When I walk to school, I always feel uncomfortable. I have to walk by an abandoned Insane Asylum. Though it was abandoned and scheduled for demolition, I always felt uneasy. I got a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, like a sense of foreboding, but it always left after I passed the property. It just gave me the creeps.
The final bell rang at school. Finally, out of the Hell hole people call "School". It was Friday, so we got released at 2:45pm rather than the usual 4:45pm. My friends and I walked home together. When we got to the property of the Asylum, my friend Seth stopped.
"What's wrong, Seth?" Another friend, Dylan asked.
"Nothing. Do you guys want to go in?" Seth suggested. I was very uncomfortable with this, but my friends replied with excited "Hell yeah!"'s, so seeing as I wasn't thrilled with the idea of being called a pussy until I caved, I had to agree as well.
"Well, we can't go in now!" Dylan said, "People will see us, plus, it's abandoned and it's going to be demolished. It's probably locked. We'll have to break in."
I thanked Dylan in my mind. I started to feel relieved, but then Seth came up with yet another suggestion.
"True, but we can sneak in at midnight. Everyone's asleep, and if they're not, they'll be going to work. No one will take the time to tell us otherwise. We don't have to break in, Amy, you have bobby pins, right? Yeah, I thought so. I know how to pick locks. No one has no know we were in there except us, what do you say, guys?"
Silence grew among us. We were all processing our thoughts on the plan that Seth had just spilled out. We stood in silence for about a minute.
"So, are we going to do this or what?" Seth probed.
A symphony of "Fuck yeah!", "Of course!" and "Yeah"'s came from different people. It was settled. We were coming to meet here at midnight.
I walked along the sidewalk to the mental asylum. I had drunken four cups of coffee in order to stay awake. My footsteps made a soft "Tap. Tap. Tap." on the pavement as I walked. I grew very uneasy as I approached the Asylum, as usual. But this time, it was a terrible, terrible sense of foreboding. Very definite. It looked even creepier at night. I saw my friends. Everyone was standing in a circle, obviously telling jokes. I saw that Seth had come with four flashlights. Oh, good. At least now it won't be AS creepy.
"Hey Melissa!" Amy called to me.
"Shh! Amy, shut up!" Dylan and Seth scolded her in a "whisper-yell", I waved nonetheless, picking up my pace to jog up to them.
"So, are you guys ready?" Seth asked. He was obviously very excited for this.
"Yeah." Dylan, Amy, and I said in unison.
"Alright. Amy, you come with me. Melissa, you go with Dylan. Here," He said, handing us the flashlights.
"Okay, I see how it is, Fred. I hope you and Daphne have fun together," I said sarcastically.
"Shut the fuck up," Seth said with a grin.
We walked towards the Asylum together in a horizontal line.
"Amy, you brought a bobby-pin, right?" Seth asked, holding his hand out expectantly. Amy nodded her head and dropped it into his hand. Seth picked the lock and opened the door.
"So, who wants to go in first?" Seth asked with a tone as if we was challenging us.
"I'll go," I said, I just wanted to get this over with. After all, the sooner we get in, the sooner we get out, right? And with that, I stepped inside of the Asylum.
As I stepped into the Asylum, there was a putrid smell of death in there. I flicked on the flashlight and turned around, motioning with my hand to come in. By this time, my sense of foreboding grew to monster size inside of my stomach. They came in one by one. First Seth, who was grinning like a madman from excitement, then Dylan, who remained looking neutral, lastly, Amy. She almost gagged at the smell. I don't blame her. It smelled horrid.
"Okay, so. Like I said. Amy, you come with me, Melissa, you go with Dylan," Seth said again.
"Yeah, yeah. Melissa, come on," Dylan said, gently tapping my forearm to get me to follow him.
Dylan and I walked together, down hallways with blood all over them. My God! What the fuck went on in here?! I knew from the expression on Dylan's face that we were thinking the same thing. I turned my flashlight to the wall and saw that there were words in blood on the wall with a smear of blood next to it.
"They say they want to help, but they take your life away," I read.
"What?" Dylan asked me, with a concerned tone to his voice, I pointed to the wall, "Oh... Well okay. Let's keep going." He said, tapping my forearm again.
