Page 62 of The Vampire and the Barista

They carried on down the stairs and walked out into a large basement, filled with old beds, equipment and other weird stuff, with what once must have been white-washed walls, but that were now dirty and fading with age and splattered with dark stains.

“Well, this is all disturbing,” Kevin said, looking around.

Ian walked to a table where there was an old-fashioned rusty hand drill and what looked like a rusty ice pick. “I’m sure I saw a film once with these kinds of instruments; they used them for lobotomies.”

Kevin walked over and looked, shaking his head. “I can’t even imagine how scared the patient must have been during those kinds of procedures.”

“Yeah, chances are they were awake when it happened.” Ian paused and then grinned. “Shall we take these with us and use them on Drake?”

Kevin burst out laughing. “He’s not that bad.”

Ian snorted. “Just think, he could have been your second and I could have been Bert’s.”

“Gerty would have smothered you in your sleep within a day.”

“Or me him.”

“Come on, there are no records down here, let’s see if the others are having better luck,” he said, turning away.

Just then, a metal table moved and started rolling slowly across the floor in front of them.

“I’ll be more impressed if you put the table back where it was,” Kevin said, crossing his arms over his chest.

The table stopped moving for a moment and then slowly moved backwards to its starting position.

“Nice,” Kevin acknowledged.

A shape materialised next to the table. By the looks of it, a young woman, in a white gown, three bloody wounds on her forehead. Her long hair softly moving, although there was no breeze, and her feet bare.

“Can you speak?” Ian asked her softly.

Her mouth moved, and a soft voice sounded. “Little.”

“So you can speak a little bit?” Ian asked.

The ghost woman nodded. She points up the stairs and then around the room. “Danger.”

Kevin dropped his arms. “You’re in danger?”

The woman shook her head. “You... friends... leave... danger.”

“Thank you for the warning. We’ll get our friends and leave. I doubt we’ll find anything here anyway,” Kevin replied.

The ghost woman tilted her head. “Search?”

“We’re looking for information on a previous resident called Derrick,” Ian told her.

The ghost lady seemed to float backwards. “Evil... demon.”

“He’s a demon?”

She shook her head. “Sold... soul.”

“He sold his soul to an evil demon?” Kevin queried.

The woman nodded as a table was thrown into the back wall.

“Run,” the ghost lady said.