The Tri-County Lunatic Asylum looked shockingly new inside. The entrance for one was clearly a recent add-on. A long hall, separated into two layers, the inner layer was where the guards matched him through metal detectors and other odd machines. The second layer around him was translucent as well, some sort of hard glass that allowed vision within and outside of the inner layer, but was clearly intended to keep the two separate. To allow them to watch his every move…

  ?

  Upon reaching the end of the hall, he was forced to strip naked, thoroughly checked afterwards, and given a “new” outfit. A dull, pale grey set of trousers and top, rougher and obviously inferior to the already scruffy prison garb he had been wearing. He was even subjected to one of the most thorough physicals he’d ever suffered. But all the same, Dez went along with it all, Olaf’s impatient growls, and the absurd amount of firearms pointing at him, giving him no real choice in the matter.

  ?

  Now, apparently dressed properly and safe and healthy enough, Dez was led into the building proper. He imagined it would be a run down mess, time and lack of care rotting away what it had once been, and leaving it in permanent disarray. Yet at least the lobby was anything but.

  ?

  It was clear the lobby had been redone and turned into some sort of mess hall; a massive, decadent staircase led upstairs, deep into the building. A massive cage being installed around it to prevent access. Olaf stalked toward it, pulling out a keycard, opening it, and stepping inside, closing and locking it behind him. The man seemed content to ignore the lot of them for now, continuing up the staircase without so much as a word towards them. The rest of the lobby had a series of tables and chairs set up for dining, a large kitchen set up with various methods of preparing meals, and Dez assumed the cabinets above were stocked with food. There was a series of pitched tents as well, each with a sign labelled with one of their names. The rest of the facility was hidden behind two double doors.

  ?

  While their host left them alone, the group seemed content to socialize for now. Not that Dez could blame them, even after his mere day within the prison, it was nice to be anywhere else. Though he could do without the sense-induced migraine.

  ?

  His sense wasn’t so much as flaring as constantly booming within him, an endless chaotic beat. It left him feeling twitchy and paranoid, just itching to see what had left his odd sense so agitated. So much so, Dez didn’t hear Hector and his new friend when they first spoke.

  ?

  “Dez,” Hector said with a sigh. “You’re the reason we’re here, so don’t ignore me, my friend.”

  ?

  “Was distracted,” Dez admitted with a shrug. He looked over to the man standing beside Hector, a tall, muscular black man with an oddly goofy smile. “Brother.” He said while offering a respectful nod.

  ?

  “Brother!” The man said, with a small laugh, as the two smiled and dapped each other up. The man's energy was infectious, Dez mirroring it, shocked by how easy it was to do in a situation like this. “My name is Markel, but they call me Goof though.”

  ?

  “Not sure what vato is that bold against a grandote like yourself.” Hector chimed in with a shake of his head. “It seemed that a deal of ours wasn’t offered to us alone, there are some others here from different prisons. Goof here being an example.”

  ?

  “Apparently, I look like a goofy brother,” Goof said with a sigh. “But it is what it is. Goof is me.” The man said with a sigh.

  ?

  Dez wasn’t so sure about that; he had chosen to go by Dez to avoid being called Desmond. A way to reject the identity given to him, it perplexed him. Goof had faced the same problem and chosen the opposite solution. “I respect it. So how’d you get here?”

  ?

  “My friend!” Hector objected, shoving Dez slightly while shooting him a glare. “You don’t just ask that!”

  ?

  “Shit, we’re here for life, aren’t we?” Goof said with a shrug of his own. “What’s the point of worrying about that stuff anymore? My twin over there,” The man said, gesturing over towards Hooks and K, who were talking to a nearly perfect copy of Goof, save for a much more severe expression glued to his face. “Mug, short for Mean Mug, got charged with premeditated first-degree murder. Was trying to rob this couple, fought back and we busted ‘em before we could stop ourselves… got caught a couple of days later tryna flee the state.”

