Stuck (Venturiantale)

The Ghost

I screamed bloody murder and pushed the corpse off of me. I collapsed to the floor and slowly regained my composure. After a few minutes of deep breathing and freaking out, I cautiously examined the corpse. It wore medical garb and appeared to have been stabbed in the back of the head by something judging by the hole in the back of his skull.

He had definitely been dead for awhile judging by the lack of flesh hanging from his bones. There were only a few muscles here and there. I immediately checked for a name tag and found one that read, Reed Parsons: Chief Medical Examiner. Thank you corpse party for helping me remember to always check for name tags. I will always remember you Seiko.

If I had to take a guess on who had killed Reed I'd probably say the psycho that had escaped Ashbury Asylum. As far as I knew he had never been found. He may have hid down here in the basement of the Asylum. Maybe he had some kind of grudge against Reed. I would most likely never find out.

Then I heard something outside, I grabbed one of the scalpels for protection and cautiously opened the door and peeked outside of the room I was currently in. A hand grabbed my shoulder and I started to swing my scalpel towards the shadowy figure when they grabbed my wrist, the scalpel inches from their face.

"Rowan! Why did you just try to behead me with a scalpel?" Ghost exclaimed.

I dropped the scalpel and pounced on him sobbing about asylums and escaped mental patients and corpses and Seiko.

"What is she talking about sir?" I heard Toast ask as Ghost hugged me tighter.

"I'm not sure Toast." Ghost answered before asking, "Rowan what are you talking about?"

I tearfully explained what had happened and what I had learned.

"I found the corpse she was talking about sir." Toast shined his flashlight on the unmoving skeleton. Toast crouched down next to it and scanned it over, "He was definitely murdered sir."

"His name was Reed." I said softly. For some reason feeling the need for them to know that he wasn't just some corpse, he had once been a real man with a family and friends, "Reed Parsons. He was the Chief Medical Examiner at the asylum."

Ghost nodded, "It appears that this is a murderous spirit then. I think it's safe to assume that the ghost is the ghost of the escaped mental patient that caused this place to be torn down. Being a patient here he would have known about this basement and would have had known Reed. My guess is that this asylum wasn't exactly to code. They probably used this secret floor to do immoral experiments on the patients here. The escapee probably died of hunger down here, and now his ghost is haunting this decrepit place."

"Great. So we have a psychotic ghost that would probably kill us as soon as look at us and the elevator doesn't work. How did you guys get down here anyway?" I asked.

"Sir found a secret passage in the men's restroom. It appeared to be only one way so we won't be able to return that way." Toast explained.

"There may be an entrance further down this hallway." Ghost shined his flashlight down the uninviting hallway.

"Into the abyss I guess." I said. The hallway did indeed look like an abyss. An abyss we would have to be careful to survive in.

"And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." Toast quoted.

"What's that from? It sounds familiar." Ghost asked.

"Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche. It's an interesting read." And with that we began our journey into the abyss.

About ten minutes of wandering down the hallway my stomach rumbled.

"Ghost, Toast I'm hungry." I whined.

"Unless you want to eat one of those rats you'll have to wait." Ghost smirked pointing at a rat that had just skittered into one of the rooms we had explored.

I shivered and shook my head. Then the air seemed to freeze and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. When I breathed I could see my breathe in the air.

"Did you feel that sir?" Toast whispered.

Ghost nodded, "The ghost is nearby. Follow me." Ghost led us further down the hallway until we hit the end of it. At the end was a set of wooden doors that hurt my head just to look at, "He's in there."

Ghost cautiously opened the doors and what happened next was a blur. As soon as the doors swung open a ghostly figure flew out and threw Ghost down the hall. Toast and I ran over to him only to find a horrifying sight.

Johnny Ghost was taking raspy painful sounding breaths and was clutching a wound on his side. His complexion was even paler than usual. He lifted his hand to reveal a bloody wound on his side. A puddle of blood had pooled under him as he fought to keep from losing consciousness.

"Is this what dying feels like?"

Author's Note:

I am so so sorry for any emotional damage this or the next chapter causes. Also in case you were wondering the Acachallas are sleeping peacefully in their room the entire time this is happening.

If you were curious about why Jimmy Caskett didn't come out when Johnny

Ghost saw the corpse or the scalpel that will be explained in one of the next few chapters.

Hope you enjoyed!