Chapter 7 - The Abandoned Asylum
The GPS coordinates embedded in the video metadata led me far outside the city limits, deep into the dense, fog-choked pine forests of Blackwood County. The asphalt road eventually gave way to a cracked, overgrown gravel path that ended at the rusted iron gates of the long-abandoned Blackwood Sanatorium—a sprawling, gothic brick fortress that had been shut down by the state in the late 1980s following allegations of severe patient abuse.
The iron gates stood wide open, welcoming me like a gaping maw.
I cut my headlights, letting my car coast silently into the overgrown courtyard beneath the shadow of crumbling stone gargoyles. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles were stark white. I had two hours—now down to forty-five minutes.
I grabbed a heavy iron tire iron from my trunk, sliding it into my belt loop, and crept toward the main entrance. The heavy oak doors hung crookedly on their rusted hinges, revealing a cavernous, pitch-black lobby filled with the acrid smell of mold, rotting wood, and old copper.
"Maya!" I called out in a fierce whisper, sweeping my flashlight beam across peeling wallpaper and shattered floor tiles.
The beam cut through floating particles of dust, illuminating long, dark corridors branching off in every direction like the veins of a dying beast. From somewhere deep within the bowels of the building came a faint, rhythmic sound—drip, drip, drip—like water pooling onto concrete. Or blood.
I pressed forward, navigating the maze of abandoned wards. Every shadow seemed to stretch and twist, playing tricks on my exhausted, adrenaline-fueled mind.
Suddenly, a soft metallic clink echoed from down the hallway to my left.
I froze, holding my breath, and crept toward an open doorway marked WARD C - SECURE ISOLATION.
Inside the cavernous ward, rows of rusted metal cages—identical to the one in Julian’s backyard—lined the walls. And in the very center of the room, sitting alone inside a reinforced cage suspended a foot off the ground, was Maya.
Her eyes were closed, her head slumped against her chest.
"Maya!" I cried out, rushing forward and throwing my weight against the cage door.
It popped open with surprising ease—too easily.
May you like
As I pulled her limp body into my arms, the heavy steel door behind me slammed shut with a thunderous BANG, and the electronic lock engaged with a definitive, chilling click.
From the darkened shadows at the end of the ward, a slow, mocking round of applause echoed through the dead air.
