Page 61 of The Haunting of Lockton
“Agreed.” Skyler placed his hand on my lower back and moved in closer. “We should keep moving.”
“Yeah. We should.”
Neither of us moved.
His lips pressed to my jaw and lightly skimmed to my ear. His breath fanned out against my earlobe as he whispered, “I’m glad you’re here.”
I wanted to ask what this was between us. He had said he liked me, but was it even possible for anything more to happen? Once they finished investigating, they’d leave town. What was the point in trying to build something that would only be torn down later? A waste of time, energy, and heartstrings.
With that thought in mind, I pulled back from Skyler and aimed my flashlight at the doorway before stepping toward it.
“Pax, wait.” He grabbed the back of my arm and gently pulled me back to him, kissing me softly on the lips. The contact didn’t last nearly long enough. “I’ve been wanting to do that since you left last night.”
“Technically, it was early this morning.”
He cracked a smile and glided the tip of his nose along mine. “Will you stay with me tonight?”
A crash sounded from the other room.
We snapped our heads toward the doorway and rushed from the smaller room, returning to the main part of the medical wing. The camera that had been placed in one corner was now on the floor.
“I probably didn’t fully lock the stand into place,” Skyler said as he bent to retrieve the camera. “It’s not broken, so that’s good. Jules would kill me.” He set it back on the tripod and checked it, then checked it again. “Seems sturdy now.”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and I looked around. Something felt off. I didn’t have a sense for the paranormal, but I definitely felt like I was being watched.
“What’s the story here?” Skyler asked as he wandered through the medical wing. With his phone in hand recording, he knelt down to one of the bedframes.
I knew he wasn’t asking what the room was used for. That was pretty self-explanatory.
“Arthur Warren and the doctors weren’t the only ones who were cruel to the patients,” I said. “The nurses were too, some of their own volition, and some were following orders. Many of the treatments in this room were to patch up the patients after the doctors were done with them. There are claims that the nurses even killed several of the patients after labeling them unfit for future experiments.”
“If the doctors fucked them up too bad, they were put down like animals?”
“Basically,” I answered. “It’s sad. No one should have to endure something like that.”
“Have there been any sightings in this room?”
“A few,” I said. “The most common one is the apparition of a woman with blond hair and blood on the front of her gown. After doing some digging, I believe she’s a patient named Alison. Excuse the gory description, but she allegedly gutted herself after complaining several times that something was living under her skin. The nurses would subdue her and send her back to her room. Then one day, she came in and said she would cut it out herself. She attacked two nurses and stole a knife before cutting herself open.”
“Fuck.” Skyler sharply exhaled.
“According to medical reports, she was sent to this ward a lot, constantly being patched up after the doctors were done with her. The autopsy showed several of her organs had been removed prior to her death. There was also evidence that she’d been used to test drugs on. I think that’s why she cut herselfopen. All the injections and experimentation made her believe they’d placed bugs inside her.”
From the corner of my eye, a faint glimmer appeared and hovered beside the wall of cabinets. Slowly, I looked in that direction, catching a glimpse of long blond hair before the apparition dissipated.
“I saw it too,” Skyler whispered and pulled out the EVP recorder from his jacket pocket. “Are you one of the patients who died in this room?” He waited a few beats. “Alison?”
The air stirred on my left side. And it got cold.
“He hurt me.”
The whispery voice so close to my ear caused goose bumps to travel down my arms. “Who hurt you?”
“He put something evil inside me,”the voice whispered.“I cut it out.”
Skyler gaped at me. “She’s responding to you.”
“I’m sorry for what was done to you,” I said. I hadn’t fully looked at her, worried it would cause her to flee.
