The Place with No Return

Chapter 2 / Picture Perfect

So it happened. If you didn't leave the theatre early you wouldn't have been taken here. Do you feel any regret. Do you still like your father. Or do you think he is just going to leave you like you left your mother.

April 1st 1881,
My pain was washed. It was now nothing. My body felt like an airbag; there was nothing in there, no purpose.I had been taken out of the trash and dumped into a box. Just a box. A wooden maroon with a tint of beige box to nothing. I didn't no where I was going. But I assume it's no where. It might well be a box or a den far out in the forest. All sadness; all sorrow. I could still feel my body being tugged by the monsters. Crimson, hand shaped marks and bruises worried my body.
I'm sorry.
My fathers sorry was a record, replaying in my mind. Suddenly, the monsters appeared. They had the shape and shadow like the villain in the theatre. The eyes cold and lifeless like there was no life worth living.
There it is.
Your new home.

A colourless building towered over the inky, aged, not looked after trees. The walls had been smudged with umber dirt. The trees look like they had been ripped too pieces, the atmosphere felt like it was straight from a horror show giving you chills like there's a monster behind you. I was in a trance until....
" Hello there!" An unknown woman said running up to me. She was...strange to say the least. She had bleak, black, curly hair that had streaks of white in them, going down to her shoulders. She was wearing a colourless, black dress with a line of crimson coming down it showing no hope; just darkness except a white tag on the left hand corner of her dress that said Caroline. Her face was not yet aged or wrinkled and her eyes were almost ghostly white.
"W-what is this place." I murmured petrified that I might never see the real world again.
"This is Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra an asylum for the sick and vulnerable. Our asylum is a healthy environment for our patients as we feed, teach and most importantly take good care of them. I hope you enjoy your stay." The woman said walking away merrily.
"Thanks I will!" I said joyfully knowing that I wouldn't.
Her voice was aged and exhausted but at the same time happy; she sounded exactly like the voices in my head.
I moodily walked over to the grim, beige front door stopping in my tracks by the painful screeching I heard from the top
Window of the building. Is it torture? Is it pain? Is it shock? Is it sadness? I feel my arms being pushed and pulled through the building as the screaming continued to ring in my ears as I was pushed through the door. A patient in the asylum stood like a ghost in front of me. There skin was snowy and pale, there eyes were hollow and blacker than black. They were wearing the asylums dirty white uniform.
"You don't want to be here." They whispered quietly.
I felt a frigid injection ripping into my skin like a razor-sharp knife as I fell into a deep...sleep....

"D-don't leave me mother!" A freezing cold memory surged through my body. The memory got bigger...and bigger. It was a memory of me, my father and my mother at the beach. My mothers laugh chilled my brain like there was a cell going through it telling me to freeze. I got closer and closer to her but she couldn't see me. She carefully tiptoed across the unyielding pebbles and into the ocean. The oceans unwrinkled waves crashed into her thighs as she tumbled lying flat on the floor. Pain washed through my body like the waves washed my Mother. The air of the beach was misty but beautiful like a scorching summers day. It wandered around my mouth becoming an ailing, sickly feeling. The roasting heat of the sun began to fade away.
"M-mother?"
PANT! PANT! PANT! It was...a dream?

