"They cut knives out of steel bedframes with guitar strings and dental floss, snuck syringes of heroin in here in carved out bibles, blankets would turn black from cockroach shit, someone got burned alive by a bottle of whiskey and a match someone threw into one of the cells, that kind of shit," Jake said. He was filling Colby and me in on what we'd missed when we were downstairs while we dragged our bags up the stairs to where we were staying.
"Jaz is downstairs in the office grabbing the other set of keys for the guard's quarters. We're staying in there," said Sam.
"Is it furnished or what?" asked Corey.
"I have no idea, actually," said Sam. "But they do overnight tours so they'll obviously have something set up for us."
"Hey, Mom, are you good to stay here?" asked Jake.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Well, you know. The stories being all...relatable and shit," he said. I gave him a soft smile.
"Yeah. I'll be okay. Thank you for asking," I said.
"Course," said Jake, giving me a fist bump.
"Oh, and we explained to Jaz why you left. No worries about that," Corey said.
"Okay, good," I replied, not really feeling the need to repeat my godawful story. The other three guys had left right before Colby and I went back upstairs to join our group.
"Okie dokie, folks," Jaz said, walking into the hall behind us. "We've got the full setup in the room that was used as the Warden's quarters. It's a nice, big room. We've got some sleeping bags and air mattresses for you, along with two master keys for you guys. Any questions before I head out for the night?"
"Lights?" asked Sam.
"Guard's quarters has lightswitches in the room like modern day, and there's big breaker boxes at the end of each hallway on both sides. Flip all of the switches in there to turn the lights on in the sector. I'll be honest though, they're not always the most reliable," said Jaz.
"Okay, that's fine. We brought flashlights," Sam said.
"Perfect. Fully functioning bathrooms and electricity in all in the guard's quarters as well," she said.
"Alright. Thank you so much," said Sam. We all repeated him, giving Jaz a thank you for her time.
"Of course. I'll see you guys in a few days," she said, giving us a small salute before turning to walk down the staircase. "Oh, and one more thing," she called up, running back up the few stairs she'd already walked down.
"If you guys leave in the middle of your stay, will you email or call us to let us know? Sometimes people get scared I suppose. We'll come back after their stay and they'll just be gone, no word. Sometimes they even leave their stuff here. And I don't particularly believe this and haven't been through this myself, but some people who stay the night have said that they have... visions. Or experiences, I guess. They say they know what it was really like to be there. That they've lived it. I don't know. Just thought I'd tell you guys. Have a good night," she said. She turned and walked down the stairs a final time, leaving us with two sets of keys and uncertainty in our minds.
"Visions?" asked Corey.
"Who's ready to hallucinate," Jake said jokingly.
"I don't like how she said that," said Colby.
"Me neither," I agreed.
"Well, let's go get set up," said Sam. He unlocked the main guard's door leading to the unit and then handed me the second key. "You won't lose it and you're always with Colby," he explained briefly. I tucked it into the pocket of my shorts and we all filed into the unit.
"This isn't bad," Colby said, looking around.
"It hasn't been used to actually live in since the 80s, but the place was used for a break room and stuff through 2009," Sam pointed out. We went to the room closest to the unit's entry and opened the door to see the supplies Jaz had told us about, neatly tucked into a corner. We set our bags down and got to work setting everything up for the night.
As I was unrolling my sleeping bag, Colby shoved our air mattresses together and took a big blanket out of his duffle bag, then spread it over the two beds like a sheet.
"We're sharing," he said shortly.
"What if I don't want to share?" I said.
"You do, though," he said.
"Yeah. I know," I chuckled. We finished setting up our beds and putting fresh batteries into the cameras.
"Okay, look. I know this isn't how we usually roll, but can we please just go to bed? For once? It's like, 10pm and I'm exhausted. We flew and then drove and then went to a bunch of places and walked around for forever on this long ass tour and I am tired," said Corey, plopping down onto his bed.
"Yeah, I'm fine with that," Jake said.
"It's not like we've got a lot to explore, anyway. The tour was pretty thorough," Sam pointed out.
"I'm down to sleep," I said, yawning.
"Sleep it is, then," Colby agreed.
"No one is allowed to hallucinate until morning either, okay?" Corey said.
"I will hallucinate if I want to hallucinate," said Jake.
"Come on, she wasn't being for real about that," Colby said.
"Yeah, there's no way the five of us would have an issue with that. We've all got perfectly sound minds," said Sam.
"I really hope you're right," I responded. We all changed into our sleeping clothes and set up the time lapse camera, Sam consciously cutting me and Colby out of the frame. "If you guys suck face in the middle of the night again, I'm not making Reggie watch it while he edits," Sam explained.
"Yup, sounds good," I said.
"I'm on board with that, too," said Colby.
"Just do it quieter this time," Sam said.
"Be a heavier sleeper," Colby retorted.
"I hate you guys," Sam said.
"Love you too, brother," Colby laughed.
"Can we get food before we go to bed?" Jake asked.
"Dude. From where? It's late and we're in this tiny ass town," Corey said. "I hate places like this."
"Thanks," I said.
"I mean, shoutout to you for handling small town life, but I could never," said Corey.
"Eh. You get used to it. Especially when it's all you know for the majority of your life," I said.
"Fair enough," Corey said.
"Just see if there's anything on Postmates," Colby said.
"You would not be alive without that," Sam chuckled.
"No. I would not," Colby agreed.
Jake eventually found a driver that was willing to come out here so late, and we got some Chinese food and ate around for a little bit, eating and talking.
I was so glad to be back with these guys, so glad to be on another trip again. Even though I knew that something was obviously going to go terribly wrong.
an: y'all are not ready for the next chapter. not at all.