August 14, 1993

JAKE WILKINS

Jake wipes his clammy palms against his jeans as his foot eases just enough off the gas pedal. Driving sixty down the dark, tree-lined dirt road isn’t the smartest thing to do, regardless of David, his best friend, egging him on. 

The last thing he wants to do is drive headfirst into one of these trees, thanks to a rut he can’t see. His dad will kill him if he does, especially considering the old man helped buy this piece of junk. 

“Slow down, asshole!” Mandy, David’s girlfriend, barks out from the back. Jake glances at her through the mirror. She’s got one hand touching the roof, the other giving him the finger. 

Nice one. David sure knows how to pick them, doesn’t he?  

Despite being best friends, he doesn’t get why David puts up with her bullshit. She’s always bitching and complaining about anything and everything David does. It’s like his best friend is immune to her cattiness. Either that, or he’s just ignoring it. 

Ten to one, they don’t last. Jake gives them two weeks, tops—a month, at the most. 

Is he going a bit fast, hitting the bumps too hard, and making Mandy and Crystal, who are in the back seat, hit their heads on the roof? Of course, he is – but that’s what makes it so much fun.

Besides, from the ass-grinning smile on David’s face, he’s enjoying this.

Jake knows why David puts up with Mandy. She’s hot, popular, and if what David says is true, it’s the blowjobs. It’s what she’s known for. 

Jake glances in the rearview mirror at Mandy and her friend, Crystal. Mandy gives him a dirty look, then leans forward, setting her hand on David’s shoulder, and whines, “Dave…”

David looks over at Jake with a sorry-man type of look. “Maybe slow it down a bit, eh?”

“Whatever, pussy.” It’s fine. Ghost Lake Asylum is just up ahead. The place has been neglected and abandoned for forty years or more. The sides of the building are black with age, and every window is broken and boarded up. The front doors have slabs of wood nailed across them with huge DANGER, NO TRESPASSING signs on them. 

Jake stops the car alongside the barbed wire fence surrounding the building. The police are dumb if they think that will stop anyone from going inside and checking things out. 

The stories about the sanatorium are too enticing not to see for yourself. He’s wanted to come forever, yet…there’s something about the place that has kept him away until now. 

His leg bounces as he stares at the building up ahead. This place has a creep factor of off-the-scale, and from the way his heart thunders against his chest, he’s surprised everyone in the car can’t hear how scared he feels.

One glance at David, and he’s feeling it too. Jake wipes off all emotion from his face. The last thing he wants is for Mandy to notice.

She’d never let him live it down.

“Anyone see the monster?” Crystal leans forward, her hands gripping the front seats.

Last year, two middle schoolers snuck into the building and claimed they saw a shadow monster with glowing red eyes that chased them around. One of them had fallen through a hole in the front foyer and cut his leg as they ran out. His parents then went to the town council demanding more security be placed around the run-down building, ruining the experience for everyone else. 

Coming here is a right of passage of sorts. What used to be a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients was then turned into a mental hospital for the criminally insane. What better place than out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and a lake, in freaking northern Canada. Anyone who tried to escape died by natural causes – whether the wild animals or the cold, and those who didn’t end up on the chopping block of some insane doctor and nurse duo who sold their organs on the black market for profit. 

It turns out money isn’t the answer to everything because that duo was rumored to have been torn from limb to limb by a group of inmates in the late sixties. 

“Well, are we doing this or what?” Mandy opens her door and gets out. 

Jake can tell, despite her bravado, Mandy is scared shitless. So is Crystal, from how she audibly swallows as she stares at the building, illuminated only by the bright full moon. 

They all exit the car and gather in a group, a nervous energy pulsing between them.

Jake takes his shot, using this as the perfect situation to get close to Crystal. She’s cute, not hot like Mandy, but there’s more to her than just her smoking body. She’s friendly, always ready with a smile for him, and pretty adorable with the cute little gap between her two front teeth. She’s only ever given him the friends vibe, and that might be because he heard she hooked up with Mike Langdon, a senior, about a month or so ago, but until she turns him down, he’ll keep believing there’s a makeup session between them tonight. 

“Are you sure we won’t get caught?” Crystal’s voice shakes with uncertainty, which is funny since this was her suggestion. 

“That’s what makes it more exciting.” Jake winks at her as he edges closer. “Everyone ready?”

David reaches inside the car and grabs a bag from the floor. It has a bottle of vodka, a jug of orange juice, and some cups. “I am now.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Mandy says as she places everything on the hood of Jake’s car and mixes up the drinks. She passes everyone a cup, and they chug it back in a hurry, Jake especially, needing a little extra liquid courage if he’s going to get close to Crystal. 

“I thought you were bringing beer?” Jake says under his breath. 

David shrugs. “This is all I could find. The vodka was at the back of the cupboard, and mom always buys extra orange juice for me.” 

Ever since they started hanging out in middle school, David has had an addiction to orange juice. On his own, he probably drinks a full jug every day. It’s so bad that Jake’s mom keeps a jug of the juice in her fridge for when David comes over, which he does every day after school.

Once the buzz starts to set in, Jake takes out wire cutters from the car’s trunk. “Always be prepared, as the old man says,” he holds them up with a feeling of bravado.

Sniping a hole large enough for them all to climb through doesn’t take much work. David goes first, then holds the fence for Mandy to crawl through after him. 

Holding the fence open for Crystal, she’s about halfway through before she backtracks. 

