For You

August 2, 2011
2:10 AM
Location – Old Peterborough Hospital, Peterborough, Ontario
Jordan

I made it.

It may have taken me long enough, but I finally made it. After almost getting killed and losing my memory at one point, I was finally here. Now to figure out how to get into the old hospital without being seen was going to be the tricky part.

Old Peterborough Hospital wasn’t really that big and was eventually shut down at one point due to over capacity and was moved to a different location in Peterborough. It was mainly home to the abused or the woman who needed medical attention during pregnancy, then it became to everyone else that needed help. I’ve heard old stories about the place being haunted, but then again, Marc and Eric were always dumbasses when they were trying to scare me when we were younger.

I walk over to the side of the building to find a way to break in without Spencer flipping a shit. I find an open window and examine it, realizing that I won’t fit through the open space. I run around to the other side of the building and find a fire escape latter. It was at that moment I saw a window I knew I was going to have to break in order to get inside.

I climb up the fire escape latter, praying to God that I will not only slip and fall to my death, but that I don’t regret leaving the handgun in my car that I hoped didn’t belong to a former serial killer. I make my way to a window and punch it, as the shriek of the glass makes a loud sound and glass flies all over the place. I then proceed to stick one leg to the other side of the window as I support myself with the window frame and ladder. I then throw myself into a room and land on my stomach.

I look up to see I’m in an old room that was painted white and saw a few small beds that looked like incubators. I was in what I think was the old nursery of the hospital, due to seeing a rocking chair in the corner of the room. I then get up on my feet and scan the room, only to see Azalia wasn’t in here. I walk over to the door, open it softly, and wait a few seconds to find that no one heard me open the door. I then prop my head out into the hallway and see a shadow in the distance. I close the door lightly and put my back against the door.

Calm down Jordan, calm down, I tell myself as I breathe in and out, while attempting to get the courage to open the door again. Be strong Jordan, do this for her, I tell myself again as I lightly open the door and prop my head out into the hallway, seeing no one was there. I step out and close the door behind me, as I debate on which way I should go. I look at the room number across the hall. It read 5827, which only meant I had to be on the fifth floor and odds are Azalia was somewhere in this building. I look to myself and see a door leading to the staircase, then to my right to see more rooms and another hallway. Something in my gut was telling me to go down the stairs to the floor below me for whatever reason.

I make my way to the staircase and open the door lightly, before turning around to make sure I wasn’t being watched. I then walk into the stairwell and close the door behind me, as I feel my phone vibrate. I pull it out of my pocket to see Eric calling me. It was two in the morning, shouldn’t he be sleeping? I answer the phone and put it to my ear. “Eric, why are you up?” I whisper.

“Our mother is a nervous wreck and why are you whispering?”
“I’m in a stairwell.”
“So your in the hospital?”
“No Eric, I’m in the stairwell that leads to the stairway to heaven. Of course I’m in the hospital!”
“We know why Azalia was avoiding you.”

I stop at the first set of stairs that lead downward as my heart begins to race. They knew why she was avoiding me. This could two ways: it could either go they way I want it to or they way I don’t want it to go too. “What?”

“Jordan, she loves you.”
“What?!”
“She wanted to tell you Jordan, she really did…however, she was afraid you were going to reject her.”
“How do you know this?”
“Mom told us when she went to visit during her spring break, she confronted Azalia about it and she said she had feelings for you. Jordan, she never loved Marc, she was jealous of what Lindsay and Marc have. “

I sit on the stair, taking in what my brother had to say. I was wrong all along, she didn’t love Marc and it was me she loved. Marc never fucked with her head and she wanted to tell me she loved me. I was a fucking idiot. “Oh my God….” I begin, as I run my hand through my hair.

“I am a fucking idiot…” I whisper.
“See, I told you all he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box!” I hear Marc yell.
“Shut up Marc! You’re going to wake everyone up!” Eric yelled at him.
“Anyways, where is our younger brother?”
“Sitting in a stairwell. Listen Jordan,” Eric begins. “Do you know where in that hospital she is?”
“No, but something in my gut is telling me to go to the fourth floor.”
“Then get off the phone and go to the fourth floor. Call me if you need back up.”
“Got it.”
“And Jordan,” he begins.
“Yes?”
“Don’t die on us.”
“I’ll try.”

I hang up the phone and put it in my front pocket as I take in the information I was just given. She loved me, she really did love me. All of this time I thought she wanted Marc but it was really me she wanted.

But why me and not Marc?

