Chapter 1 – Chap 1

In our small town there’s a haunted house made out of an old hospital that many residents, Including the owners, believe is haunted. When the hospital was made over a hundred years ago, the place was originally owned by a dentist. He kept it for a while before selling it off to a doctor, turning it into a full hospital. A few years later, the doctor fell down the elevator shaft, and died. Ever since then, weird paranormal things have happened there. Residents have reported ghost’s, objects moving and sometimes slamming on their own, poltergeists screwing up people’s cameras and even making those old bulby tv’s pop before the days of flat screens. So many different incidents have been reported, that you’d have to do research on multiple websites or history books just to know it all.

It probably doesn’t help that the place was also a mental hospital for a short time. But now, the new owners have completed all of the preparations needed to turn this place into a haunted house. They repainted the outside, hired a construction crew to make sure everything was safe and up to code. They also hired employees. The employees consisted of actors, make up artists, prop designers, tech guys, and even security guards. That’s where I come in.

I’m Shane Williams, one of the five security guards that work here whenever the place is open. Our job is to make sure no one tries to get into the place for free, cut in line, or harass any of the other employees. It’s a simple job and the pay is good as well. You’d think that growing up in this town would prevent me from ever stepping anywhere near the old hospital, but I didn’t really believe all the stories told about the place. I thought it was just too keep kids away from the place, while all the different owners tried figuring out what they wanted to do with the building.

On opening night, we all knew something was wrong when we couldn’t find Kevin, who played the original doctor. It was the middle of the night and customers reported that the room he was supposed to be in was empty. Me being the guard closest to his room, I was called in via walkie talkie almost immediately.

“Oi Shane?” The audio coming from the small machine. It was Sean, someone who moved here from Ireland a few years ago along with the new owners. He was one of the other guards, and probably the one guy I was closest to here. During the party for opening night, me and Sean were having a discussion about how Sean was the Irish version of Shane. Plus I figured it’d be a good idea to get on the good side of my boss’s son.

I grabbed the walkie talkie, and answered.

“Yeah Sean? Everything good on your end?”

“Yeah, but I heard from some customers that Kevin isn’t in his room. Can you go over and see if you can’t find him?” He asked. I told him I would. Sean was the guard in charge of the exit area. He had to make sure no one snuck back in or stole something.

It didn’t take me long to get to Kevin’s room. The lights were fully on and there was caution tape to prevent customers from coming through here while we figured things out. His room was set up to look like a mad doctor’s office. A hospital bed covered in fake blood, fake blood covered surgery utensils on the desk. The doctors room was also on the top floor, a detail the setup designers put in because of the way he died. So if Kevin wasn’t up here, it had to be for a good reason.

“Hey Kevin!” I called out, trying to find him. Maybe he took a quick coffee break and forgot to tell us. I looked over, seeing the elevator door almost all the way open, the caution tape ripped open and dangling into the shaft. That’s not right, the owners said that the doors were welded shut. The construction workers were supposed to make the shaft inaccessible.

My curiosity got to the better of me, and I walked closer to it, seeing it was wider than I thought. I looked down into it. I saw Kevin, his body lay limp on the bottom floor of the elevator shaft, a pool of blood around his body, and his head in a position that made it look like his neck was snapped.

“Holy shit!” I yelled as I jumped back away, flinching from what I saw. I grabbed the walkie talkie, calling Sean.

“Sean! Send an ambulance! Call the cops! Kevin fell down the elevator shaft.” I yelled into the small fake phone, panting heavily and shaking. Nothing at this place normally scared me, since I knew it was all fake. But seeing Kevin’s lifeless body down there… It was so undeniably real. There’s no way that was done with stage makeup and paint.

Soon enough the haunted house was evacuated for the authorities. The medics took Kevin’s body and put it in a body bag once he was confirmed to be dead. A police officer asked me a few questions. When he was done, he sighed and closed his notebook.

“Damn.. This is gonna be a hard case. Can’t tell if it was suicide or a murder.” The officer mumbled to himself. I heard what he said and gave him a puzzled look. I honestly thought it was a murder. That someone who didn’t like Kevin, found out he worked here, pried the door open, and pushed him to make it look like suicide.

“Why would Kevin commit suicide?” I began asking the officer.

“If he wanted to kill himself, wouldn’t it make more sense to do it at home than to do it here?” The officer sighed and shrugged.

