Legends of Windemere

West Park Asylum

Racing through the dissolving hallways, Ian fights to avoid falling into the abyssal gaps that are devouring Raven’s Hold. Doors have melted into puddles to expose rooms that are crumbling into dust. Several of the chasms have exposed bone around their edges and sticky blood seeps from the ivory frames. Turning a corner, Ian watches a cowering guard drop into a pit that opens beneath his feet. The man has no time to yell before he is gone, unlike the panicking orderly down the hall. A vertical abyss is slowly swallowing the woman who is clawing at the ground and screeching in terror. When she is nothing more than a head and arms, she stops fighting and cries while being sucked into the void. Being so close to freedom, Ian only looks at her demise as giving him a clear run for the door. He sprints as fast as he can and dives between two abysses that pull at his skin until he is out of their reach.

He realizes that the building is different than before when he bursts into the common room, which should have been in the other direction. Parts of the garden hang from the ceiling and reach for the surviving residents that are hiding under tables. Ian leaps from one island of solid ground to another while the screams of people erupt and are swiftly cut off. He stops himself from dwelling on what would happen if he falls into the one of the voids, focusing entirely on reaching the exit. With his hand on the handle, he believes he is going to survive and put this nightmare behind him.

The crackling of a stun gun causes Ian to stop and twists out of the way, the weapon discharging against the door. He catches Gina by the arm when she tries to shock him again and the pair tumble to the floor. With the abysses growing around them, the siblings’ struggle consists mostly of pulling back and forth on the sparking stun gun. Seeing the cuts on Ian’s chest, his sister smacks him on the wounds and tries to use the jolt of pain to wrestle the weapon away. Instead of getting the device out of his hand, she accidentally ends up pulling it against her stomach. Before she can turn the stun gun around, her brother presses the button and unloads the last of the electricity into her body.

“They really should have stuck to the sedative syringes. Stun guns are too easy to turn on the user,” Ian mutters as he catches his sister and puts her over his shoulder. He puts her down as soon as an elbow strikes the back of his head. “Do you really want to keep fighting? We don’t have much time before this room is gone.”

“How did I get here and why am I wearing these clothes?” the orderly asks before she recognizes Ian. Unaware of the danger, she gives her brother a tight hug and nearly knocks them into a void. “I finally found you. Let’s go home, Ian. We’re going to have a long talk about your behavior.”

“Wait. Are you Carla again?” her brother asks as she leads him to the door. He slips his wrist free and cautiously watches her in case this is another trick. “Do you remember calling yourself Gina and working here?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Carla answers, her eyes following the dangerous gaps. A vague memory of what is happening crosses her mind, but it vanishes before she can focus. “The last thing I remember is arriving in Crow’s Landing and getting a boat. There was a storm, I fell into the water, and now I’m with you in this creepy place. Something tells me that we have to move quickly, so we can discuss this later. Don’t stand there like an idiot!”

Ian finds himself numb to his sister’s revival, the constant stress making it impossible for him to feel anything more than a twinge of relief. He lets her guide the way to the door while he takes a final look at the common room. The fingers of the final resident are vanishing into a hole in the floor while the furniture rapidly ages into dust. A few vines remain from the garden, which is dead and crumbling off the ceiling. The creak of hinges draws his attention back to escaping, but his heart leaps into his throat when he sees the fringe of a white dress through the expanding crack in the doorway.

Dawn barrels into the room and slices Ian’s hand off with her bouquet, the severed part still clutched in Carla’s fingers. There is no blood coming from the wound, which seems to heal into a crusty stump. A burst of thunder shatters the window, but the enraged bride merely aims her middle finger at the outside world. The distraction is enough for Carla to tackle her from behind and try to throw her into an abyss. Dawn catches the edge of the nearest hole and yanks herself to safety, but the front of her skirt is sheared off in the process.

“You’re always ruining my stuff!” the woman shrieks while she stares at her exposed slip and garters. Pulling the ruined fabric together, she makes a tighter skirt that sprouts lacey flowers down the sides. “This was never meant to be your home. Sweetie should have kept you away or killed you. He won’t tell me what your purpose is, but I don’t think he knows. He’s confused and lost now that our world is disappearing. Both of you destroyed us.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Carla claims before grabbing Ian by the arm. She shoves him toward the door, but it closes in his face. “Damn it! Let my brother go and we’ll settle whatever this is.”

