This Haunted World Book One: The Venetian: A Chilling New Supernatural Thriller (15 page)

Louise nodded.

“Nonsense of course,” Piero continued, “just a story made up, but regarding children at the asylum, no I don’t think so.” He sighed slightly and inclined his head. “But the patients, they were like children anyway don’t you think, in need of constant care and attention?”

The comparison surprised her, but yes, yes, he was right, they
were
like children, unable to live life on their own and so they’d been entrusted to the island’s carers and, as happened so often with those in authority, some abused that position, in the vilest of ways.

They climbed the stone stairs, all of them keeping well away from what remained of the wrought iron bannister – not wanting to run their hands along it, to touch more than was necessary. They reached a half landing over which presided a broken window before turning and climbing another flight. Graffiti accompanied them some of the way up but it became less so, something Piero pointed out. As if whoever the artists were, their nerve had deserted them. And little wonder. If it was cloying on the ground floor, up here it was worse, far worse. She could
feel
the torment the patients must have suffered – emotions still redolent despite the passage of time, as if no time had passed at all.

“I’m really not sure we should be here…”

Her words faded into nothing as Rob pushed past her to catch up with Piero, mentioning something to him about the interesting ‘configuration’ of the building. She was about to repeat herself, say she’d wait for them downstairs, that she didn’t want to see where patients spent the majority of their miserable lives but Kristina, as perceptive as her husband had been earlier, put her hand on Louise’s arm and whispered they’d be okay. Louise still contemplated retreating but then wondered what would be the lesser of two evils, staying with the group or leaving them to wait alone. Neither option appealed. She decided to stay, turning into another corridor, before heading into one of the dormitories.

“One of many,” Piero informed them, “and you will notice they are all the same. Uniform. These are the female wards, the men’s are at the far end.”

As Piero had said there’d be, there were several steel-framed beds, some bare, some with mattresses, thin with barely any stuffing, and even a pillow or scrap of blanket on top. They looked so old, so decrepit, she was sure they’d disintegrate if touched. It was so easy to imagine… so easy… these rooms full of patients, full of madness.
You’d have to be mad to work here
. She’d never do it, not in a million years. She just couldn’t. She was too selfish.
Perhaps that’s why…
No, she wouldn’t entertain such dark thoughts. Her failure to conceive wasn’t punishment for being selfish. Besides, you couldn’t compare looking after your own child to looking after people like this; they weren’t children they were adults, most of them beyond reach.

The lower half of the room was painted a pale green. Not a pleasant colour, it was pallid, sickly; the upper half the same grimy shade of cream that was elsewhere in the building. The windows were doing their utmost to let the light in but, being as the mist hadn’t dissipated, there wasn’t a lot of sun to be had. Still, there was no need for torchlight, not yet. Piero beckoned them further into the room, and they all obliged. There were bedside cabinets too, also made of steel – two of them. Rob went over to inspect one.

“Oh my God, look,” he said, “there’s a pair of spectacles in here!” He placed the torch on top of the cabinet as he reached in to retrieve them, turning them over in his hands. “These actually
belonged
to someone, I wonder if it was one of the patients. It must be, it has to be.” Holding them up, he peered through them, squinting slightly, before setting them back down, the care he took almost reverent – something Louise appreciated.

Feeling a need to be close to him suddenly, she started forwards. As she did there was another loud bang. This one not so far removed, it came from just behind her. Screaming, she flew the rest of the way into Rob’s arms and wrapped herself around him.

“What is it? What’s that noise?” She couldn’t bear to look.

“It’s one of the beds, Lou, nothing more, one of the legs finally giving way.”

He was smiling but for a moment he’d looked anxious too.

She disentangled herself. Of course there’d be a logical explanation. Everything was in such an advanced state of decay there’d be bangs and crashes on a regular basis. Even so, she was only slightly less nervous as she looked at her watch. They had just over another hour to go. She’d keep close to Rob; wouldn’t let him out of her sight. Seventy minutes and then they could sail away. Leave the dead to play tricks amongst themselves.

