Waiting

Sometimes the most innocent looking items can hold the darkest most terrifying secrets and Jessica's group of friends were about to find out. There were four of them and they had known each other since middle school and now they were in their senior year of high school. Jessica and Lauren were both very popular cheer leaders, with blonde hair and green eyes, Tony was a football player, short dark hair, ruggedly handsome and then there was Thomas who they referred to as the brainiac although the rest of the school referred to him as a nerd because he wore glasses and loved to read. You might wonder what they could possibly have in common but it was quite simple. They all had a wild side and loved to get into mischief or at least that is what they liked to call their destructive energy which usually resulted in broken windows, car alarms being set off but mostly trespassing on abandoned properties mostly places that were soon to be demolished just so they could gather a few little trophies as they liked to call whatever they could manage to steal that no one would notice was missing.

 They would usually wait till after midnight before sneaking out of their rooms and heading to their favorite meeting spot which was an old abandoned lot tucked away behind a strip mall that had been closed down for years. They always made sure to dress in all black, bring a flash light and wear a dark colored backpack to carry back any treasures they might find. This particular night was going to be extra special because it was the last Saturday night they would have together before graduation the following Friday so they wanted to make sure this night was epic, a night to remember. They had agreed that tonight they would explore the old abandoned asylum, the one with all the stories they had heard about over the years. It had been shut down over sixty years ago but most were afraid to go near the place especially at night and this made it that much more appealing to the group. There was a tall iron fence that wrapped around the perimeter but over time it had rusted and pieces had fallen off or been broken so they knew getting through it would not be difficult. At exactly midnight all four of them showed up looking like ninjas, flashlights in hand and backpacks secured, the girls bubbling with excitement at the idea of finding new trinkets to add to their ever growing collections. The boys promised to be the protectors of the girls in case they came across something “scary” and they all laughed.

“I’ll go first” Jessica announced.”Lauren you can go next then the guys can follow.” They squeezed through the broken bars of the fence and crept up to the front door expecting it to be locked but had been left ajar. Together they pushed on it, the metal groaning as it opened wider and they slipped inside. “We can cover more ground if we split up and check out the rooms,” Tony said with a grin. Lauren spoke up next” Lets meet here at the front doors in an hour”They all agreed and they headed off into the darkness with their flashlights on, different areas, different floors and you could hear the girls giggling and the boys stomping about because they believed no one could hear them or see them. Jessica was peeking through the doorways of what seemed to have been the private rooms of some of the patients as she walked down a long hallway, pausing at the last door on the right as her eyes fell upon what looked like an old music box. It was a bit rusty and covered in dust but she could not resist the urge to take it as her personal trophy, smiling as she slipped it into her pack. Somewhere else in the building, Lauren stumbled across what looked like used to be a nursery with broken cribs and flipped over frames and on top of one of the frames sat a teddy bear, a little worse for wear but considering how long it had been inside there, it looked salvageable so she picked it up and it became her treasure. Tony managed to stumble across a room, perhaps some sort of clinic, he could not be sure but there was a tray with what looked like metal bracelets lined up in a row. Most of them had the names on them scratched out and it looked like it might actually be worth something so he slipped one into his pocket.Finally there was Thomas…he did not seem to find much of anything that appealed to him and he was getting ready to meet the others at the front door when he saw the ledger sitting on a desk that was covered in dust and debris. This was the absolute perfect gift for him since he loved to read. He glanced in it briefly, noticing it was full of dates, times and names and he would look into it more when he was at home. An hour had passed and they all returned to the front door, so excited by their finds that they did not notice that something was watching them from the shadows. They rushed back to their own homes, the excitement making it difficult for them to sleep but finally they did, with plans of meeting up later that morning to talk about their adventures but they did not expect what was to happen next.

Let us first talk about Jessica and the music box. She had set it on her desk when she had gotten home and crawled into bed but she was woken up to unfamiliar music playing in her room. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, looking around yet nothing seemed to be turned on and the music box was still on her desk, untouched. She shrugged her shoulders and got up, heading to the bathroom only to hear the music playing once more and it was coming from her room. Slowly creeping back down the hallway she peered inside and saw the music box had been opened and the sounds were coming from it.

Laura took the teddy bear and after dusting it off she had set it with her other collection of toys that were on a shelf across from her bed. At first glance in the dark it looked like a worn out dirty stuffed bear with button eyes but this morning, it felt very different. The eyes that looked like two human eyes, you could see the dark pupils and the white around the outside and they seemed to move back and forth, almost as if they were watching her. She shook her head convinced she was seeing things till she looked at it once more and it blinked. She darted out of the room and ran down the stairs.

Tony decided that the bracelet was too nice to keep locked away so after cleaning it up he decided to put it on his left wrist. As soon as it was secured on him, the scratches on it began to slowly disappear and his name suddenly appeared as if it had always been there. Thomas did not sleep after he got home, obsessed with the ledger and any secrets that might be inside of it. He sat at his desk till almost day break, reading each line as he silently mouthed the names, dates and times, page after page till his eyes started to get blurry from lack of sleep. As he was about to set the book aside, he noticed something strange on the last page. There were four more entries that were not written like the rest, they were too recent, they were dated for the morning of when they were at the asylum but that is not what startled him the most. It was the names that were listed across from those dates and times, it was his name and those of his friends. He stood up and walked to the window, rubbing his hands over his face as if trying to clear the fog from his mind. He went back to the ledger and stared down at the page again, seeing that the time had changed and he knew something was not right. He went downstairs and got on the phone first calling Jessica then the others. They all agreed that they needed to meet at the abandoned lot and to bring everything with them that they had taken from the asylum. The tension in the air was thick as they slowly began to talk about the strange occurrences and they tried to laugh it off because the music box was rusted shut, the bear had eyes made of buttons and the bracelet was tarnished and there was no name on it.