“Nope. He needs to stay and see you die,” Dawn replies with a smirk. She licks her lips while drawing the unicorn horn from behind her, the golden spike humming in her hand. “I have a powerful weapon and you have nothing. You’re a mistake and I’m going to erase you from the world. Nobody will remember that you ever existed. Even your children and husband will forget about you.”

“You’re going to fight me with . . . what is that?”

“A unicorn horn.”

“Right. I’m guessing it’s fake.”

“We’ll find out when I carve up your daughters’ faces with it.”

“Don’t you dare go near my family.”

“They’re Sarah and Allison, right?”

“Shut up.”

“Pretty names for me to write on their tongues.”

With a scream, Carla rushes at Dawn and attempts to tackle her to the ground. She is unable to stop her momentum when her target yawns and steps out of the way. A tug on her neck turns the woman around and she feels the necklace snap against her skin. Carla takes a final look at Ian who is starting to move forward, but will never reach her in time. Closing her eyes and ignoring Dawn’s giggling, she thinks of her family and wishes she stayed home. To her surprise, there is no pain as she falls into the abyss and ceases to exist. As far as she would be concerned if she still had the ability to think, Carla is simply removed from the world.

“Like I would get my unicorn’s horn dirty. I still need to plant it and grow a new one,” Dawn states while she examines the penguin pendant. She tosses the bauble to Ian and smiles at the stunned man. “Us and sweetie will be the only ones to remember her. You know, I was only defending myself. This is really your fault for accepting the invitation. Though I’d still blame Grace because the dead can’t defend themselves. Now, I’m going somewhere safe and you’re going to stay here to die. Seems things go wrong whenever I try to kill, so I’m going to let you do the work for me.”

“My sister,” Ian whispers while he clutches the necklace. Coming within reach of Dawn, he stares into the gaping void that devoured Carla. “I saw her unravel in there. Piece by piece came away and dissolved. Now I have nobody and there’s no reason why. Tell me why I shouldn’t throw you in there, Ms. Addison.”

“It’s Mrs. Sweetie now and don’t even try it,” the brunette replies while moving around the young man. Unable to reach the far exit, she tiptoes her way to the glass door that would normally lead to the garden. “You don’t really have it in you, little puppy. Even if you did, my sweetie would stop you.”

Ian takes a slow step toward the woman, his attention focused more on his own reflection in the glass door. “Where will you go? This place is falling apart and everyone is dying. Raven’s Hold is no longer a haven.”

“Go? There’s nowhere for us to go, little puppy,” Dawn replies in shock. Watching the common room get consumed, she feels an emptiness in her heart and releases a shuddering breath. “This was and always will be our home. Like any strong couple, we will survive this disaster and rebuild. It won’t be the same and might not be as good, but we’ll be together and that’s the important thing. After all, we’re married now. Unlike you, which really is your fault like you’ve always believed.”

Ian waits for the brunette to turn around and reach for the door handle before charging. With a roar, he tackles her and the pair smash through the glass as an abyss appears where they once stood. Jagged shards stick into their arms and legs, but only Dawn has a few large pieces embedded in her face. One of them is in her eye and removing it causes her to scream loud enough to echo across the island. Agony ripples through her body as she realizes that there is only an empty socket left. She picks the rest of the glass out and tries to stand only to be knocked down by a blow to the back of her head.

Leaving Dawn unconscious and bleeding on the grass, Ian limps away to watch Raven’s Hold finish consuming itself. He can see several people on the roof, the figures cornered against the side. One man jumps and shatters on the ground, making one wonder if any of the patients and staff members were real. The rest of the survivors huddle together as the abysses converge on them and the entire building blinks out of existence. With Raven’s Hold no longer in the way, Ian can see to the pier where a lone figure is patiently waiting.

West Park Asylum

Ian calmly walks toward Dr. Rutherford’s office while orderlies and guards run by to stop the brewing riot. Coming to the door, he leans against the far wall and waits for the hallway to clear of watchful eyes. He chuckles when he sees that the name plate has fallen off and cracked in half, a sign that Corvus is trying to be funny. The sight does make Ian hesitate when he approaches the office and he wonders if this is part of the mysterious man’s plan. Yet the desire to know more about Raven’s Hold drives him to slip inside the room and wedge a chair under the handle. He goes about pulling the small shade on the door’s window and closing all but one of the blinds. He peers outside to watch the orderlies chase a few patients around the garden and to the distant tennis court. A trio of ravens watches him from the trees, the largest of them peeking at the remains of a rabbit.

