If These Walls Could Talk (American Horror Story Asylum FanFic)

Chapter 3

I park my car underneath the cover of some trees near the back of the asylum and I start walking through the forest in the direction of the building. It's not long before I take out a cigarette and light up, hoping my nerves will calm down.

The bushes to my left start to rustle and I grind my teeth together to stop their chattering.

There's nothing there. It's just the wind.

I speed up my walking, cursing the combination of my heels and the soft dirt beneath my feet. I hear a voice float on the wind towards me and I turn to the right, following the sound. Sister Mary Eunice stands with her back to me and I can see a silver pail in each of her hands. She sets them down on the ground and flicks on her flashlight, shining the beam around the forest.

The bushes in front of her start to furiously shake and a growling noise emanates from them. She lets out a little squeak and turns around to run, but stops short in front of me.

"You shouldn't be out here."

I flick my finished cigarette off to the side and adjust my stance, giving the nun an unwavering stare. "And what could you possibly be doing out here, Sister."

Her mouth opened and closed like she was gasping for air. "Please don't tell Sister Jude."

The sickening sound of bones crunching came from where she set down the pails and I turned to look but she grabbed my arm, pulling me back towards her. "We can't stay here. We have to go."

She began dragging me and I followed her, my curiosity about the sound being put on the back burner.

We walked into this dark and damp tunnel, her flashlight beam jumping from ceiling to wall as she hurried along.

"What is this place?" I asked her.

"It's my shortcut from the woods." She answered.

We finally came to the end of the hallway and she opened up a large steel door, which let out a loud screeching sound. I looked around and my mind wandered back to the sounds I had heard in the woods.

After we walked through the door, Sister Mary Eunice closed it and covered it up with a stack of old mattresses.

My tongue was swollen with questions aching to be answered.

"What were you doing out there?"

My question was met with silence. I tacked on. "Maybe I should ask Sister Jude."

She turned to look at me with fear in her eyes. "Why? Why would you do that?"

"She scares you, doesn't she?"

The nun walked to the other side of the room and wheeled over a bin to add on to the array of objects blocking the door to outside.

"If you let me look around, I won't tell Sister Jude anything about what I saw tonight."

"You didn't see anything."

"I saw enough."

She looked at me and with a quick nod of her head, I followed her out of the room.

***

"Where are you keeping Bloody Face?"

We stood in the entryway of the asylum, the ethereal statue of Mother Mary looming over us.

"This way." I noticed her grip on the flashlight was so tight that her knuckles were losing their colour.

I followed behind and began to root around in my purse for my notepad. I finally found it and flipped to a fresh page, quickly writing down:

- get a better look at forest during daytime

I looked up and noticed she had tried walking me past a door labeled Men's Ward. I quickly veered off the course and opened the door, facing a long dark hallway. Sister Mary Eunice came up behind me.

"Miss Norwood! We can't be here. This is the men's ward."

Nevertheless, she followed along behind me as I walked down the length of the hall.

When the patients were alerted to our presence, thanks to the flashlight, they began to get rowdy. A deep voice to my right startled me.

"Are you ladies here to entertain us? I'm ready and willing baby."

Then he slapped his hand against the wire mesh opening on his room door, splattering a brown substance on the nuns face. She began to whimper and her eyes flooded with tears.

"Stay right here Miss Norwood. I'll be right back."

She scurried back down the way we had come, going through the door and plunging the hallway back into semi-darkness. My heels made small clicks on the floor as I continued down the hall. A door to my left opened and an orderly was zipping up his pants, while behind him on her knees was Diana Cordova, the woman I met when I first came to the asylum.

He looked up at me, instantly on his guard. "You're not supposed to be here."

"I take it she's not supposed to be here either."

I inclined my head towards Diana, who wiped off the side of her mouth and winked at me.

The orderly clenched his jaw and took a step towards me but stopped when we heard the door at the end of the hall open.

"Sister Jude." Diana whispered.

The orderly took one last look at me and went scurrying off down the opposite end of the hallway. Diana stayed in the room she was in and closed the door, leaving me all alone. I looked around me in a panic, my heart pushing its way up into my throat. With a sigh of relief I located an open door and went in the room, not giving a second thought as to whether or not it would already have an occupant. I shut the door behind me and stood against the wall, willing the nun to not give my room a second glance.

Her footsteps got closer and closer until the beam of her flashlight swung past my room, illuminating my face for a brief second. She continued down the hall until she got to the other end, where she decided to double back and leave out the way she came.

I counted the minutes, feeling that it would be safer to wait until she was well out of earshot. After what felt like hours I peeled myself off the wall and slowly opened the door, peeking my head out. I didn't see anything so I slipped out and went in the door that the orderly had gone through earlier, not knowing where it could possibly take me.