“We’ll be in and out Ray! Stop being such a coward” Marshall mumbled that last part as he paraded up the hill in his Resident Evil nurse costume. At least that’s what he said it was. To Rayne it looked like an erotic nurse cosplay he bought from a Spirit Halloween for twenty dollars. She doubted he even knew what Resident Evil was, but she was getting paid to take ‘photos not question his taste in raunchy video game characters.
Rayne let out a quiet sigh before jogging up the hill to the abandoned hospital Marshall insisted they take photos at. “Pretty sure this is illegal” she called out loud enough for Marshall to hear as he waited for her to get to the top. They walked up to the chained up doors that had animal scratches at the bottom, as if something was trying to claw its way out from the inside. “Spooky,” Marshall added sarcastically with a small laugh.
Rayne swung her backpack off her back and began rummaging through it until she found the bolt cutters. She figured if she went to jail for breaking and entering at least she could say she’s done a photo shoot in an abandoned hospital. That would also help her portfolio stand out so she could, hopefully, get into Yale University School of Art, though that was a long shot. Rayne hesitated for a moment too long and Marshall snatched the bolt cutters from her, cursing under his breath as he cut the chains. The chain fell to the ground with a crunchy thud as it hit the gravel path. “See how easy that was? Now stop being so uptight and come take photos of me” His voice was sickly sweet as he bursted through the doors causing an echo to ricochet off all the walls in the hospital.
The two of them walked in, Rayne more cautiously than Marshall, and began looking around. The air smelled of rotting wood, mold, and something Rayne just couldn’t put her finger on. All she knew is that it reeked of death which Marshall didn’t seem to notice nor care. Marshall went up to the reception desk that still had papers on it as if frozen in time. “Get your camera out, Ray” Marshall ordered as he brushed the seat off and sat down, propping his feet up causing papers to fall to the stained tile floor. Rayne mumbled under her breath, something about not wanting him to call her Ray, as she dropped her backpack to the ground and pulled out her camera. She went through the process of turning it on, adjusting the settings, and making sure the flash was on. Marshall had said something about wanting to seem like you were playing a video game and flashed the light at the nurse. For every photo. He wasn’t giving Rayne any creative liberty since it was his photoshoot he was paying for. She knew his followers would hate them and get pissed off at him for it, but that wouldn’t be her issue.
She began taking photos, the flash illuminating the dark room briefly each time. After several minutes, and various poses, Rayne began looking through the photos on the screen of the camera. It wasn't her best work but Marshall would like them since he doesn’t have good taste, according to his boyfriend.
“Let me see! Let me see!” he begged as he scurried out of the chair and took the camera from Rayne. He began looking through the photos, the smile on his face illuminated by only the camera screen. “Oh my god I look so hot in these! Adam is going to love this” he quickly shoved the camera back into her hands and skipped down the hall to his right that had a red path going down it. Next to the doorway there was a sign reading “Red- Pediatrics, Orange- Intensive Care, Yellow- ICU, Green- Surgery, Blue- Radiology, and Purple- Pharmacy”
“Do we really need to do boudoir-y photos in the pediatrics area?” Marshall looked back at Rayne with a confused expression. “They’re like sexy photos that… never mind” she groaned, following behind Marshall while keeping a tight grip on her camera.
As Marshall slipped in and out of rooms trying to find the perfect one, there were faint taps in the background only Rayne seemed to notice. She turned around slowly anticipating some creep had followed them into the hospital. Did they not shut the door? Or maybe it was just an animal, not that that was much better. Marshall was talking at Rayne as she slowly crept down the hallway opposite of him. There was nothing. No animal. No creep. No wind. Nothing. The tapping sound persisted but it didn’t seem to be coming from any direction in particular. Rayne wrote it off as water dripping from somewhere given the age and state the hospital was in. If it was something else… she didn’t want to think about it.
All the photos began to look the same. The same five poses. The same five expressions. Rayne dropped the camera from her face and sighed, “How many photos do you need Marshall?” He groaned but didn’t move from his pose where he was sitting on the children’s bed with his legs crossed and holding a needle he had found on the ground. “Am I paying you to complain or am I paying you to take the damn photos of me?” he growled, shooting a glare in her direction. Rayne froze for a moment but pulled her camera back up and flashed the camera at him a couple times. Rayne cleared her throat and pulled the safety strap for the camera over her head so it hung from her neck. Marshall, now clearly in a bad mood, shoved his way past her back into the stale hallway.
Rayne followed Marshall down the hallway until the red line that created a path to follow began the bleed into a bright, forest green. Surgery. She hated this hospital. She hated the smell. She hated the look. And she hated the reminders of her mom. Nothing was “good” about this place like Marshall had said. Even abandoned it had that stuffy air and sterile smell she had grown accustomed to so many years ago. Given it still reeked of empty promises and mildew, but what hospital didn’t?
