Asylum Letter VII from Jay Scarlet at the Bastille Asylum for Misfits and Miscreants
Visions
I banged on the padded cell door in vain. I had to escape from this place before it went up in flames. I slid down the door and rested my head on the floor. Darkness was my only companion. No light was going to break through. But I could still see it despite the shadows. The blood, the fire, and the screams that enveloped the Asylum were still fresh on my mind. Death was coming and it was going to take us all.
***
It had happened just before Lobotomy came to do her nightly rounds. May-May was playing with Phelicks on the far side of our cell. I smiled at the two of them as I shuffled the cards. I don’t know how they came to be lost in the first place but one day Phelicks was at the window and he dropped a pouch into the cell. It was a nice emerald cloth pouch and inside was the cards. I had never been to a fortuneteller or Gypsy but somehow I knew what the cards meant every time I used them. I saw things through the cards just like I saw things in my dreams. I had been able to divine things in a much clearer way but it had taken some practice. I cut the deck three times and closed my eyes.
What does the future have in store? I thought.
I flipped the first card. It was a happy family standing outside a cottage and above the house was ten cups in an arch. The card represented my past and how everything was perfect then. My marriage, my career, my entire life was fine until Naughty and I killed Sarah and Ronald. I frowned as I turned over the second card and it was reversed, upside down. It was a blindfolded woman surrounded by eight swords staked into the ground. The card represented the present and that things that were already bad were going to get worse. What? What did this mean?
I heard something shatter, like something being thrown through glass. I looked up. A window? I looked over to May-May and Phelicks and neither of them seemed to have heard anything. I closed my eyes and I saw something. It was very dark but I could make out two figures. One was an older man by a window and he was staring out. The other figure was a younger man. He ran over and pushed the older man into the glass. It easily broke and the older man fell to the ground. The image faded into nothing. I shook my head and turned over the final card, the one meant for the future. A tower being destroyed by lightning bolt lay at my fingertips.
No.
Pain exploded behind my eyes and I screamed as fell backwards. I hit the ground and held my head as horrible images began to flood my sight. There was a storm raging outside. The only light given to me was the lightning strikes. I was running from something but I couldn’t tell what. As I ran I heard my feet stomping into something wet. I felt liquid splatter underneath me and when the lightning flashed all I could see was red. Blood flowed from the cages. Bodies lay in every direction. Some of them horribly mutilated beyond recognition and others looked as if they were just sleeping. Finally I reached a door and I quickly opened it. Inside I was shocked to find Lizzie Lobotomy dead on the floor before me. I looked up to find a man. There was something dark about him and I knew it the instant I saw him. He wore fine clothes and spectacles. His brown hair was slicked back but I could sense great evil from him. Then I saw the blade in his hand. This twisted, jagged piece of metal was bloody and the man smiled. The lightning flashed again and I felt a horrible burning in my chest. The man had pulled out a handkerchief and began to clean his weapon. I fell to my knees and the blood started to pour from my chest. I looked over to see that May-May was next to Lizzie. Dead. And I would be next. The man took off his glasses and tossed them to the floor. A golden throne appeared before him and he sat down on it.
“I will destroy you all, Jason.” He said to me. “There will be no one left alive. Innocent or guilty they all will die at my hand.” He smiled. “Just try and stop me”
The lightning cracked and the ceiling began to cave around all of us. The last thing I heard before everything went dark was his horrible laugh.
“Jay? Jay!” I woke up to May shaking me. He was coming. The man from my vision was coming and soon. Someone was going to die tonight and that would be the first of the grizzly body count.
“Alright, boys, time for bed.” I heard someone say. Lobotomy! Despite our mutual hatred for each other I didn’t want her to die. Not at his hands. I jumped up from the floor and grabbed her hand just before she could unlock the door.
“Jay let her go!” May said trying to break my grip but I couldn’t. I had to warn her and everyone else here.
“Listen to me.” I said. “Something horrible is about to occur, something that will send this entire place into a spiraling bloody end. You have to listen to me!” I cried. She had the power to stop this, all of this.“I see death. All I see is death. There will be blood, so much blood.” I covered my ears. “I can still hear the sounds of their screaming. They’re all screaming.” The sound was deafening. The voices were too much.
Lobotomy shoved something in my face and the din broke instantly. The smell was awful. Everything started to sway and blur. And before I could even hit the floor I was unconscious.
***
I awoke in darkness. I was in the padded cell reserved for Solitary Confinement. How long had I been out?
“Not long.” I heard my other half say. “Maybe an hour or two. It’s so hard to tell time here.” He sighed.
“Naughty, did you see it too?”
“Yes.” He whispered.
“What do we do now?”
“What do you mean ‘what do we do’?” He spat. “No one will believe you. You didn’t believe yourself when you first began dreaming.” I felt Naughty sit next to me. “Besides why should we help anyone?”
“What about May? The other inmates?” I asked. “There are several people here that don’t deserve to be caged. People that have been betrayed, like you and I.”
“Fine.” He sighed. “We’ll help the others. This means lots of planning. Where do we start?”
In the darkness we began to plan our next move when I heard the door unlock. Light spilled in and I covered my eyes. I was shackled and chained and I was dragged back to my cell. After they unchained me I was thrown to the floor and the door was slammed shut.
“How long has it been?” I ask May.
“A few hours.” He told me. “They want all the inmates in their cells and accounted for.”
“Why?”
“Because Dr. Smyth is dead and they suspect he was murdered.”
“What?!” I exclaimed. “How did it happen?”
“He fell from his window.” May explained. “Dr. Sodheim believes it was a suicide or so I’ve heard.”
This was it, the beginning of the end. I slunk over to the corner.
“What’s wrong?” May asked.
“We have to escape, May.” I said. “Or else we are all going to die here.”
