Asylum || L.H.

Don't Let Me Drown

  I decide to leave Lilly's room and head to one of the offices. I walk into the dark room and begin to search through one of the many filing cabinets. It's full of patient files. They're alphabetized.

I pull one out at random. The name read 'Michael Clifford'. Under the category 'reason for admission' it read 'murder'.

How awful, a innocent girl is looked at as an equal to a murderer. I continue to look through the many folders, looking for one specifically.

Then I find it, 'Luke Hemmings'. Reason for admission was labeled 'suicidal'. Just as I was about to continue reading the folder, Luke appeared right in front of me. His scared forehead and pale face greeted me. Along with Lilly clinging to his leg, peering at me. Her soaking wet dress and her skinny wrists, scared from restraint, had a very sad aura.

"You have to help us." Luke says, his dull blue eyes looking into mine.

He then points towards the desk , and the next thing I know he's gone. I walk over to the desk and begin to search through the papers.

I find a small scrapbook. It's filled to the brim with pictures of patients. I open to a random page and it's a photo of a young man. He has curly hair and dull eyes. He's strapped to a operating table, pulling at the restraints. Hear is evident in his face.

I turn the page and come across a disturbing photo. It was of a door with a small window like opening in the center. It had 'No. 5' painted above the door. The horrifying part was the arm extending out of the small opening. Not even big enough to get a look at the patients face.

I close the photo album, no longer wanting to see these awful photos. I begin to look through the drawers of the desk. The first drawer held pens and many scattered documents.

The second drawer had a journal in it. The binding was worn and pages had taken on a yellow color. I open the journal and find that it is the doctors. I opened the first page of the journal and find that it's about an experiment conducted on patients.

It was about lobotomies. The doctor stated that the mortality rate was extremely high, but insisted it was a great way to cure insanity. There was a drawn diagram of the procedure. There were many hypothesis written about mental illness written in the journal. It seemed as though the doctor was set on finding a cure for insanity. When, in fact, most the people he was operating on weren't insane at all.

  I close the journal and put it in my hoodie pocket, instead of returning it to the drawer it had sat in for so long. I exit the room, no longer wanting to hear of the experimental procedures the doctor had preformed.

I walk down the halls of the asylum, it seemed as though you could feel different emotions with each room you passed. I walk past the back exit and suddenly the door flys open. I look out the door and see that it had stopped raining.

I walk out the door, inhaling the fresh air. I look at the fenced in yard. There's a pond towards the back of the yard, I almost felt drawn to it. I walk to the small pond, sticks crunching beneath my feet.

The water of the pond is still a crystal blue. I wonder how the water still seemed so beautiful in such a place.

I walk until I'm standing at the edge of the water. I get on my knees and bend over to look at the water.

Instead of seeing my reflection staring back, I see Lillian's face staring back at mine.

Lilly is prancing around the pond. I see other patients outside doing a variety of activities. The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and there didn't seem to be a cloud in the sky.

Lillian began to pick flowers that grew around the pond. She looks on at the water, and sees a flower sitting on a lilly pad. The girl begins to walk into the pond. The water slowly rising the farther she walks.

  She reaches the lilly pad and grabs the flower.  She's now having to swim, no longer being able to touch the bottom of the pond.

She begins to swim to the edge of the pond. When she finally reaches the edge a nurse comes running towards her, a furious look on her face. It was the same nurse that punished Lillian before.

"I thought I told you, you're not allowed to go into the pond!" She yelled at the small girl.

"I'm sorry, but I had to get the pretty flower" Lilly replies, holding the flower up for the nurse to see.

  The nurse snatches the flower out of her hands and throws it to the ground. The sudden movement causing Lilly to flinch.

"Well, if you want to swim let's go!" The nurse says with an evil smile plastered onto her face.

She grabs Lillian's arm and drags her towards the water. Lilly begins to scream for help, but is soon silenced by the intake of water.

The nurse pushes Lilly under the water. Lilly's arms flail violently, trying to reach the surface for air.

  Soon the flailing stops and the nurse scoops up her body. She begins to run towards the asylum, carrying Lilly's small body in her arms.

"Someone help! She's drowned! I tried to save her, but I was to late!" The nurse screams as nurses and the doctor crowd around her.

The doctor takes the body away and the nurse returns to the pond. She looks at the water and stares with a blank face.

"Little brat had it coming" She mumbles

I quickly snap out of my trance with the water. I backup, not wanting to fall in. I begin to walk back towards the asylum. I felt sick to my stomach. A nurse had gotten away with murder. She was trusted to care for these people, but instead she became their worst nightmare.

  As in heading back up to the asylum I turn my flashlight to the left. The scene is shocking.

Under and old tree there was a small graveyard. Each grave is marked with a tiny wooden cross. There seemed to not be much thought put into the graveyard. The crosses were sloppily made, and they were placed almost on top of each other.

I open the journal, hoping to find something about the graveyard. I sat there for fifteen minutes, flipping through the pages of the journal. Finally I found something in a entry the doctor had written in messy cursive writing.

  January 5th, 1902

  My experiments have resulted in many deaths. Each leading me closer to my answer. I don't see the deaths as bad things. They're helping find the cure for insanity. They should be honored.

I have started a small graveyard in the back. I had no where to place the bodies of the dead. They're families no longer carrying enough to know whether their dead or not. I simply burry them in the back, no one will even notice they're missing.

The writing then continues to talk about his latest surgery. I don't bother reading anymore. These poor souls were killed, simply because the doctor needed a test subject. They were used as guinea pigs, just for research that wasn't truly helping.

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