The Zodiac tore out of the city on a winding road that led into the hinterlands of Peligan. Overhead the wires crackled with the electricity from the pylons that strode across the landscape, bridging the gap between the city and the power station. Through the thick and muggy air a cool wind had started to blow; a storm was on its way.
They left the lights on and the engine running while Abe cut the rusty chain with his bolt-cutter attachment and pushed the old gates open. As they drove under the curved metal sign for Rorschach Asylum the car headlights picked up the road ahead, lighting the bony fingers of the trees that bent over the track like witches, and sweeping past the bedraggled lawns and thorn bushes, until they came to a gravelly halt in front of the building. The burnt-brick shell of the asylum loomed against the sky, as dark and empty as a black hole. An inauspicious bank of cloud moved over it like a ghostly road to somewhere.
Lil gasped as suddenly lightning rent the sky and the whole place lit up before them like a giant cackling face.
‘I’ve never seen so many rabbits,’ said Nedly.
Lil pulled her gaze from the horror that lay before them. ‘Where?’ She looked doubtfully at a thicket of grass. In the dark she couldn’t see further than a few feet.
‘Everywhere,’ Nedly murmured.
‘Damn this storm,’ muttered Abe. ‘Are you sure about this, kid? It’s not too late to go back.’
Lil hoped that she didn’t look as queasy as she felt and replied, ‘I’m sure,’ in a voice that sounded like she really wasn’t.
As they climbed the stone steps to the front door, Abe traced the inscription above it with his torch. ‘Pulvio et Umbra Sumus,’ he said. ‘We are Dust and Shadow.’ Thunder rolled in the distance.
Nedly was trembling, barely visible in the dim moonlight. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ he said.
‘About what?’ Lil tried to keep her voice level.
‘Everything,’ he said ominously.
Lil felt her fingertips tingle and go numb as she pushed at the door; it creaked open like a yawn to reveal a dank entrance hall. Grey water pooled on the green and white tiles, black powdery smudges streaked the walls and a sweeping staircase led up to the first floor. As they moved further in they were accosted by a powerful smell of mouldering damp.
‘Upstairs,’ whispered Nedly.
Lil pointed the way to Abe without speaking and they gingerly climbed the stairs. The banister was tar-coloured and just as sticky. Wafer-thin scraps of soot peeled off the walls as they passed and floated down. The torch beam swung round and dropped suddenly as Abe put his foot through the rotten wood of the last stair and fell over with a gasp. He hauled himself to his feet, shaking, and brushed the brick dust and splinters off his trousers. Then he gave himself a quick slap on the cheek to snap his wits back into gear.
Lil picked up the torch from where it had rolled on the landing and pointed it up ahead in time to see Nedly turn right and begin walking. A blank expression had fallen over his face; he moved automatically, retracing his own tracks as if he didn’t have a choice.
Long corridors and lonely footsteps. The asylum didn’t feel empty. Lil could hear the rain dripping and pooling on the floors through the gaps in the burnt rafters. They passed room after room. Where the doors were open they could see that ivy had crept in and loosened bricks, and thin iron bedsteads with broken springs were stacked up against the walls. Abandoned tables and chairs had been knocked over and left; hospital gurneys were marooned in treatment rooms.
‘We don’t want to get lost in here,’ Abe warned. ‘This place is like a labyrinth.’
They moved quickly through the corridors, trying to breathe quietly – every footstep felt like they were making too much noise. Abe’s heavy feet ground shattered glass, trailing Lil’s torch beam as it jumped along the floor.
At the edge of the east wing, where the fire had started, only the building’s skeleton remained: the brick chimney stacks, the walls, and the roof, which looked like it had been staved in, leaving a few black rafters poking out like old bones. A large milk-coloured bird flew out from the wreckage and fluttered towards the sky.
Abe skidded on one of the melted vinyl floor tiles, which were blistered and slippery with rainwater. He clutched a blackened fire extinguisher to keep his balance and nearly knocked it off the wall. ‘A lot of good that was,’ he grumbled. ‘Hasn’t even been used.’
The blaze hadn’t reached the furthest rooms of the east wing; as they crept along the corridor, passing the moonlit windows, Lil peered into the soft, sinister darkness of isolation cells that were lined in padded tiles, a stark ‘Wash Room’, which contained nothing but a large metal bath tub, and the day room with its charred easy chairs and gloomy walls.
She was just in time to see Nedly disappear round a corner. She hissed at him to ‘Wait,’ but by the time she reached the end of the corridor he had vanished. She heard Abe huffing and puffing not too far behind so she supposed it was safe to gather speed and catch up with Nedly, following the stream of cold air that pursued him.
But Nedly was nowhere to be seen. She turned back and found herself in a long corridor studded with windows. Grey moonlight glimmered through the film of murk on the glass. Lil walked a few steps and her torchlight flickered. She stopped. A cold breath of a breeze blew past and the tattered curtains fluttered like moth wings.
She realised that the sound of footsteps behind her had faded away. ‘Abe?’ she called out.
There was no answer. Somehow she was all alone.
She was midway down the corridor when her torch went out. Lil took a deep, steadying breath and then banged the torch against her palm. It buzzed dimly and then with a ping it failed entirely. She let her eyes adjust to the pixelated darkness and set off again. She was sure that the corridor branched off to the right up ahead and so she headed for it.
As she walked purposefully onwards, counting her steps under her breath, Lil felt someone approaching behind her and turned, but there was no one. A movement at the end of the corridor caught her eye, as a dark shape slipped out of view.
Lil’s stomach jumped. She turned back, sweating now, walking faster towards the exit. In the fuzz she saw darkness amassing in the doorway; it formed a shadow that fell across the hall.
‘Abe?’ she whispered not loud enough for anyone to hear.
Maybe she should retrace her steps again? Go back and find Abe or go forward and find Nedly? She looked back the way she had come, and as she turned something moved, a reflection in one of the darkened windows. She heard a door shut somewhere.
OK, Lil thought. Deep breaths.
It was the place. It was spooky; there were rumours that it was haunted. Well, Lil didn’t scare easily and she didn’t believe in ghosts. No, wait, she did. But ghosts can’t hurt you.
But they can, she thought. She walked on, each footstep falling quietly, swiftly. She thought she heard a voice, someone calling her name. She called out more loudly: ‘Abe? I’m here!’
The footsteps grew louder. If someone was there, they were close. Lil turned sharply, but all she could see was darkness moving down the corridor like a wave and a terrible feeling that something was hidden within it.
‘Abe?’
As Lil spun to face the figure that loomed up in front of her the breath left her lungs in a hurry and turned into a loud and blood-curdling scream.