Chapter 45: Chapter 45
Nellie took a hesitant step forward, the soles of her boots pressing against the soaked, splintered wood beneath her feet. The doorframe leaned sideways, groaning with age as she squeezed past it. The air inside was musky thick with the scent of rot, damp wood, and stale air being flooded out with rust. She pulled her jacket tighter around her, her flashlight trembling slightly in her hand. "This is no time for being scared god damnit." She said to herself, as she ready her camera now in hand.
Earlier she was ghost scripting in the car as she prepare herself for for the stream, tonight was going to be a long night, especially since she would need to pre-record. "This place really is old." she murmured, her voice just louder than the usual whisper. "I can smell the rot in the wood... and mold climbing up the walls."
She said out aloud, as her words faded into the echoing dark, until she self the floor quiver beneath her foot.
The sound tore through the silence as she nudged the warped door further open, the steps floorboard obviously beggining to give in. The hinges whined as the break apart due to sudden movement, the noise sharp and unsettling in the empty space.
Then came the rain, heavier now, drumming against the roof like a thousand impatient fingers. Lightning cracked somewhere beyond the horizon, briefly illuminating the ruin around her. The flash of blue revealed broken furniture half-sunk into the floorboards, paint peeling off the walls in long, curling strips, up ahead series of old wheelchair where present, they where at a corridor now in the facility. As she began to record, but then just then like before, she lost control over her body.
The cutscene began to play, its cinematic flow seamless yet unsettlingly realistic.
"Okay... the cameras are on good, good." Nellie’s voice came through the mic, slightly distorted by static and the low rumble of the storm outside. The lens adjusted automatically, focusing on her face illuminated by the faint glow of her flashlight. "Hello everyone." She said, trying to sound composed but deep done she felt afraid. "I am PMexplore... and tonight, we’re diving into one of the most infamous site in the entire state, the Santa Mortuum Asylum."
She paused, panning the camera toward the corridor of the place, and step back outside to showcase the outer layers of the building.
Even through the grainy lens, the building was terrifying. The once-grand façade was now a jagged abandoned corpse of architecture, its spires cracked and slumped, windows showcase the shattered, alongside the thick vines that crawled up the outer walls, strangling what was left of the structure.
The old sign at the entrance, swallowed by rust, still bore the name Santa Mortuum Psychiatric Institute, Est. 1843. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveIＦire.net
Nellie zoomed in, her voice lowering to a more somber tone. "Locals say this place was shut down after a fire back in 1896." She continued. "Officially, it was listed as an accident... but rumors claim it wasn’t the flames that killed the patients. Old stories dictate that the place was also used military testing grounds back in 1885." She explained.
The rain began to pour harder, streaking across the camera lens like tears. She turned back to face it, pushing her hair out of her eyes, as she came came back inside.
"There are reports." She went on. "... of staff disappearing when it was still active, patients screaming, and the unsolved death of more than fifty two individuals." She gave a forced laugh after delivering that line, the sound thin against the backdrop of wind.
Nellie’s heart thudded once, hard, before settling into a faster rhythm, walking into the facility deeper end, recording as she goes along.
Water dripped from her hair, trailing down her neck as she swept the flashlight beam forward.
Dust and debris floated through the cone of light. The corridor ahead stretched far into the back, as the narrow, oppressive, lined with crooked doorways that opened into nothing but pitch-black voids.
The deeper she stared, the darker it seemed to get.
Her camera was mounted to her chest harness, as it blinked a tiny red light. Still recording. She tried to steady her breathing. "Alright, chat." She muttered under her breath, out of habit, even though there was no live audience this time. "Let’s see what the hype was about, huh?"
Thunder rolled above her, rumbling so loud that dust fell from the ceiling like dry snow. The beam of her light flickered, then steadied again.
She caught sight of faded words scrawled across the nearest wall in dark stains, graffiti, but currently it unreadable now, but they looked smeared due to their age.
Her throat went dry. As just being here filled her with apprehension. She took one cautious glance behind her.
The leaning door she entered through was now nothing but a faint outline in the dark. Till eventually she reach a clearing or a entry hall, from where she stand, she saw a receptionist desk. It was empty for the most part of course, and just add webs and dust.
However an envelope was there, as she grabbed it and open it. Inside was some old document, written by hand.
She looked at it, and started to read. "Progress Report: Subject 732 has been showing signs of mental degradation, the new medication from [Redacted] we do not know if this is just a side effect or a permanent effect of the CM5. Further observation is needed."
There was more information on the report like a picture in black and white of the patient, among other stuff like the patient name, date of birth, blood type, and among other things.
"Ha, so there making medication for these patience ha, but it causes more mental issues than it did good to aid, how ironic." Nellie said to herself, as she place the files back done. "Still I am inside, now what now, do I just stay here, and wait for the night play out!?" She whispered to herself, unsure on what else to do.
But soon, just like before, the guide voice echoed in her head.
[Keep exploring the site]
That was the only information, she got from the voice, but seeing she couldn’t probe for more detail, Nellie did as she was told as she proceeded to explore the asylum some more. The place was massive, it had a total of three floors she could explore, but from what little memory she got from this NPC version of herself in this place she knew must of asylum facility where done on the lowest levels, while the patients would be kept locked up on the higher floors.
For that reason, she continue to explore this level instead. "Sigh, I know, I am going to get attack, but just knowing that doesn’t put me at ease, where the hell are the creeps of this place even at, I wonder, could that work!?" She said and questioned, more to herself than anyone else, but quickly realize something. "What!?"
"No, this isn’t right!?" She whispered softly, as her hand went to her head, the familiar organ, was not there, here third eye was not there. "Don’t tell me?" She started to panic slowly, this was bad, this was really bad. "My third eye doesn’t exist in this world."
With it she was going to rely on her natural night vision offered by her nocturnal sight, alongside the X-ray capabilities. But it would seem upon entering this dreams, Dante took away her unique ability to do so.
"How is this even fair?" She started to complain, but quickly gave up, she knew better at this point that arguing with Dante decision would not get her anyway at all.
"But with my third eye gone, I think I should also assume that my enhanced strength, speed, resilience, and reflexes are all gone as well, ha I honestly can’t tell, and I really don’t want to find out either." Nellie whispered, this would be a problem, her only advantage was now gone, as she would be force to go up against literal monsters.
’I fuckin hate you D.’ She silently curse Dante in her head, as she just kept on exploring. On her way doing so, she cross many different rooms, like several offices, a library, a therapy hall, a large cafeteria for the workers, and now she was heading back outside, as old and abandoned feel where a garden once were was present before her.
Crossing this would take her to the next side of the facility. And she took the long walk till eventually she reach the other side, however unlike the other half, this side have her more of the creeps. But just then, something weird happen, the light suddenly on. "What the fuck." She said out aloud, confused as to what was happening. But soon it came back off again. "This place still has power?" She questioned, taken aback by the light show, and it happen again, the light came on, but just as quick faded back out.
There was no pattern either, it just happen at random. Leaving the place dark at time, but the seeable in others.