“I probably don’t have much time, so let’s look at the files,” Ian whispers while approaching the desk.

Opening every drawer, he is surprised to find nothing more than piles of notebooks and clipboards. Digging to the bottom of a drawer, he tries to find the oldest information and uncover more about Corvus. Ian flips through the notebook and frowns when he sees nothing more than illegible scribbles. A knot forms in his stomach as he rapidly checks every piece of paper in the desk and tosses each one to the floor. None of them have clear words and remind him of when a person pretends to write something down. The only objects he can discern on the pages are the occasional raven doodles that the late doctor had put in the margins.

As the distant shouting grows louder, Ian turns his attention to the filing cabinets and finds the same useless pen marks. He has some hope when he finds a folder full of yellowed newspaper clippings, but they are nothing more than old articles on psychology and the benefits of therapy. Only one of them mentions Dr. Rutherford and how she graduated from the top of her class. The article is nothing more than a biographical piece from her college paper, which only reveals her ambition and previous success. The quote from the doctor talks about changing the world even if it does not want to be changed, which sounds both egotistical and bizarrely noble to Ian. If anything, he has no idea how somebody that wants to make the world a better place would end up creating Raven’s Hold.

“There has to be something on Corvus in here,” Ian says to himself while he walks among the strewn papers. He wanders to a bookcase and checks the largest tome to see if it has real words in it. “These are real, but the spines are so stiff. It’s like they’ve never been opened, which wouldn’t surprise me. She could have hidden the information in one of the books, but there are too many to check. I’m pushing my luck already. Maybe I’m wrong and she did keep everything in the staff area. Kind of risky considering Corvus isn’t something she’d want other people to know about. I think. I’m not really sure what he is.”

Flapping wings beat on the windows, so Ian goes to open the blinds and finds the massive flock of ravens have gathered outside. Barely moving and patient, the ebony birds are perched in the trees and on the fences. The grass is masked by those that were too slow to get a higher seat for whatever is about to occur. Gazing out to the forest, Ian notices that there are no leaves on the branches and the black coating are more ravens. He remembers that there were people outside and searches for them, which makes him nervously aware that the shouting has stopped. With nothing to hear besides the occasional caw and ruffling feathers, the young man fears that he may be the only person left on the island.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, Corvus, but bringing your own house down won’t help you,” Ian says, earning a hiss from the nearest bird. Backing away from the window, he relaxes when he hears several people rush by the door. “Guess they got everything under control, which means they’ll check the office soon. I don’t care if they find me in here, but I want to uncover something. Where could she have hidden the information?”

“You assume there’s something to be found,” Corvus answers, his voice emanating from the flock outside. One of the ravens leaps onto the sill and opens its mouth to reveal a human tongue inside. “I can always rebuild my home. The question is if the same can be said about you. I don’t know why you’re so driven to learn about me. You can live here in bliss like the others. Even your sister has found a role here.”

“What about her husband and daughters?”

The raven ruffles its feathers to appear twice its normal size and releases a maniacal chuckle. “Wives and mothers are lost all the time. The girls will survive and grow up. If either of them perk my interest then I’ll use their mother to bring them to me. After all, I prefer to have damaged toys.”

Ian grabs the nearest blunt object, which is a raven-shaped paperweight, and hurls it at the bird. The animal explodes into a curtain of feathers and the rest of the flock takes to the sky where they circle the entire island. Watching the mass of shadows, Ian gets an idea and hurries around the room in search of every raven figurine. He smashes each one on the floor, which causes the building to rumble and the island to gradually lose its color. Grabbing a book, he throws it at the stuffed bird above the door to knock the yellow-eyed decoration down. Pouncing on the raven, he tears its head off to find a crisp piece of paper inside. The quakes stop and Ian can hear a sigh of defeat that chills his blood.

“This is an invitation to Raven’s Hold and it’s addressed to Dr. Rutherford. It was sent thirty-seven years ago,” he says, jumping when the door shakes from a strong blow. He moves to a corner and searches for a weapon, but all he can find is a wooden backscratcher. “I thought she made this place and you were a patient who took over. Maybe even an entity that she uncovered or something. I mean, you’re obviously not human. Never thought you were behind Raven’s Hold. Are you even listening, Corvus?”

“Sweetie isn’t happy with you, little puppy,” Dawn whispers as she slips through the window. The brunette is wearing a beautiful wedding dress and spins a bouquet that is made of rose-colored knives. “We were happy here and you ruined it. Every chance we gave you to be part of our family was thrown in our faces. Because of you, we had to kill Grace and so many patients. All to keep up appearances and remove the threats. Now I might have to go away and on my wedding day too.”

