Night Games Pt. 5

Obviously these are very short "chapters" so none of these updates will be very long.

 Chapter's after the break this time because I don't want to keep cluttering up the front page!

CHAPTER 3

      Sunny Vale Rest Home had been a retirement community for over twenty years before its closure. In 2008 the company closed its doors for undisclosed reasons. The very few who cared to inquire as the nature of the business' failure received differing stories. The official explanation was that when the original founder, James Mayweather, died in the front office in 2006, his children began the process of selling the business.

At the time Denton Regional and other area hospitals had begun venturing into the retirement community sector with the bountiful land surrounding their compounds, so it wasn't that hard to sell the company name. The odd part of the story is that they never reopened. Theories flitted around that the hospital considered it too expensive to convert the facility to their new technologies and decided it would be cheaper in the long run to build their own closer to the hospital itself.

      The buildings' position within Denton rendered it unsuitable for retail or apartment housing and the city was already lousy with both. With the new facilities opening up near the highway no one found it a reasonable investment to open a new Home. So the building remained, left behind like so many of its former occupants. The building had two wings and rested quietly in a copse with trees bordering the back and sides of the property. Its sideways H layout made it an ideal place to use for a guerrilla shoot as any lights used in the east wing would be nearly impossible to see from the road, and the trees would block the noise from reaching the ears inside the small houses nearby. 

      Each of the two wings was a continuous long hallway with sixteen rooms each. In the middle there was a connecting hallway with glass paneled walls to let the light in during the day. On either side of the middle hall were sitting areas with bookshelves still full of yellowing romance novels and stacks of periodicals no one had found valuable enough to steal. In the years following the closing of its doors the plant life had taken a personal mission in attempting to engulf the structure. The vines and tall grass between it and the trees were now more reminiscent of unsettled woodland than the carefully managed lawn it had once been.

It was a perfect suburban hideaway; a fact that made some people in the group nervous.

"Seriously though, what if something does happen? Like, what if a homeless guy tries to come in or something?" Hannah asked, lights in hand. The first group had set out to find a suitably creepy room for a simple set of zombie shots. They had found that each room was equally unnerving as the one before, and settled on one just a few doors down from their initial point of entry.

In the amber twilight of the lighting set up Paul couldn't help but notice how little the interior of the building seemed affected by nature compared to the jungle outside. "You know, this place is actually in great shape. They must have taken good care of it before it closed down." Hannah set the lamp down so hard he thought it might break in half. "Are you even listening to me? I'm not freaking out over nothing. It's a legitimate concern." 

      Sean popped her head in, eyebrows raised. "Everything okay in here?" "Yeah, we're fine," Paul said, "I was just about to tell Hannah not to worry because I was here earlier today and I couldn't see that anyone had been here in a while. There's only one way in or out that isn't boarded up and we've put a table in front of it so no worries! We can easily get out and no one should be able to get in unless they're extremely determined. And in that case we would definitely hear it in time to get everyone together."

Hannah dropped her hands at her sides. "I know, I'm sorry. It's just freaky in here. I'm getting kind of stressed." Sean threw her arms around Paul and Hannah. "Group hug. I demand it. Like Paul said, we're pretty safe. Besides that we have two big scary men on our side, right?" Paul ducked under Sean's arm. "Hey I'm not... THAT... scary. Am I?" The girls shared a look before bursting into laughter. "What? What!? Oh whatever."

      A thump on the door frame made their hearts skip a simultaneous beat. They turned to see Liz leaning limply against the hallway wall, her head hanging loosely at her shoulders. Her face was above the small aura of light from the lamp and something thick was dripping from her chin. "Hey guys check it out, don't I look awesome? Totally zombified. Jennifer is a genius. Also could you keep it down a bit? It's really creepy to hear laughter from the other hallway. It's weird because I know it's just you guys but from there it just sounds... off." Paul realized he had balled his hands into fists and unclenched them. "Yeah no problem. Do the same for us, yeah?" "No promises," she said with a wink, "but we'll try! Whooop!" She pushed from the frame but kept her arms straight before turning with a flourish to rejoin the other group.

"How is she having this much fun? This place is a creep fest." Hannah said. "I don't know but let's try to follow the example, eh?" Sean poked Paul in the ribs. "What's wrong? No more smiles for us, Mr. Morale?" "Sorry, yeah. It's nothing. It's nothing." He waved his hand dismissively, but for the rest of their time in the room Paul rarely took his eyes off of the door.