the beginning

"Dude, we're going to die... I swear, have you become illiterate in the meantime ? It's written in big letters there!" Melly said, shaking her head.

"stop being a drama queen" Kyle responded, already climbing the rusty fence. If there was a no trespassing sign, Kyle saw it as an invitation. "We're not going to die. We're going to explore. It's urbex, it's... at least a kind of art..."

"Artistic my ass, yes" Darren muttered, nervously fiddling with his phone. "It's mostly illegal."

"And a dangerous group of brainless idiots!" -Ysée added, looking around.

"It's especially annoying waiting for you to stop complaining." -Prudence sighed, adjusting her blue cap over her braids. "The only danger here is getting tetanus from accidentally sitting down or even stepping on a nail."

"Or die of old age before we are all gone" Anthonio mocked, pushing Darren who was still hesitating in front of the barrier. "Move your ass, Darren."

"Pff, it's easy for you to say it, Mr. Sportsman." Darren responded by clumsily climbing up, phone trapped between his teeth.

In just a second, a rustling sound of cloth was heard.

"Oh no, not my baggy... Not my damn baggy! This shit is expensive"

Everyone laughed, except Darren, who cursed his luck as he rubbed the tear on the back of his thigh.

"Okay, we're all here." Elliot said, playing with his fingers.

The young man evidently seemed nervous. It was the first time I went out with them. New to high school, new town, and already he found himself following a group of idiots to an abandoned hospital. But hey, maybe it was the rite of passage, right?

"Okay, rookie." Kyle began, putting an arm around her shoulder. "I present to you the Saint-Mathieu hospital, a Catholic hospital closed for ten years after a major scandal."

"As?"

"Like the birth of demons, crazy and psychopathic surgeons, patients who disappear, exorcism" Melly grimaced. "Well, do you see rumors?"

"Rumors... yes" Prudence blurted out.

"The real scandal was the mistreatment. Horrible conditions, abandoned patients, infestations of rats... A huge disaster that closed the place faster than a cheap wig in the rain."

"And why are we already here?" Elliot asked.

"To become legends, nigga ! We will integrate you into our little group" Kyle responded, raising his arms toward the sky. "Imagine? A group of friends, the first to film the interior of this hospital! TikTok, Instagram, YouTube... Let's surprise you!"

"Or break our ankles in this rotten hole" -Darren corrected, dodging a pile of broken glass. "I swear, I can already hear my mom screaming at me from here."

"Please Darren, you are the only boy who comes to Urbex with his mother on speakerphone." Antonio sighed.

Elliot followed the group, trying to hide his discomfort. The hospital in front of them is simply huge and decrepit, its windows were broken and others in poor condition. a panel "DANGER" It hung from the front door.

"Seriously, I have a feeling we're going to end up seeing something weird."

"Ah but for me if I see something strange I scream" Ysée warned. "And when I scream, I run. So if you hear me scream, follow me"

"Are you Usain Bolt now?" Prudence mocked "Honey, if a demon wants to get you, it will get you before you finish blinking, so start saying the holy words of our Lord."

"Unless he's an asthmatic demon." Melly responded.

"Or just Darren's fat mother?"

Everyone laughed except Elliot at the mention of Mrs. Cavanaugh and Darren rolled his eyes before holding out his phone and following the rest of the group avoiding the few bugs.

"Come on, let's go in."

Kyle is the first to push the door open. The latter opened with a creak that could have made any cheap horror movie wet with envy. Elliot turned his head back, ready to head back the way he came, but Melly grabbed his arm.

"Welcome to hell Elliot"

"Not yet" answered Anthonio, with a smile on his lips. "We just entered purgatory guys."

Everyone entered the dusty hallway, all they had were their flashlights, their phones, and their legs to escape in case of trouble. The hallways were all dusty and there were still moldy medical posters hanging on the walls, files scattered on the floor, everything damaged by humidity. Kyle was already filming on his phone while spouting pseudo-documentary nonsense.

"Here, in this abandoned hospital, thousands of wandering spirits still seek peace. Perhaps we will meet one or two of them tonight..."

"The only spirit you're going to find is your grandmother's if you keep backing away like an idiot." Darren sighed as he dodged a rat that crossed the hallway.