We walked around more, I was following Dylan in silence. The only sound we heard were our footsteps, making a continuous eerie echo travel down the hallway with every step we took. There were many disturbing blood-written messages on the walls. All over. I stopped, Dylan didn't seem to notice, and kept going. I was staring down a slightly lit hallway. I saw the figure of a girl run across the path, and I gasped. A little louder than I wanted.
"What's wrong?" Dylan asked, putting his hands on my shoulders. I flinched at the contact. I wasn't expecting him to be that close that fast. He took his hands off of my shoulders and I turned around to look at him. His green eyes looked hazel from the dark of the hallway.
"I-I-I just saw a girl run across that hallway," I said, trembling from shock.
"It was probably your mind playing tricks on you, I thought I saw a girl in a corner when we walked in, when I looked back, she wasn't there. This is a pretty creepy place anyway, it's bound to happen. It's nothing, come on," This comforted me a little bit. He put his hand on my shoulder and pressed gently, motioning me to keep going in the direction he had come from.
As we walked, I felt paranoid. Even though his words had comforted me, the fact that he thought he saw a girl in the corner freaked me out. I guess Dylan could sense how uncomfortable I was because he said "It's okay. We can leave at any time. No one's forcing you to stay." I nodded and kept walking.
We soon met up with Seth and Amy, we were walking in hallways that connected to one another.
"Hey guys. Melissa, you look scared shitless, you okay?" Seth asked me. All I could do was nod. My paranoia overpowered my ability to speak at that time.
"She says she saw a girl run across a hallway earlier," Dylan explained. Seth's expression changed. So did Amy's.
"O-Oh. Are you okay now?" Seth asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder so I'd look up at him.
A simple "Y-Yes." was all I could muster at that point.
"Well, since we've found each other, guess we should all stick together," Amy suggested. All of us agreed with her, at this point, I could tell that all of us were scared. Even Seth, though he wouldn't admit it.
We all walked down hallways in silence. I was just glad to have my friends here. We eventually made it into a room with no other doors. It was relatively large. I looked at the walls. What I saw made me gasp again.
"Huh?" Amy, Seth, and Dylan all said in unison. They all turned around to look at what I was: A Satanic symbol, drawn in blood on the wall.
"What the fuck?" Seth said, staring at the symbol on the wall.
"G-Guys, I don't feel comfortable in here anymore. Can we please leave?" Amy requested, in a whisper. All of us nodded. As we did this, the Satanic symbol went up in flames. Amy and I screamed and all four of us ran from the room, trying to get back to the entrance. I stopped at the doors. I saw an old porcelain doll on an old dusty chair. I know this sounds crazy, but it seemed the doll calling me to it, like it wanted me to have it. I grabbed it and left from the building, running to catch up with my friends. Surely, no one would miss that doll, right? The Asylum was abandoned, right?
"What the fuck happened there?" Dylan exclaimed, he looked very scared, not nearly as scared as I was, but still. We all shook our heads. No one had a clue on how the blood lit on fire. No one smokes so it certainly couldn't have been a match or a lighter, nor did the room smell of gasoline or alcohol.
"Let's just go home. No one speak of this again," Seth said, we all agreed and walked in different directions to our houses. I was still clutching the porcelain doll in my hand. Not talking about it? Easier said than done.
I had trouble sleeping that night. But who wouldn't? I did eventually reach slumber, though. I dreamt of the girl I saw in the Asylum. She appeared in front of me.
"Hi, Melissa," She said in an overly-sweet voice.
"W-Wha- How do you know my name?" I asked her, terrified.
"I know everything about you, Melissa. Oh, how rude of me. I didn't even introduce myself. My name is Amelia Lake."
Then my dream ended, and the doll I had brought home wasn't on my chair anymore like where I originally put it, it was now on the floor next to my bed. I thought it must've fallen off.
While I did my homework, her voice rang in my head: "Hello, Melissa. I know everything about you, Melissa."
I got even more paranoid than before and I called Dylan.
"Hello? Melissa?" He asked into the phone.
"Yes, it's me. I need to talk to you," I replied urgently.
"About what? I'm listening."
"Well, I know we said we wouldn't speak about anything that happened last night, but I had a dream about the girl I saw."
"Really? Did she say anything?" He asked, concern filled his voice.
"Yeah, she told me she knew everything about me and she told me her name was Amelia Lake."
