Chapter 1
“There it is, Dale,” Martin said with a wolfish grin, “Deer Glen General Hospital. The OG. The mother of all hazing locations…” He patted his friend on the head, “And you have the honor—nay, the privilege—of gracing it with your presence.”
Snickers abounded at the formal declaration. Dale duly ignored them. The sun had set four hours ago, but the moon was full, and Dale could see the white outline of the old county hospital in front of him, overgrown with vines, weeds, and saplings. Behind him stood the prominent members of the fraternity he was pledged to. They were holding candles and wearing hooded bathrobes. In between guffaws directed at him, they behaved with the gravity of pagan priests.
Martin lit two incense sticks and waved them around, speaking in the deepest voice he could manage after three beers, “We now send our pledge forth, to prove his mettle, and become one of us.”
“One of us!” the group repeated. Dale had his back to them, so he rolled his eyes with impunity. No one had been hazed at the Deer Glen General Hospital since any of these guys had been in college. Why couldn’t Dale just spend the night naked in the park like everyone else?
“Go forth, young sir!” Martin intoned.
“Go forth!” the others replied.
Armed only with a flashlight, a sleeping bag, and a backpack full of supplies, Dale made his way forward to the vine-ridden husk. Well, at least he was properly dressed for the cool night. Martin and the others drew the line at that, thankfully.
Dale only wanted to join this fraternity because his friends Martin, Philip, and Greg had already been inducted into it. He had held out until the last minute. Maybe that’s why he had been given the dubious honor of going to Deer Glen.
The sliding doors at the main entrance were defunct and had bricks built in front of them to prevent an entrance, so Dale had to enter the building through one of the many side exits. He pulled the door open and gingerly walked into what looked like an indie horror game.
The hospital hallway stretched out in front of him, almost endless in the flashlight’s beam. Once the outside door closed behind him and he was cut off from the moonlight, Dale felt like he was being wrapped in a fusty blanket. Breathing was already a little more difficult.
Get a grip, Dale. There’s plenty of air in here. He couldn’t wig out so early. He just needed to find a relatively clean and safe place to hunker down until morning. He could hear wind going through cracks, so the building had its own form of ventilation.
As Dale made his way through, staying at ease was proving easier said than done. Each and every footstep echoed in the dark and desolate hallway. He actually found himself making heavier footfalls to make more noise. The more noise there was, the more likely wild critters would stay out of his way. Dale told himself that the smears on the wall were rust, not blood. Others had been there before him; he could tell from some graffiti left on the wall. It read, “HARRY WAS HERE” and “TOO SPOOKY” and a host of other things one might typically spray in a place like this.
Dale didn’t know much about the Deer Glen General Hospital except it had shut down due to lack of funding. The more valuable things, like surgical instruments and medical equipment, had been taken away and all that remained were old information handouts and rotted bedding.
There was nothing in the hazing’s terms that said what room he had to stay the night in, as long as he was in the building. Perhaps he should have just stayed by the exit.
He could hear rustling in the walls. It had to be rats; it was too big for cockroaches. Ugh, Dale had no love for rats. Of course, if rats were the biggest problem he had to face while staying here, he’d be at peace with that. One of the reasons that Deer Glen had been chosen again as a hazing location was the recent rumors of it being haunted. Whispers abounded of unnatural shrieks and eerie shadows around the place, and the last urban explorer had barely gotten away with his life. Of course, like most stories of this kind, no one could say the name of the explorer or what he had been running from. Martin had joked that it was probably the guy’s own shadow that spooked him.
It didn’t take long for Dale to reach the front lobby and reception area. The front door was still bricked up, but the room was spacious. There was some exposed insulation and he spotted discarded rebars on the floor. Apparently there had been looters before, or just rowdy urban explorers.
After checking a nearby wall for spiders and such, Dale sat down on the floor and looked around the room. He pictured the hospital in its heyday when this room would have been crowded with staff, patients, and visitors. It was a shame it was all going to waste.
One of the haze’s conditions was he couldn’t bring his phone, but he had been allowed a digital watch. The time was 10:45pm. Dale decided to switch off his flashlight for a moment, just to see if he could get comfortable enough in the dark to sleep.
That turned out to be a pretty big mistake...
