Linda wakes up and stares at the dimly lit curtain. It was still pretty early. The thought of the moment with Trager instantly came to her mind. After she couldn't fall asleep, she decided to get up and wander the halls for a while to try and feel better about the place and to get her mind off of Trager. Linda got dressed and walked out the door. She wandered through the halls. She had a paper in her hand with a map of the asylum. Her eyes were glued to the map and she didn't realize she was the only one in the hallway. She wanted to go to the female ward. She entered the elevator and it slowly rises up.
"Okay… I have to go through the male ward, the vocational block, and the administration block in order to get there" she said.
The elevator stops and she walks out and looks up to see where she is. But her stomach sinks when she sees that no one was there. She walked around the halls to look for people but the only thing she achieved in finding were blood splatters everywhere like someone was painting the walls a bright red color. There were no bodies. Linda started to grow terrified. She needed to find someone but no one was in the staff building. She reaches the first gate of the male ward that was slightly opened. She pushes it the rest of the way, earning a loud creak. After passing through the second gate that was also open, Linda sees that all of the cells empty. She then starts to look through all of the cells to find any patients. Seeing none, she chooses to go back to find Jeremy to find out what happened. After passing through the gates again, she walks through the bloody halls. This time, there were bodies. All scattered everywhere and littered the halls. Some were staff, some were patients. Their eyes rotted out and there were black holes and their skin was decomposing. Dried blood covered their faces and bodies. It seemed like they were there for a while but the blood on the walls was fresh. But Linda was more terrified than concerned about it. She quickens her pace to find Jeremy, stepping in the puddles of blood. She stops suddenly when a sharp pain hits her skull with a loud high-pitched sound filling her ears. Her vision blurs as images flash across her eyes. She drops to the ground on her knees screaming while holding her head in pain. She closes her eyes to try to make the visions go away. Once it stops, Linda stays on the floor, holding her head with her eyes shut tight thinking it'll come back.
"What the heck was that?" she asked herself, breathing heavily.
Once she opens her eyes and lifts her head, all of the bodies and blood were gone. It all vanished like they were never there. However, no one was in the building still. It was just her, curled up against the wall in the middle of the hallway. She gets up and rushes to Jeremy's office, with little hope that he'd be there. She finds his office and bursts through the door, slamming it behind her. The room was dark and only being lit by the small ray of sunlight shining through the window behind Jeremy's desk
"Jeremy! Something's wrong with the asylum! Everyone's gone and I think they're all dead!" she shouts. After not being answered, Linda noticed that Jeremy's large chair was facing away from her with Jeremy's head showing on top. She rushes over there to speak to him again.
"Jeremy, what's going on? Where is everyone?" she asks, still not getting anything from him.
She gets angry and walks around the desk to look at him. She turns his chair and immediately falls back onto the floor. Jeremy was dead. His eyes were gone and his skin was rotting like the rest of the bodies she saw. She stumbles back till her back touches the nearest wall as tears form in her eyes. A sudden flash of light fills the room and disappears, having the room completely dark for only a second followed by the sound of Trager's wicked laugh. Where Jeremy's body once was, is now gone. Linda then runs out of his office as the sounds of Trager's laugh following her.
"Get away from me!" she shouts back as tears pour from her eyes while she runs to her office.
Once she gets there, she slams the door behind her and locks it and Trager's laugh instantly disappears. She presses her forehead against the door and lets out a deep sigh.
"What's wrong with this place?" she tells herself.
She turns around and her heart almost stopped completely. This wasn't her office at all. It was just a small room with no windows and a single light hanging from the ceiling that was barely lighting the room. Under the light, was a tall silhouette of a man. His sleek black hair slightly shining in the light. He turns around to face her, revealing a table with mutilated body parts of women lying there. His body was covered in blood and he held a bone saw. His face was total darkness but all you could see was two bright eyes and a large grin plastered on his face. It was Eddie. Many things raced through Linda's mind when she looked at him. He walked to her with the smile still on his face.
"I want you to love me!" he says almost shouting. His voice was rough and not as smooth as she remembered.
She covers her face with her arms and closes her eyes and screams, fearing she'll die. After nothing happens, Linda opens her eyes to see why Eddie hasn't attacked her. But all she saw was the ceiling in her room. She was laying on her bed. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and she was breathing heavily. She lowers her arms to her sides and stared at the ceiling for a moment.
