True to his word, Dr. Blackwood sent the check for the advanced bonus the day we spoke. It arrived two days after, and I treated Angela to burgers and ice cream to celebrate. I was worried about where I would work. Something about The Ashlan was always unsettling to me. Anytime someone talked about it, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, but the desperation of keeping my daughter in a stable home outweighed my concern at the moment. All I could think of was that Angela and I could not go back to the life we had. I wasn't one to believe in ghosts or things of that nature anyway so besides the creep factor of the building, there was really no reason why I wouldn't be able to work there.

 

I started the job just a week after initially speaking with Dr. Blackwood. He kept expressing to me how urgently the work needed to be started on. How fast he would like it completed. He wanted the Ashlan to be turned into a massive resort. 'From psychiatric hospital to grand casino and resort. That sounds great...' I chuckled at the sarcasm of my thoughts. I dropped Angela off to school and smiled as she wished me luck on my first day. Driving down Hansly Lane, I couldn't help but wonder more about what I had signed up for. Dr. Blackwood was pretty vague about what he had wanted us all to do. Of course clean it up and restore it, but I would think that a massive undertaking like that would need a more detailed, thought out plan of action. I hoped that I would be able to fulfill all the requirements Dr. Blackwood had set for me. He had rattled off a list of do's and don'ts the last time we spoke and told me I would find an envelope containing everything I needed to know taped on the gates to the building when I arrived. He also informed me that I would be meeting the rest of the "crew" on my first day and that I was to lead them. Not too much other details and he seemed to rush me off the phone.

​

 The driveway leading up to the hospital was long and lined with huge weeping willow trees that shaded the dirt road from the sun. It was a peaceful drive from the start of the street to the gate. However,arriving to the gates of The Ashlan made any sort of peaceful feeling disappear. 

​

Looming before me was a monster of a building. Barred and barren windows dotted the perimeter of it, blackened from the darkness within. Like soulless eyes on a spider. Peeling paint and ivy crawling up the outer walls felt like hundreds of snakes trying to climb into the windows. Hopefully the crew was large enough to be able to spread out and tackle all the things that need to be fixed. 

​

I had heard many stories, most probably exaggerated, about the Ashlan. Stories of how large of of a hospital it was. How the most dangerous and mentally unstable of criminals were brought there. The rumors of supposed experimentations done on unwilling patients. The many many deaths. I was not prepared for just how grandiose, and how decayed, it actually was. 

​

I carefully stepped out of my vehicle and nervously walked up to the Gatehouse, slightly afraid of what I would find. The doorbell was covered in thick ropes of cobweb and what once may have been an intimidating sentry point now looked sad and abandoned. Everything looked abandoned. Did he even visit his own property? It didn't look like anyone had been here since the hospital was shut down.

​

Looking around for this elusive envelope I would find containing my tasks, I spotted a glinting object in my peripherals. It was small, opaque, with a tiny crystal blue dot in the center that gleamed when the sun hit it. 'Don't pick it up', I thought to myself as I walked over to it. Of course I would pick it up. Curiosity always got the better of me. Maybe it was a marble or a gem. I bent down and brushed away the fallen twigs encasing it. 

​

It was an a eye. A human eye. I dropped the eyeball and retched. The world started spinning, and I could feel the vomit lingering in my throat. I wanted to run. To get into my car and drive as fast as I could as far as I could away from this place. I looked over and the eye was perfectly positioned to face me. It's glassy smooth surface making the sun reflect brilliantly on it.

​

The sun wouldn't reflect like that on an actual human eye. 

​

I gingerly crept up to the eye, feeling like if I took any faster of a pace, it would lunge for me. I swallowed a deep breath and quickly picked it back up. No, it wasn't human. It was glass. 

​

It was a doll's eye.

​

I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. I had just vomited and almost ran off because I picked up a doll's eye. I was relieved that at least none of the crew were here yet to witness my embarrassing freak out. I really needed to get a better grip of my imagination, especially in a setting like this!