The next morning, I woke up in a small, stained room wearing an asylum uniform. I stood up feeling a throbbing pain in my back from the uncomfortable mattress. The room had no windows nor any sign of colour and a door like the place was a dungeon which had a small key hole in it (can the doors be locked?) Quicker than a flash of lightning a man appeared in front of me.
"Breakfast is ready." He said with no filter.
I walked miserably out of my room sliding into a line of hundreds of fragile, sickly patients. They were unanimous and far from individuals. They stood straight but at the same time weakly and there posture and face was all but perfect.
"Had they been...drugged?" I murmured to myself.
"That's part of it yeah." An anonymous girl behind me stated.
I turned around to see a skinny, black haired girl that stood behind me in the line. She sounded like your average person to the ears but her face said otherwise; She had eye bags and skin paler than snow.
"I'm Julia." She said speaking with a not so elegant voice.
"Hi Julia I'm Alice." I said happily like I'd finally found a normal person.
"Don't get your hopes up that high," she commented, I'm this close to stabbing one of those guys." she sighed displeased with herself.
"So is your time here oka-"
"You think this place is all fun and games?" She shouted speaking over me.
"I've been here for 3 months and look at the state of me." she laughed sarcastically but sadly, "a couple months here it'll feel like years."
"Turn around now." A guard said like he was on the verge of shouting.
"TURN AROUND NO-" he shouted making her stand identical to all the other "perfect" patients.
He looked at me walking away like I had seen something or some kind of behaviour I shouldn't have.
We walked in a line straighter than a ruler down the stairs and into the cafeteria.
It was dusty and pale. Far from something anyone would call home. It was an immense, spacious room and had a couple of tables that were rustier than wet sand; the room was pretty much empty. Not knowing where to sit I followed Julia to the table she sat at. She was sitting with a group of girls that seemed normal enough like they were different from all the others; they were kind by the looks of it.
"Guys this is Alice...she's new here." Julia stated.
"Hey it's nice to meet ya!" They all said.
"You to!" I said jovially.
Hey! Im Phoebe."A girl that sat on the right hand side of the table said.
"Hi! Im Sabrina!" A girl on the table said.
"So by the looks of it I'm guessing you've been here for...a couple days" Sabrina murmured like it was some sort of a secret.
"Just the one day." I laughed sarcastically.
"Well er...let's just say a couple weeks here you'll be looking like...that lot." Phoebe stated pointing at a couple of patients. "We've all been here a week and we already look a lot like hell."
"Anyways...what got you here? Childhood trauma? Abuse? Or just some random mental illness?"
"My mum died and my dad was messed up by it so he put me in here."I stated sadly murmuring it.
"Dam...sorry." Julia replied sorrowfully after a long silence.
"L-let's get our food!" One of the gang members shouted.
We all walked over to the counters where the "food"was being served. A pile of sloppy, smoky so called food was dumped onto my tray.
"Ew." I whispered.
"Your gonna have to get used to this Princess. This is what it's like." Julie said laughing slightly.
"I guess so-" I said eating the food.
The food was icy-cold and tasted revolting like they put no effort into the food whatsoever.
"Bugga!" I said spitting out the food laughing.
"To the field!" A guard said shouting over me.
Going into the field I realised how inescapable the asylum is. No windows in our rooms. The guards that stand in every corner of every hallway. The gigantic wired fence in the field. What if it was made so you can't escape...? I'm probably just overthinking this place might be..okay.
"Alice..? Alice wake up!" The gang said waving there hands in front of my face.
"aaa! Oh sorry guys just in a trance haha..." I shouted worried that I may have over thought all of this.
"I-it's just that I don't want to worry you guys because I know that you all want to do it and I wanna help even though I don't know much about this place but I'm worried this place may be unescapa-" BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A sick, strange looking patient banged her head against the gunmetal, pearly grey barbed wire desperate to escape. Her arms were tugged by a group of men as her hands stuck to the wire like glue but the power of evil won. Just like what happened to me.
"We have to stop this." Julie whispered sadly.
"We will. We have to." Sabrina stated confidently.
"What's going to happen to her...?" I said as a shiver went up my spine.
Everyone went silent. Patients were just playing games like nothing had happened. Like they were oblivious to all of this.
"Have you ever almost...succeeded in escaping?" I curiously asked.
"You sure hit the nail on the head with that remark so...yes. Yes we almost did." Julie said down heartedly.
"What happened?"  I said invested.
"Well...it was last week. We had formed a plan that we would take out the guards in the night, get their key to the entrance and escape. But it wasn't as simple as that. As soon as we were trying to knock them out they had defeated us already. And then...we got a punishment."Phoebe said starting to get upset.
"Like being locked in your room? Or no food for the day?" I questioned.
"More like. Torture. They did it to all of us. We barely even survived it. It even took one of our lives."The gang sobbed.
"I'm sorry you guys. How many times have you tried to escape?" I said sadly.
"Only the once. I'm surprised we haven't died already. Let's go back to our rooms." Phoebe said.
"I guess we should." The gang said down heartedly.
"Wait! Guys." Julie shouted.
"Look I have a thought. Maybe-just listen. Phoebe you were taken for, for basically just trying to stand up for yourself meaning you have the fighting skills. Alice. You are a picture perfect girl. Any one would believe you if you even tried to say something! And the most important thing. We all have people that put us here. People that we need to get back at."
"Oh god what are you thinking Julie." Phoebe muttered.
"I'm thinking. Maybe all of us could partner up."