288 Hours

Chapter 1

"Do you think you can make it?" Quinn asked from inside the asylum.

"Yeah I got it, just take my camera first" I answered from the other side of the broken glass and torn up boards. I doubted that I would get cut on the glass, but it wouldn't be the first time.

The asylum had been ghosted for a little over a decade. People used to call it the "Tower of Hope" for those admitted. As of right now, Quinn and I were hoping we were the only ones that decided to break in today. It was pretty early, early enough to still have the chill of an almost winter morning lingering in the air. The sun barely made it through the clouds. It was a dawning sight to look up at the seventeen stories and never be able to truly know who or what was in there.

As if the crunch in my step wasn't enough to tell you it was Autumn, the varied shades of leaves would. They weren't orange like traffic cones. They were the inside of a fireplace in mid-January. They were the outline of a sunset on the coast. The reds didn't come from passion, but from anger. They left you livid and shaking and without a reason why. The yellows were much different. They were mild and humble. Almost enough to trust them, but they helped hide the fading greens. Not a lime green, but a military green which only made them even harder to find.

I jumped up through the freshly broken window, letting my dad's old leather jacket protect me. I swung my legs around, lost my grip, and dropped to the dusty floor.

"All good all good all good," I tried to say over Quinn's laughter, "Thanks for catching me" I turned and glared at her.

"Sorry! Sorry!" She chuckled while helping me dust off my sleeves.

"No worries" I turned my flashlight on which only illuminated the dust even more, "who gets to lead this time?"

"Your choice," She smirked, knowing it pisses me off when she doesn't give me an actual answer.

I rolled my eyes back, "My turn." With her following me, I might make it to the morgue this time. I decided to start going left instead of right. Not that it really mattered since every room on the first two floors were pitch black. The only noise made was our boots on the scattered pieces of glass and wood until Quinn broke the silence.

"Did you sleep well?" She asked.

"What kind of question is that?" I responded, slightly confused.

"Just a question" She mumbled back.

"If you count waking up every two hours as sleeping well, then yes, I slept well" I simply stated after reaching the stairs.

"I'm afraid I do not" Quinn whispered, "Up or down?" She asked as she glanced down at me.

"Down" I tried to say confidently.

"I'm not gunna question that," She gave me a look, half of surprise and half of excitement.

I led the way down the creepy stairs to the creepy morgue where the creepy bodies were once kept. I remember the smell from the first time I managed to get through the doorway. It was a mixture of mold, dust, and probably death. There was no getting around it either. Aside from the smell, it seemed even darker in the basement. It was impossible for any outside light to get in and that only made more room for the thoughts about what might've happened here to intrude. Old television shows featuring horrific experiments like trepidation filled my head.

"What do you think of all this?" I was almost too scared to make any more noise than absolutely necessary, but that wasn't the problem. Quinn never replied.

I cussed under my breath and slowly scanned the room with my flashlight. Nothing.

Great. My best friend was missing in a morgue and I was never going to find her because my own fear of the unknown was keeping me in one place. I wanted to cry.

"Keep it together," I whispered to myself while slowly stepping towards the back room. I scanned it from corner to corner but Quinn wasn't there. The last place I wanted to check was the wall of cold chambers. The mere fact that dead bodies were kept in cupboards was enough to make me puke. It wasn't even the bodies that freaked me out. It was the concept of keeping them in there like the precious China your mom never let you touch except they were surrounded by cold, hard metal.

"I got this..I got this," I coached myself closer to the wall of body cupboards, trying to keep the flashlight from giving away the fact that I was shaking.

"Do you?" Of course, it was Quinn who has said it because who the hell else would've said it. I jumped and nearly threw the flashlight at her. Instead, it slammed against a medical table and dropped to the floor with an earsplitting pang.

"You piece of- You fu- I cannot be-.." I was still shaking, but this time it was with anger. She held her stomach as her laughter bounced off the decrepit walls.

"Oh c'mon, that was hilarious," She didn't even try to hide her satisfaction behind her smile.

I slowly walked around her to pick up my flashlight which was conveniently broken.

"You owe me a flashlight" I stoically replied before stumbling my way up the stairs.

Quinn led us to the third floor where sunlight could actually find its way in. Her curls stood out and her caramel eyes lightened from the rays. She was barely tall enough to block the sun for me which was the least she could do after what just happened. I reread the graffiti we had walked passed a few times before. Inspirational quotes were overcome by gang symbols and cryptic instructions. We reached a hallway that was much more ravaged than the others. The lights hung from the ceilings and most of the tiles were smashed. Even some of the baby blue paint had been scraped off the walls.

"Still mad at me?" She asked as she ducked under the electrical wires. My silence was enough of an answer.

I tugged on the sleeve of her gray sweater so she'd follow me up the rest of the stairs. By now we were used to the seemingly endless flights but the view made it worth it. The cars shrunk in the distance and I suddenly didn't feel as significant anymore. We could see the whole city from up here. It was better at night, but much more dangerous. Rumors had spread of gang fights and pedophiles so we decided to cut down on our visits. Quinn and I sat beside each other on the ledge without a word. Times like these we both knew not to speak. We just absorbed our surroundings for a bit.