Asylum: The Complete Series (All 8 Books)

by Amy Cross

  "What was she like?" I ask.

  "She was a nice girl. Friendly, a little quiet. Not the kind of person you'd ever think would do something like that". She pauses for a moment. "Actually, after she died, they broke into her apartment and found some pretty dark stuff. Turns out she was into weird fetishes and... well, I don't know, the kind of thing that normal people wouldn't be into, if you know what I mean. Just goes to show, you can never really know what someone's like. They might seem meek and quiet on the outside, but inside they might be totally different". She swallows hard. "Now, do you want to come with me and learn the ropes?"

  "Sure," I say, getting up and following her through to the office, where she takes some papers from one of the filing cabinets. I feel kind of dazed, as if I haven't quite recovered from everything that happened to me tonight.

  "You need to sign some forms," she says. "Just regular paperwork that everyone signs when they come to work at Crestview. It covers things like liability, disclosure agreements, things like that". She slides the forms over to me, along with a pen. "You're working here for the whole summer, right?"

  "Yeah," I say, staring at the forms. There's a part of me that wants to run screaming out of this place and never come back, but there's another part of me that wants to stay and understand what happened tonight. After all, those emotions were a part of me, and I feel like maybe I could get them under control a little better. If I was strong enough to get out of there, maybe I'm strong enough to go back in and face them again. I guess at heart I'm just curious; despite the fact that I'm scared, I really want to know what happened tonight. I want to go back in there and face that force again. I should be terrified; instead, I'm fascinated.

  "Sign up, then," Lizzie says, "and then I can show you how we do things around here".

  I quickly sign the forms, before I get a chance to change my mind. I need to prepare properly, and have some kind of plan, but I want to go to the abandoned ward again one night, and face up to my fears properly.

  "Welcome to the team," Lizzie says, putting the forms away before leading me back out to the reception area. For the next hour, we walk the wards and she explains how the job works. She tells me all about the various responsibilities we have to the residents, and she explains their needs. She lets me know that there are certain things I'm allowed to do, and certain things I can't do under any circumstances, and she's very careful to make sure I understand that I must never, ever attempt to provide medical treatment to any of the residents. Eventually she tells me it's time for us to check on the residents once again, so she sends me off to the red ward so I can make sure no-one has got up and started wandering about. Fortunately, this time all the doors are closed, and I carefully check each room to make sure that the residents are asleep. When I get to the final door, however, I look into the room and find that Mr. Jenkins is sitting on the edge of his bed.

  "Hey," I say, keeping my voice down so that I don't wake any of the others. "Are you okay?"

  He looks up at me. "I knew you couldn't keep away," he says with a smile. He leans over and pats the bedsheets. "Fancy keeping an old man warm at night, do you?"

  "I'm just making sure you don't need anything," I tell him.

  "You worried I might go wandering off again?" he asks.

  "A little. You've got history".

  "I suppose that's fair," he says. "A pretty girl like you doesn't want to spend her night chasing after an old fart like me". He pauses for a moment. "So did you see her?"

  I stare at him. "See who?"

  He smiles. "Are you staying?"

  "I've got another shift tomorrow," I say. "Who do you think I might have seen?"

  He smiles. "You didn't see her. If you'd seen her, you wouldn't still be here, not if you're right in the head".

  "Good night," I say.

  I pull the door shut and stand alone in the corridor for a moment. I feel as if someone is watching me, and eventually I become convinced that Jennifer Mathis is standing right behind me. At first, I'm scared to turn around, because I don't want to look into her eyes again. Eventually, however, I realize that there's nothing she can do to me, not while we're away from the abandoned ward. For whatever reason, her powers seem to be confined to that part of the building, so I take a deep breath and decide I'm going to turn and face her. I pause a little longer, reminding myself that I have to be strong, and feeling as if her eyes are burning into the back of my head. I have to show her, and show myself, that I'm not scared of her. Finally, I take a deep breath and turn around.

  There's no-one there.

  Chapter Eight

  Eleven years ago

  "So do you remember what we talked about yesterday?" my father asks as we sit at the kitchen table. It's 8am and I'm supposed to be eating my breakfast, but I feel kind of sick. I heard the phone ring a few hours ago, and I know what's coming. "About your mother?" he continues. "Do you remember when we -"

  "I know she's dead," I say suddenly.

  "You know?" he replies, seeming a little surprised.

  "I guessed," I say, swallowing a spoonful of cereal. "I heard you on the phone". It's true: the phone rang at about 5am, and I was already awake anyway, so I heard my father talking to someone for a few minutes. He asked whether 'it' had been peaceful, and whether 'it' has been painful. I didn't hear the answers. Although I'm only seven years old, I was still able to work out what he was talking about.

