"Sister Jude….I'm coming back for you."
It had been a week since Lana had escaped from Briarcliff with the help of Mother Claudia and it brought Jude joy that someone finally got out. She was trapped in the place but she deserved everything that they did to her. She has so many wrongs in her ledger from when she was the head of the asylum and she now understood that this was her punishment - her punishment was perfect. She was tormented daily just like she had tormented the patients here will she was in charge. Some days were better than others and she enjoyed the fact that so many were still afraid of her. She would spend her afternoons watching for a sign of trouble so she could intervene just to show all of them that she still was the same Sister Jude they had all known and nothing they could do would change that. She also watched and intervened so that she would save a lost child from an unjust punishment. It took being committed to Briarcliff to open her eyes to how lost these poor children of God truly were and that all they needed was for someone to look out for them and show them some kind of love. She took them under her broken wings hoping that somehow protecting them from the evil within the asylum would make up for all she had done.
Today was to be an odd day. Usually she would be escorted to the common room after her daily soak in the hydrotherapy room but instead today she was taken back to her ceil. Once the door closed behind her and the orderly put the key in the lock, Jude knew that something was going to happen but whether it was good or bad she couldn't decide but it set her nerves on edge.
"Something major is going to happen or they wouldn't be hiding me away." She spent the next three hours pacing her ceil while thinking about the promise Lana had whispered to her before escaping−"I'm coming back for you." Had Lana actually come back for her and if she had Timothy wasn't going to let her go without a fight that much was clear. "Please let Lana keep her promise." She pleaded with the crucifix that hung over her bed hoping that her beloved Father could still hear her in this horrible place. The sound of keys turning a lock made Jude jump. Someone was entering the corridor and by the sounds of it they weren't alone. Moving closer to the door, Jude strained to hear the muffled conversation that was taking place at the far end of the hall.
"Miss Winter…not here…go back….office…common room…"
She could only make out parts of the conversation but it was enough. Lana was searching for her and she wasn't letting Timothy stop her from searching the entire facility. Timothy was trying everything to keep her locked away but Lana wasn't going to let him get away with it. Jude's heart was racing; she had to do something to let Lana know that she was here. She pressed her face to the tiny window and screamed as loudly as she could.
"Lana Banana…I'm here…Please!"
There was silence and then the sound of running feet and the hurried jingle of keys.
"Sister Jude!" Lana's face appeared in the window and she was smiling. "I came back for you like I promised." The door swag open and Lana flung her around the older woman. "Sister, you're coming with me. I'm getting you out of this place because you don't belong here." Lana turned to the Monsignor with anger on her face, she voiced her outrage. "She's dead?! Killed herself? Well Monsignor looks like Sister Jude is alive to me and stronger than ever. She never stopped fighting and it pissed you off, didn't it?! You took everything away from her in the hopes that she would give up and keep quite but it's not going to happen. I'll see to it that your true nature is revealed. You monster."
Jude let out a giggle when she looked into Timothy's eyes. "Well Timothy let's see what becomes of your beloved dream now that you can no longer keep me locked away. I'm free and I'm not going to be quite about everything you did to me nor what happened to the many patients here under my care. I am partly to blame for the mistreatment of these lost children but you are the reason many of them are missing. You know they're dead and that Dr. Arden is responsible. The truth will see the light of day."
The Monsignor turned to the officers and tried one last time to keep Jude from leaving Briarcliff. "Officers, Jude had been placed here after killing one of our guards and keeping a patient prisoner in her former office. She was stripped of her clerical standing because of her crimes and she won't be leaving Briarcliff anytime soon…"
The shorter officer stepped up the Monsignor and handed him a piece of paper. "I believe the Judge disagrees, Father. You see when Mother Claudia was transferred, she sent Miss Winters a journal that belonged to a young nun named Mary Eunice." Monsignor's face turned a ghostly white but the officer continued. "In the journal it states that Jude was framed for the murder of Frank McCann and that Mary Eunice had killed him in order to get Jude removed from her position here at Briarcliff."
The look of terror on Timothy's face caused Jude to smirk and she couldn't help herself from slipping a "I told you" from her lips. Timothy opened his mouth but the officer continued, "it also states that Sister Jude was locked in her office with Lee Emerson in the hopes that he would kill her but instead Lee couldn't resist the urge to play out his fantasies regarding the Sister but he was stabbed by Jude." The other officer stepped to the other side of Jude and began walking her down the corridor with the help of Lana. The short officer kept up with the Monsignor's quick steps and when they got to the lobby of the asylum, he got into Monsignor's face one last time. "So Monsignor, Sister Jude has been released by a judge because she has been wrongly accused and held against her will here at Briarcliff and once all the paperwork is filed she will be testifying against you in a court of law." The officer turned to Jude and held his hand out to her which she accepted. She was a free woman and Lana had lived up to her promise.
Lana stood next to her still with the other officer standing next to her and she realized that she felt safe for the first time in weeks. Lana squeezed her hand and when Jude looked at her, Lana smiled. "Sister Jude, we need to get you something to wear because the clothing you're currently wearing won't protect you from the cold air. Where are all of the patients belongings held?"
Jude had to think for a moment, it had been so long since she had to think about the storage room for belonging that would never be used again. "All the belongings the patients aren't allowed to have are kept in a room next the bakery."
Squeezing her hand again Lana to her that she would be right back with her belongings and then they could leave. Once Lana was back and she had changed into a plain black dress and matching heels they started for the doors of Briarcliff. Before Jude walked out the door, she turned to look at Timothy once last time. There were so many things she wanted to say to him but now was not the time. Instead she looked him dead in the eyes and said, "You will not prevail Timothy. My God would never allow it."