“I almost forgot why we’re here,” she says as she dashes back to the car. She returns, clutching a bag tight to her chest, and plants a little kiss on his cheek. “Thanks for waiting for me,” she says.

“No problem,” Jake mumbles as he watches her bend, giving him a glance at her perfect ass. 

Jake stays at the back of the pack as they walk toward the building, while David is up ahead, his steps way more eager than they should be. 

David has wanted to come here for ages, but Jake always found one excuse after another not to. So far, David hasn’t caught on—at least, if he has, he hasn’t said anything about it. 

Seeing the place up close, Jake believes all the stories are true. It has to be haunted; there’s no other answer for the creepiness that lingers in the shadows as if those very tendrils are fingers just wanting to wrap themselves around the unsuspecting victims. 

Victims like them. 

If the girls weren’t here, Jake would be hightailing it back to the car, David laughing at him be damned. This place gives off all the wrong vibes, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot more alcohol to get him to walk through that door. 

The closer they get, the more Jake wants to run. Fear finger walks its way up his spine, and he tries to suppress his shudder before anyone notices. Dread dances around him, its spikes catching on his jeans as he walks through the tall grass, and his stomach surges as the imagery of skinless fingers poking up from the ground play with his head. 

David races ahead and climbs the rickety wood stairs, Mandy behind him. She calls out to Jake and Crystal, telling them to hurry up. Crystal glances back, realizing Jake lags behind, and slows her steps to wait. 

“You okay, slow poke?” Her eyes twinkle as she teases him.

All Jake can do is stare at her lips, remembering their touch on his cheek, and he swallows hard. 

“Yeah, let’s do this,” he says with false bravado. 

David grabs at the boards covering the door and, with Mandy’s help, pries a few away from it. 

“Jake man, come help,” David says, grunting as he pulls harder. 

It doesn’t take much for the remaining boards to pop off. David tries the door handle, turning it one way, then the other, when they all hear a loud click, and the door nudges open as if on its own.

David jumps back with a ‘huh’. “Dude, the door was locked,” David says to Jake. 

“As if. Looks open to me.” 

David nudges the door open wider just as an icy breeze blows over them, wrapping around their skin. 

Both the girls yelp while David laughs. Jake joins in, but it’s forced, and he prays to God that none of them notice. 

The door slams shut just. They jump, and Crystal quickly grabs Jake’s hand, squeezing hard. 

David laughs again. “Maybe the place is haunted, and the spirits don’t want us to come in,” he teases as he nudges Mandy. 

“Shut up, you asshole. That was probably just the wind closing the door, right?” Mandy glances back toward Crystal, then Jake. 

He sees the challenge on Mandy’s face, daring him to prove himself unless he is too chicken, and if there’s one thing he will not do, it’s prove Mandy right. 

David opens the door again, pushing it open hard enough that it hits the back of the wall, then slaps Jake on the back. 

Is David scared too, but pretending to be brave for Mandy? If that’s the case, Jake can do it too. Especially if it means Crystal doesn’t let go of his hand. 

“Come on, guys. You’re not scared, are you?” David smirks, then steps through the open door. 

For one split second, Jake almost doesn’t do it. A shudder runs over his skin the second he steps across the threshold, and Jake’s reminded of a comic he’d just read, where a group of kids walk into the gaping maw of some grotesque creature and through the black hole of its mouth, they’re swallowed and morphed into hell.

Jake pulls out the flashlight he’d stuffed in his back pocket and turns it on, sweeping it back and forth along the walls and floors as they creep through the place. 

The place is disgusting, with garbage everywhere, broken tables and chairs, and shards of glass crunching beneath their shoes. In one room, there’s a single mattress on the floor, and he made the mistake of letting the light stay in one place, illuminating the dark stains. He doesn’t want to think about what those stains were made from or how they were made. 

“There’s something wrong with this place,” Crystal mutters. She released his hand a while ago, but she has yet to stray more than two feet away from him, which, to be honest, Jake is more than okay with.

Jake feels it, too. The air carries a thick layer of dread that coats his sweaty skin. 

“Is anyone else here?” His voice squeaks as he asks the question.

“Seriously, bro?” David laughs as he turns and gives him one of those what the fuck is wrong with you looks. 

“I feel it too,” Crystal says, touching Jake’s arm. “Like someone is watching us.” 

“Someone or something…” Mandy contorts her voice to sound like a witch, and Jake gives her the middle finger. 

They can laugh all they want, but the thick layer of goosebumps over his skin tells a different story. 

Someone or something is here with them. Watching him.

Not just him but all of them.

A steady scratch-like nails on a chalkboard combined with a dozen rats scurrying about, Jake turns in circles, trying to determine where the sound is coming from. If it’s rats, they’re definitely in the walls, and yet, the sounds are both above his head and right beneath his feet. 

Crystal gasps and jumps. “Something just touched my ankle.” 

David laughs, but he doesn’t sound as sure as before. “Come on, don’t be a baby. You’re just letting the place get to you. Those sounds are just rats. The cold draft is from an opening somewhere. That’s it. The rest are just stories someone made up to keep kids away.”

Jake copies his laugh. “Yeah, probably.” 

“Come on. I hear there are tunnels beneath us. Now, that would be the perfect place for our thing tonight. After all, this was your idea, Crystal, right?” 

Crystal hugs the bag she’d brought close to her chest and steps away from Jake.

“Let’s do this.”