Escaping the Asylum

Chapter I

Chapter 1

Darkness, it's all I've ever been able to remember. Even in my earliest memories, I've never been able to see anything but the darkness. The sun would, as they say shine, but I could never see it. It would produce light, I saw it, but not the light everyone else saw.

I'd wander the streets during the day, wondering if I'd ever see something, something that wasn't darkness. I never did. I'd try to find food for myself, and my friends in the old dark house. It seemed to be the darkest of all the places I've ever seen, and it was my home. Myself and about 4 others lived there with an older lady who called herself Matilda. Matilda was never very nice to us.

She would take out this thing the older kids would call a whip, and hit us real hard until our skin was covered in odd colored markings and slashes. Our skip would ooz dark liquid, and pain was everywhere. If we cried, she'd only hit us harder.

I, the youngest of the 5, was beat the most. I, only eight at the time, was hit until my skin was numb, my light skin scarred with jagged lines, everywhere. Matilda would bring me to the underground cellar a lot, telling me that one of the older orphans, Clarissa was down there. I would go, only to get locked up for a large amount of time.

Once, when she let me back up Clarissa was gone. Matilda said she had gone crazy. I had always wondered where that was. When I asked, she said she went to a place called the Insane Asylum. I couldn't believe it, my best, and quite frankly my only friend, gone.

That day felt like the longest day of my life. I had gone and done what I usually would do; scavenge for food since Matilda would never give me any. I felt horrible. My grey skin felt more on fire than usual, and my bones felt flimsy and brittle. When I got to the place the man would always give me food, at the same time as always, he told me that he couldn't give me food anymore. He had lost his job, whatever that was, and couldn't afford to feed me anymore. I didn't understand, what did la job have to do with being able to feed someone? What did a job give you?

I was young and didn't understand grief, a new feeling I felt when I lost Clarissa. I didn't understand hunger, not hunger where your stomach growls and you can go on with your life knowing you will get food soon. The hunger I felt was intense, and painful. I had not idea where I would get my food, and felt myself growing weaker and weaker. I could no longer search for my own food and the darkness was spreading quickly.

Soon Matilda had told me I was going to be adopted. I was joyful, and quite honestly surprised they chose me out of all of the children here. I was the most scrawny, and a majority of my bones where right under my skin. I barely had the strength to smile. I asked one of the other kids to help me pack my small amount of belongings. I decided I would wear my best clothes, or the clothes that were the least dirty and had no holes in them, the day they took me to their home.

I had no idea what I hoped for them to be like, since I had no experience with adults except for Matilda and the man who no longer gave me food.

On the day I was leaving I remembered the name I had been called once, long ago. It was a name Clarissa gave me, because of my favorite hoodie that I'd had since I was 4. She said it was Red, like a cherry. I had no idea what red was, or what a cherry was. She decided to call me Cherry after that day, and after she left no one wanted to call me that, out of fear for making me upset. I understand why, hearing that name made me upset too, it made me want to get ride of my lunch, if I'd had any.

Matilda had me waiting in the lobby of the orphanage until my family came. I sat there with my hoodie, and my small suitcase, both ready to go. She said something that startled me when she noticed them pull up in the old gravel driveway.

"Clarissa is my Daughter." She has said, not looking up from her computer screen. "She's also your cousin, meaning you can't love her the way you did." I looked at her confused.

"What's love?" I had asked her innocently.

"It's what you feel for Clarissa. You cannot feel it anymore. You must forget her. She is your cousin and it's wrong." She told me. I felt sadness well up inside me, almost as if I wanted to cry out of my eyes.

The people walked in. Two men, tall, one a bit more than the other. They went up to Matilda and she pointed over to me. I tried to my best to smile, and they smiled wider than me as they walked over and crouched down to meet my eye level.

"Are you Chad?" The taller one asked. I looked at them confused, and then gasped in realization, that this was my real name, not some name Clarissa gave me. I nodded and they smiled, and the shorter one held his hand out to me.

"I'm Kevin, it's nice to meet you Chad." He said in a happy tone. He seemed to have darker hair than the other man. I shyly took his hand and he shook it.

The tall one did the same to me. He said, "And Im Sam." I nodded at him. "We are your new dads!" Sam said in an enthusiastic tone. I smile at him.

Kevin picked up my suitcase and I slipped on my hoodie. They signed some papers with Matilda, and I noticed some of the other orphans staring at us from the corridor that leads to the parlor. I waved to them, knowing how rare it was for one of us here at Matilda's to get adopted, and feeling a bit above them, knowing I was chosen over all of them.

Kevin took my bony left hand with his squishy right one, and Sam took my slim right hand with his firm left. They looked down and smiled at me, before beginning to walk to their car taking me with them.

Inside they had something car seat, and strapped me into it. Then Sam got behind and big circle, and Kevin to his right. My suitcase was sitting snugly in between the seats, and my things rattled inside because of the vast amount of empty space inside.  They connected their hands on a compartment in the middle of their seats, and Sam began to drive...