Mephistopheles and the Lost Scholar Part 3

The inland trek had already consumed two days, following the same worn path towards El Dorado they had taken the first time. The jungle changed little, and looked very much like every bit of jungle before them and behind them. At night they would huddle under the nearby canopy and light a fire, sleeping fitfully as mosquitoes and bugs assaulted their various orifices and exposed parts. It was during the third night of uncomfortable sleep that Brandon awoke with a unexpected shock. He lay stretched flat, gripping a large root next to his head, his breathing barely audible, the fire now dim, he dreamed of real beds and of adventures that were better thought out. As he dreamt there came a rustle from the brush beside him, just out of sight behind leaves something was sneaking about. So deep was the sleep that no one noticed the little gray creature slink from the darkness of the tree line. The moon caught in its massive eyes and reflected an eerie green. Its arms were long, its hands thin and tipped with bony clawed fingers, it hopped a little as it approached the sleeping man. Its mouth was concave in shape, until it leaned slowly down to the chefs back and opened it, then it revealed itself to be circular in shape and lined with razor sharp teeth, in rows all the way back to a spiny tongue. It raised its arms over its head, the gray skin almost translucent in the night and very slowly it leaned in for a bite.

Then, from the forest a twig snapped, a monkey or capybara had stepped too heavily on a fallen branch and it sounded in the night, waking Brandon. The burly chef rolled and launched forward, eyes shut, fists cutting the air at 140 miles an hour. It wasn't the first punch that struck the 'chulupacabra', but the second, though it was all it needed to be launched bodily into the trees, back broken over a tree limb. Finally eyes open Brandon glanced around, nothing, and with that he returned to sleep. However in the cover above and around them other large shimmering eyes watched and hungered.

The Sun rose, as it is want to do on most of the Earths surface, casting warm light over the intrepid adventurers and pulling them back into the land of the awake. Mephisto rose and glanced around, he was hungry and wondered if there was any food around. Tony then awoke and felt the same curious question raise in his mind, at which point finally Brandon sat up, punches flying (though at a safe distance) and opened his eyes.

"Dudes, I'm hungry, what do you want for breakfast?" Brandon rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and the various mosquitoes from off his arms.

"I don't know, we really should have thought a bit more about this." Tony squatted nest to the smoldering embers of the old fire.

"Time was of the essence." Brandon growled, "Never mind, I have any idea, let me see if there's a river nearby." With that Brandon looked up and around then trudged off into the jungle.

"I should probably have told him to stop." Mephisto said as the sound of Brandon's walking became more and more distant.

In the encroaching jungle Brandon moved forward with single minded courage. To be fair however he hadn't actually thought of how he would get back, and had not paid very close attention to the surrounding that he was passing, his only current concern was to find a river and use a trick he had learned years before, that is if he could remember the details of the trick. his nose however caught the scent of a river, and then, progressively he could hear the trickling as well, within fifteen minutes he had arrived at the bank of a large brown river, trees overhanging the banks, beautiful birds flying overhead.

"Jackpot!" Brandon immediately set to work, firs the would need the sap from one of these river trees, however, he couldn't remember which one was the correct tree, so with conviction he took a branch from each of several trees and large bushes around the river side and dipped the oozing limbs into the water. The water went from brown to milky white, then yellow, and finally red, with a slightly acrid smell accompanying it. He watched excitedly as fish approached the surface, mouth sucking up the concoction. "Fuck yeah! I am awesome-" the words however stumbled out of his mouth as the fish began to bubble. The slightly foamy outer coating that was now on all the fish gave way to the fish decaying abruptly before his eyes, leaving only a skeleton, then came more bubbling from deeper. Brandon rose and stepped slowly away from the river, the bubbling stopped and to the surface rose the meatless skeleton of a large snake, which had been hiding in the water at his feet, then more fish, he looked over to see a toucan dip its beak a few meters down from him, it turned its head to stare through Brandon, it seemed to say 'you jerk' then stiffly fell into the river and rose to the surface also desiccated. With growing distance and strength the river gave up its secrets in the form of bones and Brandon walked hurriedly away hoping no one would know his terrible crime against nature.

"I hope B's okay." Tony looked back to the jungle, it had been nearly two hours with no sign of the chef, and the two remaining friends weren't eager to recreate his disappearance. Fortuitously however no sooner had Tony said this than Brandon tumbled out of the jungle a few yards from them, his face covered in mud, branches stuffed in his sleeves and collar, his hands full of small creatures. "What happened to you? you couldn't find a river?"

"No, there's no river, none, and if there was a river, I am certain it would be full of jungle poisons." Brandon approached the now dead fire and began working quickly to reignite it.

"What did you find for us to eat then?" Mephisto asked looking at the filthy little 'things' Brandon clutched, "Also, how did you become so filthy?"

"These!" Brandon lifted the muddy creatures up, "Monkeys, we're having monkey, with a side of monkey, hopefully these monkeys don't have one of those parasites in them that eats your brain. This is why I don't like roughing it." Brandon stepped back as the fire sprung to life. "As for the dirt, I had to trick them. I got naked and smeared mud all over myself, then strapped branches to me, then began imitating them. once convinced I was their God I convinced them to let me sacrifice themselves to reach 'monkey shangri-la'." Brandons eyes looked wildly at Tony.

"Why'd you look at me for that?!" Tony waved a finger at Brandon, "Poor monkeys, I'm not sure I want any of your 'fixin's'." Tony moved closer to Mephisto.

"Well, if anything at least we know that Brandon was able to use madness, albeit madness that came on after an extremely short amount of time, to find food. Now we have little doubt as to whether a completely mad Mr. Trebaol would be able to survive in the jungles." Mephisto patted Tony on the back, smiling with confidence.

By midday they had finished their monkeys and were moving speedily down the road. As the path tripped and stumbled further finally they came to a sign post. The markings were alien to them, but clearly that was an excellent sign and they followed the wooden markers further down various intertwining roads. This continues till the late afternoon, where finally, when all hope seemed lost of arriving before nightfall they pushed through a final copse of trees and gazed in wonder at the lost city of El Dorado.

Golden pyramids lined the street, flanked by gold statues of lizards, gold waterways circled the small gold flecked houses, and all of it set to a backdrop of a golden sunset. They gazed at the opulent city for all of thirty seconds before,

"Great, where the hell could he be?" Brandon threw his hand up at the city, sweeping it grandly over the expanse of the site.

"Well, if he is indeed here, and he lived through the jungle, "Tony and Brandon exchanged glances as Mephisto continued, "Then we will surely find him. Why he's probably wrapped himself up around something again and is waiting for his body heat to melt it down into ingots." Mephisto clapped his hands together and stepped down towards the outer reaches of the city.

The silence of the abandoned streets was frightening. The trees hadn't touched the gold palaces, or invaded more than a few feet within their perimeter. The place might as well have been freshly abandoned, and this unnerving thought was only alleviated by the fact that they had been there once before and knew that unless they were very lucky in their visiting times it was truly abandoned. Proceeding cautiously they strolled down the main boulevard through the city, admiring the carvings on the walls and architectural flourishes on the temples and shrines located throughout. It was in the center of the complex, next to the largest pyramid that they saw something strange. To their left, at the base of the grand pyramid there was a portal of sorts a great archway, leading deep into the pyramid. It wasn't the door that seemed out of place, but rather the shining gold light that licked the walls and neighboring buildings.