Louise held onto Rob as they continued to explore but, and she was surprised to think it, it was getting boring. As Piero had said, each room resembled the last, some had more vegetation encroaching on them; some had more or less furniture, beds stacked against the walls instead of scattered in a random manner. The one thing she continued to find intriguing was the lack of graffiti. As it had petered out on the stairway, it was in short supply upstairs too. If given a choice, no one wanted to linger.

They’d come to another corridor – there seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of them. Like the wards, they were all the same, no imagination, no care taken with the interior at all. It had been built to purely functional standards. This one led deeper into the building, and was much darker than those they’d walked down before. They would definitely need the torch for this. Piero thought so too. He shone his in front, urging Rob to do the same.

“So what’s here,” Rob asked, “just more wards?” His use of the word ‘just’ indicated he was getting blasé too.

“
Si, si, piu reparti
,” Piero turned his head to the side as he replied. Both he and Kristina had been so good about always speaking to them in English but now he seemed to have forgotten, too immersed in his surroundings perhaps. As for Kristina, like Louise, she had edged closer to her husband, one hand clutching at the back of his arm.

What they’d seen so far hadn’t been so bad, not really. It had been bearable, and this wouldn’t be so bad either. Even so, the deeper they ventured, turning right again and then left, the place as labyrinthine as Venice itself, her unease grew. These wards
weren’t
the same, they were different, the doors, unlike those they’d initially come across, closed.

“Can we… can we stop?” She really didn’t want to go any further. “I need to catch my breath.” She’d said it as if she’d been running rather than walking sedately.

“Of course,” Piero said.

“Why are these doors closed? Are they locked?” A part of her didn’t know why she was asking. She was better off not knowing. But, Piero, taking his role as ‘guide’ very seriously appeared keen to provide an answer. As he hurried back towards them she caught sight of his expression, which was more animated than usual, as though he’d come alive.

She clung onto Rob even tighter when Piero brushed past her, the touch of him causing her to recoil slightly. Even Rob tensed. She could feel the muscles in his arm stiffen. There was something more alert in Kristina too.

“We are now entering the high security wing,” Piero said, with as much flourish as when he’d first introduced the island to them. “These doors
were
locked, once upon a time, and the most dangerous patients in the asylum kept behind them. But they are not locked now.” He selected a door and gave it a hefty shove, shining his torch into it.

“It’s a padded cell!” Louise exclaimed.

“It is!” Piero said, as though pleased with her observation. He paused for a moment and then continued speaking. “When I was young I had a bet with my friends, for one of us to sleep the night in a padded cell, to prove how brave we were.”

Rob was aghast too. “Did one of you carry out that bet?”

“Ha!” Again Piero’s laugh was loud, too loud, it seemed inappropriate somehow. “One of us did, but not me. It was another boy. We didn’t leave him on the island, we camped downstairs in the dining room and fell asleep peacefully enough but we were woken in the night by screaming. Of course we rushed upstairs to see what was happening, but it wasn’t him. He was sleeping peacefully too. We woke him, accused him of messing around, but he swore it wasn’t him.”

Louise could feel her jaw drop. “You heard screaming but it wasn’t your friend?”

“That’s right! It must have been ghostly screaming,
fantasma
, whoo, whoo!” Lifting his hands at the same time as making the sound she was reminded of how he’d done that same thing in the restaurant. She’d found it annoying then, even more so now.

“I want to leave,” she said, in no mood to laugh along.

“Leave?” That wiped the smirk from his face. “We have plenty of time.”

Louise remained firm. “I said to Rob I wanted to leave at three and by the time we’ve made our way back, it’ll be almost that. We’ve seen enough, haven’t we, Rob? Thank you so much for bringing us, we appreciate it. It’s been, as you say,
interesting
.”

