Trenton

The asylum was haunted. I could tell that just from walking in through the front doors. A cold wind met me as I shoved the rotted wood that was once a door. Dust was stirred up, and small particles drifting through the air was caught in the beams of light being emitted from our flashlights. A mysterious dark maroon substance was splattered on the wall. We filed in and stood by the reception desk.

"That's just lovely," Kylie whispers, her flashlight shining on the walls.

"Should we split up and search for the note?" Kathryn asks.

"Yeah, but two groups,” Serena says. “Trenton, you take Nathaniel and Kylie. I’ll Kathryn, Eric, and Dawson."

"No," Dawson says. "I'm going alone."

"Ok, just be careful and you know what to do if you need help," Serena replies. We split up. Kylie and Nathaniel follow me into the corridor on the right. We walk down the spooky halls and see portraits of past occupants on the walls. Kylie whimpers and I look back at her.

“They eyes are following us,” she murmurs. I look around and sure enough, all the eyes from every picture are looking at us.

“Let’s just hurry up and find this note,” I say, feeling uncomfortable. We come to a door at the end of the hallway. I reach for the doorknob, when I realize the door has vanished. I look behind me and see a dead end. I turn back and an empty hallway lies before me.

“Okay. This is getting really weird,” I say.

“Not to mention Kylie is missing,” Nathaniel says, worriedly.

“WHAT?!” I scream, whipping around. Sure enough, Kylie was gone. I start sprinting down the hall while I furiously try to reach Serena.

"Serena! Kylie disappeared! Keep an eye out. Weird things are happening. Be careful,” I send.

"Yeah. Weird things. Watch yourself," she sends back. I keep running down the hall and see a door appear out of the gloom. I try running closer, but it stays at a fixed point away from me. I stop and, keeping my eye on it, start walking backwards. Nathaniel stands behind me, not making a sound. We get closer and closer to the door, even though we are walking backwards. I reach behind me for the doorknob, but the door swings open inwards. We step though the door and turn around and keep walking. We’ve entered a barren room. I see a small shadow in the corner of the room. Just then I feel Serena trying to contact me.

"Hey, I found Kylie,” she says.

“Oh good. Is she ok?" I ask worriedly.

"Um...she's fine....or she will be soon."

"Don't lie to me Serena! Tell me what's wrong!" I say sternly.

"I don't know!!" she screams back. "Now stop yelling at me." I’m quiet for a moment before I answer her.

"This is exactly what he wants. He wants us to fight. I'm sorry I yelled at you and whatever state you found Kylie in can’t be good. Now lets find the note and get out of here," I reply, cutting off our connection. Nathaniel taps me on the shoulder and I turn around.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“What? I didn’t say anything,” he says back.

“But you just tapped me…”

“No I didn’t. Why? Did you feel something?” Before I can answer, a chill comes over me. Freezing cold. Caught off guard, I fell to the ground huddled up. I hear maniacal laughing, but I’m too cold to even care about it. The cold feeling passes and I stand up. I look back into the corner, but the shadow is gone. I see another door at the back of the room and I go to it. I open it and see another hall way lies behind it. I turn around to face Nathaniel.

“Something’s wrong here. Keep an eye out for anything.” I turn back around and see a small girl of about five or six. She’s standing in the middle of the hallway in a nightgown and holding a teddy bear.

“Hey there,” I say to her. She starts crying and backs up. “No, no. I’m not going to hurt you.” She starts running away from me. I chase after her, Nathaniel at my heels. She turns a corner, me right behind her. However, as I turn the corner, its and empty hallway. I turn around, and look behind us. There’s another hallway. The child is there. I run in that direction down the hall. We’re running down the hall for a long time before I realize something’s wrong. I stop at an intersection.

“Nathaniel, wait.” He stops and I pull out a piece of gum. I place it at the intersection and continue running. After about two minutes of running, we come to another intersection. I look down and see the piece of gum.

“This is really creepy. Let’s go right.” We start walking when we suddenly hear heavy breathing. Nathaniel and I turn around and see down the hall a shadowy figure.

