9.

Spending a weekend or even just a night in such a place like an old, abandoned asylum, a place where mass murder has taken place many moons prior, is something that tests the mind, it tests character. Would you be brave enough to stay here, especially after death has come to visit again? There is nothing whatsoever to fear. Sure, there is safety in numbers ... nothing bad is gonna happen ... except now something bad has happened ... someone is dead ...

No one would wish death on anyone though if you have to choose then maybe ... how did this happen? Was someone attempting to play a joke and something went horribly wrong? Has a psychopath come along, to hide in plain sight having found the most perfect of opportunities to act out a fantasy? Maybe one, a psychopath that is, was here already? There can't be anything supernatural going on, can there?

An investigation of some sort could begin, those who are here can try get some answers or maybe everyone can just wait until morning and let police or whoever else do their jobs. There cannot be enough trust in this place at this time for anyone to take charge of anything so it would be wise to stay in groups. With what has gone already, something like karma surely has no part to play, or could it?

Before a dispersal of those around the deceased individual could come to pass, Brad McGreevy had something to say while Sophie was still near the lifeless body of Gordon Chelmsford. He would begin with a whisper so others around Sophie could not hear.

'Hey ...' he says but she doesn't hear so he repeats that whispered 'hey ...' before placing a hand on her shoulder.

She jumps having not realized that anyone, let alone someone like Brad, had got so close to her.

'Christ' she says out loud, alerting those she is with of her proximity to this Brad fellow.

'I need to speak to you' Brad says to Sophie.

'Get away from me' she says backing away somewhat.

'Sophie, please.'

Thomas intervenes and steps in between Brad and Sophie. 'You heard her, leave her be.'

'It's important ... you will want to hear this ...'

'You have nothing to say that she would want to hear', Thomas says feeling the need to play protector.

Whatever it is Thomas feels about this Brad guy, has him thinking that he knows that Brad simply has something very odd about him. If he does know something or is involved with something related to what is going on, then why would he want to tell Sophie and not anyone else? Perhaps he has something to come clean for?

Claire in a way is weirded out about what is happening, it's not Brad that is giving her this feeling but more so that her bestie is being looked out for by her boyfriend, more than once too since their first arrival here. Thomas is Claire's knight, not Sophie's. He is just looking out for a friend though, right? Anyone else would do the same. Claire knows this but maybe there is something more.

Sophie, Claire, Thomas, and Pierre return to their little cordoned compound, the room they managed to have claimed. Others move to where they have claimed, Gordon's followers remain with their fallen leader, not wanting him to be left alone and wishing that this moment is one that is not actually happening.

Indeed, Pierre did head back with his friends at the same time they moved away though he didn't quite make it all the way there, at least nowhere near as quickly as the other three did. The girls enter the room first followed by Thomas who was about to tell Pierre to close over the door only no Pierre followed Thomas into that room.

Thomas moves back out of the room and there is no sign of Pierre, not anywhere within his line of sight.

'Pierre?' he calls out. 'Pierre' ... there is no response. 'Hey, did Pierre say anything to you guys?'

Both girls looked at one another and said 'no'.

'Where the hell did he go?' Thomas paces near the door for a moment or two before speaking again. 'Right, I am gonna go find him. I want you two to stay in here, alright? Lock the door after I go and don't let anyone else in.'

'Lock it with what? There are no keys ... we'll be alright Thomas. Pierre is probably just round the corner or something; you'll be back before we know it, nothing to worry about.'

Despite what has happened already, Claire wasn't too fearful. Everything was just fine, everything is just fine. They'll make it through until morning and will never do anything as silly as this again, no more trips to places they should not go to. Thing is, there is nothing just fine about any kind of death.

'That chair over there, you can prop it against the door ...' says Thomas.

'Alright, alright ...' Claire concedes, 'just hurry back.'

'Don't let anyone else in other than me or Pierre, alright?'

'Just go, will ya?'

Claire does what was asked and sticks the chair against the handle of the door once it is shut then moves to sit next to Sophie who is on the floor with her back against a wall. Claire would like to say something about how Thomas has been acting but doesn't, she is just being silly and overreacting with thinking that Thomas might have some inappropriate feelings for Sophie. For the moment, the girls sit in silence until something fairly disturbing begins to happen.

Staring into a darkness not all so away from the door, Sophie can see something stirring, something is definitely moving within a darkened shadowed area of the room. Fairly soon Sophie sees what it is that is making that movement. It is Pierre stepping out of that shadow, all bloodied and battered. Blood trickles from his nostrils. His hands are held out; his palms face upwards and blood drips from each of them. His blood? Someone else's? What happened to him? What did he do? How did he get into the room? The chair still keeps the door shut.

'What did you make me do?' asks Pierre directing his question to Sophie. 'What did you make me do?'

To Sophie, Claire seems oblivious to Pierre's presence, either that or what Pierre is up to seems perfectly normal to her and that in itself is not normal. He continues to move out of the darkness and over towards Sophie. Panic sets in and Sophie is frozen almost completely to her spot on the floor. She can move her head but not much more. She turns to Claire for help, but Claire still appears to be oblivious.

The door now begins to shake; someone is unsuccessfully trying to get in, if it is Thomas then Sophie could really do with him right now, still Claire does not react. Pierre is so close now that if he were to want to cause pain to Sophie, then he is a position to do so.

'Sophie ...' Claire calls out.

She sounds as if she were beyond Pierre and not sitting next to Sophie. Claire calls for Sophie once more and Sophie snaps out of it. There is no Pierre in the room, either bloodied or battered or in any other form. Claire indeed is not sitting next to Sophie; rather she is is right by the door calling for Sophie to come to her. No longer frozen to her spot on the floor, Sophie stands and together they question out loud as to who may be wanting to get it.

