The Game of Life

Steph and I walked into the old abandon mental hospital. I looked over at her as she wrinkled her nose. "What's that smell?" she proclaimed, "Are they storing the dead here?"
I couldn't help, but to giggle at her silly remark and give one of the same nature back. "They could be using this as the new morgue," I said trying not to laugh.
The smell was worse than rotten eggs that have been sitting out for a week straight. The floors were dirty and slippery. The ceiling had holes where you could still see the old metal pipes. The lobby was almost empty with the exception of a few chairs here and there and the old check-in desk. As we plopped down on two of the chairs, dust flew through the air.
"You know, this is breaking and entering. Why are we here?" I asked her.
"One day I was really stressed out and I wanted to be alone and I knew no one would disturb me in an abandon mental hospital. I don't think that anyone would say anything to us about hanging out here anyways. It is a little risky, but if we didn't take risks our lives would be boring," she said knowing that she had just made a good point.
Steph and I had been friends since both of us could remember. However, we had nothing in common. I guess you could say we were like sweet and sour sauce. I was the sweet girl next door with long blonde hair, blues eyes, and worried too much that I wouldn't fit in. Steph was the sour punk rocker. She wore black knee high socks with pink stripes on them. She had short black hair and thick rimmed glasses. She didn't care what people thought of her.
"Did you hear that?" Steph asked.
"I didn't hear anything," I told her.
"Someone or something," she said while trying to make her voice sound creepy, "is on the second floor." She paused for a moment, "Let's go check it out!" The excitement in her face was overwhelming.
I laughed at her as I got up and walked over to the stairs. "I hate stairs."
"Are you scared?" she asked. I just simply shook my head no. "Oh don't be lazy then!" Let's go! She ran past me to the stairs, "I'll race you!"
"You're on!" I yelled back. We ran up the stairs. It was the stairs that you see in old movies that wined around. They creaked as we ran.
When we got to the second floor, she managed to get out "You lose!" while she was still breathing hard. Just as she finished we heard a door slam. Both of us jerked our heads to look at one another. Steph then took off running to see where the door had slammed. I ran after her down the long dark hallway. The only light was what peered though the bedroom windows and opened doors. Steph suddenly stopped at the end of the hall. I almost ran into her. "All the doors are open," she said.
"What was that then?" I asked. Just as I finished my cell phone started to ring, it startled both of us and we jumped. I pulled out my sleek new bright pink Razor phone. "It's Jake," I told Steph. She rolled her eyes at me as I answered. She wasn't too fond of him. "Hey," I said, "Nothing really. Just hanging out with Steph. Where are we?" Steph shook her head and was mouthing don't tell him. "We're at…" I paused for a moment but I just couldn't bring myself to lie to him. "… The old mental hospital."
"What the heck are you doing there?" He yelled so loud that I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
"Tell his loud mouth to shut up!" Steph yelled toward the phone. "I can hear him from over here!"
"What's wrong with being here?" I asked him.
"You're such a liar!" I said and then I closed my phone.
"What did he say?" Steph asked, "Maybe something that upsets you enough that you don't ever want to talk to him again," she said in a hopeful voice.
"He said one of the doctors that worked here went crazy and started killing patients. It was some sort of massacre, he killed 13. I guess they never caught him so they just shut the place down," as I told her this her eyes grew wider. "He said that all of this happened on the second floor in room 13."
"Wow! That's creepy!" She looked around. "You realize where we're standing?"
"Where?"
"We're on the second floor, room 13 is right there," she said pointing to the nearest door to us," She walked over and stood in the doorway. "The smell isn't that bad up her," she said curiously. "I dare you to stay the night here."
"Are you crazy?" I yelled
"Well that's what my therapist tells my mom…" she said as she laughed.”Come on, I'll stay with you!"
"We've done a lot of crazy stuff in our day, but this is the craziest."
"So that means that you're going to stay with me?" She asked as she jumped with joy, literally.
"I know this is going to be something that I regret."
