The Ghost of You

“Alex, I dare you to go into the Haunted Asylum down Main Street.” Rian giggled as he popped a few skittles into his mouth.

“What? No way, dude.” Alex breathed out shaking his head.

“Hey, a dare is a dare. You have to do it.” Zack mentioned which Alex groaned.

“I’m going to make it easier for you. Jack, you go with him.” Rian added which knocked Jack out of his trance with wide eyes.

“What?” Jack asked, head tilted towards the side.

“You heard me. You and Alex, Haunted Asylum, tonight.” Rian said with a smug grin on his face.

“What’s so haunted about it anyway? Like I’ve never even really heard anything about it other than I know it’s pretty creepy looking.” Alex asked as he looked out his bedroom window to see the building not too far from his own home.

Rian chuckled, “I don’t wanna scare you two too much, now. But it was like the 1900’s or something. It of course, was an Insane Asylum. There was one girl that was there. She was just crazy. Not even the staff could handle her. She wound up murdering her whole floor before killing herself. They closed it down after that, though. But legend says she still haunts the 5th floor of the Asylum…” Rian said lowly, relishing in the fear he was seeing in Jack and Alex’s faces.

“U-uh, do w-we hafta?” Jack stuttered out, subconsciously licking his lips.

“Mhm, duh.” Zack chimed in with a smirk.

Jack groaned, “Fine. When do we have to do this?”

Rian shrugged and looked at his watch, seeing as it was 10:45, “We can start heading down there at like 11:30.”

Jack and Alex gulped audibly but nodded their heads in unison, a silent agreement.

~

The group of four best friends walked side by side up the cold pebbled path up to the hospital, the cool late October leaves swirling around them with each gust of wind.

“Wait, why’re you guys with us? Y’all aren’t walking in with us.” Alex asked Rian and Zack as they reached the door.

Jack didn’t want to admit it, but he actually really wanted to go in and explore. To be honest, he was pretty creeped out, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t fascinated by all of this ‘spirit’ stuff.

“To make sure you guys don’t chicken out,” Zack winked.

Alex rolled his eyes and walked up to the tall double doors and reached forward to shake it open only to find that it was locked.

“See, it’s locked. We can’t do it.” Alex said hopeful that he didn’t have to go in anymore.

When Alex turned away, Jack walked up to the door and pulled out a long bobby pin he stole from his sisters drawer in their bathroom and started to pull it open to shove it into the lock, successfully picking the lock after a few short attempts.

“Hey look, It’s open.” Jack muttered as he harshly pushed on the door to open it completely.

“H-how?” Alex started but was unable to when he was pulled into the building.

“Good luck guys! Meet us back here at 3 am if you can handle it that long.” Rian said smiling as he pulled the door back closed leaving Jack and Alex standing in the middle of the once lobby.

The two boys both looked separate ways as to take in their surroundings, grimacing when they smelled a smell they did not want to smell.

The walls were a sickly pale grey color, probably faded and molded from the many years of the building not being used. The floor, weak and brittle, creaked underneath their feet with each step as to if it were to break and send them falling under any minuet.

“Lex, watch out!” Jack shrieked loudly, reaching out to fake grab onto Alex.

Alex gasped and jumped up dramatically, “What is it?!”

Jack doubled over in laughter and pointed at Alex, snorting occasionally still struggling to catch his breath, “You should’ve seen your face!”

Alex just glared at his best friend, now even debating whether or not he was his best friend anymore. Rude.

“I hate you. Now let’s get this over with. I’m tired and I just want to go home, honestly.” Alex said as they started to walk down the long corridor leading towards the stairs.

“Liar, you just want to go home cause you’re scared. “ Jack teased, to which Alex sent him a glare.

Jack held his hands up in mock surrender, and continued to follow Alex up until they met a closed elevator which was covered in dust and scattered cobwebs.

“Do you think it works?” Jack asked Alex, who scoffed.

“Jack, this building doesn’t even have electricity.” Alex said, motioning up into the open cealing which was pouring down natural moon light.

“Whatev-, Lex, what was that?” Jack said as he was cut off by a loud banging sound that echoed throughout their surroundings.

