Takes place 1960s. Don't own anything.


Emma tossed and turned on the lumpy, discomforting bed. She's dreaming again, the same dreams that never chooses to change.

Her wrists are bounded above a hook that's hammered a few inches high above her head. Her ankles are tied up tightly too against the rusted bed rail.

Her fingers are open wide, as if reaching out for something to touch. Pure drops of sweat rolled down her forehead, the rest pooling on the back of her buttoned shirt.

Her eyes gives the obvious impression of troubling and pain for her brows are furrowed and her mouth mumbles soft words that can only be heard from a close distance.

Killian claimed her waist and pulled her close to his torso. She giggled as he kissed her neck and down the lines of her jaw line.

"You'll always be mine."

"Am I? I'm a free girl."

He pressed his mouth against her chin and smirked. "Not until graduation. I love you."

"I love you too."

"Killian," she mumbled softly.

Emma held her baby brother, Henry, close to her heart. Two of the men dressed in white with a wrinkled cap covering their dark heads approached her, cornering her to the wall.

Regina, her step-grandmother, stood by the door with her hands up in surrender. But behind the concerned look masking her face, there is a dark smile curved on her painted mouth. She walked slowly between the two men and neared closer to Emma.

Emma breathed heavily and eyed her targets. Little Henry started to cry in her arms for she's holding him too tightly.

"Emma, hand me the baby. These men are not going to hurt you."

"Don't lie to me. I know why they're here. I'm not mad, Regina. I am normal and healthy, enough to care for Henry. So I say you step back and order these men to leave the house at once."

Regina continued with her perfect performance of distress. A forced tear rolled down her eyes, smearing her eyeliner slightly. She turned briefly to the men, Emma could not hear for she spoke to them too softly. But as Regina turned back around, the two men marched toward Emma and firmly grabbed hold of her arms.

Emma helplessly could not fight them, fearing of dropping little Henry who will not hush up. Regina took the baby at that opportunity and quickly left the room.

"Bring him back! Regina! Bring him back, you little witch!"

The men dragged her out the door. Emma fought them, kicking them and biting their arms but nothing worked. Their strength is the gift of Thor's hammer and their skin is thick and tough her teeth marks has no effect on them. She drew her final card by refusing to walk, but it was useless for the men decided to hold her up and drag her out the door.

Before they reached the front door, Emma looked back, staring ahead at Regina who has a silent Henry in her arms. Her muscles tightened as she saw the wicked woman give her a wide smile.

In the top of her lungs, she prepared her voice to call out her final message.

"You witch! The truth will come out! You hear me?! It will!"

Her eyes burst open. She breathed heavily for air, a breathless process similar to what a person would do immediately after being underwater for too long.

It's been five months since that tragic day. After her parents were killed from a car accident, the only relative left in the family took custody for Emma and Henry before their godparents took them in. Regina won by an instant and welcomed Emma and Henry with love and care for precisely two weeks. After that short time, her true colors were revealed.

For days and days, Emma had hope someone will find out where she is or at least the workers hereto realize she is not insane. But time taught her so much of how useless it was to carry that hope, for no one gives a damn where she is since her disappearance is a mystery, and the workers here are not born with soft hearts and never believed any of the patients here in the asylum were in any case normal.

She attempted to escape the horrid place multiple times. Despite of her young age, Emma had the capacity to out run most of the people here, but every time she tried, she failed and was given the worst treatment of all to the point death seemed more appealing.

The curfews are demanding and unchangeable. All the patients rise at the stroke of dawn, their prescriptions are given to them daily three times after every meal, and exercises are performed in a separate gym. The worst however, for Emma, has to be evenings when her bodyguard takes her in her room. Before she goes to bed, the famous doctor known as Dr. Whales, performs her treatment for her in certain assigned days, a treatment Emma and all the poor patients imprisoned in the asylum consider a burning experience in hell.

His famous instruments are all different and not exactly a complete whole set. But they all have one similar purpose: giving electronic shocks to the head. The pain they give to the body is absolutely unbearable and dehumanizing to witness a person strapped against a chair and allow some professional operate to the head, absurdly believing that dangerous electronic shocks provides a healing process to the madness casted on a patient.

The worst never seems to end after Emma is put to bed after her treatments. When she's bounded against the bed as usual, her bodyguard is trusted to have her door locked and leave for the day. However, he follows his duty in a completely opposite way. In most nights, he would come into her room, lock the door, and lie next to her. Emma can never get used to his filthy hands touching her body nor his rough kisses. The first few weeks when the man started doing this, she screamed and begged for help. But whenever anyone came, the man always prepared himself with perfect lies that she was the cause of attacking him, or threatening him. After that, she's punished by receiving injections that puts her to sleep.

