Three
friends walked down the narrow alleyway that lead to the forgotten part of the
city, just as the sun set behind them.
The modern concreate pavement had been replaced with what remained of
the old Victorian cobblestone paths. A
cold autumn breeze traded places with the warmth of the fading sunlight. Nearly all the street lights were broken,
only a handful gave off enough light now the sky had darkened. The three friends were led by Vickie, a small
petite blonde woman, whom was a week away from turning twenty-one. Behind her walked Peter and Sam. Peter a chubby bearded man with scraggy black
hair down to his shoulders and Sam a taller slimmer man with square
spectacles. The three of them had been
friends throughout University and were headed to an old disused clinic to work
on project toward their degree.
“Have
you ever been to this part of town,” asked Sam.
“Are
you kidding me, you’ve heard the stories about what happens down these
alleyways,” Peter turned and replied to Sam.
“Good
job you have me with you,” Vickie giggled.
“Just stick together and we will be fine.”
“And I
guess you’ve been here before?” Peter
probed.
“I may
have been down these ends once or twice,” she winked at Peter, “now come on
keep walking we are almost there.”
Tall
brick buildings rose over the alleyway.
They could hear the screams from an arguing couple in one of the
apartments above. Rain water accumulated
either side of the alleyway, a small rat paddled through the water and past the
group of friends. The alleyway opened
into a dark street. The shops had been
abandoned and boarded up, half of the apartments were occupied by jobless
families struggling along the poverty line.
The other half used by prostitutes and drug users.
“You
know why the clinic closed down don’t you?” Peter asked.
“You
mean the vicar who helped abort those babies a month before their due date?”
Vickie responded.
“Ha-ha
did you get one yourself?” Peter sniggered.
“Screw
you the vicar died about eight years ago you idiot,” she bit back.
Rain
had started to fall from the cloudy night sky.
All three put up their hoods to shield themselves from the rain. Whilst they could escape it, a homeless man
asleep in the doorway of a boarded up shop cold not. He lay down in his thick ruined coat
underneath a soggy broken cardboard box.
An empty whisky bottle rolled away from his unconscious body.
The
three crossed the road, stepping over several pot holes. On the other side a small side street lead to
the clinic. A metal sign labelled ‘St.
Marks Medical Clinic’ dangled from a bent post.
‘Baby killers’ was sprayed across the wall behind the sign in red
paint. Vickie pulled out her camera and
took a picture of the sign. The street
opened up into a small courtyard.
Several burnt out cars were left in a carpark. In the middle of the carpark a group of
homeless men huddled around a struggling fire.
Vickie took a picture of the men.
Within a chain linked fence next to the carpark was the clinic. A large ‘keep out’ sign was tied to the fence. The clinic itself was a single storey brick
building. The windows and doors had been
bored up and graffiti was sprayed over the walls.
Sam led
the group through a hole in the fence.
Before Vickie walked through she stood back and took a picture of the
clinic. She wanted to capture as many
images as possible. There had been many
rumours about strangle horrible things happening since it had been abandoned
and she wanted proof the vicar’s spirit was still within the clinic. A raven perched on a wooden bench, it
squawked and rustled its feathers.
Vickie slowly approached the raven and knelt down. She raised her camera ready to take her
picture, but the raven was spooked. It
jumped from the bench and flew over her head.
It glided through the air between the droplets of rain and landed on the
roof of the clinic.
“Damn,”
Vickie murmured to herself. She stood up
and noticed a black rose on the bench.
“Did either of you drop this rose?” Vickie picked it up.
“Why
would we do that?” Sam laughed.
Vickie
shrugged her shoulders and placed the rose in her bag. From within the shadows of the clinic’s door
way a silhouette of a girl appeared. Sam
and Peter stood still and looked at each other, neither wanted to approach the
girl.
“Why
have you stopped?” Vickie stood beside them.
“There’s
someone in the doorway,” Sam pointed.
Vickie
looked closer and saw the silhouette, “it’s only a little girl you wimps,” she
laughed. Leaving those two behind,
Vickie walked up to the entrance of the clinic. The dark shadows of clinic still made it
difficult to see the girl regardless of how close Vickie got. Peter pulled his torch from his bag and
shined it over Vickie’s head. The scrawny
girl dressed in tattered clothes was startled by the light and darted into the
clinic.
