Alone, but Free

I walked through the double doors into the well-lit waiting room where many patients and relatives alike had spent countless hours. I approached the reception desk, walked past to the elevators, as they tried to stop me, I boarded and pressed the button for the penthouse on the top floor where the head, and the mastermind behind this conspiracy, lay in wait for me. As I stepped out of the elevator into the darkness that was the entire room. The elevator doors slowly closed and I was left in total, pitch black. I yelled out, but the sound of my voice bounced back at me, as if the wall was only 6 feet in front of me, but that couldn’t be so if this was the penthouse. I felt around for about six minutes and learned that the room I was in was in fact no larger than a hotel bathroom. I slowly came to realize what had happened, in my determination to confront the asylum, I had fallen into a trap and was now caught in a room I could not get out of, there was no button to call the elevator back up. I curled up in the corner of my new home, feeling cold and alone, weeping for my condition, thinking that if I had it to do it all over again, I would do it so much differently.

I woke up on the forest floor below my makeshift hammock near the pond in the park. It was mid-morning and I was beginning to feel the kind of hunger that comes from going many days without food. I contemplated my most recent dream, it was getting harder to tell the difference between what was real and what my mind made up. I was scared of being caught again but I couldn’t go to the police to report the conspiracy I had discovered without actual evidence, what were my choices? Alistair the detective was my only hope, he had actually done cases and proved things, but I hadn’t seen him since I told him to meet me in the park at 8 at night. Where had he gone? Had he been caught? Did they torture him to find out where I was? Were they on their way here now? These questions haunted me as I roamed the woods looking for berries or other edible plants. During my days in the woods, I grew to understand the birds chirps and learned to tell when someone was coming versus when the birds were just singing. This helped me remain invisible from many intruders into my spot in the woods, but the questions I had soon overwhelmed me and I had to find out what was happening in the town.

I emerged from the woods one morning, I’d decided that the radio station was safest and also would be a good place to find out information. It was early in the morning, but the radio station was buzzing with action, it seemed the past few days had been very eventful. They played the broadcast outside the station so that passersby could listen in. I heard the D.J. describe a tale of two murders which, according to the police were unrelated. The first to die was a man named Sile, he had been brutally stabbed to death in his own apartment by a man named Cleake, who was pleading insanity for a defense. This scared me, had the asylum learned to brainwash its patients? Then the next newsflash brought me back, I heard the name Alistair and was excited that he was mentioned, he had done it, he had proved the asylum conspiracy against all odds. But as I listened to the next statement, I learned that Alistair was the second victim, although the police believed it to be an open case, in my mind I knew that the asylum had reached him and cut him off like a rotten fruit, so that they could continue their crimes. I slumped against the wall when I heard the broadcast; my only friend, my only hope, was gone. What was I to do now? Where was I to go? The woods, they were safe enough. I could hide there indefinitely, I was slowly learning how to survive by eating plants and communicating with the animals. Yes, that’s what I would do. There was no more hope in the world, the town was falling apart and the asylum was making an army of lunatics by brainwash. If I stayed I would only join the ranks, maybe I could revisit the town every now and then, try to convince the people of their fate and bring them to hide in the woods with me. Not now though, I had to survive myself first. I returned to the forest, to the familiar whistles of the birds, the lapping of the water from the pond, and the wind through the trees.

They Got Me!

I woke up with a huge back ache, and groaned as I sat up in bed. As I looked around, I found that my back was the least of my problems, my "bed" was the ground and I was trapped inside of the holding cell that had been my home when I was being held by the asylum people. I saw in the corner my tally of how many times I had seen sunlight, I remember the number because the sun, if I ever saw it, was the greatest part of my day. In my total time of imprisonment in this cell in the sewer, I only saw the sun 53 times,  It seemed like I would have to start up the count again soon unless I found the hidden button that had helped me escape before. It had been sol ong, it took me five minutes of frustration to locate the button and I was just about to press it when I heard a sound outside the door, I froze as the door slid away and standing there was a man I had definitely seen before.

“Who are you?” I asked. “I’m Alistair Oxley, the town detective, and who might you be?” he said. "My name is Robin, Robin Spartacus Moore,” I replied. “Have you seen a girl named Annalisa with chocolatey hair? I’ve been sent by her friend Xiu Li to find her.” Moore’s expression changed upon hearing his words. “We can’t talk about this with that door open, come inside.” I pressed the button to seal the doorway again so we could talk about the girl I had been helping hide here. The fact that I found myself here and that she was gone meant that she was gone, taken by the guards from the asylum. This man was willing to help, and I had a weird sense that I could trust him. I checked my watch, and noticed that if I had gone to work today that my lunch break was nearly over, I decided that it was better to be late than never go without calling, hopefully the boss would look over my tardiness. I rushed out of the room and made it to work just in time to explain my lateness and get scolded and punished by my boss. I was assigned full-day shifts for the next 7 days, I didn't dare argue because I knew that this was probably near my 13th strike.

The next few days, all I could think about was my recent experience with Alistair and how we might be able to expose the asylum for what it was and get rid of their practices once and for all. The fact that they had reopened the room in the sewer was scary, and that thye had also found me meant that I had to hide; I couldn't go home anymore and visiting popular places would be risky. I had to risk one visit back to the apartment to organize my research so the police would be able to understand my work. While I was there I gathered any valuables, thinking I could go to Alistair and trade them for a room or something. I stored my things in the dumpster out back since the trash guys didn't come until next Tuesday, and I headed to the park in hopes of finding a secluded spot I could hide for the next few days.

In the middle of my shift one day, Alistair came running in asking for me; I ran over and took him outside yelling out to my boss, "This'll only take a minute!" Alistair told me what he had learned by investigating around the room and showed me that it was not just the Center for People with Special Needs that I had to worry about, it was a lot of asylums around the country. I said, "Ok, Ok, so we know what we're up against now; this isn't the best place to talk more about the subject. Meet me at 8 o'clock P.M. on the far side of the lake in the park." He gave me a manila envelope and walked away. I went back to work, but at the end of my shift I told my boss that I would be quitting at the end of the week.