Tonight, fortunately, her bodyguard decided to head home for the night and Dr. Whales did not prepare for her treatments. However, in the end, she'll still end up going through a sleepless night for the nightmares always wait to torment her.

Emma licked her lips and gave a shake of her head.

"It's just a dream..It's always a dream."


~ Emma scooped the last bit of her porridge with her spoon and finished it by one bite. The nurse took the spoon from her hand and left it on the tray that's placed on the floor. She kneeled in front of Emma and handed her morning prescription along with a glass of water.

Emma took it, throwing the pills in her mouth and gulped it down with the water. She handed the glass to the nurse and she took it.

"Open your mouth," she commanded.

Emma did so. The nurse gave her a nod after seeing that it's empty. She placed the glass down on the tray and picked it up. Emma watched her rise to her feet and head to the door, passing Emma's bodyguard who approached her. He grabbed her arm and tugged on it, signaling her to stand.

She rose to her feet and walked forward. Her ankles are free but her wrists are still tied up, a long extended spare rope that's attached to her bounded wrists, which gives her bodyguard control over her.

They passed the hallway until they reached the gym. Her bodyguard kicked open the door and slapped her on the buttocks to move forward. Emma gritted her teeth tightly but didn't dare lash out on him, it's not worth getting herself into any trouble.

He untied her wrists and gave a disgusting lick to her cheek before turning around to leave. Emma wiped his saliva off her cheek with her sleeve.

"Bastard." She muttered.

She started her workout lightly with a few rounds of cardio then changed her tune by challenging herself in an intense level. With her back pressed against the floor, she lifted a large dumbbell up. She breathed slowly through her mouth as she pulled it up and down as best as she could.

To save any of the patients from growing ill for lack of movement, the asylum has a small gym for them to exercise. It is divided into two parts, accordingly to the owner's decisions. One part is where most of the unmanageable patients are kept with small amount of exercising instruments - light instruments that they can't hurt themselves with. The second part is where Emma is placed in is the place where "less-maddening" patients are arranged to be in.

Emma lowered the dumbbell over her head and rested her hand on her forehead, taking a short break. It's quite absurd to have weights and other tools that are meant to help grow muscles for the body; the food they receive is not enough nourishment to keep them full nor has enough protein or minerals to balance with hard exercise. But Emma tries her best to build her body, she's thin and a bit scrawny yet her arms and calves grew lean after much exercise. In order to escape, her body must prepare itself to leave this horrid place.

Happy crawled over to Emma. He smiled brightly at her as he looked down at her face damp with sweat.

"Hello, Happy. Did you miss me?"

He nodded.

"You look very clean today. Did you had a another shower this morning?"

He nodded again.

As bright and spirited the boy was, there was an important ability he lost after waking up in this prison. His voice slowly died from the cruel beating he received from his bodyguard. His record of his family is unknown and apparently, it is the way his family wants to keep, like most loved ones related to many of the patients here. But he never lost his warm smiles and love, he is by far the very definition of happiness, yet at the same time, pity.

Emma sat upright and took his hand. She gave him a smile and a kiss on his only two fingers, the rest of the three chopped off. Happy clapped his hand on his thighs. He always liked her kisses.

"You're cold, Happy. Didn't you eat?"

Happy did not nod nor shake his head. He simply kept his smile on his mouth, tightening the grasp on her hand.

They didn't feed them again. Are they trying to kill him or something? He needs to eat.

"Happy, demand for food next time. Don't let them get to you, or you won't be able to get fed. I promise you, when I get out of here, I'll sue this place until it shuts down"

Emma placed a hand to her chest and smoothed the center of her heart in a circular motion. Happy nodded and responded by doing the same thing.

Happy learned to communicate with others by simple nodding of the head or shaking it, and also the motion of the hands. For instance, the hand rubbing on the chest is a sign of promise, something used a lot here for fulfilling promises can't seem to always happen.

She smiled weakly at him. Even after five months, the injuries polluted on his skin still gives her the same heartbreak she felt the first day he befriended her.

His face is handsome with beautiful hazel eyes and he has a bright smile with two dimple shown on both cheek. Everything else, however, has a story behind its loss. First his hands, at nights, his bodyguard punished him by cutting his fingers. Three precious fingers were cut off from each of his hands. Next are the unlimited numbers of scars polluted from his jaw line to his neck, the rest covered with his clothes. Emma never found out who caused them and why he received them, but she knows for sure they were all done in vain.