Silence was held between us for a minute, but I heard his breathing, so I knew he was still there.
"My house, now," He demanded and hung up.
I told my mother I was going to Dylan's house. she said a simple "Okay" and I grabbed my jacket, then headed for Dylan's house. As I walked, I saw the Asylum, or at least what was left of it. It was burned down, and there was a news reporter standing in front of it, talking to the camera.
"Shit," I muttered to myself.
I reached Dylan's house and used my key. He trusted me greatly.
"Dylan?" I called. He came out of his living room and handed me a piece of paper. I read it:
"Dylan
D-Drowning
You will drown.
Seth
S-Slice
You will be sliced.
Amy
A-Army-Knife
You will be stabbed with an Army-Knife
Melissa
M-Murder
You will be brutally murdered.
I will not tell you when or where, but safely know that you will be. You will fulfill what I have listed. What I listed is what is in store for you.
- Amelia Lake." When I finished, my voice was a pathetic whisper, "Holy shit, Dylan, what do we do?!"
"I don't know!" He exclaimed and hugged me, I was in hysterics crying. We pulled back from the hug.
"So, should we tell them?" I asked in a whisper, holding the note in my hand.
"Maybe we should, maybe we shouldn't," He responded.
"What do you mean?! They could die an-"
He cut me off, "True, but we promised not to talk about it, plus they'll think we just made this up."
"Yeah, but at least let the idea wander around in their brains," I muttered.
"Alright. Can you call them? My phone's almost dead," Dylan reluctantly agreed.
I called Amy first. She was skeptical, but she listened to me. I told her about the note that was left. She was skeptical about that as well, but I finally coaxed her into believing that this was real. I called Seth. He was like a rock. He wouldn't be convinced.
"No, Melissa. We all agreed that we wouldn't talk about what happened last night. It seems you found a loophole to tell me a lie to try and scare me, though," Seth said. His voice had a tinge of annoyance in it.
"Seth! I swear on my life I dreamt that and I called Dylan, telling him what I saw in my dream, and I came over to his house, please, please believe me," I begged.
"Fine. Don't expect me to be crying in a corner like you want me to."
"Se-" I was cut off by him hanging up the phone.
I stared at the floor in silence. Dylan knew what Seth had said, what he was like.
"I'm sorry," He said quietly.
"It's not your fault," I replied.
On my way home, I saw that police officers were investigating the burnt-to-ruins Asylum. I grew paranoid that they would know I was in the Asylum, and I jogged back to my house.
When I got inside of my house, I went straight to my room. I had finished my homework and had nothing to do, and I was extremely tired, so I went to sleep.
I dreamt of Amelia again.
"I see you're back, Melissa," She taunts.
"Why are you here?" I ask, genuinely concerned.
"That, I think is obvious. I know you saw the note I sent to your friend, Dylan," She says with an evil smile.
"Yes, I did."
"Goodbye, Melissa. See you again soon." Amelia says, then laughs. I will never forget it. It was like a madman murderer after stabbing an innocent little girl.
I slipped into consciousness, and that laugh was ringing in my head. I began to cry.
A week has passed. Everyone; Amy, Dylan, even Seth have become paranoid. Amelia has been appearing in their dreams as well. They all describe her laugh the same way, and it's what was in my dream. I feel paranoid to leave my house, even for school. Seth goes to Dylan's house, they go to Amy's house, then come to mine and we walk together. This is what it's become. We're all deathly paranoid. We were silently going insane. Hiding in plain sight.
We were walking together home to my house, when I invited them all in. They, of course, came in.
"What do you guys say to a Ouija board?" I asked. I was getting witty and brave now. I was kind of becoming a female version of Seth. Slowly but surely.
"What?! Are you stupid, Melissa?" Amy yells. I was glad my parents weren't home.
"No, I am not. I'm proposing that we try to contact Amelia, in hopes that she will tell us more about why she's here," I explained.
Silence.
"Alright, bring it out," Seth said.
We sat in the now darkened room. The only light source was a single lit candle. We all put our finger-tips on the black triangle.
