Chapter 3 – Chap 3

As the door closed behind me with a muffled thud, I stood there surveying my surroundings. The dust seemed to have piled up higher in just the day or so since I’d last been here, and the dingy carpet had darkened by easily two or three shades. I sighed and prepared a smile I could paste onto my face just in case Benny or one of the other residents emerged. The small building was almost deathly silent, and as I slowly travelled the perimeter of the living room area, two things caught my attention almost right away. There were no clocks or timepieces anywhere that I could see, and along with the glass of the nurses’ station, it appeared that every reflective surface had been either smashed or badly damaged.

I frowned in bewilderment but forced myself to ignore this for now in favor of a blown-up framed photograph I hadn’t noticed before. It was of a strikingly handsome dark-haired man in a black suit. The color on the photo was still exquisite even after dust and decay had crept upon the whole rest of the facility; the man’s piercing green eyes seemed to follow me and I found myself hypnotized by the haunting gaze.

Forcing my eyes away, I continued my exploration of the facility, now in search of the kitchen and cleaning supplies worthy of doing battle with the dust and grime. As I made my way down the east wing hallway, I noticed that what I had first thought to be dim lamps of some sort were actually burning candles set into intricate sconces on the walls. I allowed myself only a moment to ponder how the candles were already lit, because to my left was a plain wooden door marked KITCHEN. I pushed the door open and shrieked, stumbling backwards and falling to the floor as a dark figure immediately blocked my way.

Once my heart settled, I dared to look up at the figure, who was just standing there watching me with silent scrutiny. Closer inspection revealed the figure to be that of a slender redheaded girl in slate gray scrubs. Freckles dotted her milk-pale cheeks and her eyes were of an amazing golden shade I’d never seen before. Small round frames perched lightly on the bridge of her nose, and upon standing, I realized that she couldn’t have been more than 5’2 and that I actually towered over her. I chuckled weakly, feeling like an asshole for being scared, and extended my hand. “Hi. I’m Maryann. I’m the new night shift girl.”

The girl blinked at me for a second, then slowly took my hand and shook it, not even a hint of a smile on her petite little face. “Rebecca. But you can just call me Beck.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be gone by now?” I asked. “I thought your shift was over at 11.”

“It was,” she said. “I was tending to Dolores and lost track of time.” She gestured somewhat vaguely down the east wing, eyes never leaving mine.

“Well, I was just exploring this place a bit. Anything you can tell me before you head out?”

Beck chewed on her lower lip for a second. “Well…yeah, actually.” She glanced around as if worried that somebody might be listening. “C’mon. You can walk me to the front door if you want.”

As we walked back down the hall together, Beck said softly, “Listen, Maryann…I don’t know what Jeanette told you about Whispering Hills, but this place…it’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” I replied curiously. “How so?”

Beck frowned, the first expression I’d seen on her face since she’d startled me half to death. “I don’t have a lot of time, so let me give you a little advice.” I listened carefully as she continued on, her voice now little more than a hushed whisper.

“Stay away from the staff bathroom down the west wing after 3AM. Before 3AM it’s fine, but if you have to go after that, find a different one. If Candice calls for help, don’t go, just ignore her. She was born mute and can’t speak, so whatever you hear, it isn’t her. Don’t let Peter or Michael touch you, not in any way, shape or form, and if you have to provide care…you shouldn’t, but in case you do…double glove it. They’re both very sick. What else…oh, yeah. Whatever you do, once you come in to start your shift, do NOT go outside again until your shift is over, not even for a moment. The nighttime here…it isn’t safe.”

I had so many questions, but Beck’s demeanor made it perfectly clear that she was ready to be gone. “Is there anything else?”

“Yeah,” she said, eyes now filled with fear. “Just one more thing. This place…it fucks with your head. The hallways are constantly changing and the doors tend to move on their own. Just be aware, be safe, and hopefully I’ll see you again tomorrow night.” She leaned in almost conspiratorially. “If you can get here early tomorrow, maybe I’ll have time to explain more. But for right now, I really have to go.” Before I could say anything else, she turned and ran off the porch to her car. I watched her pull out quickly and drive away before I shut the door once more, leaving me with just the dust and a growing sense of worry.