"Ayoh bro, it was a mouse."

"He was huge. Like a baby beaver on steroids"

They went deeper and deeper into the hospital, each one looking for something without really knowing what. Surely proof that they were braver than anyone else? Maybe just a different evening than the ones we spent watching Netflix.

"Well" Kyle said, pointing to a half-open door with the end of his lamp. "We go our separate ways."

"Oh yeah? And in what horror movie does the disbanding group survive?"

"It's not a movie nigga" Kyle responded.

"And that's what scares me."

"Yeah, okay. Then we'll stay together."

"And what exactly are we looking for?" Elliot asked.

Kyle gave him a smile.

"We're just looking to have fun, that's all, don't tell me you're already scaring Newbie?"

Elliot shook his head, not wanting to look like a coward in front of the only people who accepted him. Despite everything, Anthonio couldn't help but look around in more detail just in case, the walls were emaciated and seemed to ooze moisture. The paint was peeling and it didn't look like anything anymore. Elliot was a little behind, he didn't even take his time to look at the decoration, his flashlight moving from left to right.

"PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY"

Bingo, they found it! Kyle led the way, excited. Behind him, Prudence and Ysée walked at a steady pace. Melly lingered for a while as he looked at one of the paintings that still seemed to be in good condition unlike the rest of the things present. Darren remained faithful to his phone, as if he could protect it. Anthonio brought up the rear while looking at Elliot, who seemed as lost as a tourist in the middle of the desert. The corridors followed one another, worse than a labyrinth.

"It could have happened here..."

"stop acting like an idiot Ysée"

Surprisingly, the mental health prevention posters were still hanging on the walls, their slogans slowly fading under the dust, but Prudence could read "Preserve your mental health." How ironic given the situation. The rooms were devastated. Broken mattresses, broken drawers, pieces of glass on the floor. Occasionally, a rat would run between two piles of soggy paper before disappearing. Ysée had given up avoiding stagnant puddles, her shoes already soaked. Elliot took his time to notice every visible and imaginable detail of the place. The damp smell of mold made Melly sneeze in addition to the cold that seemed more present in some rooms with broken windows. After a few minutes of good walking, they arrived at a waiting room with seats upside down. Graffiti, messages scribbled by teenagers who have surely passed before them" This is where the madness begins. », « don't come back », « help me », « Ronald Reagan was the devil »

Kyle filmed every corner of the room.

"Here you go guys. The Lair of Madness."

Nobody wanted to laugh. Even he seemed frustrated that the place didn't look better on camera. Too much rubble, the only thing that could really be true is the fact that Ronald Reagan is the devil.

"at least someone here was preaching to the lord for having the courage to reveal the truth about the real devil"

Prudence made the sign of the cross to protect herself and then they continued their advance, Kyle tracing the path without really caring about those who followed. Elliot had stopped counting the broken doors, the broken chairs, the abandoned and rusty stretchers, the carts with syringes. Everything seemed the same. The new boy in the group hated to admit it to himself, but he couldn't take his eyes off every corner. The group of friends underwent surgery. The white tiles were stained black and pieces of glass hung from broken surgical lights. Darren pretended to film a rat skull on a tray, his fingers trembling slightly despite his smile. The next hallway led to a wing reserved for higher psychiatric care. Prudence frowned as she looked at a half-broken door, the label of which read: Isolation 3

Kyle quickened his pace. He wanted to get to the basement, where some caretakers were said to have locked up patients in more than questionable conditions. I wanted to verify the rumor of the famous forbidden room, triple locked even after the hospital closed. Elliot followed him, despite himself. He had the impression of being in a real mess that was beyond the simple delirium of an urbex with new friends. A torn sign hung above the rickety staircase that led to the basement. 

« Access prohibited to unauthorized persons » The red letters were barely legible.

Elliot felt a rush of cold run down his back, as if something was caressing his spine. The others were already moving forward, their voices gradually fading as they disappeared into the darkness. Kyle was still filming, Darren faltering with every step, caution signaled by mumbling something that sounded like a prayer for protection. Anthonio seemed perfectly calm, as if he had never taken a single horror movie seriously and didn't believe in spirits. Elliot put his foot on the first step, his heart beating too fast.

