moment. When he entered the room, he set the camera down in a darker area and walked to the center of the room where the most light was and sat there quietly as his body was in the dead center of the screen. Willis sitting there cross legged, his lips are moving, but isn’t saying words aloud or at least not loud enough to hear. He then stood back up, but Willis recognizes something in the recording that is hazed or malformed. He rewinds the tape back and forth. A blob of light air is floating above him, almost touching Willis. It’s just a blob. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Willis thought,
“Hold on-” his mind can’t process what he just concluded.
“Something’s not right here...I’ve been doing this for how many years...9,10? I’ve never encountered something like this.”

He begins to question himself.

“Am I delusional?”

Willis goes back to the recording and looks at that moment again to see the blob. Back and forth again. He doesn’t see it there. No malformed imaging. Willis takes his hand and rubs his eyes and face as he gives a big breath,

“I gotta stop going to these shit-crazy places. No more haunted schools, cemeteries, morgues, hospitals, it’s all over, I’m done.”

After his time of self-reflection of what he’s doing with his life in this insane asylum, Willis wanders down the hall which proceeded to get darker now with the light fading along the walls and floor. There’s not much light, but there are specks of light down in the distance. Making his way down further, his caution mentality went skyrocketing, because he doesn’t want to deal with another psycho hunting him down by licking the floor and hearing his heartbeat. At the end of the hallway, he turns to see two iron gated doors in his path. Going down the path of darkness, Willis is marching straight for the doors to see if they open. Not paying attention to his surroundings, he walks right past a door with a room window that has no blinds or lights on making it virtually invisible. Almost to the iron doors, two big burly men came around the corner on the other side of the doors and made their presence larger as their silhouettes combined in the dimmed lighting. Willis immediately made his body flush against the wall shadowing himself from the men. His breathing making short silent breaths. The two men were mumbling to each other in the distance walking towards the iron doors. The closer they came, the faster Willis’ breathing became along with his heart pounding. Their mumbling became words and Willis listened with his eyes closed.
“He said catch him.”
“No he didn’t idiot, he said kill ‘em.”
Their voices were low, deep and almost growling and raspy.
“What are you talking about? Dr. Livingstone said catch him alive”
Willis’ mind shot off so many red flags in an instant. It all made sense now. Willis figured it out. The thing that has made the clattering sound up on the balcony was Dr. Livingstone. He must have been following him for the whole time. How did he find out though that Willis was there? Willis never saw him.

The two men were even closer now, almost to the doors. Willis is not gonna take a chance at the doors being locked. He slides against the wall making him invisible to the men. With short little side steps, Willis is making fast, easy progress along the cold wall. The shorter of the two men opened one door that made a rusty grinding sound that filled the quiet void. Willis begins to shuffle down the wall side making light footsteps. The two men are now entering through the second door as it also made the same sound as the first. Willis can’t make it to the end of the hallway and hide, the light will give him away. With little time to think through, he gunned for it down the hall trying to make it back to the door he propped open and back into the caged room where Father took him. The two men shouldn’t be able to fit through the wall opening. In the moment of his running, the two men in sync,
“Get him!”

Their cries and voices are roaring through the halls. Willis can feel the floor shake beneath his feet from the two men. Running down the dark hallway after the turn, his figure is better projected from the lighted room ahead. Willis looks behind him on the survival run. The two men take a wide turn and crash into the wall as their massive size impaled into the wall making part of their bodies disappear. A large crack ran across the wall reaching Willis almost instantly after the two men crashed. That only encouraged Willis to run faster. It seemed the faster Willis went, the two juggernauts got closer and closer. After a full sprint, Willis made it to the lighted room and long strided for the door he opened. The two men who were roaring yelled as a thundering crash came to the floor. Looking back, Willis saw the two men trip over each other and they started to fight blaming one another as they started shoving each other into the walls of the hall. Willis ran down back to the door. It was shut.

“WHAT?!” he thought.

Turning the knob vigorously and yanking on the door trying to open it, a voice right behind him interrupted his actions.

“Looking for this?”