Slowly I retraced my steps to the kitchen, still in search of those elusive cleaning supplies. I finally found a bucket, clean rags and three or four bottles of spray that smelled pleasantly like green apple. I flipped on the hot water and filled the bucket halfway, then armed myself with the tools of battle and turned to leave the kitchen. However, I was both confused and surprised to see that the door was no longer between the sink and the left-hand counter, but instead on the right-hand side of the stove. Recalling what Beck had told me, I scowled. “Okay, I get it,” I called. “Not cool.”

The door led me to a darkened hallway which I assumed was the east wing. The candles flickered ominously as I made my way back to the living room to start cleaning. Sighing, I began to scrub the dust from one of the warped end tables, revealing wood that had been gouged up to hell and back. Once I was finished with the table, I moved to the other side. I had barely set the rag against the table when an unearthly scream filled the silence behind me. I gasped as the scream continued on for several moments before dying away into a wet gurgly hacking cough. Then someone behind me cleared their throat.

I whirled, wide eyed, to see Benny perched on a chair across the room. I’d never even heard him come into the room. Chuckling to myself at my silliness, I smiled brightly. “Benny…it’s you. I thought it was somebody else.” I straightened up, cleaning momentarily forgotten. “Did you need help with anything?”

“Nah,” Benny answered dismissively. “Just came out to see if ya’d really come tonight. I told the other guys here about ya. They didn’t think ya’d show up.” He laughed. “Guess they were wrong.” He paused and craned his neck a bit as if trying to see me better. “Whatcha doing over there?”

“I’m cleaning this place up a little bit, Benny. It needs it. Why did you say the other people didn’t think I’d be here tonight?”

Benny snorted. “Cleaning that shit ain’t gonna do you no good,” he rumbled. “Just gonna come right back anyway. Why else you think this place looks like hell? God damn dust has a mind of its own.”

I straightened up and turned to face him, pretense of workplace appropriate gone now. “All right. These cryptic little comments everyone keeps making are starting to annoy me. So since you seem to be in the mood to talk, why don’t you tell me what’s going on? Who is the Wanderer? What’s the story with the fire of 1929? And what IS this place? Because this sure isn’t your average old folks’ home!” I jabbed a finger in his direction. “And what, pray tell, is YOUR story?”

Benny just sat there for a moment, then chuckled. “Grew a little bit of a pair there, huh? You really wanna know the truth?”

“Yeah. I wanna know the truth,” I mocked lightly. “I want to know what it is I’m dealing with here.”

“Well,” he began, “I’m sure you’ve noticed there ain’t no clocks here. That’s because time don’t matter in this place. We all been dead for a while now; this is where we wait to pass judgment. Then the Wanderer comes to take us…wherever it is we wind up.”

I just gawked at him, unable to process what I’d just heard. “Okay…I’ll come back to that in a minute. What exactly is your role in all of this?”

“I’m kind of like…the guardian of the gate, if you wanna go with some fantasy wizard bullshit. I stay here and try to keep it closed so people like you…living people, people that still have a chance at life…don’t wind up behind it somewhere lost and stuck here til Judgment Day like the rest of us poor suckers.”

“What about the fire of 1929?”

Benny sighed. “Bridgette Van Ruben and her sister Laura started those fires. See, they called the Wanderer, caused him to see them, and once the Wanderer sees you, your time left becomes pretty limited. They knew that he’d seen them and got scared and tried to burn the Wanderer to death. They found out the hard way that he couldn’t be killed by fire. “

I crossed my arms and rocked back on my heels a bit, goosebumps prickling up and down my arms. This was turning into some next level Dead Xone freakshow. “Bridgette told me Marcia…disappeared for a few weeks, then came back?”

“That’s right. Where’d she go? No idea. I was in one of the search parties that went out looking for her. She went missing for three and a half weeks and then just randomly showed up. But she wasn’t the same when she came back as she was when she left.”

“What do you mean, she wasn’t the same?”

“From what I heard around, she was the only one to escape judgment…and the Wanderer. She paid dearly for it when in revenge, he took her soul and left her body live.”

“Why? What happens to the body without a soul?”

Benny shuddered. “Let’s just say that within a matter of days, she’d pretty much turned into a pile of dust. Ppfft…gone, just like that.” He snapped his huge fingers and it echoed eerily in the silence.

“So what links this place to that fire?”

Benny laughed a little louder this time. “You still don’t fucking get what I’m saying to you, do ya?” His tone had changed a bit, taken on a bitter undercurrent. “This place burned to ashes 91 years ago.”