The lights in the asylum flickered on and off and all I could hear was the heavy breathing of my attacker and it's footsteps getting closer and closer.. Thump! Thump! Thump! I ran as fast as I could down the old hall, past all of the abandoned hospitals, furniture. "Why did I ever agree to go through with this?" I thought to myself, as I found a small crawl space in the wall to hide in. I could hear the rats rustling around me as I made myself as small as possible and sat and waited for whatever it was chasing me, to pass. Some stupid dare to go into an old abandoned asylum alone for 20 mins, could be it for me, I thought as tears ran down my rosey red cheeks and I began to shiver uncontrollably. That's when I first heard it. It was my mother's voice, just as soft as I remembered it to be when I was a child. My mother passed away in a car accident when I was only 5 years old and I didn't't remember much about her, now, at 19, but I would never forget her voice. "Help me." It came out shaky and horse and I slowly peeked my head outside of the crawl space to see what was going on. That's when I saw him. The exterminator. I had heard rumors about him for years after the asylum closed but never believed he could be real. It was just some story made up to scare children, right? In the stories, the exterminator's job was to get rid of all the patients the hospital deemed couldn't be "fixed," in any way that he saw fit. Many say that he got off on touring others so it was the perfect job for him. I didn't understand what was going on but as I looked at his piercing yellow eyes, scaly/burned skin, his razor sharp teeth, and at least 7 foot build, I knew that I had to get out of there now and think of the rest later so I slowly stood. I found a small piece of drywall and tossed it in the opposite direction, to distract the exterminator. As soon as he went towards the sound, I bolted towards the exit. Just as the door to the outside opened, I turned to see my mother's face, only it was half gone. Like something right from a horror scene. Her skin melted from her face like wax from a candle and she screamed in pure agony. My knees got weak and I almost collapsed at the exit when I was pushed out of the door by some strong gust of wind. The sky was completely dark but it was only 3pm. It all felt like a dream as I landed on the pavement, just outside of the asylum. I was still in a trance and all of a sudden the sky began to clear. Wondering what just happened, I heard one of my friends, Charley, yell, "Omg we thought you were dead!" I slowly looked up to see Charley, Raven, and Mona, looking at me as if I had just come back to life right in front of their eyes. "You disappeared Tammy," Mona said, as she reached down to help me off the ground. "Is everything okay?" Still in a daze, I answered in a shaky voice. "None of you saw that?" "Saw what?" Charley asked. I replayed the events that had just occurred in my mind and it all felt so fuzzy. Did all of that really just happen or did I imagine it? "Hello, Earth to Tammy!" Charley said as he snapped his fingers in front of my face. "What happened to you in there?" Mona looked at me with the most caring eyes. She always was an amazing friend and although I was a bit embarrassed,I knew that I could share anything with her. I stood and dusted myself off before grabbing Mona's hand and quickly walking in the direction of my home. I could hear the others calling for us but I just kept walking. I had to know what all that meant. Why was I seeing my mother in the Asylum, if she died in a car accident and why was she in so much pain? My father had told me she didn't suffer at all in the accident. Later that night, I explained everything to Mona, as she sat at the edge of my bed with her mouth agape. "What do you think it all was, just don't sort of bad daydream?" She asked eagerly. I put my head down as a tear slowly fell down my face. "It felt so real," I said. "There's no way that could've been imagined, I saw my mother's face." I paid back on the bed and covered my face as I let out a deep sigh of frustration. Mona didn't say anything except, "sorry, you know it's just hard to believe." Before she walked out of the door and headed back home. As I lay in bed the next morning, after my alarm, the sky turned dark again. I could see the asylum before it closed down. It was lively, with doctors and patients all around. I felt like a ghost walking through it's hallways. All of a sudden, everyone disappeared and I reached a black door at the end of the hall with loud screams coming through as I approached it. The screams were so piercing that I had to cover my ears to get closer. I reached the door and stood on my tip toes to peek into the small square window that was covered in old newspaper, except for one spot that left me able to see into the room perfectly. There was lots of medical equipment, two men dressed in long white lab coats and a man restrained to a hospital bed. He was covered in blood and they were removing his teeth one by one. I had never seen so much blood before in my life and it made me fall back into the asylum floor. Before I could get up,I saw the knob to the black door began to turn. I got up as fast as I could to run and as soon as I turned around, I was face to face with the exterminator...

To be continued