  ?

  “You hit civies?” Dez asked with a raised brow. With the loose and risky lifestyle he liked to live, he had encountered plenty of criminals from all walks of life. Dez himself, even pre-murder, hadn’t been innocent by any meaning of the word. He was no gangbanger, but he had spent his life adjacent to the life. Enough to where he knew how it must be worked, most saw hurting those uninvolved as needless, as low-class even for them. It was a risky matter; hurting them tended to bring more heat. “Why go that far?”

  ?

  “Not like we wanted to, we warned them to listen and go along with it, they didn’t, so they paid the price, the same way we are now,” Goof explained with a sigh. “Honestly wouldn’t have popped if Mug hadn’t. But I am content to suffer for it all the same. Least were still together…”

  ?

  “You don’t regret it, my friend?” Hector asked, obviously even more bothered than Dez.

  ?

  “Of course I do, it was a dumb choice, one we seem likely to pay for with our lives.” Goof said with a nod. “All I can do now is make the best of it, why I signed off on something as sketchy as this.”

  ?

  “It’s beyond sketchy.” Dez agreed with a grumble. “They somehow forced our dates for execution to go up. We’re talking about; multiple people, multiple cases, across the country. That’s an insane level of pull.”

  ?

  “Has to be the government, right?” Goof asked. “I mean, the only thing I can think of is a pretty clever way to get free labor.”

  ?

  “Inhumane and evil, you mean.” Hector objected. “Besides, it doesn’t matter who, I wanna know the why. What do they possibly gain from all of this?”

  ?

  “Pleasure.” A new voice chimed in, and the three of them turned to see an average-looking man with curly, unruly hair and a nervous smile. His skin was the palest he’d ever seen, as if the sun was nothing more than a memory to him. “Those bastards just wanna toy with Harry and the rest.”

  ?

  “Still beats death.” Dez pointed out. “Besides, so far this doesn’t look that bad.”

  ?

  “Looks can be deceiving,” Hector said with a shake of his head. “Nothing good can come from doing this.”

  ?

  “I don’t know, being a scientist doesn’t sound so bad to me.” Goof objected. “Family might talk to me again with that job if I ever got a chance.”

  ?

  “Goof, we’d be more like the muscle or janitors,” Dez said with a chuckle. “And I’m sure this shady program will allow us to contact the outside world…”

  ?

  “Maybe you clowns…” Goof mumbled. “Besides you never know..”

  ?

  “No, we’re doomed, Harry and his new friends are doomed!” Harry declared. “I’ve seen it! I’ve seen it! Soon! It will come soon!”

  ?

  Dez hadn’t seen it before in his life, no, this was the first time. From the paranoid, constantly shifting eyes, and the odd tinge to his voice when he spoke. Harry clearly wasn’t all there; something was making him manic. He had heard before that those who had lost their sanity could be a bit unnerving, and now he knew it wasn’t an understatement. Something about the way he spoke and the expression he made brought an unstable energy to the vibe.

  ?

  “Now now,” Hector said, placing an arm around Harry. “Just breathe.” Harry did as Hector instructed with such speed and intensity that Dez was worried he’d pass out, but while he did, Hector talked as if already used to it. “They had me, and this vato here ride together. He’s a bit of a mess, doesn’t seem to be fully getting what’s going on or anything else for that matter. I can sort of calm him down though.”

  “Mother Hen Hector.” Dez joked, Goof snorting in response.

  ?

  “Tulo.” Harry and Hector said in sync, the latter flinching and looking over at the former.

  ?

  “Heard this all before,” Harry said evenly.

  ?

  None of them knew what to make of that. However, they didn’t need to, as a crackle of static from the ceiling, just before the staircase, suddenly revealed a panel sliding down to reveal a screen built into it. A moment later, it flashed, revealing the image of Olaf seated behind a desk in a lavish office, heavily decorated with owl imagery. Paintings, statues, even paperweights were all of owls, and even the drapes looked to be colored in shades of brown and white of the owl. It was a strange sight to be certain.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  ?