  There's an awkward pause. "She wasn't in pain at the end," he says. "She was asleep when it happened, so she didn't even know. The most important thing is that you remember she loved you very much, and that she would never have gone away if she had a choice. Everyone did the best they could, but sometimes bad things happen. You just have to focus on the good memories".

  "I know," I say, feeling kind of numb. "Do you know what her last words were?"

  "I'm sorry," he replies, "I don't. I can ask one of the nurses, though".

  "I'd like to know," I say, feeling that it's somehow important. I can't help thinking that if my mother knew she was about to die, she'd have said something important at the end, something profound; maybe she even sent me a message.

  "I'm going to tell your teachers," he continues after a moment. "They'll make sure that everything's okay at school".

  "When do I have to go back?" I ask.

  "You'll go today, as normal".

  "Today?" I ask, suddenly feeling a horrible sense of nausea in the pit of my stomach. I'd assumed that I would have at least a week off, and it never occurred to me that he might send me to school straight away.

  "Your Mom and I talked about it," he continues, "and we decided it'd be best to keep everything as normal as possible. It's better for you to be at school with your friends instead of sitting around here. The last thing you need to do is fall behind in class. Anyway, I've got to go and sort out some stuff, so it's best if..." He pauses for a moment. "You'll be fine, Juliet. Just go to school and focus on normal things. Your Mom would want you to keep on with your life".

  I look down at my cereal. "Can I have one day off?" I ask. "Just one?"

  "It's not a good idea," he replies. "Like I said, your Mom and I talked it over quite extensively, and we decided to minimize the disruption to your life as much as possible. It might seem hard right now, but you'll be glad later". He gets up and walks around the table, and then he kneels next to me. "Look at me, Juliet".

  I turn to face him, even though I know I won't like what he says.

  "Part of being brave is about doing things you don't want to do. I have to go and do some things today that I don't want to do, and you have to do the same. Okay?"

  "Okay," I say, realizing there's no point arguing with him. He's obviously decided that I have to go to school, and I can't get out of it, even if I hate the idea of everyone looking at me and knowing what's happened.

  "Just keep your eyes dry, put on a smile, and act like normal". He stares at me for a moment. "It's the best way, Juliet".

  I nod.


  "You don't want people to treat you differently, do you?"

  I shake my head.

  "That's my girl," he continues, giving me a brief hug. "If you act upset, people will start treating you differently, and that's not a good thing. So just be brave, okay? Don't let people see that anything's changed. Act normal. It's the best way through this, I promise. And then, after school, we'll go and have a special ice cream with all the toppings. Your choice. Is that a deal?"

  I nod.

  "That's my brave girl," he says. "Now you wait right here, and I'll go and get some things together before I take you to school". He grabs some tissue paper from the counter and places it on the table in front of me. "If you want to cry, there's no reason to hold it all in, okay? Just get it out now, before we leave. If you're feeling sad, Juliet, you should let it out instead of forcing it to build up inside. You understand that, don't you?"

  I nod.

  "Okay," he says, kissing the top of my head before he heads out of the room.

  Sitting alone, I stare at the tissue paper and decide I probably don't want to cry. I've had long enough to prepare myself for this moment, and in a strange way I feel relieved. There's definitely a weird feeling in my stomach, as if I'm nervous about something, but basically I feel that crying would be a waste of time. My eyes feel a little heavy for a moment, but the sensation soon passes. There's something else, though; I feel as if maybe, if I turn around, my mother will be there, watching me. I pause, trying to decide whether I should turn and look, and finally I can't help myself. As I look around, however, the feeling evaporates and I'm left sitting all alone.

  Epilogue

  Today

  "So?" my father asks as I get into the car. "How'd it go?"

  "Fine," I reply, strapping myself into the safety buckle. Now that my shift is over and the sun is coming up, I feel like I'm in some kind of trance.

  "Fine?" He stares at me, clearly waiting for me to give him some more details. "Come on, Juliet, don't keep me in suspense. What happened? Did you do a good job? Did you get on with the people? Did you make friends?"

  "Yeah," I say, deciding I definitely don't want to tell him everything that happened. He'd only tell me I'm being stupid, so I figure there's no point giving him the opportunity. "It was pretty much how you'd expect," I add. "I just spent the night checking on patients and going to look for them if they wandered out of their rooms".

  "And you've got another shift tonight?"

  "Yeah," I say, taking a deep breath. "Actually, they want me almost every night. They..." I pause for a moment, before glancing out the window and seeing Crestview in the early morning light. It's the first time I've really seen the place properly, and I guess it doesn't look quite so fearsome. "I'm gonna be working most nights from now on," I continue. "I figure the pay's good, and it's not the worst job in the world. It's totally doable".

