Asylum (9 page)

“No, no, I’m fine. Really. Just break plans without letting me know, it’s cool.” He had a disposable cup like Abby’s in his right hand. As he sipped from it, she wrinkled her nose.

“Jordan, is there liquor in that?”

“No.”

“Jordan
.
”

“Fine! Yes!” He pushed it under her nose. “You’re driving me to drink.”

Abby reached for the cup, but Jordan backed up across the hall. He tilted it back and drank the rest of what was inside.

Abby’s eyes flashed. “I said I was sorry, Jordan. What else do you want me to say?” Dan took her coffee cup while she got her keys and unlocked the door. She gave him a relieved smile. Dan was just happy to be an ally.

“Anyway, why didn’t you just call instead of lurking outside my room?” Abby said.

Jordan shrugged, suddenly engrossed in picking at his fingernails. “Don’t know.”

“I think you do, so spill it,” she said, opening the door. Dan expected Jordan to follow Abby inside and start in on them both, but instead Jordan hesitated, eyeing the door suspiciously, as if he thought Abby was waiting for the right moment to slam it in his face.

“What are you, a vampire?” she asked. “Do I need to
invite
you across the threshold?”

“Just wasn’t sure I was welcome.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Jordan. Get in here, both of you.”

Dan stepped in, admiring how cool her room was, with lots of her own art decorating the walls. Most of it was colorful, exciting, and vivid, so he wasn’t prepared for the one picture that stood out like a dead rose in a bouquet. The hollow-eyed girl. Taped on the wall above the bed, it was drawn exactly like the photograph. Dan stared at the empty eyes and the scar on the little girl’s forehead, wondering why Abby would ever want something that creepy watching over her while she slept. It was hard to look at—and hard to look away.

“Sorry it’s a bit of a mess,” Abby was saying, seeming not to notice what was really bothering him. She swept some clothes off her bed and motioned for Dan and Jordan to sit down. Pulling out her desk chair, she scooted it along the floor until she was right next to them.

“Now spill, Jordan. What’s going on with you?”

Jordan looked only at Abby. “This just … being left … Well, it hit a nerve,” he said slowly. “I had this friend back home. Blake.” Jordan stumbled over the name as if just saying it had made him choke. “We pretty much did everything together, until a few months ago when I finally came out to him. Although come on, how could anyone be around me for five minutes and not know?” he added bitterly. “Anyway, he made himself scarce. Not like a blowup fight or anything. He just … disappeared. One day we’re fine, buddies, whatever, and the next he’s not returning my texts, he’s ignoring me at school.… He’d pass me in the halls and just look
through
me, like I didn’t exist … like I was some kind of ghost.”

A long silence followed Jordan’s confession. Abby glanced at Dan.

“That’s not fair,” she finally whispered. “We didn’t
disappear
. We’re not ignoring you. And I’m sorry, Jordan, we both are, but honestly … we were sort of on a date.”

“You were?”

“We were?” He and Jordan spoke at the exact same time. Dan cleared his throat. “I mean, we were.”

“Oh. Good for you …” Jordan chewed the inside of his cheek. It didn’t sound like much of a congratulation.

“But next time we’ll call,” Abby said, hurriedly adding, “if we’ve made plans with you or anything. Okay?”

“Okay.” He sounded like a little kid, one who had unexpectedly gotten his way but didn’t want to stop pouting.

“Abby …” Dan couldn’t hold back the question any longer. “Why did you do that drawing?” Abby followed his eyes to the picture of the little girl as if she didn’t know immediately which one he meant.

“I don’t know, why not?” she said. “She seemed so sad, I wanted her to feel like she was in a safe place. She was clearly lonely down there in the dark and dust. I thought I would just put her somewhere a bit brighter for a while.” She looked at the drawing. “Wow … I guess I didn’t think about how creepy it is.” She paused. “Is it weird?”

“Yes.” Jordan was the first to answer.

“Really? And you think so, too, Dan?”

Think very, very carefully about these next words.…

“I just … It doesn’t freak you out at all? She’s very …
unusual
, is all.”

Behind Abby’s back, Jordan gave him double thumbs-up, mouthing, “Nice job.”

Abby paused. “It’s like she’s speaking to me. Like she needs me.”

“No offense, Abby, but that sounds a little cracked,” Jordan said.

“Probably,” she replied, laughing softly. “I guess
I’m
a little cracked. But blah. We should do something, you know? Get out of here … Go somewhere! What do you think, Jordan? Let us make it up to you?” Abby’s face brightened as she added, “What do you say we check out the creepy old office again?”

“I don’t know.…” Jordan looked to Dan for help. “Last time got kind of … strange …” He trailed off.

Dan wanted to agree with Abby. He wanted to be on her side, and show her that she could count on him. But between this picture on her wall and the weird emails from earlier, re: patient 361, Dan felt like he’d had enough scares for one night. The more he thought about it, though, the more he felt like something from the office was tugging at him. And he had just gone on a first date with Abby—now was not the time to start telling her no.

“Why not check it out,” Dan said cautiously. “There’s probably nothing down there, but …”

“Exactly.” Abby reached for Jordan’s hand. “It’s just a bunch of old pictures. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“It’s not about that,” Jordan snapped. “I’m trying to make it so we don’t get kicked out. So
I
don’t get kicked out! I’m not even supposed to be here. It would be a total shitstorm if my parents found out.”

“Calm down, guys, I’m sure we can all agree on something else to do.” Dan aimed for neutrality, hoping to lower the tension in the room. Besides, he could always explore on his own later.

“But it’s two against one—Dan and I want to check it out, don’t we, Dan?” Abby said.

