The Abandoned Asylum

The abandoned asylum loomed over the town like a dark and brooding presence, its decaying walls and broken windows a testament to a bygone era. For years, the building had stood empty, a relic of a time when mental illness was shrouded in mystery and treated with brutality.

But one day, a group of urban explorers decided to venture inside, hoping to uncover the secrets of the asylum's past. They crept through the empty halls, their flashlights illuminating the peeling wallpaper and rusted pipes. As they descended deeper into the bowels of the building, they felt a sense of unease creeping over them, a feeling that they were not alone.

Suddenly, they heard a sound - a scraping, shuffling noise that echoed through the halls. They froze, their hearts pounding, and listened intently. But all they heard was silence, broken only by the distant sound of traffic outside.

Shaken but undeterred, the explorers continued their journey into the heart of the asylum. They passed through abandoned patient wards, where rusted beds and broken chairs lay scattered across the floor. They explored dusty offices, where old files and medical equipment sat untouched for decades.

And then, as they reached the end of a long hallway, they saw it - a door, chained shut and marked with the word "Isolation". Intrigued, they pried the chains loose and pushed the door open.

Inside, they found a small room, barely large enough for one person. The walls were covered in a strange, sticky substance, and a fetid odor hung in the air. But what caught their attention was the writing on the wall - a series of strange, gibberish words scrawled in what looked like blood.

As they studied the writing, they heard the sound again - a shuffling, scraping noise that seemed to be coming from the other side of the wall. One of the explorers pressed their ear to the wall, listening intently, and then suddenly recoiled in horror.

"It's a person," they whispered. "Someone's trapped in there."

Without a second thought, the group set to work prying the boards off the wall. It took hours of effort, but finally, they managed to create a hole large enough to see through.

What they saw on the other side chilled them to the bone. A person, emaciated and covered in filth, crouched in the small space beyond the wall. Their eyes were wild and unfocused, and they gibbered and muttered to themselves incoherently.

The explorers were stunned. How could someone have been left in the asylum for so long, forgotten by the world outside? And what had happened to drive them to such a state of madness?

As they debated what to do, they heard a new sound - a low, rumbling noise that seemed to be coming from deep within the asylum. It grew louder and more intense, until the walls themselves began to shake.

And then, without warning, the lights flickered on. The explorers gasped in shock, their eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness. And what they saw before them was something out of a nightmare.

A horde of emaciated figures, dressed in hospital gowns and covered in filth, surged towards them from all sides. Their eyes were wild and unseeing, and they gibbered and muttered incoherently as they clawed their way towards the explorers.

The group turned to flee, but they found themselves surrounded on all sides. They backed away, their flashlights flickering in the darkness, as the horde closed in.

And then, just as all hope