We all clicked our flashlights on and headed into the dark woods, leaving our cars behind us. The shadows from the trees seemed to float down and cover us all like a blanket thrown over a freshly made bed.

“So where even is this place?” Zoe asked as twigs crunched beneath our feet.

“Just a little further,” John called back as he led the way. “You’ll know when we’re close.”

He seemed to finish speaking when the trees opened up revealing a large brick building that has been beaten down by time. Our flashlights glinted off pieces of broken gass that clung for life in the windows, and a door at the front hung open inviting us in.

“What is this place again?” Jen trudged at the tail end of our chain.

Charlie turned around, his flashlight beam circling the woods around us. “Part of the old asylum." He hung back and waited for Jen to catch up, their whispers mixing in with the leaves dancing on the trees.

As we got closer, I could see the graffiti that decorated the building like a kid’s artwork that covers a refrigerator. Ugly depictions of demons and monsters, along with the occasional warnings of _stay out _and _go away_, became clearer as we walked near the front.

The shutter on my camera clicked as I took a few pictures. “Are you sure we’re allowed in?” I snapped a few more photos.

“Who’s gonna stop us?” John was already pushing the door the rest of the way open and walking in. “C’mon…don’t be such a chicken.”

We filed in one at a time, moving our flashlights around a dusty, empty room. Stairs in the right corner looked ready to fall just by the weight of a butterfly. Charlie and Jen made a left down a long hallway, with John and Zoe close behind. I started to follow but was distracted by the glow of the moon through a crack of a barely open door near the stairs.

The door creaked open, seeming to scream out in pain from not being used in so long. What lay before me was a room forgotten in time, possibly a bedroom of sorts. There were two old wooden beds, one in each corner on the far side of the room, and thin, ratty sheets that have seen better days hung off each bed. There was a set of drawers to the left of the door, one drawer hanging halfway to the floor. Small, colorful drawings decorated a portion of the wall behind the door.

“What are you doing?” Zoe’s voice made me jump.

“Oh my gosh!” I grabbed at my chest. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“We didn’t know where you went. I turned around, and you weren’t there.”

“Yea…sorry. I saw the door to this room and wanted to check it out.” I walk beyond the threshold, trailing my fingers through the dust covering a small table.

Zoe follows suit, pulling at drawers that are still intact. “Was this someone’s room?”

“I’m guessing.” A smaller door inside the room grabs my attention.

“Do you think it was one of the crazies?” She scoffs to herself as she sifts through junk littering one of the drawers.

“Um…I don’t know.” Something about this place feels wrong. I pull open the door expecting to see the remains of an old closet. Instead I find what appears to be a makeshift bed and a dingy pillow in the corner, along with a few cans and food wrappers. I shut the door quietly and quickly. “Zoe, I think we should go.”