“Hello there,” Nathaniel says. The figure looks up at us opens it’s mouth. A loud shriek emanates from it, and it starts to move forward at us.

“Run. RUN!” I yell at Nathaniel. We turn and sprint down the hall. The screaming banshee or whatever it was continued to run after us. Nathaniel and I found a flight of stairs going down. We ran down them and looked at the banshee. We weren’t looking where we were running. We ran straight into Serena’s group.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT?!" I yell. We all stand up and survey what the situation is. The banshee seems to have left, and as I look around the room, my flashlight lands on a page nailed to the wall.

"Well look at our luck!" Serena says, pointing at the wall. "A note!" We somehow ended up back at the main room, so we exited into the cool early morning air and started walking back down the sidewalk. Eric reaches for Serena’s hand and kisses her on the forehead. Kylie rushed towards me and we hug. She’s shaking, but she seems fine. We release and hold hands. We start walking again and come to an old intersection on a road. And standing right in the middle is Megan.

“What are you doing here?" Serena says. I could tell that she was nervous. That, or extremely angry. I see the others step back.

“Oh you know," Megan replies with a wink. "Waiting for you of course. Did you really think you would get a note that easily? Unfortunately, this is where you die, Serena Johnson." Eric yells at Serena to run away, but Serena tells us to hold him back. I grab him by the shoulder and tell him to stand back.

"Aww, how sweet. You got a little boyfriend, eh? Good for you. Time to get out for a change." Megan says silkily.

“Shut up!" Serena says through clenched teeth. "Just shut up." I could feel the anger and embarrassment emanating from Serena.

“Embarrassed, are we? How cute. You always wanted someone to love you. The one lone child in class. The forgotten one. You thought I was your friend? You thought wrong, Serena Johnson."

“Shut up! You were my friend. We were inseparable. And now look at us!" Serena replies, her voice rising.

"Yes we were friends...until you let me die!! You didn't even try to save me. Master told me everything!! He said how you despised me!" she shrieks at Serena.

"I tried to save you!!! I would've done anything to save you. I was held back. I loved you more than anyone in the world, Megan."

"Loved. Your lips speak lies, Serena. You have lied to everyone. Look at you pathetic friends. Look at them!!! They think they know you. What do you hide from them? You know everything about them thanks to your handy dandy little power, but they have no idea what secrets you hold. Now it's time for you to die. Say goodbye," Megan spits at me.

I feel betrayed. But I don’t even know why because Megan could be lying. But when Serena turns to look at me, tears in her eyes, I had to ask.

"Is it true?” I ask, my voice shaky. “Are you actually hiding something?" She wipes the tears from her cheeks and turns back towards Megan. She smiles at her, a cruel smile dancing on her face.

“Sweet dreams!" she cackles, then jumps at Serena, claws ready. She tackles her to the pavement and sits on top of her, claws at her throat. She pushes her off and brandished a knife she had in her back pocket.

"You could never kill me. You're too weak!" she screams at her. Megan sprints at her and Serena ducks, tripping her. She pins her down and throws her knife. She whispers something to Megan, then presses her hands to Megan’s temples. A bright light comes from where they sit, and when it dims, we rush over to them. Megan looks just as she did at Alcatraz when she got mauled. She and Serena trade a few whispered words, and I see Serena holding on to her, trying to keep her here. I know it’s futile. Finally, I see Megan’s head fall back and her hands go limp. Serena buries her head and her shoulders start heaving. I tell everyone to give her space and everyone takes a couple steps back. I give her a few minutes of grief, then slowly walk over to her. I crouch down next to her and grab her hand. I dive into her consciousness and find the immense grief. I try pulling some of it away from her, and then I replace it with the little joy I have left.

“What did you do?” she whispers, incredulously.

“I’m easing the pain for you,” I whisper back.

“Don’t. Just stop! Don’t ever do that again! I HATE YOU!!!” she screams at me. She jumps up and runs away from all of us. I turn to Eric.

“Go get her,” I say. He runs down the street after her.