"Hmm, I wonder what might be creating that light?" Mephisto asked, turning his full attention to it. Tony stepped forward a little and looked around at the horizon.

"It's not the sun, too low in the sky and in completely the wrong place. Maybe Chris is in there and he has a fire."

"Well, I believe it best for us to investigate. "Mephisto pulled the pistol from his waist and proceeded confidently towards the glow, meanwhile above them, hidden in the buildings shadows, large eyes watched with anticipation.

Mephisto reached the doorway first, Tony close on his heels. Brandon looked around the frame for something and with a smile he reached out and yanked a golden spear from a hook on the doors frame. Mephsito nodded to Brandon, Brandon nodded back waving the spear around and they proceeded into the door. The gold gave way once inside to intricate paintings depicting long dead natives and their various religious figures, sacrificing things to one another. Tony ran a hand along the textured surface, searching for information, the light still flickering deep below them, the source out of sight around a corner.

"These indians were known for their prophecies and ability to foretell things. Like here we see what appears to be a story of when the Spanish first arrived, but its closest to stories about the Earth being formed, so the city must predate first contact." Tony explained, Mephisto looking over the various caricatures, shining bearded men with sticks that spewed fire trampled the natives underfoot. "Here is a strange one, look Brandon, it looks like you." Tony pointed to a large figure, with an ornate apron on, and a short curly beard. "Odd, he seems to be taking vines or ropes of some sort and is spreading death in this river, you can all the bones and the God of the underworld looking down with shame on his face."

"Well, that's funny, because why would I do that? You think I would do something stupid like that and kill everything in a river?" Brandon pushed Tony to move past the uncanny image.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs the air became warm and moist like the jungle outside, they slowly turned the corner and there at the end of the hall they could see a strange glowing light. The light was covered however by some form of a fan, which turned lazily and caused the light to shift on the walls, then at the foot of the light, at the turn of another corner was a leg.

"Is that a leg?" Brandon grabbed Tonys jacket and squeezed.

"It looks like it." Tony gulped and stepped back slowly.

"No men, we must be brave, our friend is counting on us, perhaps Mr. Trebaol has fallen asleep, exhausted from so much gold and history in one place, his body just around that corner." Mephisto took a shaky step forward, then another, Brandon and Tony close behind him. They made their way to the light and fan, then looking over the stockinged leg and buckle shoe they turned the sharp corner and discovered the body.

"Holy shit!" Brandon gasped and tumbled back against the wall. Tony also wheeled around away from the sight. Mephisto alone stood over the body laying on the pyramids floor.

"What do you see?" Tony asked, looking wide eyed at Brandon. Mephisto moved closer and stooped over the body, it wore a gentleman's coat, and a long cloak, though this was dirty and mud covered from the trip, the clothes were ill fitting and draped loosely over body, even the face was difficult to distinguish, changed as it was by the dry hollowness of the rest of its frame.

"I believe that he was killed by a Chulupacabra. He is dry and seemingly devoid of fluids. Here too, look his buttons have the seal of the governors mansion on them, I have no doubts this is Mr. Trebaol."

"Chulupacabras ate my best friend." Brandon murmured, his face downcast, his eyes red.

"Well, he probably went happy, lost in a city of gold, eaten by an undiscovered animal." Tony said tearing up.

"We should probably go." Mephisto stood up and took his two friends by their arms and walked for the exit. Brandon leaned heavily on his spear and Mephisto replaced the the pistol in his sash, the trio made their way back to the long stairwell, ill prepared for their discovery and sad to begin the journey home with such sad tidings. As they turned the corner to the stairs however they found themselves caught bu surprise. there at the top of the stony steps illuminated by the gold light was a group of terrible grey monsters, with concave mouths and bulging red eyes. The sun had set while they were inside and the monsters had left the safety of the shadows to collect on the explorers.

"Holy shit!" Brandon flicked his spear up towards the creatures, "Chulupacabras!" One of the grey creatures bellowed , its mouth opening wide to show the rows of teeth, its tongue lolling around languidly.

"Jesus!" Tony backed against the wall.

"I'm going to make these fuckers extinct!" Brandon charged forward up the first three steps when abruptly the front row of beasts plunged down towards them, followed by row after row of other mangy ghouls. "Never mind, everybody retreat!" Brandon turned and bolted past Mephisto and Tony who followed closely behind.

"Excellent judgement Mr. Frazier!" Mephisto careened down the corridor weaving up and down passages deeper into the ground, more lights and fans flickered different colors and strange smells greeted them at every new junction. Behind them they could hear the horde of chulupacabras tearing at the walls and each other to reach the friends first. Finally though the three adventurers tumbled down a series of steps and into a hard metal room, Tony reached for the edge of the door frame to stop his fall but instead caught a strange symbol etched onto the icy silver wall, behind him the passage disappeared with a 'vwoomf' replaced by a heavy iron door.

"What?" Tony looked at the wall and touched the symbol again, causing the iron door to disappear into the roof, revealing the clamoring wave of creatures racing for them, gnashing their teeth.

"CLOSE IT!" Brandon shouted, laying on his back waving his spear. tony quickly touched the glyph again and the door shut just in time, the sound of furious scratching emanated from it as the monsters tried to gain entrance.

"Where are we?" Mephisto heaved, his adrenaline still pumping, demanding that he continue to flee.

"I don't know, lets have a look." Tony walked down the two deep steps onto the expansive floor. The room was lit by two blue orbs that hung in the ceiling, and provided enough light to discern the surrounding silvery constructs. "Here is something," Tony approached a group of large shiny poles, which ran from floor to ceiling, next to these poles was an open door and a charred and blackened panel. "It appears to be a jail. Though the lock is broken." Tony turned and looked across the rest of the room, Brandon and Mephisto followed his gaze, looking every so often at the door, the scratching and hissing still audible. "There's more!" Tony proceeded forward into an adjoining room, this one bathed in clean white light. "Wow! You need to see this guys!" Tony disappeared into the catacombs. Brandon finally stood up, using his spear as a crutch, then turned and followed Mephisto into the white light after Tony.

They entered into a huge complex of rooms and cages, all brightly lit, though now each cage was either empty, or filled with bones.

"It's a zoo, these natives had some form of zoo here! This is amazing." Tony went from cage to cage looking at the skeletal remains of the animals, there were large furry skins, easily taller than him in one cage, a shiny black animal with a long pointed tail and sharp metal teeth in another. "This is incredible, the jungle is full of really scary looking animals guys, I'm really kind of shocked." Tony looked up ahead and saw that there was another set of closed doors with a glyph next to them. "Come on, lets see what else is here." Brandon and Mephisto hurried forward after Tony, who was already opening the door into the next room.

