Sneak peek at Hazardous

[CassieQ]

Here is a look at an upcoming story.  If you like adventure, hot guys kissing and fighting and things getting almost too weird, Hazardous might be for you.  It'll start posting mid March if I can avoid a bad case of panic procrastinating.  

I think intro scenes are overdone, so here is one with our intrepid protagonist, Malik, exploring an abandoned asylum with his friends.  Enjoy!

* * * * * 

       Evergreen Forest Psychiatric was a cluster of buildings enclosed behind a tall fence.  There was a gate, padlocked shut but easy to climb, and they were over it in a matter of minutes.  Malik stepped forward to help Salma down from the gate and she gave him another smile that sent his heart racing.  

       Most of the buildings were brick and slowly being reclaimed by nature, weeds growing rampant and other vegetation breaking up walkways and crawling in broken windows.  

        Salma led them toward one of the larger buildings, one that appeared a lot less run-down than the others.  They drew quiet as they approached, although Salma had a fit of nervous giggles that she quickly tried to muffle in her collar.  

       The door was locked, but the broken windows were easy to climb into.          

       Hawk and Malik broke out the flashlights and gave one to Salma.  

        It looked almost disappointingly ordinary inside.  It was dark and gloomy as expected, with dead leaves and weeds crusting the floor under their feet.  The paint was peeling off the walls, and there was little to no furniture.

       “Where to?” Malik asked, pulling a can of spray paint out of his bag.  

       “I kind of want to see where the medical treatments and experiments were done,” Salma said.  “That’ll be on the lower floors, everything up here are administration offices and rec areas.”

       Despite this, Salma still set up her tripod and took several pictures:  close-ups of the walls with the peeling paint, broken windows, the shadows painting the dark corners of the ceiling.  They didn’t look like much now, but Malik had seen enough of Salma’s pictures to know they would look eerie and otherworldly by the time she was done working with them.  

       When Salma was satisfied with her shots, they went down the stairs.  There were obvious signs that others had been there--most of the walls were tagged with graffiti, but a lot of the rooms were untouched, still holding supplies.  

       “There’s a cemetery out back where they buried people who died here,” Salma said.  

       “You morbid little monster,” Hawk said, but his voice was laden with fond affection.  Salma giggled again.  

       Malik walked down the hallway in the lead, shining his light in the various rooms as they passed.

       “What is this?” he asked, the beam of his light catching several large objects lined up in a tiled room.  

       “Tubs,” Salma said, coming up next to him and shining her light in as well.  “Probably for hydrotherapy.  One of the more humane treatments.”

       “Like taking a bath?” Malik asked.

       “Like being sprayed with ice cold water, high pressure jets or being submerged for days at a time,” Salma said.  

       “That is more humane?” Malik asked.

       “Compared to using malaria to treat syphilis? Or lobotomies?  And don’t even get me started on what they used to do to treat hysteria.”        

       “Didn’t hysteria lead to the invention of the vibrator?” Hawk said, making a lewd movement with his hips.   

       “I know nothing about that,” Salma replied primly.

       “You seem to know a lot about the mentally ill,” Malik pointed out.

       Salma shrugged.  “I just think it’s interesting is all.”

       “We need to get you a hobby,” Malik said, shining his light into another room.  “Hey, what’s this?” 

       The room boasted a gigantic circular lamp hinged to the ceiling and a decrepit looking exam table bolted to the grimy floor.  Carts and trays of all sizes littered the room.  It looked like something from a video game, probably one of the horror-based ones Hawk enjoyed.

       “It’s an exam room or operating room,” Salma breathed.  “Where surgeries were performed.  Probably lobotomies or trepanation.”

       Hawk frowned.  “Isn’t trepanation that weird spread your mom gave us on bread once?”

       “That’s tapenade,” Malik said.  

       “Trepanation is a procedure where they would drill a hole in your head,” Salma said.  “They used to think it would release demons that made people act crazy.”

       “And people survived?” Hawk asked.

       “Yes.  It was also used for head wounds to clean out bone fragments or to release blood that might have been pooling underneath the skull.”

       “Do people still do that today?” Malik asked, trying to picture it.

       “Yes, but they call it a craniotomy instead, and it’s just to relieve pressure on the brain,” Salma said.  “But just imagine that done without anesthesia or even proper hand washing or sterile instruments.”  She made a face.  “It’s ghoulish.”

       Malik hid a grin as he uncapped the spray paint.  Leave it to Salma to use a word like ghoulish.  Salma and Hawk left to explore some of the other exam rooms while Malik sprayed the word “tepanaton” on the wall in garish orange letters.  He knew he probably misspelled it but didn’t care enough to fix it.  

          He continued to walk around and look into the other exam rooms and surgical suites.  He saw Salma in the doorway of one of the rooms, setting up her camera for a shot.  He stepped into the room and saw what drew her attention.  An entire wall was covered by a mural.  It depicted the glowing blue edge of a planet, several moons in orbit, but most of it was black void dotted with different colored stars.  Yellow stars, blue stars, red stars.

       Malik could see why it captured Salma’s interest.  It was striking.  But it made him take a step back.  He had trouble taking his eyes off the ocean of stars on the blackest of backgrounds.  It gave him a sweeping wave of vertigo, and below that, a faint tinge of terror.  He ended up exiting the room entirely, heart beating too fast in his chest.  He felt vaguely sick and lifted his shirt to mop cold sweat off his face.

       Wanting some space from the creepy painting, he ventured a little bit further, following another staircase down to an even lower level.  It was a narrower hallway and ended at a locked door marked Hazardous.  Hmm.

* * * * *

[Thirdly]

1 hour ago, CassieQ said:

Wanting some space from the creepy painting, he ventured a little bit further, following another staircase down to an even lower level.  It was a narrower hallway and ended at a locked door marked Hazardous.  Hmm.

Show of hands: Who wants to scream at Malik to NOT walk into a door labeled Hazardous? ✋✋️️✋️

Edited February 21 by Thirdly

[Jason Rimbaud]

So we get a hint at maybe a thropple (spelling?) Malik seems like a bright boy with two crazy friends. One obsessed with crazy people and the other with video games. 

Then we have a mural that sent the poor boy fleeing down steps until he came to a very mysterious room. 

I'd open that door 10 times out of 10. 

When are we going to get this fun tale? And if I comment, I'll be on my most best trolling behavior, probably. . 

[CassieQ]

19 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

When are we going to get this fun tale?

It'll start posting next month.

20 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

And if I comment, I'll be on my most best trolling behavior, probably. . 

I would expect nothing less.  

[Jason Rimbaud]

Just now, CassieQ said:

It'll start posting next month.

I would expect nothing less.  

I'm not sure if you are aware, but it's good luck to send me all chapters before you post them. The reason, um, I'm sure you can think of a good one. 

I'll be expecting your story next week. Thanks.