Chapter 1
The green trees passed by in a blur as I put my foot down and
The green trees passed by in a blur as I put my foot down and pulled the old sedan into a 60.I wasn’t generally concerned of speed limits, but if I returned the car in less than perfect condition, my best friend Russell would kill me.
I stopped at a tiny petrol pump on the roadside that had a rather forlorn looking Christmas wreath swaying sadly in the wind. It was the morning of Christmas eve, and though I wasn’t generally a very Christmassy person, there was at least twenty different things I would have rather done than drive hundred miles to a psychiatrist institution tucked away in the country. Like, binge watching Friends.
The time passed by slowly as I covered miles of lush green forest. The silence got a bit unnerving after a while so I cracked up the radio. Jingle Bells started playing.
Ugh. Great. Just another reminder that while everyone else was getting ready to sit down to family dinners and prepare gifts, I was trudging around the country to a building filled with legit crazy people. And to think this wasn’t even my assignment, but Russell’s!
We both worked at a local magazine and the whole Psychiatrist institution thing had been his idea. But when his latest girlfriend, a stick legged blonde bimbo, invited him to spend Christmas with her family, well, he couldn’t refuse. So as his best friend, I agreed to do it for him.
Okay, maybe I did have a bit of a crush on him. I mean Russell and I have been best friends since we could talk. He even asked me to marry him near the sandpit at school!
Okay so we were five and it happened in kindergarten, but I don’t like it when people go back on their word. I guess, deep within, I knew nothing could happen between us, considering he used to be the football captain at school and I was the girl who ate her lunch in the toilets.
These type of people never get together, unless we’re talking about Wattpad stories, where anything could happen, which is where I spend most of my Sundays.
But still, it did hurt every time he brought home a new girl, all thin and model like. I mean, I know I’m not exactly pretty and I sure as hell can’t fit into those skinny jeans monstrosities. I didn’t hit the gym twice a day and ate green leaves like a cow.
I liked eating caramel popcorn during movies and didn’t mind devouring a pack or two of chips when I’m cramped up with assignments. Why? Because I was normal.
And guy or not, there was no way in hell I was going to give up my food.
The slightly downside to that philosophy was that I was 22 years old and still didn’t have a boyfriend to take me out for fun evenings.
Sigh. Netflix would have to do.
A flash of lightening streaked the horizon and I squinted up at the dark sky. Just great, this was the perfect weather to visit a mental asylum. It was already starting to look like the start of a bad horror movie. I just hopped I got out alive.
One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi-
Counting Mississippi had been Russell’s idea. He knew I wasn’t a big fan of anything scary or mysterious and for me a mental institute sort of definitely fit into that category, so he had come with the idea to count until five whenever I was spooked.
Two hours and a dozen holiday songs later I drove past the gates to a small cream painted building, a small sign outside proclaiming it to be the psychiatric institution in question. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but the ground here was littered with dead leaves from autumn and a rusty swing sat at a corner, dead still in the still air. It was eerily quiet and not a soul was in sight.
“Miss. Meyer!”
A tall man was running towards me, clad in a blue uniform. I smiled and walked up to him, silently praying this wasn’t some escaped lunatic who had a shovel hidden somewhere inside his overalls that he was going to smack me with and bury me next to the swing.
“I’m Mat Wells, I spoke with you on the phone this morning?” he said, extending a hand.
“Uh, yes. Hi, I’m Ellie Meyers.” I stutter, because twenty two years old and I still couldn’t hold a conversation with an attractive man. “I’m here for the feature-“
“For the magazine! Yeah, I remember.” He smiled crookedly, and led the way to the doors. “Sorry, we are a little understaffed, with the holidays, so things here are a bit hectic.”
“Oh, that’s fine.” I say after a long pause, since I hadn’t expected him to want a reply. “I just want to meet a couple of patients, ask them a few questions if it’s all right.”
He considered me thoughtfully for a few moments and then shrugged “Follow me then”
I surreptitiously studied him as we ascended a staircase. He was tall, and quite lean. His hair was dark and messed up, and he had bright green eyes. Russell had blue eyes (this was one of my many unhealthy habits, comparing every guy I met with Russell and I’m proud to say Russell always won. Wait, why am I proud? Russell wasn’t mine, his heart belonged to girls who looked like grasshoppers and ate nuts every day.)
