Tumblefields [ONC 2021]

2

"Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."
― Oscar Wilde

2

She didn't want to go back to Tumblefields at all, let alone back to that room. Memories of the dream haunted her. Of the corpse woman and the things she did to her friends, and her, within that dream felt too real. Too vivid. Yet peer pressure had its effect and, despite airing her fears of the place, they had all congregated once more within the confines of the desolate hospital.

Memories of the night before bothered her, too. Of her friends clambering down into the basement room and their inability to find a door. They had pushed together a couple of tables, piling chairs on top, and climbed out with difficulty, clutching their treasures. Rachel did not want to do that again, standing above the hole in the floor as her friends and Anton examined the room below.

"This is amazing. Just amazing! I've been here a million times and never knew this was here." Holding his cell phone before him, flashlight passing over the contents of the room, Anton whispered, though he didn't need to. "I have to record this. Try not to walk in front of the camera, please."

"So, you believe us?" With an ordinary pencil flashlight passing across the dusty, detritus filled room, Tabitha took the time she hadn't had the night before, examining everything. "We get on the Wall Of Fame?"

"Hell no! I mean, yeah, but you'll have to find other trophies. I'll allow it. But this? This room, the body? This has to stay a secret." Anton circled the ever screaming corpse of the woman, taking in every angle. He seemed both excited and sad at the same time. "I'll get a couple of guys to hide it, somehow."

"Why? It'll be, like, the biggest thing to ever happen in this town." Sticking close by Jennifer, Gwendy hugged herself through her fake-fur coat. "Your views will explode."

"Yeah, but, no-one can know. For a start, and most important, this woman," he pointed his finger, out of view of his phone. "She deserves her peace, not a bunch of people taking her bones and stuff away like she isn't important. Second, the cops'll find out and this whole place will get closed down for good. No more Tumblefields Challenge."

"Look at this." Looking over her shoulder, Tabitha waved at everyone to move to her. "This part of the wall was added later. Like it was rushed, or something."

Rachel moved around the hole on the floor, trying to catch a better look. Her curiosity fought with her feelings of trepidation. She wanted to clamber down with the others and take a good, long look at the room she had fallen into. She wanted to run away and never look back.

Even the daylight streaming through broken and cracked windows, filtered through overgrown vines and weeds, felt cold and eerie, but the chill that rose up from that room felt worse. It caught against her skin, causing the hairs on her arms to stand on end.

"Ha! Look! A fingernail!" Reaching Tabitha, Jennifer plucked something from the wall, holding it up to the beam of her flashlight. She turned her hand as she looked at the object between her fingers, before passing it to Anton. "They buried her alive. Well, blocked her in here alive."

"That poor women. What did she do to deserve this." Pointing his phone's camera at the fingernail, Anton then put the fingernail in his pocket. "Let's get out of here, she's bern disturbed enough. I can't believe Old Man Dawes didn't know about this place. I'm gonna go see him once we get out."

"'Old Man Dawes'?" Already moving towards the pile of tables and chairs, giving the woman's corpse a wide berth, Gwendy held out her hand for Jennifer.