The ledger however was an entirely different story as Thomas flipped it open to the last page and pointed to the last four names on the list where their names had been scrawled there recently with yesterday's date and time across from them. The date written was a week away, graduation day and the time kept changing and it took them a few minutes before it dawned on them …it was a countdown to what and why. The ledger fell out of his shaking hands and hit the ground with a thud. What were they supposed to do, how do they stop the timer. Jessica broke the silence first” I knew it was a bad idea to go there but you all insisted” Laura retorted” You wanted to go there as much as we did so don't blame us” they continued to argue over who was to blame for the mess they appeared to be in. Thomas could only stand there still trembling because he had chosen the ledger and regretted ever setting foot in that place.

They all stared down at the book as it lay open on the ground, the numbers still moving but for the moment that was the only thing that was. What would happen when the time ran out and they still had everything in their possession. The music box suddenly opened and the haunting melody began to play, the bracelet on Tony's wrist began to glow and the bear's head slowly turned to look at them with extremely human looking eyes, studying each of them carefully. Stepping back they almost trip over each other wondering if it would all go away if they left everything there and ran but then they heard it, faintly at first. It was a voice that started out soft then became deeper and more guttural."You took things that were not yours, you trespassed where you did not belong and now you will pay the price.” The moment that they seriously considered running and turned to flee, the time on the page sped up, each of their times different based on when they found the items and their response triggered the time accordingly. Tony, determined that he was not going to return to the place under any circumstances, believed that if he could destroy the bracelet that he could break whatever curse was attached to it. He reached for the tarnished metal that clung to his left wrist, tried to remove it so he could throw it on the ground and somehow smash it but the moment he made the attempt, there was a flash of blinding light, Tony let out a shriek and suddenly silence as they others open their eyes and see there is nothing left to their friend but a pile of clothes on the ground next to the bracelet.

They considered running so that it sped up the time, each of their times was different based on when they found the items and their reactions triggered the time accordingly. Tony, determined that he  was not going to return to that place under any circumstances, believes that if he trashes the bracelet, tosses it to the ground and stomps on it that he can break the curse attached to it.  He rips it off of his wrist and throws it down, raising his left foot to smash it.A laugh echoes in the air as the bear says “and then there were 3” as tony lets out a shriek, a flash of blinding light following before all that is left is a pile of his clothes on the ground next to the bracelet.A laugh echos through the air before they hear “And then there was three”  The open ledger now shows Tony's name written in the same handwriting as the previous entries with the recent date and time in which he vanished leaving only their names remaining. The rest of them were not completely terrified, their friend was gone and now the clock was ticking down even faster for them. The bear's head slowly turned once more, its eyes intense as it looked at them and said” Time is running out, what will you do?”

They now realize that they are in a predicament because even if they race back to the asylum to return the items, no one knows where Tony had retrieved the bracelet from so how could they return it. “”The game has begun”the bear cackled knowing that what they needed to do was going to be almost impossible but took pleasure in wanting to see them try and fail. They gathered up Tony's clothes along with the music box, bracelet and ledger and made a mad dash for the asylum knowing that at any moment their time on the clock could run out as well. They reached the entrance and from where they stood they could now see a shadow moving in front of the window on the top floor which stopped as if it was staring down at them. There was no time to be afraid, they had to act quickly so Jessica was first so she ran up the stairs to the second floor and down the hallway to the last room, stopping just long enough to place the music box back where she found it before she returned to the others. Lauren was next and she moved like her feet were on first, skipping steps as she found her way up to the third floor and back to the nursery setting the back on the bed not giving it a second look before darting back down in record time. Finally it was time for Thomas to return the book and he did not have to go far since he had stumbled across it in the office on the main floor. Once the ledger was back on the table he returned to the girls and they all stared at the final piece which was the bracelet. They suddenly felt a shift in the air and the hair on the back of their necks stood on end forcing them to slowly look up to the top of the stairs where there stood a shadow.

They froze for a moment hoping it was just their minds playing tricks on them but then it moved and they could hear the creak of the first step as pressure was placed on it, slow and steady. It was coming for them and they knew if they made a run for it, they would end up vanishing like Tony so they had to make educated guess and fast. Thomas remembered the direction he had seen Tony appear from that fateful night and together they rushed forward sprinting down the damp dark hallway approaching what appeared to be a nurses station and on the counter they found a tray with id bracelets lined up still covered in dust with one missing. Thomas quickly pulled out the one he still had in his pocket and carefully laid it in the missing space. Instantly everything went still, there was no music, no creaking of the stairs, and no shadow creeping up behind them. Letting out a nervous sigh of relief they bolted for the front door, barely getting it open before they shoved each other outside and ran for the fence.

Stopping at the fence, they struggled to catch their breath and although they did not want to , they turned to look at the building one last time swearing that they would never step foot near it again. On the top floor in the same window as before they saw the familiar shadow standing there once again watching them but that is not what disturbed them the most. As their eyes gazed across the front of the building to the other side, there was something standing in the window, a much smaller shadow with hands that pressed up against the glass as if it were trying to escape and in their ears words echoed like a warning” you will be back and we will be waiting.”