Rayne pushed forward while shoving her thoughts to the side like waste to a trashcan. The tapping continued from behind them. The tap tap taping she was praying was just water. She wasn’t one to believe in ghosts or of a heaven and hell, but if she did, this is where they all lived. The further they ventured the more that tapping morphed into footsteps. Footsteps even Marshall began to pick up, causing him to stop in his tracks. He whispered something to Rayne but she was focused on noises other than the ones coming from him.
“Come out!” Marshall shouted in a more masculine voice compared to his usual flamboyant one. Rayne slapped his shoulder mouthing the words, “Don’t be loud.” But Marshall didn't listen and called the person or animal that may have ventured in here things Rayne wasn’t comfortable repeating. As he walked closer the footsteps stopped and what seemed like mist or maybe soot became a blob that resembled the shadow of a man. A tall man with a slender figure that seemed to be wearing a hospital gown and maybe missing a hand stood before them. He was leaning slightly and swaying as if in pain.
Before either of them could react the mist began to move closer as if trying to get help or scare them. Marshall, without a second thought, broke out into a sprint in the opposite direction of the shadow, leaving Rayne frozen in place. Her mind ran at a thousand miles per hour. She couldn’t fathom what this thing was or where it had come from. A part of her told her she was making this up. Her mind playing tricks on her to make her see things. That was a normal thing. This thing wasn’t real. Almost by muscle memory she brought her camera to her chest and the flash illuminated the room. Everything but the shadow.
In an instant the shadow thing ran towards Rayne. She quickly rounded the same corner Marshall had just moments before to see him cowering under an operating table mumbling to himself. Without thinking Rayne grabbed his wrist and managed to get him in a better hiding spot. She could hear the deep, guttural growl of that thing as she shoved Marshall behind the breathing machine in the corner of the room then went behind the anesthesia cart herself. Just as Rayne managed to hide herself the creature made its entrance into the operating room. The sound of bare feet on the dirty tile sent a shiver up Rayne’s spine. She could hear Marshall still mumbling in the background and she was praying he’d shut up. She didn’t know what this creature was or what it was capable of, nor did she want to find out.
She looked around the corner just enough to see and saw the creature closing in on where Marshall was. She curbed under her breath but that was just loud enough for it to hear and it snapped its head in her direction. It got closer to her. Slowly, but still closer as if it was hunting her. Rayne watched as Marshall slowly made his way out from behind the breathing machine with a piece of what looked like drywall. Marshall yelled as he swung the drywall at the thing only for it to go straight through it.
Not even a second later, the creature pushed Marshall to the dirty tile floor. Rayne didn’t know how to describe what happened. It was like when the dementors from Harry Potter sucked souls from people except in reverse. The mist was going into Marshall through his mouth and nose like a vacuum. His body began to violently shake as if having a seizure. Rayne let out a scream she hasn’t heard since her mother’s passing. One of pure terror.
Marshall rose slowly as if just waking up, but as soon as we made eye contact he lunged like a rabid animal. He managed to pin Rayne to the ground. His eyes were glassy like an old dog’s and almost like a hazy blue film over his irises. His skin was a sickly shade of brownish grey. Rayne tried as hard as she could to keep the gaping mouth of the thing possessing Marshall away from here. She could see the black mist casting a soft glow at the end of his throat presumably to do the same thing it did to Marshall, whatever that was.
In a moment her instincts took over and she managed to kick him off her. She scrambled to her feet, nearly slipping multiple times on the tiled floor as she ran out of the operating room. The air seemed thicker as she struggled to take deep breaths. She rounded multiple corners but the creature that was in Marshall seemed to know where Rayne was going before she did. Then she spotted it. The door. The one her and Marshall had entered from wide open. The creature noticed her closing in on the exit and lunged forward to grab her neck. Its fingers wrapped around the camera strap and pulled her back. Rayne fell to the floor clawing at the camera strap and trying to break free.
Her vision went hazy as she stared out at the moonlit door. Rayne managed to get her fingers around the strap and pull it off. She didn’t have a moment to catch her breath. She needed to get out of this damned hospital before she ended up like Marshall. She managed to get to her feet and run towards the door again, nearly missing the hands of the creature as she fell out onto the front steps of the hospital and onto the gravel. The thing banged against what seemed like an invisible wall and for a moment she saw Marshall.
“Please! Please Rayne! It's gone. I promise” He cried and fell to his knees with one hand still on the invisible wall. Tears streamed down his face but something still seemed off about him. “It’s gone! Just help me please! I-I don’t know what’s happening to me!” He grabbed his chest. I moved forward a little and I saw that hazyness again which the thing noticed. It began banging on the invisible wall again, more violent this time. Steams of curses and words were pat from the creature’s new mouth.
Rayne shook her head and bolted back down the hill the two of them had gone up not even two hours ago. She jumped into the front seat of her car and started it with shaky hands, but she couldn't get herself to take her foot off the brake. She stared into the rearview mirror. Not seeing herself anymore. A loop of Marshall, or the thing that took over him, being left there crying, screaming, begging to help him. And she left him there. She left him there to die if he hadn’t already. Those eyes staring back at her weren’t hers. They weren't the woman she knew before that damned hospital. They were ones of a murderer.