Silence Falls

Ever since Jack met Bert and his friends, he’s felt some kind of unnatural connection with them. It was almost like they were the kind of people he would hang out with if they had dwelled in Silence Falls when he was growing up. But that’s the thing, they never occupied town before. No, they resided here in the Psychiatric Hospital Jack was employed in. They were his mental patients under his care and supervision and he was their vigilant Orderly targeting their every move. It was a depressing role to be in but it was their reality. Speaking of reality…

Two male Orderlies wearing oxygen masks and backpacking oxygen tanks on their backs infiltrated the first door to their looming destination, each undergoing adverse feelings about their objective. Orderly Matt was oddly excited about venturing past the first doorway, and had begun to develop a titillated look in his eyes with every door they passed through. Orderly Jack was mentally cursing the heavens for being recruited into joining alongside his disorderly high school buddy, Matt, through his operation. He tried to appear undaunted by the ominous location they were currently in so Matt wouldn’t notice his apprehension and poke fun at him for it, because Matt most likely would. As long as Jack kept his disposition unruffled by their eerie surroundings then their purpose should be quick and straightforward.

Only it wasn’t going to be quick and straightforward.

Jack became less and less terrified the longer it took for them to get to their final destination. There were so many vault-like doors and stairwells along the way. One would begin to wonder if this was some sort of circus playhouse that led you around in circles before exiting the same way you came in. Matt and Jack would have believed it if they hadn’t noticed through the beam of their flashlights the accumulating expansion of dark stains on the doors, walls, and floors the farther they went. Matt proclaimed that they were blood stains from a long time ago that no one bothered to wipe up. He had heard that they were from visiting guests that dared to step foot in Asylum to speak with the devil himself. The guests had never made it back to the entrance alive according to what he’d heard.

Jack didn’t bother to try and prove his co-worker wrong by figuring out what those stains actually were for himself, because it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Matt was speaking the truth. He did, however, prefer to not think about it nor look at it while he was down there.

Their steps slowed as they passed through the last vault door to find an even greater door nailed with beaded rosaries, and bibles pages on top of dried blood. Out of all the doors they had come through, this was the only one that looked different. Could that mean…

“He’s in there.” Matt muttered aloud, his hands fidgeting with nerves as he abruptly broke out in a cold sweat that he masked very well. “Holy shit, this place is actually real, man!”

Falling powerless to his jitters, Jack turned to Matt and begged him through the oxygen mask they depended on since a recently random breakout of some unexplained disease broke out on this floor. “Let’s go back, Matt. We don’t need to be doing this! We’re not even authorized to be down here in the first place!”

Matt didn’t respond, he merely stood there biting his lower lip as he tackled on regaining his composure again to open the door.

Determined to convince Matt to abandon the Asylum, Jack deposited his hand on his shoulder and shook him to secure his immediate attention. “Did you hear me? I said we don’t have to do this. Let’s turn around and go back, NOW!”

Matt narrowed his eyes at Jack and whacked his hand off his shoulder as if he insulted him. “What the hell are you talking about, man? I ain’t going back now! Do I look like a fucking pussy to you or something?”

Jack shook his head, not understanding how their departure could be seen as a cowardly act, but then again this was brash ego-driven Matt he was confronting with here. Whipping off his mask, he quarreled back. “No, I don't think you’re a pussy, Matt. I never have! I think coming this far was pretty ballsy of yo actually, but going IN there is just plain stupid.”

Matt scoffed Jack off, and crossed his arms as he chuckled at his overtly spooked friend. “Why? Because we’re not ‘authorized’ by the big man upstairs? Whatever man, we don’t need any authorization down here, trust me.” Finding the spunk to swagger over to the door, he smirked behind his shoulder at Jack, and then used all his body’s strength to open the door by himself.

Jack stepped forward to plead for him once again not to, but promptly had to cover his ears in an attempt to dampen the loud shrieking of metal dragging along metal. Once the sound finally ceased, he peeked an eye open and saw nothing but darkness in the open doorway. Tentatively stepping closer, he and Matt simultaneously leaned in to catch the vague drip of water and take in the murky reflection of it’s ripples on the ceiling. The room smelled of death, making Jack gag and shield his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his starch white uniform.

Matt rolled his eyes at his partner in crime and instructed him. “Breathe with your stupid mask on, you idiot!”

Jack nodded quickly before cramming his face back into his mask, breathing in the untainted oxygen instead. “Jesus Christ, this place smells awful!”

“Yeah yeah.” Matt grumbled as he watched Jack suck in oxygen greedily before taking the first step inside the room of the Devil with his flashlight. He sensed Jack following him at a safe distance.

The room was made out of massive stone and had a concrete slab as a platform on the left side of the room. The majority of the room was taken up by a vast water pit in the center of the room that spanned all the way to the right side. An assortment of industrial-sized black chains were channeled to a contraption on the platform that went up to a pulley system on the ceiling and back down directly into the water pit below.

Jack gaped at the machine, wondering what it was all utilized for.

Matt had stepped closer to the edge of the water pit to get a closer look into the inky waters when he spied some pieces of paper floating on the surface. Aiming the beam of his flashlight onto them, he squinted his eyes and perceived that the pages were from the bible in diverse languages.

Weird, where is the prisoner, Matt thought to himself as he tried to discern anything beneath the frigid waters. His eyes narrowed when he finally spotted something. “There’s something down there...”

“Did you say something?” Jack asked Matt with a raised brow, but his friend didn’t respond. Instead, he watched as Matt's eyes followed the same trail of the chains to the contraption behind them.

A smile spread across Matt’s face as he jogged over to it, poring over the mechanism for an ‘on’ button. Jack took a step closer at the same time his egotistical friend took hold of what looked to be a lever and launched it upwards.

The sound of gears clinking as they shifted into operation echoed boisterously throughout the room, causing both men to cover their ears to preserve what was left of their eardrums. The chains rattled as it strived to haul whatever it was attached to out of the water. Both Matt and Jack observe sharply as a black box begins to materialize to the surface. As the box rose, it became evident that it wasn’t a box, but an old cage instead. The gears stopped the second the cage had fully ascended and was left suspended over the water, draining the rest out the liquid from between the bars.