• Alice tapped the end of her pen against her lower lip. Her brow furrowed in concentration as her eyes scanned the notepad in front of her. It contained information about her current patients. A paranoid Schizophrenic named River Lapis. He had killed his maid because she refused to leave his room when he asked her to. Alice sighed and stood up. She peeked over the edge of her cup only to find it empty. Running a hand through her hair, Alice grabbed the cup and headed out of her office.

    The hallway seemed to drag on forever. Shadows bounced off the walls. It was nighttime and she was the only one left in the psychology building. A slight jab of paranoia pressed into her brain. Even as a child Alice never liked to be alone, especially after her parents died. She stepped into the lunch area and dragged herself over to the coffee pot.

    Warm coffee slid into the cup. The faint scent of hazelnut drifted through the air. Alice hugged the warm cup between her freezing fingers. She yawned. It would be a good idea to get home but she didn’t want to leave just yet. Alice pondered over River. Just today he had told her that a voice had spoken to him that sounded like her. Was it possible that his brain was taking a copy of her voice? Was the intent good or bad? Alice took a sip. The coffee burned her tongue slightly but she swallowed it anyway. She jumped slightly, startled, as a voice spoke from behind her. Alice turned around to see what or who had spoken. A little girl with rosy cheeks and blonde curls stood before her. The curls hung limp like lifeless snakes or as if the girl had a bucket of water dumped on her head. “You should really get home,” The girl muttered. Her eyes looked melancholy. It reflected her voice, sad yet with a bit of sweetness. The innocence of a small child was very visible with this girl.
    “How did you get in here?” Alice asked with a concerned look. Before the little girl could answer there was a snapping sound behind her and Alice turned around to investigate. Nothing out of the ordinary. She turned back only to see that the little girl had disappeared. What the heck? Alice wondered. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. The tired woman took another sip of her scalding hot coffee and headed back to her office.

    The phone rang noisily. Alice shot up from the desk. She clutched the air groggily trying to find the phone. Her hand found it and she lifted it from the base. “Hello?” Alice asked her voice still scratchy from sleep.
    “Alice?” The voice replied.
    “Yeah it’s me,” Alice recognized the voice. It was the head doctor guy from the asylum, Ross Arkin. Alice frowned and rested her chin upon her hand.
    “I need you down in the asylum right now,” Ross demanded.
    Alice nodded to nobody in particular,” Okay, I’ll be down there soon.” Alice hung up before Ross could answer.

    Alice stuck the keys in the ignition and waited as the car roared to life. Her car was a Toyota 4Runner. Although it was about 10 years old, the car was still in great condition and ran smoothly. Alice backed up and pressed down on the gas petal. As she drove Alice noticed that the leaves on the trees were changing colors. Had fall really come this fast? She had been focused on work so much that the days had just been a blur. Alice sighed and stuck her hand on the bottom of the car. She had dropped her keys again and fumbled around blindly for them. Her hand struck something metallic. She picked it up only to find a red handled screwdriver. “Crap!” Alice cried in desperation. Ross was going to chew her out if she didn’t get in the asylum fast. Alice dropped the screwdriver into the passenger seat and looked up to see the keys were still in the ignition. “What the-,” She could have sworn that the keys had fallen to the floor.

    Alice blinked a few times and straightened up. She clutched the plastic door handle. Zzzt! A shock ran through her fingertips leaving them tingling. Alice didn’t even have time to react before the feeling was gone and just a vague memory. The slightly frazzled female stepped out of the car and onto the black and chunky pavement. Despite the fact that it was autumn, it was still very hot. Alice shifted uncomfortable as the heat rose up in ribbons from the pavement. She felt a faint breeze ripple through her hair as she gazed up at the asylum.

    The Asylum wasn’t located in a bad place but there was just this oppressive air that hung around it like fog. It was as if the sun never shined as bright and that a raincloud had settled above it. It could send shivers down the most fearless of spines. Alice had even wondered that if a person had spent to much time in there would they come out as sane as before? As soon as she stepped through the doorway a choking feeling constricted at her throat. Calm down! She screamed silently to herself, in her own thoughts, and continued on.