Willis turned around and was met with a block of wood to the face along with four consecutive punches that all made the back of his head bash against the metal door leaving him knocked cold as his helpless tired body fell to the ground.


The sound of running water filled Willis’ darkened vision and Willis' eyes opened as the bright lights made him close them again forcing him to squint for a while. Whistling was filling Willis’ ears also. Sounds like a tune from the forties. Trying to cover his eyes from the light, Willis’ hands and feet are stuck. He looks down squinting, they are latched down on a chair with leather belts. With his instincts now kicking in, he shakes his body trying to free himself. With grunts and full effort, he was stopped by the pulling of his hair back making his head and eyes come face to face with a stitched up man.
“You’re gonna need a top-notch magician to get you out of that kid,” throwing Willis’ head back to where it was before.
The man’s face was quite scary looking. Eyes sunken in, well...one eye sunken in, the other is a glass eye. Parts of his cheekbone and jaw are sewn together as different colors of skin patches are also tied together giving his face and color an abstract form.

“So,” the man went on, “how are you?” The man sat down in a chair in front of Willis staring at him with a dead smile. Willis didn’t answer as he just stared down avoiding the blinding lights.

“I said, HOW ARE YOU!?,”

The man's hands slammed against the arm rests of the chair.

Willis immeidiately answered with a sincere, but low tone, “Fuck you...who are you?” as Willis raises his head for he can coexist with the lights now.
“Wow,” the man said, “first you curse at me, then ask for my name. That’s not how you greet all strangers isn’t it?”.
Willis didn’t answer because he thought it was a rhetorical question and the man went on.
“Well at least we’re getting somewhere,” the man sits up straighter in the chair.
“I’m Doctor Livingstone”
Talking as if a real doctor.
He pulls on his torn and blood stained lab coat pointing to his stitched cursive name tag.
“That’s me.”
He stands up making a grand gesture with his arms spreading out to each end of a horizon, “Vwala!...this is my home,” Dr. Livingstone starts to circle around Willis, “a place where I can think, relax, enjoy, play.”
He makes it to the other side of Willis’ side and walks away towards a lab table.
“With you, mmmm….”
Dr. Livingstone starts to whistle in thought, “I think we should play.”
He turns around leaning against the table.
“What should we play, hmmm….”
He stares at Willis and Willis moves his head towards his direction.
“I know,” Dr. Livingstone acclaimed, “let’s play, ‘Doctor’.”
Dr. Livingstone turns around with laughter and makes some clanging sounds, “oh how fitting it is for me. I should know how to play.”

Willis struggles again trying to loosen the straps and Dr. Livingstone says, “Don’t even try,” turning around with a towel enriched with all types of utensils. Setting them down next to Willis on a side table he calls out, “Thing One. Thing Two!”
Two men came in. The same two men who are big and muscular that chased down Willis. They came close to Willis commenting,
“We let this one get away?” and “He’s so little.”
They look as ugly, if not, uglier than the doctor, but Willis doesn’t think that anything could beat the Doctor’s glass eye. Dr. Livingstone asks the two men, “Do you think you two deserve a prize for your succession in a catch?” The two men look at Willis.
“A person this size, we should be deserving of something.”
“Of course you two do,” Dr. Livingstone said with a chuckle and a sigh.
Dr. Livingstone is looking and examining through all his utensils. Knives, hooks, scissors, needles, clamps, got a whole toolkit of instruments. Willis looks at both the Doctor and the two men who are just staring at Willis with their tongues hanging out and drooling. Dr. Livingstone goes on to tell a story as he’s looking through his choice of weapons.

“I can tell you right now, that you’ll make a great story. I mean, you almost got away, but I was smart though.”
Tapping his head with his long dried out index finger, “I was smart,” he chuckles, “You falling was probably the best thing that happened to me because you bought me time.”
He is whipping the tools around as he uses gestures to tell a story.
“When I accidentally knocked over a bucket, I thought I would never see you again, but Father proved me wrong about God,” he laughs again, only this time louder and more obnoxious.
“He does exist. God helped me,” pointing at the ceiling moving his finger like a music conductor.