“But this is what is interesting, this part of the asylum.”

Not to her it wasn’t. “Rob?” she said, having to prompt him for a reply.

“Erm… yeah, look, I agree with Louise, we’ve enjoyed looking around, but we don’t need to see any more. Do you mind?”

It was a direct question and one Piero couldn’t avoid answering. Even so, he stalled for time, looking at his wife, who was staring back at him, stalling too.

Louise had had enough. “Come on,” she said, trying not to let panic get a grip – what the hell had they done coming out here with two strangers, people who seemed rational at first but were appearing less so by the minute? “It’s difficult to breathe in here.”

As she started to walk, pulling Rob along with her, she heard Piero ask them to wait. Instead of obeying, she increased her pace, giving Rob no option but to do the same. She might have found Venice eerie but it was considerably more inviting than this.

“Wait,” Piero called again. As she and Rob turned right, he continued to call out. “You are going the wrong way, it’s left remember?”

Louise stopped and looked at Rob. Was it left? She could have sworn they needed to make a right turn at this point. Just as Venice flummoxed her, she had to admit the asylum did too. Everything looked the same – it was so damned easy to get disorientated.

“Rob, what do you think?”

Rob shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, Lou, I… I don’t know.”

She turned round. Piero and Kristina had caught up with them.

“You shouldn’t wander off,” he admonished, “you should wait for us.”

“We weren’t wandering off,” Louise denied. “We were making our way back to the boat.”

“You will not find it that way,” Kristina replied.

“But this is the way, I’m sure—”

“It’s not,” insisted Piero. “Please, let’s not fall out, that would be… stupid. Follow me.”

Although she didn’t like what he’d just said, the threatening undercurrent, Louise saw they had no choice but to obey him this time. He’d been here before, so had Kristina, albeit a long time ago, they knew the way better than them.

Taking the corridor opposite, Piero started walking down it. Kristina shadowed him as Louise shadowed Rob – two couples keeping close to their partners but not to each other, a frisson of mistrust creating a metaphorical distance as well as a literal one. They walked onwards, past more closed doors, on and on, turning left again, Louise hoping to link to the main corridor, from which it should be easy enough to navigate outwards. At some points the only light was from Piero and Rob’s torches, light that was all too easily consumed. They’d been walking for quite a while already, much longer than they’d walked before. What time was it? Nearly three. They wouldn’t leave the island at the time she wanted to, the time she’d stipulated. Frustration began to build. She felt cheated.

“Look, that door’s open,” whispered Rob.

He was right, but if she was where she thought she was – where they
should
be – there’d been no doors open before. Why was one open now?

Piero and Kristina stopped and they did too. Piero looked excited again and was nodding towards the open door. Louise could hardly bring herself to follow the line of his sight and it seemed Rob was also hesitant. In the end, curiosity won out.
Morbid
curiosity. It wasn’t another padded cell, as she expected, it was a room with freestanding baths in it, two rows of three, and there were bars at the window, several of them.

“What’s this?” she breathed.

“It’s one of the treatment rooms,” Piero explained. “Come in, come in and see.”

They followed him, shone the light on the rusted tubs as well as on one of the walls, which had several panels on it, containing what looked like dials and temperature gauges.

“I don’t understand—”

“Surely you know something about the ways in which they used to treat patients,” Piero sounded almost arrogant as he said it.

“Apart from lobotomies you mean,” Rob, on the other hand, was employing sarcasm.

“Apart from those,” Piero agreed, either not noticing or pretending to. “Hydrotherapy was a popular method to treat mentally ill patients.” He ran his fingers along the rim of one of the tubs as he spoke. “Some treatments were harmless enough, like warm baths or an invigorating shower, but some were much more extreme. Like mummies, patients were wrapped in towels and soaked in ice-cold water. Others were restrained in the bath for days at a time. There’s another room close by, one with water jets. From the position of the manacles on the wall, it is easy to see that patients were bound in a crucifix position whilst being hosed.”