"Amelia, are you here?" I asked. The triangle moved to the letters "I-A-M-A-L-W-A-Y-S-H-E-R-E"
"Can you tell us some information about you?" I asked. The triangle moved to letters and numbers "Y-O-U-R-L-I-B-R-A-R-Y-N-E-W-S-P-A-P-E-R-F-R-O-M-1-9-7-6"
"Can you please leave us alone?" Amy piped up. I felt the terrible feeling in my stomach come back. The Ouija board started shaking uncontrollably. The candle went out and at this point, all of our eyes were wide open.
"Keep your hands on the triangle!" I commanded. They all listened.
The doll I put on my chair flew into my lap and the Ouija board went up in flames, we all pulled back in surprise. I picked it up and stomped it out. I then heard Amelia's laughter. But, it wasn't just me who heard it. It wasn't just me who heard it. I could tell by the looks on their faces that they heard it, too.
I had Seth and Dylan stay for a while, but Amy really wanted to leave. She didn't want anyone to walk her home either, she wanted to be alone and ran out the door.
The next day, I awoke to a phone call from Amy's cell phone, still scared from a dream I had about Amelia that night. The call was a woman no older than 40 years of age asked me "Is this Melissa?"
"Yes," I replied.
"I'm very sorry to break this to you, but Miss Amy Fletcher has been stabbed in the heart by a Swiss Army-Knife."
I dropped my phone to the couch that was in front of me. Holy shit. Amy was dead, and Amelia made it that way.
The nightmares have gotten horrible. They've come to Amelia describing how she would like me to be murdered, then asking me how I'd like to be murdered. Like I wanted to be murdered at all.
When I was in school, in my math class, I heard her menacing laugh. I looked out the doors' window, and she was right there. Staring at me. I stood up in shock.
"Melissa, is there something you would like to say, since you very rudely interrupted my class?" My math teacher, Mr. M sneered.
"No. Sorry." I mumbled, sitting slowly back into my seat. Dylan was looking at me, and I knew he saw her, too.
"What a freak!" Rebecca said. Everyone laughed except for Dylan and I. I rolled my eyes and ignored the whispers that were circling around me.
I grew worried about Seth. Since Amy was no longer here, he would be alone in his Science class. Though I didn't think Amelia would do anything in the public eye, but they were dissecting rats today, and Amelia suggested that he would be sliced in her letter she'd sent to Dylan. Plus, Dylan and I saw her in the school.
At lunch, I was glad to see that Seth was unharmed. I told them I would meet them in the cafeteria, I just needed to get my lunch.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The annoying voice of Rebecca met my ears. I hated her. She was followed closely by her two plastic "friends" closely behind her.
"What do you want, Rebecca?" I asked, letting out a sigh of discontentment.
"Oh, nothing, dear," Rebecca replied slyly, "Why did you jump up in class? Did your phone vibrate, and you were so surprised that you jumped up?" Her friends laughed with an annoying symphony of high pitched giggles at her idiotic remark.
"No, your face scared me. I'm afraid of clowns," I said back to her. Rebecca's friends grew silent, and she punched me in the face. For a plastic bitch, she could throw a good punch. I swung back at her, her little friends squealing. She fell to the ground and sputtered "Bitch." I ran to the bathroom.
I was too fast for her friends with their six-inch heels trying to follow me. I examined the small bruise that Rebecca had given me. It fell just below my eye. When I turned away from the mirror, Amelia was standing there.
"Hello, Melissa," She said her oh-so-familiar greeting.
"Hi, Amelia," I said weakly. This was the first time I'd seen her up-close and non-vivid. She was quite pale, almost ghostly. Quite thin. She had long, raven black hair that reached to a little more than her mid-back. She had baby blue eyes, a small nose without a bump on the ridge, and she had medium-sized lips. She was quite a pretty girl, despite the fact that she was covered in blood. I noticed she was wearing a hospital dress, and loosely on her shoulders, she wore a straight-jacket over the dress. She also had a hospital bracelet that was fastened loosely around her wrist. I caught a glimpse of what it said:
"Amelia Lake:
13 years of age
Schizophrenic
Patient at: Brayside Mental Asylum"
I looked up to her face, and she was smiling a psychotic smile.
"See you tonight," Amelia said, and she faded into the air.
I walked out of the bathroom. I saw Dylan and Seth looking for me frantically. When they saw me, I saw their faces relax. They ran up to me.
"Hey, what's wrong?" They said in unison.