Room after room they discovered more and more strange artifacts from the natives. Finally, after much searching them came into a large circular chamber, with a cluster of seats in the center and various strange panels on the walls, all blinking, on the far side of the wall was a white rectangular board set against the rest of the silvery fixtures. Above were tubes and pipes running throughout the complex.

"Where are we?" Mephisto asked, taking a seat.

"We are in some kind of ancient indian super city. It's really strange that they lost the war against Spain when they had all of this." Tony tapped a panel, which suddenly flicked all the lights in the room onto a bright white, the white board too changed, it became a deep black. Then abruptly a strange symbol flashed over it.

"What did you do Tony?" Brandon muttered taking a seat next to Mephisto. The screen then changed again, now, to the horror of the group a large brown face appeared on screen, its eyes merely tiny glowing dots in its head, its mouth hidden behind folds of scaly skin, it spoke and the words that came out sounded like the screams of a thousand mewling infants. "OH GOD WHY DOESN'T IT EVER END!" Brandon tipped over in his chair as Mephisto sneered in disgust as the creature dribbled with spittle on the screen. Though just as quickly as he shouted the image froze, then a blue screen appeared. On the screen appeared hundreds of tiny symbols and letters each in a box.

"Wow, this is really not out lucky day." Tony sighed, looking at the boxes. "How are we going to get out of this, down here I doubt there's another exit, and even if we wait till daylight the creatures can just wait down here for us out of the sun." Tony moved closer to the screen.

"You are quite right. We are currently trapped, though hopefully this terrible moving painting will provide us with a solution. Perhaps the chalupacabras are as disgusted with the creature from before as we were." Mephisto leaned forward, crossing his hands. Tony looked closely at the boxes on the screen then lit up.

"Look here! English, and this one over here appears to be spanish, and this one is the indian pictographs. Here let me try this." T0ny lifted his hadn to the screen and touched the box marked English. The screen then flicked back to the horrible brown creature, but now a soft feminine voice emanated from its disgusting jowels.

"Flight controls for the Lytaxian library ship are located on consoles to the immediate right of the viewer." The voice explained, "Engineering is behind the captains seat, communications to the viwers left, and dimensional time controls are located on the console directly in front of this screen." The voice said softly, Tony turned to Mephisto.

"I don't think that this belongs to the indians. I think this is some kind of ship if you will. Controlled by celestial beings." Tony said, his eyes wide, his hands searching for a seat.

"Angels?" Mephisto looked with great uncertainty at Tony.

"Well...maybe, I don't know, but have you ever seen anything like this before, or that thing?" Tony pointed towards the screen.

"Maybe they're like sailors from outer space, and time travelers, "Brandon turned to Mephisto and Tony, his hand moving excitedly. "They said flight controls, so they must fly, and then time controls, so they must move through time. Dude, these 'angels are actually space creatures, and they are going to help us sail out of here." Brandon leapt up and headed for the console on the right most wall. With no finesse he mashed his fist against the board, causing the room to shake violently.

"Well I'm glad we looked at all our options then!" Tony shouted looking at the screen, it now changed to a map depicting their location and series of long bars that were filling with red lines.

"Wow, this map is incredible, is that what South America really looks like?" Mephisto rose as the room rumbled again. Brandon turend to look at the screen, his hands busily looking for something to grab onto. Tony moved forward hoping he had inferred enough about the creatures 'ship' to use this screen to their advantage. He looked closely at the map and picked out the rough area where Nombre De Dios should sit, then tapped it, a blue line exteneded from where they were and terminated near the city. The room shook again and the screen changed now showing a view from the top of the pyramid, the moon rising in the sky.

"I think we may have got this working." Tony said, as the image shifted, moving up and away from the crumbling masonry that surrounded it.

Outside, the pyramid was consumed in fire, as were the waiting chalupacabras. The pyramids few remaining walls collapsed as the great and strange craft lifted up from the earth and slowly made its way over the city, incinerating everything it passed over.

"This is really quite something I'd say. You have quite the way with new things don't you Mr. Wilson?" Mephisto slowly moved forward, now that the ship had stopped quaking.

"Hey, I'm the one that got it moving!" Brandon smacked the controls again, causing a strange shrieking sound to emanate from the ceiling, as red lights flicked on and off. "It wasn't me!"

The ground in the view screen moved by with increasing speed, until finally the trees whipped by too fast to be rcognized and the town of Nombre De Dios could be seen moving at incredible speed towards them. The craft lifted higher and then arched backwards and dived straight towards the jungle near the edge of town.

"We're going to crash!" Mephisto shouted grabbing hold of the chair behind him. The ship raced towards the earth and finally froze feet from the ground, the warning continued to sound. "What's going on?"

"Self destruct in five minutes." A cheery female voice explained.

"What did I do?" Brandon looked at the controls and punched them again.

"Self Destruct recalibrated, self destruct in one minute and thirty seconds."

"I take back all the nice things I said about you." Tony said, then turned and ran for the exit. Mephisto and Brandon followed the scholars lead through the ship as the countdown shrank towards zero. At last they reached the room full of broken cages and the door leading outside, Tony slapped the glyph the door opened and the three compatriots leapt outside.

Unfortunately however the ship they had been in had created some form of alternative gravity, and theyfound themselves flying first forward upright from the portal, to down sideways from the side of the ship. With a heavy 'whump!' they hit the dirt below and looked up as the ship glowed green and gold, then 'boop' it disappeared without so much as a gust of wind.

"Mr. Frazier, refrain from punching strange new devices until I recommend that as your course of action. Just for future reference though." Mephsito looked at the chef.

"We're alive aren't we? That was all me." Brandon pointed a thumb at his chest then stiffly got back up. The exhausted friends made their way back into town to the Unicorn and asked politely to be ferryed home.

The trip was a long sad one for them as they traded stories about previous adventures, and what they would do now without their resident crackpot. With heavy hearts they returned to the harbor at St. Eustatius, the rows of masts bobbed in along the edge of the piers.

"You think we could go to the underworld and get him back?" Brandon asked, looking at Tony and Mephisto.

"I don't think so, he was eaten, and that kind of precludes foul play, besides, I don't think Hades was gay." Tony said, looking down at the water. Mephisto leaned back and looked out across the harbor, his eyes catching on asomething that seemed extremely unusual.

"What on Earth?" Mephisto ran to the railing in the opposite side of the Unicorn, there in the harbor was Mephisto's new ship the pinnace Incognita, a wedding gift from Governor Logan. It was manned, and flying its penants, making ready to set sail. "Um, Arthur!" Mephisto shouted to the Captain of the Unicorn could you bring us alongside that ship over there. The Unicorn slowly turned and made its way clsoer, till a rope could be used to swing acorss the gap and board the Incognita. Mephisto took a rotting rope and swung over onto the deck of his new ship and grabbed the first familiar face he could find. "You there, Mr. Brambles."

"It's Geoff sir, Brambles retired, ya threw a party for 'im. Do ya remember any uf this?" Geoff sighed, putting down the cask of water he was holding.

"No, well not clearly anyway, moving along, what are you all doing?" Mephisto looked over the deck.

