In the Basement

==&nbsp In the Basement== by Sebastyen Storm

I've worked in the mental health sector for years, so, this story is somewhat ironic in that, no one believes me.

I was working at the [REDACTED] State Hospital, which was very old, and quite a bit of it was just falling apart, despite the administration's best efforts. The money, you see, it just wasn't there anymore. Anyway...

I was working in the Forensic Management Unit, which is where mental health patients who are involved in the legal system are kept, either pending trial (about 30% of them) or post-trial mental-health confinement (about 60%). The rest were transient from other units from the facility. The State Hospital was built, originally built in 1892 as the State Asylum. Trust me, people who need the facility have a much better time of it now. Back then, there were so-called 'Steam Tunnels' that ran between the different buildings on the campus. To be fair, they did, indeed, have steam pipes running through them, connecting the buildings to the central boiler, but that's not nearly all: There were small 'cells' running the length of the steam tunnels, and each of them, according to the 20-year-old photographs that were passed around in my orientation class, had strange ring-bolts set into the concrete.

Our instructor said that was from when the old asylum was overcrowded back in the '20s and '30s - they would store the overflow down in these tunnels, chained to the floor. Never mind that these tunnels would reportedly get to about 150 degrees when the boiler was on, with little airflow. The State eventually, in the 80's closed these tunnels and had their entrances concreted over save for small (about 5" diameter) ventilation grates, dotted around the campus, and one elevator access, which required a key that only the unit manager and facility director supposedly had. This elevator was housed in the Forensic Management Unit.

I had occasion to use that elevator once, without any choice: I was waiting to go upstairs, where I worked the overnight shift, and used the elevator. Instead of grinding and squeaking its way up to the second story, it groaned its way down. When the elevator finally stopped, I was already nervous, but what the fuck, right?

The elevator doors opened and I beheld a long, dark hallway, lit with one, lone, white light. Shadows collected around it like abberant party-goers. Thankfully, the doors almost immediately began to close, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Until the doors were nearly closed... as someone stepped into the circle of light.