Asylum Read online

  Asylum

  Kristen Selleck

  Copyright Kristen Selleck © 2011

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 978-0615550176

  ISBN-13: 0615550177

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Devil’s best trick is to convince you that he doesn’t exist! Do you hear me brothers and sisters? Do you hear-

  Chloe snapped the radio off. If there was a devil, he wasn’t gaining any ground in Birch Harbor. There was only one station that came in without fuzz. Call letters KPRY- the best brimstone and hellfire for your morning drive. If she stayed, her first purchase was going to be one of those satellite radios.

  IF she stayed…which really meant, IF they didn’t find her and take her back.

  It was kind of funny. She was brave enough to jump out a window and run from Woodhaven, but too scared to walk through the doors of a college dormitory.

  It was the dormitory’s fault. Being so big, it should have soared, or some other type of inspiring thing, but Kirkbride Hall didn’t soar, it loomed.

  “Loooooooom,” Chloe whispered, in her best scary movie voice. Loom rhymed with gloom, and that’s probably what made it seem like a dark word.

  Maybe it was a matter of perspective. Kirkbride Hall was massive. Most people wouldn‘t argue that. It also looked ancient and solid. At dead center crouched a fortress of grey stone blocks. The wings of the building arched backwards on either side. It boasted turrets, four stories of tall windows and…a bell tower? Or maybe a look-out tower, for when the dormitory came under siege from random packs of marauding Vikings.

  Fortifications aside, most of its threat came from the fact that she was outside and everyone else was inside. She was late.

  “Looooom,” she repeated, making her voice low and gravely.

  Outside the car, a boy walked by, a backpack slung over one broad shoulder. He glanced at her just in time to see her lips move and make brief eye contact. He looked away just as quickly.

  Chloe moved her lips and bobbed her head, singing along with imaginary music, just in case he looked again.

  Keep sitting here talking to yourself, you’re going to make lots of new friends…crazy Chloe. Crazy, Crazy, Crazy Chloe, she‘s so nuts, she‘ll-

  “Shut-up!” Chloe hissed.

  That awful voice again. The one that showed up when everything was quiet. The one you weren‘t supposed to talk to. At Woodhaven they told her everyone had that kind of voice. The only difference being that other people didn’t assign it an identity separate from themselves. Most people knew the voice came from inside.

  “Time to go,” she decided.

  Outside there was music coming from open windows. Students were leaning out to yell at friends on the street, people constantly streaming in and out the doors-- roller-skating, lounging, talking, laughing. Just like the movies. Chloe had the admissions packet in her bag, but she didn’t need it. She had most of it memorized. She was going to room 237 to meet her new roommate, whose name was: Samantha J. Klingeman. Her first class was--

  “RAAAR! I’m a bear!”

  A young man jumped out of the back of the pick-up truck and landed on the pavement in front of her. In the truck bed, a dozen other boys laughed and pounded the sides.

  Chloe back-stepped and looked the bear-boy up and down. He was wearing a snarling bear mask, his boxers, and the word “PLEDGE” scribbled across his bare chest in lipstick.

  “You’re a JACKASS!” someone in the back of the truck taunted him. The boys laughed and hooted. Another frat clone, this one wearing authority all over his scowling face, leaned out of the cab and glared back at the others.

  “Keep laughing Wilcox, you’re next!” he threatened.

  “Freshman?” the boy in the bear mask asked. At least that’s what it sounded like, his voice was muffled.

  Chloe nodded warily.

  Should she walk away quickly? What if he chased her? Why did they have to bother her? She should have stayed in the car.

  The bear-boy handed her a flyer. A bunch of Greek symbols followed by the bold words: ATTENTION ALL BIRCH HARBOR BEARS: GET YOUR DRINK ON!!! FRESHMEN MIXER TONIGHT! And then the address of what was, undoubtedly, a frat house.

  The bear-boy said something else, but this time Chloe couldn’t understand. She shrugged at him.

