Cotter Woods

Part 3

   School the next day was identical to the first day, except for the fact that I was nervous the whole time. Of course I was pumped to already have plans with my new friends. Especially the day after I met them but, the thought of visiting an asylum gives me the creeps. I told my parents we were hanging out at the park a few blocks down from our house after class. I knew for a fact they wouldn't like what we were actually doing, but I wanted, so badly, to be friends with these guys... so I lied to them. Everyone else told their parents the same thing, just to be safe.

After school Avery, Camila, Aiden and I all waited in the front of the school for the boys. Sooner or later they pulled up in Dallas's truck. Asher and Diego shouted at us to get in quick so we didn't waste daylight.  We strapped our bags down in the trunk and hopped inside.

"Where to exactly, Camila?" Dallas asked when we all got our seatbelts on.

"Why you asking me?" She said, strangely.

"Well... this was your idea." He said, giving her a look through the mirror above his head.

"Okay, okay. I'll look it up, guys." Avery cut in. We drove around the block a few times before she gasped loudly. "Guys... the asylum closed down nine years ago. It's like, empty now."

"Seriously?" Camila whined, "So... I guess all the tales were just made to make this town seem interesting."

"That must be why no one has talked about them in school this year. It's weird though, I never heard about it shutting down... so long ago too." Avery said back.

"You're kidding me, right?" Asher said, whipping his head back from the front seat. No one said anything, all we could hear was the world outside of the car.

"Well, just drop us all off one by one, okay Dallas? We can tell our parents we ended up having too much homework to go to the park." Aiden said. Dallas sighed, looking the most disappointed out of all of us, then nodded. 

"Why don't we still go?" I suggested, surprising myself. Aiden looked at me quickly with a look of question. "I mean, old lady or no old lady... it will be fun. How often to you get to explore an abandoned mental hospital with your friends?"

The car was silent for a while, "Actually it does sound fun," Diego said.

"I agree, honestly. We can get really cool pictures and stuff." Avery said.

"Let's do it then!" Dallas yelled, excited by the change of plans. I could see the nervousness on Aiden's face... but how bad could it be? We've got the lights on our phones and more importantly, we've got each other.  

 Avery found us the directions to the asylum and we finally arrived. It was light outside but the feeling of darkness outside the truck was overwhelming. Giant stone walls, barred-up windows, barbed-wired fences and old wooden benches made up the entrance of the old hospital. Camila was the first to step out, her shoes crunched on the sandy terrain below her. The silence rang in my ears once Dallas put his truck in park. We all stood, motionless, in front of the huge building. Compared to everything else in Burgdorf, this was the biggest building I had seen since I lived out of state. The sun was beaming and reflecting off of what looked like broken glass sprinkled in the dead grass, that belonged to an old sitting area. A few crows sat on the top of the building, providing the only other noise besides my friends shuffling their feet.

"Alright.. what now?" Aiden asked nervously.

"Well," Camila took a step, "Let's find a way in."