"A dream? No, more like a nightmare," she thought. "How could that have happened? I've been here one day and I'm already dreading this place?"
She gets up and looks at the time.
"Wow, I'm already late for the first day on the job."
She finds the picture of her and Jeremy still lying on the bed next to her. She picks it up to look at it once more before putting it back on the nightstand. She gets dressed and puts on her lab coat. She puts her hair into a messy bun and rushes out of the door. Relieved that she sees her fellow staff members, she calms down and heads to Jeremy's office. She knocks on the door while her heart is frozen.
"Yes? Come in," he answered from the other side of the door. A wave of relief washes over her and she opens the door to see Jeremy going through some files. He looks up for a second, without even smiling.
"You're forty-five minutes late, Linda," he says, no taking his eyes off his work.
"Yes, I know. I didn't get a good enough sleep last night," she explained while walking towards his desk. "I'll work a little over my shift to make up for the lost time."
"There's no need for that. I was going to use the first hour of your shift to walk you around the asylum more but I'm afraid we missed that opportunity," he assures her. "I'll only give you a warning but from now on I can't have you be late anymore. Like I said yesterday, this is a very tight system."
"Of course. I won't make that mistake again," she said.
"Good. Now head to your office to begin," he said, motioning for her to leave.
"But who do I start with first?" she asked, before leaving.
"That's up to you. Decide who you want to start with, I don't care. But I really need you to leave now, I'm very busy," he said, annoyed. He hands her a file with a list of all of the patients. She takes it and walks to the door to exit. Once she walks out, she's greeted by two security guards.
"Hello. You must be Dr. Hart," said one of the guards.
"Yes, I am. How can I help you?" she asked.
"Well, we're actually here to help you with the patients you'll be seeing today," said the second security guard. "We'll make sure none of them try to hurt you."
"Oh, I see. Thank you," she smiles.
"Let's get started," said the second officer. She walks forward down the halls with the officers following behind her staying silent. She reaches the first gate and unlocks it, letting the officers go in first. One of the officers open the second gate to the male ward and they walk through. All of the patients were still in their cells which made Linda feel a little more at ease. She wanted to start with the sanest patient there. Even though Eddie appeared pretty sane, she was afraid to confront him after the nightmare she had about him. After looking through the files, Linda finds a file under William B. Hope.
Case Number: 207
Patient: William B. Hope
Consultation Dated: 2012.08.22
Initial Date of Patient Consult: 2012.03.12
Mental Disorders: None
Patient Age: 23
Gender: Male
Observing Psychologist: Dr. Linda Hart
Reason at Mount Massive: Sold by mother to Murkoff
NOTES: Seems mentally stable enough to begin tests soon
Linda didn't know what they meant by "tests" so she asked the guards.
"Umm, what does this file mean about 'tests'?" she asked, showing the guards the file. They paused for a moment and looked at each other. The first guard clears his throat.
"We uh- Those are for when we believe the patient is mentally stable enough to begin certain tests in order to decide whether let them go or not. It's just a small process," he said.
"Oh, I see. Well, then I'd like to begin those tests myself. Is that all right?" she asked while approaching William's cell. The two guards looked at each other again a bit nervously. The first one nods and they both face her.
"We'll have to discuss that with Mr. Blaire," said the first officer.
"We don't think it's your job to do so anyway," said the second officer.
Linda just turned away a little bit disappointedly as they reached his cell. He was sitting on his bed with his head against the wall, looking at the cell gate. They approached his cell and Linda stood in the middle with each officer on one side of her.
"Hello. Are you William Hope?" she asked, looking through the cell bars.
"Yes, I am. Are you here to test on me?" he asked a little frightened. She looked at one of the guards who looked back at her with a glare.
"... No," she said looking back at him. "I'm just a psychologist. I'm only going to be asking you a few questions and to check on how your feeling. Is that okay with you?"
William sat there for a couple of seconds until he finally answered.
"I guess so. Where are we going?" he asked, not moving.
"Just to my office."
"Will they be there?" he asked, gesturing to the officers standing beside her.
"Yes, they will be. But they won't do anything. They'll only be there to make sure bad things don't happen."
William hesitantly got up and walked to the cell door, waiting for them to open it. Once he walked out, Linda continued to walk back to her office with William behind her and the officers behind him. No one spoke the whole way there. As they walk through the halls, a few staff members stare at them as they walk by. Linda just ignored them because she was used to it, but it made William feel uneasy and nervous. He's never been around this many sane people and he was mostly afraid of them. Linda didn't notice he was fidgeting because she was too busy walking in front of him and looking through the files. When they arrived at her office, she let William go in first with the officers following. She walked in and closed the door and sat in her large chair.
