Your Worst Fears

Chapter 1: Run

As soon as we pulled into the broken up parking lot and I saw just how grand and forgotten Smoky Mountain Sanatorium really was, my stomach started to roll. It always did that when I was nervous, but usually not on investigations. However, this one felt... I don't know... different. From its history to its appearance, this was nothing like our usual locations, which had consisted mainly of homes and older businesses, where things got moved or people saw and heard things, and that was about it. No, this one was foreboding, making me wish I had sat this one out and stayed home and watched Ghost Adventures on TV, instead. 

Being eighteen, the youngest on the team, as well as one of only two girls, I was like the runt, being picked on by the rest of the litter. I know they only did it out of love, which was proof that love hurts sometimes, or in my case, was a bit nerve racking. Nonetheless, I knew I'd be the brunt of most of the jokes tonight, especially since I'd already told them I was not going anywhere alone; no solo investigating, no going to check on cameras by myself, no going to the bathroom without my trusty sidekick, Tanya. I always felt safer in numbers, but tonight, I doubt even that would help calm my nerves.

"What's the matter, Amber?" Nick asked, smiling at me from the other side of the van. "Scared?"

I pulled my eyes away from the black windows of the insane asylum and looked at him, watching how he jerked his head to the side to keep his bangs out of his eyes. "Yes."

"Well, you should be. We all should be. This place has some crazy history, no pun intended, so we need to be on guard." He pulled the rest of the tripods out and nodded toward the cases still in the back of the van. "Can you grab those?"

"Sure." 

It was three o'clock on Saturday, and the hot July sun beat down on the six of us as we carried our equipment in. Crossing the parking lot, I felt like I was being watched, our every move noted. As I walked up the front steps, not watching where I was going, I tripped over a loose cable, unable to take my eyes off the Gothic-looking facade. From the broken windows to the gargoyles that randomly stood guard around the rooftop, this place was spooky, even in the daytime.

As we entered the asylum, the first thing I noticed was how cool it felt, almost as if a slight breeze was swirling around the entryway, greeting us. The second thing I noticed was the smell, which was musty and consisted of dust and decay. The walls were falling away, with debris scattered around on the cracked tile floors. Everything was just as I'd pictured it--dead, grey, and forsaken. Aside from how it looked, the way it felt was much worse.

"Okay, let's set up the central location here," Alex said as he sat one of the equipment cases down on an old table that sat in the middle of the large entryway. "It looks like this is where other teams have set up their command area, too."

Once we got everything in and ready to set up, we gathered our cameras, EMF detectors, and a couple of voice recorders so we could do a quick walk-thru of the hospital, seeing where we wanted to set our cameras up. "Why don't you, Nick, and Erik go to the top floor, while the rest of us check out this floor and head to the basement?"

"Sounds like a plan," Nick said, smiling at me. "I'll be one of the first ones to see Amber run."

"I'm not gonna run," I retorted. "And if I do, I'd advise you to do the same. I don't run for nothing, so if I suddenly take off, there's got to be a pretty good reason."

"I'll remember that," he replied with a smile.

Nick was about ten years older than me, and pretty easy on the eyes, but he annoyed the crap out of me. It was rare that his cuteness outweighed his annoyance, so our friendship had remained stagnant, which seemed fine with both of us. Erik, on the other hand, was only twenty-three and was like a raging river that I wanted to dive into and let carry me away. I kept my feelings to myself, though, not wanting to mess up the dynamic of our team, especially since he had a girlfriend. They were constantly breaking up and getting back together, though, so maybe someday....