Page 95 of Immersed
Or something,Levi thought, but didn’t voice it.
They explored deeper, finding more evidence of the sanitarium’s dark history. Old medical equipment that looked like torture devices. Files scattered in corners that detailed “experimental procedures”. Patient rooms with restraints built into the walls.
“This is perfect,”Asher said suddenly, stopping in front of what looked like a doctor’s private office.
“Perfect for what?”Levi asked, though hehada sinking feeling he knew.
“For us. For your first time.”Asher’s eyes were bright with enthusiasm as he surveyed the room.“Ithasa couch, soft lighting from that lamp, and look!”He gestured to a small adjoining room.“A private bathroom for... preparation.”
Jesus Christ.“Asher, we’re in a haunted hospital filled with monsters.”
“Former hospital,”Asher corrected.“And the monsters are mostly in other areas. This wing seems quiet.”
He began moving the desk, adjusting the couch cushions, even finding a small vase and placing some wilted flowers from a nearby planter into it.
“There,” he said with satisfaction. “Much better.”
Levi watched in horrified fascination as Asher continued his“preparations.”He found medical charts and stacked them neatly,as if tidying up would somehow make the idea less insane. Then he located a small radio and spent several minutes trying to find a station thatwasn’tstatic.
“Music is important,” Asher said. “For ambiance.”
“We’re surrounded by death and horror,”Levi pointed out.
“All the more reason to create something beautiful,”Asher replied, finally finding a classical station. Soft piano music began playing from the radio’s tinny speakers.
He’s lost touch with reality,Levi realized. But there was something almost endearing about Asher’s sincere effort to create romance in the most inappropriate setting imaginable.
Like someone trying to set up a romantic dinner in a boss arena.
“What about the candles?”Levi asked, playing along despite himself.
Asher’s face lit up.“I almost forgot! Let’s keep looking.”
They continued exploring, Asher occasionally pointing out other potential spots with unadulterated delight. A patient room with a nice view (“Look, you can see the courtyard from here”). A reading nook in what used to be the library (”Very intimate, don’t you think?”).
Itwasduring one of these surveys that they found the trail of scratch marks leading deeper into the building’s hidden areas.
They moved through the service passages, following the desperate marks. The scratches grew more frantic, more desperate, leading them toward what looked like a section Levi didn’t recall seeing before.
“I hear something,”Levi whispered, stopping to listen.
From ahead came a sound—wet, rhythmic, like someone trying to breathe through damaged lungs. But underneath it was a mournful sound that might have been crying.
“We should go back,”Asher said.
But Leviwasalready moving forward, drawn by some combination of curiosity and dread. The soundsweregetting louder, more desperate.
They rounded a corner and found the source of the sound.
ItwasZoe. Or what remained of her.
She crouched in the passage, her body a grotesque amalgamation of human flesh and surgical horror. Sharp pieces of bone and metal jutted from her arms and back, some looking like failed surgical grafts, others like crude spikes thathadsimply been driven through her flesh and left there. Her spine curved wrong, twisted into an unnatural arch that made her movements jerky and animal-like.
But her facewasstill recognizably Zoe’s, though her eyeswerewild and unfocused, darting around like a trapped animal.
When she saw them, she froze for a moment, something almost human flickering in those desperate eyes.
“Help...”she whispered, the word barely recognizable through lips thathadbeen split and sewn back together incorrectly.