"We were going ta go look fer ya, but apparently yer here, so maybe I should tell the temporary cap'n." Geoff looked over his shoudler and whistled.

"Temporary Captain? What in the blazes, this is all very irregular."

"What's going on!" Brandon shouted across from the other ship, hands around his mouth.

"I don't know, give me a minute!" Mephisto shouted back, not noticing the smartly dressed new captain strutting up to him.

"Where the deuce did you come from?" A familiar voice asked.

"We just got back from looking for Mr. Trebaol, the scholar, but regrettably he died, now who are," Mephisto stopped as he looked up at the new Captain.

"Funny me being dead and all, might make it hard to be alive." It was none other than Chris, the dead scholar.

"Wha?"

"What the hell are you doing alive!" Brandon shouted waving his arms.

"What?!" Chris shouted back.

The ships docked, the crews taking their leave and Chris joined Mephisto, Brandon and Tony in a carriage headed back to the governors mansion.

"So you've been alive this whole time?" Tony asked, with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, where'd you think I was?"

"We thought you had gone mad and went in search of El Dorado again." Mephsito interjected.

"No, what? No, why would I do that alone, do I have a death wish?"

"Well, your friends thought you did, they said you had gone missing some three days before they came to me." the carriage bumped along the dirt path through the sunny island.

"What? Missing? Wait, I know what it was, I volunteered to teach a class in history and they offered to let me stay at the school." Chris looked around at the confused slightly exasperated faces.

"You never volunteer for anything, and you hate not sleeping in your own bed, these are facts, that we know!" Tony proclaimed.

"Did you not remember how hot it was? Or rather how unbearably humid, the classrooms were in a shady part of town, and I could make the students wave fans at me while I worked, then at night i split them into shifts to fan me and make sure the room stayed cool." Chris leaned back with a smile.

"You enslaved children to keep cool?" Mephisto asked.

"Sounds like Chris." Brandon looked out the window.

"So you guys went looking for me? Why didn't you just assume I was alive and somewhere else."

"Wait, how could that be?" Tony said, looking around a chill running up his spine, "The body was about your height, but unrecognizeable, and it had buttons from the governors mansion, like these." Tony held up his jacket to show a set of buttons emblazoned with the governors name. Chris thought for a minute ten his face lit up, then darkened again.

"Well, I did recently tell Mr. Tiddlecuff, the mansions gardner, about El Dorado, he seemed quite intrigued, then when I was done with the classes him and all of you were gone." Chris frowned, "I think you found him and mistook him for me. After you guys remained missing for so long I went down to the town and started rounding up your old crew, and was intending on setting out to find you." Chris looked at Mephisto.

"Well that explains that. Where were you going to look?" Mephisto inquired.

"Really wasn't sure, I jsut figured it would work itself out, and then maybe Graham would write a book about me, so I suppose I acted out of the most selfish possible reasons. though I would really have tried hard to find you all." Chris smiled politely and looked out the window, "Oh look a bird!"

"Wonderful." Tony said tepidly as the carriage rolled back up to the mansions front doors and the friends climbed out ready to return to their regular duties. So it was, that Mephisto managed to take a vacation from his vacation, assist his friends in a quest, and bring everything to a comfortable conclusion. Comfortable for all but poor Mr. Tiddlecuffs.

The End

Mephistopheles and the Lost Scholar Part 2

Often, when your goal is a missing friend, one wakes fitfully from sleep, your dreams terrible playgrounds of frightening thoughts. However for Mephisto his sleep had rarely been calmer, he had found the rolling waves soothing and the thought of a day at sea encouraging. It wasn't as though he wasn't sympathetic to Tony and Brandon's plight, Chris was after all one of their closest friends, further Mephisto had received much help from Chris when it came to rescuing Penelope. There was still the unshakable excitement of being out of the house and on his way for adventure, all things considered he had actually spent very little time out and about without the looming specter of doom hovering about his actions. Thus it was with little urgency that the Unicorn approached Nombre De Dios' harbor.

The town sprawled out from the shore, the local forts cannons trained on the sea, waiting for pirates, or British, whichever came first. The locals flitted about the streets with fresh produce and fruits from the adjoining jungle, or with strange artifacts and unique curios from the native populations so thoroughly wiped out after the Europeans arrival. Mephisto bowed to Arthur and gave him a small sack of gold coins, some four times the amount one would have asked for such a trip.

"Well then, we'll just wait here, seeing as how ye were so kind in payment, doubtful anyone else would pay so well for so little." Arthur tipped a little at the waist in acknowledgement of the gift and helped the scholar and chef down the gang plank onto the docks.

"No worries! We'll be back in a week or so, depending on how long it takes us to find the place again, hopefully the road signs are still up." Mephisto waved to Arthur then headed for the nearest Costa Guarda he could find to see if anyone unusual had stopped through. Spotting one well scrubbed officer, Mephisto approached with open arms. "Why hello there! Or shall I say Buenos...beuno...hmm." No, he had definitely no idea how to great someone in Spanish. "Mr. Wilson, I need your assistance with this guard, I don't know how to greet him." The guard raised a bushy black eyebrow at the strange group in front of him, he crossed his gloved hands over his arms, the sun glinting off his armored chest plate.

"I see, just a moment," Tony put a finger to his temple and looked the guard deep in the ey, then began to speak, "Hola allí mi buen hombre, estamos buscando al caballero, cerca de cinco pies nueve, los vidrios, cara huesuda. Era probablemente socarrarla en el oro, él habría podido llegar solamente hace algunos días. Él pudo haber tenido un gato en sus pantalones." With a flourish Tony opened his hands and gestured towards the docks. The guard blinked once or twice then extended his arm, moving Tony aside and turning his attention to Mephisto.

"He said something incomprehensible about a horseman with glasses and cats in pants." The Costa Guarda said in a thick accent to Mephisto, "Now then, what are you English looking for?" He lowered his hand onto the hilt of his sword none too subtly.

"Well, haha, you see," Mephisto smiled and teetered a little, kicking his heels on the cobblestone beside the sea, "Our friend is absolutely crazy with gold fever, and he went missing, so we believe he may have headed here in search of El Dorado, he should have arrived only a few days before us. He's very bony, and thin, he wears ridiculous clothes, and probably looked crazed." Mephisto gestured to Brandon and Tony to nod along in agreement.

"I see, regularly I would escort crazy people, like yourself and your friend, to the prison, but since I do not want to catch whatever must be spreading through the English island right now I'll tell you that such a man did pass through." With this Brandon exhaled a sigh of relief, "Yes, he rowed here."

"WHAT!" The three of them shouted, shocked at such a feat, with neither wind, nor stores of food he had manged to beat a sailing ship making excellent time by using his own unusually high levels of 'crazy'.

"Yes, a thin Englishmen in a cape came to the harbor and pulled his boat onto the shore, he mumbled about a lost city and promptly ran up the main street and into the jungle, following the main path. He was fast as well, you would have a hard time keeping up with him if he kept that pace in the jungle. Then again, he was probably eaten by a snake at this point." The Costa Guarda smiled at the thought.

