Short Stories Based on Pictures

Asylum

*Reference is the picture above chosen by my 5 year-old brother*

     "Jenna had been working the St. Augustus Pediatric Asylum for almost two decades now. Never did she think she's end her career at the asylum like this. For all the time she'd been there, she's seen kids grow into adults and adults being either shifted or put down.

     She remembers thinking that the only harmful thing on her retiring day would be cake, since she's got diabetes. She never even realized it could go like this. She never thought she'd find herself in an asylum. Not as a nurse, no, as a patient. Let's see what scared Jenna so much, that she had to come to an asylum."

*Jenna's last day - 03/05/1999*

     "Jenna had been going around the asylum one last time. It was, after all, where she spent the majority of her life in. The clock was nearing midnight and when morning comes around, she'd go home, never to return again.

     She turned a corner into Dolores' room. She wanted to wish her goodbye. Dolores was notorious for talking with thin air. It was one of the primary reasons she'd been admitted. The others being steadily increasing aggressiveness and self-mutilation.

     Dolores' room was the last one on the last block. She'd been there since almost ten years and she was only few days away from being put down. The other nurses and doctors didn't like Dolores. Yes, she spoke to thin air, but she always told true facts.

     Like one time, Dolores had been speaking to the air beside her and a particularly stingy doctor told her to shut up, since there was no one there. Angry, Dolores told him not to insult the spirits or else they'll tell terrible things. "Like what??" he asked cockily. "Like how you've been cheating on your wife." 

     That was, in fact, the truth. Jenna shook her head, trying to clear her of those thoughts and opened Dolores' door. "Dolores, darling, I'll be leaving tomorrow." she said, her eyes slowly taking in every detail of the room. First, the table beside the door, then her closet, then the carpet on the floor. And then, finally, Dolores.

     But she wasn't there!! Jenna thought maybe she went to the washroom, so she followed the little passage that led to a bathroom that was connected with three other rooms. Standing at the end of the hallway, was Dolores, standing alone, her back turned towards Jenna. She seemed to be just staring.

     Jenna blinked her eyes, and then lo and behold!! Figures surrounded Dolores. She stood in their midst and Jenna heard the whisperings. The figures seemed to be wearing bedsheets. She thought it was a prank, until she remembered that Jenna's was the last room and everyone was already asleep in their beds. Plus, they couldn't get hear in the literal blink of an eye.

     Slowly, Dolores turned around, a sickly grin on her face. "I know what you did~" she sang. "Wh-What did I do??" Jenna was backing up now. Back into the hallway. "My friends will tell you~" she sang again. With a flick of her head, all the figures rose into the air and hovered over to the nurse.

     "You killed him, he was so young~" sang an array of distorted female voices. "You murderer. You took her life too~" sang a group of male voices, equally distorted. Jenna fell on her behind on whimpered. "Ple-Please. Spare me!!" she moaned. "That is what they said, before you cruelly sliced the scalpel across their necks~" they sang, this time in unison, and somehow, they sounded more worse when they weren't distorted.

     The figures began closing in on her, like predators stalking their prey. They were almost a foot above her when they suddenly reared back. "Not time for you yet~" Dolores said darkly and the phantoms disappeared.

     Jenna breathed in and out, trying to steady her breathing, but it didn't work and she fainted."

*Jenna in asylum - 05/11/2009*

     "And from then on, Jenna Stewarts stays here. Her conscience made up these demons to make her regret her bloodlust that cost two innocent lives. She's been lying here for almost ten years now.

     She has these recurring nightmares everyday where she tortures herself. You see, after she fainted and woke up, she confessed to everyone in cold sweat. She's been admitted here and left alone. Even now, she speaks to the air, begging for mercy." Dolores finished the story, heaving a sympathetic sigh and glancing at Jenna through the corner of her eyes. 

     As all the kids looked at eachother, not have been able to guess the twist. And there, Dolores gave a sickly smile. The same one she gave Jenna when she came to her that fateful night.

THE END