Pentatonix: Asylum

Thirty-one

The male nurses calm the girl who claims to be Anne Frank down and brings her to Sister Esther's office.

"So, you're Anne Frank, huh? What a relief to millions of school children to know you survived." Esther says.

"You think I'm crazy." Anne says.

"Anne Frank died in 1945 jut weeks before the camp was liberated." Esther says.

"There were so many bodies high when they arrived. Thousands buried in mass graves. I wasn't one of them. I was too sick to tell anyone my name! Even if they asked, the brits except any kind of health. After what happened on the streets in Germany, the pick pocket, a thief! Then I met a soldier. He saved me. He brought me into America." Anne explains.

"So you're a married lady?" Esther asks.

"A widow. William was called back to Korea for American conflict. He was killed there in '52. The same year my diary was published in America. Only then did I realized that I had survived the war." Anne says.

"You made no attempt to contact your father." Esther says.

"I wanted to, but he had a new family and you know. Then there was my diary and people finally started to pay attention to us and all because of a fifteen year old girl. She had to stay fifteen!" Anne says.

She pauses for a second to hold back tears.

"I'd do more good dead than alive." Anne continues.

"Ya story, is indecent." Esther says with her hands together on her desk.

"No! You are indecent! You have a Naiz war criminal working here!" Anne says.

Esther takes a deep breath and tries not to let Anne see that she believes in what she is saying.

"He wasn't called Koop then. He was Cooper. Hans Cooper. He was SS and he was not like the others. I saw him the night we arrived in Auschwitz. That's where they sent us first." Anne explains further.

"He seemed...kind, gentle. I remember that there were two boys, twins, and when the guards took the other children away- Cooper saved those twins! I can recall thinking that they were lucky, but no body was lucky in there. I didn't know it then, but Dr.Cooper never saved a single soul." Anne says.

Esther listens intently as Anne goes on with her story.

"He would visit us in the woman's bunks and bring us sweets; chocolates. The guards would never strike us when he was present. He wanted to help he said, but he couldn't treat all the girls he would say. So we had little chance." Anne says.

As she's explaining the story to Esther she starts to have flashbacks to her time in Auschwitz.

"And when they came back, if they came back, something had changed! He had made them sick! Whatever he'd done to them they'd be afraid to speak out and sworn to secrecy." Anne says.

"It wasn't him." Esther says.

"I know what I saw!" Anne says.

"You didn't see anything because you weren't there!" Esther spats.

Anne rolls up her sleeve to reveal the numbers on her arm.

"I know where I came from, sister! Why don't you see about Dr.Koop."

**
"I've found myself in a bit of an unethically dilemma here, Scott. If I deem you sane you'll almost certainly get the electric chair, but if I judge you unfit to stand trial, you'll be allowed to live out the rest of your days here." Avi says.

Scott just looks at him and doesn't know what to say.

"So, what's the problem?" Scott asks.

"The problem is I don't think you're crazy, but I don't think you're evil." Avi explains.

"You think I'm innocent?" Scott asks.

Avi pauses and sighs.

"In some ways yes. The innocent victim of society that drove you to commit an act so antithetical to who you are as a person. That your psych made up this elaborate story about alien abduction to absolve you of your guilt."

"No! It's not true!" Scott says.

"I believe it is, but I also believe that the death the state will serve you will do no moral purpose." Avi says.

Scott sits there as he can't believe what Avi is saying to him.

He now knows that the possibility of going to the electric chair is becoming more and more real as Avi talks.

"Listen to me, Scott. I'm willing to lie to the courts in order to save your life, but only under one condition. That for the rest of our time together you face the truth of what you've done." Avi explains.

"If you can do that, then I'll be able to leave here feeling I've done some good." Avi continues.

"I already told you what happened." Scott says with a scared look in his eyes.

"Yes, but now let me tell you." Avi starts.

"You married Stephanie in secret. You didn't feel you could tell anyone and as time passed which is when your greatest joy became your greatest shame. The pressure you built needs a release and it found one." Avi explains.

Scott sits there and listens to what all Avi has to say and he think everything is complete and utter bullshit.

"January 16, Donna berton was abducted from the library as she was going for a drive from the gas station you worked at. Her remains were found two days later. He skin had been removed." Avi says as he shows Scott the pictures of the woman's remains.

Scott shakes his head.

"And cut off her head." Avi says.

Scott just stares horrified at the pictures Avi has put out in front of him on the desk.

"Why the skin, Scott? Why the head?" Avi asks.

"I don't know." Scott says.

"Her race, her identity! The very thing that Stephanie's society was punishing you for-"

"No!" Scott yells.

He shakes his head and continues to look Avi straight in the eyes.

Avi looks back for answers, but Scott gives none.

"It happened again in March. Allison Ridell. She was taken outside of her home. Then it happened to Stephanie. The night it happened you said you had been visited by friends. You said that they were suspicious and they followed you home." Avi says.

"But...but it wasn't them." Scott says tears filling his eyes.

"Of course it was, Scott. And maybe Stephanie had had enough of the hiding. The shame and when she confronted you about it, you snapped. That rage, that shame finally found its real target. You killed the thing that you loved the most." Avi says.

Scott continues to shake his head at everything Avi is saying as more tears begin to fill his eyes.

"It wasn't me."