“See something you like?” Max wiggled his eyebrows and I quickly looked away, a blush coating my cheeks.
“Nope, just making sure you weren’t one of the crazy patients.”
There was a deafening silence after my remark and though I couldn’t see his face, I guessed he was upset.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that.” I say awkwardly.
“It’s all right.” He ran a hand through his messy hair. “It’s just, we don’t get many visitors here and I’m afraid I’ve kind of forgotten how to hold a normal conversation.”
“Oh”.
Awkward. Seriously, every time I opened my mouth. I should be shot.
He led me down a corridor with rooms on either side. Suddenly we passed by what looked like a closet door, with a tiny glass window. Faces were crowded there and they seemed to be yelling something at me.
“Those are our trouble makers.” Mat said, jerking his chin towards the door “We usually conduct therapy at this time, but Josh called in sick with the flu and Jared’s home with his wife celebrating Christmas, so we have to lock them up together, since I sure as hell can’t control all of them.”
“Can I have a closer look?” I ask and Mat shrugs.
There were at least a dozen people inside, all screaming at me and glaring at us.
“They don’t really like me.” Matt grimaced “Though I can’t blame them, since therapy classes are the worst.”
Suddenly a man in a white coat slid a threatening finger across his neck.
“Yep, and that’s our cue to leave.” Mat grabbed my wrist and pulled me down the endless corridor. I stared at our hands for a moment before following him.
Half way down, my stomach let out a sound like a football stadium during goals. Mat stared at me in horror. Kill. Me. Now.
“Oh, shit!” he cursed “I forgot you probably haven’t had any breakfast. Wait, I’ll try to fix you something up, since most of the cooks have gone home, but I am warning you I’m not really good at anything besides coffee.”
“Its fine, Mat” I laugh, a little flustered by his adorable concern. I reached into my bag and pulled out a sandwich covered in foil. “See, I’m all set!”
We continued our walk when we passed a door that had the number 256 on it, which was slightly open. Curiosity got the best of me and I pushed it open. A single bed stood in the middle, the sheets neatly made. A desk sat in a corner, bare and covered in dust. The walls were filled with scratches and vivid sketches of flames licking the skin of people, their rotting flesh detailed painfully.
It was beautifully detailed, in a morbid way.
“Whose room is this?” I asked Mat without turning back.
“He got out a few days ago.” His voice sounded a bit strange.
Mat looked a tiny bit scared all of a sudden, fidgeting in his place.
“What did he do?” I asked softly.
“Set a place on fire.” Mat shrugged, giving me a weak smile “Among other things. They…They aren’t exactly pretty stories.”
I stared around some more.
“Come on, I’ll take you to one of the patients now.” Mat said, giving me a small smile. “She’s twelve and is relatively harmless.”
“Relatively?” I asked dubiously.
Matt shot me a grin, his pearly whites on full display. Seriously this guy should be in a fashion magazine. “Well there have been a few cases where she might have lost her cool, but they’re pretty rare and you should be fine. Probably.”
“Matt!”
He laughed and I realized I liked the sound. “Don’t worry, Ellie. I’ll be right outside in case you need any help.”
He gestured for me to go inside the room, this one marked 345. I stared at him for a moment longer before lifting my nose in the air.
“I’m not scared of a little girl, Matt.” I scoff, before entering the room.
At least I hoped I wasn’t.
The room was similar to that of 256, though the walls here were mercifully bare. A little girl sat on the bed, playing with a doll. She had pale blonde hair which was colored red and blue at the tips and pulled into two ponies. She looked up and smiled brightly when she saw me.
“Hi, my name is Ellie. Can I ask you a few questions?” I ask gently, coming to sit on the bed “You don’t mind, do you?”
“I don’t care honestly” she smiled at me cheerfully, and for an uneasy moment I was reminded of the white haired psychotic chic in Suicide Squad. What was her name? Oh, yeah Harley Quinn. She honestly creeped me out a bit but what creeped me out even more was the fact that a tiny part of me wanted to be like her. Though let’s face it, I could never pull off that bikini costume.
