Chapter 12

Medium: The Origins finds a young man setting out to avenge the death of a beloved family member and to recover forgotten memories, only to find himself with a new case and a unknown assailant on him.

Chapter 12

 

          Milner Hospital doesn’t exactly have any differences. Just the same kind of building. But the again I don’t really care for hospitals, I just care if Ashley is still inside. I open the door and walk towards the front desk. “Is a girl named Ashley Andrews around?”

          “Who wants to know?” The secretary ask.

        “Her friend, that’s me.”

          “Boyfriend I’m assuming.” Seriously, I don’t have time for this. “She’s at room two-O two. Don’t stay for too long kid, patients need to get some rest.” I don’t think this particular patient will get some rest, she’s already seen it all.

          I open the door to room two-O two, two hospital beds across from each other. I walk inside and I find her asleep on the right bed. I shook her. She wakes up and turns her head to find me. “Hey, it’s you from the house. I didn’t know you recovered so quickly.”

          “The doctor said I have minor burns. What’s your condition?”

          “Mine is minor too. They said I could go home, but I don’t want to. I don’t know what to tell my parents after what I just saw. I told the doctors they’ll pick me up tomorrow.”

          “Yeah, I told my doctor I could walk home by myself.”

          “What happened to your parents?”

          I live by myself in an abandoned clubhouse. “Let’s just say my parents weren’t always there for me.”

          “Are they busy?”

          No more about my family. “What were you doing at the house?” She doesn’t answer. She’s trying to open her mouth to say something, but with no avail. The only response I get is her trembling. Hmm…She’s too scared to say something. Perhaps I can let her in easy. “Look, I saw everything on the camcorder. The s**t they pulled off on you was not right, especially now that they know it’s real, and it’s out to kill.”

          “Please don’t say that.” She responds. “I’m trying to go one night without that thought. It’s going to give me nightmares.”

“Fine, but I don’t think I could take my mind off of it, not after what I’ve just been through.”

“You mean to say you were in that house more than once?”

“My second time was to save us from the fire.” And to recover some documents. I don’t remember it being there. I never even considered the fact that I have a birth certificate

“You said you were at that house before right? And you came back again to save me but I don’t even know you. You had your own reason to go there, what is that reason?”

I’ve been doing this alone, I can’t just bring someone into this. I owe her an explanation though but that’s it. After that, she’s going home and staying away from that house. I hand the papers over to her. She looks through the papers, and is in shock upon seeing one particular paper.

“Wait, didn’t you say your name is Chester?” She looks down at the page and then looks back at me. “Your name is on one of these papers, what does this mean?”

“I found them on one of the drawers at the house. I don’t remember that kind of paper being there. I thought it was just a trick that someone was playing on me, but once I saw it I never considered the fact that I even have a birth certificate, and that house would be the place I’d find it.”

“You were born there?”

“That’s what I’m thinking, yet I don’t remember. You do know the story about that house, right?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“People have been saying she died of electrocution and the ambulance were too late to save her. But turns out the ambulance did come on time and saved her, but after her time at the hospital she died, and during the same week her whole family died, and those cases were unexplained.”

“I…I…I’m looking through these papers. Marlene and Max’s names are on this…um do you know who Wallace is?”

“Wallace is my dead brother. Two years ago, he was murdered during the night of a school dance, the same time some convicts escaped prison. I wanted to find them and make them pay as I believed they murdered my brother, but almost all of them were not his murderers. I thought the real one got away, but now it might be in my face, along with other things in my face.”

“You wanted to find your brother’s killer.

“Yes, but I have no leads. Well, that’s what I thought. Turns out she was pursing me while I was pursing her.

“Pursuing her, you mean you were planning to kill your own mother this entire time?”

“That’s also another thing, it was a shock to find out Marlene is my mother, yet I’ve never felt as if she was my mother. She was already dead when she started killing, and I just wanted revenge against someone that turns out to be my mom. I may not get my revenge, but I’m certain that she’ll continue pursing me to claim my life.” That’s why I need to finish this.

“We’re not in the house anymore so the ghost can’t get us.” She begins to wonder about me. “Are you planning to go back? What for? You have nothing with that house anymore so you’ll be committing suicide.”

“It’s complicated than that. My General, your uncle, was acting strange during the event where cadets got a new rank and sometime before his death, he gave me clues that eventually led me to this house. While I was there, I met an old lady. She was an exorcist who told me about the natures of the curse and gave me this book. This book contains details on how to deal with curses and drive the forces away from this earth. That’s what she told me before the ghost took her life in front of me. All I know is that I have something that belongs to this house, I just don’t know what I took, but if I don’t find it, then the ghost will pursue me until I die at its hands.”

