I do not own Mount Massive Asylum or David Annapurna. They are owned by Red Barrel, but I do own Vera, Pamela, and John.
Chapter 1: More Than A Hunch
"Something bad is going on here! Can't you tell, Vera?" My roommate Pammy said as she took a bite of her old, stale corn. "Yeah, I think so too." I responded after swallowing a big chunk of beef that was rough and hard to chew.
Pammy and me were sitting in the cafeteria that was located in the male ward, picking at pieces of our barely edible lunches. My God, the food there was just terrible! Always bland and stale, tasted like it was served five days after it was made.
As a result, I've lost fifteen pounds-fifteen pounds in only two weeks! Now that's really unhealthy, but I guess I can't complain too much since I was a little pudgy before. Oh what I wouldn't give to indulge in a large pizza and a two litter of coke regardless!
Well, it's been two weeks since I've been committed to Mount Massive Asylum. Before then my husband was murdered. I don't know by whom, and as far as I'm concerned this case is still unsolved!
The police however, had the nerve to pin it on me. My husband's killer is still at large, but no-they took the easy way out, and narrowed me down as their suspect! But it couldn't have been me. I have no memory of doing it. When it happened I completely blacked out, but there were other people there.
Two of his friends were there, having drinks and playing card games. They said I did it-that I stabbed him to death, and then ran out of the house! The police said that they found me in my car, which I somehow crashed into a ditch two miles away from my house. I was unconscious they said, covered in blood with an empty bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum resting in the passenger seat, and a bloody kitchen knife laying right next to it.
A murder-suicide they called it. There's no way in hell that I recall any of that! All that I remember was being home, making bratwurst for my husband and his friends after a long day of work at the local hospital. Of all the RN's that worked in that place, I was fortunate enough to be placed in the ER. Hustle and bustle-that's all it fucking was!
But anyway, I was at home with Jim and his friends, and then it happened! What happened? I don't even know. The only thing I remember was waking up to find myself chained to a hospital bed, with a policeman and a nurse sitting at my side. You've been placed under arrest they told me, for the murder of your husband!
I told them that I didn't do it. So many times I swore up and down that it wasn't me, but they said I did. The police, Jim's friends, the judge, the doctor, and all of the other staff in this God-forsaken asylum! They all say that I'm crazy, but I'm not crazy.
The doctor called it a severe, manic episode with periods of rapid cycling. I used to be on medication, but then I found out that I no longer needed them. They were doing me more harm than good, and now I feel much better without them.
One day they started burning me from the inside-I mean literally…fucking…burning me inside and out! It got to the point where the muscles in my arms and legs were literally on fire. My arms turned red, and I felt a scorching pain as hot as an oven set to broil, so I stopped taking them. Ever since I stopped taking them, everyone calls me crazy. I'm not crazy! I'm not…!
"Is this seat taken?" A young, scrawny-looking man with a baldhead asked. "No, John. Sit down!" I told him invitingly with a waving gesture of my right, quaky hand. John was a good guy. Although he talked in a slow, awkward manner-and not to mention he heard voices on a daily basis-he actually respected us gals more than most of the male patients did in this place.
"Hey John, have you noticed what's going on here? I mean we're seeing more patients with all of these…deformities!" Pammy stated in a tone just above a whisper. And as she stated that she leaned forward, and moved her hand over her face to illustrate her example of 'deformities'.
John hunched over the table with his elbows resting over the edge, and moved his fork around each stale, piece of beef. "Shit, Pamela! There are talks about experiments being done in the lower levels. Project Walrider they're calling it." He explained, "Has something to do with lucid dreaming…"
"Lucid dreaming?" I interrupted with astonishment to hear something that seemed so unrelated. "What's lucid dreaming?" Pammy asked, chewing corn inside of her grimacing mouth. "It's when you know that you're dreaming when you're asleep." I answered her, "But what does that have to do with all of those disfigurements that these patients have?"
Lucid dreaming didn't make the least bit of sense to me. How on Earth would that cause all of these disfigurements? Oh how my brain ached the longer I tried to figure out the connection there!