​

I noticed the tan manila envelope lying in front of the gate. Dirty scotch tape lined the top part of the envelope so I surmised that it was carelessly taped onto the gate and fell sometime before my arrival. I opened the packet and quickly scanned through what I would be having to read in detail in a moment. It looked like a check list of tasks, a note from my new boss, and some information about The Ashlan. I decided to read the info about the building's history first.

 

"History of one of the most notorious landmarks of Tolerville

 

The Ashlan is one of the oldest buildings in Tolerville. It opened it's doors in 1903 and was the pinnacle of respite and rehabilitation for those charged with heinous acts. The very mission of The Ashlan was intensive and acute therapy to reset the troubled and plagued minds of people society thought were not able to function safely within civilized communities. It's chief resident doctor and staff thought otherwise and made it their top priority to see to it that the patients successfully completed their treatment plans to become whole in mind and body, once more. 

 

The Ashlan was overseen by it's owner, the brilliant, however eccentric, neurosurgeon Dr. Wilbur Littlefoot and his team of caring and elite colleagues and nursing staff. They truly believed these men, women, and children that the towns had cast off could change their violent nature's and eventually be reintroduced to society as good and contributing members of the state.

​

Dr. Littlefoot had been a celebrated and highly regarded surgeon in his field of study and had wrote many dissertations on the study linking the combination of mutated genetics and traumatic environments as creating the 'perfect storm' to the mind of a psychopath. He had dedicated his life's work to analyzing and implementing how his experimental therapies would rewire the mind of a killer and reverse their lives moving forward.

​

His experiments were incredibly radical and became more and more concerning to the conservative community of doctors as time wore on and he was eventually let go from his position at Clear Meadows; his place of employment before The Ashlan.

​

Taking all of his life savings, Dr. Littlefoot opened The Ashlan to realize his dream of being able to help the undesirables of the world, and with the success of Patient zero, he and his subsequent therapies were projected into the medical stratosphere. He was thrust into the limelight, and dubbed the "miracle doctor" by the Nationa's press. People the world over fought tooth and nail for a position at The Ashlan.

 

The celebrity would soon turn to infamy after a year of operation as the experimentaions...." 

 

The rest was torn off. Where did the rest of the paper go? I looked around at my surroundings and inside of the envelope to find the rest of the note but it was nowhere to be found. I thought it odd but shrugged it off nonetheless. I already knew the hospital had a bad history to it, and maybe I didn't really want to know the rest if I was going to continue working there. 

​

"What in cold hell did I get myself into?" A deep gravelly voice whispered behind me. I turned around completely startled, fumbling for my mace when I realized the man wasn't even paying attention to me. He was gazing up at the hospital like I had been moments ago, and shaking his head. A red beat up mountain bike laid beside my car. 

​

"H...hello..." I mumbled to him as I cleared my throat. His gaze drifted down to me and he stood for a moment as if sizing me up. After a moment, a grin crossed his face that made smile lines beside his eyes as he nodded his head and winked at me. "Hi there. The names Wyatt. I'm the hired landscaper for this shit house. My son, Sam, should be here soon. He's my assistant landscaper and he biked here with me." He started laughing as he walked over to pick his bike up, "I love my boy but he still can't keep up with his old man. Hopefully he didn't pass out from exhaustion back there." Wyatt looked back to watch his son huff and puff up to them on his bike. His pale forehead dripping in sweat and his cheeks red from the exertion. 

​

I looked on my checklist and saw the names of the crew members written at the top. Wyatt and Samuel Jones, 54 and 32 years old respectively. Landscaping crew. There were four other names after the father and son; 

​

Angelica Ramirez: 37 year old, Housekeeper

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Robert Briggs: 40 years old, Maintenance 

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Johnathan Chu: 49 years old, Electrician

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Eta Nichols: 21 years old, Marketing 

​

Seven people!? That was it? For this enormous building? I couldn't believe it. It was going to take way more than just the 7 of us to even make any sort of headway in this enormous hospital. I didn't have too much time to stew about it, however, because as I felt around in the envelope for the gate key I saw a few more cars rumbling up the driveway.

