Asylum Trilogy

                                 Beautiful Nightmares

                              (Asylum Trilogy)

                                  -Lauren Hammond 

#3

First of, for all those confused as to which piece fits where,

A complete summary:

Insanity:

Damien and Adelaide meet. Fall in love. Device their plan to runaway. On fated day, as they are sneaking out, Her "Daddy" catches her. 

In a fit of anger and ever-present madness, past and present colliding,and with a click of a trigger,and a shot through the barrel, and like a kaleidoscope of events, futures are shattered.

Intended victim of murder was his daughter Adelaide, but Damien lungs and takes the bullet instead. 

His face fades away,now all i see are his lips.His full pouty lips and the last words he'd ever ahve ont he tip of his tongue, "I love you"

Those words are no one else's.

They belong to me.

Forever.

Always.

No matter where he is now.

Thus commencing to the Courthouse, where Addy stands witness to the case murder, but as she speaks, her voice wavering, tears streaming down her cheeks, she glimpses at her daddy. 

Standing shameless and smug, that building bubble within her of despair,anger,guilt and various other colourful emotions years of abuse will bring forth, Burst in a torrential outpour of hysteria. 

In order to sedate her, she was bound and parcelled away to Oak hill Asylum.

Because grief stricken outburst are completely unacceptable and uncouth! 

Ladies of the sixties only ever dab their tears with dainty little embroided hankies. And if any reaction but that follows, the lady must be crazy.

And all crazy ladies go to the torture house. 

Very creative methods used in order to secure the betterment of the patient: Strait jackets, lobotomies, yard long needles, and brain numbing serums- And ofcourse the pleasant ambience. 

"Where are we going?"My voice quivers.

"We're taking you away from here"

"Away from here?" I repeat in a melancholy state.

"Yes" I dont meet the officer's eyes, but he has a kind tone in his voice."We're sending you somewhere where you'll be able to get better."

So off she is, wheeled and dumped.

White Walls: 

But Addy fights the system. She refuses to succumb to their probing. And finally, after months of devisee  planning, and careful timing, with the assistance of her cell mate Aurora, she escapes. Aurora doesn't.[We shall know more about Aurora O'Reilly's POV in So Far Gone  which will be a short series of Novellas. I suppose we will also know more about her jail-time with Addy.]

Addy runs and runs, barefoot and in her ratty uniform, and eventually fastforward to the hospital scene. Where in she meets Dr.Watson.

Dr.Watson though efficient and attentive, seems rather a little aloof and hostile.

But Addy breaks through his shell and he hers. 

Healing and patching together old wounds.

Its a trial, but its beautiful.

"I love you,"he breathes into my mouth."I never thought I'd ever say that to a woman."

"I love you too" I say.

I never thought I'd tell a man that twice.

Beautiful Nightmare:

I am a mother

I have a child.

I am married to a wonderful, wonderful man..

Adelaide and Elijah get married. They have a little girl, Willow. 

I sing to her a song Mommy used to sing to me,

"Little bird,little bird spread your wings and fly.

Little bird,little bird soar through the sky" 

They are content. And loved. And incandescently happy. After a life of pain and heartache, the taste of happiness is the most precious and pure elixir to taste.

Their elixir drys out-in one single moment as fast as a single drop of water fizzles away into hot caked ground.

When Adelaide takes Willow out for a ride in their car, she glimpses a strange but terrifying site,a mirage perhaps? She sees the sight of her Daddy. Swinging her silver locket, Tick tock tick tock- 

Unnerved she swears of the road.

A crash.

Metal and fumes. 

Blood. 

And silence.

Then crying. A baby's cry.

Disoriented and wounded, with a blow to the head, Adelaide suffers what might have just been shock and a mild amnesia, she's confused as to where she is, and whose child the baby is.

So she picks up the baby,and walks and walks and walks. Aimlessly, hoping for someone to come to her aid.

A sharp pain. 

Adelaide miscarriages and looses her unborn child, and collapses onto the ground.

Due to substantial amount of blood loss among other injuries, She goes into a coma; unclear if she will ever wake.

When she finally does wake,She finds that Elijah is dead.
Not being able to handle the potential death of his wife, in despair and devastation,Elijah had committed suicide. 

The crippling grief that she succumbs to when this is revealed, causes her mind to relapse.

All her memories of him are locked away into a locker drowned in her sea of despair, And her mind figures there never was any 'Dr.Watson'.

Because if there was no Elijah, she would n't have to feel the overwhelming pain she does.

No Elijah who helped her sooth the gaping wounds imposed apone her when she lost Damien.

So if Elijah never existed, then who would patch her cracked soul?

So I suppose she figured, Damien must be alive.

A survival tactic- Denial.

Eventually she's dumped back into Oak Hill... Ah, Good ol' Oak Hill..

At one point, all I ever wanted was to be saved and now I find it strange that I ever hoped that that dream would come true.I also think its crazy that I thought I'd make it out of Oak Hill when in reality that thought was a fantasy. This place is a blood-thirsty leech, it feeds and feed and feeds on you until you're bled dry.
The funny thing is, I've been bled dry for years, and I'm still here.

And in the initial years of her jail-time commences Insanity. A good part of which does n't exist. Because, it was all in her head. Hallucinations.

It was a way of her mind telling her the truth.

So each person that she ever cared about played their roles. Aurora the crazy but sane cellmate. Damien her knight in shining armour,come to rescue her..though fragments his memory marred by the cruelty of her daddy's essence.His ever abiding presence, tied down to the crime he committed on the boy she loved. Elijah the doctor. The doctor who helps her realise that Damien is dead. Now that you think about it, perhaps thats why she was afraid of him, because he was the deal-breaker. The one whose secret would shatter her. 

And then there was her daughter.

But the closes she comes to what we assume is recovery and a HEA, is really just a step closer to further sorrow and hurt... 
Sometimes I think it would have been better had she then forever lived in the delusion of Damien.... But, I know if that had been the case, the very last few days of her life would have been quite different. And the forever of her afterlife. 
But it still hurts, knowing Adelaide was a fighter.She was intuitive. She made her way through.
She got out.
It hurts..she tried you know? She did it. She did it. She recovered, bruised but better. She fought every turbulence trying to whip her out. 
She was a fighter.
Until she had nothing to fight for anymore-that she knew of at least.aka Willow. But thats a different matter. 

And thats a basic summary of the fragments of events pieced together of this trilogy. Hope it helped.