    Ross wasn’t big or intimidating. He was just old. Not like old as dirt but for Alice he was old, at least in his sixties. “Ms. Rozzeh, thank you for coming on such a short notice,” Ross said as she approached him.
    Alice nodded. “I was at the office anyway. What do you need me for?” Whatever he needed to do she would try and get it done as soon as possible. This place was very unsettling.
    Ross grasped her shoulder lightly. “Come with me,” He said. Alice opened her mouth to speak, and then shut it, and then opened it again.
    “Okay,” She squeaked. Ross let go of her shoulder and glanced at her oddly. He turned around and began walking down the hallway. Alice followed closely behind.

    Metal doors lined the walls. There was a small window on each door to look through. Orderlies, the asylum guards, dressed in black with guns holstered at their sides, stood beside each door. This place sure takes all precautions to insure that a breakout would be irrelevant. Alice’s heart thumped nervously in her chest. Two orderlies passed by leading a woman to another part of the asylum. The woman must have been in her thirties. Fiery red hair clung to her sweaty face. Spittle dripped from her lips and was dried and coked on her chin. She must have just gotten done with a fight with these guards, Alice thought as she walked. Alice examined the woman closer. Her bright green eyes glittered with madness and her upper lip was curled over her yellow teeth in some kind of snarl. Then the woman looked over at Alice and grinned. She held her finger up to her lips in a shushing motion. Alice quickly looked down and away from the frightening woman.

    They had finally gotten out of the hallway and entered a big room. Police littered the area. Crime scene tape surrounded one area in particular though. There was a sheet lying on the floor and a giant bump underneath it in the shape of a body. “What happened here?” Alice asked.
    “There was a murder,” Ross replied gravely. “One of the orderlies got their throat severed last night, almost completely torn off.” Alice winced involuntarily as her eyes widened in shock. “What does this have to do with me?” She asked slowly.
    “There was a note.”
    “A note?” Her voice was extremely curious.
    “Yes, it was addressed to you.”
    “Me? Why?”
    Ross shrugged and pulled an envelope from the pocket of his coat and handed it to her. Alice grabbed it hesitantly and slid the flap open. It wasn’t licked shut. She took the letter from the envelopes mouth and opened it. The note had only a few words on it and they made no sense to Alice.
    It said: You cannot hide from the truth forever...
    Alice shoved the letter back into the envelope and handed it back to Ross. The envelope felt cold in her hand when she handed it over. “It doesn’t make any sense!” She muttered quickly and angrily. Ross raised his eyebrow.
    “Well, I completely trust your judgment Alice.”
    She leaned against the wall. “Do you know who did it?” She asked. Ross shook his head.

    ~3 weeks later~

    Alice looked at the screen of her flipped up phone. It read: October 16. “Another sunny and warm autumn day,” She sighed. It had been 3 weeks since the murder at the asylum. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened since then. Alice had decided to come a bit earlier today just to clean off her desk and do a bit more research. She had decided to walk since it was just a 5-10 minute walk. As the psychology/therapy building came into view Alice clipped the entrance key off of her belt. She approached the door and stuck the key into the lock. There was a small click as she turned the key. The door swung open. As soon as she entered the building she could tell that something was wrong. Alice couldn’t exactly tell why she knew that but the feeling was there. She walked in slowly and turned the corner. Nothing. No wait, there was something. Small specks of red dotted the gray carpet. How long had that been there and gone unnoticed? Alice crouched down and set her finger on top of one of the spots. She raised her hand and saw that the red had come off on her finger. She raised her hand and waved it close to her nose. Blood? It had the same rusty scent. Alice wiped her hand on her pants. She stood back up and anxiously continued walking. The hallway soon split into a T-shape. Alice walked into the middle of it and turned to the right. She gasped.

    Blood was splattered all over the wall. As if somebody took a paint brush, dipped it in red paint, and then waved it all around. Her stomach rose up into her throat but she swallowed it down. Her legs kept pushing her forward even though she was scared to even look around. Her legs walked down to the end of the blood splattered hallway and into the next room. Then a scream found its way out and let go, the sound was only described as blood curdling and full of despair.

