Amy stepped into the house, she felt the warmth wash over her body as she just walked all the way there in the brisk October air. The scent of cinnamon and cookies wafted in the air and she heard Jessie’s mother from the other room,
“Amy, honey how have you been? It’s been forever!” and wrapped her in a tight embrace.   “I’ve been great! Where’s Jessie?”
“Oh shes in her room, go on up!”,  Amy sprinted up the stairs to go find her. When she entered the room Jessie was laying on her bed reading a magazine, her favorite band blasting through the radio. She quickly noticed Amy and ran up and gave her a hug. They had a lot of work to do for their project though, so they began at once. They had been assigned to do a news report for their Journalism class and the best investigative story got to be front page on the schools newspaper.
“What should we do our report about?”, Amy asked.
“What’s really in the school lunches?,” Jessie giggled,
“Nah, too cliche.”
“Do YOU have any better ideas?”
“Well there is something I wanted to look into…” Amy started,
“Go on!” Jessie screeched. Amy dimmed the lights, and pulled out her phone to use as a flashlight to cast an eerie shadow on her face. Her eyes grew wide, and her expression went serious all of the sudden.
“Well, you see, there’s an old myth. You know the abandoned hospital on the far side of town? Well theres a reason it’s still abandoned. Many years ago, unspeakable things happened in that hospital. Doctors tortured and killed patients by the dozens. No one had any clue what was going on until it was too late. There had been over 200 murders that went unsolved in that hospital. No one was ever charged for the murders and no one has ever fully investigated it. They say if you go at night, you can still hear the patient screams, and the bodys may still remain untouched.” You could see the pure terror in Jessie’s eyes. She scrambled to turn the lights on,
“So what are you saying?” Jessie asked, puzzled.
“We NEED to go investigate this! I know someone who could help us get in there, he’s like a master at picking locks. He could totally help us.”
“I..I don’t know about this. It seems dangerous. And what if we get caught? They could charge us with breaking and entering! I don’t wanna go to jail!” Jessie exclaimed.
“Calm down! It’s completely deserted. That place hasn’t been touched in at least 20 years. They would never even know we were there.” Amy had always been the rebellious, daredevil of the pair. She was fearless and always taking risks. But she was also always getting them into trouble. Jessie, the more reserved of the two, was cautious. She was always thinking of the outcome of her decisions rather than living in the moment like her best friend would.
“I guess you have a point there.” Jessie said. She was still unsure and thought it was a bad idea. But she had to admit, it was interesting. If they could really pull this off and get a great story, she was sure they would get on the front page of the paper.
The girls rushed downstairs and grabbed their jackets. They headed off to the library to do some research on this hospital. When they got there, they logged onto a computer and opened up google search. The results they found were exactly what they had been looking for. “Old, abandoned hospital thought to be haunted.” “Creepy Hospital may have been the setting of over 100 murders.” and last, to their dismay, “Abandoned Hospital Scheduled for demolition” They clicked on it.
“After years of being untouched, the vacant, abandoned hospital on the outskirts of town has been officially scheduled for demolition Monday, November 3rd.” The girls gasped. The date was Thursday, October 30th and there was no way they could go on a school night. They looked at each other and nodded. They had to go tomorrow. It was actually perfect timing. On Halloween they could tell their parents they were at a friends or trick-or-treating and head to the hospital instead. Amy got out a sheet of paper and started on their game plan. She dialed her friend Matt and told him what they had planned.
“So do you think you can help us?”
“I don’t know, Amy. This isn’t a good idea. Plus what if I can’t get us in there? What if the door is like, deadbolted or something?” Matt said hesitantly.
“We will find a way. We need to do this. With or without your help. But it would be a whole lot easier with your help.” Amy said bluntly. Matt agreed to do it.
“I’ll be over there in 20.” Then hung up.
The next day at school Amy couldn’t focus at all, the only thing running through her head were the plans for tonight. Could they pull this off? She reviewed their plan a thousand times, checking for errors and other things that could go wrong until she decided it was foolproof. She had told her mom she was going to Jessie’s house for a scary movie slumber party so that wasn’t an issue.
When Amy got home she called Jessie and Matt and told them to meet her at the local park at 4:00pm. They agreed and she gathered everything she needed. Camera, check. Notepad, check. Flashlight, check. Tool kit, check. She was ready. She headed to the park and quickly spotted her friends. They reviewed the plan for a final time and set out. The hospital was 5 and a half miles away and they had to travel by foot so they decided to get a start. “Ugh! How much further?” Jessie complained.
“Oh shh, we’re almost halfway there.” Amy snapped.
“Almost HALFWAY? Why couldn’t we just do the stupid story about school lunches!” She sighed and they continued their journey. Finally around 7:30pm they arrived.
