House on Haunted Hill
Thursday night my friends and I went to Northampton not for food (the usual reason to go there), but to explore. To explore an abandoned mental institution, to be precise.
Around Smith's campus, there are a series of buildings that used to be part of a mental institution and were abandoned during the de-institutionalization movement (I think). Some were nearly 200 years old, and others were closer to 100 years.
Two of the people I went with had gone last spring, but later discovered they went to the wrong one (the 100 y/o one instead of the 200 y/o one). Still, after getting lost in the place, one of the people had freaked out. He was convinced that there were meth addicts there, coming to get him. There weren't. Anyway, she wanted to go back to see the old one, which, purportedly still had some of the old psychiatric equipment in it.
So we went to Northampton around 10:00, decked out mostly in black and with headlamps and flashlights ready. I was armed with the knowledge that I was the one to survive (being the brunette). The expected story: Myric (the athletic blonde guy) goes disappearing early on. Conor (the brunette guy who can sometimes be assholish, but really isn't a bad person) would die doing something stupid (such as seeing an old shock treatment thing, putting it on because "it no longer worked" and getting electrocuted). Caroline (cute blonde chick) and I would get trap somewhere, Myric would reappear and save us, then Caroline would die a horribly gruesome death. Myric would make a heroic speech about getting us out, then die. And I would go crawling out, the sole survivor.
Unfortunately, the old building had been torn down. Maybe it wasn't that unfortunate: rumor has it that not long ago, a guy went in alone, fell through the floor, broke his leg, and wasn't found for a few days. The place was structurally unsound. Or, had been when it existed.
We couldn't make the trip for nothing, though. So first we found a building we could get into that turned out to be some storage facility (we think). It had old gym equipment and stuff in it, but wasn't too exciting. We walked through the woods awhile, and finally turned back to the newer asylum. The way Caroline/Myric had gotten in before was boarded up. Fortunately, we found a hole in the wall where we could get in (our ascent wasn't planned well: the guys, who could get up alone, went first, I boosted Caroline up, and then had to be dragged up myself). Then we climbed in a window. And started to explore.
It was pretty cool. There wasn't any equipment left, but it was still sort of creepy. And there were recently used toilets with toilet paper, which was also a little unsettling. We wandered around the second floor (where we got in) and then crept to the basement. There we found a dead raccoon, followed shortly by piles of clothes, which Caroline acknowledged hadn't been there her previous visit. So Caroline and I freaked out a little, pretty convinced that someone was living there and that we didn't want to meet whoever would be living in a mental asylum. Compounding that was my personal conviction that whoever was living there had killed the raccoon. When faced with the choice of going up to the fourth floor (which Caroline had originally wanted to do), or departing, we elected to depart.
We had a scare with a flashlight being on while a car drove right outside (there was no actual road there, so it was most likely security) but we made it out safely, without being killed or arrested. It was amusing.
Fishy Counter: Day ?: Pinky's sick :(
Around Smith's campus, there are a series of buildings that used to be part of a mental institution and were abandoned during the de-institutionalization movement (I think). Some were nearly 200 years old, and others were closer to 100 years.
Two of the people I went with had gone last spring, but later discovered they went to the wrong one (the 100 y/o one instead of the 200 y/o one). Still, after getting lost in the place, one of the people had freaked out. He was convinced that there were meth addicts there, coming to get him. There weren't. Anyway, she wanted to go back to see the old one, which, purportedly still had some of the old psychiatric equipment in it.
So we went to Northampton around 10:00, decked out mostly in black and with headlamps and flashlights ready. I was armed with the knowledge that I was the one to survive (being the brunette). The expected story: Myric (the athletic blonde guy) goes disappearing early on. Conor (the brunette guy who can sometimes be assholish, but really isn't a bad person) would die doing something stupid (such as seeing an old shock treatment thing, putting it on because "it no longer worked" and getting electrocuted). Caroline (cute blonde chick) and I would get trap somewhere, Myric would reappear and save us, then Caroline would die a horribly gruesome death. Myric would make a heroic speech about getting us out, then die. And I would go crawling out, the sole survivor.
Unfortunately, the old building had been torn down. Maybe it wasn't that unfortunate: rumor has it that not long ago, a guy went in alone, fell through the floor, broke his leg, and wasn't found for a few days. The place was structurally unsound. Or, had been when it existed.
We couldn't make the trip for nothing, though. So first we found a building we could get into that turned out to be some storage facility (we think). It had old gym equipment and stuff in it, but wasn't too exciting. We walked through the woods awhile, and finally turned back to the newer asylum. The way Caroline/Myric had gotten in before was boarded up. Fortunately, we found a hole in the wall where we could get in (our ascent wasn't planned well: the guys, who could get up alone, went first, I boosted Caroline up, and then had to be dragged up myself). Then we climbed in a window. And started to explore.
It was pretty cool. There wasn't any equipment left, but it was still sort of creepy. And there were recently used toilets with toilet paper, which was also a little unsettling. We wandered around the second floor (where we got in) and then crept to the basement. There we found a dead raccoon, followed shortly by piles of clothes, which Caroline acknowledged hadn't been there her previous visit. So Caroline and I freaked out a little, pretty convinced that someone was living there and that we didn't want to meet whoever would be living in a mental asylum. Compounding that was my personal conviction that whoever was living there had killed the raccoon. When faced with the choice of going up to the fourth floor (which Caroline had originally wanted to do), or departing, we elected to depart.
We had a scare with a flashlight being on while a car drove right outside (there was no actual road there, so it was most likely security) but we made it out safely, without being killed or arrested. It was amusing.
Fishy Counter: Day ?: Pinky's sick :(