  “Bring the flyer with you. It has the initials of who gave it to you in the upper corner. Whichever one of the pledges gets the most freshmen girls to show up wins,” the boy in the cab clarified.

  “Wins…what?” Chloe asked.

  The boys in the truck all laughed again. Maybe it was another matter of perspective, but it didn’t seem like a friendly laugh.

  “A nice set of leather-bound encyclopedias,” one of the boys called over the rest.

  “I don’t know. I just- I don’t think I can...I...see…no thanks,” Chloe stuttered, handing the paper back to him.

  The bear-boy gave an aggravated groan, threw his arms out in supplication, and snatched the paper from her hand.

  He mumbled something under the mask. She wasn’t sure but it might have been ‘freak’.

  “HEY!” he yelled loud enough to make her wince, “HEY! I’m a Bear, RAARR!”

  The half-naked bear took off, chasing after another girl leaving the dormitory. The truck of frat boys trailed behind him.

  New town, different names, same boys… you’re lucky they didn’t push you, or kick your book-bag across the parking lot. You can’t change who you are.

  Chloe swallowed hard and glanced around. She could go back. She should turn around and go back. She could keep driving. Go straight on until she ran out of gas and walk until she came to a town with a restaurant. She could get a job as a waitress. She could be a fugitive waitress and the regulars that came in for coffee would never know.

  Which was all very silly. There was nowhere to else to go.

  “Moving in?” a deep voice asked.

  Chloe said a quick prayer that whoever he was, he wasn’t wearing underwear and a bear mask before turning around.

  It was the boy that had seen her talking to herself. Boy? Not a boy. He had to be over twenty, just had to be. He might not even be real. He didn’t look real. He looked like a guy from a dream that she’d never want to wake up from, because in real life no one like him would ever talk to her.

  He was watching her with the most amazing hazel eyes. Longish, almost-black hair seemed ready to blow Adonis-like around a strongly defined jaw--that is, if any breeze just happened to come along. She hoped one would.

  “Uhhh…I…yes?” she asked.

  “Yes, you’re moving in?” he smiled. Chloe shivered.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I’m Seth.”

  “Hi.”

  He lifted an eyebrow at her. Chloe felt the urge to swing her arms.

  “And now you say your name,” he hinted.

  “Chloe?”

  “Are you sure?”

  “About what?”

  He laughed and gave her a strange look.

  “Can I help you carry something in?” he offered.

  “Uhhh, well, I don’t really have that much. It’s just, I…” Chloe trailed off.

  “How about just having someone to walk you in? It’s easier that way.” he gave her a half-smile.

  “Okay.”

  He walked next to her--across the parking lot, past the students on the grass, and through the doors of a building that didn’t seem to loom quite as much.

  In the lobby, 1950’s sensibility had lost its siege on turn-of-the-century taste. Its few victories were present in the ugly, speckled, linoleum floor tiles, and a few rust-orange couches that had faded to brown sagginess where thousands of bodies had reclined over the years. The stairway didn’t deign to notice the tile or the couches. It
lowered two thick mahogany rails from the above floor, and dropped identical and elaborately carved urns at its end as if it were meeting marble. There was no visible elevator.

  “What floor are you on?” he asked.

  “I’m in 237.”

  “Second floor. Good floor,” he grinned.

  They went up the stairs together and she followed when he stopped on the first landing and turned left.

  The hallway was surprisingly wide and high-ceilinged, lined with tall doors, most of them open so students could come and go from each other’s rooms.

  The door to 237, like the others, was open. Chloe stopped before she came to it. She would rather have had to knock first.

  “I’ll go first. If you hear any screaming…run,” Seth stage whispered. He winked at her as he walked into room 237.

  There were no screams.

  The room was empty, but she followed him in to make sure. Her new room was a perfect square. On the left side, a twin bed was pushed against the wall. A green and black plaid comforter covered it, hanging unevenly over the side. The only occupant of the room, a filthy-looking, misshapen, old teddy bear, lounged against an array of pink throw pillows (Maybe Samantha J. Klingeman was colorblind?) A standard issue dresser bordered the same wall, littered with piles of make-up and hair accessories. Clothes hung in one half of an open closet. The right side of the room was completely barren-- no bed, no dresser-- just a blank, empty space.

