"NO!" I screamed when my parents had said the most senseless thing. "That place is for freaks! I'm not a…. wait. You think I'm a freak because I have visions? That's poppycock!" I yelled at my parents, but it didn't seem like they were buying it one bit. They had never really cared about me, but they wanted me to be well behaved. They wanted a perfect child, and now they hated me because I had told them about my visions.

"Sorry, Alice," My harsh mother had said, "It's what's best for the family."

I shook my head in disbelief. I had never spoken to my parents like this before. "No," I said, half in disbelief, "You're disowning me?"

"Well, technically we may see you after the asylum has fixed you up," my father had said. He was worse than my mother, and that was hard to be, "If they fix you up that is," he added.

My little sister, Cynthia had come down to see what was going on. When she had heard that I was going away, she was very happy. She was the one that had always gotten all of the attention, not me. She hated me, though I had always tried to be fond of her.

"No," I said deliriously, "I'm not going, never!" I said, crying. I wasn't aloud to cry though.

"No getting out of this, Mary Alice Brandon! I hear that the asylum is very good. You should be back with us soon, Alice," said my mother.

"No. I'll run away," I said.

"You can't escape," my father said as he grabbed my arm. "We are going now. The sooner the better!" he shouted. And I gave up. He pulled me out to the street, and we walked. Mother had come too.

"Bye, sis," shouted Cynthia, and I could swear I had seen a smile on he face.

It wasn't too far from our house, only 5 miles or so, but we didn't have any other form of transport available at that moment.

As we arrived there, I saw a building. I didn't look much different from the other places surrounding it, so it didn't look bad. On the front of it, it said, Mental Asylum. We walked up to the front door, and my father knocked at it. It opened almost right away. It frightened me.

"Hello?" asked the man at the door. He was old looking, but very beautiful. He was very pale, and looked like just the person to be working at an asylum. He seemed very nice though, but his dark eyes really didn't work with his very pale skin. He had seemed to notice the tears in my eyes, but he didn't say anything. He just smiled kindly.

"Yes, we are here to place young Alice here," my father had said, as he gestured towards me.

"Of course. Come in," he said. His voice was lovely. Soft and fluent. It was very lovely, a bit like bells. He led us into the foyer. It didn't look too bad, not exactly what I had been expecting. It was… very homey for an asylum. Even though viewing this, I was still crying. Even though my parents hated me, and I hated them, they still fed me and cared for most of my needs. I wasn't ever treated fairly.

We came to the desk and the man handed some papers to my father.

"Sign these, please," he said to my Father. "Oh, and please enlighten me, before you sign them, why are you here? There must be a reason to be sent here?" he said, keeping a serious face.

"Go on, Alice. Tell him everything," said my Father.

Fresh tears fell down the side of my cheek, "Lately, I've been having…" I stopped and had another fit of tears. My father nudged me harshly, and I continued. "I've been having… visions… of the future," I said.

The old man suddenly sounded interested. "How often?" he had asked.

"Just when something is going to happen. For example, I knew my parents were going to send me… here when they had decided." I said. The man was still interested.

"Yes, I see," he said, "Yes, we can help that. You can sign now." He said. My father looked all too eager to sign them and get out of here.

It took them about 10 minutes to sign all of the pages. They had lots of personal questions, so I had to tell my parents stuff about my personal life that they had never known about me. They seemed very shocked, and happy to be getting rid of me. More tears fell down. My tattered white dress was going to become see-though soon.

As soon as we were all done, the old man placed the papers into one of the drawers.

"Alright now, Alice, follow me please," the man had said.

Then my mother did something she had never done before. She kissed my cheek. I smiled up at her and whispered, "Bye Mum," she smiled back, but then my father nudged her and whispered something too her.

I followed the old man down the old stair case. Most of the stairs were creaking as we walked on them. I was scared, and it showed.

"I'm Professor Jinks," said the old man, introducing himself. "I will show you around today," he added.

All I did was nod. This had happened all so quickly.

He stopped and knelt down towards me. His hands were ice cold. "It's alright, Alice. This place is not… that bad. If anything happens, just try to find me OK? I will make sure you are fine." He said. I just nodded again. I could hardly speak.

"I'll lead you to your room," he said, "I'm sad to say that you'll be alone in there for a while. Only 3 per room, and there's no one else here that you can share it with." He said solemnly.

"That's fine, Professor Jinks," I said, still sobbing, "I need some alone time." I said, and smiled up at him. He smiled back, but then quickly stood back up. I continued to follow him.

"Doom room number 873," he said. "Your clothes and toothbrush have been placed on your bed," he said, softly. He opened the door with a key and handed a spare one to me.

I was shocked.

I had expected this place to be bad.

But no… it was much worse than merely bad.

The first thing that I noticed were the black walls. The blacked out windows were bared up. The room was simple though; three beds. There was hardly any space. As Professor Jinks had said, my stuff was on my bed. Then next thing was the smell. It was horrible. I blocked my nose with my fingers. Professor Jinks laughed softly, like he had done this ritual before. "You get used to it," he said.

But that was highly unlikely. The smell was like dead fish. It was like someone had died in here. Someone probably did die in here.

"OK, I'll tell you some rules, just to get you started," he said, "Breakfast starts at 5:30 in the morning, Lunch at 12 o'clock, and Dinner at 7pm. Bed time is straight after dinner. Time is indicated by the clock to your right. There is one in almost every room, so you won't need to worry about missing appointments," He said. My mouth had opened at the 5:30 in the morning breakfast thing. But the last word had caught me off guard.

"Appointments?" I said, in shock.

"Yes, there is a schedule on your bed. If you miss one, then you'll will catch up at the next one. Please take your schedule with you where ever you go. If you loose it, front office has a new one and it will be sent down to you if you ask a doctor.

"Going into the foyer is forbidden. If caught you will go without food nor water for 1 week. Same punishment when you get caught out of bed at the wrong hours.

"Bathrooms are just down the corridor, and are the only exception to this earlier rule. You are allowed to walk around the quads outside. You have a map on your bed of the whole building." It sounded like Professor Jinks had finished, but he just sighed.

"What is wrong, Professor?" I asked.

"This isn't the most wonderful place Alice. Some of the professors… may hurt you, even though they are trying to help you. If you are asked to go get a test run done, you must go." He stopped. Test run? Now I was really scared.

"I should leave you now. Please take caution Alice. You have lots of potential and I hope that nothing happens too you." He walked to my bed and looked at the schedule. "You are required in room 110 in 30 minutes," he said, and then walked away closing the door softly, leaving the schedule on the bed. I still had the key in my hand.

I sat down on the bed, breathing through my mouth so it didn't smell as bad. It was horrible. I cried again. This place was like a nightmare. It was horrible.

I turned to the clothing laid on the bed. I thought that this was what we had to where from now on. Each was different though. There were 5 sets. Just shorts and shirts of different colours, all dull and boring. Nothing bright. So I decided to change into the dark grey top and the black shorts. Poorly sewn on the top was the emblem of the asylum.

I looked at the schedule once I had finished dressing. It looked horrible. I had about 3 appointments each day, except for Sunday, which was a day of rest. I wondered what happened at the appointments. Below each one had the doctor's name. I sighed as more tears flowed down onto my shirt. I looked at the map, trying to figure out where this room 110 was. Luckily it was close to here. Each appointment only lasted about 30 minutes, which gave me most of the day to do nothing. Then cafeteria was close to the sleeping quarters also. After this appointment, I would go out to the quad.

But the thing that troubled me the most was the question: What happens in these appointments? I guess I'd find out in 25 minutes anyway.