Frights (Scary Stories)

8. A Night at Elkmans Asylum

Annie had been training for her new job for almost a week now, and after that there was another week to go. Though her training is only halfway over, she thinks she's fully prepared. Ann knows how to give patients their regular medicine, how to hold them down if they get upset, and how to avoid the really crazy ones. Even the nurses who had been working there for years avoid the really crazy ones. Most of the time at least. Annie had also learned that asylums are not what they seem. People think asylums help the mentally ill, this is mostly false. During her training she'd seen enough to know that maybe one or two nurses actually give a shit about the patients, the others just know how to shove pills down their throats to keep them quiet. Which type of nurse she would be she hadn't decided yet, she would try to be nice of course, but she has only so much patience.
It was about a hour drive from her apartment to the asylum and Ann would usually make it on time. Sometimes she would run late, just sometimes though. It was a cloudy evening when she pulled into the parking lot and exited her vehicle. The other nurses were walking ahead when Ann caught up with them. Once inside, they did the usual. Waited for the more experienced nurses to come tell them what to do, usually they came whenever they felt like it. She waited only 30 minutes before a group of "the old nurses," came by. The manager of the group told them that each nurse in training would go with a experienced one to see first hand what it's like. Annie followed her nurse, who didn't talk much. They passed a room with a open door, on the far end was another door which led to a balcony.
"Patients can go out on the balcony?" Annie asked.
The nurse looked back at her, "Sometimes, with supervision of course. Usually Deloris is the only one who sits out there." Once at the end of the hall, the nurse pulled out her keys and began to unlock a door.
"This patient is a wild one, kind of a pervert. We go in and give him his medication, just do what I say." She opened the door to the room and there a old man laid in his bed. The two walked over to him, he seemed very calm. The nurse greeted him and he greeted her back. His eyes were closed like he was asleep.
"Here, you give him this," the nurse told Annie holding out a hand with two pills in it. Ann took the pills and held them close to his mouth, he opened his mouth as she popped the pills in. His eyes opened as he grabbed her arm, she tried to pull back but he pulled her in closer and grabbed her face. He pressed his lips against hers giving her a big, sloppy, kiss. The nurse laughed as she pulled him back. Annie wiped her mouth and looked at the both of them in disgust. She ran out of the room and to the nurses office, there she began to weep. Weeping because of sadness wasn't the case, she was mad. Mad that the other nurse just sat there laughing while she was being physically assaulted. Thirty minutes went by when Ann started to get a pounding headache, then she realized she hadn't seen another nurse or patient go by since she ran out of the room. She began to read a magazine when she heard distant laughing, giggling, from one of the rooms. She stood and peeked into the hallway. It was coming from the balcony room. The floor creaked as Ann moved closer to the door. Once to the door, she looked in. At the far end of the room on the balcony fence stood Deloris. She had her arms spread in a t pose while giggling. Annie ran to her to grab her down, but she was too late. Deloris let herself fall into the air and to the ground. Annie screamed in shock as she looked over the balcony to see blood draining from the woman's body.
"Help! I need help!" Ann screamed running into the hallway. The hallway was seemingly empty, except two figures on the opposite end. She ran closer to the figures until she saw what they truly were. A male patient stood over a unconscious nurse on the ground, pissing on her. Annie's scream echoed in the hallway as she ran back downstairs and towards the front exit. She ran closer and closer, and she was almost there till something stopped her. Her hands clapped over her mouth as a nude patient crawled on the ceiling like a spider. It jumped to the ground and started crawling on all fours chasing her. The patient barked like a dog behind her. Ann made it to a open door and slammed it shut behind her. A patient laid in the bed, Ann walked closer to him, weeping. Even after shaking him he didn't budge. A buzzing noise came from his mouth. Cautiously, Annie put a hand against his chin and pulled his mouth open. The source of the buzzing flew into the air, cicadas. Hundreds of them swarmed the room. Annie threw herself onto the ground and crawled into the bathroom connected to the patients room. She locked the door and backed away from it. The bathrooms light flickered as Ann looked into the mirror. Something was wrong. It felt like her tongue was moving on it's own. It didn't just feel like it, it was moving on it's own. She slowly stuck her tongue out of her mouth to see the devil's nightmare. Once taking a closer look, maggots could be seen swirling around in her tongue, eating at her flesh. Being so shocked she couldn't even scream anymore. She scratched at her tongue with her fingers trying to get them out. Then she saw straight razor sitting on the counter. Ann grabbed it quickly and slit her tongue open. Her tongue dangled out of her mouth, revealing more maggots inside. Screaming in pain and terror, she sawed the rest of her tongue off. It splatted onto the ground. Blood poured from her mouth as she tried to stop the bleeding. Ann ran out of the room, into the hallway, and out the front exit. She made it to her car and drove away. Blood almost black filled her lap as she speed to the hospital. At the hospital she jumped out of her car, and made it to the front door, then everything went black.

A cop sat in front of her hospital bed. She awoke, her tongue still numb from whatever they had to do to it. It was now day time and storming outside. Annie sat up in her hospital bed and looked at the officer with wide eyes. A nurse stood at the side watching.
"Hello Annie, I'm gonna ask you some questions about what you experienced last night at Elkmans, okay?"
Ann nodded.
"I know you can't really speak right know, but I have a paper and pen for you to write your response on."
The cop handed her the paper and pen and she clinched it hard. Before the cop could get the first question out Ann went to writing on her paper. She didn't want to answer questions, she wanted people to know what terrible things she went through in that hell hole. Everything was written down. The man grabbing her and kissing her, Deloris jumping from the balcony, the man pissing on the unconscious nurse, the person on the ceiling, the cicadas, and the maggots.  The nurse and cop looked at each other in confusion as Ann handed the paper back to the cop. The nurse went by the cops side reading it with him. She saw their eyes widen as they kept reading. The policeman set the paper and pen down on the ground.
"Ann, have you heard of Olanzapine?"
She nodded, even though she really hadn't.
"Well its a medication used to treat Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. And the doctors found it in your bloodstream. Well people may experience hallucinations as a side effect. That's what we believe happened in your case. Annie, everyone's fine. Nothing happened at Elkmans, every patient and nurse is accounted for. Everyone except you."
The world began to spin faster. Ann was overwhelmed with what was just told to her. The man that grabbed her and kissed her had schizophrenia, he must have spit something in her mouth to make her hallucinate. She sat in her bed staring at the cop and the nurse both, then she began screaming at the top of her lungs like a mad man.