  Chloe felt the panic crawling up from the pit of her stomach.

  You’re not supposed to be here. You weren’t accepted. It’s the wrong room. You were sent to the wrong place. There’s no space for you here. You aren’t wanted!

  “Maybe it‘s the wrong room,” she whispered.

  “Chloe?” came a voice from behind.

  Chloe turned to see a girl with short, bleached blonde hair standing in the doorway holding a laundry basket.

  “Are you Chloe Adams?” the girl repeated her question with an expectant smile, and a quick appraising glance toward Seth.

  “Yeah, I’m- I was, I’m supposed to be here, I think,” Chloe fumbled.

  “Oh my God, yeah, of course! I am so sorry. I’m Sam. Hey look, I thought you weren’t coming. The R.A. said--” she paused and threw Seth an accusatory glance, “that every year there are some kids that don’t show up, so I had him help me put the other bed in storage. I was gonna put a futon there.”

  “In storage?” Chloe repeated.

  She doesn’t want you, doesn’t want a roommate, where you going now? No one wants you.

  “I can get it back up here in a matter of minutes” Seth offered. “The storage room is in the basement. Just let me grab the key and get rid of this bag.”

  He left Chloe alone with Samantha J. Klingeman… Sam, actually, just Sam.

  “I- He‘s the R.A.?” Chloe asked.

  “Yes, and in case you’re wondering we did get lucky. Being super hot is not generally in their job description. R.A. might mean ‘Resident Advisor’ to some people, but looking at him all I can think of is ‘Righteous Abs‘. Wait til the next time the boys have a game of flag football in the square and pray that he’s on team skins…you’ll see what I mean. I hope if we get a noise violation he hands out spankings.” Sam grinned wickedly.

  “Heh,” Chloe laughed.

  “Anyways, what were we saying? About the futon? I’d way rather have a roommate than a futon. Seriously, I don’t know anyone! I was actually kind of bummed when you didn’t show. So this is a good thing.”

  Chloe nodded, even though she suspected Sam of trying to be nice. She dropped her bag on the empty side of the room, and tried to think of a way she could make up for the absence of a futon .

  “I brought a microwave,” she offered.

  “That’s awesome. I have a mini-fridge and a microwave, but I didn’t bring either because they wouldn’t fit in my car, and my parents are coming back with a bunch of stuff I left tonight anyway. I’ll just tell them to forget about the microwave. I was originally thinking about putting it on the window ledge--see how wide it is? But then I thought maybe some cool plants, and then hang this bead curtain I have as, like, faux window curtains, but then this girl Jen from down the hall has a blacklight, and she took a bunch of vodka bottles and filled them with different colored highlighter fluid and water so that at night when you turn on the blacklight…it looks so cool. And I was kind of thinking about doing that, but I don’t know. I don’t want to seem like I’m copying her or anything. You know what I mean?”

  “Uh-huh” Chloe agreed, relaxing as she realized Sam was one of those lucky people who enjoyed talking.

  “Well…can I give you a hand bringing your stuff in? You noticed there’s no elevator, right? This is the only Hall that’s, like, stuck in the middle ages. Are your parents downstairs?”

  “No,” Chloe said. A moment of silence followed, in which it seemed to Chloe that her new roommate was waiting for her to explain why her parents weren’t there. Why she was probably the only freshman whose parents weren’t dropping her off and helping her to unpack.

  “Oooooookay, let’s go! Where did ya park?” Sam offered brightly, tossing her empty laundry basket on the bed.

  Contrary to her assertion that she ‘didn‘t know anyone‘, Sam talked all the way to the car about almost every person who lived on their floor. There was a boy who’s room smelled like cheese, two girls from out-of-state, another girl who’s boyfriend looked like a Neanderthal, and a couple of ’super hot’ guys all within a few doors from them. Chloe was able to get by easily, nodding her head and mumbling “oh, really” or “wow” at appropriate intervals.

