The Asylum

Timothy Zurcher

Description

This short, adult novel brings a big heavy hitting story with a condensed timeline. Dr. Galen Irene is a young world renowned psychologist who finds himself in the Mansfield Penitentiary in the early 1900s. Dr. Irene is being tortured through historically accurate psychological treatments and is told he has a mental illness. He must find out what is going on in the asylum before it is too late. From start to finish this is an action packed short thriller for all adults.

Sujets

• Thrillers
• Asylum
• Novel
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 27 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798369402085
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Asylum
 
 
 
 
 
 
Timothy Zurcher
 
 
Copyright © 2023 by Timothy Zurcher.
ISBN:
Softcover
979-8-3694-0207-8
 
eBook
979-8-3694-0208-5
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 06/27/2023
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
779798
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 1
I woke up in a panic sweating profusely on the cold hard floor. My head was throbbing with pain as a pulsating pump pounded within my head. I was instantaneously met by muffled screams and yells of people all around me. Screams and cries from men, women and even children alike. The dreadful cries were seeping through the concrete walls around me and the ceiling above me. I glanced down as I laid there on the concrete to see that I was wearing a torn and faded white jumpsuit. The old faded jumpsuit said INMATE on the front right side in bold black lettering.
A faint ray of sunlight was shining on my face through the tiny window that had five steel bars in front of the cracked and dust filled glass. I quickly sat up and began to breath extremely hard as my head twisted about, scanning the room. There were four concrete walls that were cracked and stained with unknown substances. The floor was covered in what appeared to be stained blood. The smell of stale blood that was scattered about on the floor rushed into my nose as I faintly shuffled to my feet. I gagged at the smell of decomposing mold and disease infested toilet that sat in the back right corner. The toilet was a dark green color and had insects crawling all over its surface. I glanced to my left and there was a small twin mattress on the floor in the left corner of the room. The mattress didn›t have sheets and was covered in claw marks. The inner cotton and springs were protruding from its openings as if it had been attacked by a grizzly bear.
As I stood there straddling the bright beam of sunshine rushing in through the window, I heard a piercing noise. I snapped my head to the left side of the room where there was a small crack within the stained concrete wall. I slowly walked over to the crack which was nearly big enough to slide my pinky finger into. I heard what I thought was a young girl screaming and sobbing from the other side. I pressed my ear to the crack feeling the rush of air exiting which brushed against my ear.
“Help! Help! What is going on! I want my mom!” The cry for help of the young girl subtly slipped through the crack beside my ear.
“Hello? Are you alright!?” I yelled back in order to calm the young girl that was frantically struggling for help.
“Hello where am I, I just want my mom!” The young girl was now sobbing wildly and yelling directly into the crack from the other side. Her wailing cries hauntingly screeched through the wall almost destroying my eardrum.
“Hey take it easy, I don’t know where I am either. So let’s just calm down and attempt to figure this out.” I tried to keep my voice as steady as I could, to not let her hear the humiliating terror within my throat.
“Ooookkay.” The young girl attempted to calm herself down as she continued to weep wildly.
“My name is Galen. What is your name?” I said softly, attempting to change the subject to calm her down and more importantly calm myself down.
“Rubetta.” She said quietly as she began to cry uncontrollably once again.
“Well it’s nice to meet you Rubetta. Don’t worry I will figure this out and get down to the bottom of this.” I said boldly into the crack. “I hope.” I uttered quietly to myself as I heard Rubetta shuffle away from the crack. The compression of the springs from inside the mattress were heard as Rubetta laid down. I decided to give her time to come down from the state of shock she was in before attempting to communicate any further.
“Hey! What the hell is going on! What am I doing here!” A bellowing voice was coming through a crack on the right side of the room. I quickly collected my footing and ran over to the other wall. There was another crack which was a little smaller and very near to the floor. I got down on my hands and knees and lowered my ear.