“He could’ve been a method actor. Maybe he wanted to fall a little just to see what the doctor went through, but didn’t realize he was too high before it was too late.” He explained, causing me to shake my head. I didn’t say anything else though. I felt like nothing I would say would help the officer at all, since I only just met Kevin recently.

Once the authorities left, I sat in the break room area with Sean, sipping on coffee and snacking on some cookies. I stared hard at the table, still not believing what I saw. Someone that I met, who seemed so gunho and excited about being a part of the whole thing and finally putting his acting skills to use where people will enjoy it, was dead.

Sean patted me on the back. Even as he spoke soft comforting words, I couldn’t take my eyes off the downward direction. Whether it be at the table, cup or snacks, I didn’t look in his direction. It was like knowing that I was the first one to see Kevin’s dead body, formed a weight that wouldn’t let me look up.

Sean snapped his fingers in my face.

“Oi, Irish Shane to American Shane, you still here?” He asked me before I even realized that none of his words were even processed through my brain. I cleared my throat and looked up at him. There was something oddly comforting about the Irishman’s emerald eyes.

“Hmm- Oh yeah, sorry. What were you saying?” I asked, wondering what it was that made him wanna bring me back to reality. He sighed, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Look, I heard your conversation with the cop lad earlier. Would it make you feel better if we looked through the security footage? The cops didn’t even bother but we have full access and maybe seeing what happened might calm your nerves a bit.” He explained, causing me to give him a confused look.

“Wait- the cops didn’t look at the security tapes? Isn’t that part of investigating the crime scene?” I looked back at my coffee before sipping it, finishing the last of it. Before I knew it, he had grabbed my hand and started dragging me to the room where all the security cameras can be watched from. This was Jessie’s spot. His job as a guard was to make sure that no one messed with the cameras. But he wasn’t here tonight due to a chest cold.

“Jesus Sean, give a man a warning next time!” I shouted. Sean let go, chuckling to himself as he started looking for tonight’s tape. As the cool air touched the skin of my hand, I realized just how warm his hands were. Part of me wanted to hold his hand again but I shook it off.

“Gotta keep up with me man. Anyways, have a seat. I got the tape ready to watch.” He explained as I sat down. He pressed play and we both watched the footage. Things looked normal until Kelly, the person playing Kevin’s assistant, left to take a bathroom break. That’s when things got weird. A few minutes after Kelly left, Kevin started cringing. He then screamed, begging for some entity to get out of his head. He banged his head on the table, before grabbing a chair and throwing it towards the camera, knocking it out and making the visual of the footage blank. The last thing I heard from the tap was a descending scream and a loud thunk.

I leaned back against the chair, way more confused than before. What.. The hell was that? Did Kevin just lose it suddenly, and then jumped down the elevator shaft? How did he get the shaft open? No one in our crew is strong enough to open it.

“Fukin’ ghosts..” Mumbled Sean, making me jump a bit and look over at him. I didn’t say anything, waiting for him to elaborate. I raised a brow, hoping it would give him a clue.

“It’s gotta be ghosts or some shit like that. This building is haunted isn’t it? Maybe the doctor’s spirit or ghost got pissed that we were making fun of his death and wanted revenge.” He explained. I sighed and shook my head.

“I know this place is haunted, but Kevin didn’t do anything to deserve being possessed or whatever it is.” I said as I stood up and checked the time on my phone. It was three in the morning. I needed to head home. I walked with Sean out into the parking lot of the place. He patted my back once again when we got to our cars.

“Try not to worry about things too much Shane. If we end up being open tomorrow night, you’re gonna need some rest. I’ll see you then okay?” I looked up at him, nodding and giving him a small smile.

“Yeah… I’ll see you later Sean.” I got in my car, started the engine, waved Sean goodbye, and drove home.

I couldn’t sleep that night. At all. All I could see whenever I closed my eyes, was Kevin’s dead body…. So I got up, walked to my bookshelf, and grabbed one of the many empty journal’s my Grandma got me for a graduation present. I sat at the desk, picked up a pencil, and began writing everything that happened that night. I decided that from now on, I was gonna write about what happened every night. God only knows what the hell else is gonna happen at that damn hospital. Once I either lose my job, or the place gets shut down, that’s when I’ll stop writing. Then, I’ll share it online. Just in case anyone wants to know what actually happened there.

The owners called everyone the next day, saying that we would still be open tonight and a memorial would be held later in the week. But… Why didn’t we get shut down..? I was slightly disappointed that I wasn’t gonna get a full day to recuperate from the previous night’s events. I started listening to a podcast, set an alarm, and decided to take a nap before tonight’s shift.