Page 47 of Into the Dark

The silence was broken by a single, loudplinkof water dripping.

They all froze and exchanged looks. The door to the bathroom where they’d encountered Mariah, the hydrotherapy ghost, still lay about fifteen feet ahead.

“What was that?” Chris whispered.

“Water.” Nigel glanced at Oscar. “Should there be any water?”

“There was electricity at the library, so maybe?” Chris looked around nervously. “But I would have expected the asylum to have its own well, given when it was built.”

“And a well needs a functional pump.” Oscar shrugged. “We’ve seen weirder things in abandoned buildings. No need to freak ourselves out.”

It was an admirable attempt, but Nigel didn’t think Oscar bought what he was saying any more than they did. Moving more cautiously now, they crossed the remaining distance to the door and stepped into the bathroom.

Their lights reflected off ripples. One of the hydrotherapy tubs was filled to the brim with dark water.

“What the fuck?” Chris whispered.

Oscar took a deep breath, grounding and centering at the impossible sight of the filled tub.

Maybe there had always been a slow drip. Or maybe they’d jarred something loose when in here the other day, and it had started a drip that filled up the tub over the course of the intervening hours.

Or maybe he was looking for a rational explanation where there wasn’t one.

Nigel strode over to the row of sinks and turned on one of the taps. Nothing came out. Mouth pressed into a line, he went to the next sink and the next, but every tap remained dry.

Cold prickled along Oscar’s skin, accompanied by the sensation of being watched.

“Chris, make sure you get a good shot of the tub,” he said, keeping his voice calm. Then: “To everyone watching, when we were in here before, there was no water. Now there is. As you’ve seen, none of the other taps work at all.” They’d splice in footage of the sinks from Nigel’s head cam. “According to the EVP weheard earlier, the name of the woman who died here is Mariah. I’m guessing from the water that she wants to make contact.”

The sense of someone watching intensified when he spoke her name. Visualizing his football gear protecting him as a ward, he took out a D cell battery and placed it on the rim of the tub. “Mariah, we’re here to talk to you. If you need energy, take it from that battery,notfrom us.”

A flicker of frustration lapped at the edge of his awareness. He firmly ignored it as he took out the spirit box. “This device will allow you to talk to us directly. If you had radios during the time you were alive, it’s like that.”

Static exploded out of the spirit box when he turned it on. From the corner of his eye, he saw Nigel holding his EMF. He’d turned off the sound, but the lights flashed wildly, spiking from yellow to red and back again.

Holding the box loosely in his hand, Oscar said, “Is this Mariah we’re talking to? If so, can you say your name back to us?”

The static hissed as the device skipped randomly from one frequency to the next. Then“Mar-i-ah”formed amidst the jumble.

Single words were usually dismissed as unreliable, but a multiple syllable word should be more accurate. “Thank you, Mariah. My name is Oscar. I’d like to know your story. When were you here in the asylum?”

There was no answer but static. Possibly she didn’t understand what he meant. “Okay, let’s try a different question. Why were you here?”

“Flapper. Parents.”

His heart sank at the words. “Your parents put you here because you were a flapper?”

“Too wild. Disapproval. Fix me.”

“They wanted to fix you because you were too wild?”

“Yes. Boyfriend. Bad girl.”

Fuck. “They sent you here because they didn’t approve of your lifestyle and your boyfriend.”

Rural West Virginia in the 1920s was riddled with bootleggers…but that didn’t mean every family was either in the business or approved of headstrong daughters even if they were.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” he said, at the same time sending the emotion toward her so she’d hopefully know he meant it. “Earlier, when I asked you what happened, you said ‘cold.’ Did they leave you in the tub too long?”

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