Chapter Text
The spirits are nothing without Sam.
Colby had spoken those words weeks ago at the Madison Seminary Insane Asylum and they continued to ring true and clear in his ears. No matter where the boys went or who they brought along, a dangerous level of obsession trailed at the edge of Sam’s shoes. The walls of abandoned places and the dolls of haunted spaces all pointed gnarly and broken fingers towards the blonde. They knew his mind. They wanted his soul. And by any means necessary, they would get it.
An exclamation of excitement pulled Colby from his thoughts as their rented midsize pulled into a gravel drive. Sam and Kansas-native Nate looked on in wonder at the breaching brick walls and tumbling overgrowth of Glen Dale hospital. Tucked into the suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C, the building used to be utilized as a tuberculosis sanatorium at the height of the Great Depression. As hospitals in cities became overrun, families would shun their sick to the outskirts of civilization. Sprawling green spaces, large windows, and rooftop gardens were prescribed as ‘antibiotics’ to the respiratory disease. Many people died, hence the presence of contemporary ghost hunters with heavy duty equipment. As more modern remedies to the disease were invented, the building fell into disrepair. Graffiti and peeling interior paint were the most common residents now.
The group stepped from their car. Despite the brown of November, green branches continued to reach their fingers far for each other and intertwined to hide the sky. Vultures hopped throughout the brush. Their headlights scattered across the dusty lawn before extinguishing themselves as the car shut off. A man wearing an undistinguishable baseball cap approached: their host for the evening. The usual cycle of work followed. A tour was given of the campus, cameras were talked to, questions were asked and answered, and histories of patients filled the air with uneasiness until the boys were finally left alone. The sun had just slipped behind a sleepy purple sky threatened by snow.
“We ready for this, boys?” Sam asked as he pulled on fingerless gloves. They gripped the camera much better than full gloves, but that didn’t stop his nails from aching with cold.
Colby and Nate nodded, also dressing in additional layers. Maryland winters were not always known for their brutalness, but tonight they were. The concrete lining of every room ensured the hospital radiated with frigidity. They could see their breath as they wandered further into the maze of hallways and side rooms.
“So, before we start” Sam began, holding the camera up to his face and allowing the white light to illuminate him, “I actually have a surprise.”
He rotated the camcorder to face his friends. They were eyeing him, smirks forming.
“Oh yeah?” Colby grinned as his eyebrows rose. Sam held one hand out towards him as he spoke.
“I asked for this to not be part of the tour because I wanted to be the one to show you.”
He led the group down a few sets of stairs hugged by tight walls. By the condensation collecting along the ceiling ridges, one could only guess they had ventured underground. Through a few doorless corridors they walked, passing rooms that looked like they’d been set up for school.
Nate hacked as he inhaled a particle of dust. “Where are you taking us?”
“Just give it a second.” Sam had faced the camera down to his feet, most likely trying to hide the end location from the audience as well.
Mere seconds after speaking, all three men entered a cavernous room. The walls arched high above them and folded together into a dome in the center of the ceiling. Black squares dotted the tiled floor and from the condition of some, shared that they used to be shiny. Deck chairs and ladders collected dust in the corner.
“It’s a god-dang swimming pool!” Sam announced, nearly bound with excitement.
Surely enough, the ground seemed to disappear halfway across the room and plummet into nothingness.
Elated, Nate clapped twice. “No shit!”
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a swimming pool in one of our videos.” Colby stepped closer to Sam. As he spoke, he took notice of Sam’s yellow jacket. It was one of those puffy one’s people wear snowboarding. It always tickled him how Sam could wear the most saturated colors to places steeped in death.
“I know! Dude, could you imagine, a haunted swimming pool!” Sammy’s mouth spread wide in a smile.
Colby motioned with his hands: “A freakin beach ball just comes rolling out.”
The three laughed as they began to approach. Murky water showed itself in the rectangular basin. Dead leaves and dark things floated there. Cracks in a nearby wall showed slivers of outside. It was evident that this building was prone to flooding and freezing and all other weather conditions. The camera light couldn’t reach the bottom of the pool, so they had no idea how deep it was. Colby was sure their viewers would be reminded of when they stayed overnight at the amusement park and Colby had to search through similar waters for the penny-board.
“Are we gonna investigate down here?” Nate asked. He kicked a few spare pebbles into the water and watched them sink.
“Yeah. I want to start upstairs and work our way down, though.” Clear snot was running from Sam’s nose, and he wiped it away. Cold was beginning to grip his toes.
Colby joked, “Oh, so you made us walk down here for nothing.”
“I had to get the excitement going, brother! You gotta see what you’re working for!”
The boys scattered to poke around, then agreed to return to the main level. But, as he turned to venture back upstairs, Sam halted. The bare space on his neck just above his jacket tickled. A chill similar to a single drip of sweat slithered down his spine. He rotated slowly to the right and found the pool again.
"You good?” Colby asked. He’d made it about halfway to the door before realizing Sam wasn’t in tow.
“Yeah…” The words coming from Sam’s lips faded into breath hanging in the air. His eyes flicked back and forth across the dark end of the pool hall. Shadows seemed to birth themselves from the walls and grovel along the stone. They crawled adjacent to each other and then evaporated inches from the floor. “I just thought I saw something.”
Nate flashed his light to the corners of the room. “What did you see?”
“I thought I saw like a shadow figure.”
“What?” Colby shone his light too. It mingled with Nate’s and Ven-diagrammed on the wall. “We literally just started.”
“I know. I know.” Sam ran his hands along his shoulders and rubbed at a newly formed ache. The downside of being the camera man was the wreck it put on his upper half.
He took a deep breath and allowed the coldness to invigorate his lungs, then spoke again. “Let’s go back upstairs and get started.
Back on the first floor, paranormal equipment was distributed and the investigation began. Progress was slow and many rooms appeared void of any spirits. Colby was beginning to fear they would have no content for the video. That was always a worry in the back of his mind, that they would have wasted time and gas and money all for nothing.
Sam suggested taking a break and the three hunkered down at a nurse’s station. They turned the camera off and let it rest on a nearby desk. Nate rubbed his hands together. His breath curled in the air from his mouth. Colby leaned on one arm and sighed.
“What are we gonna do? I mean, we’re getting nothing here.”
Sam nibbled on his bottom lip. A newly formed headache was piercing the left side of his skull, and he closed his eyes against it. Surely, it was the cold. Or the frustration. Or the lack of water in his system.
“I don’t know, man. Maybe we try another method.”
“Like what?” Nate questioned.
“Well, Colby and I have been talking about trying something different with Estes.”
In tandem, Colby picked up the camera and turned it to film again. He raised it to Sam’s face.
“So, we were thinking we try splitting up. Two spirits boxes. Two different locations. And we can compare what each other heard.”
Nate shrugged in response. Colby’s voice came from behind the camera: “Let’s do it.”
They agreed Sam would go to the basement. And Colby and Nate would go upstairs to where rumors of haunted bedrooms sat in wait. The pair took the steps two at a time and could hear Sam’s boots as he walked away. Down the hallway, they found a room with a rocking chair and a naked metal bedframe. That chair was where Nate was going to sit during the Estes-method.
The familiar static of the spirit box crackled as he ran the red bandana through his fingers. Colby was adjusting the camera lens and waiting for Nate’s go ahead when words began flicking from the headphones. Sharp and fast, they were louder than they should have been. Most were muffled and unclear. Jumbled jargon of sounds and music came from the spirit box until all other sounds were cut out.
Colby and Nate exchanged looks. That’s when they heard it. From the soft interior of the earphones, a low voice called as clear as day:
“Hi Sam.”