  “Hello prisoners, I am your Carekeeper and/or Warden, depending on the circumstances, Olaf Athens. This is my formal orientation to the new official staff of the “Tri-County Lunatic Asylum Rework Team”. However, I despise so-called people like you, those who live outside the rules and norms we have established. Many people believe in rehabilitation or appropriate punishment. But I have always believed that those trash who have fallen as low as you can never rebound. Luckily for both of us, this is not why you're here. Nor are you here to serve the U.S. No, your presence here is two-fold. One and foremost to clean and prepare this fine site of history for future use, and two to face the fates you’ve all earned.”

  ?

  “What the hell does any of that mean?” Dez objected with a shout. The damn bastard goes around grabbing his face and calls him scum? He was lucky he was speaking from behind that screen.

  ?

  “It means you will spend your days, from ten in the morning to ten at night, working diligently; cleaning, repairing, and preparing this building for future use. If that’s not descriptive, it’s because, due to the forced nature of your work, what doesn’t matter. Scum like you will do as told.” Olaf sneered at the camera. “As for the latter half of the statement, don’t think because your death has been delayed, it is still not quickly approaching…”

  ?

  There was tension that exploded into the room at those words. Dez shifted a step back and looked around for an exit. He caught Hooks and K doing the same as he did. Despite the beef between the three of them, survival came first, and Hooks shook his head to say they saw no way out. Harry merely muttered something about how he'd told them so, while Hector and Goof joined each other in prayer.

  ?

  “Are we going to be killed, sir?” Vance asked evenly, the man seemingly oddly calm. “'Cause we were told there’s work to be done.”

  ?

  “Of course not, not immediately nor all at once.” Olaf agreed with a nod.

  ?

  “That’s not a no.” Hooks said with a shake of his head. “Why don’t you stop beating around the bush?”

  ?

  “I was suggesting that your safety isn’t assured in this deal,” Olaf said with a shrug. “You scum were already slated to be killed, and have signed away your freedom and rights. Meaning that your survival in the near future isn’t guaranteed, in fact, by the end of the next three days most of you will be dead…”

  ?

  “Dead?!” Derby raged. “We went along this to live!”

  ?

  “Yeah, you can’t just kill real Americans like us!” One of the newcomers agreed, stomping toward the screen threateningly. “We have rights!”

  ?

  “You can’t just kill us like this!” Goof roared as well.

  ?

  But Dez and the others in that room that day knew better. Dez waited for a moment, allowing the others who clearly hadn’t been cowed as thoroughly as they had been yet to rage and roar indignantly at their host. Once he was convinced they were distracted, he raced for the door, and Hector and K met him there. He and K were prying at the closed doors with their bare hands, attempting to rip them open, switching to brute force when they didn’t budge. A moment later, Hector returned with a metal rod ripped from one of the chairs and attempted to use it to pry the doors open. But the door never budged, and despite the fact that Olaf could surely see him, the man was passive as he watched their efforts.

  ?

  Only Hooks and Vance were calm during it all, sharing an odd look and seemingly waiting for something. Dez and Co continued their desperate efforts without a word said. The three of their instincts screamed they needed to escape, and their promise to stay meant little in the face of that. Soon, Goof and Mug joined them in their effort, while the Woods were raging, berating, and threatening Olaf with such intensity that the man couldn’t get a word in.

  ?

  Harry, for some reason, nervously stood close to Hector, pulling on his outfit and muttering something to himself. As Dez pulled on the door with all his might and stumbled back in failure, he heard what the man was muttering. “Hector and Harry need to hide.

  ?

  Dez was shaking now; his senses were going truly wild. It felt like fire circulating through his veins rather than blood. That something terrible was waiting nearby, just waiting for its moment to strike and devour him. It was so bad that it made it impossible to think clearly, like his thoughts were struggling to reach his mind in a timely manner. Like he was hazy, but in such a way that was impossible to ignore.

