The Haunted Asylum (inspired by the boys' video)

Chapter 3: The Nursery

The building could have been mistaken for the void if it weren't for their flashlights or various auras. The walls were painted white, along with all the wooden and metal doors, and the floor was grey marble. If it weren't for the open doors, power boxes, and a whiteboard, the hallway would look like a strange void of its own. "This place is freaky as..." Infelix points out, Anti chiming in agreement with a "This is spooky!" as the group walked through the dark corridor. Blank cracked a couple of jokes, trying to lighten the atmosphere, saying it was the group's new recording office. They popped their heads into a couple different rooms as they passed them, finding one with a window and entering it. Anti glitches over to it, making the EMF reader in KillPJ's hand beep and turn all the way up to the '5.' They put their hands around their face to look out the window; Dark and KPJ join them to look out into the night.

"I see glass."

"Yeah, I see... I think I just saw a bird. umm..."

"You know what I see?" Dark is cut off by a door closing behind him, making him flinch subtly with KillPJ. Blank opens the door from the other side with an almost neutral face, the group stepping over. "Dude."

"What's the codeword?" Blaze asks from behind the camera DD is using to film. Dark Dan had jokingly suggested the group come up with a codeword to check if they were talking to the real person, believing that one of them could be possessed while hunting for ghosts. At the time, Dark had waved off the possibility with a huff, thinking it ridiculous that with them being demons, it was impossible to be possessed by a ghost who likely didn't even exist in the first place. But now that Dark was in this building, with an amplifying tension, and Blank's face being so, well... blank... his growing fear was making him start to see the merit in a codeword.

His logical side, of course, was still brushing the whole thing off as Blank acting like this on purpose to try to scare them all. And damned the glitchy, arachnid hybrid, it was working! Anti repeats the question again, and there are a couple seconds of silence. Everyone stares at Blank, who lets out a couple breaths before saying the codeword, 'apples,' in a strained, sing-song whisper, smiling after to show he was joking, before walking back through the door to the hallway.

As they continue walking down the hallway, Dark grumbling to Blank about how he regretted telling him about how easily scared he gets, the hybrid stops walking abruptly. "Woah, get-"

"What? Wait..." Anti falters, and Blank points to the door next to where he is standing, looking between Dark and the door with a minor glitch, "The door just closed." Immediately after saying it, however, Infelix walks out from behind it with a cocky grin. "Nah, It's just me; I'm joking." The whole group rolls their eyes and groans a collective 'yeah alright, whatever, man,' as Dark turns his attention to the whiteboard he just noticed hung up on the opposite side of the door as he calls out to DD and repeats, 'ew' a couple times.

It looked like it was all written in old blood, which, to be fair, it probably was, considering the faded red and splattered shapes. 'DIEiT' was smeared in the middle of the board diagonally, giving Dark the 'ikks,' as Anti called it. The camera is zoomed on the lettering as they all point to it. "I don't like that, though. You think it's a sign?" Anti-half jokes, with Infelix rebutting from behind DD, "What? Dieting?" which makes the group laugh, despite how collectively uncomfortable the energy is.

Blank moves on swiftly, with the others closely in tow. As they move together through the seemingly narrow hall, no longer looking into the doors, the hybrid turns to glance at them. "I hate hallways, dude." Infelix, the closest to him besides DD, confesses, "Yeah me too."

"Well, I got bad news for you, man." Anti laughs halfway through their sentence as they call out to them, walking behind the group. Blank, Infelix, and Blaze look back at them, laughing too, and DD turns to point the camera at Dark, who is walking directly behind, with KPJ walking next to him. "I've seen so many scary TikTok's of... people exploring abandoned places and creepy places, and I told myself I would never do anything like that in my life... but here I am."

