The Real Enemy

Enter the Asylum

I got to Mortenmoor Asylum at 9:54. Matt and I were meeting at 10:00. Usually we'd drive together, but tonight, Matthew had said he needed to do some Student Council work. It was 10:16 , and he still wasn't here. I was about to call him when I heard a couple sticks cracking. I looked up from the comforting glow of my phone. I'll admit, my daring self was creeped out. I didn't want to wait in the car just yet though, I might not see him arrive. I was on an old tight country road with lots of farm land around. My car was parked on the side, and I stood at the beginning of a long, winding, cracked, dirt driveway. I could see, through the thick brush, the asylum's three tall columns. The place was on a small hill, surrounded by many pines. I called Matt.

"Hey you on your way?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry babe. I'm swamped with prom planning... I'm really sorry I'm not on-time, but I'm really looking forward to seeing you." He replied, sounding rushed.

"Okay no problem, I know how punctual you are with all these deadlines. Bye." I hung up, not waiting for a response. I wasn't that mad. I knew how driven he was about colleges, and grades, and looking smart. He called me babe too, which was a major turn-on. I was just disappointed that he didn't have the same drive to do couple-y things like I did.

Matt finally arrived at 10:30, and I started to ask him where he was but he cut me off and asked how I was feeling.

"Pretty good," I reply, "how are you?"

"Eh, alright. All this college prep has really been stressing me out." Matt said.

My heart sinks, I can tell he's tired.

"You're sure you want to do this then?" I ask, "we can go back to my place if you'd rather..."

He finally cracked a smile, his dimple showing. "No, this is perfect. thank you Scarlett." He says, the tiredness seemingly seeping away.

I smile too, but as we near the door, I remember those headlines from the papers two years ago. All talking about those three teens. I'm surprised how little effort they seemingly used. Sure, the month long search was conducted way past its end date, but I guess the asylum was too much of an issue. Never the less, kids continued searching through it, and the ritual remained. There was now an added fear factor, and it was attracting visitors.

We finally arrived to the big double doors that gave way to the towering asylum, it's looming structure looking Dracula-like. The doors were old rotting wood, with intricate designs. one was off its hinges, and above them read "Mortenmoor Asslum" because some kid thought it'd be funny to ruin an already damaged building. Matt seemed to think it was funny though, and I smiled at that. He smacked my ass as I walked through the doors and whistled.

"Damn girl, you got booty!" Matt said. I smirked at him from over my shoulder and laughed. My face soon grew solemn as I looked around the rotunda we had walked into. It was a large circular room, very dark, with two (broken) frosted glass double doors on either side. I looked above us, and saw the glass dome way up that marked the top of this asylum. Trash littered the floor, along with caution tape teared off the stairs. There was so much trash, beer cans, and cloths, and caked mud with plenty of footprints. I'm sure once upon a time this operation all ran smoothly, with the head nun, Ms. Blackwell, keeping it all polished. Chipped dark oak stairs stood on the right side of the rotunda, and went sprawling up in a spiral motion to all the floors. Straight ahead was a large archway that seemingly led to a hallway. A once-beautiful angel statue stood in the very center of the rotunda, gleaming from the moonlight. It's wings were broken off, devil horns and graffiti obstructing the ghastly glow. pulled up the Wiki page on my phone to make sense of all of it.