Escaping Our Sanity

Chapter 1: Eliza Fern

WE ARE THE ONLY SURVIVORS. THREE PEOPLE. JUST US THREE. THIS IS OUR STORY.

My name is Eliza Fern. I am 17 years old, and the second youngest member of the group that escaped. Escape from where? - you might ask. Well we have escaped from misery, agony, and pure torture. The asylum is the place i am referring to. Briarwood Asylum, is where I lost my sanity.

It all started when I was 12 years of age. At that point, my life was worthless. My parents disapproved of me and insisted I should be admitted to an insane asylum. I thought about death and human experimentation almost every day, and spoke of it often. That was the reason I was admitted to Briarwood. I was nervous and didn't know what to expect at an asylum. I knew i didn't belong there but I had no choice, the decision had already been made. I tried to envision what it would be like there. Kind nurses? Special treatment? A good therapist, or maybe even a nice place to relax and become "normal"? I had NO idea what i was getting into. All of my assumptions were HORRIBLY wrong.

My mother, father, and brother went along for my first consultation at Briarwood. When we arrived, I knew something wasn't right... perhaps the barbed wire fence surrounding the gates of the asylum? Or maybe even the human howls that sounded like animals screeching in agony that could be heard from OUTSIDE the building? My parents went in a separate room and talked with the head psychologist Dr. Fredrich Carson. My little brother Josef and I decided to walk around the asylum and explore. Josef was 8 at the time. I knew he didn't want me to go, for I was his big sister, his mentor, and his best friend. He looked at me with his big blue eyes, filled with big blue tears welling inside.

"Lizzy, don't go. Why do you have to leave me? Can't I stay at the asylum with you? You're all i have left!" Josef cried. "I know, Josef I wish I didn't have to go either. You can't come with me. I'm sorry." I told him while trying to hold back my tears. "But you can't leave! You just can't Eliza! I won't let them take you away from me! I would miss you too much! I love you Liz!" Josef said while practically choking on his own tears. I even started to cry too. I felt a little embarassed because we were sitting in the lobby of the asylum, and people were staring. A nurse came behind me, grabbed my arm, and started to pull me out of the chair. "Let's get you some pajamas and a room of your own now sweetheart." The nurse said in a forced, and fake manner. She was a short, stocky woman with short, curly, black hair tucked underneath a typical nurse's hat. I swung around and screamed "GET YOUR FILTY HANDS OFF OF ME!" without much thought. Her rosy, plump cheeks immediately turned into a pale shade of white, and her soft, deceiving blue eyes turned gray.

She squeezed my arm to the point that I could barely feel it anymore and whispered angrily into my ear "YOU ARE GOING TO COOPERATE RIGHT NOW MISSY, AND IF YOU GIVE ANYONE 'ROUND HERE GRIEF, YOU WILL BE SORRY AS HECK." Her raspy voice sounded harsh in my ear, stung like a bee, and her breath stank of tobacco and gin.