Page 112 of The Haunting of Lockton

When we reached the solitary block, we had to use the flashlights on our phones to see. There were no windows to allow sunlight to penetrate the dark. It was cold too. Hard to tell if thecold came from the chilly weather outside Lockton’s walls or if nearby ghosts were sucking the energy from the air and creating cold spots.

“What’s your ghostly sense telling you?”

“My what?”

“Your ghostly sense,” I repeated. “Like a Spidey sense but for ghosts.”

Julian puffed out a breath, a mix between a laugh and a sigh. “I’m not sensing much right now. Only a faint…” He rotated his shoulders and made a face. “I can’t explain it honestly. It’s different than when I normally feel the presence of ghosts.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It reminds me of when I’m around Alan,” he said, sweeping his gaze across the open doorways. “Like whatever’s here is intentionally hiding from me.”

A cell door slammed from behind us.

We whirled around and aimed our phones down the corridor. The very dark corridor that seemed even darker as we stood in stunned silence, our brains trying to process what happened.

“What do you think?” I whispered. “Ghost or human?”

“Hello?” Julian called out.

“Hello, Mr. Killer,” I said under my breath, mocking the people from horror movies. “Let me give away my location by asking if anyone is there.”

“Our location is already known, dummy. We’re literally standing in the middle of the hall.” Julian crept closer to the closed cell. It was three doors down from us. “They’re not human.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?” I mumbled as I crept along beside him. “Human serial killer or sadistic, murdering ghost. I think I’d prefer something that bleeds. Hard to punch air when ghosts do that blinking thing.”

“Will you shut up?” my brother hissed. “I swear, you’re worse than a child.”

We stopped as we reached the door. Julian placed his palm against it before slowly pushing it open.

At first, I saw nothing but darkness. I used my phone’s light to do a quick scan. Unlike the patient rooms upstairs that had bed frames, the cell had nothing. Either cleared out from the decades since the asylum closed, or maybe it had never had a bed. Not that the cell was big enough to have much of anything. A twin-sized bed would’ve almost been too big to fit and still have space to move around.

My phone screen went black.

“What the fuck?” I slapped the back of it, as though that would fix the problem. It was my philosophy with electronics. If they fucked up, slap some sense into them. “My phone won’t turn on. It was fully charged too.”

“Mine’s the same.” Julian pocketed his phone. “The battery was drained. Probably the entity drawing energy from the air.” He squinted into the dark. “I definitely sense someone. I…”

Suddenly, he went still. Too still. His breath caught, and his expression wavered.

“What’s wrong?”

“You don’t see him?” he asked. His gaze was locked onto the corner of the cell. And fuck, I’d never seen him like this before, with his eyes wide and a tremble in his chin.

I followed his line of sight, still seeing nothing. But then, amidst the darkness, something took shape. White bled through the shadows first, like a piece of clothing. The man came into view next. He stood in the corner with his back to us. And he stayed that way. Just facing the wall.

A wave of apprehension settled over me. This entity felt dark. Not friendly at all. Less like Casper and more like the evil spirits in scary movies that terrorized everyone.

“Hello?” Julian asked.

The ghost remained in place—didn’t react. He looked to have blond hair, but it was hard to tell with the shitty lighting. He stood tall and had broad shoulders. A dark spot formed on the back of his head, starting small and fanning outward. Blood?

Just as I was squinting harder into the dark to try to figure it out, he vanished.

“Guess he didn’t want to stick around and chat,” I said. Being a smart-ass was a good distraction from the uneasiness that had settled deep into my bones. “Look at this place, though. I wouldn’t wanna stick around either. We should—”

A growl to my right cut off my rambles.