No one is kind here. They are not human. They have no heart.

This hell is the eternal prison for each patient here. There's no time limit of how long they could stay here, for the world does not want abnormal human beings, they want healthy, non-strange humans to walk about the Earth freely. The rest who possess a disability to live on like all the others must be shunned and locked up in a separate community where they are unwanted and unloved.

Happy took her shoulder and leaned in, giving a peck to Emma's lips. Emma smiled and pulled the boy for a hug.

"Stay strong, Happy. Remember that I'm always here. Okay?"

He nodded.

God, give me strength. Happy can't stay here. He needs to be free, live a life in a safe environment. This is no place for me neither or anyone. I need to leave. Leave from here and save Happy before they kill him.

He claimed her arm with both hands and turned it over. He traced curiously on Emma's tattoo printed on the back of her wrist, a head of a buttercup flower.

Emma raked a hand through his rough hair as he observed closely at her tattoo in awe.

She got the tattoo when she was sixteen with Killian. He promised her he'll have her name printed on his forearm if she gets one as well. Although, she did not take the big leap to have a tattoo of his name, she risked a full two hour experience with tears and short screams.

Happy snapped up his head and pointed at her tattoo. She smiled and nodded.

"It's a flower called a buttercup. It's not that perfect, though, Happy."

He shook his head and raised a thumb at her, disagreeing with her. Emma pecked him on the cheek.

"Okay, you're right. It is pretty."


~ Showers are permitted to be done ndividually but all together to make the process faster. Emma quickly washed herself and threw on a towel and headed out the exit. Her bodyguard waited for her outside. He grabbed her by the arm and pushed her to walk forward.

She clenched her hands into tight fists when he pulled her in by force to smell her hair. His odor consisting of odd meat and tobacco is no welcoming smell for her nose. She cringed when he pressed his lips on the crown of her head and whispered a frightening promise that he'll stop by at her room before heading home.

When they reached her room, he opened the door and pushed her in. She waited until he shut the door. When he closed it, she dropped the towel that covered her body and quickly changed into her plain white uniform. Her bodyguard sometimes walks in on her when she changes. Fortunately, the nurses are around to give the patients a drugged refreshment, so Emma is safe of any possible rape.

She pulled the loose trousers up to her waist and buttoned up her shirt. Her trousers sagged to her bottom. She pulled them up to her waist. She's losing too much weight, it's making it impossible for her to fit into her clothes anymore.

The nurses take her clothes everyday to wash but never give her a spare until the end of the year, due to a tight budget the owner of this terrible joint follows.

Emma went over to the bed and sat down. The door opened and a nurse walked in with Emma's second prescription and a glass of water. She handed them to her and again Emma took it. Only she hid the pills underneath her tongue. She handed her half-filled glass to the nurse and she took it.

Before her usual command to check her mouth, Emma opened her mouth for the woman to see. The nurse gave a brief look at the cave of her mouth and nodded, signaling Emma to close her mouth. Emma did so and waited patiently for the nurse to leave. Once the woman left and the door closed, Emma spat out the pills on her hand. She got off the bed and kneeled on the floor. Carefully she lifted the mattress and pulled out an old sock. She slipped the pills inside and took out a necklace - the only possession she kept safely since the day she was brought in.

She picked it up and traced her fingers on the handcrafted piece that has a silver swan crafted in the center. The scars on the clean silver is familiar by every touch. The necklace itself is just as beautiful like the day her parents gifted to her on her tenth birthday.

Safely she tucked the necklace in the cup of her bra and returned the sock in its original place.

I'll be ready for you, you pig. I'll be ready.


~ Emma's bodyguard escorted her to a separate room, a play room the nurses called it. He pushed her in and left.

She walked pass a few patients sucking and biting on toys until she reached where Happy was. She sat down beside him and threw a arm around his shoulders.

"Hey, little guy."

He waved at her with his usual smile.

Emma gave him a peck on the cheek and sniffed his hair. "Wow. You smell very nice."

He pointed at her lightly on her chest, trying to give her the message that she smells lovely as well.

"I do? Thanks."

Happy picked a children's book from his lap and handed it to her. Eagerly wanting her to read it to him. Emma took it with a smile.

"Is this the vegetable book again?"

He nodded, and urged her to read it to him.

"Okay. Can you hold the book for me?"

Happy nodded and opened to the first page. Emma read to him each page he turned. Although he was not familiar with many of the words she read out to him, despite how simple and easy the words are, he enjoyed how playfully she read to him, changing her voice into different characters that made him laugh. She even took the time to explain to him the benefit each vegetable characters offer for the body. It's no use of teaching him anything, but she made the effort to do so anyway, to give him the chance to be educated with everything she has learned so far in high school.