    A limp body hung from the ceiling. Blood was plastered over the face and down the front of the victim’s clothes. It was a horrifying sight. The eyes bulged from their sockets and the tongue lolled out of the blood soaked mouth. The gore that twisted with the shredded skin of the neck was revolting. The way that the blood pumped from the slashed jugular showed that the person had just died recently. Whoever this poor person was had their throat slit before they were hung up and left to suffocate on their own blood. Alice pressed herself against the wall and covered her mouth with her hand. The smell was nauseating. Alice couldn’t look away but she knew that there was something on the body that was worse then the throat. The whitish-pink fluid dripped down from the hair. It was chunky and bloody. Brains. The weapons of choice lay beside the hanging body, a baseball bat and a knife.

    A man about the age of 35 stepped out from behind the body. He had black hair with side-swept bangs. It was obviously greasy. His eyes were a bright blue almost a cerulean color. “Sorry to scare you,” He muttered, his eyes never leaving hers. “I didn’t even hear you come in,”
    Alice slowly removed her hand from her mouth to speak. “Who are you and why have you done this?” She asked, her voice trembling slightly.
    The man tilted his head to the side slightly and ran a hand through his hair. “You can call me Ryan. I did this because he was going to get in the way of our business.”
    “What business? I don’t even know you!” Alice shot back. A slow anger bubbled in her chest.
    “We have plenty of business you just don’t realize it yet. If we don’t get our business done quickly it will be too late.” Alice took out her phone and flipped it open. She started smashing numbers. “I’m calling the cops,” She muttered. Alice glanced up to see Ryan charging at her. She didn’t have to duck or anything before he stuck his hand out and slammed her against the wall by her neck. Ryan put her face close to her.

    She could feel his hot breath on her neck. It was warm and clammy. Alice looked away and squeezed her eyes shut. “Get away from me!” She demanded harshly but her voice faltered in the end. A small whimper escaped from her mouth. The pressure applied even more on her throat making her gasp for a breath that she didn’t have.
    “You will go home and act as if you never heard or saw anything,” His tone was dangerous. “If you tell anyone I will hunt you down and kill you.” Ryan released his grasp. Alice slumped down to the floor and took in huge gulping breaths of air. She nodded quickly and Ryan patted her head. “Good girl,” He chuckled and after a while it echoed off the hallways then was gone. After a while Alice looked up and saw just an empty hallway except for the gore and body.

    Why is this all happening to me? Alice wondered and she staggered home. She had almost broken down in hysteria but had calmed down at the last moment. As soon as Alice got close to home she had ran and thrown the door open then shut after she got in. Her body collapsed on her bed, sobbing dryly. The grief stricken girl buried her face in her pillow to stifle her wails. Those horrible images couldn’t be erased from her mind. Whenever she shut her eyes the scene flashed before her closed eyelids.
    Tears hadn’t been shed but it was just the repulsion of what she’d seen that made her feel like crying yet no tears came, just the broken sounds that escaped from her throat. Alice stumbled into the bathroom and went over to the sink. She splashed icy and bitter water onto her face then dried it off with a soft towel.

    After a while of just standing there over the sink she straightened up and walked out of the bathroom and her room. Only to see one well known face and a face that had only been seen once. The little girl whom she had met at the office and Ryan. “How did you get in here!?” Alice demanded to know.
    “Please don’t be mad at us…”The little girl mumbled with a shame face.
    “Rachel, be quiet!” Ryan snapped. He walked forward and grabbed Alice’s wrist. “You’ve been causing a lot of trouble,” He grinned slyly. Alice tore herself away from the two strangers and ran back into her room. She slammed the door and locked it.