The silence of the basement scared him too much.

The steps creaked under his feet. The air was unbreathable with a strong smell of mold and dead animals that made you want to vomit. Elliot gripped his flashlight as if it were a weapon as he walked backwards and cast nervous glances towards the heights they had just abandoned. Unlike inside the hospital, the walls here were bare, looking like rough stones that echoed the sound. The light from their flashlights was almost useless, they could see very little between the pieces of rusted metal, the broken cables, the papers scattered everywhere like in the offices above. And not to change, Kyle always led the way, his phone still in hand filming left and right, his comments like an inexperienced pseudo-explorer earning him irritated looks, especially from Darren.

"Seriously, nigga, we're not on some stupid TV show like Ghost Adventure." Darren grumbled, looking worriedly over his shoulder. "There is no network here, you can't do your live with 3 subscribers, so put aside your madness."

Kyle shrugged, still filming everything that happened in front of his lens, then filmed Darren's face, laughing.

"Yeah, well, we'll record and post later. The views, bro! That's all that matters."

Elliot was only half listening. He mainly focused on the unpleasant feeling that the ground was becoming softer with each step, as if the earth below was going to collapse.

"Have you noticed?" Melly said in a strained voice. "There haven't been any more rats since we reached this level."

Anthonio raised his eyebrows, quite amused by his friend's observation.

"And isn't that better? You got scared every time we ran into one."

"Yes, but... I don't know. They should be there. For example, if there are more rats, don't even they find this place suitable?"

The said "newbie" forced himself to keep going, even if every new room they explored made him want to turn around or even throw up all his triples. Abandoned changing rooms, dusty offices without clean windows, hallways whose ceilings were sagging due to humidity.

Then they came across the archive room. The perfect jackpot they needed.

A large room with collapsed shelves, files piled up in mountains, cardboard index cards. Kyle whistled in admiration and pointed his camera at the mess.

"Jackpot. If there's any place we're going to have some crisis, it's here."

He dove through the piles of papers like a mad dog searching for a bone. Prudence looked at him tiredly, but she didn't even try to stop him, it was a waste of time and she knew it. Anthonio, for his part, was interested in a corner where several boxes with their labels erased were scattered.

"Do you think we'll find a file like "Banned Project" or "How Melanin Was Stolen to Better the World"? he shouted, upending a box of old folders.

"If that's the case, I hope they bury them well." -Ysée responded, nervously collecting a pile of papers.

It was Melly who found him first. Under one of the overturned shelves, he pulled out a dark wooden box, slightly warped but still intact. He pulled it carefully so as not to drop anything else.

"Hey guys. Look at this!"

They gathered around him, illuminating the box with their torches, Anthonio raised an eyebrow and Prudence made the sign of the cross to protect herself in case of trouble.

"What is this thing?" Darren asked, wrinkling his nose. "It looks like a miniature coffin for Monster High dolls."

"It's probably a doctor's thing." Antonio launch "some sort of dissection kit or torture kit while we're at it"

"Please, no corpses." Elliot whispered, taking a step back.

Kyle opened the box with a big smile. The hinges squeaked a little, releasing a musty wood smell that made Melly cough, who definitely seemed to be the only one who had a bad reaction to the mold. Inside this box was a Ouija board, dusty but surprisingly well preserved. The wood was decorated with letters, numbers and basic polite words like Yes, No, Goodbye. Next to it was a triangular wooden pointer.

"Oh. Fuck. Yes, man!" Kyle said, bursting into laughter. "If that's not a sign!"

"A sign that we should definitely leave this place." -Darren murmured.

But Kyle wasn't listening. He had already taken the board out of its box and placed it on a stack of files to create a more or less stable surface.

"Really? You want to play this here?" Prudence demands "You should leave this board and join your hands in prayer... to forgive this sin!"

"Why not ?" Kyle shrugged as he ignored Prudence's last sentence.

"Give us back the melanin…"

Melly hesitated for a moment, her nervousness clearly visible. But when Anthonio joked about her lack of courage, she gave in, determined to prove that she wasn't the most scared of the group.

