Madison Laden (Destination Fear)

St. Albans Sanatorium

*TRIGGER WARNING BRIEF MENTIONS OF SUICIDE IN THIS CHAPTER*

*Madison's POV*

We pulled up to a truck stop and Dakota got up to go outside so he could talk to the camera. "Don't try and read my lips this time, Madi." he said as he opened the door. This made the other 3 laugh as I sat there dumbfounded. "How-How did you even..." I stutter, trying to figure out how he knew that. "You realize that the camera has a viewfinder, right? And that I saw you through it trying to see what I was saying last time right?" I sit there as he walks out fully this time, and then turn to the others with my jaw dropped. This made them laugh at me even more than before. "I didn't think he would catch me..." I trail off as I look out the window at him quickly but not staring, trying to read his lips like last time. 

He comes back in about 10 minutes later and as he sits down, he says, "So, we've been in this rv for a while now and I think it's time we clean out the tank. The poop tank." We all make gross faces after he says that. "I'm not cleaning shit." I say. "No way, this is your trip, you should clean it." Chels says and Tanner and Alex agree. "Well like the rest of this trip, we should do it as a team." Dakota tries to argue but we don't let him. 

We get to the campgrounds and go inside the information/check-in area. We're met with a girl sitting behind a desk,  she looks up at us and smiles. "Hi, what can I do for you?" she asks. "Hi, yeah so weird question but how do we clean out the bottom of our rv. The tank." Kota asks. "Yeah so, one of our maintenance guys can help you with that. Just let me get him." she says and walks away from us and about a minute later she returns with a guy. We walk outside to the rv and he asks if we have our sewage pipe/drain thing. Kota gets it out and they hook it up to the thing that clean it. They turn it on and it immediately starts to smell bad. "Why did it have to be clear right there?" Chelsea asks as she gags. "I'm going over there, you're on your own Kota." I say and the others follow mw as well. 

We finally get the tank cleaned out and we get back on the road to the location. I'm laying with my head in Tanner's lap when I ask, "Can we get a hint?" Kota looks up from what he was doing before thinking for a minute. "There's constant evil here. Beware of the basement, I would definitely say it's demonic. Also, definitely beware of the boiler room too." he says. "Well that's no help. That's just telling us to be careful, it's not helping us figure out where we're going." I huff under my breath but Tanner hears me and laughs. I look up at him and smile a stupid smirk before going back on my phone, updating my friend group on how I am and how the trip's going beyond what they see on tv. 

*The Next Night*

Dakota says we're pulling up to the packet read location and that we should all go to the front to see it since it's apparently really interesting. "Is this what I think it is?" Tanner asks. "No way, no Dakota!" Chelsea yells as I look at them confused. "It's St. Albans!" Tanner says. I'm still confused, they seem so upset about this but I've never heard them talk about this place so why are they so upset? "Why are you so upset?" I ask. "You're about to find out." Dakota says as he grabs my shoulder and we get out of the rv to set up the cameras and read the packet.  

We sit down at a table and Chelsea opens the packet. "St. Albans Sanatorium..." Chelsea and Tanner trail off before looking at Dakota with really annoyed looks on their faces, making me even more confused as to why they hate this place so much and are mad at Kota for bringing us here. "No, Dakota. Why did you have to bring us back here?" Chels asks. "Because we came here 4 years ago and Chels quit. We let it get to us and we need to face this place if we're going to do the rest of this trip. Alex, you've never been here before so you don't know what this place is. Madi, you were too young to know what was going on, so you don't know this place either." Kota says. Tanner and Chelsea don't look any happier than they were before, but Alex says, "Yeah, all I know is this place affected you a lot. You weren't the same when you came back. It took a while for you to bounce back after this one." and they nod. We read the rest of the packet and learn that the land was the site of a colonist massacre, then it was a strict Lutherin boys school and the bullying was so bad some of the boys were driven to suicide but some speculate some of them may have been homicide. In 1916, it was converted into a sanatorium where residents were subjected to inhumane experimental procedures such as electroshock therapy. It was closed in the 1990s but has been reported to be haunted since it closed its doors. There is a bathroom on the 4th floor called the 'suicide bathroom' because 4 patients have taken their lives there. One of the most notable spirits up there is Rebecca, a patient who got pregant before or after she arrived there but her baby was stillborn and she kept it in a jar until the staff found out and took it from her. After that she took her life in the bathroom. The claims up there are rather aggressive, being floating lights, disembodied voices, and full on apparitions being seen. There is an aggressive spirit in the boiler room and bowling alley named Red. He is said to like to grope women and make them scared of him. He has also been said to scratch, push, and even slap people.