Page 61 of The Vampire and the Barista

“Sorry, little witch, you said we needed to get out of the room quickly.”

“Don’t apologise, vampy. I just didn’t see us move. I'm glad you’re fast. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in there. Who knows what that muttering would have achieved? ”

“Let’s check out the other rooms,” Mathis said, taking Gabe’s hand.

“I wonder how the others are getting on.”

Mathis grinned. “Hopefully having as eventful a time as us.”

Gabe laughed. “Here’s hoping.”

Jamie, Ivan, Olly and Adrian found nothing in the next few rooms. They walked into another. This one has a circle of chairs in the centre with more scattered around here and there.

“I don’t understand this place. You would have thought when this place closed, they would have stripped the place and sold things off,” Jamie commented.

“Nothing about this place makes sense. Like, why is there blood running down the wall?” Olly asked

“Move,” Adrian shouted.

The next moment, they were all outside in the corridor, the door slamming shut behind them.

“Whoa,” Jamie said, holding onto Ivan’s arm. “I didn’t even see us move.”

“Sorry, Jay, when a witch doctor tells you to run, you run.”

“I’m not complaining, thanks, honey, that was just whoa. Are you all alright? Did the blood affect any of you?”

“No, we weren’t in there long enough for it to affect us,” Adrian replied.

RUN a voice shouted. They looked at each other and took off towards the voice.

Kevin and Ian walked down their hallway, and the first door they opened was a staircase.

“A spooky staircase, nice,” Ian exclaimed happily.

Kevin grinned. “Let’s go and have a look.”

There were no lights on, but with their enhanced eyesight, they both saw just fine.

Ian followed. “How come Creed didn’t come?”

“He’s shadowing Derrick. I told him I’d tell him all about the haunted asylum when we got back.”

“I’m surprised Bert didn’t turn up with Gabe and the others,” Ian commented.

“Maybe he doesn’t know, I mean, I’ve not told him what we’re doing.”

Ian laughed. “He’ll find out and grumble.”

Kevin grinned at him. “Yes, he will.”

“I wonder why they hid this staircase,” Ian queried.

“Probably to hide the unethical experiments,” Kevin theorised.

“I thought almost everything that went on in these old asylums was unethical,” Ian replied.

“A lot of their experiments, I mean, treatments probably were.”