UNPSYCHIC.

Case 01 :: Chapter 11

I pulled Danni away from the skull as far as possible. But doing so disturbed more bones as they protruded out of their shallow grave, just beneath where Danni laid. Firming my grip on her wrist, I dragged her out of there then slammed the door shut. Leaning against it, I tried to catch my breath and waited for Danni to gather her bearings before grabbing her hand once more.

"Come on, let's get out of here." I was just about to guide Danni back to the exit when I belatedly realized that Noelle was missing and called out for her. 

"Back here. You should see this." Her muffled voice echoed from the farthest room. The largest metal door stood ajar with a faint light seeping from the crack, almost beckoning me to come closer like the sun to Icarus.

I looked down at Danni and held her shoulders. "I want you to get back upstairs. Run. Don't look back. Mom and Mrs. Suliman are waiting outside, okay?" A deep unsettling feeling resided in my gut, telling me that I shouldn't let Danni see whatever lies beyond that door.

"Be careful." She said as I led her to the foot of the ladder. Giving her a quick peck on her forehead, I assisted her as she climbed the first few steps until she was no longer within my reach. After I made sure she safely reached the top and was out of the tunnel, I headed back towards the end of the hallway. The spirit of the boy I saw earlier no longer made another appearance.

Once I reached the metal door, my hand just lingered on its cold surface, the fear that trickled down my spine made me unsure if I should push. The memory of the dream sneaked its way back into the forefront of my mind. Will there be a covered body on that metal slab? 

With only one way to find out, I braced myself and went in. As predicted, the metal slab was there in the middle of the room. But no body though. I found Noelle at a corner by the door underneath a weak light of a working lampshade. She was engrossed in a small diary-like book between her hands before she glanced up and her forehead creased in worry. 

"How's your sister holding up?"

"Better than I expected to be honest." I finally looked at the room more closely. Besides the metal slab, there was also a rusty metal peg board with medical equipment I recognized all too well covering the entire back wall. A varying collection of cutting instruments and retractors of different sizes decorated it. But what had my eyes widening were the other items that didn't belong inside an operating room; saw machines and axes were also displayed alongside the other tools.

"What the actual fuck is this place?" My jaw felt as though it hit the floor. Yet my instincts had provided me with a dark answer I was not willing to accept or voice out. We couldn't be living here for three weeks with a torture chamber beneath us! 

"This," Noelle reversed the journal she was reading so the contents were revealed to me, "will just about explain it."

I neared to where she stood, at the left side of the room that had a wooden desk and chair. Tall piles of medical volumes, notebooks and papers crowded the entire surface of the desk.

A trail of goosebumps erupted my skin as I got closer to Noelle. Despite the weak glare of the light bulb, I could see that her eyes were glazed with unshed tears but heated as well with anger. She shoved the small journal-like book under my nose. 

I squinted and adjusted the book under the light until the scribbled notes were comprehensible. But even though I was able to read through it, what was written barely made any sense.

Dated July 24, 1972 at the upper right corner, the writer lodged in detail how they would select their victim--children-- from one of the poorest families in the town, having no chances of having justice on their side, and prepare the victim by stripping them naked and putting them under a strong pressure shower, to eliminate "any filth from the slums of their origin".