    Alice approached the dresser and rested her hands on top of it. She looked up at the mirror in front of her. Something caught her eye. Alice raised her hand but there was no reflection of it in the mirror. “What the-?” She muttered. Alice blinked then glanced over. There was a perfect reflection of her staring right back. “Your right, you have been causing a lot of trouble.” The reflection mused with a smug look.
    “Ryan said that!”
    “There is no Ryan.”
    “He is right outside my door!” Alice yelled back to herself.
    “You should call Ross up and have him lock you up before you kill anybody else.” The clone said politely.
    Alice stormed away. “You better get away from me,” She warned.
    The clone followed her. “There is something seriously wrong with you.”
    Alice swung around. “Shut up!” She roared. Her anger dissipated when she found herself looking back in the mirror. Alice picked up a jewelry box and tossed it into the mirror. There was a loud crack and the mirror shattered into many jagged pieces. She picked one of the pieces up and looked at it. Ryan and Rachel flanked her sides again. They both look saddened by something. “Now do you know what you have done?” They spoke in unison.
    “Even my parents?” Alice asked.
    Ryan nodded. “You pushed them off a cliff at your beach house. When you where fifteen. Then you told the police that it was suicide. They are after you and if you don’t finish your job you will be gone like your parents.” Alice closed her eyes at the memory of her parent’s death, the thrill of killing. The rush that was felt when a knife cut through flesh like butter. Alice could remember the day perfectly. She could even recall the sea spray taste that rested upon her lips as she stood on the cliff and looked down at her parent’s wrecked and bleeding bodies. Alice opened her eyes. “Well we can’t let that happen,” Her voice was deeper as she spoke and had and unnoticed confidence in it. A laugh broke from her lips as she saw Ryan and Rachel fade away.

    The door bell rang loudly in the silence of noon time. “Alice?” Ross called out. He had answered a call about a girl who ran away covered in blood earlier that day. He was worried about her. “Alice?” He made his way deeper into the house. Things were a mess. Papers were tossed all around and paint was scratched off of the walls. What happened here? Ross wondered.
    “Alice isn’t here anymore. She showed quite a lot of defiance but in the end she knew it was her time.” Alice stepped from around the corner. “Call me Ryan.”

    Ross barely had time to react before a knife buried itself in his chest. Alice grinned and dug the knife deeper. Blood squirted from the wound as she then pulled it out and sunk the blade back into his flesh. Ross scratched at the hilt of the knife. Alice pulled it out for the last time and watched as the old man fell back. Blood bubbled out from Ross’s lips. “Night, Old man.” She sneered as she wiped the blood off of the knife on her shirt. Alice turned to walk away but something grabbed her ankle she looked down at see that Ross was still alive. A few incoherent words come from his mouth but they were to quiet to hear. “You will have to speak louder,” Alice muttered.
    “You…won’t…get…away…with…this…”Ross managed to spit out then he died. Just like that. The life was blown out of him like the flame to a candle.

    A yelled echoed from outside. “This is the police! Come out with your hands raised!” Alice clutched the knife in her hand. Would she have to fight more? No she had a better idea. Alice set the tip of the knife on her arm and dug it in. Pain flared up her arm making her clench her teeth. Alice took a breath then ripped the knife down. She sucked in a breath to keep from screaming. Her whole body throbbed just from that major wound. She dropped the knife and held her profusely bleeding arm.” I’m in here!” She finally called out, her voice weak. A weird look crossed the police officers face as he walked into the house. “He attacked me…”Alice muttered, grimacing.
    “Are you okay?” The officer asked. He had soft and feathery blonde hair. His eyes were huge with a warm brown iris.
    “No,” Alice collapsed to the floor. The police officer freaked out as the blood ran quickly from her arm. He grabbed the radio from his belt. “I need some back up!” He exclaimed. There was a response but Alice didn’t hear it. Multicolored dots bloomed in front of her vision and she fell into darkness.
    The faint sound of dripping water awoke Alice from her sleep. A dull ache in her arm was present as well. She sat up and looked around expecting to see a hospital room. It wasn’t. She was sitting in the asylum. Alice stood up quickly and walked over to the door. Her eyes wide in terror, she pounded on the door. “Let me out of here!” She screeched. Her good arm scratched uselessly at the door. A face appeared. It was another doctor. “Alice calm down,” He said calmly. Alice stepped back. “Alice? I’m not Alice, I’m Rachel.”