Punishment In Due Course

CHAPTER ONE

The Mental Asylum in Scarborough is world famous. It doesn't have the best facilities and it doesn't have the best design. It doesn't have any of that. What it does have, though, is the craziest of the crazy, the real psychos, the ones that give your nightmares, nightmares. If there is one thing you don't want to do, that one thing is, don't go to Scarborough. They don't have any security, because they don't need it. All they need to keep the inmates in check, is a baton and taser. If an inmate forgets to clean their bed, that's one hit with the baton. They talk back, 2 hits. They start a fight, the guards bring out the taser. Soon they started to understand. You stuff up, hit by the baton. You stuff up big time, you get the taser.

Now, the Mental Asylum is just a relic in its former glory. The once feared aura that it had was gone. The walls are now half destroyed. The doors have been taken away and the rooms are quiet and soundless. The place was a playground for kids to try and impress their friends. One of these boys was named James. James was a smart kid, had good grades and a good group of friends. However, he wasn't a confident boy. In his group of friends, there was a boy, whom they saw him as a leader. This boy was known as Jacob. Jacob told James to go into the Asylum.

"I don't want to, it looks scary", said James.

"I don't care, go in there", replied Jacob.

"Just do it, James", said another boy.

"Go on James, prove to us why you deserve to hang out with us", said Jacob with a 'get on with it' expression on his face.

"Fine, Jacob, I will", snapped James. He turned and looked at the entrance, and with a deep breath, went into the Asylum.

The Asylum was dark. James had to get the light up on his own phone and, just in case, decided to film it. He thought that maybe, just maybe if he filmed it, he would be finally taken seriously within the group.

"Jesus Christ, this is stupid", James said to himself. But he kept going. Eventually he found what he thought was, the waiting room, where there was a glimmer of light, not much, but enough for James to turn off the light on his phone. James had a look around and tried to imagine what it looked like in its prime. He imagined there was straight-jackets on the shelves, people sitting in the chairs, waiting to see their loved ones. He was nearly right. What the waiting room actually looked like was; White walls with posters on them, the chairs were solid steel (and uncomfortable to sit on). There was also a desk with a list of inmates who were checked in and checked out. James saw the very same desk, in the corner. But, there was markings on the ground.

"The markings, they look like wooden legs, the ones that you would find on a de..." as he was thinking that, James suddenly put the pieces together. The markings were desk legs. There was a desk in the corner. The markings looked recent and new. James slowly walked over to the desk, ever so slowly with the phone still recording.

"Hello?" James called out nervously. "Anyone there?"

He kept walking over, breathing fast. Then, he believed he saw something.

"Is anyone there?" James called out, confidence growing. He got to the desk and there was a...note. The note was just lying there, unmoving. James picked it up and read the following words:

Welcome, James. Welcome to my domain. You shouldn't have come here, not alone anyway. Welcome...

Now start running.

James saw the note, but didn't register the words because something else was happening. Something freakier and something that couldn't be explained. The words. They weren't all there on the note. They were writing as James was reading. He put the note down and, breathing heavily, turned around and he screamed as loud as he could. He should've listened. He should've started to run.