  ?

  Their panic was, however, stopped as Olaf suddenly snapped, his voice cracking from the absurd volume at which he screamed. “SILENCE SCUM, Code: Golden-Spears!”

  ?

  They all flinched as a deafening roar of mechanical clicks, whirling gears, and shifting steel filled the room at once. Dez instinctively looked up, seeing a dozen panels open in the ceiling and unleash large golden barrels, belts of ammunition beginning to feed into them as each began to beam a laser, showing its aim.

  ?

  Screams erupted in fear. Hooks, Dez, K, and Goof froze for a moment. But Hector's call and burst of movement goaded them into action, and they dived beneath a metal table, Dez dragging another with him to expand their cover. But from the looks of shock and fear they shared, it wasn’t lost on any of them that it wouldn’t be able to protect them from sustained fire.

  ?

  Dez looked across to see Vance, Derby, and one of the new Woods cowering under another table. The other Woods, along with Mug, were screaming and hollering still at the man. Perhaps due to arrogance, but from the wide-eyed looks they all had, he suspected it was hysteria.

  ?

  Harry seemed to be merely sitting still among the chaos. Muttering to himself much too quietly for Dez to hear, but even as the laser began to trace the room, many hovered on Harry’s own body. The man didn’t react or seemed bothered; was he so far gone that he didn’t even recognize the danger? How could they send someone like this here, of all places? Why bring them here just to kill them?

  ?

  “You scum still choose to bear your fangs?” Olaf said that the display of power he just displayed gave him some of his composure again. “Then I must truly set an example…”

  ?

  The lasers all began to move in sync, each of them landing on the kneeling Harry. The man finally reacted, blearily staring at his apparent doom and apparently not thinking much of it.

  ?

  However, what happened next was interrupted by the most terrifying sound Dez had ever heard. It sounded almost human, like a terrified woman, but had an inhumane pitch and shrillness; the sheer volume alone made it clear it wasn’t human. Everyone, even Olaf on the screen, froze. Then it hit him.

  ?

  His body had been sensitive and sore ever since his senses had been going off constantly; as of late, it was a giant bundle of tension and pain. Yet this hurt worse; Dez didn’t even remember what happened in the next few seconds. His nerves and veins felt as though they melted, churned like lava, and it was burning away everything else. His ears pounded from the sound, as if his eardrums were mere moments away from bursting.

  ?

  And he saw the strangest things. He could see the night Mr. Little and he had gotten into their biggest fight. The man finds his stash of green, and Dez is unwilling to be shamed for it. The ugly screaming match had left his Mother sobbing, and Mr. Little was so enraged that he kicked him out. He saw the night Hooks, and he was arrested after fighting Jack and his boys. His mind was focused on the fact that Hooks was the reason they were in trouble. He saw the decision that had started this all. It was almost as if he were seeing it from a third-person perspective.

  It left his mind and body weak, and Dez barely realized he was back, flat on his back, from what had happened. Glancing around, he found Hooks, K, Vance, and Harry all grounded and dazed just as he was. Whatever that was had affected them all, but the others merely looked at them, confused.

  ?

  “My friend,” Hector said, leaning over to him. “You okay?”

  ?

  “Never been better.” Dez joked as Hector helped him lean up, before the man went around under the table, helping the others. As they all recovered and were dazed by the strange events, Olaf spoke again.

  ?

  “The Supreme Tyto…” Olaf whispered in amazement, before cackling to himself as if hearing the funniest joke of his life. “Never mind, it won’t be necessary! Instead, allow me to get through this with haste! Your role here is simple, clean, and repair my estate for as long as you are able! As well as serve out your death sentences when the time comes. Any violence against one another, myself, or the property will be a violation responded to with lethal violence. Any attempt to escape or contact the outside world will be met with the same response. Save for two of you, your lives be taken as ordered by the U.S government in a span of the next three days. The only time your lives will not be in danger is for four hours, starting at noon each day. Any other time you will be available for execution.”