"I told you, snake snack! I'll never get my money back!" Brandon shook his huge fist at Tony.

"What? You're looking for him because he owes you money?" Mephisto turned to the two companions of the lost scholar.

"Not entirely, but that is a concern, I just didn't want to mention it earlier because I didn't want you thinking we had ulterior motives for this search." Brandon jabbed a finger at Mephisto.

"But you did, quite clearly, not that it's a big deal, I mean I was just terribly enthused by the chance to get outside." Mephisto patted Brandon on the shoulder. By now the Costa Guarda had become worried that these Englishmen were actually crazy, and with little noise he backed away from the conversation and looked for a thief to beat up for money. "So, Mr. Wilson, do you have any other reason to find him?"

"Well, it would really stink if he was dead, but he did also owe me lunch."

"Lunch?"

"Yeah, he told me that if I completed his 'maze of death' he would buy me lunch." Tony looked up and gave a little look around, it was always interesting to see what kind of choices different towns made when it came to road placement and overall civic dynamics.

"A maze of death?" Mephsito looked to Brandon who shook his head showing he had no part of it.

"Oh, he just called it that, it was a hand drawn maze, full of weird little open spots that described some horrible way your character died, like 'lava monster', or 'dude with skulls for eyes'. He made a pretty bad mistake though, because he drew the beginning and ending paths, but forgot to make them branch out, so once you started you automatically would go to the end. So he owes me a free lunch." Tony smiled, Mephisto shrugged this off, obviously Tony was interested in finding Chris and this lunch played no part of it.

"Alright, all of this aside, lets get to the jungle, we need to find Chris before he gets poisoned, or eaten, or poisoned by something intent on eating him." Mephisto began trudging up the street towards the hills at the far side of the town.

As they approached the outskirts of Nombre De Dios they quickly saw the well marked path leading into the jungle. The dirt's was well worn and muddy in spots, the air thick with strange smells and the echoing calls of birds hidden in the brush. The group made their way into the foliage, swatting at flies and keeping an eye open for any of the various deadly animals that prowl the area. Mephisto regretted not bringing his cutlass along, knowing that at best he had a single bullet from his pistol to protect them, provided the powder wasn't too wet, or in a worst worse case scenario the whole gun exploded as they were sometimes apt to do.

The green rarely opened out from the sides of the road, it was merely a rolling, undulating part of the landscape, the gnarled roots appearing as tentacles from under the thorny bushes and long fronds from above. Small frogs hopped across the road ahead of them, and in the distance hills could be seen, also covered in brilliant jade jungles. Tony looked about in amazement as parrots flitted from tree to tree above him, Brandon sighed, the exertion was deeply annoying, as he would much rather be at home cooking crepes.

As the trio passed along the jungle road, Mephisto caught a glimpse of something, nestled in the brush on the side of the road. It was white and hairy, and as he drew closer he could see a small amount of red around what was once its neck.

"What did you find?" Brandon asked, back to Mephisto eyes watching the treeline for danger.

"It looks like," Mephisto moved a leaf from the animals head, " a goat?" Mephisto stood puzzled, it was a goat, laying on the side of the road, with circle of red holes on its neck, its body emaciated and dry looking. "Something sucked this goat to death." Mephisto pointed, waving Brandon and Tony over to see.

"That's gross, don't touch that." Tony leaned away from the dead animal.

"Man, I can't cook that, what are you trying to do here jungle, mock me?" Brandon looked to the sky, half expecting Thor to drop down laughing prepared for a rematch.

"Mr. Wilson, any clue what this animal might have been attacked by?" Mephisto squatted by the furry white body.

"Not really, strange beasts were really Chris' forte. It does appear to have been sucked to death, so we are dealing with an animal that dines on goats, and has a rounded toothy mouth, which once attached to the goat, suck the blood from them."

"Yes, I really can't remember any previous mention of such a creature."

"Well, since we are likely dealing with a new species we should name it, something in the local tongue so they'll know what to look for." Tony nodded to Mephisto, it seems they had stumbled upon an important scientific discovery and were duty bound to record it.

"Well Mr. Wilson, what is the Spanish words for 'Goat Sucker', as that is both its prey and chosen method of consumption." Mephisto rose to his feet, lowering the leaf back over the goat.

"Ughh," Tony's mouth opened instinctively and his eyes narrowed, he stood motionless and made a low 'umm' sound, finally he remembered and gestured down to the goat, "Chulupa-Cabra, I believe that's the proper term."

"Excellent, we must then be on our guard for this Chulupacabra, and hope it has not mistaken our friend for a goat." Mephisto began trudging back up the path towards the location of the lost city of El Dorado.

"What do you think the chances are of Chris being mistaken for a goat and getting eaten?" Brandon gave a look to Tony.

"I'd prefer not to think about it."

"You're right better than average."

End Part 2

Mephistopheles and the Lost Scholar

St. Eustatius cooked under the hot summer sun, the bricks and white walls flickered in the heat, small lizards stepped onto the stone paths leading to the governors mansion and promptly dropped dead from heat stroke. To further aggravate the situation for the islanders it was exceptionally humid as well. It was on days like these that Mephisto sought out the comfort of the secret catacombs under the mansion, where the air was cool and there were fewer dead lizards. He had created a small space for himself in a large chamber, which presumably lay somewhere between the catacombs entrance in the outlying hills and the mansion. In this space he had a few books, maps, a large chair, and a rope leading to a bell which when pulled would notify someone in the mansion that he needed assistance. To light the space, rather than depend on candles Mephisto had consented to allow the scholar Chris to attempt to fashion a series of mirrors that would bring outside light in, provided they were angled correctly. The scheme had worked after a fashion, though it was extremely complicated and prone to random failure when a bat or bird would fly into one of the mirrors and knock it off center.

It was here that Mephisto sat in his chair, sipping tea and reading a book of poetry he had received from Orpheus a short while after the wedding. It was alright, he thought, though terribly morose, and still very whiny. He pondered how Eurydice must have felt to have him back, no doubt she preferred he remain at the bottom of the sea. Sitting languidly in his chair he read the book, though with little focus being paid to the page, his mind was wandering as the words flicked by. He found it easier to day dream this way, to him sitting in a chair and simply letting the mind wander was a hard feat, no, he needed an object of attention that he could neglect with his little mental adventures. When Penelope returned from her trip to England she had assured him that they would depart immediately again for someplace out of the way, as they had both been bitten by the bug of adventure and could hardly spend two days in a single spot without seeking something new. Mephisto flipped a page, carefully balancing his mind so that he wouldn't think too hard about the words, or how many pages he had eyeballed without absorbing any of it. He thought of how he could quickly call the crew back from whatever they were doing in town and they could set out for the jungles of Brazil, or go to the far side of the continent and climb the mountains in Peru searching for lost things, and on the way, to keep the crew happy, they could capture Spanish ships. Yes all of this would be nice he thought, he had let his mind wander now so far from its original place that he had only barely noticed a slight ringing. It was this ringing that now snapped him back to 'reality'. Glancing up he saw his 'bell' was ringing fiercely, meaning someone in the mansion needed his immediate attention. In one swift motion he was up from his seat, his arms akimbo, his right hand snatching the poetry book he had just launched into the air. He laid it quickly down on his chair and yanked the chord next to his bell to let the person on the far end know he was on his way. Before completely exiting the chamber he snatched up his ornate pistol and pulled back the hammer, one could never be sure when a visitor was an old opponent out for revenge.