​

Before I could greet everyone, I gave them the moment to gaze up in the same amazement and horror that Wyatt and I did before the rest arrived. One by one, the crew exchanged shocked and bewildered faces as they looked around for visual confirmation that everyone saw the behemoth that laid before us.

​

Yes, it is huge. Yes, apparently it is just us. Yes, we are screwed. 

​

After the initial reactions started slowly dissolving everyone looked around to ask who Danielle was. "Hey guys, that's me. I'm Danielle." I mumbled as I raised my hand, not unlike what a child does in school.

​

"I have a list of our assignments today that was given by Dr. Blackwood." I told them as I handed them the sheet that had each of their assigned tasks. "I think because this hospital is so large, we should spend this first day walking around and familiarizing ourselves with the main points of the hospital. We can designate a place for us should we have to meet on other days and talk about what to do should one of us get lost."

​

"Um. Cell phones?" Eta Nichols smiled as she waved hers at all of us. After a moment she looked at it and frowned, "I don't have reception here." She stated to no one in particular. Everyone immediately took out there cell phones and realized the same. 

​

"I have walkies in my car from an old business I had. They should still work." Johnathan Chu spoke up. "Since our group is so little, I should have enough for everyone." He hurried to his trunk and started pulling out walkie talkies to hand to each member of the crew. We adjusted the channels so we would all be on the same one.

​

I opened the gate and Wyatt and Sam pushed the iron bars open so that all of our vehicles and bicycles could park inside. After locking up my car, I turned and walked up to the fountain situated in the middle of what obviously was once a magnificently landscaped courtyard. However, beautiful this place may have been, it seemed like it was not without it's oddities even back then. The fountain's statue was of 4 men reaching to heaven, a large black raven behind them with it's wings outstretched. They seemed in pain, and the Raven gave off a menacing and ominous dominance over the men. I dusted off the plaque in front of the fountain to read it's inscription. "If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. - Friedrich Neitzsche." 

​

Reading the inscription on the plaque and gazing up at the bizarre statue I couldn't help but feel watched. The wind picked up slightly as I tugged on my jacket and looked around to see if any of my crew were trying to get my attention but all of them were engaged in conversation with each other. Why did I feel like someone was staring at me? I looked up at the barred windows of the asylum and noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a little girl!

​

At least, I thought it was a little girl. Maybe my nervousness was getting the better of me but I could've sworn I saw a girl young enough to be my daughter's age with long blond hair. She had just been there at a window three floors up and directly above the front entrance. But it couldn't be... a child isn't going to be at an abandoned asylum. That's crazy!

​

"Hey, everybody, want to know some 'fun facts' before we go inside?" Eta asked as she stared excitedly at all the new faces around her. "So..." She started, not even really waiting for anyone's approval, but encouraged by the intrigued faces looking back at her, "Everyone knows that The Ashlan was home to some of the most notorious killers in our country's history. but there are 6 that stood at as the most dangerous of them all. These 6 were classified as "refractory" because they weren't able to be rehabilitated. Also, supposedly, the staff was not as caring as the media had initially portrayed them to be and as a way of mocking the patients even more, they would call them by the nicknames the press had dubbed them." Eta asked as she looked from face to face, some still interested, some afraid, and some indifferent about her story telling. "Has anyone heard of 'Dollface'?" She inquired, catching Angelica's eyes as she said it. Angelica nodded, looking slightly terrified as she had grown up hearing the stories of Dollface. 

​

"Dollface and the other 5 patients are all myths. Exaggerations about how bad the patients actually were here. When the hospital started gaining a more unlikable image, the rumors about it became more and more sinister. Just a bad game of telephone, essentially." Sam shook his head as he looked at Eta, "Are you just trying to scare us before we go in there?"

​

"No I am not. I just thought you all might be interested in hearing about some of the things being said about the hospital. Angelica obviously has heard of Dollface. She was the youngest female murderer to be committed to The Ashlan. She was 10 years old when she was sent to the asylum. However she started killing when she was only 7. She would stab her victims eyes out and replace them with doll eyes, playing tea party with her victims while they sat and decayed beside her. Some say she looked like an angel and that's why it took them so long to apprehend her. They couldn't believe that this little girl with a cherub face could do the things that Dollface did..." Eta stopped short when she saw the face I was giving her. I agreed with Sam and didn't think it was the best idea to tell the crew the horrible stories of The Ashlan's patients before they were about to go inside to work in it.

