Haunted (Kaylor)

1

 Karlie's first day at the institute could have been worse. She woke up in the morning, exhausted from the sleepless night she'd spent on the uncomfortable bed after arriving the previous evening, and spent about ten minutes staring at the ugly gray ceiling. A spider was slowly making its way across, and when it hovered just above her head, she decided that it was time to move.

Finding her door already unlocked, Karlie made her way down toward where she had been told the cafeteria was. She'd had a quick tour of the building the night before - at least of part of it - and was relieved to realize that she recognized some of the hallways.

This part of the building was sterile and clean. Everything was white and gray and the fluorescent lights gave her a headache. She hadn't been into the other section. When she was outside last night, standing in the driveway and looking up at the building that she was set to stay in for an indeterminate amount of time, she'd noticed that it was in two distinct parts.

The newer part, in which she was currently walking, housed the inhabitants, the cafeteria, and recreation areas, among other things. The older part loomed over the modern section, made of crumbling brick and stone. It cast a foreboding shadow over the complex, which was surrounded by a tall iron gate. All of the curtains were closed.

Karlie hadn't been given a tour of the brick building, but assumed it would happen eventually. For now she was just focused on finding breakfast, which was no easy feat. Eventually she heard the sound of lots of chattering voices ahead and assumed she was going in the right direction. Turning a corner, she saw a wide open doorway, and beyond it, many women about her age, ranging from late teens to late twenties.

Feeling out of place, Karlie went and picked up a tray at the counter. She turned to survey the room, feeling a lot like she was back in school, even though she had graduated high school seven years prior. The tables all looked mostly full, and Karlie scanned them anxiously, wondering if she would be allowed to go back to her room to eat alone, when suddenly she saw someone waving.

She looked behind her, questioning why anyone would be waving at her, but she was the only one standing at the front of the room, so there was no one else it could have been directed to. Me? she mouthed, pointing at her chest. The other girl nodded vigorously, so Karlie shrugged and made her way over there, hoping this was just someone being friendly.

"Hey, you're new here, aren't you?" the girl said as Karlie approached the table. A few other girls sat near her, all engrossed in their own conversations but not looking particularly hostile.

"Yeah, just got here last night," Karlie said warily. Is it a bad idea to tell people that? Will they try to take advantage of me?

"Wow, okay, so you're new new," the girl said. "How old are you?"

"I'm almost twenty five."

"Hey, me too!" the other girl said. She motioned to the seat next to her. "Sit down, we're friends now." Karlie looked at her incredulously but placed her tray on the table and sat next to her on the hard wooden bench.

"What are you here for?" she asked. "Wait, that's a really personal question. I am so sorry -"

"Relax," the other girl laughed. "It's not a very personal question around here. We all know this place is a joke."

"What do you mean?" Karlie asked.

"Oh, come on. This place obviously isn't a real psychiatric hospital. This is where perfectly normal people are sent to die."

"Whoa, Cara, don't scare the newbie," one of the other girls turned to say. "Don't listen to her," she said to Karlie, who was feeling a little unsettled to say the least.

"The Institute is perfectly legit. My friend was here a few years ago and was fine; they just do things a little differently here."

"Any place that calls itself 'The Institute' isn't perfectly legit," the first girl - Cara - muttered.

"Well, I'm here because I kind of had a full breakdown at work and my family and friends were worried about me. The doctor I saw thought this would be a good place to work on anxiety and stress and all that," Karlie said.

"Wow, so you're one of the lucky ones," Cara said, eyes wide. "Most of us land in here with major psychotic disorders, even though we don't actually have them."

"What do you mean, you don't have them?"

"I mean, I know a girl who was told she had schizophrenia even though she didn't have any symptoms of it. The doctor ordered her to come here and had her involuntarily admitted when she refused."

"Well, maybe she actually had it. Who are you to tell?" the other girl cut in again. "You should note that Cara's in here for delusional disorder, so take everything she says with a grain of salt," she said to Karlie. "I'm Lily, by the way."

"Hey! I'm not delusional!" Cara protested.

"That's what a delusional person would say."

"That diagnosis is bullshit," Cara snapped. "And it's also the perfect cover for a doctor to have someone admitted. Patient says they're fine? Just tell them they're delusional!"

"But why would they be trying to get people admitted here?" Karlie asked, confused by the entire conversation. Lily shook her head warningly.

"I'm glad you asked!" Cara said brightly. Lily groaned and put her head on the table.

"My theory is that they're running experiments in the back building," Cara whispered. "People who are meant to stay here indefinitely go there - really bad or dangerous cases, supposedly. I've never seen anyone come back from there."

"Because they're meant to stay there indefinitely," Lily said. "They could be there for 20 years and you'd think they'd died in the first week."

"Oh, I don't think they kill them," Cara asserted. "I think it's much worse." A bell suddenly rang over the speaker system and people began to get up to return their trays and head to various recreation rooms. "Come on, Newbie," Cara said, leading Karlie to the tray return area. "Stick with us. We're going to lobby to be in the group that goes outside to play croquet or whatever other dumb thing they've set up today."

"You want to go play croquet?" Karlie asked. "Don't we have treatments or something?"

"Oh, they'll do that later in the day," Cara waved her off. "Not that they're real treatments. They don't even use medication here; and Lily still thinks this place isn't a sham?" She led the way over to the doorway where Lily was waiting for them. "Oh, and I don't want to get outside to play croquet," Cara added absentmindedly. "I just want to get up close to the old building and try to look through the curtains."

"You're never going to give that up, are you," Lily said with an exasperated grin as they approached.

"Nope. Just wait until I prove you all wrong. When I get out of here, I'm gonna have this place shut down for good." She turned to Karlie. "You should help, Newbie. I could use another set of eyes."

"Well, I guess I have nothing better to do," Karlie said with a shrug, earning a disapproving look from Lily. "And you guys can call me Karlie."

"Cara and Karlie, best friends and ghost hunters extraordinaire," Cara sang. Karlie paled.

"Wait a minute, who said anything about ghosts?"

"Oh yeah, this place is haunted too, by the way," Cara said brightly. "We're gonna have so much fun."