"I wonder who this could be?" Mephisto mumbled to himself scrambling up the sloping stone steps, the heat become more and more palpable the closer he got to the exit. He saw the light ahead, emanating from the open door leading into Penelope's former bed chamber. He could see figures in the brightly lit room, gesturing at each other wildly, Mephisto pursed his lips and lowered the pistol a little closing in on the exit. Bursting from the shadowy hole Mephisto could now clearly see who his desperate visitors were, to his left Brandon, the world class chef, his brow heavy with sweat, and to his right Tony the scholar, who appeared equally damp.

"We need your help!" They both exclaimed raising their hands in the air.

"With what? What's wrong? Pirates, Spanish? Are there ghosts? Giants? Giant Spanish ghost pirates? I heard they might exist...maybe." Mephisto searched his memory for any reference previously made to such an oddity, he knew there had to be some time it had come up and it,

"Chris has gone missing!" Tony pointed out the door.

" Really, he never goes anywhere, at least not without one of you two."

"I know, since I talked them into moving back to St. Eustatius from Port Royale we've been inseparable! But now Poof!" Brandon swung his arms wide depicting the bodily disappearance of his friend.

"Hmm, well, what happened? When did you know he was missing?" Mephisto gestured for the two men to take seat on the bed, if for no other reason than they seemed about to faint.

"Why this morning it finally settled in to us that he might have disappeared." Tony said, cocking an eyebrow at Mephisto. "He disappears every once in a while, but usually gets lonesome and shows back up in less than a day, well it's been a full three days and no sign! He just walked out the front door of the shack and never said a word...now, now we just don't know."

"He coulda been eaten by jaguars! Or snakes, you know how tiny he is, he's like a appetizer for jungle animals." Brandon clenched his fist for emphasis.

"Well, there must be somewhere he went, one doesn't simply vanish into this air. Think, both of you, where would he wander off to, especially for any length of time, and without telling you where or why he was going?" Mephisto grabbed a stool and positioned in front of the chef and scholar.

"There's no place on the island I can think of, anytime he wants to go do something he takes one of us, and he's got no other friends here except you, but since you're here he mustn't have come to see you. Besides, what's he want to talk to you for? It's not like you guys have a hell of a lot in common!" Brandon sighed and scratched his head, Mephisto frowned a little, he always thought he was a very good friend and would make a great person to visit.

"So you think he left the island, and kept his destination secret? Where in the Caribbean would he go to, any ideas?" Mephisto thumbed the handle of his pistol and noticed it was still cocked, carefully he pulled the trigger and holding the little flint arm lowered the hammer, he didn't want to have to retrieve any more people from the underworld unless he absolutely had to.

"The Caribbean sucks, there is nothing here anyone would want to visit. All there is here is Spaniards, mosquitoes, pirates, blistering heat, jungles and gold. Waitaminute." Brandon turned to Tony, who opened his eyes wide as well. the two friends blinked in disbelief, had they solved the puzzle? "Chris went to El Dorado!"

"What?" Mephisto narrowed his eyes a little, glancing at the two now extremely animated men.

"Of course, when we stumbled on it all that time ago, we almost had to leave him he was so attached to that gold statue! He's got terrible gold fever. Maybe he's been secretly plotting this all along, he was just waiting, waiting for us to drop our guard, then whoomf! He runs off to the golden city!" Tony shrugged, he was certain now Chris was doomed. "He's probably on a little boat, headed for Panama, then he'll wander into the jungle hoping to retrace our steps back to the city."

"You think he would do something so completely irresponsible and insane?"

"Have you met him? Gold fever aside he's the poster child for stupid plans!" Brandon rose to his feet, "We've got to go to Panama and see if we can catch up with him! There is no way my friends going to get kileld in a jungle, unless I'm the one killin' him...out of love. i added that last bit so you guys wouldn't think I killed him or something." Brandon bounced a little on the bed looking from Mephisto to Tony, abruptly he raised his fists.

"Of course not, I don't have any reason to believe you would kill Chris Mr. Frazier." Mephisto rose from the stool and turned for the door, "Come on, lets head for the docks and see if we can get a ship to take us to Panama." Mephsito gestured for his two cohorts to follow.

"You aren't going to gather the crew?" Tony asked inquisitively.

"No, we'll keep this private, the crew would want at least some kind of prize, besides the city of gold mind you. Just getting there they'd want to attack something, so I think it best we travel in secret." Mephisto walked briskly towards the front door of the governors mansion, his shoes clicking down the flight of stairs, his hand extended to grab his coat, which hung neatly on a hook by the large door.

The three men arrived at the docks via carriage, not without undue adulation at the fact that they didn't have to walk the three miles in the sweltering warmth. Stepping from the carriage Mephisto snapped the door shut and asked the driver to return to the mansion, and to leave word with Governor Logan that he would be back in no time at all.

"Now then, lets see if we can find someone to take us to Panama." Mephisto led the way onto the wooden piers, his eyes skipping from ship to ship, noting which ones appeared to be leaving, and which had only just arrived. Amongst these he noted a small sloop, in need of careening, making ready to leave port, the name on the stern read Unicorn. Mephisto skipped ahead a little, noting an older man barking orders to the three visible crewman, the mans face was extremely care worn and weathered, burnt into leather by many days like this. "Excuse me!" Mephisto gave a shout the man glanced over his shoulder and eyeballed the three men.

"We're leavin'! No need to further tax us on the account of our departure, we have had full enough thank ye very much" He coughed at them, backing steadily towards the gang plank.

"No, we aren't with the Port Authority, we're looking to charter a ship." Mephisto explained waving his hands, his long legs kicked into rigid attention upon reaching the squat old man.

"Really?! You want us to take ye somewhere?" The old man beamed.

"Yes, we were actually hoping to go to Panama, Nombre De Dios to be more exact."

"No problem! Climb aboard, we'll leave at once." The old man began guiding Mephisto by the arm to the gang plank then turned and began quickly undoing the ropes keeping the Unicorn moored.

Once out to sea Mephisto settled in comfortably at the bow of the small ship, Brandon and Tony on the deck playing cards, while the old captain smoked a pipe contentedly.

"Ye truly are a blessing sir." The old man smiled, scanning the horizon, "Before ye came along we had been stuck in port for two weeks, nobody wants to hire us because they're afraid we'll fall ta pieces due to the rot in the hull."

"Oh, it's no problem, my old ship was full of holes for quite some time," Mephisto thought back to the Incognito and its mostly wrecked upper decks, "I simply needed this done quickly and without complaint, we have a friend to rescue." Mephisto looked out to the South West, pondering where in route Chris was.

"Well, don't ya worry, if yer in need of a trip back we'll probably be right where ye left us. My names Scrubrush by the way, Arthur Scrubrush."

