The Hike

“It’s so hot today!” I complained.
“Oh quit whining,” My best friend, Jessica, said. Jessica and I were on a camping trip, obviously not my idea. She had begged me to go hiking with her the whole entire trip, and I finally agreed to go with her.
“Aren’t you glad you came?!” Jessica said enthusiastically.
“Oh yeah,” I said sarcastically. “I get to sweat while looking at trees!” Jessica laughed. “Besides do you even know where we’re going?”
“Well… not exactly,” Jess replied.
“Jessica Marie Stevens!” I yelled at her, “You dragged me on this trip and you don’t even know where you’re going?!?! UGGGGHHH!” More laughs, both of us now.
“Just enjoy the nature and fresh air. We’ll find our way back.”
“OK, fine.”
We walked through the woods. I felt bugs crawling on me and buzzing in my ear. I swatted at them and tried to get them away, but then I tripped on a root, and down I went. Tumbling down, I could taste soil in my teeth.
“Lily! Oh my god!” Jess screamed. She sprinted down after me.
I was lying flat on the ground; she ran down beside me.
“Worst trip ever,” I said.
“Oh you’re ok,” she laughed. I sat up.
“Oww,” I said.
“Are you ok?” Jessica asked.
“ Yeah I just hurt my ankle.”
“ Can you walk?”
“ Yeah I think so. Well, we should probably just continue this way.”
We didn’t walk for long until we reached a dead end.
“Oh great,” I said. But Jessica kept going and pushed through the tree branches.
“Whoa!” she marveled. I followed after her.
“What! What is it?” I freed myself of the branches. “Wow.” Standing in front of us was a dilapidated old building. And by old, I mean really old. It was gigantic; and obviously abandoned. There were trees snaking into and through it, there were hardly any windows and the ones that were still there were either broken or boarded up. The walls were starting to crumble but still held strong. A couple hundred feet from the building, there was a playground. It was made of rusted metal. There was one of those merry go round things that spin in circles and there were two swings. The swings were eerily moving back and forth, even though there wasn’t even the slightest breeze. Chills ran up my spine.
“Let’s get a closer look,” Jess suggested.
“No thank you.”
“Oh come on Lily!” Jess pleaded.
“How do you always drag me into these things?” We walked up to the building.
“Hello!” My shout echoed through the empty building. We carefully walked in. There was along hallway with a lot of empty rooms. We walked down the hall. I glanced in one of the rooms and stopped dead in my tracks.
“Lily come on!” Jessica said.
“No Jessica, come here.” I told her to look in the room. There was an old, creaky hospital bed that was rusty and yellowed.
“Creepy,” Jess said.
“Yeah, I think this was an old hospital or something.” We slowly walked along the dark halls. Our footsteps echoed through the empty building. Most of the rooms we passed looked the same as the one we saw before, except for one.
“Lily look!” Jess shouted.
“Oh my god.” It looked as if it was the old emergency room. There were sharp medical tools; they were old and rusted now. There was another hospital bed. Except on this one was a skeleton, a real human skeleton. We both screamed and I ran. Jessica followed. But then I stopped running. Jess ran into me.
“Geez Lily,” Something had caught my eye in one of the rooms, it was a picture. I moved closer, but it wasn’t just a picture, it was a picture of my mom and her two siblings
“What is it,” Jess asked.
“It’s a picture of my mom, aunt and uncle.” Then I noticed something. There was a hospital chart on the bed. On top it said Rosemary Thompson.
“Oh my god, Jess, that’s my great grandma’s name. This is her room; she must have been a patient here when my mom was little.” Then we heard something, it sounded like someone crying out in pain. Then a chair in the corner fell over.
“Let’s get out of here!” Jessica shrieked. We sprinted as fast as we could out until we reached the door. It was shut; I yanked as hard as I could on the handle but it wouldn’t budge.
“Lily! Come on!”
“The door is stuck!” I kicked the door as hard as I could and it still didn’t budge. “Jess, the door is locked!”
“Then unlock it!” But it wasn’t that easy. It was locked from the outside.
“Well the door isn’t going anywhere, so let’s try and find another way out.” I said. “I’ll check upstairs.”
I looked around frantically for a way out. But I had a strange feeling. I felt like some sort of invisible force was leading me somewhere. I walked slowly down the empty hall and stopped by a staircase. I went up the crumbling stairs until I reached the top there was a big room. There were a bunch of cardboard boxes up there. I decided to go look around. I noticed one box in particular, it was covered in cobwebs. Sitting on the top was an old photo. It was a picture of my mom and her grandma, my great grandma.

Twelve years ago, when I was six, my mom said she was going to go visit her grandma at the hospital. She said she would be gone for about a week or two depending on how great grandma was doing. After two weeks, she still wasn’t back. After three weeks and constantly trying to contact my mom we called the police. They searched and searched, but they never found her... but now I had. I remember I had given my mom my favorite teddy bear to give to great grandma. Sure enough, that was in the box too. There was something else in there too. A newspaper. On the front it said, “Gigantic Hospital Fire. I couldn’t help it, tears streamed down my face and then into full blown sobbing. I heard footsteps tearing up the stairs.

“Lily! Where are you?!?” Jess shouted.

“Up here,” I managed to choke out. I told her what had happened and I started crying again. We went back down the stairs and down to the main floor. The door was unlocked, as if my great grandma had unlocked it, not letting me out. We walked slowly; Jess was trying to comfort me.

We made it back to our campsite safely. I was actually glad I had gone on that hike. I had finally discovered what really happened to my mom. Or so I thought. On the way back home we stopped to get gas. Jess had to run inside to get something so I waited for her. While I was waiting, I noticed the newspaper from yesterday. {Hospital Fire Survivor Found}. I picked it up. It read, “Fire survivor Isabelle Thompson was found yesterday, not far from the old hospital. She said she survived on the emergency stash of food in the hospital basement, which survived the fire. She will return safely home to her family tonight.”

I couldn’t believe it. After twelve years I would finally get to see my mom again.