Abigail

Chapter One: The Encounter

A noise woke me up. I heard a girl crying, but no one was in my vicinity. I had a terrible tension headache; it felt like someone was pressing on my skull. I remember coming to Shady Palms Asylum to tag up some of the walls. It burned down a few months ago in an "accidental" fire.

Most people believed the government's story. I didn't, I knew there had to be something else hidden under the surface. As I was finishing up my third tag, an earthquake began.

"Wait a second, there aren't any earthquakes in New Orleans!" I screamed aloud. I ran as fast as I could out of the room, but the floor collapsed under me. I did my best to shake of the pain in my cranium and stand. It was when I got to my feet that I realized how cold the room was. I saw a shadow move; I went to investigate and got a wheelchair thrown at me.

"What the fuck?" I gazed at the wall where the chair was, then back to the chair's current location. I heard a girl giggle softly, which made me do a lightening fast about-face. That single one eighty turned into several three sixties while I was trying to figure out where it came from. I heard the latch of a door being unlocked. I stared, petrified, by the door creaking open to reveal no one on the other side. I heard another giggle come from behind me.

I ran as fast as I could down the hall only to be thrown thirty feet back. I crashed into the floor; the broken glass and other debris pressed into my back. A disgusting stench assaulted my nostrils from this position. It smelled like decaying flesh and blood. I went to stand only to have a pair of small yet powerful hands grip my throat. My vision swam as I fought to get oxygen into my lungs. I winced when I was dropped back onto the floor.

I forced myself to my feet as air was finally getting to my now burning lungs. I turned my gaze upward and came face to face with a girl who didn't look a day over ten. What scared me even more was that she was drenched in blood. She was clad in a beautiful white dress that was also stained by blood, too bad. She had jet black hair that flowed down to her waist. It wasn't matte black, it was beautiful and shiny, as if onyx was flowing from her scalp. Her eyes were the fiercest of fire rubies, they stared at me with pure malice, and interest?

"You shouldn't stay still mister, some may confuse you with the dead." she giggled. I honestly couldn't tell if she wanted to play with me or kill me. Neither option is a good one. My thoughts were violently torn from my head when she dragged her tongue along the shell of my ear.

"Who are you?!" I cried out, quickly jumping away from her grasp. She simply smiled, showing a few sharp teeth, and disappeared. I slowly stood, brushing myself off, noting that there was something in my pocket that wasn't there before. I pulled the foreign object from my pocket; it was a dolls arm. It was dirty, scuffed up, and bloodied in certain areas. I decided to keep it and trudge on.

I walked down the hall and turned into the first open room. It turned out to be the nurse's office. I was in bad shape, the floor was charred, the walls and curtains were stained from the smoke, and the mattresses were caked with dried blood and feces. I shifted my gaze to the back of the room, I could make out a silhouette sitting in a desk.

"Hello, are you okay?" I called out to the person. My heart began to race at their lack of response. The dirt crunched beneath my shoes as I finally got close enough to actually see the back of said person's head. I slowly turned the chair; what I saw would give me nightmares for the rest of my life. I had stumbled upon the charred, skeletal remains of a nurse. I saw something shimmer around her neck, even in the dim light of the room.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was a key. A lump formed in my throat a I cautiously leaned forward, reaching for the key. A sigh of relief escaped my lips when my hand was wrapped securely around the key. Now all I had to do was get it off of her. I carefully inched the key up her neck until I got to the base of her head. I heard a sickening snap as her head tumbled to the floor, cracking against the singed tile.