  "That's brilliant," he says, leaning over and giving me a hug. "I'm proud of you, Juliet". I flinch, knowing what he's going to say next. "Your Mom would be proud of you too. You know that, right?"

  "Yeah," I say quietly as I pull away from the hug. After everything that's happened over the past few hours, the last thing I want to do is have my father launch into one of his long stories about how proud my Mom would be. I guess he thinks it makes me feel better, but it doesn't. It really, really doesn't.

  "It's hard to believe you're finally in gainful employment," he continues. "I feel like you've really grown up today, Juliet. It took a while, but I always knew you could do it".

  "That's great," I say quietly.

  "Aren't you proud of yourself?" he asks. "Doesn't it feel good to do an honest night's work for an honest paycheck?"

  "You know," I say, turning to him, "I'm really exhausted and I have to be back here in about fourteen hours for my next shift, so is it okay if we just get home? I really need to sleep".

  "Sure," he says, starting the car. "You know, I was actually going to offer to take you for breakfast at that diner you like. Interested? It's on me".

  "No thanks," I reply, staring out at Crestview. "I'm tired".

  "You don't want maple syrup?" he asks. "I'll pay. All you have to do is choose whatever you want from the menu".

  "Not right now," I say, turning to him. "I'm not a big fan of breakfast".

  "Okay," he replies, finally getting the hint. "Another time, maybe".

  I don't even bother to reply. As the car pulls away, I can't help but keep staring back at the building. Whatever happened during the night, it felt strange but also new, and I want to experience it again; the next time, though, I'm going to be better prepared. I feel as if there's something in that abandoned ward that made sense to me, and that seems even now to be calling me to come back so I can experience it again and again. I can't explain the feeling, but I feel as if there's something waiting in there for me.

  Eventually the building goes out of view, and I turn to look at the road ahead. In some strange way, I feel like something has woken up inside my head. It's almost as if there are things I've been keeping hidden from myself for a long, long time, and finally the events of the past night have stirred them and brought them to the surface. In a way, I guess that's why I'm not worried about going back to Crestview: I know that whatever was in that abandoned ward, it was mostly just a manifestation of my own thoughts. I'm not scared of going back; I'm excited.

  COMING SOON

  The Letting

  (The Devil's Photographer 1.3)

  Recovering from the incident at the church, Kate is keen to get her hands on the camera she dropped. John Dagwood, meanwhile, is being strangely elusive, as if he's unwilling to let Kate's work progress too far. Soon, Kate starts to learn more about Dagwood, including his interests in medieval medicine and his involvement with a strange group that has strong links to the events that recently took place at St. Abraham's.

  The Promise

  (The Devil's Photographer 1.4)

  Now that she knows more about Amin Bell, Kate is certain that she's on the verge of an important breakthrough. Dagwood is still acting strangely, however, and Kate decides that there's only one way she can get to the heart of his activities. Allowing herself to be drawn deeper and deeper into Dagwood's world, however, Kate realizes too late that she might be trapped in a nightmare from which she can never escape. All roads, it appears, lead back to the burned-out church where Amin Bell was last seen.

  Day Five

  (Mass Extinction Event 1.5)

  In New York, Elizabeth becomes increasingly concerned about Bob's treatment of the mysterious white-haired girl. With Henry unable to see past Bob's offer of safety, Elizabeth decides she needs to take matters into her own hands, but by trying to release the girl from the basement, is she making a mistake that could have tragic consequences? Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, Thomas and Joe have to make a difficult decision that could change their lives forever.

  Day Six

  (Mass Extinction Event 1.6)

  Forced to choose between her brother and her sense of right and wrong, Elizabeth is pushed into an awkward alliance with someone she doesn't really trust. In the process, she makes a shocking discovery about the virus that has wiped out most of the city, and about Bob's generosity. In Oklahoma, Thomas and Joe set out on a journey that forces them to confront the truth about their situation.

  Awake

  (Sleepy 1.1)

  Having survived a near-fatal car crash, Jane Marten starts to experience a series of excruciating headaches. Neuro-surgeons diagnose a permanent injury to her brain stem, which means that she will suffer terrible pain every time she enters REM sleep. The only solution is an experimental new procedure that will prevent Jane from ever falling asleep again. The operation is extremely risky, but it's the only way to save Jane from near-certain death.

  Once the surgery has been completed, Jane finds that the headaches are gone. But in their place, she now becomes aware of strange objects in her peripheral vision. Unable to sleep for the rest of her life,
she inhabits a curious half-awake, half-asleep world in which nothing is quite as it seems. Has the surgery damaged Jane's brain and caused her to hallucinate, or is she now becoming aware of a very real, and very dangerous, world that is hidden to most people?

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