Page 23 of Into the Dark

Oscar turned the SLS and aimed it down the dark hallway. “Let’s see if we’re the only ones here.”

At first, nothing happened. As they stood in silence, eyes fixed on the SLS screen, Oscar became aware of just how damned quiet the building was.

At least, in their vicinity. The place was huge and built with thick stone walls inside and out. Adrienne and Zeek could be screaming at the top of their lungs, and the sound would never reach them here.

The women locked in these seclusion cells had screamed. Screamed until their throats were raw, but the patients on other floors hadn’t been able to hear. Only the nurses and doctors patrolling the halls, acting as though nothing was wrong…

Part of a stick figure materialized on the screen.

Oscar’s breath stuck in his throat. What looked like a head and upper torso leaned out from one of the doors, as though peeping at them from inside the cell.

“Look,” he whispered.

The figure wavered—then ducked back inside.

All the fine hairs on his arms stood up. “Should we follow it into the room?”

Nigel took a deep breath. “That’s what we’re here for,” he whispered back.

Oscar started to take a step forward—then froze. A second figure had appeared on the SLS, standing in full view at the end of the hall.

Then it charged directly at them.

Oscar threw himself back, one arm going out instinctively to protect Nigel. For a moment his medium’s senses beheld the spirit in terrible clarity: a heavy-set woman in a nurse’s outfit, dark hair pulled severely back, a scowl on her face.

Just as she reached him, she seemed to dissolve into mist, her stick figure vanishing from the SLS screen. A cold wind gusted over him, biting and angry, then fell still.

“What the fuck was that?” Chris yelled, panning with the camera.

Oscar let his arm fall, his heart pounding against his ribs like it wanted out. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, and his legs threatened to shake.

Nigel wrapped a hand around his wrist. “Let’s go back to the tent.”

This time, Oscar didn’t argue.

“Are you all right?” Nigel asked.

Oscar sat in one of the folding chairs inside the command center, a blanket over his shoulders and a cup of hot coffee cradled in his big hands. Some of the color had come back into his cheeks, thankfully, and his expression changed from shaken to thoughtful.

“Can I see the film from the fourth floor hallway?” he asked Tina, instead of answering.

She’d been watching Oscar with concern, but now swung back around to her monitor. “From the static cam, or Chris’s?”

“Either is fine.”

Dr. Lawson stirred from where she’d been sitting by Tina. “Let’s see it from Saito’s camera—we’ll get more angles that way.”

Chris went to their camera and popped out the card. “You can just call me Chris, Dr. Lawson.”

“Old habit from my teaching years. Indulge me,” she replied.

“It’s true,” Nigel said. “All these years, and she still calls me Taylor.”

“It’s how I remind you to respect your elders.”

Tina scrubbed through the video until she reached the fourth floor. Everyone else crowded around to see what they’d captured.

Nigel hated seeing himself on camera, but he tried to ignore the embarrassment and focus. Oscar used the SLS to spot the ghost peeping out of the cell, before the figure ducked away and the second ghost appeared. As it rushed them on the SLS cam, Oscar fell back and threw an arm across Nigel.

---