“Yeah, but—”

“I mean, there could be a clue down there about those emails you got, your mysterious ghostwriter—”

“Your what?” Jordan perked up, turning to glare at Dan. “What emails?”

“Hey, I hadn’t really decided whether I wanted to spread that information around just yet.”

“Wuh-hoh, lovers’ first spat? And over a ‘ghostwriter’? What exactly did I miss?” Jordan sat back down on the bed and patted the space next to him. Dan and Abby both kept standing.

“Dan got a weird email, but when he went to read it, it was gone. Doctor stuff, patient report or something like that.”

Dan bristled.

“Maybe it’s a data ghost,” Jordan said.

“What’s a data ghost?” Dan asked.

“It’s like a fragment of human consciousness that gets stuck in a piece of technology even after the person’s dead … a bit of soul trying to reach out before it’s gone for good. It can communicate, but only for a little while before it starts going haywire and degrading.”

That sounded eerily on point to Dan. Maybe he wasn’t crazy after all.… Although the idea of an
actual
ghostwriter wasn’t exactly comforting. “Is this a real thing? How have I not heard of it before?”

“Oh, no, it’s not real.” Jordan laughed, dismissing the idea with a wave of his hand. “At least, I don’t think so. I saw it on an episode of
Doctor Who
. But it sounds similar though, right?”

“It does,” Abby agreed, “but I think Dan was looking for something a little less sci-fi. And if it’s
real
he wants, then he’ll probably find it down in the basement, don’t you think?”

Jordan paced, fishing a die out of his pocket and passing it around between his palms. Abby reached out and intercepted it, hiding it in her fist. “You said it was doctor stuff, right Dan? Maybe something down there is reaching out from beyond the grave or, I don’t know, sending psychic brain waves to freak you out.”

There was a pause as they all considered this.

Finally, Jordan said, “Dan, if something
unexplainable
is going on, why would you want to go sticking your nose in it? I mean, not that I believe it, but shouldn’t you just let sleeping dogs lie? What are you even hoping to find?”

Dan shrugged. From the break in Jordan’s voice, Dan could tell that they’d won. Against his better judgment, Jordan would be joining them downstairs.

“I have a feeling I’ll know it when I see it.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

.....................................................................

CHAPTER

N
o
 11 

I
t didn’t take Jordan long to pick the lock this time.

“Once more into the breach?” said Dan, trying to make a joke. No one responded.
Idiot
.

It was as dusty and dark as Dan remembered. He shivered, with cold or excitement he wasn’t sure. Probably a bit of both.

Despite having seen it only once before, they moved quickly through the reception area, retracing their previous path to the warden’s office.

Dan held the door open until everyone had stepped through.

“So where do we start?” Jordan asked in a nervous whisper.

“I feel like there has to be more to the old wing,” Dan said. “Which would mean there’s another door around here somewhere.”

He sincerely hoped there was more, anyway. It seemed a bit extreme that people in town would want to tear down the whole building over a dusty reception room and a messy office. But there was something else, too, a feeling that the asylum went deeper.

“Look for hidden doors, latches, anything,” he said, squeezing between his friends. The beam from the flashlight he’d brought this time bounced along the floor and up the walls as he studied the filing cabinets and bookshelves. Abby drifted to the wall beside the desk and immediately found the picture of the little girl again. Jordan stood frozen as if he’d already seen enough. Dan ignored them and pressed ahead.

He moved from one bookcase to the next, shining his light over the cracks between each one. Dust covered everything, shimmering up into the air at even the lightest disturbance. Going clockwise, Dan eventually ended up at a cluster of filing cabinets that lined the wall behind the warden’s desk. The third cabinet in the bunch looked strangely cocked, as if it had been pulled out from the wall and pushed back again, but not all the way. This was it, he knew it. As if to confirm his suspicion, a pair of rusted, broken spectacles hung from a hook on the other side of the cabinet. He reached out to touch them, then stopped. There were fingerprint streaks on the wall behind the glasses, like someone had hung them up with a bloody hand.

“Guys, I think I found something,” he said, reaching around to the back of the cabinet and gripping the edge. He pulled, and the cabinet lurched half an inch forward, its metal feet screeching across the floor.

“What are you doing?” Jordan hissed. “Don’t break anything.”

“Let me help.” Abby was at his side, gripping the front right edge of the cabinet and counting, “One, two, three.”

They heaved, and the cabinet eased forward a foot, giving them a glimpse of an opening behind.

“No way,” Abby breathed. “A secret passage? Is this for real? How did you know to look here?”

“The spectacles,” Dan said, pointing to the hook and the glasses.

Abby looked at the streak marks, shuddered, and then seemed to collect herself.

“Just a little farther and I think we can squeeze through,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Nope. No, thank you. I am
not
going in there.” Jordan shuffled a few steps backward, holding his hands up as if in surrender.

“Suit yourself. I want to see where this leads.” She motioned for Dan to help her out, and after one last moment of hesitation, Dan reached for the back of the cabinet and pulled. In two quick tugs, their way was clear.

“Use your flashlight, Dan. I can’t see anything.”

He went through first, his heart pounding in his ears.

“This must have been a real doorway once, but it looks like someone tried to brick it off,” Dan said as he and Abby crouched and walked through to the next room.

“Then who opened it back up?”

Bits of loose brick and wall scattered from Dan’s shoes. “Professor Reyes mentioned something about a senior seminar archiving this place. I’m guessing they needed to knock a hole in the wall to get access.”

The ceiling and walls opened up, and with a quick sweep of the flashlight, Dan determined they were in a second, smaller office, this one with nothing but two tan filing cabinets and a downward stairwell to the right.