The two men were licking their chops still staring at Willis. Looking around and behind him seeing that his camera and materials were on another table sitting in the open. Dr. Livingstone picked a shiny object. A long knife with many teeth and jagged edges, “this will do the job,” he sat down in front of Willis and gave a flat smile as his multi colored cheeks bubbled up in joy. “I think you two-” the burley men started to get excited and giddy as Dr. Livingstone said, “Hold on boys. I want you two to be neat and proper like real gentlemen.” The two men settled down and stared at the shiny knife like birds at food on a picnic. Willis didn’t say much for there is not much he can do, but stare as life starts to look to be an end. Dr. Livingstone touches the tip of the knife on Willis’ ring finger.

“I think this will do,” instantly pushing the tip through Willis’ finger forcing Willis to scream in unsuspicion and agony.

Blood started to squirt out onto Willis and the doctor’s coat adding more to the stains. The two men started to rub their hands together in feast mode.
“Oh, don't be whining,” Doctor Livingstone said, "I’m sure you’ve been through worse,” then proceeds to twist the knife onto Willis’ bone hearing the blade scrape and feeling his bone being pushed out of his skin. Willis let’s out an even louder scream and the two men laugh.
“You’re just like Karen,” the Doctor said, “She was nice though. Didn’t know how to do her job which is why her blood stain is on here, but she didn’t cuss like you.” Willis lets out another cry in pain,
“fuck you!...all of you," shaking around in the chair for a bit and his breathing becoming rampant.

“Don’t scream again,” the Doctor went, “or I’ll have to put a steering-rod in your mouth and trust me...

you won’t like it.”

Willis began to let out little cries knowing that if he does scream, it is all his cards on the table on a fake bluff the Doctor is saying. With the knife now halfway through his finger, Willis asks him now starting to cry and sniff from horror and pain,
“Just take it off, please just take it off.”
The Doctor responds in delighted question, “Are you sure?” looking at him.
Willis gives his head a nod as his eyes and mouth say the word ‘yes’.
“Okay,” the Doctor said, “you asked for it.”
Doctor Livingstone rips his finger off with his hand. Willis screamed in bloody murder. The two men are now jumping around, laughing and enjoying the scene as blood is pouring out from Willis’ finger. The skin that remained on his hand that was attached to the finger was stretched out and pouring thick with blood as the bone was lathered and outlined with blood.
“I won’t put the rod in your mouth for that scream,” the Doctor said, “I would’ve probably screamed too if that happened to me.” Willis breaks down crying. His body can’t endure that one thing that happened to him. Thoughts run through his mind of just the pain, “how can people deal with gunshots and stabbings, how?” Then again, Willis’ finger was torn off. Dr. Livingstone shows the two men the finger as if making a big discovery and places it on the towel with the rest of the tools.

After a little while when Willis got back to some normalcy of pain tolerance, Dr. Livingstone asked a question towards Willis, “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“What?” Willis asks in confusion of where this is gonna go.
“Do you have a significant other?”
Willis shakes his head no.
“Hmm,” Dr. Livingstone said, looking at Willis with serious thought running his brain.
Groaning out the question, “Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering.”
Dr. Livingstone holds up the bloody knife with the tip pressing his cheek while looking at Willis with another question on his mind.
“Why don’t you have one?”
“Don’t care.”
Dr. Livingstone adds onto it cause he knows the answer. Playing with the knife in his hand, Dr. Livingstone is pointing at Willis’ fingers to see which one is next.
“I looked through your file,” Willis turns back to see the file on the table. “I know what you do for a living,” Dr. Livingstone drags the knife leaving a small red streak on each finger he skates the knife’s edge over them, “You’re cursed with power.”
Willis looks at the Doctor in disbelief, but still as if wanting more information.
“All those places you’ve seen and investigated, it brought bad mojo with you,” Dr. Livingstone shakes his head in disapproval, mocking Willis of his wrong doing, “I mean, look at where you are right now,” he begins to gut laugh. “How did you survive? You poor bastard.”
He presses the knife down flat on Willis’ finger cutting off his index finger. Letting out a brutal deafening screech, Willis thrusts himself back from the pain causing him to fall back with the chair. Falling backwards, he knocked over the table to the side of him with all the tools and his cut-off finger sending it on the ground. The two burly men dive for it and fight each other.