“Peter,
you idiot,” Vickie screamed.
“Sorry
I though you would be able to see better,” Peter apologised.
Vickie
dropped her rucksack and ran inside the clinic to follow the girl. Sam gently punched Peter in the arm and
followed Vickie. Peter casually walked
behind and picked up Vickie’s bag to enter the clinic. Inside Vickie had lost the girl, she walked
around the small reception to look for a possible way the girl went. Peter scanned his light throughout the
reception. It had been abandoned for a
while. Dust had settled along the large
front desk. There were several dead
plants next to the shabby leather waiting chairs. Pieces of paper were scattered across the
frayed brown carpet.
“This
can’t be it there must be other ways to go, she can’t have just disappeared?”
Vickie tried every door but each one was locked.
“Try
kicking one down,” Peter said.
“If
it’s locked then she couldn’t have walked through could she?” Vickie scorned.
“Look
you came here for a story so search through some of these cabinets perhaps
there’s some important files,” Sam suggested.
Reluctantly
Vickie did as he said. There was no
clear sign of the girl, but after all it was not her they came for. Using the light from Sam’s torch she opened
the heavy steel filing cabinets and searched through hundreds of files, looking
for any sign of the alleged abortions.
“Hey
give me your camera and I’ll take some photos of this place?” Sam asked.
Vickie
pulled the camera out of her pocket and threw it to Sam. He slowly walked around the reception room
and took pictures of the decaying furniture.
There was graffiti on the far wall, displaying similar to what was
outside, ‘baby killers’ seemed a popular choice. Between each click of the camera the room
fell silent. The pattering of the rain
had halted and the wind had calmed. Sam
heard a footstep behind him, he quickly turned around but nothing was there,
expect the dust floating through the dark room.
Sam walked to the door opposite
the entrance from where he thought the sound came from. He placed his hand on the door and it was
unusually warm. Sam moved his hand away
and a print of his hand was left in the dust.
He took a few steps back and raised the camera to his eye to take a
picture of the door. He closed his right
eye and focused with his left. The
camera clicked and took the picture, Sam lowered the camera and to his
astonishment the door was wide open.
“What
the…” Sam stared down the pitch black hallway.
“Did
you manage to open the door?” Vickie rushed over to Sam.
“Errrr….
No I….” Sam couldn’t get his words out.
“Hello
Sam,” Vickie clicked her fingers in front of Sam.
“Sorry,
I meant to say, the door, it opened by itself,” he regained his composure.
“What,”
Peter turned to them both.
“The
flash went off and the door was open, I don’t know what happened.”
“Well
don’t just stand there let’s go inside,” Vickie grabbed the torch from Sam and
entered the eerie hallway. She took one
step into the hallway and the door slammed shut. Vickie turned around and knocked on the door
with her fist, “very funny guys.”
There
was no reply from either of them. She knocked
on the door again but nothing. Light
came from the keyhole. Vickie knelt to
look through and could not see anyone, in fact the sunlight shone through unbroken
windows and an old lady sat behind the reception desk. Vickie was confused, she had just walked
through there how could it have changed?
“Sam…
Peter…” Vickie screamed.
Her shriek
caught the attention of the receptionist, she glanced over at Vickie and
shushed her. Vickie stepped back in
fear. She kept telling herself none of
this was real, in a moment the guys would open the door. She waited for ten minutes but there was no
sign of them. Vickie looked through the
keyhole one final time but she could only see the receptionist.
Vickie
took a deep breath and turned to face the hallway. It appeared to continue for as far as her
eyes could see. Circular steel
lampshades hung from the ceiling with dim light bulbs. These bulbs faded into the darkness near the
far end of the hallway. Her torch flicked
and switched off, she hit it several times but it was dead. Vickie took small cautious steps along the hallway. White and black square tiles ran along the
floor. She had noticed foot prints on
each white tile, to her disgust the footprints were in dried blood and to make
matters worse they appeared to that of a child.
She looked up and along the colourless walls were trails of more
blood. Someone had wiped their bloodied
fingers across the walls. She inspected
the wall closely and could see broken children’s finger nails embedded into the
wall.
A loud
scream echoed suddenly in the hallway.