It's Thomas and he has Pierre with him. Pierre definitely is not bloodied and not battered and he no idea as to why Sophie may think he should be in any way bloodied and battered when she questions him.

Never mind its past; this particular building's present is a very odd one. So just what is it that is happening in this place? The word odd does little to provide any kind of context.

10.

If there is a veil of darkness here, something other than a spot which lacks the presence of light, then it is spreading or at least manoeuvring around this asylum as if it were a living breathing entity picking and choosing where it goes, picking and choosing who it interacts with. This veil is unhealthy, it is endangering, and it is as powerfully dark as anywhere without light can be.

There is a silence, so loud it echoes through the room, through the building. Any kind of fun there could have been has long since vacated the premises. Outside the room the four friends have claimed, as it is in this instance, appears to be just as silent as it is inside, maybe even more so, shock very much so playing a part in that. Those who have come may expect to feel fear though no one had expected that death would have paid a visit.

Sitting in that echoing silence, not a word is spoken and not a move is made. No questions are being asked of Pierre. Where, if anywhere, did he go? And why? A temporary unspoken agreement not to ask or do anything else about it is in operation, where this agreement came from or why it exists is unknown.

Claire is agitated; her three counterparts all appear to feel relatively calm. Not being able to hold herself to one spot or completely stick to that unspoken agreement Claire stands, looks towards Pierre then moves towards the door of their room.

'Where are you going?' asks Thomas.

'Can't you tell?' responds Claire being sure that whatever it is that she can feel that the others can surely feel it too. 'If you must know ...' she continues, '... I have a feeling of my own and I'm not sure why I or any of us haven't checked this before now.'

She moves to the door and opens it then rubs it with the fingers of her left hand, and she does this in the upper central part of the outside of the door. If this already did not seem strange to the others, then Claire apparently finding what she was searching for definitely did seem strange.

'Quick' Claire speaks. 'Someone, I need a light for a bit over here.'

'What is it?' asks Sophie as she begins to move over towards Claire and to that door while bringing a burning candle with her.

'Exactly what I thought, there are bits of stickers on here, probably some kind of identification tag as in names of whom may have lived in this room or maybe names of doctors who looked after occupants of the room.'

'That's interesting and all but what can that have to do with anything?' asks Pierre. 'We cannot make out any names and if we could make some names out, what good could that do us?'

Claire moves out and onto another room attempting to find a name or two. Trying to be too loud she signals for Sophie to come over to the door Claire now stands at. There is a name on this particular door, and it is as clear as day despite it currently being so late at night. That name is an S. Arthur. Sophie's last name is Arthur. And obviously enough, her first name begins with an S.

So, what could names of former occupants really tell them? Well for Sophie, she is as much in the dark as her three friends are, for the moment at least she is, the triggers are coming.

There is an echo from somewhere within the depths of time and it has come to play momentarily in the mind of Sophie Arthur. It is something perhaps of memory, something perhaps belonging to halls of this building and it may once have emanated from this very room. A scratch becomes a cackle; a gramophone has come alive, the music begins, and a voice starts to sing ...

'I believe for every drop of rain that falls ... a flower grows ... I believe that somewhere in the darkest night ... a candle glows ...'

***

It had been months ago now by this point when Sophie and Claire first took any notice of Brad McGreevy. Both girls sat by the window in a coffee shop on a half day from school. Claire delighted that they are free from taking one class in particular with the half day having been given rather than it being a regular thing and it is getting Claire away from the particular class she is happy to miss. Trying to convey her delight to Sophie was another story.

'I mean ... it couldn't have worked out any better ... Sophie ... Sophie?'

'... Oh sorry, what was that?' Sophie says coming out of a daze.

'What were you looking at?'

'That guy over there at the bus stop. He is freaking me out. He seems to be everywhere lately ...'

'What guy?' asks Claire.

Sophie looks back towards the bus stop that had distracted her not all so long ago. Indeed, the guy she had been talking about was gone and of course, this guy so happens to be Brad McGreevy.

'Ah, it doesn't matter; I am probably only just overreacting anyway.'

At home, Sophie's bedroom is upstairs and to the front of the house. On this particular half day from school and having returned home, it is not so long at all before she is looking out her window. She is surprised and knows that she really shouldn't be for she looked outside to ensure that guy so freaks her out is not near-by.

He is outside and making no effort to hide that fact. With that, his own agenda is to purposely be seen and once he is sure that this has happened, he then begins to move on.

***

Back in a present moment and within the asylum, having moved about a while to ease off some nervous tension, there is another moment of contact with Bred McCrevey. He has once again close by, and once again he tries to be heard.

'Sophie ... I implore you ...'

'C'mon' says Claire moving to take Sophie by her arm with the intension of bringing her back to their little den area.

'Please ...' continues Brad. 'You've been here before Sophie ... you must know this by now.'

'What? ...' Sophie asks as she is being ushered away.

Been where before? This asylum? No, she hasn't. She would have been a child when it had last been a full running hospital of sorts and she most definitely had not come here before, not by herself and not with anyone else. Wait, what? She was not a child in 1953. She is sixteen, a long way off from her seventies. Why would there be momentary confusion?

But wait ... not a child in 1953. There is a childlike familiarity with a time perhaps two decades after that year. There is something older about 1953. As right as any of this feels, it is also something far beyond confusing.

'Do not leave it too late Sophie, we are running out of time. When you want to talk, I will still be here. You believe that ... don't you?'

'What's he on?' asks Pierre once the door has been shut leaving Brad on the other side.

'Who knows?' says Claire. 'I don't like that guy at all.'

Sophie remains silent. Unnerved, she has question of her own now, questions with which she had not had so long prior, questions that do not make much sense.