The Asylum Chapter 7

It was Pete who said to the others that she was missing, Pete who went down the stairs and came up again, with a piece of fabric from her tattered dress, saying he’d found it wedged in the secret door to the library, and Pete who said she must have run away, leaving them all. Olaf took it all in his stride, immersed in his code again, but Jonas was hurt. She wasn’t that heavy – it was going to be easy to force her to walk. And the click of the lock being oh-so-gently eased open hadn’t woken her. Now – the hood over the head and the gag in her mouth before she was properly awake. The collar had been a stroke of genius – she could be led like a dog. Ariadne could see nothing as she was forced down the stairs, gripped by a metal hand. Jonas? Olaf had hoped to free him last night. But then an arm guided her round a corner – cold metal again. Pete. What was he doing to her? Still unable to see, she was made to stand with her face pressed against the wall while he tied her to a hook, so close and so tight that she couldn’t move. There were subdued noises and clinking from the workbench, and a brief glimmer of light behind her. Then the hood was taken from her head.
“Your turn to see what it’s like,” a voice whispered from behind her. Hands – clumsy metal hands – reached round her, and cold metal enclosed her head and her face. She heard the catches – those complicated locks – click home – and then the hood was replaced, and she couldn’t see again.
There was a ripping noise, as a piece was torn from her skirt. A lock grated and a door creaked open. She was untied and forced to walk forwards, turn and sit. Those cold metal fingers tied her wrists up in the ragged strips of her skirt. “Don’t move,” the whispered voice said. She heard the scrape of a match, smelt it, and then through the hood she could see a faint glow.
“It won’t last long.” Another chilling whisper in the dark. The door closed, the key turned in the lock. Heavy footsteps went across the room, and then there was the faint clink of the key being set down on the workbench. The Ariadne heard metal feet on the rungs of the ladder. Desperately, she fought to pull the hood off her head, to make one last appeal, but by the time she’d freed her wrists, all she saw was one metal heel, disappearing out of sight. A wave of utter despair swept over her. She was alone, in this dark room, and no-one would hear her if she called.
And who knew what Pete would do when he came back? Her tiny cage contained a bucket, a dipper of water – and a candle that would burn out and leave her in complete darkness. And now it was her turn to wear a metal helmet as well.
“I wish I’d never come here!” she cried out. But if she hadn’t come, the others would all have died. Did she really wish that? She lay on the bench, watching the candle. Eventually, it began to flicker and sink, and then she was alone in the dark. That morning, they got Jonas’s cell door open. Jonas, who was a refreshingly normal young man, hugged them both exuberantly, and then marched up and down the corridor several times.
“It’s so nice not having to stop after three strides!”
“I was so close, last night,” Olaf said. “Only one tiny error! We can let Elise out as well – maybe she’ll be able to help get your suit off. And then we can do my helmet.” “But can you do anything about my face and hands? Or am I going to look like this forever? In which case, I might as well stay locked up.” They released Elise’s lock, but it soon became clear that she would not be able to help get Pete out of his suit – nor Olaf’s helmet off his head. Her hands shook so much. And when they took her into the lab, she stood there, frozen in panic, and then began to moan softly. With Ariadne gone, and Elise useless, the only option was to find a way to reverse what was happening to Jonas’s hands. Olaf set to work at once – but again, it was going to be slow! Jonas joined Pete in going through the files – and tried not to look too closely at how much his hands and feet were beginning to resemble Pete’s suit. The only plus was that Pete’s suit was showing no signs of grafting itself to his skin – not so far, anyway. Dr Wolvercote had been planning to try some new process – but his death had prevented him from doing so, and Pete was heartily grateful. It might have worked. Three days out of his cell, and just walking up and down the corridor wasn’t enough for Jonas any more. Pete was busy in the lab, reading out results to Olaf as he ran tests, so Jonas set off down the stairs. He’d seen nothing of the asylum apart from this attic: he’d been brought here drugged, and awoken in that little cell, to hear his uncles finalising his fate with Dr Wolvercote. The door at the end of the corridor led to a ladder going down into darkness – Jonas went to see what was down there. After all, there was no-one else here, so nothing to fear. He got to the bottom of the ladder, and was just feeling for the light switch that, logically, should be somewhere nearby, when a faint whimpering sound made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. He froze – and then, very carefully, began to feel round again. Something else was down here. He pulled the switch. Jonas looked around, and saw, in the dim light, a cellar, a cage in the corner of it, and, hiding her eyes against the sudden light… “Ariadne?” Jonas went closer. “Ariadne, is that you? What are you doing here? How did you get here?” She came towards him, still blinking after so long in the dark.