I finally stand back up and make my way down the stairs as I see a door that had a number four on it. I open it lightly and prop my head out into the hallway. I then step outside and close it lightly behind me as I decide to go right. I walk down the hallway, as I see signs that say “ultrasound”, “surgery”, and “Rooms 420-260 to the right”. I’m getting creeped out now, due to the stories Marc and Eric told Jared and I when we were kids about the hospital being haunted.

I keep walking as I think of what Eric told me on the phone. She loved me and I had no idea why. Why would someone like her love me? Sure, Azalia told me she only had one boyfriend and that was for a month the freshman year of high school. According to her, every guy she’s ever encountered passed her up and she didn’t know why. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know why either.

Azalia was more than a pretty face; she had curves to her five foot two frame that went on like the ocean did. Her eyes may have been brown and she hated them, but to me, they were beautiful. Every time I saw her when her colored contacts weren’t in her eyes, her eyes were breathtaking and would light up the room. She may not have been the skinniest, but I loved that she had some meat on her bones and that she would rather eat then starve herself for days.

Most of all, I loved her smile. She has the best smile I’ve ever seen a girl put on her face. She always smiled, whether she was upset or happy, at least she did when I was around. It was like she didn’t want me to know she was upset, even though when she was hiding the fact she was upset, I knew she was upset.

I missed her laugh. She had an obnoxious laugh, but it was a natural obnoxious laugh, if that didn’t make sense. Whenever she laughed, whether it was my brothers and I doing something ridiculously stupid or if she found something funny, it was a roar of laughter that was loud and I loved it.

I keep walking as I think of all the things that I’ve missed about her when I realize that every door is opened and that odds are I’m trying to find one that’s locked. I scan each side of the hallway, trying to find a door that was locked. It was at that given moment that I remembered something.

“Describe the room to me.”
“The walls are tiled, the floor is concrete. There are cabinets that look like medicine cabinets. It smells like water.”

She was in the surgery hallway.

I find a hallway leading toward surgery and walk down it, scanning each sides of the hallway at the doors, looking to see which ones were opened and which ones are closed. I then asked myself why she would love me, or why would anyone love me. I wasn’t much to look at, I could never say the right thing at the right time, and I had the tendency to lash out when I wanted too, like earlier today I did. So why would someone like Azalia love me?

I come to the end of the hallway and find a door that’s closed. I scan the other doors and see they were opened. She had to be in this one. I turned the knob, but the door was locked. She was in there and I had to get that door opened and fast. I scan the hallway and saw no one was around. I took a step back and lifted my right leg as I kicked the doorknob, feeling a click in it. I turned it to the side and let out a sigh of relief.

I opened it lightly and walked into the room. It was a little dark, so I lifted my phone and used it as a flashlight as I lightly closed the door but not all the way so I would be able to get out easily. I scanned the room and noticed it smelt like water. I put the phone light to the floor and noticed the floor were concrete, then to the walls and noticed the tile and the medicine cabinet. I then move my arm around and saw a chair with a head resting on the back of the chair. I walk up a little closer, holding the light to the face drenched in mascara and a strip of take over their mouth.

It was Azalia.

I run over to her and kneel down before her as I pat her shoulders. I put my hands on the sides of her face as I slowly pull the tape off her mouth. “Azalia…Lia baby wake up,” I whisper. I throw the tape to the side with one had and with my other I squeeze her chin, in hopes he didn’t overdose her. “Lia honey, wake up,” I yell in a whisper.

I hear a groan come out of her as her head comes off the back of the chair. “Azalia come on,” I whisper again as she groans as her eyes flutter open. I look into them and see not only are they brown, but also there’s not only fear in them but relief. She knows I’m here.

“Staalsy?” She whispers back as a tear rolls down her cheek.
“Shh, don’t cry Lia,” I whisper back, whipping the tear away with my thumb.
“You…you came for me. You’re here.”
“I told you I’m a man of my word. Are you okay? Did he touch you?”
“He kicked my side…its in pain.”
“Which side?”
“My right.”
“Oh God. I’m going to get you out of here and we’re going to go home, okay?”
“Jordan.”

There’s fear in her voice and her skin tone goes pale like it did earlier. I knew he was in back of me; I had a feeling he was. “Azalia, what is it?” I ask as I felt someone grab my shoulders. Before I knew it, I was flying across the room. I hit my back against the wall and I hear Azalia screaming for me. I get up and throw myself at him, only for him to throw me on the floor as I felt my head hit the concrete.

“JORDAN!” I hear Azalia yell.

And from there it went black.