Vickie felt goose bumps run down her spine. A light came on from a room in front of her
to the right. She slowly approached it
and carefully moved her head around the door frame. The sight before her was strange, either her
eyes were strained or it was a vision before her, it did not appear to be
real. A distressed woman dressed in a
hospital gown lay in a bed screaming with her wrists strapped to a steal bed. The
bottom of her gown was soaked in bright red blood, it dripped onto the floor
into a large puddle. Next to her stood a
tall man in a white doctor’s coat, he wore a mask around his mouth and placed
gloves over his hands. From a tray, next
to the bed he picked up a pair of forceps.
He stood in front of the women and places the forceps inside her. He clasped them against a baby’s head and
pulled the unborn child out.
Vickie looked closer and could
see the blood-soaked baby hang in the air.
The doctor walked to the other side of the room with the baby and placed
it down on another smaller bed. He
dropped the forceps on the floor and picked up a blunt rusty knife from the
bed. The umbilical cord was still
attached to the baby. With no hesitation,
the doctor sliced the cord. Without
securing ends he let it bleed, causing the woman to scream louder. She reached out to the doctor but he ignored
her, instead he raised the knife above the child. It kicked its leg out and with one trust the
doctor pieced the child’s chest. Within
moments it had stopped moving.
Vickie put her hand over her
mouth to stop herself from screaming, but the doctor turned and saw her. He stared at her with his large dark green
eyes. Immediately she ran further down
the hallway. She ran into the darkness
and into a dead end. She searched along
the wall for any sign of an escape but there was nothing. She looked back up the hallway and watched in
horror as the doctor stepped out from the room.
He sluggishly walked toward her.
Behind him each light switched off one by one. Within a moment Vickie was shrouded in
darkness. The darkness was followed by
silence, except for the sinister footsteps of the doctor.
Just as the footsteps reached
Vickie they stopped. She did not know
what to do, was he waiting for her or had he moved on? She moved her foot forward and felt it brush
up against something. Vickie reached
down and the light above her switched on.
A second black rose lay before her.
Another light switched on and Vickie found herself stood in the middle
of a small operating theatre. The walls
were mouldy and the floor tiles cracked.
In the centre of the room was a hospital bed with blackened sheets. A young girl lay on the bed. Like the woman before she too was strapped to
the bed. A pale white nurse sat behind
her and held an oxygen mask over her mouth.
Vickie found it disturbing that the nurse was clearly dead. Her throat had been sliced open and dried
blood surrounded the wound. There was no
colour in her eyes, and the skin beneath them was darkened.
The same doctor from before
returned with forceps and stood before the girl. Blood emptied from the girl and soaked the
bottom of the bed. Vickie walked closer
and was horrified. The girl had scars
along her wrists from where she had previously cut herself. She tried to break free from the restraints
but the nurse forcefully held her down.
The doctor placed the forceps inside the girl and just like before
pulled out an unborn child. The girl
coughed up blood. The nurse removed the
mask and the girl sat up.
“Stop him,” she cried.
Vickie stood back and vomited on
the floor. “It can’t be,” she muttered
to herself. She looked up and the girl and
instantly recognised who was in the bed.
It was herself, what she had not told the others is that ten years ago
she was a patient at the clinic.
The doctor placed the child onto
the small bed and picked up the knife.
He held it above the child’s chest.
Vickie ran to him and attempted to grab the knife from his hand. He slapped her with his other hand and
grabbed Vickie by her hair. He slammed
her head off the bed and threw her to the ground. She was momentarily paralysed and could only
watch on in horror. The doctor plunged
the knife into her child’s chest. She
saw blood drip from the small bed as the screams of the child faded.
“Vickie,
are you listening?” Peter asked.
Vickie
blinked her eyes and was confused.
Suddenly she was stood on the side of the street away from the clinic
with Peter and Sam. “Am I listening for
what?”
“Did you get one yourself?” Peter
repeated his sarcastic question.
Before Vickie could reply she
paused. She could not tell if what had
just happened was real, had she been to the clinic before? “Don’t be stupid,” She tried to laugh it off.
“Come on guys,” Sam shouted from
across the road.
Unsure of the events that had
just unfolded Vickie continued to the clinic with Peter and Sam.