The room is total chaos. Two big men fighting, Willis on the ground in pain as blood is flowing out of his hand like water through a hose and a Doctor that is shambling as to what to do to take control back. The doctor tries to settle the fight between the two and forgets about his ‘patient’. Willis then shakes his chair and pushes his legs around the ends of the chair trying to become free below the torso. Dr. Livingstone turns around to see Willis has freed his legs and comes at him trying to rope his legs together again, but Willis kicks him like a kangaroo and sends the Doctor into the two men fighting making him a part of the battle for the finger. Willis shakes and shakes his chair and breaks the wooden arms off. Taking multiple tools on the ground that fell, he throws them at the three. Willis isn’t too concerned about the two burly men for they are too focused on the one finger. With every blade, scissor and needle thrown, blood from his less-digit hand is spraying everywhere onto his clothes and face. The bleeding won’t stop. Willis then takes the belts that once tied him and straps it together for the two burly men as fast as he can, fighting through the pain trying to forget that he even lost fingers. With the belt, he jumps on the two big men and wraps the belt on one neck and twists the belt to loop the other side on the other man’s neck forcing them to work together to get out of the situation and buying Willis some time to get away and out hopefully. Dr Livingstone is stuck between the men who are laced together and acting haywire, so Willis takes the rest of the tools on the ground and throws them at the doctor and the two men hoping something could happen to them and then takes the broken chair, small metal tables and lab equipment just chucking them at the three. Doesn’t matter that Willis is bleeding or missing a finger that is freshly cut off. Survival has no room for pain.

Sweeping his materials into his arms and away he goes, Willis shuts the door he came out of and finds a filing cabinet and pushes it in front of the door hoping it can stop them for a while. Willis is not sure where he is and doesn’t want to take the time to find out. He wants to get out. Willis is surrounded by lights in the halls and blood is painted and stained all over the walls and floor as doors are broken open and walls are bashed in. It’s a complete battlefield feeling in his escape. As he is running, yells and screams are coming from behind as the three who Willis trapped in the room. Willis drives on forward with his legs. A bashing sound of wood breaking sounds off behind Willis and echoes through the halls. Willis finds a stairwell and runs down it. The two giant men Willis tied up are heard charging down the hall as they crash and bang around into the walls. Willis is going down four or five steps at a time. It’s dark, but he’s gotta just go. The two burly men break through the wall to the stairwell and one of them fell through the middle opening and hit his body and face against each stair floor against the stair cases, walls and railings and shook the foundation once he hit the bottom. The walls and ceiling were cracked and crumbling while part of the staircase started to cave in because the large man took out half of the material when falling at an immense force like a bowling ball to a glass plate.

On his way down, Willis can sense he is nearing the end of the stairs. Not sure if he is at ground level or heading to the basement, he guns for the very bottom the steps as far as they go. Willis is nearing the bottom and he begins to feel a headache. He can’t move. His body stopped. The other big man is getting even closer and yelling down the stairs, “I’m gonna rip your head off and stick a pipe through your chest.” Well Willis now knows who did the killing in the Solitary Confinement room and doesn’t want to find out how it feels. Still not moving, his body physically won’t let him and his mind goes blank as his vision goes dark.


Waking up from the blackout, Willis is on the ground and facing a large man who is lying on the floor with eyes ripped out leaving dark sockets, a neck torn open, fluid-like intestines spilled out with blood pooling around the body and even soaking onto Willis’ clothes. Willis pushes away from the body and stands up in fear. The large man is dead. This is not the one who fell through the opening though. This is the one who chased him down. Willis is not sure what happened. All he knows is that he couldn’t move and blacked out. Willis looks at the ground where the man is and sees his camera, journal and file is all there. He picks up the camera and sees the screen is cracked. Looking at the footage last taken to see what happened, it looks as if it was in the stairwell. The stairwell he is in right now. Willis is very confused now, “I don’t remember recording anything”. He rewinds the footage a bit. The images flash by his eyes as small differences of light make his surroundings look different. He plays the footage then. There the camera is just recording by itself without Willis in the frame. The big man comes down the stairs angry, but then turns into fear and begins to step back up the stairs.

