Your Worst Fears

Chapter 2: Activity

I walked over to see what he was looking at, surprised that it looked like an actual patient's file. "Joseph Darby... age 35... Bipolar Disorder. It lists his address and everything." I looked up at Nick. "How can they just leave this stuff laying around for anyone to see?"

He shrugged. "Maybe he's dead, so it doesn't matter, now." He sat the file on the bed with the others. "Maybe he was one of the ones Eleanor killed."

A laughed echoed from down the hall, creeping into our room and gripping my spine. "Please tell me you heard that," I whispered, chills popping up on my skin as I shivered, grabbing ahold of Nick's arm. 

"Oh, I heard it, alright." He shivered, too. "Let's go see where it came from."

I reluctantly followed him out, staying close by his side as we stood at the end of the hallway. After a minute of listening to my heart beat thud in my ears, I pulled out my night vision camera so I could see better, as well as document any further activity. 

"See anything?" he asked once I got it turned on.

"No, just a lot of dust floating around." 

Suddenly, it sounded like a door slammed at the other end of the hall, but when I looked through the viewfinder, I didn't see anything. Without saying a word, Nick gently held onto my arm and started pulling me with him as he slowly walked down the hall. Each room we passed made my skin crawl, like someone was about to reach out of one of them and grab me. Trying to shake that bad feeling off, I focused on looking at my camera, which made everything seem a little brighter and less scary. After taking a couple more steps, however, something appeared on the screen, appearing to stand down at the other end of the hall. 

I grabbed Nick's arm, causing him to stop, and held the camera out so he could see. "What is it?" he whispered, looking from the camera to the supposedly empty space in front of us. He turned his light on, pointing it down the hall, but it didn't reach all the way to the end, so he turned it off and looked back at the camera. "Look, it's getting closer." 

I looked back down at the camera and what had once been just a dim form at the end of the hall was, in fact, closer to us. "Please don't leave me. Do not run and leave me," I demanded with the sternest whisper I could muster. 

"I won't leave you." 

I was surprised when he took a step forward instead of backward. "What are you doing?"

"I want to see what it is."

I tried to hold the camera as steady as I could, wishing I'd have taken the thermal camera instead of Erik taking it. At least then I'd be able to see if it was an actual person, animal, ghost, or... something else. Feeling like a target, I turned my flashlight off, which enabled me to see the camera screen much better, but plunged us into total darkness. I stepped behind Nick, stabilizing the camera against his shoulder, watching whatever was at the end of the hall as it watched us. 

After a few seconds, it appeared to step back into the room at the end of the hall. "It's gone."

"Let's go." Nick grabbed my hand, entwining his fingers in mine. This was more like the Nick I was used to--bossy.

"But what if it's... what if it's...." My mind didn't seem to want to form a coherent sentence at this point, so I stopped talking and held my breath as we neared the end... of the hallway. 

"Hello?" Nick yelled, causing me to jump.

"I wish you'd stop doing that."

"Doing what? Trying to communicate with whatever's here?"

"No, communicating so loud, and without any prior warning. Just tell me next time."

"Okay, Amber, I'm about to talk again. Is that okay?"