"Mr. Tomatoes looks so red and fat doesn't he?"

He nodded.

"He's good for your body, too, Happy. Especially for here." She tickled him on his stomach that made him giggle. "Good for the digestion, balances your tummy acid."

He lifted his thumb up that means they are also delicious.

"Yes, they taste yummy too. We have them at lunch times, remember?"

He nodded and he flipped to the next page.

"Ah, now Miss Honey is a yummy treat. But when you get hurt, Happy, it's good medicine, especially burns. Okay?"

He didn't respond, instead playfully dug his hand in his mouth and claimed his tongue in a fist. Small streams of saliva pooled down on both corners of his mouth. He turned his head and looked at Emma. She smiled weakly, not minding a bit as some of the saliva spilled on the page of the small book.

"Very funny, Happy. You're such a clown."


~ Dinner passed by in a blur. The curfew for everyone to sleep was alerted early. A patient attempted to escape but failed so the owner considered it rational for the patients to be kept inside for the night.

Emma gathered the powder bits of the pills she cracked open with the soles of her shoes. It took her three days to turn them into powder. She had to mash them up as silently as she could since her bodyguard remains outside her door till nightfall.

She hid the sock back under her bed. She poured every bit of the powder in her mouth and held them in, not allowing her throat to swallow any bit of saliva for the drugs have the power to put anyone to sleep in less than a second.

She laid on her bed and her bodyguard walked in. He locked the door and went over to the bed. Her eyes stared dully up in the ceiling as he bounded her wrists and ankles. After giving final knots to both ties, he climbed on the bed and weighed his body on top of hers. His hands cupped her breast, squeezing them until they hurt. As he released them, his hands traveled elsewhere on the desirable parts of her body.

Emma waited impatiently for him to kiss him. His hands went up to her neck and his tongue trailed on her chest, then up to her jaw line. She fought back a smile as his tongue then occupied her mouth. She pushed the drugs into his mouth as best as she could. He tried to pull back but he swallowed the substance before he can do anything.

She wrinkled her nose for his head is pressed faced down on her chest, leaving an unpleasant residue of facial oil on her shirt. She spat out some saliva out of her mouth, making sure none of the powder is in her mouth.

She lifted her head up, her teeth biting into a loose end. Over and over again she slowly did the process to free her wrists - lifting her head up for her teeth to be able to untie the ropes, and resting it back down when her neck grew tired. At last, after many tries the ropes came loose and she slipped her wrists through the wide loop.

Angrily she pushed her bodyguard to the side of the bed and sat upright. In great haste, she pulled out his keys that hung on his belt. A pocket knife is connected in its silver ring. She used the weapon to free her ankles then dashed to the door.

Emma unlocked the door and bolted out the door. She ran like the wind down the long hall. All was quiet and no one was awake to stop her. But by the time she reached the first gate, a bodyguard caught her.

She tried unfamiliar keys that its key ring holds. Many of them didn't work and there are too many keys to try with such little time. She abandoned the gate and turned back, running breathlessly with two more bodyguards tagging along behind her.

There's no way out but through that first gate. From what Emma remembers when she first stepped foot to this asylum, she went through three gates. With such little time she has left now, it is impossible to succeed an escape.

She must surrender.

"Stop! Stop bitch! Stop!" One of them shouted from behind her.

But Emma did not stop, she ran and ran, according to how long the hallway is she is positive she'll be cornered and sent back to her room.

She did not want that to happen.

Her eyes caught a sight of a spare door. She headed toward it and quickly opened it. She literally jumped inside and shut the door with her foot. The bodyguards reached the small door, Emma locked it on time, however, and crawled to the nearest wall of the small, dark room.

She folded her legs to her chest and embraced them, her forehead lowered to her knees.

Her hands searched for the locket that's kept protectively in one of the cups of her bra She claimed it with both hands and held it close.

Mom, dad make them go away. Please save me. I want to leave. Take me somewhere safe. Take me away, far away until I can never see this place again.

The door shook for they pushed their strength against it to break it open. Emma's heart pounded loudly of the intense situation. Helplessly she mentally begged for mercy, some miracle to send her somewhere safe.

"GO AW-"

A miraculous light shone in the heart of her folded hands. Her eyes widened as she slowly parted her hands apart. Her necklace is glowing so brightly it's blinding to look at.

The bodyguard gave a final push against the door and it burst open. But as they bolted in, Emma was gone with her clothes left on the floor.