Chapter 1
The building had been abandoned for a decade when the kids went exploring inside. It was all because of a friends small dare.
The dare was simple - go inside the building and find a patients file. If they followed through with the dare, that is. Most people were too afraid of the asylum to even go past the gate.
--Before--
If these walls could talk they would tell a story of death and abuse. A story of patients who had died and didn't have family to mourn their loss. Or had family who just didn't care enough to be saddened by their deaths.
The asylum was closed now but not too long ago, it was constantly accepting new patients. Some of the patients were even as young as eight years old.
For that particular reason, among the fact that a cruel, sadistic doctor named Dr. Dullbury worked there, many children tried to behave.
Despite that fact, at least ten kids each year wound up in the asylum.
Among an unfortunate amount of new children patients in one year, Amanda Pullbury was involuntarily admitted to that hospital. She was 13 at the time of her first stay there.
Amanda looked up from her seat in the police car. "I'm not going in there. I've heard of Dr. Dullbury. He kills and hurts people just for the fun of it." She said stubbornly.
The police officer sighed and opened the car door, grabbing Amanda's arm and forcing her outside.
"You will come in or Dr. Dullbury will send some guards!" He threatened.
"Sure he will. And I bet the guards will sedate me right?" She said. Sarcasm was always what Amanda turned to when she was in a dire situation.
"Yes he will. Now come on." The officer lead Amanda inside and into Dr. Dullbury's office.
With nothing in the office except for a black leather couch, a office chair and a desk, the girl felt intimidated. And this was before she had even met the therapist.
The doctor entered his office, his feet making a loud banging noise against the floor as his steel toe boots hit the hardwood floor.
The fact that he had a needle in his pocket made the doctor even more intimidating to the teenager. That and the fact that he never smiled.
Maybe it was the fact that nobody liked him that led Dr. Dullbury to do something extreme several years later.
An extreme event that neither the police, nor the fire fighters knew the cause of.
It would be at least two decades before anyone knew the true causes of the fire. As Dr. Dullbury had foolishly written down his plans in Amanda Pullbury's file.
That was only to make Amanda look like she was the guilty patient. But that failed after Amanda became one of the patients who perished in the fire.
Before the fire
The fire was no accident despite what the police thought. The head doctor of the asylum. The head doctor of the asylum, Dr. Frederick Dullbury had started it.
However, when questioned by the police about the fire, he refused to make a statement.
Instead, Dr. Dullbury had said the following: "I fear I do not know how the fire started. Maybe it was one of the patients. Or another doctor. But I must admit, whoever started it, I'm mad at them! They killed over 100 patients."
He tried to claim that a patient with schizophrenia and deafness had started the fire. The police even believed him!
The reason behind the fire had something to do with a long lost riddle that every new patient was challenged to answer. The riddle seemed simple at first glance, but it was anything but easy.
Answer the riddle correctly, and you received a fair trade – your freedom. Answer incorrectly and the consequences were severe. You would end up in solitary for a new. And probably be stuck in the asylum for the rest of your life.
Each patient received a slightly different riddle. Something that had to do with the mental illness they'd been diagnosed with.
The most common riddle given to patients went as thus:
In a kingdom of silence
Full of violence
And screaming voices
A ghost sat apart
From all the rest
The being sat in
A single building
Miles away from the asylum
With blood splattered
On all it's walls.
The riddle was meant to drive everyone to insanity and cause even more problems then when they'd arrived.
The answer to the riddle was Crow Hall, where they kept the most insane and violent teenagers and children.
Therefore, it surprised Dr. Dullbury when Anna Parilla correctly answered his riddle on the day before the eighteen year old woman would be sent to the state asylum.
Anna took a minute to ponder over the riddle before she smiled and looked up at Dr. Dullbury. "Finally! I know the answer!" She said proudly. "It's Crow Hall, the northern wing. They used to lock up violent children and teenagers there."
"Correct! Congratulations, Anna. For being the only patient capable of answering my riddle, you have gained three months of freedom. If, within this time, you cannot find a job and place to live, the police will drag you back here." Dr. Dullbury said crudely.
He always threatened patients in some way. If it wasn't a threat, it was an excuse of some sort.
Such as "You can't go home now, you just started a new therapy." Or "Your mom doesn't want to see you."
Most of what Dr. Dullbury said were lies.
Twelve new patients arrived three weeks after Anna was released. All of these patients were of high school age – 13 to 16 years old.
All of the teenagers were here because one of them had injured someone. The others in the group had witnessed what happened. However, when questioned, they all lied about the event. Some of them even completely refused to tell the authorities what had happened.
Why did these new patients matter? Simple. Among them was Anna Pullbury. The girl who had been released just a few weeks before.
Dr. Dullbury made sure to check the patient files right after the teenagers arrived at the asylum. One file surprised him. He opened it, certain he'd read the name wrong.
When the doctor went to Anna's room later that day and talked to her, he was appalled. It turned out that Anna had murdered the mayor of the town (Hillville). The mayor's name had been John.
As it turned out, John had been her boyfriend's father. Anna claimed that John "had been after her" so she'd had no choice but to murder him.
Dr. Dullbury sat down in front of Anna. "You could have tried talking to John. Murdering the mayor didn't solve anything. Did it?"
"Well I..." She looked down, ashamed of her violent behavior. "No, I guess it didn't solve anything. In fact, I think it worsened things.
Dr. Dullbury then thought of something new. Perhaps the fact the John had not wanted Anna to marry his son, Bill, is what upset Anna. Then, she must have snapped.
It was evident that this indeed was a murder. However, the weapon that had been used was never discovered. The police had searched the crime scene numerous times.
Unfortunately, the fact that their were no security cameras in the area and that they lacked a weapon that held DNA, meant that the law officials now considered this a "cold case".
It would be after Anna's death that they'd finally discover she and her friends had all been innocent of the accused crime.
By then, it would be too late. It would be after Dr. Dullberry burned down the asylum and killed or maimed most of the patients inside.
