Scary Stories - Abandoned

The narrator, an overnight shelf stocker and self-described adrenaline junkie, never believed in shadow people. He had heard the stories—humanoid black figures that stalk people—but dismissed them as fun, creepy reads. That changed after a night in an abandoned asylum built in the early 1800s and closed since the 1920s, where he and four thrill-seeking friends went looking for the supernatural. By the end of the night, three of his friends had been literally swallowed by a shadow creature, and the narrator had learned a hard rule: stay in the light.

The Asylum and the Skeptic

The group consisted of the narrator, Johnny, Susan, Tim, and a reckless friend nicknamed "Speed Bump Steve" for totaling his car on a dare. They had researched the asylum online, learning it was built far from society to house the mentally ill, then bought in the 1960s by a couple who planned to turn it into a hotel—plans that never materialized. The narrator was the skeptic. He figured if he were a ghost, he'd have better things to do than haunt a collapsing building. But as they approached the structure, something shifted. The gothic building, half-covered in vines, struck him as "hideous and beautiful at the same time." The windows felt like eyes. He began to wonder what the asylum might see peering out at them—"four insignificant people. Annoying prowlers? Dinner?"

The First Signs