“My name is Judy Shepherd” the little girl continued, her blue tipped hair shaking in her ponytails. “I killed my parents!”
“Oh” One mississippi, two mississippi, three mississippi, four missi-
“Wanna hear why?”
“Uh…sure” I muttered pulling out my little note pad and a pencil, surreptitiously keeping a bit of space between us on the little bench, in case she decided she didn’t like my face and attacked me with the Annabelle doll. Honestly with my luck, that wasn’t even funny.
“I had four sisters, yeah? And we all lived in this big, white house with a little garden in the front. Mommy used to plant tomatoes there every evening!” Amanda told me, her wide blue eyes never leaving my face, her broad grin never wavering. This story was not going to have a happy ending and in spite of myself, I took a small sip of water kept in front of me. “So yeah we were living very happily and stuff but one day…..”
She leaned in closer to me, her eyes wide with shock, and whispered “But one day daddy came home drunk! Mommy was very angry, you see and she shouted at him in front of the telly. My sisters were scared and little Elsie started crying, so I took them to my room and hugged them closed and told them everything was going to be fine. I did well, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you certainly did.” I gave a strained smile, because after all, nothing about this story was going to be fine, right?
“Yeah, so the next morning I went down to get breakfast, it was bacon Wednesday and bacon’s my favorite, and mommy and daddy was there and they were looking and me weird but I didn’t care, I guess” she shrugged her little shoulders sadly and looked up to me with a small smile “I just thought I had something stuck on my teeth.”
“Then that afternoon a man came to visit us, he was very big and he and daddy talked together in the living room. Mommy and I were in the kitchen and she had packed me a little bag with all my clothes in it. She kept hugging me and telling me she loved me and then-Hey do you want that sandwich?”
Startled, I looked down at my hands and gave a shrug “Take it.”
“Thanks!” she took a huge bite and continued “Yeah, so where was I? The big man, right? They told me to go with him. They had sold me, you see and I was to work in his factory, because daddy’s business was not doing very well. I didn’t like it there, they didn’t let us play and the green liquid always burned. Then one day mommy and daddy came to visit. I thought they had come to take me back home and I was so happy since I had missed my sisters, especially little Elsie.”
“But they were moving away, to a different town. I was so upset, I guess. So I pushed daddy into one of the big cans containing the green stuff when mommy went to the restroom. When she came back I was hiding behind the door and hit her on the head with a shovel. I didn’t mean to, though!”
“Now they’ve locked me up here and I can’t even meet my sisters!” she turned to me somberly “They need me to take care of them.”
I was saved the hassle of coming with a suitable reply, because dear god what did one say to that?, when Mat suddenly appeared at the door.
“Time to go, Ellie!” he said before striding out to the hall.
I cleared my throat “Well I guess this is good bye then-“
Suddenly she caught my wrist and leaned in closer, her warm breath tickling my ear, my heart pounded in my throat.
“Ellie, can I tell you a secret?” her blue eyes were wide “Matt’s a bad guy.”
Out in the hall I saw Matt leaning on the wall. He straightened up when I came closer and flashed me his crooked smile, but in his eyes I saw a bit of worry. He held up a finger before going to close the door to Judy’s room.
“Are you all right?” he asked quietly, sounding concerned “You look a bit pale.”
“Fine” I shrugged and then hesitantly went on “Is it true that she killed her parents?”
He stared at me bemused for a moment before bursting out laughing.
“Oh god! Is that what she said this time?” he asked breathlessly, still smiling “I swear Alice comes up with a new story every day.”
“Uh, who’s Alice?”
He looked at me, giving me a genuine smile, and I swear my heart did a little jumping jack right there. Stupid heart.
“Ellie? Ellie!”
“huh?” Yes, Ellie way to impress the guy. Pretty sure he fell for your seductive monosyllabic flirtatious lines.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, a small blush coating his cheeks as he looked away from my eyes.
“I asked, what did she say her name was?”
“Judy Shepherd?”