  At the car door, she paused and realized that she should have warned Sam about how big and heavy the microwave actually was.

  “The, uhhhhh, microwave is a little old, but it works,” she said apologetically. Sam bent down to take a look, then straightened her back, and fixed Chloe with a very serious expression.

  “Chloe…that’s not a microwave. It’s a time machine. If we tried to use it, we might end up in 1985.”

  Chloe’s laugh was real.

  “Okay, leave this beast right here. We’ll have my parents bring the fridge and the microwave. Don’t suppose you have a hot plate…no? That’s okay.”

  Sam continued talking as she grabbed a pile of clothes, and headed back to the dorm. Chloe grabbed her books and hurried to catch up.

  The garage sale she had bought up on her way into town had been a godsend. All the clothes, along with the microwave, and a few boxes of strange trinket-like things--which made her belongings seem more personal-- had passed inspection. Her roommate hadn’t suspected anything amiss.

  “-as if the building wasn’t creepy enough, they’ve gotta tell stories like that, I think they’re trying to scare freshman and I said to-”

  “Wait. What?” Chloe realized she hadn’t been paying attention.

  “What? Are you zoning out already? Wait until classes start at least, I was saying to-”

  “I thought you were going to wait for me to get the key to storage,” Seth said, putting a hand under Chloe’s stack of books and lifting them away from her. She jumped at how close he suddenly was. She didn’t even see where he had come from.

  “Uhhh…okay, I’ll just…uhhh.” Chloe said, glancing toward Sam who was still walking, “I’ll go back to the car and get some more clothes then…I guess.”

  She hurried away without looking back at Sam or Seth. Was that what she was supposed to do? Or was she supposed to follow behind them carrying nothing? Was he going to stand there and wait for her to come back?

  By the time she had run to the car, snatched up another pile of clothes, and ran back to the steps, Sam was gone. But Seth was still there…holding the books, waiting for her.

  “Hi,” Chloe said cringing immediately. They had already done the hellos.

  “Hi,” he grinned, and fell into step behind her. “So…you took your time getting here. The semester starts tomorrow.�
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  “I…it…yeah,” she agreed.

  “You shy or something?”

  She glanced over her shoulder to see that he was still grinning at her.

  “No…I mean…yeah, a little…maybe.”

  “That’s alright. I think shy is cute.”

  It’s flirting, she thought, he’s flirting with me like I’m a normal college girl. If I were, I would know what to say back. I would say something sharp or funny, but smile while I said it. I’ve seen it on TV, I know how it works. But I’m not quick enough and now, if he didn’t figure it out before, he has. He knows something’s wrong with me. Chloe chanced another furtive glance in Seth’s direction. He was, inexplicably, still smiling.

  Back in the room, Sam had already hung a load of clothes on Chloe’s side of the closet. She was on the phone, and waved the two of them in impatiently. Covering the mouthpiece she whispered: “It’s my mom. I’m gonna be a minute, go get the bed with Seth, and I can help you finish unloading your car when I get rid of her, okay?”

  When Seth turned his back to drop the books, Sam gave Chloe an exaggerated wink and a discreet thumbs up.

  Chloe had begun to like Sam, now she wondered if the girl was insane. She gave Sam what she hoped was a pleading look, but her roommate had already turned away.

  “You know what? I dropped my bag off and completely forgot to grab the storage key. Let me go get it and--”

  “and I’ll meet you down there,” Chloe finished for him, and almost tripped in her haste to get away. She didn’t look, but she had the feeling that he was standing in the doorway, watching her hurry towards the stairs.

  A few minutes later, she wished she had waited for him. The basement seemed like an afterthought compared to the rest of the building. Hallways were narrow, dimly-lit, and branched off when you least expected them to. Almost like a system of tunnels, except for the fact that there were so many doors. Doors everywhere, ranging along both walls without any kind of regular spacing. She had no idea where storage might be, and, after walking awhile, she wasn’t even sure she could find her way back to the stairwell.