“Pete. Pete did this.”
Jonas was shocked – but, sadly, not surprised. He knew Pete’s obsession with making someone pay for what had happened to them – and the tortured logic that insisted Ariadne had inherited not only Dr Wolvercote’s money, but also his debts. “Where’s the key?” He looked around, and spotted it on the far side of the room. “I’ll let you out.” “There’s no point. He’ll just do something else dreadful to me.”
Jonas was filled with pity for her. Like him, she was being unfairly treated just for who she had been born to be.
“What can I do?” he asked, half aloud.
“I’d love some food. I haven’t had any since he put me down here. I don’t know how long ago that was.”
“This is three days!” Jonas was horrified. “He didn’t leave you any food?”
“No. Just water.”
“I can and will get you some food – and I’ll do something about that bucket as well. That’s smelly. I can’t get you much food though, I’m afraid.”
“Anything, please.” Jonas managed to come back down again, unnoticed, with a little food, and Ariadne ate it gratefully.
“Listen. There’s one thing you could do. Take the key and hide it. If he can’t get at me, then I’m safe.”
“Leave you here? Alone in the dark? Ariadne, come back upstairs with me. I’ll protect you.”
But she was too afraid, and in the end he agreed, and left with the key, promising to return at some time tomorrow, with more food.
Alone in the dark again, Ariadne lay down on the crude bench and closed her eyes to shut out the blackness. Olaf continued his research, and Pete and Jonas continued alternately studying the journals, and helping him. Jonas felt slightly edgy round Pete, and their relationship changed subtly – but they needed to work together if they were all to get out of this place. There had to be a way to reverse the process: of that, Olaf was sure. But the crucial, up-to-date records weren’t on the lab computer – Olaf suspected that Francis Wolvercote had followed his normal pattern of making notes by hand, and then entering them when he was sure he’d finished. And he’d just started something new on Jonas. The notes were probably locked in the safe in his office, but they might as well have been on the moon for all the use they were to Olaf right now. Meanwhile, downstairs in the cellar, Ariadne remained safely locked in the little cage. At some point each day, Jonas managed to sneak downstairs and bring her some food, and talk with her a little, but other than that, she was alone in the darkness.
“Ariadne. Please let me set you free.”
“No. I’m safe from Pete in here. While you’ve got the key, he can’t reach me.” “He came down again last night. It’s every three days. I couldn't see him - I heard the scrape of metal on the ladder. He filled up the water, and gave me a little food again – but such a little! If it wasn’t for you, I’d be slowly starving to death – I think that’s what he wants.”
“Ariadne. I can protect you. It’s only at night that you’re not safe from things like this.” His gesture took in the metal helmet on her head. “If I take the key to your cell upstairs, and hide it, and if I lock you in each night, then you’ll be safe.”
“No” Jonas looked sadly at Ariadne. “You can’t stay down here in the dark forever. Please think about it, Ariadne. I’d better go now, before they miss me.”
When Jonas had gone, Ariadne lay down on the bench and closed her eyes. Jonas’s words kept echoing in her head.
“You can’t stay down in the dark for ever.” The trouble was, she felt safe here – Pete couldn’t reach her. But what sort of a life was this?
“The one you’ve always chosen,” said a little voice in her head. “Hide in a job you hated, because it was safe. Hide in a place you hate, because it’s safe.”