“Hmmm, like that girl in Jumamji.” Matt smiled thoughtfully “Figures.”
“….So that’s not her real name?”
“No, her name’s Alice Wilson. She has compulsive lying disorder, simply meaning she likes to lie. A lot. She almost always comes up with new stories whenever someone new comes along. She especially enjoys informing people I’m evil because I always stay back in her room to make sure she ate her vegetables. She hates carrots.” Matt replied, his eyes a bit glazed “Anyway, her parents and siblings died in a car crash and she was the only survivor, and she hasn’t been quite normal since. Would you like some coffee, you’re still looking a little pale.”
My head whirled at the sudden offer he added at the end, just like how Judy had done a while ago. Alice, Ellie. Not Judy. Judy didn’t exist.
“Sure, that would be lovely.” I try for a smile.
Mat studies my face for a while longer, his green eyes clouded with what looked suspiciously like concern. Maybe, just maybe-
Nope Ellie, stop. You are here to work. Focus on your work.
“The coffee?” I urge, snapping him out of his daze. He clears his throat nervously and leads the way to the kitchens, his tan cheeks slightly red.
Sigh, he was cute.
At the kitchen.
“Honestly, I don’t think anything could surprise me anymore!” I stretched back on a chair around a small table, while Mat headed off to the counter to prepare our drinks. “Tell me something! If you surprise me I’ll give you 100 dollars!”
“Really?” Mat laughed as he carried two cups of steaming coffee and took a seat across from me. I took a long sip of the hot drink. Damn, he could make some good coffee.
“Totally!” I paused and amended “Well, maybe a twenty”
“All right” he said and put his palm under his chin, his eyes closed “Okay, how about this? I am actually…”
He beckoned me to come closer and I mentally prepared myself to not look shocked if he sprouted something lame along the lines of “I’m secretly Brad Pitt!” Yeah right buddy, and I’m Angelina Jolie, twenty stones heavier and frizzy haired.
“…sociopath!”
I stood still for a moment and then snorted “Wow, that wasn’t creative at all!”
“And I’ve locked all the guards up in the big maintenance closet down the hall.” he grinned at me “And I’ve just added a few doses of lethal poison in your coffee so you will dead in about an hour.”
I laugh even as it feels like my head’s on fire “God Mat, were you like a reality show director before you worked as a guard?”
He merely grinned and started scourging around the room for something.
I took another sip of the coffee. My throat felt parched.
“What are you looking for?”
“Kerosene.” came his muffled reply from inside a wooden cabinet.
“Ok-ay. Why?”
The walls had started to spin.
“I’m gonna set the building on fire”
Hmmm. The floor was getting closer.
“Ellie?” I could make out Mat’s face above me. The floor felt cold. “Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon. You won’t be alive when this place burns down. You’re lucky.”
His eyes were green, so wonderfully green….
“You’re- who are you?” I could hear my voice say but all I could focus on was the rusted ceiling.
Rust. Red. Blood.
“I’m not Mat, if that’s what you’re asking” he chortled, unearthing two huge cans of oil from under the sink “I’m inmate no.256. Nice to meet you!”
He got out a couple of days ago
I’ve locked up all the guards. The closet with the little window.
Matt’s a bad guy
“Though yes, it was me who answered your call this morning.” He continued “I was in Matt’s office ’cause….we had some unfinished business to attend to. I got the gist of your visit and borrowed his uniform, though I highly doubt he will need it anymore.”
Warmth.
“I do feel sorry for doing this to you, love” he stroked my face “You did leave me that car out there. Otherwise there was no way I could have reached the city. Guess I’ll just take these of you now, you certainly won’t be needing them were you’re going.”
A jiggle of metals. The car keys were gone.
“So that’s it I suppose. I should get a move on, have a lot to do” he held up the cans of kerosene “I’d rather be far away when the screaming starts. I can’t bear them, I’m secretly a sweetheart!”
Taste of copper. Blood.
“Oh, and Ellie, here’s a secret…”he leaned in closer, his green eyes somber “You’re going to die.”
The door slams shut. The smell of smoke. Screams from above. Screech of the Sedan.
One Mississippi, two mississipie, three mississipe, four-