"Ahh, very good, you can call me Mephisto, everyone else does, my associates are Mr. Frazier and Mr. Wilson." Mephisto turned to his friends who looked up and waved.

"Nobody but him calls us that, I'm Brandon and this is Tony, if you need help in the kitchen ask me, if you need help teaching your men how to read ask him." Brandon pointed to Tony who coughed a little.

"Actually I'm a history and government scholar, you know, 1066, Magna Carta and all that." Tony smiled then turned back to his game.

"I see, well glad to have ya aboard all the same." Arthur said, dumping the burned up contents of his pipe out over the sea. Mephisto carefully pulled himself onto the bowsprit and lightly made his way over the moldy safety net stretching out on his back to watch the sky turn from blue, to gold, red and finally the deep purples and black of night. It was good to be off the island he thought, if only for a little while.

end part 1

Ghost Story...

This is a true tale of spirits and unexplained events. I can guarantee its truth by the virtue that none other than myself was there to experience it. Of course if you don't know me that well then you can easily dismiss what I'm about to tell you, but if you know me you can vouch for the veracity of my claims, and my composure to recognize what could actually be "out there".





There was a time when I would go prowling around at night with a select handful of friends and seek the unexplained and paranormal. Generally speaking we returned empty handed, or when something did come up it was easily dismissed as something natural. However one night, apparently cursed, my fellows and I ventured into the ruins of an abandoned hospital and witnessed a singularly terrifying event.





The players in question were...













We were old hat at the business of ghost hunting, two of us had advanced degrees in Ghostbusters quoting in fact. Unfortunately this would not prepare us for what we found inside the old hospital that quiet spring night.

Funny thing is the place we went to, Old Saint John's Hospital in Oxnard, CA, we had been more than once, or rather Mike and I had been. I had taken photo's and explored the nooks and crannies of the place. I had a degree of familiarity with the site that kept me from feeling nervous about what I might find, in spite of the gruesome stories. Rumours abounded, told by former employees that the unnatural events plaguing the hospital was partly the reason they built a new site across town. In the microbiology labs faucets and decontamination showers would spring to life simultaneously, forcing the night crew to go through and turn off each handle. An old man would ride the elevator with you in silence, before disappearing as you were about to reach his floor. In pediatrics a little girl would sit with the sick children and talk about their days, confounding the nurses who had no recollection of such a girl being in the ward. In the basement, beside the morgue where the autopsies would take place tools would go missing, strange shuffling sounds could be heard all the way in cardiology down the hall. Shadows prowled the rooftops and hallways at night, and every so often, on the third floor in the maternity ward a pale and bloody woman would wander the halls with her stillborn baby. Suffice it to say it scared the hell out of the night shift nurses.

So in spite of such stories we had never experienced anything, well, nearly anything. We had heard doors, crashing open and hurried footsteps down hallways and stairwells. I attributed the sounds to a confused crack head, and found a route that kept us parallel and away from whatever was thundering down the corridors. On another occasion we followed an unusual patch of shadow through the building, it waiting in doorways and fleeing silently down ramps and stairwells. These were however minor things, unusual, but not terrifying.

So it was with an eagerness usually reserved for bad movie night we went back, with Brandon in tow. Brandon hadn't been on a hunt for ages and wanted to see what the fuss was about. We pulled open a hole in the fence and he wriggled through then we approached the south side of the building. The place was shaped like an 8bit letter A, a hollow courtyard, with four long corridors around it, two of which extended South , the direction we would enter from. This meant you approached the broken glass doors, their interior pitch black, flanked on either side by three story walls, with inky black windows staring out at you, hiding anyone or anything that may be watching.

As I said the air was completely still, not even a trace of breeze touched the trees, and as we crossed underneath a small arch in the parking lot, a cross perched atop it Mike and I froze. A icy shiver had gone up my spine and I was frozen in fear, an entirely new experience. Mike was equally motionless, staring ahead, mouth open.
"Hey Mike." I muttered.
"Yeah?" He mumbled.
"Did you just?"
"Yeah."
"Ever happen to you before?"
"Nope."
Regaining my composure I tapped Brandon on the shoulder, he had managed to move a bit further along while Mike and I were stuck in place.
"What?"
"Mike and I got a real bad feeling about this."
"So?"
"No, as in, I have never experienced such a case of complete dread at entering the building before."
"Well what are we supposed to do now?" Brandon shot a glance at the two of us.
"Well, we need to decide if we should head back or go on, because as it stands something bad might happen."
"Well, what do you want to do?" Brandon leaned against a short wall.
"I say we keep going." I replied, Mike approaching waving a hand in dismissal.
"Woh, lets think for a minute. We need to get some sort of guidance here." Mike explained crossing his arms.
"From who?"
"The big guy." Mike pointed up. Brandon began chuckling.
"Really? So you, a practicing Catholic, are going to ask God if we should enter the Hospital. you know according to your own religious tenets there are no ghosts." I laughed off the idea.
"Shut up, alright, you all keep quiet and I'll ask for guidance, then we'll wait here, for three minutes. If God doesn't want us in there, he'll give us a sign." Mike leaned against the wall and began praying, I nodded in silence and looked at Brandon. For three minutes we stood and waited, and just as my watch was about to run out of time for our request a single leaf scrapped across the ground towards us. Mike's eyes were wide, Brandon's equally so, I pursed my lips and shrugged. the leaf continued towards us, then abruptly turned 90 degrees and followed the path back to the parking lot. We were all still, then...
"Ready to go in?" Mike clapped his hands.
"Yeah, lets get in there and see what we can find." I pointed into the shadowy recesses of the hospital door.
"What about the fuckin' leaf?" Brandon looked to the parking lot.
"What leaf?" We said and made our way forward.

Once inside the door there is a long corridor dead ahead, that terminates at an elevator and a sharp left leading to the cafeteria. Along that same entrance corridor is a right turn that runs alongside what used to be a gift shop, empty, even its fixtures long gone. This little passage will then open up into a T intersection, to the right a few rooms, to the left a long black hallway, occasionally stained by light from the street lamps outside, shining through broken windows. At the end of this left most hallway is the haunted elevator, a stairwell leading to the upper floors, and microbiology wrapping around the Northern most expanses of the hospital. We followed this particular hallway, leading to the stairs, our destination either the basement or a more complete look at the other floors. As we moved stealthily along the hall the dread in us grew, Brandon's eyebrow cocked like the hammer on a pistol, his eye darting into and out of rooms on either side. It was important to, no matter what, not picture a pale face looking back from the other side of a empty room, slumped in a corner, hollow black eyes seeming to recognize something in you, more frightening that it simply saw you and knew you were there. As we made our way we heard something and stopped. Scratching, quiet at first, the with speed and vigor it sped towards us, along the roof, scratching and clawing sounds, circling over an empty hole above us.

