Chapter 15-
"So how the heck are we finding this place?" Sera asks, spreading out the map she bought from the airport. Everyone crowds around it as they sit in the grass. It'd been fairly easy to find a park they could all sit around in and plan.
"Rowan Industries... Rowan Industries... Rowan Industries..." Jonah mutters. His eyes scan over the map like its a math problem he needs to figure out. Some kids run beside them, oblivious.
"There's no place called Rowan Industries around here!" He suddenly exclaims. He groans, hitting the map away from him.
"You guys are looking for Rowan?" A voice suddenly asks. Everyone in the circle jumps away from the voice coming from behind Jonah. He had actually jumped so far that he ended up in Caralynn's lap across from him. She angrily pushed him off, facing the voice. It was a kid no older than ten. He had dark skin and light caramel colored eyes. He looks at all of them strangely.
"Wait. You know where Rowan is?" Samantha asks, jumping up. The others scramble to their feet, facing the boy.
"Yeah. Everyone knows where Rowan is. I just don't get why you wanna go there." The kid mutters, sitting where they had previously been sitting. Everyone looks at each other in confusion before sitting across from the kid. They all looked at him with interest.
"Why wouldn't we want to go there?" Josh asks. The boy looks between them before smirking.
"That information is going to cost you." He smiles, holding out his hand. Josh's face goes red before he turns around and looks at everyone.
"Anyone got some money?" He murmurs.
"I thought you had the money." Andy hurriedly whispers back. Everyone frantically looks through their pockets. They stack all that they can find in front of the boy like an offering. He sits watching them as they throw all they can find in the pile. Sera throws in a 5 dollar bill from her pocket. Ellie counts 37 cents out. Luke throws a stick of gum in, trying to be helpful. In the end, they have 6 dollars and 2 cents, a stick of gum, a bus ticket, and a hair tie in the pile. The boy raises an eyebrow at them as if saying "That's it?". Jonah sighs before throwing in the pencil out of his backpack. The boy rolls his eyes before grabbing the stuff and dumping it in is lap.
"Okay, fine. I can tell you guys are new around here if you don't know about Rowan Institution-"
"Institution? We heard it was called Rowan Industries." Sera cuts the boy off. He shakes his head.
"Nah. I don't know where you heard that, but the only Rowan place around here is that old asylum. It closed sometime in the 1980's. Don't know when exactly. People said it was a horrible place even when it was open. Now they say its haunted."
"Haunted?" Caralynn asks skeptically.
"You can hear kid's laughing inside sometimes. Some say its the children who died there." He says darkly. Samantha shivers, hugging closer to Andy.
"There's no such thing as ghosts. Why didn't anyone just go in and check it out?" Josh interrupts.
"People were too scared after the accident 10 or so years ago. These guys were playing around in there. Gangs would usually hang out around it, but no one ever had the guts to go in. Anyway, the dude fell down an elevator shaft. Some say he was pushed though. Dude said he didn't remember anything after going inside." The kid seemed to be really getting into the story now.
"Seriously. The guy probably just fell and hit his head." Jonah points out.
"I don't know. Then how do you explain the screams that come from there? Like people being tortured."
"Has the police checked this out?"
"Yep. The place was abandoned. Couldn't find anyone in the place. A few of them went crazy though. Screaming about children trying to take them away." The boy paused for effect. Everyone was now looking uneasy. "Here's the best part though. Four kids disappeared in there a year ago. Someone had dared them to go in and talk to the ghosts. They were never seen again."
"They were nowhere in the asylum?" Ellie asked, her teeth chattering as she held onto her sister's arm.
"Nope. All they found was their broken flashlight next to the bottom of the stairs."
Everything seemed frozen in that moment as they processed what the boy had said. The silence was broken when the boy stood up suddenly and everyone else jumped.
"Anyway, thanks for the money. Have fun with Rowan." The boy waved as he started to walk off.
"Wait!" Josh reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "You have to show us where it is!"
The boy gave him a strange look. "Do you guys want to die? Didn't you hear what I just said? The place is creepy. I'm not going anywhere near it."
"Please, we'll- we'll..." Josh stuttered to think of something more they could give the kid. They just had to get to Rowan.
"We'll take you out for ice cream." He finally exclaimed.
"Ice cream? In winter?" The kid narrowed his eyes.
"What kid doesn't want ice cream?" Sera added in. "Besides, we're in Florida. It's still warm here."
The kid finally shrugged before turning back to them. "As long as you buy me as much ice cream I want. And I'm not a kid. I just turned 10. My name's Tyler." He held out his hand for Josh to shake.
"Josh. And this is Sera." He pointed to her while all the others introduced themselves.
"Well let's go then. It's starting to get dark. I'm only taking you to the gate. I'm not going inside to die with you guys."
Ellie laughed uneasily while the others looked around. Everyone looked a bit ill. If this was indeed Rowan Industries, they might not come out alive. But they had to try to save their friends.
Hang on, Izzy, Josh told himself. We're almost there...
***
Fun Fact: I actually based Rowan Institution on a real place in Florida called Sunland Mental Hospital. Some facts I used in here are true while others are made up to make it sound creepier. It actually did close down sometime in the 1980's due to various reasons. And a 23-year-old guy actually did fall down the elevator shaft while exploring with his friends. People actually reported seeing children staring out of windows or balls of light bobbing within the place. This is where I start changing the story. Sunland was torn down a while ago (I'm not exactly sure how long ago). So nobody ever did go crazy or get lost in there. That's just something I added to make it better for my story. But there are actually a few ghost stories and stuff related to Sunland if you ever want to look it up for yourself.
Anyway, thanks for still reading if you are! I have had writer's block for awhile now but I finally forced myself to just write no matter how well it came out. I want to finish this book soon so I can start on other ideas and maybe go back and edit someday. I have a few chapters already made so over the next few days, I'll just post them. Enjoy!