“What do you mean you don’t know what you took?”

“There may have been a time where I’ve been inside the house, but maybe I did go back into the house and took something. But I took a blow to my head sometime later. It shattered my memory. Well, almost. I still remember my brother…but not much else.”

          “How did you remember your brother if you lost memories of your parents?”

“I don’t know. I guess when I take a look at something is when a flashback brings back a part of my memory to me.”

“Well…maybe that’s true. Maybe you can regain your memory when you take a look at things. Maybe it can be the places you’ve been to in the past, the people you’ve met.”

Now that I think about it she’s right. I recognized Wallace when I saw his body. Despite not knowing my past I remember my investigation all too well. I could even recall from only my head. Perhaps if I go back to where I woke up with no memory, I might remember my past. “There is one area that I know. I can’t describe in words but I can rely on memory and find a trail back…”

Suddenly, the lights black out. I can’t see a thing. I can’t tell if Ashley was there or not.

“Chester…are you there?” I can hear her voice.

“I’m here, but we’re not alone…Ashley, get up, we need to get out of here now.”

But we can’t see a thing, and my phone’s dead.”

“I’ll uncover the windows.” I uncover the curtains to draw some light in. “Can you see anything?”

“I can’t see you properly, but I see your silhouette. You look pretty scary though.”

“Ashley, focus, no one is here and the lights went out. We’re dead if we don’t get out of here.” I wait a few minutes for Ashley to respond, but I notice she is facing one direction. I turn to the same direction as her, only to find nothing in sight. “Ashley, what’s wrong?”

“Please tell me he’s just another patient.” She points at something.

“I can’t see a thing. Wait, I see a pair of legs.” I trace from the legs to the face using my eyes. “HOLY F**K!!!” Marlene was making her way to Ashley. Hesitantly, I lunge in to push her out of the way and grab Ashley’s hand. “Come on, we got to run!”

          We quickly dart out of the room and make our way out of the building. The lights of the whole hospital building were out. Our only source of light are the windows and our flash light app.

“Is it still coming? Look behind!”

I look behind to see where it’s coming. “I can’t see a damn thing! We don’t know how close she is, we just got to keep running.” We’ve almost reach the exit until… “stop, stop, STOP!!” She emerges from the ground. I walk forward.

“Chester what are you doing?”

“I’m going to knock her out, once she’s out, we’ll get out of here as fast as we can.”

“What?! You can’t hit a ghost, that’s crazy! You’ll be committing suicide.”

“I got one off of me before, I can do it again!” I throw a hard punch at her, and it is weird. She feels human when I did it. A little hairy too.

Ashley shine the flashlight on the ground, unveiling a dead patient. “You didn’t punch a ghost, you’ve punched a patient.”

“She was possessing him…to get to us.”

“She’s not going to leave us alone. She’ll be chasing us around.”

“I know, but we can’t die. I’ve come this far for my search for answers.” I turn to Ashley. “Ashley, it was great talking to you, you have nothing that belongs to the house. You’re free from the curse, but I’m not. I might solve it, but I don’t want you to die in the process. Go back home and stay safe.”

“I’m too scared to go back home.”

“You’re free from the curse, but the longer you stay with me, the longer you’ll be in danger.”

“What’s going to happen to you?”

“Look, I’m the one subjecting myself to this mess, by investigating and tracking down my brother’s killer, and it led me here. I just discovered I was already in it before I started my investigation. Now that I’m aware I’m being hunted, I’m not going to let other people die with me, especially when they have a chance to live. I’ve always done things alone, and it’s best I handle this alone as well, so only one person die instead of a large sum.” Ashley turns the other way and takes a couple of steps. She turns back.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”

“No, and it’s best that way.” She wanted to say something, but I hope she wouldn’t say anything and would go home, which she did. Now that she won’t be coming with me, she won’t have to worry about death by the curse. That’s the way I want it.

Author's Note

Medium: The Origins finds a young man setting out to avenge the death of a beloved family member and to recover forgotten memories. He shuns himself from having a normal social life for the sake of vengeance. Just when he thought he ran out of leads, he was involved in an incident which leads him to start a new case. This particular investigation changes him greatly while he is being hunted by an unknown assailant whose victims never got to see before they met their doom.

Note: This is my first book and I plan to write more. Criticism, praise, or any feedback of some sorts are welcome.
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