"Pigeons." I said, there were pigeons in many of the rooms, and assuredly they probably got inside the panels as well.
"Yeah, pigeons." Mike said, looking back down the hallway. the sound stopped as suddenly as it started, and we moved forward a foot, when again, the scratching returned, this time from behind us, rushing towards us at an amazing speed, tumbling around over us then stopping.
"Alright, when I said pigeons I may have been optimistic."
"Well, which way do we go?" Mike looked up and down the corridors. Abruptly the entire hallways was filled with scratching and movement. I stood silently, eyes furtively looking around, the whole length of the corridor seemed alive with sound. Suddenly it stopped.
"We should head deeper in, take the stairs and check out the third floor, obviously we have a busy night." I said, looking down the hallway.

It should also be important to point out that we had no lights, or rather none to speak well of. Brandon had found a communion candle in his car, its light less powerful than a match's, and Mike and I had acquired a single lantern Unable to illuminate more than a few feet in any direction. We simply couldn't use these either as the light they cast made it difficult to see what lay ahead.

With only moonlight and our own ability to see in the dark we headed down the hallway, expecting more strange sights and sounds in no time. We reached the stairwell without incident, and carefully pulled the door open, the walls were cracked and decaying, leaves, papers and weird stains covered the floor. We bunched together and moved inside, taking the stairs a few steps at a time, eyeballing what lay above us. We slinked past the second floor and arrived at the third floor landing. I looked at the door knob, Mike looked at me, Brandon peeked back down the stairs.

"Well, open it." Mike pointed. the sense of doom had been slowly filling us since we had entered, and now all of our cups were running over with terror. We had never been so collectively immobilized before.
"No way, what if she's right fuckin' there." I stared at the door.
"I'm not opening it." Mike looked back to Brandon.
"Stop lookin' at me, I am not touchin' that door." Brandon never even looked at us, keeping his eyes steadily below us.
"Alright, we'll both open the door." Mike said flatly.
"Deal." We extended our hands and grabbed the doorknob, then pushed, Brandon turned his attention away from the stairs and gazed over the top of us. The door inched open as we pushed and then furtively we looked into the third floor. Directly in front of us was a nurses station and a very long hallway running to the opposite side of the hospital, the doors open, letting slivers of light through. To our right was another hallway running the width of the hospital, door also open. We cautiously placed our feet onto the rug and took our first step inside. At that moment we could hear it. A low far away sound, in the back of our ears, nothing close, but there none the less.
"You hear that?" Mike asked, raising his foot.
"Yeah." I lifted mine and we moved forward one pace, now the sound was clearer, and even more disturbing. It was mumbling, a long off unintelligible gibberish bubbling from the darkness. Our eyes bulged from our sockets and we took our third and final step into the third floor. now the sound was growing in intensity, new voices joining, male, female, inhuman mumbling, and at the end of the corridor directly in front of us a door slammed. The light cut off, then another to our right, with each door that closed the sound grew louder, and closer. It wasn't coming from the halls it sounded as though it was coming from our own ears, malevolent chanting inches form our heads. Doors slammed slowly at first moving closer. We were frozen in complete indescribable terror, no near death experience or other incident has ever pinned me so completely. Blanched white, we couldn't move, we simply trembled as the slamming doors sped up and got closer. Then footsteps, tumbling away down the stairs. Pulling my eyes from the shadows ahead I saw Brandon fleeing at breakneck speed down the stairs. The spell temporarily broken I leaped down three steps and hurtled at Brandon's back, Mike the last one looking into the abyss abruptly realized he was alone and charged after us. We could here the mumbling becoming more distant, the slam of the third floor door, then horrible shriek as it opened again, slamming harder this time. whatever it was was on the stairwell with us, in pursuit for who knew what reason.

"Don't exit here!" I yelled at Brandon as he reached for the first floor door. "Keep going down the bottom door leads outside!" We tumbled after him a river of limbs flinging ourselves down deeper into the shadows reaching the door and rushing outside. SAFE! We fled from the door and out into the still silent night. I shook uncontrollably, my hair on end, no one could say anything.

"What the fuck was that!" Brandon punched at the sky.
"I have no clue." I said still shaking. Brandon and Mike produced packets of cigarettes, lit up and started puffing furiously.
"Did you hear that shit, it was in our God damned ears!" Brandon looked up at the third floor, ominously blank windows looked back.
"It sounded like chanting." Mike looked out at the street.
"So what we're dealing with is either some seriously fucked up thing in there or, worse yet a cult who we caught off guard." I began looking around the planters and walkways.
"If so they're probably waiting for us in there." Mike motioned at the door.
"Then lets leave." Brandon threw down his first cigarette lighting another.
"Guys," I came from behind a planter, with an unfortunate discovery, "We have to go back inside."
"Fuck no!" Brandon said with a scowl.
" We don't have a choice, there's no exit here, the fence doesn't have a gate or an exit." I pointed, on all sides a thirteen foot high chain link fence encircled our position, topped with barbed wire it was all but impenetrable.
"Aww shit. Game over man, game over!" Mike looked back at the building.

We stood out there for thirty minutes, Brandon and Mike both smoking their whole pack. We had settled on a plan, scrounging around outside we discovered a long metal rod, it was extremely heavy. We then found a lead pipe, a quarter of the length of the rod, Brandon took the rod and Mike took the pipe. We then formed ourselves into a defensive ball, Brandon would lead us, whilst I watched the doorways to our left and right, pushed against Brandon's back, Mike would face the rear and keep his back to my shoulder. We would move slowly down the hallway, and should anything approach we would destroy it instantly.

Plan settled and weapons ready we approached the door back to the stairwell, and discovered an unusual surprise. Pinned to the door, keeping it shut was a long bench.

"You put that there?" I asked Brandon.
"Nope."
"You?" I turned to Mike.
"Nope."
"Fuck it!" Brandon grabbed the bench and tossed it away, the door creaked open.

We maneuvered inside and began the arduous trek back up the stairs and down the hallway. Brandon waved the bar, a wooshing sound penetrating the silence. I would turn left and right, fists up waiting for some lunatic wearing a goat skull mask to pop up. Mike cautiously followed facing down the receding hallway.

"Whatever happens, don't leave me behind." Mike asked.
"Sure." I said.
"Sure thing." Brandon inched along.
It took us around an hour to reach the split hallway leading to the cafeteria and the exit, a span that took us less than ten minutes to span only a short while before. Brandon and I could see the shattered glass and the moonlight, the portal outside was right there, we were fifty feet from freedom. Simultaneously Brandon and I had the same thought. 'What if something was waiting patiently at the blind turn next to the exit.' Brandon and I had the same thought and acted in the same second. He thundered forward at breakneck speed and I followed behind him, certain that if anything popped out he would knock it over and I would slip by right behind. We burst through the shadows and into the open air, just behind us we could hear Mike.

"Do you hear that guys? Guys?" He turned and saw we had left him, the sound he was so worried about was our retreat. "Fuck you!" He ran after us.

With that we left, Mike and I knowing that someday we would return to unravel more secrets about the place. Though for the time being we were just glad to be free. We hadn't paid attention to the time that we had entered, but now returning to the car we knew we had gone in shortly before midnight, and could be almost certain that at the stroke of twelve was when we had entered the third floor.

I've seen shit that would turn you white.