“Why didn’t you just kill me?” Ian asks while he moves for the door and points the backscratcher at the weeping woman. He trips over a large object and crashes to the floor next to a gutted unicorn. “If I was becoming such a threat then you could have eliminated me like you did with the others. So, why am I still alive?”

“I don’t know, but I still hate you. I want you to suffer for hurting my sweetie,” the young woman answers, wiping her tears with the sharp bouquet. Deep cuts are left beneath her eyes, which bleed down her cheeks, along her neck, and under her collar. “Maybe sweetie saw something in you that he wanted. He senses stuff even from so far away, but he doesn’t always know what it is. That’s how I came here. He had Grace bring me to his world and raised me from the depths. He would have done the same to you, but you’re so ungrateful, little puppy. Such a naughty, evil little puppy.”

Ian scrambles to his feet and backs against the door, which merges with the wall. “What are you two?”

“My name is Dawn Addison and I was alone until my sweetie freed me from my prison. He makes me whole and you’re being a bad puppy,” the woman replies. She kneels next to the dead animal and removes its horn, slipping the golden piece under her skirts. “My sweetie holds reality in his hands, but the human world is cruel. He was driven into the shadows and took refuge on this island. Lonely and bored, he created Raven’s Hold to bring the broken ones to his doorstep. Then he found Grace and they turned his haven into an Eden for those of us strong enough to thrive in his world. Nobody really misses people like you, little puppy. Eventually they stop looking and write down that you died by your own hand. Funny how you don’t need a body to claim somebody is dead.”

“So you’re human?”

“I’m his imperfect, loving bride.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“That’s because you’re too normal. Sadly, it’s too late to fix that.”

When Dawn surges forward, Ian swings the backscratcher and catches her in the eye. As she screams and flails, the bouquet still slashes him across the chest. Falling back in pain, the young man passes through the door as if it is not there and lands in the hallway. With a rippling shriek, Dawn tries to follow by pouncing through the entrance. She makes it halfway through before the wood becomes solid and she is trapped within the portal. Crying and cursing, the brunette beats on the floor and tries to free herself while Ian backs away. A look of surprise is on the woman’s face before she is violently yanked back into the office and the doorway changes into a piece of solid wall.

Without a window to see through, Ian is unaware of the desolate wasteland that covering the island. From the depths of the distant lake, a figure composed of shadows and feathers emerges. Corvus sheds his outer coating and gazes at the raven-infested sky, the brief views of the sun too much for his amber eyes. Having been in the basement for decades, he savors his first breath of fresh air and releases a tired sigh. Staring at Raven’s Hold, he can see patches of the distant building blinking out of existence. The screams of those inside the vanishing sections makes his heart ache, which cause the barbed vines of the forest to race toward the shore.

“Now my home crumbles before my eyes,” Corvus whispers while a black suit sprouts from his exposed skin. Reaching down, he captures the last flower of the island and tucks the green blossom into his lapel. “And on my wedding day too.”

West Park Asylum

Ian rests on the couch while the other members of his group remain in a circle, none of them remembering the events of last night. An empty chair sits with Dawn’s name on it, but she has not been seen all morning. In fact, the young woman is another subject that people appear to have forgotten. Not that her vanishing is the strangest change since the riot. Rich and Dr. Rutherford are in their usual positions around the circle and debating the existence of ghosts like they did every session. The only difference is that Gina is standing behind the doctor with two stun guns on her belt. She has told the other patients that it is to make sure everyone behaves, but her eyes rarely stray from the back of the blonde woman’s head.

Ian can sense that whatever Corvus is planning will happen any minute and he prefers to be the one closest to the door. Keeping one foot on the ground, he continues groaning and pretending to hold back vomiting. Sipping at a plastic cup of water, he does his best attempt at faking an illness in the hope of being sent to his room. The option never comes up and all he gains from the theatrics are angry glares from the others. By the time half of the session is over, he has given up on the ruse and tries his best to remain quiet. If he cannot be sent away then he will try his damnedest to be forgotten by his captors.