“I don’t know do you wanna find out?” Alex asked, smirking when he saw Jack gulp. And he thought he was the scared one.

Jack nodded softly barely noticeable underneath the soft lighting.

They coughed occasionally from the random dust particles in the air. When they reached the top of the stair case, noticing the small sign at the top of the railing that simply said ‘3’ meaning they were now on the third floor.

“Didn’t Rian say ‘she’ was on the fifth floor?” Alex asked as they started to make their way into random rooms, grimacing when they saw a few caged cribs and some wheel chairs which held restraints.

“Yeah actually.” Jack said while pushing his dark bangs off of his forehead.

They made their way back up the long hallway, moonlight still shining onto some of their features, highlighting the eerie scenes laying out in front of them.

When they finally reached their destination of the fifth floor, they quickly texted Rian asking if he knew what room was hers. The message took a while to send seeing as the reception probably wasn’t that great but he soon replied with saying she was in quarantine at the end of the hallway.

Jack pointed down the long hallway spotting a large door at the end, with a small window at the top.

“Should we go?” Alex asked and Jack nodded.

It took them a bit, but their legs started to move, leading them down the dimly lit hallway.

Alex visibly jumped as the heard a low bang and pow, as the bright lights turned on, illuminating the hallway.

“What is going on…?” Jack questioned as he heard loud whirring and groaning.

“I don’t know. Oh my god Jack, turn around.” Alex whispered, lifting his hand which was visibly shaking to point behind Jack.

Behind Jack stood a girl, no taller than five feet, dressed in a long light blue hospital gown, blood splattered randomly around it, and on her face and hands. Around her neck was a dark purple and blue bruise, accentuated by her sickly pale skin.

‘This was not happening.’ Alex thought as she silently stood there, making him question if ghosts could actually talk.

“W-who are you?” Jack asked quietly, his palms becoming sweaty, heart rate beating faster than normal.

“Lisa,” She replied just as quiet. If their senses weren’t as hyper sensitive as they were right now, they wouldn’t of heard it.

Jack and Alex stood there in utter shock, unable to form a coherent sentence to say anything back. So Lisa just stood there, staring down at them, her nimble fingers twitching along with the bottom of her right eye.

“What do you w-want?” Alex managed to get out, sweat beading on the back of his neck, breathing shakily through his nose.

“Out,” Lisa simply replied.

Jack and Alex didn’t move; just stood there in shock still.

“Us out, or you out?” Jack asked.

Lisa didn’t reply. She just creepily smiled as her eyes flickered up to the cealing, a simple yet tattered noose hanging from the piping.

“Lex, can w-we leave, please?” Jack said, fear even more obvious in his voice.

Alex nodded quickly as they both skipped backwards and began to jog down the hall. Jack yelped as he heard the loud sound of the lights being shut off one by one, quickly catching up with them as they ran faster and faster, tears starting to stream down Alex’s cheeks on the verge of a panic attack. Jack did the worst thing imaginable and decided to look behind his as he continued to run, seeing Lisa quickly floating right behind them as she-

“Alex wake up!” Jack shouted, shaking his best friend roughly.

“J-Jack!” Alex choked out a sob, clutching onto his best friend, burying his face into his neck.

“Are you okay, Lex? You were having a bad dream. You’ve been shouting and shaking for the past 10 minuets. I knew I wasn’t supposed to wake you but I really needed to. I was getting scared.” Jack said as he held onto Alex trying to calm him down.

“What’s going on?” Rian asked as he walked in, taking a sip from his soda.

“Rian I think your dumb scary story scared Alex senseless. He had a terrible nightmare. No.More.” Jack said sternly.

“Oh come on, it’s Halloween. Cut me some slack,” Rian laughed as he sat on the couch in front of the two.

Alex shook his head and stood up to walk over to look out his bedroom window. His eyes widened significantly, his breath catching in the back of his throat when he spotted something in the Asylum across the street.

It was a girl, hanging in front of the window, smirking softly, staring right at Alex.

“She’s real,” Alex whispered, turning around leaving Jack and Rian confused and worried about their best friend.