Page 55 of The Vampire and the Barista

CHAPTER 18

Seth pulled up just down from the old asylum, and Ivan, Gio, Seth and Jamie got out to look around while they waited for the others. Olly and Adrian got out of the second car. Adrian put his bag over his shoulder as Gio walked to the boot of the car and strapped on his sword.

They could see the building about three hundred yards away from the metal fence that ran around the property with ‘Keep Out’ notices here and there. The grass looked like a jungle, and the drive was full of potholes and broken stones.

The house itself was long, with lots of windows. It looked like there were also two wings on either side. Once the building might have been painted white, but the colour had faded with time and being exposed to the elements.

“If the grounds were taken care of, this place wouldn’t look so bad,” Jamie commented.

“I thought the house would look dark and depressing,” Gabe said, suddenly appearing next to him.

Jamie jumped and put a hand to his chest. “Jeepers.”

“Jeepers?” Mathis queried from Gabe’s other side, grinning.

“I didn’t hear your car, so I wasn’t expecting someone next to me,” Jamie explained.

“We came by portal. Troy and Cairo came with us,” Gabe said, walking over to hug Seth, Gio and Adrian.

Just then, they saw Kevin and Ian walking towards them.

“Morning, you lazy lot,” Ian greeted.

“Lazy,” Ivan scoffed. “You’ve just got here as well.”

Kevin snorted. “We’ve been here about an hour and looked around the whole of the outside. The good news is there are no guards and no working cameras.”

“From my research, there are no patrols that come out here. Rumour has it this place is haunted to the max, so most people try and stay as far from here as possible,” Olly said.

“Do you really think you can find old patient records in here? Would it not have been better to just capture Derrick and talk to him?” Jamie asked.

“We will do, but look,” Ian said, waving his hand at the building. “It’s a creepy haunted lunatic asylum. It’s just begging to be looked around. If we had just captured that Derrick chap, we’d miss out on this adventure.”

Everyone laughed at that.

Jamie nodded. “Agreed. I’ve watched ghost hunting programmes; this should be fun.”

“Is now the time to tell you that the last time we encountered ghosts, they tried to kill us, and we ended up in a sword fight with them?” Gabe asked, grinning.

Jamie’s mouth fell open. “Seriously?”

“Oh yeah,” Seth replied for him. “Craziest battle I’ve ever been in.”

“I’d say,” Jamie looked at Ivan. “I’m so glad we’re mates, my life is full of slightly deranged adventures now.”

Ivan burst out laughing as the others chuckled. “Glad I could help,” he took Jamie’s hand.

“We found a way in through the fence this way,” Kevin said, leading the way.

“Do you not want me to portal us all in?” Gabe asked, looking surprised.

“Little witch, where’s your sense of adventure? Sure, you could portal us all in, but nothing beats running through long grass and entering a haunted house the proper way,” Mathis said, taking Gabe’s hand.

Cairo grinned at him. “You just want to hear the front door creak open, don’t you?”

Mathis shrugged. “I mean, it’s a haunted house, it has to creak open.”

As they were talking, they followed the metal fence along the road and around the corner. Halfway down, there was a broken piece of fence. Gio leant down and pulled more of it away, making the gap big enough for them all to fit through.