The Asylum

This is the prologue to the third and final book in my novel series. 

The Asylum: Prologue

On the edge of the village, there lies a mansion.

Tall, dark, dilapidated. Silent from the outside, although sometimes, from the highest, shattered window, you can hear screams. But inside, there is certain death around every corner.

The Asylum seems to feed off of sheer terror. An old, darkened mansion, held together by rotting gothic architecture and blood of any monster trapped inside. The only place in The Orchid where monsters go to die, both human and not.

Every few months, someone is declared “unclean” and sent to the mansion. The people in the Village don’t speak of it. Mr. Chrome almost seems to be unaware of the things that go on behind the retched walls of the dark, unforgiving Asylum.

On these long, cold nights, having survived a monster that knew no weakness and a horde of vicious white wolves, the citizens of the Village can only watch as people are being sent to that dreaded place left and right. An occasional Undead will make its way into someone’s home, or a person will be suspected of Hallowing, and they will be whisked off. Even Thorn, after a few days in a heavily-guarded prison, was taken past those dark trees and placed in the deranged rooms of the deathly Asylum. Everyone who enters has absolutely no hope left.

The deeply-feared mansion is ruled by one woman, who could rival the Netherworlder in terms of ferocity. We call her the Warden. The inmates call her the Devil on Heels. She is the reason that the Asylum is the heart of all the Village’s fears.

Whenever someone hears the word “disease,” we shiver. Whenever someone hears the word “monster,” we cower. Whenever someone hears the word “Asylum,” everyone just drops to their knees and prays that they will never, ever go there.