"Beats me!" He responded with a shrug, "My roommate was taken down to the lower levels yesterday and I haven't seen him since." John took another bite of his corn after moving the pieces of each serving around the square-shaped, yellow tray with his fork.
"My doctor…every time I see him…and he's been seeing me more in the past few weeks. Keeps mentioning that I would make a great candidate for some 'engine' program. Can't fucking remember the name for the life of me." He mumbled as he dropped his fork, "But he never saw me so often before that, and he never took so much as an interest in my case until recently. It's like he's trying to get me ready for something. I think I'm next!"
Pammy sat back in her chair and shook her head, her curly, blonde locks waving around her greasy face. "Yeah, you know what? My doctor rarely saw me either. Every time I ask to see him, I get blown off. They keep saying that he has other patients to see first." She recalled. "I haven't noticed any women with those scars, have you?" I pointed out.
After two more bites of that rock-hard beef I decided that I was done eating, putting my fork down and folding my arms behind my tray. I tried to remember every single female patient here, considering that there weren't many at all. "No, Vera. None of them have it. Whatever they're doing, it must only be for the men." She responded after taking another bite of her beef.
Pammy and me are two of the fifteen lady patients in this whole asylum, and I've met every single one of them. All of them are bat-shit crazies of course, but it's a real comfort to know that none of them have been through any of those experiments that many of the male patients have. There might be hope for us. Well, at least for now anyway.
"Hey, us women might just be in the clear!" Pammy said chuckling. Unlike her, I did not find that funny one bit. Whether or not this was happening to the female patients, it was still happening to the men, and it shouldn't have been happening at all. Beside, who's to say that it won't expand to female patients in the near-by future?
"It's still not right, Pammy!" I ranted distastefully, "I mean…my doctor won't see me either! Something's definitely wrong! This bullshit shouldn't go on and I have half the mind to find out and do…"
"John, what are you doing over here?" A short, stocky male orderly demanded. I recognized him right away, wearing white scrubs with a nametag that says Annapurna hanging on the right side of his chest. "He's not bothering us, Dave. It's okay!" Pammy reassured him with a hand out in front of him.
"We're all friends, man. I wouldn't do em any harm." John awkwardly chimed in innocently. With a deep, heavy sigh David dropped his protective, authoritative guard. Out of all of the doctors and orderlies in this fucking asylum, he was the only one who actually cared about the patients. The only one who went out of his way to keep us safe-from each other as well as from ourselves. But from the other staff? Well, that's a different story.
"Okay then. I trust you guys. Just had to be sure because this place is full of predators who haven't been with a woman in ages. Just trying to keep you girls safe. No offense, John." He stated apologetically, knowing what a good guy John really was. David began to relax, as that worried look faded away from his tired face.
"I know and we appreciate it! Believe me!" Pammy exclaimed. And that's not an exaggeration. Every day, I got sexual advances from these disgusting, perverted motherfuckers! A female patient was beaten and raped the previous day, and the same thing almost happened to me last week in the male ward.
I however, managed to fight him off, and the fucker ended up with a broken nose. What did I get for it? Two days in the hole is what I got! But the guards did nothing to prevent it; therefore I did what I had to do to save myself. They called it a fight that got out of hand, and the guy got two days in the hole like I did. Like I said-the staff doesn't give a damn about us.
"Hey, Dave! What's going on here?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean there's talks of experiments going on that's making the patients look fucked up! Something's going on around here!" I pressed. David shifted his posture, leaning against an unoccupied chair with his hand resting on the top. His eyes went off to the side as he ran his other hand through his short, brown hair. An uneasy expression marked his face, knowing that our suspicions were truth.
"I…wouldn't worry about it, Guys." He lied, trying to hide his own suspicions with a fake smile and false modesty. "What do you mean 'don't worry about it'?" John burst in a tone that was clearly too loud, "I could be next, Man!"
In a split second, David leaned over the table in a small amount of fury that made Pammy and me jump in our seats. He held out a hand in front of him, and then shifted it to the both of us.