“Well, here we are.” Amy said. They stopped and just looked for a moment. The hospital was huge. It was eerie, and crawling with vines and overgrown bushes. Windows were boarded up and the paint was faded and chipped. The wall on one side was collapsed and the floorboards looked unsteady.  They felt an immense fear in the pit of their stomachs. Jessie’s hands were shaking and she said
“I don’t wanna do this! Can we please just go home?”
“NO!” Amy yelled, “We just walked all the way here, we are going in there and getting this dang story!”
Matt started digging through the toolbox, there were screwdrivers, wrenches, rope, tape, pocket knives, and an array of random supplies they figured could come in handy. They came to their first obstacle, the barbed wire fence. They looked for a gap or hole in the fence but had no luck. Matt pulled the pocket knife out of the toolbox and started trying to saw the barbed piece off. The knife was too dull and he made no process. Amy lit up, “I have an idea!”
“What?” Matt and Jessie yelled simultaneously.
“Matt, give me your jacket.”
“NO! I just got this jacket for my birthday, no way!” He shrieked.
“Come on, this is our only way over.” Amy said sternly. He groaned and took off his brand new leather jacket and threw it to Amy. She draped it over the fence and started scaling the side. The jacket protected them from the razor sharp wires and they made it over safely. Matt put his jacket back on, there was a small tear near the pocket. “I’m sorry Matt. I’ll fix it for you. Let’s just figure out how were gonna get in there.” Amy said.
They walked to what appeared to be the main entrance, Amy and Matt walking in sync and Jessie followed a few feet behind hesitantly. The grass was at least 3 feet tall and there were cobwebs and dust covering everything. The main pillars were cracked and the door handles were rusted. This place really hadn’t been touched in 20 years. Once they got to the door they tried the handle, locked of course. The doors had been nailed shut with pieces of plywood and “do not enter” signs all around. Matt grabbed a hammer out of the toolbox and started hacking away. He successfully removed the three pieces of plywood covering the door and took a pick out of the box and started working on the lock. After about 10 minutes of jiggling the door handle around he made very little progress and started to get frustrated. He dropped the hammer and with a hard kick, the door flung open. They stepped in quietly, the stench was overwhelming. It smelled of mold, dust, and a intense rotting smell. It was disgusting and they started coughing. Matt pulled out 3 face masks he had brought. “I came prepared.” He smirked. They put them on and continued in. Jessie had been in charge of taking pictures and videos and Amy was writing details. They walked over to the front counter, blew the thick layer of dust off and uncovered a record book. Amy slipped the book into her bag and walked on. “I really don’t think we should be taking souvenirs, don’t you think?” Jessie asked.
“This place is going to be in pieces by Monday, I don’t think it really matters,” Amy snapped.
They walked down the hall and make a right. They slowly opened the door and looked in. Nothing. They looked in every room in the hall and it was all just empty rooms with tables and chairs and a lot of dust. Finally, when they were about to give up and leave the noticed something. There was an oddly placed door on the wall behind a curtain. They moved the dirty, spider web covered curtain and tried the door. It was locked. Matt got his toolbox out and began tinkering with the lock. After a few minutes it came loose. He stepped back, hesitant to open it. The doorway was small and they would have to crawl to fit in there. “I’m just gonna wait out here,” Jessie stammered.
Amy didn’t have the energy to convince her otherwise so she just took the lead. She opened the door and she couldn’t believe what she saw. The door smelled foul and there was blood everywhere. She shrieked and Matt whipped out the flashlight. When he shined the light he saw a bag with what appeared to be a body in it, and various body parts around the room. They grabbed their things and ran as fast as they could out of there. Searching frantically for the door they were almost there when it slammed shut. They pushed as hard as they could but it wouldn’t budge. Jessie was shaking and crying and Matt was desperately trying to find the hammer. They hit it three times hard and it burst open. They ran out and all of the sudden they saw 3 figures and then.. “GOTCHA!”
When they got a closer look they quickly realized it was their friends Cj, Paula, and Chelsea. They started laughing hysterically and Cj said, “Man you should have seen your faces! You were so scared! BEST. PRANK. EVER!”, Amy was angry. “So what, you’re saying you guys did all that stuff?”, she accused.
“Well yeah! You didn’t really think that place was haunted or something did you?” Chelsea laughed, “This place has been abandoned forever but it’s not because of any crazy murder story. My grandpa used to work here. It was shut down for health code violations and they not got around to tearing it down. We heard you guys saying you were gonna investigate and we saw the opportunity.” Matt, Amy, and Jessie all laughed. “You guys really got us good,” Matt said. The group started on their long walk home, laughing about how scared they were. They were relieved it was all a hoax. They may not have a front page article but they had a story that could last a lifetime.