Chapter 2

It was 6:30 by the time Bailey finished filling out the papers for Adam. She gathered them up in her hands, flipping through each page making sure they were in order. She then walked to Adam's office and knocked on the door. "Come in." Adam's voice was quiet when Bailey opened the door. "Hey, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm heading out and wanted to drop these papers off for you." she explained, feeling awkward about her sudden intrusion. "Thank you. You can just place them on my desk, I will get them filed right away." Adam confirmed, sadness in his voice. Bailey cocked her head to the side and went to stand by Adam. "Is everything okay? You seem upset." she asked, placing her small, tan hand on his shoulder. Adam shook his head, a stray tear escaping his left eye. He didn't bother to wipe it away as he focused his gaze into Bailey's brown eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, reaching over and handing him a tissue.

 Adam nodded and motioned for Bailey to sit. She obeyed, pulling up a chair next to the one he was sitting in. 

Bailey waited patiently for Adam to collect himself and begin. "When I heard you were doing a project over an old hospital, I didn't think you were going to be doing it over Belladonna. I assumed it was going to be something like St.Mariana's. But when I saw that photograph and heard you say Belladonna, I was shocked. My aunt Liz, Elizabeth, was a patient there back in the fifties. I was young then, only about six or seven, but I was really close to her. My mother always took me to visit her and I enjoyed the company.  I was a lonely child, you see, and being with aunt Liz was something I looked forward to every week. She was so child-like, so sweet. She made me feel like I actually had a friend in the world. But when I visited her the last time, something was different about her. Not a good different, like she was getting better. But something bad. Something that scared me. She didn't acknowledge my presence like she usually would when I walked in, and that made me wonder if she was sick or something. She was sitting in a corner, talking to the wall. I thought it was an imaginary friend she was talking to, like the ones I had at that age. But when I interrupted her--conversation to say hello, she lashed out at me. Yelling and scolding me for being a disrespectful child, saying couldn't I see she was in the middle of a conversation. It frightened me. A lot. She had never snapped at me before. I thought maybe she was having a bad day, but when I looked into her eyes to apologize, they were completely lifeless. I knew something was really wrong with her and I didn't want to stay any longer. I told my mother and we left. The next day, we got a phone call from the police. They told my mother that Liz had killed three staff members, injured fifteen patients, and then committed suicide. I was devastated to hear the news, but I broke even more when my mother explained to me that they were closing down the hospital for that incident and other older ones brought on by staff. I knew it wasn't the best place. That a lot of the patients would get her by their so-called 'care takers', but I was also very young and naive. I believed with all my heart, that aunt Liz was still there, and maybe she is." 

Adam's story brought tears to Bailey's eyes. "Oh, Adam. I am so sorry. I had no idea. I can trash the project if you want me to, I don't want to upset you any further." she rushed the words out, but Adam shook his head. "No, Bailey. It's okay, really. It just brought on some old memories. I would really like to see what you can find out about the hospital. I'm very intrigued myself, especially considering the circumstances." Adam explained, nodding slightly as if to confirm his statement to himself. Bailey nodded and looked at the clock on Adam's office wall. It was five minutes until seven. "Damn." she mumbled to herself, earning a puzzled look from Adam. "I was supposed to meet Jessica and my brother at my apartment at 7:00 and I completely lost track of time." she explained, rapidly gathering her things and standing up. "Oh. I'm sorry to have kept you for so long." Adam said, sadness and guilt coursing his voice. Bailey shook her head. "No. No, it's totally okay. I understand and I'm glad you told me everything. It can actually help me out on this project." she smile and Adam hugged her. "Thank you, Bailey. Now go on home and get started. You're going to have a busy few months." he smiled and she hurried out to the parking lot to get in her car.

When she arrived home, her apartment door was unlocked and she could hear Ayden and Jessica talking. She walked inside and the two jumped up. "Where the hell were you?" Ayden asked, concern lacing his voice and prominent in his features. "I'm so sorry guys. I was talking to Adam. He was giving me some personal insight on Belladonna." Bailey explained, feeling incredible guilt tug at her stomach. "No, Bails its okay. We were just worried. You were like half an hour late." Ayden said pulling his sister into his arms to hug her. "I'm sorry I worried you." she whispered and pulled away. "Have you guys eaten yet?" she asked and Jessica and Ayden both shook their heads. "No we wanted to wait for you." Jessica smiled. Bailey chuckled and turned to Ayden. "Would you mind ordering a pizza and the Jess and I can get started putting what research we have together?" Ayden smiled and nodded, "Pepperoni or cheese?" Bailey shrugged, "I guess we can do both. I bet you guys are starving." Ayden laughed and left the room to order their meal. Jessica turned to Bailey, "So where do you want to get started?" Bailey grinned and sat on the floor, spreading her papers out so they could easily be seen. "Wow. How long have you been researching this place?" Jessica asked, gawking at the multitude of papers strewn about the hardwood floor. Bailey laughed, "Since I started working at Tabloid. Ayden and I kind of came up with it on a whim. We have always like the horror type things, especially 'haunted' hospitals." Jessica's eyes grew wide with amusement, "So you two have been researching this for almost a year? Why did you just now bring it up to Adam?" Bailey shrugged and stared at the papers on the floor. "I'm not sure really. I guess we just wanted to make sure there was enough information to go off of to present it to him." she simply stated, fiddling with the corner of a piece of paper. "Yeah, but a year? Bailey, that's commitment." Jessica smiled and Bailey kept staring at the paper she was messing with. The words Adam said running together in her memory. She was sitting in the corner, talking to the wall. "Bailey?" Jessica gently touched her arm, pulling her out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, what?" Bailey asked, turned to face her friend. "Nothing. I was just making sure you were okay. Are you?" Jessica asked, concern causing her forehead to crease. Bailey nodded slowly, "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something Adam told me." 

Reviews

[Sean Cairns]

This is an interesting read, I'll definitely be following this one! It's well paced and the characters are developing nicely. I'll be a pain and say that paragraphs should change with Time, Person, Topic or Place (TiP ToP), but that would be my only criticism.

[Marissa Carter]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the feedback :)