"Please, sit," she asked, pointing to the lounge chair. William didn't move and inch and just looked at the chair and back at the officers.
"Don't worry. Nothing is going to happen to you. I promise," she smiled. This made him ease up a little bit and hesitantly sat in the chair. The two officers stood behind him, folding their arms like they were his bodyguards and never spoke.
"Your name is William Hope, correct?" she asked.
"Yes, but please just call me Billy. I prefer to be called that," he answered.
"Okay, Billy. I'm just going to ask you a few questions and then you can go back to your cell, okay?"
"... Okay."
She flips through a few pages of Billy's file while coming up with her questions.
"Have you ever been to a psychologist before?" she asked, clicking her pen.
"Um, no," he said. Linda was interested in his answer. It's a wonder how a man in an asylum has never been to a psychologist. She wrote a few things in her notebook and thought of another question.
"Overall, how would you describe your mood?" she asked. Billy just sat there, frozen. He looked back at the officers who didn't move at all. He looked back at her.
"I'd say that I'm terrified," he said, earning one of the officers to clear his throat loudly like he was trying to make Billy not talk anymore. He froze again, not wanting to talk more. Linda ignored the officers and allowed Billy to continue.
"Why are you terrified?" she asked, concerned. Billy didn't know what to do. He didn't know if he should answer or not. "It's okay, Billy. I know this is hard. I won't let them do anything to you, okay? Feel free to say whatever you'd like."
"I'm terrified because- because I think I might die here," he said, looking at the ground. Linda just sat there not knowing what to say. She didn't quite understand him.
"Why would you think that?" she asked, as she fiddled with her pen. Billy hesitated once more and answered nervously.
"They say I'm sick and I'm not going to get better. That I might have to stay here for a while. I don't belong here!" he slightly raises his voice. "My mother sold me to this damn place! There might have been something about me that she didn't love, but I know I don't deserve to be here! Everyone in this place is-"
"Okay! That's enough. Time's up!" said one of the guards as they both grab Billy on the shoulders to take him back to his cell.
"But we just started! We aren't close to being done!" Linda shouts after them. She gets up to stop them but the second officer stops her by raising his hand.
"Don't make us call Blaire," he said while dragging Billy out of the office. Once they left, Linda sat in her chair to process what just happened. She took a few notes in her notebook and suddenly realized something. The officers said that Billy was mentally stable enough to consider letting him go. But Billy said that they told him he wasn't able to leave anytime soon. Did they lie to Linda or to Billy? Linda was looking through the other patient files when she heard a knock at her door.
"Oh, uhh. Come in," she says, closing her folder. The door opened and Jeremy walked through.
"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" he asked, walking to her with a not so worried look on his face.
"Yeah, I'm fine. He wasn't that aggressive," she assured him.
"That's good. How did it go?"
"It was going well until they took him. I could've handled it myself," she rolls her eyes and looks back at the files.
"I know you could've, but patients here are unpredictable. You could never know when they'd attack," he says, sitting in the large lounge chair.
"He didn't seem that dangerous in the first place, though!" she shouts.
"Linda! You're not getting this! Not every patient in this place is innocent! You can't expect good in everyone!" he shouts back.
"That's not what I'm thinking! Why is Billy even here? His file said that he was sold by his mother to this place! There isn't anything wrong with him," she says. Jeremy pauses, thinking about what to say.
"... You're right. There isn't anything wrong with him, but he was sold to us and he's our property."
"He's no one's property though. Don't think of him as a slave of some sort."
"You know that's not what I meant. There's no place for him to go at the moment. No one would take him after seeing he has a record of being in an asylum. Yes, the officers took him but that's their job. They were trying to protect you. You can't yell at me for something they were supposed to do,' he says, calmly. Linda thought for a moment.
She sighs. "You're right. I overreacted."
"I hope you understand about this," he said.
"I do. I'm sorry."
Jeremy didn't say anything and just nodded. He walked to the door and looks back at her before leaving.
"We'll see what we can do about Billy, okay?" he said. He left before Linda could answer and shuts the door, leaving her in her office. Linda just sat at her desk with many thoughts running through her mind. She opened the folder containing the patient files and found Billy's.
"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought," she told herself.