​

"I think that's enough story telling for now. How about we go inside and check things out already?" I suggested as I turned and walked towards the towering double doors. Eta looked a little rebuffed by the interruption but I frankly didn't care. I was there to work, not listen to rumors about the place.

​

I took the key ring that contained the gate key and searched for the label for the front door. After a moment, I jingled the door keys triumphantly at myself and inserted them into the lock. Pushing open the doors made a resounding groan as if they had not been opened for a long time. The thick smell of a century's worth of dust assaulted my noise as I walked in. Everything around us was blanketed in thick covers of dust and cobwebs. I could hear the light clicking and small squeaks of mice and rats as they scurried away from the bright beam of light cast by the open doors. 

​

We looked at our surroundings, which looked to be a lobby of sorts. The air hung heavily around us making me feel as if I were suffocating, as the years of dust kicked up with every move we made. I walked over to a large circular desk in the middle of the lobby with a faded sign reading 'Information' hanging overhead. Eta came up beside me and grabbed one of the dust laden pamphlets that were advertisements for the asylum . "'Welcome to The Ashlan. Our patients restoration is our top priority. Your loved ones are in good hands'." She smirked as she read the title with sarcastic enthusiasm while turning it to face me. Knowing the rumors surrounding The Ashlan, the last sentence in the tagline was off putting to me. 'In good hands... with a maniacal surgeon who was just as much of a murderer as the patients...' I thought to myself as I waved the paper away.

​

We walked through the lobby and came to a maze of hallways. Signs pointing to different numbered rooms were our only indication of where we were. After a few minutes of walking Eta grabbed my shoulder to stop me from moving. I followed her gaze to a sign that read 'High Risk Patients.'

​

Eta started towards that hall before I could stop her. It was a short hallway that only had a few rooms. "I heard the 6 were kept in here... I forgot what they called it. It had some creepy nickname as well." Eta said quietly as she walked on. I remembered, however, but said nothing. I didn't want to remember the nickname for the High Risk ward. We were already experiencing group paranoia. Besides, the 6 were supposedly just a myth. Nobody is that depraved to do all the things they were rumored to have done. The whispered giggles of children met us as we crossed the threshold into the high risk ward. We stopped and turned towards each other, hesitant on moving further in. 

​

"I don't know about the rest of y'all but I want to find out about the bullshit I've just gotten myself into." Wyatt stated as he pushed past both Eta and myself. He stopped at the first door and read the sign on the side, "Patient 342, Chester Rockwell 'The Sadist'." He looked back as Sam came to the door beside it.

​

"Patient 343, William Masterson 'The Pied Piper'." He read as he cocked an eyebrow at his father. 

​

Angelica stopped at the door across from Wyatt, "Patient 345, Amelia Moore 'The Baby Killer'." She whispered, anxiety rippling through her tone. 

​

I walked up to the door beside Angelica, "Patient 346, Glenda Thornwood 'The Witch'." I read as Angelica and I exchanged a look. 

​

Eta ran up next to Sam and read off the title to the door at the end of their side, "Patient 344, Nancy Hawthorne 'Dollface'." Her eyes grew as wide as half dollars as she stared in horror at the name plaque, "She was real..." I could hear her whisper to herself

​

Johnathan walked up to the last door and read the plaque, "Patient 347, Clyde Boon... 'Odin'." He trailed off as we all stared in a mixture of horror and amazement. Out of the 6 psychopaths, Odin was rumored to be a different beast entirely. His notoriety was known throughout the world, but there were so many rumors about him I had no clue what was fact and what was made up.

​

We were in the hallway that housed the 6 most unhinged psychopaths ever to be committed to this institution, in a ward nicknamed, "The Devil's Cave."

​

As we stood there, not knowing what to do or say, static came through on all our walkies. After a moment it stopped and a soft childish voice started singing, "Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row..." Then laughter; the high, tinkling sound of a little girl's laugh...