  ?

  “This isn’t right!” Hector roared.

  ?

  “I’m not gonna stand for it!” Derby.

  ?

  “Yeah, why don’t you come down here and try-” Another began to demand before a loud click boomed through the room.

  ?

  A moment later, that light snapped off, bathing them in darkness save for the screen, which began to suffer interference, with visual and audio static making it nearly impossible to understand.

  ?

  “It comes.” Olaf declared before the screen turned off.

  ?

  They were all tense, as silence lay heavy over them in the darkness. There was a hesitation they all felt, the uncertainty of what to expect clashing with the certainty that it would be dire for one of them. However, they need not wait long.

  ?

  The inhumane scream sounded out again, nearly knocking Dez out. As he barely clung to consciousness, he felt Hector trying to rouse him, and saw Harry clumsily make his way over to them. Dez looked up as he neared, stunned by the sight.

  ?

  There, hidden in the darkness, was some sort of form, something lay on top of the cage surrounding the staircase, the darkness hiding its features save for two massive orbs in the darkness, they glowed a deep bright red, slightly illuminating the space, the eyes looked at with a tinge of red. Allowing them to barely make out their surroundings, their eyes are a beacon of sorts.

  ?

  Dez had heard of an indescribable sense of fear or dread when faced with a large, dangerous animal before. The sort of built-in terror scientist often explained with senses, the unconscious intuition that they were in danger. It was part of the reason he had faith in his own sense, but this was different.

  ?

  Dez didn’t merely feel this being before him was dangerous, but lethal. Not that it was only new and threatening, but that it was wrong, beyond his understanding of the world. The second he locked gaze with those eyes, he felt a sense of impending doom, a wickedness he had never known existed but was now terrified of.

  ?

  The others seemed to spot it as well. K, crawling backwards, terrified, Hector fell backwards in fear, spotting it, whispering a prayer for them all. Goof seemed to be too stunned to even move, while the Woods scrambled for weapons and cover as they spotted the new threat as well. But Harry, for once, was the calm one, standing up boldly and locking eyes with it, seemingly for the first time since Dez had met him, seeming unafraid.

  ?

  “It’s here, it’s time…” Harry declared.

  ?

  Dez wasn’t sure what to say, but suddenly he began to get dragged away. He looked up to see Hooks and Hector dragging him toward one of the sets of double doors as quickly as they could. Mug drug along the still-stunned Goof, and K led the group, which was already trying to open the doors.

  ?

  Then it moved, and a scream of pure terror erupted as soon as it did. Dez discovered, an instant later, it was his own; a certainty it would come for them in particular struck him. “Scatter!” Demanded as he ripped himself free from the grips of Hooks and Hector.

  ?

  Hooks didn’t need to be told twice, fluidly diving underneath a table. K cursed and pulled harder on the door as Goof and Mug ran for their own cover. But Hector merely attempted to help him to his feet.

  ?

  But it was too late. Dez could hear the wind rushing as another scream erupted. A moment later, Hector, who was holding him, was sent flying dragging Dez along with him. There was a scream of terror and the sound of falling liquid as a gust of wind disrupted them. A moment later, the lights and screen snapped on.

  ?

  “Hector!” Dez yelled worriedly, only to blink as downed Hector blinked in surprise. Dez, confused, looked around for the others; Hooks, Mug, and Goof were all hidden beneath a table, seemingly focused on something else. K and the Woods were the same, staring toward them silently. Before Dez’s eyes finally landed on the sight that had them transfixed.

  ?

  Where Hector had been trying to help Dez a moment ago was a massive puddle of blood, smeared as if something had been dragged through it. In the center of the puddle was a bloodied and mangled arm, bone sticking through it, as even now blood seeped from it.

  ?

  It then clicked with Dez that Harry was missing.