Louise held her hands up. “Enough! I’ve heard enough.”

Rob didn’t hesitate this time. “Yep, me too. We want out of here.”

“Robert—”

“For God’s sake, Piero, my name is Rob, just Rob, not Robert. In fact, if you must know, it’s Rob
in
, and we didn’t pass this room on our way here.”

“There are many ways out—” Piero begun but Rob interrupted again.

“No, I’m sorry, the way we went originally, we were right weren’t we? You lied to us.”

“We didn’t lie! Of course we didn’t.”

Kristina backed her husband up. “This maze of corridors can be deceiving.”

“I understand that,” Rob continued to argue, “but we weren’t wrong. Why’d you make us think we were?”

“We really need to get back,” Louise was worried about the rising aggression between the two men. The last thing she wanted was a punch-up, not when they were relying on Piero for a ride home. Keeping her voice low and steady, she pointed out it was the last night of their holiday and that, ideally, they’d like to spend it on their own. They were supposed to be in Venice, not here, on the island of Poveglia, listening to tales of horror. It seemed almost surreal they’d ended up here. “Please, take us back.”

Her imploring worked. Kristina leaned over and said something to Piero in Italian, something that prompted him to start explaining. “I just… I wanted to show you the operating theatre, that’s all, which is down here too. I don’t mean the main theatre, it’s a much smaller one, and it has lain untouched for years, even when people still worked here. There is a lot of equipment in the room, a wheelchair, trolleys, syringes and bandages; so much is left on the shelves. Even the plunderers won’t touch it. It’s the original theatre, you see, the one that Gritti and Sanuto used.”

“The one Gritti committed suicide in?” Louise checked.

“That’s right.”

“And you’ve been in there?”

Piero looked proud of himself. “I have.”

She shook her head. “That’s just…” Words failed her.

“But surely this is what you want?” Again, Piero spread his hands wide. “To see such things. And not many people go there, not many dare, you will be in the minority.”

Kristina started speaking too. “My husband is right, people are brave when they come here, but up to a point. In the theatre there is darkness, much more than elsewhere in the building. It is… the heart of darkness I think.” Looking directly at Louise, she added, “It is said the doctors and nurses that came after Gritti feared to go in there in case his madness was catching.” She paused. “So much on the island is infectious.”

Finally Rob was as appalled as Louise. “And that’s where you’re taking us, to the ‘heart of darkness’? You think we want that? No way. We don’t. Stop playing games and get us out of here.”

“But, you cannot leave without seeing it,” Kristina insisted. “Truly, it is fascinating.”

“Fascinating?” Louise queried. “So you’ve been in there as well, have you?”

Piero answered. “Yes, we came last year.”

She frowned. “But both of you said you hadn’t been here in years.”

Piero and Kristina couldn’t hold her gaze. On seeing that Louise backed away, from them, from the room with the baths in it, from whatever else was close by. “
You’re
fascinated with this island, the pair of you, but we’re not, not anymore. We’ll find our own way out, and wait for you outside.” She had another reason for wanting to get ahead of them; she wanted to check her mobile phone reception. Why she hadn’t done that before she didn’t know. But if they didn’t stop playing games, as Rob had said, she’d get a message to their hotel, and get some help, although she sincerely hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Not wanting to engage any further with the couple in front of her, she grabbed Rob and turned on her heel. Their ‘adventure’ had gone too far. Outside the room, she turned to the right and caught sight of something in the distance. At first she told herself that she was mistaken, but very quickly she realised she wasn’t, despite her brain continuing to insist. It was a figure, a woman, dressed in white, and staring. Although a scream bubbled up in her throat, it never emerged, instead the darkness closed in, hovering first at the edges of her mind before racing forwards. Her last thought before consciousness deserted her was:
She’s here; she’s on the island. She’s followed me
.