Book - 1: Twilight

Prologue

A stately building, 'St. Dymphna Mental Asylum'. A Groundskeeper trimmed the hedges around it. The whispering wind was pierced by a scream. The Groundskeeper looked towards the asylum.

Inside the Asylum, A nurse and a doctor were walking hastily down a corridor. The Nurse finds the page she was looking for.

"Ah, yes. They're the one who claimed they were having visions," said the Nurse.

A second scream, this time louder. The two quickened their pace. The Nurse passed the file to the doctor as they entered the treatment room.

"Mary Alice Brandon," said the Doctor reading the Charts. "And you must be, Lillian Mary Brandon."

He looked up from the file. Two wild eyed young women, Alice and Lillian, both were strapped against the binds of treatment chairs.

Alice had freed one of her arms to hold Lillian's hand. Lillian looked at her, still crying, fearing that they will be tortured. The nurse, a caring but no-nonsense woman, muscled Alice back into her restraints.

"We shouldn't be here. Our father just needed to get rid of us," said Alice.

The Nurse swiftly prepared sedatives in two needles while the doctor examined the file.

"Is your name Mary Alice Brandon? And Lillian Mary Brandon?" said the Doctor.

"Yes, we're not sick," said Alice.

The Doctor gave her a look that suggested that what is written in his file state otherwise. And he believed his file.

"It says here you believe you have visions and Lillian, believes that she can hear what people think?" said the Doctor.

With well-practiced control, the Nurse administered the sedatives to both Alice and Lillian.

Alice's and Lillian's movements settled and something in their eyes hinted that they may have been filled with joy, but their face was now strained with grief and fear.

The Doctor sat to the side, lighting his pipe and wrote 'Ist Treatment : March 19 1920' in the file.

The Nurse placed a device around Alice's head and Lillian's head and two wooden rods between their teeth. Alice watched hazily as the Nurse flipped the switch on the shock therapy machine. It hummed.

"There was something wrong with you but they were going to fix it," said the Nurse.

The Nurse looked to the Doctor. He gave the nod to go ahead.

The Nurse adjusted a dial. The Hum increased steadily.

Alice's and Lillian's eyes squeezed their eyes shut. A moment of black before the Hum peaked and there was a flash of white accompanied by an electric snap. The first shock of the treatments were administered.

Alice's POV (Vision):

Bright white, light and a distant ringing was heard.

"There is something wrong with you two," said the Nurse.

Young, 9 year old Alice, and five year old Lillian were standing waiting at the door in their rain slickers.

"Mama! Mama!?" Alice and Lillian shouted together and they giggled looking at each other.

Mrs Brandon, in her 30's pregnant, wearing a long string of pearls came around the corner into the hall putting on her hat. Love and kindness radiate from this woman; Mrs Brandon's and Lillian's were identical. Alice's eyes were a darker shade of their eyes. Both Alice and Lillian inherited the twinkle from Mrs Brandon.