"No you won't!" she said as she carefully examined the door to room 13. There was a large red X in the center of the door with caution tape all over it. The door handle had a brownish-red substance on it. The room had padded walls that were slightly off white and covered with dust. There was a single bed that had worn out sheets and a single pillow on it. It looked as if it might have had chains on it at one point in time. Steph walked to the window and I followed closely. The sun had already begun to set, and the sky was darkened with thick gray clouds, it looked as if it was going to rain. "Come on, lets go look around," She said so calmly. I was already starting to be a little sketch about staying the night in an abandon mental hospital and Steph could see that without me saying a word. "It'll be fine, I promise," She reassured me.
We walked down the hall, peeking in the doorways as we walked. All 26 rooms on the second floor looked nearly the same. We walked back downstairs, the smell bombarded us again. "I have to find where that smell is coming from!" Steph yelled. She stuck her nose in the air and started sniffing like a dog.
I followed her down a long hall and around a corner. The smell started to become unbearable. As I grabbed my nose I said, "I think we're getting close to it."
"I think it’s coming from in there." She said as she pointed to a door with a sign on it that said Morgue.
"Should we go in there?"
"I'm not sure," she said which surprised me. She was always sure. We walked up to the door and peered through the tiny window towards the top of the door. We both jumped backwards. There was a tall, skinny looking, pale man with yellowish blonde hair walking around pulling out bodies looking at them, and pushing them back in.
"I thought this place was closed!" said loudly.
She grabbed me and put her hand over my mouth. "Shh…I did too," she said, "Now shut up before he hears us and comes out here and press charges on us for trespassing." She pulled back and walked over to the window. She must have leaned on the door to much because it fell open and she stumbled into the room.
"Uhh… I was just umm… leaving…" she said as she back up to the door.
"You're not going anywhere," he said as he grabbed her. "What did you see?"
"Nothing!" I could see the fear in her face.
"Are you alone?" He asked her.
She knew that if she told him that I was with her that he would come after me as well. So she told him "Yea."
There was an old straight jacket lying on a table near by. He pulled her to the table and got her into it. He pushed her on to the floor so she wouldn't be able to stand up. Steph is always curious and wanted to get to know everything. So she had to ask, "What are you doing? And where did those bodies come from?"
"I'm research," He told her calmly like it was no big deal that he had a room full of dead bodies.
"What for? And once again, where did the bodies come from?" She asked persistently.
"Medical purposes." He answered.
"Are you going to tell me where the bodies came from? Or am I going to have to ask you 500 times?"
"I killed them!" He screamed! The terror in Steph's face grew. She began to lose color in her face. I didn't know what to do. Should I try to rescue her myself right now and possibly end up killing both of us. Or should I leave to get help and when I return her possibly being dead.
She looked over at the door to see if I was still standing there trying to figure out what to do. She used her quick thinking to give the right clues on what she wanted me to do.
"You killed them like if someone found out," she said and she started to emphasize her word, "And went to the police you would go to prison?"
"I guess, but no one is going to find out, now are they?"
"Nope!" she said quickly.
I looked around quickly, finding the nearest exit. I ran outside, it was one of the darkest nights of the year, and thick fog covered the ground. When I got to the police station I completely panicked. I had to grab the office and drag him to the mental hospital because I couldn't get the words out. When I got there and showed him the room, and the man, he quickly radioed for back up. I finally managed to tell him what I over heard him tell Steph, but Steph was no where insight.
"We've got a suspect here, matching the description of Doctor Michael Carson. I'm unaware if he is armed or not." We both watched closely as we waited for back up to show up. When back up finally showed up, they busted into the room seizing and handcuffing him. I followed in.
I began to pull out bodies looking for Steph. She wasn't in the room at all. "Where's Steph!" I screamed over and over. He just looked at me a smirked. "Do you think this is some sort of game!" He turned and started to walk away. I thought for a moment and then I took off running. One of the police officers followed me. I ran up the stairs and all the ways down to room 13. The door was closed. I kicked the door in. Steph was lying on the floor covered in blood. "It'll be ok, honey." She was rushed to the hospital. A couple days later she was released, but she had stitches in her head, back and chest from the cuts that she received. We were watching the news later that night when the reporter said, "Thanks to the risk of two local teenagers the police have found Doctor Michael Carson and he is facing murder charges."