Four friends slip into an abandoned sanatorium on the edge of town, where fog, darkness, and a strange figure in a white coat turn a dare into a nightmare.
Rain rattled on the rusted roof as fog gathered around the sanatorium, swallowing the beams of their torches before they could reach the gate. Igor glanced at Julia, who was clutching the map so tightly her knuckles had gone white. David was already ahead of them, climbing the broken steps with a stubborn confidence that didn’t quite hide how hard he was breathing.
"I told you we should have taken the other path," Julia whispered, staring at the black windows as if they might stare back.
Olive, who had rolled her eyes at the whole idea from the start, moved toward the gate plaque and brushed away a layer of rust with her sleeve. The letters were barely visible: SANATORIUM CLOSED SINCE 1979.
No one spoke after that. Somewhere beyond the trees, a dog barked once. A branch cracked in the wind. Then even that sound seemed to vanish.
They crossed the threshold of the main entrance together. Inside, the air was colder, heavy with dust and wet earth. Igor switched his camera to night mode, the screen glowing blue in his hands.
"This is insane," David muttered, but he kept going, one hand gripping the strap of his backpack as if it could pull him back out.
The corridor split into two dark passages. To the left, a narrow tunnel disappeared into shadows. To the right, a row of boarded-up doors leaned in silence, their wood swollen and warped with age. Their footsteps echoed anyway, though none of them was moving.
Olive stopped so suddenly Julia nearly ran into her.
"Did you hear that?"
Before anyone could answer, something streaked out from behind one of the doors and cut across the torchlight. A figure, white and blurred, gone in an instant.
Igor flinched and lifted the camera without thinking. On the screen, the shape had frozen into view: a man in a lab coat, his face turned straight toward them. Behind him, painted across the wall in uneven black letters, were three words that made Julia’s stomach drop.
DON'T LOOK BACK.
Then the door behind them creaked open.