"I-I saw Amelia," I said. Their eyes widened.
"What did she do or say? Why do you have a bruise?" Dylan asked me.
"She didn't say anything but 'See you tonight'. Rebecca punched me," I explained, pointing to the small bruise.
The rest of the school day went by normally. I didn't see Amelia and I was ignored by most of the students. Seth, Dylan, and I walked home together, dropping me off at my house.
I went to my room, seeing Amelia in my room. She stared at me, smiling. I turned around to run out my door, but the door slammed shut. I couldn't open it. A force was turning me around. It was Amelia. She had force emanating from her fingers. Strong enough to move me.
"What are you doing?!" I asked in horror.
"Don't be scared. I just want to talk to you," Amelia replied in a sweet voice, contrasting to her personality.
"Yeah, what? How you killed Amy? How you're going to kill me? Fuck off!" I yelled at her, angrily. I felt the force tighten around my waist.
"No. I want to talk to you about Rebecca," She said calmly.
"Oh yeah? What about her?" I spit out those words angrily.
"I know you hate her. I hate her, too,"
"Yeah, so what?" I asked.
"So, I want you to kill her."
Kill her. Amelia wanted me to kill Rebecca. Sure, I hated her and thought she was a bitch, but I would never kill someone over just hatred.
"What?! No!" I screamed.
"KILL HER!" Amelia screamed back in a command, her essence seemed to get sucked in by the doll on my chair, and I passed out.
I awoke in a room that wasn't my own. It was dark, so I only assumed it was late at night. Amelia stood over me with a knife. Before I screamed, she covered my mouth with a thin, clammy hand.
"Sh. You'll wake her up," She said without moving her mouth. I then realized she could communicate with me through my mind. The doll was beside me. It was only then that I realized it looked like Amelia. I wondered with regret why I brought that damned thing home with me from the burning Asylum, "Kill her."
I shook my head no, and she rolled her eyes.
"Fine then, if you won't kill her, then I will," Amelia said, removing her hand from my mouth and walking over to Rebecca's bed, where she was in a slumber.
I screamed, Amelia whirled around and raised her hand to face me, I was silenced and my limbs could hardly move. Rebecca had woken to see the insane Schizophrenic with a knife beside her bed and she screamed as well. I wondered at this point, why her parents hadn't come to our rescue.
Amelia walked closer to Rebecca, and started lightly-not cutting any skin-moving the knife over Rebecca's arms and legs. Rebecca was wimpering. I turned my gaze over to the doll. I remembered that Amelia seemed to get sucked into the doll, and how the doll look almost exactly like Amelia. I had to break the porcelain doll. It seemed that Amelia was attatched to it in some way.
The problem was: Amelia was fast, I was crippled to snail-speed, while Rebecca was helpless, crying in her bed while Amelia continued lightly running the blade over Rebecca's arms and legs, whispering to her, her murderous desires. I slowly made my way towards the doll. Amelia didn't notice. She was busy giggling, a sick giggle that only a psychopath could have, and a psychopath, she was.
Rebecca noticed me and looked at me with pleading eyes. I was glad that Amelia didn't follow her gaze. I grabbed hold of the porcelain doll, and struggled to stand up. Amelia had moved the knife into a stabbing position over Rebecca's heart. Rebecca stared at her with a terrified expression. I didn't blame her. I tried to rise my feet, and succeeded, Amelia raised the knife as I dropped the doll.
The doll broke with a shatter as Amelia plunged the knife down. Right before the knife hit Rebecca's chest, Amelia let out a scream. No. It was more like a shriek, and she once more, got sucked into the ruins of the doll, knife in hand. Amelia was gone. The doll was broken. I was right.
Rebecca ran up to me and hugged me very tightly. She was crying. I hugged her back.
"Thank you so much. I thought I was going to die," She whimpered into my hair. I stayed silent. We stayed like this for about five minutes. Her crying into my shoulder, getting my T-Shirt sleeve wet. She pulled back and said a final "Thank you." and wanted to make amends. I obliged.
I finally got the first good sleep I've gotten in months. I regret going into that fucking mental Asylum. If we hadn't, Amy would still be alive, and we wouldn't have spent months being paranoid.
I was relieved. Amelia was really gone. I had gotten rid of her.