"Boys! Boys! Boys!" Blank calls out from behind them, making them all look over. He's pointing to a door with the word 'store' written in all capitals and plugs their merch brand into the camera, making the silent suggestion that the entire link gets edited in. They have been making these videos together for a while now and, after getting permission from their creators, have been posting them on YouTube. It wasn't long before they gained much popularity, with a couple already owning separate channels on the platform and posting videos on those. Due to this, they recently started producing their own merchandise, which solidified them as a group, to Dark's mild dismay. The rest of the group, even Blaze, had joined in on plugging the merch store to the camera; Infelix using his finger to draw a line on the door and telling the person who would be editing the video to make a crab waddle across the screen.

The group laughs and moves on, and Dark points out how they have barely made it down the first hallway, spending so much time goofing around. Dark stays near the door with Infelix, and the others go about inspecting the room, looking out the shady window. He hears clicking from next to him and looks at the smoke demon, who is flicking the light switch to unsuccessfully turn on the light, getting everyone's attention; Blaze and Dark Dan turn off their flashlights, flooding the room in pitch black.

"Stop it," the lights turn on at Blank's firm shout, "Don't do that." He has an exaggerated grumpy look on his face as he stares at Dark Dan as if he was an angry parent, which makes the shadow demon chuckle, turning the light off again, only to turn it back on when Blank repeats to stop. The group doesn't linger in the room for much longer as they approach the door to the next hallway, going through it. They walk through the door and along the next hallway without any trouble, walking to the next door at the hall's end. They talk conversationally about how dark the building is and mess around, Infelix trying to jump out and scare the group wherever he can. As they get closer to the big white doors, Dark thinks of the perfect idea to get back at the smirking blonde. The group stops, and Dark seizes the moment.

"Guess what? I'm just saying, Infelix is getting really confident. He's scaring people. I say he should go down the hallway first." At this, the rest of the group jumps to agree. Infelix himself is confused, "Wait, what hallway? What are you talking about?"

"You have to go through that door," Dark points to the door the group was heading towards, "Up the stairs," He directs with his hand, "Go down the hallway upstairs and go back down by yourself." Which makes the group pipe up with varying reactions of excitement and fear. Blaze pushes the now tensed blonde towards the direction of the door with a pat on the back as he slowly makes his way over to it, getting his phone ready with the flashlight to record. He looks back to the group, undoing the buttons on his brown coat and wiping his forehead. He rattles the door and sighs in relief when it doesn't open, only for Blank to glitch over and use his six spider legs to bust it loose with a 'go on.'

Dark watches as Kill PJ speaks to Blaze, Dark Dan, and the camera while Anti and Blank try pushing Infelix through the door, "So apparently, this is something that they do here. They get people to go around the hall, and obviously, like, people have seen stuff. I dunno."

"You look pale are you alright?" Blaze asks him, putting his hand up to his forehead. "You're sweating."

"I've got terrible vibes from this place. Impending doom feelings. And no, D, it's not you." He says, and DD scoffs, mostly from relief, from what Dark can read. The shade focuses on the other three, Anti kissing Infelix on the cheek and telling him that he'll be okay while Blank pats his back, chuckling. "How do I get down? I didn't even see any stairs on our way in." Infelix asks them, the smoke surrounding his body expanding towards them; Dark walks over. "It's all connected. I guess you'll know it when you see it, man." Dark reassures him, and Anti turns him around and gives his back two slaps with both hands. Blank looks through the door after Infelix walks in. "Oh, you are so going to die."

"It's very, It's very scary." The blue-eyed demon agrees. Blaze walks up and closes the door, "See you soon."

"Wait Nah! Nah! Open the door!" Infelix shouts, wrestling Blaze, who is holding it shut, laughing. "Go upstairs, go down the hall, and come back down the other side." Dark repeats, leaning against the wall at the back of the group with his hands in his coat pockets. "Are you serious, dickhead?!"

"I love you," Anti interjects,"Have fun, have fun at school." They joke, locking the doors withInfelix on the other side. "This is fucking bullshit." Infelix'svoice echoes from the other side, and everyone just laughs. "You'll begood, big guy!" Blank assures him, and the group listens as Infelix stompsup the stairs with a 'fuck you' to all of them.