“Hello?” I yelled pressing my mouth to the cold and slimy crack.
“Hello! What in the hell is going on! I’m going to kick someone’s ass!” The deep voice growled through the thick walls.
“Hey, my name is Galen. I just woke up on this floor and have no clue where we are. There is a young girl in the other room beside me that is going through the same thing.” I said into the crack intently waiting for a response.
“I’m Bellator and I don’t know what is going on but if this is some kind of a joke I don’t think it’s funny at all!”
“Just keep calm Bellator, I’m going to figure out what is going on.” I said as I waited for another aggressive response.
“I’ll try, but no promises.” Bellator said sternly as a loud thump was heard on the wall. He struck the wall and cursed the ones who placed us in that situation together. Bellator clearly had some anger issues with aggressive tendencies which could explain why he was in there. Where exactly was there? And why was Rubetta and I there? My head was overflowing with these questions as I slid against the wall and sank to the floor. I felt nauseous as my head filled with all of the unanswered questions at once.
I looked to the front of the small room and saw the giant metallic door that rested at the helm of the room. The door looked like it was built in the 1700s with rust and distinct claw marks covering it from top to bottom. There was a peep slot at the top that was controlled by the other side as well as a slot at the bottom to pass food in I assumed. A thunderous pounding on the door interrupted my stream of endless questions and nearly caused me to jump out of my skin.
There was the distinct sound of jangling keys and the rusted heavy door squeaked open ever so slowly. Two colossal men entered through the doorway ducking their heads as they entered. One appeared to be in his twenties and the other in his thirties. The one who appeared to be in his twenties was a bald white man with a stone-cold face that appeared to have an angry presence at rest. I looked at his nametag which said Canis. The other man was a long brown-haired white man that had scars on his face around his eyes as if he was a professional fighter at the local bar. He was a very intimidating individual that sent a very uneasy feeling through me. I glanced at his nametag which said Lupus. Both of the beastly towering men were wearing white scrubs that said Mansfield Penitentiary above their name tags. Canis stepped forward and spoke in a deep bellowing voice as his head shone in the glare from the beam of sunlight.
“Well doctor, how is it going?” Canis said to me with a villainous smirk.
“What is going on!?” I shouted as I jumped to my feet with a quizzical look on my face.
“You have no idea?” Canis asked, laughing as he glanced at Lupus.
“Yeah you really are a retarded freak just like them, aren’t you?” Lupus said to me from the doorway as they shared a roaring laugh together. But I was not laughing, I had no clue what was going on. Suddenly Canis and Lupuses laughs were abruptly cut off as the sound of footsteps were heard coming down the dark and decrepit hallway.
“Well, well, well, Doctor Irene, what a pleasure it is to meet you finally. Unfortunate given the circumstances though.” A shrill cackling voice said from the hallway as the steps drew near. The voice had the consistency of nails being drug across a chalkboard. An abnormally short man with slicked back jet black hair and thick large frame glasses entered the doorway. Canis and Lupus stepped aside without hesitation. The short man was wearing a white lab coat as if he were a doctor. He walked closer to me and stood in the blistering beam of sunlight. At that moment is when I saw them. I looked through those thick glasses and saw two brown beady eyes that were almost black in totality. His eyes gave me such an uncomfortable feeling that I actually took a step away from him in the opposite direction. They pierced right through me in such a negative way that I felt the presence of his evil through his sinister stare alone.
“Glad to see you are alive and well, my name is Doctor Samael. I am the lead doctor of this facility and I am here to cure you.” He said with a devilish smile as he locked his beady eyes onto mine.
“Wait a minute, I know who you are!” I said as I stood tall. “Doctor Samael, better known as the grim reaper. Your treatment techniques are not adequate! They are the imprisonment of these human beings and nothing more than pure torture!” I was wildly frustrated knowing who he was and how he and many others in the field treated the mentally ill. I raised my voice and took a couple steps in his direction to assure him I was