Patient 13

Chapter 1

Clarke decided that Halloween night was a perfect time to go snooping around the old Asylum.

She was, of course, the brave and dumb (when it comes to street smarts) one in our little group of three. There was Clarke, my brother Percy, and me Zizi. Don't ask why I have an odd name. I don't even know why. All I know is that my brother was supposed to be the perfect one. Trust me he is far from perfect. Clarke, even though she was brave, didn't want to go in there alone. Me being the cautious person I am did not want to go in there. My brother was busy. He always is. Not even with anything important. Just Trick-O-Treating with our little sister. Yes, a sixteen boy is Trick-O-Treating and he's wearing a Batman costume. Which actually that's not the odd part.  He forced our little sister to so he could get candy. How are we even related?

Anyway, I decided to go with Clarke into the asylum. Yes, you are probably thinking idiots! You're correct mostly Clarke is the idiot. We stood with our flashlights pointed at the building. It was three stories, white, and a few of the windows had bars (not all but few), it also had a black slanted roof. Clarke gave me her flashlight and pulled out a crowbar from her bag. She pried the doors open and put her foot in front of the door so it wouldn't close. I gave her flashlight back and she put her crowbar back in her bag. She went inside and waited for me. I hesitated at the entrance before going in. I wasn't about to abandon my friend in the empty asylum.

We walked through the empty walls. I looked in a couple rooms nothing but a spring bed and a wheelchair. Yes, the wheelchair that's in every horror movie where the idiot teenagers go into the old hospital. I kept getting a feeling we were being watched. But, of course, we weren't. No one had set foot in there since the twenties. At least, until we came along.

"Clarke? What if something is here?" I asked being paranoid.

"Like what? A ghost?" she asked teasingly.

"No. Like a person."

"No one would be here. It closed down in the 20's."

"Yeah. But something doesn't seem right."

"Probably because a spider is crawling on your head."

"What?" I brushed a hand through my hair and found nothing. I may not be as brave as Clarke but I'm not terrified of spiders. Unless it's a black widow then you should be scared. I rolled my eyes and we came to the end of the hall. It was a cross section. I turned right and she turned left.

"Are we going right? Or left?" she asked.

"Which way do you want to go?"

"I don't care want to split up?"

"Um, sure."

"Great." We both went separate ways and. I moved my flashlight around and saw an old coat rack behind a desk. It had a moth-eaten coat and a pushed in bowler hat. Who even wore bowler hats? I went to the desk to look in the drawers. They were covered in dust but I still opened one. There was an old file with a cobweb on the worn out vanilla cover. I pulled my jacket's sleeve over my hand to brush it off. I picked up the file and looked at it.

Patient 13

This patient is not as willing as the others to go through the tests. I assume he heard what happened to his friend. We tried to force him into the test. He hit one of the other doctors. I fear this boy... this inhuman boy will end our asylum. He said on entry a few days ago he was born in the early 1800's. 1821 at the earliest. I find this impossible for a boy who looks sixteen to be one hundred years old. He needs this test as I assured him so he could recover his lost memories of when he was really born. We tried again today and he put two of my doctors in the hospital. I do not know what happened. Today he escaped.

I didn't see a picture -if there even was one- and I didn't see a name for patient 13. I slung the bag I brought and put the folder in it. After dusting it off more with my sleeve of course. I turned around and saw a person. I jumped back then I realized it was Clarke.

"God Clarke! You scared me." I said putting my bag back on.

"Sorry, but look what I found," she said grabbing my hand and dragging me the way she came from. She pulled me into a room with a chair that looked like one of those old salon chairs. She went behind the chair and pulled out a small box. It had some papers in it which I pulled them out and put in my bag to read later. She pulled what looked like an old film canister. She opened it and showed me an intact reel of film. 

"Want to watch it?" she asked me.

"Umm, sure. But don't we have to transfer it to D.V.D?" I asked taking the lid from her.

"Probably, know anyone who can do that?"

"No, do you?"

"No. Well, are we going to explore more? Or go?"

"Go. I need to make sure Percy doesn't eat his and Macy's candy."

"Yeah, that does seem like him. Come on I know the way back." 

We left the building and I got home just as Percy and Macy did.  I took his pillowcase away from him and put it in my room. He complained but knew he was going to eat it all if I didn't. I opened my bag and dumped the contents onto my bed. I sorted the stuff I brought and the papers I picked up. Two were complete nonsense like letters the patients -I think- had written. Other's were doctor's notes. Two were on patient 13. The others were on patient's 0-12. I set the other's down and picked up the ones on patient 13. I wanted to know why he was such a hazard. Yes, he did supposedly put two doctors in the hospital. 

Patient 13

He is a danger. If he get's out who know's what he may do. The other doctors don't believe he was born in the 1800's. I only do because I remember seeing a boy who looked like him thirty years ago. I've seen what he can do. I fear the other's lives. He seems to remember me whenever we are in the same room. He does not talk to us but he does talk. I have watched him from the other room with the door propped slightly open. He will talk to whomever except the doctors. Or, at least he won't talk to me. I did hear he spoke the first day he came here. I wonder how he came here. I am the only one who does not know. He... he hit the nurse. She was found in the testing room where he was supposed to be held. She was unconscious luckily alive. He escaped. Someone helped him. We believe so. I worry for the neighboring town. He is a dangerous boy. 

That was the first of the two that I read. I was going to read the second one but my mother knocked on the door. I hid the file and the papers under my bag. 

"Come in," I said to her.

"Ok, well how was your movie night with Clarke?" she asked once she came inside. 

"Good. I got terrified."

"Well, it is a horror movie. But, why is there a cobweb in your hair?" curse her perfect vision!

"Oh, there was a cobweb in Clarke's basement. She asked me to get something from the storage room down there. Of course, she failed to mention that there was nothing down there and no one had stepped foot in there for quite some time."

"Ok. Well, I'm going to bed. Remember you have school in the morning." she closed the door. I was tempted to read the second paper on patient 13, but I decided to look at the file to see if there was something I missed. There was a brass key taped to the back part of the folder. I pulled it off easily. It had a number and I assumed that it was the room he was kept in. I put in a box. I looked for anything else in the file but found nothing new. I put the folder and the papers in the same box with the key. I put it under my bed. I got ready for bed then turned off the lights.