"Shh! Keep your voices down! People are listening!" He scolded as he gritted his teeth. "Sorry, Man. But you do know that something is going on around here, don't you?" John whispered as he leaned over the table closer to the orderly.
Then, David stood up straight, and overwhelmingly rubbed his hand down his face. "Just don't say anything out loud, okay?" He ranted with vexation, "Believe me I'm trying to get to the bottom of it, but Murkoff…"
"Murkoff?" Pammy exclaimed.
"Yeah Murkoff! You know…the people that run this place? You really don't know what they're capable of, so I suggest you all stay quiet!" David retorted, gritting his teeth once more. With a soft slam on the table with his hand, John anxiously countered saying, "But I could be next, Man!"
David leaned forward with a hand out in front of John's face to quiet him once again. "Just trust me, okay?" He softly consoled, "We can't talk about this anymore, so just keep your heads down. I'll do whatever I can to protect you three."
On that discrete note David walked away from our table, looking around to make sure that no one had been listening to our conversation. He quickly went through the doors of the cafeteria and into the male ward.
"I don't like this!" I said to the two of them. "He's on our side, Vera." Pammy stated, attempting to reassure me. "I know, but he just an orderly!" I argued, "We all know that he can't protect us from them! I hate not knowing, and I'm about to…"
"About to what?" She interrupted me in a challenging tone. Pammy leaned against the table with an elbow propped up against it, and her fingers perched up in the air. One of her blonde eyebrows was raised high against her creasing forehead.
Dear God, the secrecy was killing me! I've been in other mental institutions earlier in my life, but they were nothing like this one. In all of those other hospitals that I've been to, there were never any talks of extreme experiments or unfair treatment.
Although all of those other places weren't Asylums for the criminally insane, the staff actually cared about the patients. They didn't just toss us to the side until they found better use for us like this place did.
All of this injustice enraged me, and no matter what was going to happen, I was going to get to the bottom of it! "And I'm fixing to find out what's going on for myself!" I boldly countered her remark in a loud whisper.
"Are you fucking insane? No wait…don't answer that! But look, he said that something bad could happen to us if we get nosey!" Pammy forcefully stated with her index finger pressed against the table.
"He didn't say that!"
"Maybe not in those words, but he was hinting at it!"
"At this point I don't really care!" I retorted in a matter-of-fact attitude. Pammy sat back in her chair, squinted her lips, and crossed her arms in protest to what I just said, but that didn't shoot me down. I've been pushed around enough in this place, and I wanted to expose the bastards for what they really were. I would tell the whole fucking world when I get the chance.
To tell you the truth, I was feeling quite adventurous at that moment, and the thought of this dangerous quest excited me. Call it recklessness, call it a distorted sense of empowerment, or hell-call it an extreme symptom of my manic episode if you will! I didn't care at this point.
"I'm in, honey!" John beamed in his shaky, awkward voice of his. The excited man raised his hand up high in the air right in front of me. With much empowerment, I gave him a high five knowing that at least one other person supported me here.
"I know where we can get a key card to gain access to the lower levels." He discretely offered as he leaned in closer to us. "That's perfect!" I quietly approved with joy, "Well, Pammy? Are you with us or not?"
With a roll of her baby, blue eyes Pammy leaned into the table, and put her hand up in front of us. "Eh, what the hell? Yeah, I'm in!" She said with a smile as we both gave her a high five. So we were really doing this. I couldn't believe it at the time, and it felt so surreal.
Out of two weeks in this hellhole, we were finally getting into some excitement, some adrenaline! No matter how perilous this was we were going to find out what these 'experiments' really were, and there would be no going back.
Hope you enjoyed that. I decided to include David Annapurna in this piece of FanFic because he had a very interesting role in attempting to expose Murkoff for what they were doing, which recieved harsh retaliation from Richard Trager. He had his own suspicions just like the characters I created, and I think we can all agree that his account in this game was too brief. Therefore, I wanted to elaborate on this character through my story.
Well, the next few chapters will be coming soon. If anyone would be so kind as to provide a review with tips of improvement, I would be very grateful.