Heroes

Chapter 1. The asylum

The building was huge and, on this day, a heavy fog clung to it and blanketed it thickly, so I could barely see through it. The van drove right up to the front gate: a high arched iron gate running the entire way around the building, with barbed wire coiled on top. I looked out of the window in fear and shrunk down a little. I was more fearful now than before. The gate opened and, as we passed through, I saw another man in a white coat staring at me. His eyes followed me until I was too far away and then he closed the gates. My stomach felt weird, like I was going to throw up or something. The van drove onto a gravel path and pulled up outside the front doors. The back of the van opened and I was hauled out. Strong hands grabbed my upper arms and started pulling me towards the doors, but I remember struggling, and earning a punch in the stomach because of it.

The doors were made of dark wood, tall, with ornate handles. It was a strange choice of door for an asylum. They parted before us and, suddenly, the dark and ominous aspect of the outside of the building vanished. The walls were a soft blue, with clouds painted on at the top and grass at the bottom, border with the ground. The lights overhead weren't harsh and sterile, they were soft and illuminating. The floor beneath my feet was painted like a road, with cars in different places all along it. Just as I was marvelling in the enormous difference between what I saw outside and what's inside, the men continued pulling me down the hall.
There was a door directly ahead of us at the end of the hall, and then another just off. This is where they brought me. They knocked on the door first, heard a grunt from within, and opened the door, throwing me inside. They didn't accompany me, but there were other men in the room. The room itself was a large office, with bookcases lining the walls so you couldn't actually see the colour of them. A large window looked out over the grounds, where I saw several people huddled together. They all looked insane. Averting my attention, I looked at the man in front of me. He was quite large, old, and had obviously been working here for many years. There was a slightly mad aura around him, which you could only get from working in a place like this. A plaque on the front of his desk read 'J. Ludlow.' He stopped typing on his computer keyboard and looked me up and down.
"Mark?" His voice was deep and coarse and had no hint of care or affection in it.
I nodded and he typed something into his computer.
"And do you know why you're here?" He looked at me expectantly.
Again I nodded. He typed something once more.
"What you have, Mark, is not a gift, as you may have been told. It's a danger. A danger to everyone around you. And that's why we'll be putting you with the other freaks like you. In a place where they will be the only people who may be able to empathise with you. But don't count on it." He did a slight head movement to the other men in the room, and they took hold of me and took me out of the room.

Back in the hall, I was escorted towards the door at the end but, instead of going through the door, I was taken right, where an elevator was waiting, just out of sight of the front doors. The men pulled me into the elevator, pressed a button and the doors closed. The elevator ride was uneventful but, when the doors opened again, I instantly wanted to be back on it. The contrast between the upper level and this one was so drastic, it could've been in a completely different building. The colour of the walls was replaced with grey stone. The floor was stone and the ceiling was stone. Basically, everything was made of stone. I could tell by how cold it was that we were underground. I was taken down a hallway towards an opening in the stone. Curious, but now feeling even more scared than before, I looked around as we entered...and was shocked by what I saw.