Mind's Echo

Alex

The turnoff for Clarkmann Home for the Mentally Insane loomed in the distance as Alex drove along the highway. A song was playing on the radio, and Alex sat tapping the steering wheel and singing between puffs of his cigarette. Fittingly enough for the situation, it was Avenge Sevenfold's song Nightmares. The night approaching might be shaping up to be scary, what with a storm brewing and a visit to a haunted asylum on the itinerary, but he was in a great mood.

Alex was your typical college student, although he did not care much for the social parties that one may associate with such a young breed. He had been traveling across country for a year, exploring and taking photographs of different abandoned buildings in America, for a book he was working on.

He pulled into the overgrown driveway which led to the asylum. He only had to drive a short distance before reaching his destination. Alex parked the car and quickly got out, eager to begin his adventure. For a moment, he stood very still, just taking in the dark, ominous surroundings.

There stood the forlorn building that had once housed the mentally ill, upon which, according to legend, a mad doctor had performed sadistic experiments before he, himself, was murdered by a patient's husband. The night of the tragic murder, the patients reacted to the disturbing event by starting a riot, which led to the tragic deaths of many staff members. It was said that many of the patients simply vanished that night, running off into the surrounding wooded countryside, and were never seen nor heard from again. Alex believed, at the most, that these were merely urban legends derived from perhaps some minor, more mundane incident that might have occurred there years ago. Perhaps a doctor was caught for some form of malpractice and, over time, the facts were twisted into a horror story one might tell their friends while visiting the place. Alex was quite skeptical of many legends about such places as he'd been to similar locations with similar stories that had all proven to be hoaxes.

The front entrance of the asylum beckoned to him, but before he could ascend the porch steps, a shadowy figure slowly approached him from out of his peripheral vision. Alex spun around to see a small woman, with shining blonde hair, holding a switchblade and staring at him with a look of unease and distrust.

"Whoa, wait! I'll give you everything I have, miss, just don't hurt me! I won't call the police, either, you can have my wallet, camera, cell phone, and vehicle. I swear won't call the police," Alex stammered, holding all his possessions out, offering them to her nervously.