"Come on, it'll be fun." Anthonio added, sitting cross-legged in front of the board.

"In horror movies, it's often white people who make this kind of mess and end up owning it, and you know what?" Darren rolled his eyes. "Black people die first and oh ! Miracle guys, even revelation ! We are black nigga ! ..."

Ysée coughed as she fixed her hair, it was certainly almost all black but she and Elliot were not, and when talking about Elliot the latter almost refused. His entire being screamed at him not to sit with them, not to touch that board that seemed cursed. But Melly's look and Antonio's mocking look were enough to convince him. He sat with the others. The cold wood of the pointer against his fingers gave him an unpleasant shiver. The group had arranged themselves in a circle around the object, their flashlights shining bright enough to see the board more clearly.

"GOOD" Kyle began with the air of someone who thinks he's found the best idea of ​​his life. "We all put our finger on this thing and ask questions. Easy. Like hello"

"If you say it's easy, it will surely fail." Darren grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Come on, don't act like a sissy." Anthonio said, grabbing Darren's hand and placing it over the Ouija pointer. "If it's fake, you have nothing to worry about."

Prudence, Melly, Ysée and Elliot also placed their fingers on the wooden object that seemed light and fragile, easy to handle. Elliot had the unpleasant feeling that the pointer was already too hot.

"Okay, does anyone know how to do it?" Melly asked, looking around.

"We ask a question" Kyle explained, obviously making it all up. "Like... is there anyone here?"

There was silence. A silence so heavy that not even the disturbed ancestors turn their gaze towards them.

The pointer did not move. No luck.

"It's okay, it's dead." Darren concluded, raising his hands. "We did it, it was fake, it's okay. Can we go now?"

"Wait, wait." Kyle said, frustrated. "Do we just need to ask a more specific question? Maybe that's how it works."

Anthonio sighs, amused and exasperated by Kyle's insistence.

"Okay. Spirit of this rotten place, are you there? If so, give us a sign."

A current of air suddenly passed over his hands. Elliot felt his skin crawl and his neck hurt as the pointer slid slightly to the left. He held his breath, hoping someone else had pushed him.

"Really? Who moved?" Prudence asked, narrowing her eyes..

"No one, I swear!" Kyle responded, although he didn't sound all that innocent. "Let's move on guys."

Melly swallowed, but didn't remove her fingers.

"What is your name, spirit?" he asked hesitantly.

The pointer remained still for a moment and then began to move slowly. the letter M was appointed. Then a A. Then a L.

"Mal ?" -Ysée repeated, trembling. "Bro, this isn't funny."

"Maybe he wanted to write to Melly." Antonio scoffed. "You have a ghost who is a fan of you, believing that even in hell you are a star"

"Great. I'm flattered." Melly muttered, taking his fingers off the board.

But Kyle insisted, taking up the game really desperate not to succeed in this cliché visible in horror movies, why do white girls succeed and he doesn't? 

"Okay, smart ghost. Go ahead and tell us why you frequent this place when there's no one left."

The pointer moved again. Slowly. 

 F, E, A, R.

"Fear ?" Elliot repeated, feeling his heart beat faster. "Is he a ghost and is he afraid?"

"Or we should be the ones who are afraid." Darren corrected, looking around.

"Okay, if it's a scared spirit, we're not going to traumatize it any more than it already is." laughs Antonio "Can we stop there and let this invisible specter rest?"

"No! Guys, really! We almost have something. A real conversation with a ghost and maybe eventually we can talk to Michael Jackson!"

Darren rolled his eyes, but didn't move. He clearly would have preferred his horror movie evening to this. Being friends with the ghost Casper is not his main goal in life.

"Okay Casper, what do you want?" -Kyle asked. "We are nice, we are not going to scare you more than you already are"

The pointer started moving again, this time so abruptly that even Kyle jumped.

  G,A,M,E.

"Game ?" Prudence noted "Your spirit mocks us, doesn't it? You know... in the sacred writings of the Bible..."

"It's okay, Pru... Shut up, we know, you'll be nagging us all day" -Ysée blurted out

"Maybe he just wants to play, huh" Melly ventured, looking at the board.

"Well, let's see." like a spear "So what? We play a game of Uno?"

