Chapter 55

                                    

                                          


                          
"Come on, vámonos, everybody let's go," Jake sang.
                          
            "No," Colby said. Jake slowly let his singing die out.
                          
            "When are we taking the thumbnail?" I asked. "Because I just realized my nails match my outfit and I'm kind of vibing with it," I said.
                          
            "Yeah, me too," Colby said, looking me up and down.
                          
            "Woah there, Bessie," Jake said.
                          
            "Shut up," I said, gently punching Colby's shoulder.
                          
            "We can take it today if you want. We should go see if there's a cool place to do it in those other buildings and if not we can just take a picture in front of the sanitarium," Sam said.
                          
            "Sick," I said as Sam turned on the camera. 
                          
            We made our way outside and went to the building on the left first, which was labelled 'Administrative Office Headquarters.' Sam used the master key to open it up and we all filed inside. There were a lot of windows in the building and it was super sunny out, so we didn't need to use our flashlights. 
                          
            This building had a brick exterior and was as tall as the sanitarium was, minus the dome. It wasn't as fancy or eye-catching. It was just a building, a plain, tall brick building.  The inside was nothing special either. There were tile floors, but just average run-of-the-mill cream colored tile. 
                          
            This building hadn't been emptied out like the sanitarium. We walked in and saw a row of desks pushed against the two sides of the big room. They were spaced out evenly, five desks on each side. They were all facing the front, with one or two chairs sat in front of each of them. It reminded me of a principal's office, big wooden desks with chairs sat in front of them. This was probably where the families of patients had gone to fill out and file paperwork or pay for the treatments. There were empty file folders and paper organizers on the desks, but no evidence of actual papers being there. At the back of the big room was one of those doors that had a big window on the top half, allowing people to see into the entire room. Except this one had frosted glass, and was shattered in the bottom righthand corner.
                          
            I walked straight back to the door and stared through the small opening in the bottom of the window and could only see darkness through the jagged edges. I stepped back to look at the door, which had a name printed onto it. 
                          
            "Dr. Dalton," Jake said, standing right behind me, reading the door the same time I did.
                          
            "Jesus, Jake. A little warning that you're six inches behind me next time, please," I said, putting a hand over my racing heart.
                          
            "Sorry. Let's go in," Jake said. He walked past me and tried the door handle, but it was locked. "Sammy boy, hit me with that master key," Jake yelled. Sam walked over and handed Jake the key, which didn't fit into the lock.
                          
            "Oh, come on," Corey said. "This is, like, the most ominous looking room ever and it's even creepier that the key won't open it."
                          
            "We could break the glass," Colby said. I turned around to face him.
                          
            "You want a matching cut?" I said, pointing down at my leg.
                          
            "One of us could stand really far back, to the side, or hide behind something and throw a rock at it," Colby said.
                          
            "That could work," said Jake.
                          
            "Of course, it would work, but would it keep all of us from keeping pieces of glass outside of our bodies?" I asked.
                          
            "I don't know. I'll do it," Colby said.
                          
            "Why on earth would you want to do that," I said. He shrugged.
                          
            "I don't know. It'll look cool, though," he said.
                          
            "You're giving me some serious Jake vibes right now," I said.
                          
            "Hey, if he doesn't do it, I will," said Jake.
                          
            "Point taken," said Colby. "But really. I want to see what's in there, too."
                          
            I wasn't going to change their minds. I sighed and walked over to a nearby desk and picked an old brick up off of it. "Here," I said shortly, holding it out to Colby.
                          
Colby took it from me and looked at it.
                          
            "Huh. Cool," he said. I walked over to a desk.
                          
            "Sam," I said.
                          
            "Yeah, I got it," he said. Sam handed the camera to Jake and walked over to the big desk with me. We carried it to the middle of the room then put it on its short side so that it was tall enough for Colby to almost stand up behind.
                          
            "Have at it," I said.
                          
            "What? Really?" Colby asked. I laughed.
                          
            "I'm not the boss of you. You're a grown man. Do what you want. I did my part, now it's your decision," I said.
                          
            "Oh," Colby said shortly, clearing having expected me to convince him not to. But if I didn't want them to try and protect me, then I wasn't going to do it to them either. "Okay then."
                          
            "I'm going to go stand at the back of the room in the corner. Good luck. Please try not to hurt yourself," I said. I turned on my heel and walked to where I said I would. Corey followed me while Jake and Sam turned over two more desks to hide behind so they could film it close up.
                          
            "Alright, well, here goes nothing," Colby said. He drew his arm back and chucked the brick at the door, then immediately dropped behind the desk and covered his head. Glass shards flew everywhere but didn't get anywhere close to where Corey and I were standing. I walked up to the desk Colby was hiding behind and patted him on the back.
                          
            "Nice one," I said. I led everyone up to the door, then turned on my flashlight. I pointed it down to the doorknob on the other side and carefully reached around the broken glass to unlock it.