The footage makes static and cuts to another scene. It shows the big man on the floor without his eyes, throat torn and intestines out with a pool of blood growing larger and larger. The recording skips to another scene. It’s...Doctor Livingstone on the steps. He’s looking at the big man and then looks up in the frame. Willis pauses the video and looks up to see nothing but darkness. Looking back down at the camera and playing the video. Dr. Livingstone is now on his knees and curling in rocking his body back and forth. The recording then makes static again and shows the journal closed and stops there. Willis looks at the journal on the ground and opens it. It’s just blood soaked pages. The ink writing is hard to read. He can’t read it in here, how is he supposed to know what it says? He knows something more is written in it, but doesn’t know because he doesn’t remember writing in it. Willis takes one last look at the big man’s carcass and proceeds down the steps to reach a door and opens it.

By opening the door, he sees that he has reached the area where father has taken him, only this time, he’s on the outside of the cage. Willis looks down into the pit area where the insane people are, but no one is down there. Willis tries the door that was locked and it was now unlocked. He walks down the metal steps and investigates the area. Willis was wrong. There are people, except they are all dead. Bodies are torn in half, skulls crushed, jaws ripped and twisted, pipes shoved down throats and glass shards are stuck to their heads and stomachs. Willis can’t believe what happened. Looking at the people and in their rooms, Willis sees one man hiding underneath a bed with a book close to his chest. Willis goes in and asks, “what happened?” The man came out and it was Father.
“Father, what hap-”
“You,” he exclaimed, “you did this! You’re a beast from Hell!”
Recognizing an attack, “whoa Father it-”
“Back away,” Father held up a crucifix and bible towards Willis as they circled around, “I don’t know how God could have masked such a blackened soul and expect us to live with it.”
Willis approaches closer, “Father, it’s me.”
“I said BACK!” Father backs out of the room leaving Willis in it.
“I’m not what you think I am.”
“I can save you... Shelah!” Father immediately shuts the door and locks Willis inside.

The room is filled with warding symbols and messages of God and love with gospel scriptures with crucifixes and a bucket filled with water of which Willis can only assume is holy water. Willis then runs up against the door and starts thrashing into it and banging on the window, “Father let me out! Let me out!”
“I will save you my child. Just trust our great Lord.” Father begins flipping through the pages of the bible.
“Father I’m me...I’m Willis!”
Father begins speaking to God asking for forgiveness on Willis’ soul. “Let not his actions define him for the evil mentality that invaded him, my Lord. He is just an innocent child who explored too far in your perfect world-”
Willis was banging on the door to get out, but now is banging on the door by seeing Dr. Livingstone on top of the balcony opening the door. Father is flicking pages all over in the book in a rush,
“-Heaven’s angels and Saint Michael, the archangel, help Shelah see the light of righteousness and love. Let Shelah be torn from a passive soul to live as its own-”
Dr. Livingstone is taking slow steps down the stairs waving a pair of scissors around showing Willis what’s coming next.
Willis tries grabbing Father’s attention about Dr. Livingstone, but doesn’t work as Father is speaking louder and louder trying to silence Willis so God can hear him loud and clear.
“-This child of yours is ridden of a malevolent being God. Clear his mind, heart and soul and let it be once again in your great creation of individuality in your eyes.”
Dr. Livingstone is walking at slow paces towards Father with a grin and playing with the scissors in his hands. Willis then falls to his knees not wanting to watch what will happen and begins to play out multiple scenarios in his head hoping none of them come true.
Father is crying even louder for God, “Let Shelah free and send the demon and beast that haunt his soul back to HELL!”
Willis blacks out.

Author Notes: Go to next part (story is too long to fit on one page).

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About The Author
FabioLanzoni
Aaron Sebastians
About This Story
Audience
15+
Posted
26 Mar, 2021
Words
11,242
Read Time
56 mins
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