Kyle was in heaven. He loved the idea that he had taken play and discovery further than everyone else.

"Okay, playful spirit, we agree to play with you! What's your game?"

"We? Who are we?" Darren raised an eyebrow. 

The pointer moved faster under the fingers of those still there.

 S, U, R, V, I, E.

A silence fell over them. Even Kyle lost his smile.

"It…it's a joke, right?" balbutia elliot

"I see a bit of the genre, a spirit playing Koh-Lanta, is that… original?"

"Maybe we should stop." Melly suggested, looking at the board. "It becomes nonsense, spirits do not exist eh…"

"Oh, it's okay! It's just a small piece of wood. Nothing bad or anything, maybe it's just automatic. Are we playing or shit since spirits don't exist?"

Prudence sighed, but didn't dare remove her fingers, neither of them wanting to be the first to admit being scared.

"OK..." Kyle continued, ignoring the general discomfort. "Last question nigga. We understand that you want to play survival. But why?"

The pointer remained still for a long moment, as if hesitating or thinking about the question Kyle asked. Elliot felt cold sweat run down his back, but he refused to remove his fingers. His palms were sweaty and his eyes were glued to the board, which, he was now sure, was no toy. Then, suddenly, the pointer slid across the wood, its movements tracing a message that paralyzed them all.

 Y O, U

"YOU?" -Ysée blurted out, with her eyes wide open. "What does that mean, do we have to survive our studies? If so, your Casper is a little late, Julio has already been underground for three days"

The pointer resumed writing.

 A, R, E, 

"Are ?" Melly repeated. "You are… what?"

Anthonio swallows, his smile now replaced by a worried look.

"Are you… done?" He tried a less confident voice.

But the pointer was not finished. He slipped again.

 M, A, U, D, I, T, S

The silence that followed was unpleasant, very unpleasant for each of them. Even Kyle, who is normally the idiot of the group, had lost his smile. He narrowed his eyes as if searching for an explanation for what had just happened.

"It's one of you doing this." He blurted out, his voice higher than usual. "You're kidding, right?"

"Dude... You're the one who insists that we continue with this" Darren replied. "You always want to make white people"

"Are you serious? Me? I'm just trying to make this shit interesting!"

Melly removed his fingers from the board in a fairly quick motion, shaking his head as if trying to get rid of a bad idea.

"I don't like it. We should stop. Now."

Anthonio and Prudence nodded and their hands slowly moved away from the board. Elliot felt his hand shake but he didn't move immediately. The pointer, without its fingers, continued to vibrate gently, like a trapped fly.

"Hey...why does he keep moving?" he asked, his throat tight.

Nobody responded. The pointer stopped suddenly, before moving one last time to point to a word engraved on the bottom of the board.

 Bye bye.

Elliot felt a shiver run down his spine for the umpteenth time that night, he seemed to be the only one to feel it. It wasn't fun anymore. It wasn't even strange anymore. It was just terrifying. No one had dared to say goodbye to the spirit.

Kyle laughed, a sound too loud, too forced.

"Ha! See? It's a bluff. A gust of wind, vibrations, an AI (artificial intelligence), I don't know... But it's nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Then why are you shaking?" Prudence pointed out, her arms crossed over her chest.

Kyle remains silent and decides that his dignity is worth more than a last word. He simply shrugged before putting his phone back in his pocket.

"Okay, we explored your rotten hospital, we played with your rotten wooden board. Can we go back now?"

"Yes...definitely" Darren breathed, in a hurry to get out of this room..

They stood up one by one, all avoiding looking at the abandoned Ouija board on the pile of files. Elliot turned around one last time before leaving the room. They had forgotten something. The object almost seemed to be waiting. One last word. That of the spirit beginning again. They went back up the stairs in a heavy silence, the group of friends was nervous. Even Kyle was walking faster than when he left. They left the hospital in silence after a long time. No one dared to joke about what had just happened. Elliot nervously scratched his neck hidden behind his hair because of this unpleasant feeling during this Ouija game.

 E, L, L, I, O, T

The cursor stopped all movement after that last word. He's been distraught, he doesn't plan on leaving now, not after finding something to amuse himself with.