Sleeping With Ghosts

Mikey

I was staring at the screen, just completely amazed at what I was seeing. I was just... Gaping at it. I don't know how long I sat there, but then Brian came in. "Hey Micheal, are you okay?" I tore my eyes away from the screen and without meaning to, I pushed my hand through his form. He raised an eyebrow at that, asking, "Um, what was that for?" I turned away and looked back at the computer, finally I explained.

"I found Dr. Harvey's private files. Brian, I think this guy's really fucked up. He... Oh Jesus I don't even know what to say!" I turned the screen towards him so he could see, and there was a picture of Brian staring back. He kneeled down and looked at it, a little amazed. There was a profile on Brian Molko, including a picture. There was some kind of gibberish about experiments, but what was even weirder, Brian wasn't listed as dead.

He then looked at me and smiled. "So you figured it out." I raised an eyebrow and asked, "What?" "Remember how I told you I was on parole? That's dead speak for coma." He then leaned over and started reading the details. "I don't remember any of this though, I really don't. Last thing I remember was some masked weirdo standing over me with a scalpel, then the next thing was being in Gerard's room. I think I was there for a few years until you guys moved in."

He looked very sad as he said the last, and I sighed. "We've got to shut this guy down." "How?" I then gave him another smile and scrolled down, saying, "He's got a secret lab in that hospital. We find it, and you, we can prove he's breaking the law and he goes to jail." "I don't think Dr. Harvey's going to let you just waltz in there though, he talked to Chantelle after Gerard's appointment this morning and said he's not allowed visitors anymore." "Then we're just gonna have to sneak in."

~*~*~*~

And sneak in we did. After midnight I took my brother's car and drove out to the place. It looked so... Creepy at night, and that's putting it mildly. I told Brian to tell Gerard about the plan, and also Stefan since he was working that night. I was hoping he'd be able to help us since alot of our plan hinged on him. Brian came back an hour before to confirm Stefan was going to help us out. "How'd you talk him into it?" I asked as I got dressed. All black in typical burglar fashion. "I told him if he didn't help I'd make sure he'd spend his afterlife being tortured by me." Brian then just smiled.

I climbed over the gate, Brian with me since if there was any trouble outside he'd pick up on it first. When we got to the door I gave a series of knocks and waited. It swung open and we rushed inside. I grinned as I was greeted by the sight of my brother and Stefan, and I rushed to Gerard and hugged him. He kissed my cheek and smiled. "It's good to see you." "You too." Stefan looked a little uncomfortable as Brian stood behind him making faces, not taking any of this seriously all of a sudden.

Finally Gerard pulled away, running a hand through his hair nervously. "So how do we find this secret room or whatever?" I took out some printed pages from my pocket, saying, "I got the schematics for this place off the internet, there's a passage down at the end of this corridor that leads to a secret one behind the medical supply room. We follow that down, we find a hidden room." Stefan handed me a flashlight, saying, "Lead the way."

We quickly slipped past the nurses station. No one was there so I wondered what was up, then when we went down the passage I noticed all the patient doors were locked and the lights were a little dim. I looked at Stefan and asked, "What's going on?" "Harvey demanded a lock down tonight. But I got Gerard out of his room just before it happened." "Could this be a trap?" Gerard asked as he came up behind me. "No, he does lock down at least twice a month, mostly to show that he can to new patients. It really freaks them out." Stefan said quietly.

It didn't take us too long to get to the hidden room, but we had one hell of a time getting it open. There was a pass code lock on the door, and we didn't know the numerical combination. Suddenly, Gerard stepped forward and took out a compact. "What are you doing?" I asked, curious. "I saw this on an episode of Batman, hang on." He replied. He opened it and lightly brushed the powder over the keys. It didn't take long for finger prints to show up, and they were on four different numbers.

I looked at him and laughed. "Trust you to get a good idea from a cartoon." He shrugged, saying, "Hey, Batman rocks. Now all we gotta do is figure out what combination of these numbers gets this stupid thing open." "What if one of the numbers repeats?" I asked. "It doesn't, this same lock is on alot of other doors in the hospital, it has to be individual numbers, if you press the same key twice the door won't open." Stefan said quietly.

It took us maybe five minutes until we had the combination. We forced the door open and walked in, but the room was pitch black. I turned on my flashlight, looking for a light switch. When I finally found one and flicked it on, a gruesome sight met our eyes.
There were maybe 20 beds in the room, 16 of them occupied. From the state of some of these people I'd say they'd been here even longer than Brian. We spread out and slowly paced up and down the aisles as equipment beeped and there was the soft, gentle sound of respirators going. Finally Gerard called out, "Guys, come here!" We rushed over to him immediately and stared down at the cold, lifeless face of the real Brian Molko.

The ghost of Brian stared down at himself, no emotion on his face. Gerard and Stefan looked horrified. I don't know how long we were there, just staring at him. It was so weird, he looked more lively as a spirit than his body did, he truly looked as though he were dead. Finally, Gerard spoke up. "I'm gonna find a phone and call the cops, wait here." Before we could stop him he'd run out of the room, Brian hot on his trail. I looked over at Stefan who looked close to tears. "Are you alright?" He shook his head and turned away, saying, "No, and I don't know if I ever will be again."