Page 40 of Into the Dark

Poor Trey. Dr. Lawson looked uncomfortable with the display of emotion, so Oscar shifted forward and gently put a hand on Trey’s forearm. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how terrible it was for you.”

“Yeah.” Trey sniffled, not looking up. “He was gasping for air, and the way he was laying…he was all messed up. And the others kept running, and I was the only one there. I wanted to help, but I was scared to touch him in case I made things worse. Then my light went out.”

The fine hairs on the back of Oscar’s neck tried to stand up. Sitting in the pitch black dark beside a dying man, surrounded by ghosts…Trey had been through a living nightmare.

“I don’t know how long I was there, listening to his breaths get fainter.” Trey rocked back and forth in his chair. “It was so fucking dark…I just knew the shadow person was crawling down the stairs, getting closer and closer, and I couldn’t see it.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “Then, finally, I heard sirens. The others had abandoned us, but at least they called the police as soon as they could find a cell signal. Rescuers found me still sitting there, beside Kyle. He was already going cold.”

Damn. “I’m sorry,” Oscar said again. “I know that’s an incredibly inadequate thing to say.”

“I appreciate the sentiment.” Trey poured the last of the whiskey down his throat. “I never talked to Joey or Mike again.Those fuckers left us behind to die. I tried to move on, not to think about what happened, but…”

“It’s a heavy weight to carry,” Oscar said, when he left the sentence hanging. “Thank you for talking to us.”

“Are you going back inside?” Trey asked.

“Yeah,” Zeek said. “And my partner and I are going to trap the nurse, so she can’t hurt anyone ever again.”

Trey looked at him for a long minute, then nodded. “Good. I hope you send her straight to hell.”

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Since the bankof old copiers in the public part of the library required coins to operate at ten cents a page, Nigel and Chris marked any articles related to the asylum with bits of paper as bookmarks, then hauled the heavy compendiums upstairs to the office where they’d first entered. Thankfully, the old copier there groaned to life and laboriously spit out copies when they pushed the button. The toner was pale and left streaks, but the copies were legible enough to read.

They went a decade in each direction from 1932, then called it a day and went back to the asylum. Nigel longed for a shower after handling books and equipment covered with twenty years of dust and cobwebs, but unfortunately had to make do with wipes and the camping sink Ms. Montague had provided.

Shortly after their return, the broken surface of the drive crunched under the tires of Dr. Lawson’s Prius. Nigel went out to greet them, giving Oscar a swift hug when he climbed out. “How did things go?”

Oscar’s brown eyes were shadowed. “Let’s share everything we found over dinner,” he said. “I’d rather not have to tell the story twice.”

On that ominous note, the two teams regrouped in the main tent, where Tina was busy cooking a big pot of ramen. Armed with bowls and mugs of coffee, they gathered around the big table, along with Dr. Lawson. Ethan silently joined them as well.

Nigel hesitated—Ethan had heavily implied they weren’t meant to be cooperating with each other. But to hell with it; that ship had sailed. The moment Ms. Montague saw their footage, she’d know they’d teamed up.

Oscar, Zeek, and Dr. Lawson related their meeting with Trey Nelson while they ate. When they were done, Nigel shook his head. “That poor man. It sounds like the incident here ruined his life.”

“This confirms it.” Adrienne slurped up a noodle draped over her spoon. “We need to trap the nurse before someone gets hurt.”

“And that you never learned to use chopsticks.” Chris clicked the end of theirs in Adrienne’s direction.

She flushed. “I make up for it by having other talents.”

Nigel cleared his throat, cutting off their…argument?…banter? “Chris and I found the newspaper archive in the library. It’s not digitized, but luckily the office copier still worked. We haven’t had much of a chance to actually read more than the headlines, but Chris made an important discovery.”

Chris shrugged, golden skin reddening slightly. “It’s only because I was working my way forward from the date of the staff photo, and you were working back. Go ahead and tell them.”

“Give me a sec.” Nigel lifted his bowl and drank down the remaining broth, before carrying it to the sink. The stack of copies was on his cot, so he shuffled through them, grabbed the page he sought, and returned to the table.

The headline blared large enough to be easily read when he laid the copy paper down. “The date of the issue is September 12, 1933,” Nigel said, then cleared his throat and read aloud.

TRAGIC ACCIDENT TAKES LIFE OF ASYLUM SUPERINTENDENT, HEAD NURSE

Dr. Wilkes Pioneered New Treatments for the Insane; Will be Mourned by Medical Community

A shocking accident has robbed the Howlston Lunatic Asylum of both its Superintendent, Dr. Herbert Wilkes (62), and the head of its nursing staff, Miss Della Young (48). According to reports, the two were in the electroshock room when faulty wiring led to a fire. As the room is located in the basement portion of the asylum, the victims had no other means of egress, and the fire went unnoticed by other staff until all possibility of rescue was gone.

A group composed of staff and patients were able to put out the fire before any other rooms were damaged. No one else was injured in the blaze, and no patients needed to be removed or rehoused elsewhere.

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