“I’m not saying magic is involved. Ghosts don’t always mean magic,” Rich states while wringing his camera strap. He curses under his breath when the man he is arguing with stares at him in confusion. “First of all, magic doesn’t exist. Unicorns, dragons, and all that rubbish are what half-wit fantasy authors use to sell books. Ghosts on the other hand can exist because they’re nothing more than the spirits of the dead. Those who are banned from the afterlife are forced to wander our world. Some get angry and lash out when they can, but we tend to not notice. That still isn’t magic though because it’s nothing more than our inner spark acting without a body. Why is this so hard to understand?”

“Because I still don’t see why it matters. Ghosts move things and are invisible like wizards, so they can both be magic,” the man says in a dry tone. When he sees the smirk of Gina’s face, he crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. “You’re always changing your story when it comes to these things. How about you admit that this all a push for attention? Right, Dr. Rutherford?”

“I believe it is more about passing one’s mental weaknesses off on an outside force that cannot be entirely disproved,” she replies without looking up. Her hand is constantly writing even though she has never turned the page. “I’m sorry, Mr. Garrett, but we’ve been having this discussion for months. It is about time you realize that your fixation on ghosts is a delusion caused by your own feeling of helplessness. Nothing ever seems to be in your control, so you blame invisible figures. We are unable to make you believe that the ghosts are in your head because you would need to listen first.”

“I listen all the time, but I know what I see,” Rich swears while clutching his camera. His eyes widen as if something is happening outside, so everyone turns only to see a pair of squirrels pilfering a bird’s nest. “Other people have experienced the ghosts here. They tell me stories when you and the orderlies aren’t listening. It’s impossible for multiple people to experience the same thing. Why do you only disagree with me?”

Dr. Rutherford rubs her eyes, which nearly knocks her glasses off her face. “Because the others don’t bring it up in their sessions, Mr. Garrett. You will not step away from this topic to discuss other aspects of your condition. That makes it difficult to help you and I’m coming to my wits end. I wonder how you will ever be found fit to leave here if you continue to be stubborn about your hallucinations.”

“I’m not supposed to be here!”

“Claiming such a thing is another hindrance to your recovery.”

“But I’m a reporter and you know it.”

“Please stop lying to yourself, Mr. Garrett.”

Gina leans forward and whispers into her boss’s ear, the brief contact enough to make the other woman stop writing. “Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh? These people are fragile and we want to help them. Pushing them in the wrong direction puts the institution at risk. Not to mention yourself.”

“And you think you know more than me?” Dr. Rutherford asks with a laugh. The patients sit straight in their chairs and stare forward, each one focused on whoever is across the circle. “Need I remind you that you’re an orderly while I’m a doctor? You’re not even a senior member, Ms. Nash, since you arrived only weeks ago. Don’t let your taste of power go to your head because all of us are expendable behind these walls. I spent my life striving to reach this point and I’d rather die than let a whim be my downfall.”

“It’s a shame,” Gina says, taking a few steps away from the doctor. She removes the stun guns from her belt and turns them on, the prongs briefly sparking to life. “Corvus had hoped you’d assimilate to your new mentality. Though he didn’t try very hard, so I guess he left too much of the old you in there. Guess you get your wish, Grace.”

A sharp whistle causes Rich to foam at the mouth and lunge across the circle, his sudden movement scaring the other patients. He swings his camera as hard as he can and the device breaks against Dr. Rutherford’s head. The woman collapses to the floor where she is pounced on and pummeled by the enraged man. She pushes him off and tries to crawl away, but Rich jumps on her back and bashes her head in with the biggest chunk of his camera. The brutality of the attack causes the residents to panic and scream in terror, two of them leaping out the open window and racing toward the forest. By the time Gina presses both stun guns to the bald man’s neck and shocks him, her boss is only able to make a final gasping breath before dying. The orderly checks for a pulse on Rich’s neck and frowns at the gentle crinkling of his severely burned skin. The slightest pressure splits the flesh and she watches ivory-colored blood seep out of the wound.

“I didn’t know stun guns could do that,” Gina mutters as she rushes for the intercom. A few patients get in her way and she stuns all of them, using up the charges of both devices. “I need help in the group therapy session! One of the patients has killed Dr. Rutherford and the others are trying to escape. Send the guards and have more lock down the common room and cafeteria to make sure this doesn’t spread. I’ll do what I can to contain this.”

Gina drags the empty couch to block the door and sprints across the room to close the windows. She pauses and turns around to examine the room after getting the feeling that she is missing something. Not sure what has put her on edge, the orderly finishes sealing the room and grabs the nearest blunt object to defend herself. As soon as Gina lifts the raven-shaped paperweight, all of the patients turn toward her and their eyes glaze over as they close in on the woman.