Yesterday, I failed in my mission. At one am, I realized I hadn’t written anything, and by then I was too tired. I’ve never not managed every day of the Story-a-Day challenge. Sigh.

I’m afraid I’m writing myself into a corner. Oh well. There are worse things. Tomorrow I go in for blood work to find out how my white blood cell count is doing. It was too low a week ago. Also, this weekend, I’m taking my son to his regional speed skate competition. Somehow I will write something.

Nurse Meredith understood the Asylum better than any of security or management. She knew that the basement had grown so good at keeping secrets that it would hold any secret for anyone.

The basement cameras didn’t fool Meredith. She’d long ago understood how useless those cameras were.

That the intruder turned out to be a girl surprised her, but after a moment’s reflection, it made sense. Meredith noted the bag hanging from the girl’s shoulder. “How did you get that?”

The girl shrugged. “I found it.”

“You found it?” Meredith didn’t believe that. “What’s your name, you little fool?”

“Hannah.”

Meredith laughed. “You break in, you steal, but you don’t lie. You really are a fool. Well, come with me if you don’t want to disappear into this place forever.”

Hannah remined rooted to where she was. Her expression revealed her confusion and fear.

Meredith took Hannah’s hand. “You didn’t come here for peace and quiet, did you?”

Hannah shook her head. This was the chance she hadn’t known she wanted. “Come with me, Hannah the fool. Because I know your heart is bent on chaos.”

dreaming

Well, another day done. Whew.

Hannah’s first step out of the basement set off alarms. She darted straight back into the basement and the world went quiet. Crouched down behind the door, she tried to understand what just happened.

Slowly, she stood, opened the door again, and peered out. The halls were bright and clear. She moved one foot from the basement side of the door to the hallway side of the door. Nothing. She put more weight in her step. Sounds and lights and voices rang around her.

Hannah jumped back. Everything was silent again. She retreated further back into the basement and tried to sort out what was happening. Was the alarm going off even as she stood there but for some reason she couldn’t hear it? Did the alarm stop when she stepped into the basement? Either way, it seemed likely that they would figure out where she was. Unless the basement was hiding her.

But that made no sense.

All the same, she couldn’t understand why no one searched for her there. Hannah sighed. Nothing was going to happen if she continued to hide.

The basement door swung open. A nurse stared at her. “You,” the nurse said. “You cause this much trouble and then hide in here like a fool. Well, don’t worry. You’re about to see more trouble than you ever dreamed.”

I forgot an appointment and to have anything in the house for dinner, but I did write something.

Security left Nurse Meredith alone. Leaving a staff member under inquiry alone went against protocols, but it was well after mindnight and alarms were sounding.

Management was confident Meredith’s fear of further reprimand would keep her in check. Management had long begun to take certain things for granted.

Meredith looked around the office, her anger brewing. She’d worked too hard for too long, years of her life, for them to treat as a common miscreant. They dared to question her when her record was without blemish. All the messes she’d cleaned up and the needles and the screaming and the scratches and everything, and they’d let a one intruder bring it all to an end. She wasn’t about to be demoted.

They had taken her keys but had left them on the desk. She scooped them up and dropped them in her pocket. Let the intruder distract them, she reasoned. She knew how to cause real damage.

Before surgeries and chemo, I was someone who easily stayed up until midnight. I’ve a night owl heart. I hate that it is 9:30 and I’m as tired as I am. I wait so long for the family to sleep so that I can write, and now I’m too tired. I went back to work today and I’ve got to have enough in me to get to work tomorrow.

Anyway, I stepped back from the inside of the Asylum, and thought I’d take a look on the outside. Just for one evening.

If the people in town looked, they’d have seen an unusual amount of light coming up from the trees where the Asylum stood. The Asylum preferred to stay disappear in the night. Few lights were ever noticed.

Most of the townspeople though were asleep or not looking in that direction. People considered looking in that direction to bring bad luck, and mothers sometimes scolded their children, “If you look too long, you’ll end up there.”

A few people noticed though. A homeless couple, a truck driver pulled over to the side of the road, and a father up with a colicky baby noticed. The wind seemed to change and they all thought back to stories from childhood. All those who were looking at the light from the woods felt as if their lives were about to change.

Writing through chemo and drugs has been one of the hardest writing challenges of my life. All I want to do is sleep. And tomorrow I finally go back to work. I’ve got some plot tangles to sort out. Eventually. Thank you for reading though. Knowing just one person is reading keeps me going.

In the next to last locker, Hannah found a intricately hand-stitched bag. The fabric shimmered when she touched it. She looked back at all the open lockers. She’d take whatever would fit in the bag. She’d return everything to the rightful owners when she could, but for now she wanted evidence.

The red hood, the shoes, the books, the combs, the mirror, all went into the bag, and the bag never felt any heavier or full. Hannah laughed. She felt happy.

The door opened without a sound. She listened for the people who were surely still hunting her, but the basement halls stayed silent. She debated. Getting out and running home would probably be the smartest thing to do. Her grandmother, however, remained somewhere above, closed up in a room, believing no one was ever going to save her.

By this time, Hannah had convinced herself that her grandmother was alive and in the Asylum and ready to be saved. What would happen after that, she didn’t think.

She’d unlock every door in the Asylum if she had to. Why not save everyone? Didn’t everyone deserve saving? It didn’t occur to her that while some of the rooms might have held harmless grandmothers, not every old woman was harmless.

This is getting harder and harder. Chemo isn’t helping. But whatever mess I’m making, I’ll sort out later. I’m just glad to have something to keep me writing. Otherwise, I’d be more of a blob.

Hannah landed in the basement, though she didn’t know that’s what it was. Lockers filled much of the space. Poor light cast shadows every which way.

She crouched down and listened. Looking up, she saw the hole she’d gone through. Perhaps it was a laundry chute. It didn’t matter. She had to find a place to hide. They weren’t going to stop looking for her after all.

What, she wondered, things did these lockers hold? She ran her hand down the nearest one. The bags and lunches of the employees or treasures from the patients? In prisons the guards took away the prisoners’ belongings. They probably did the same in this place.

Hannah took out her lockpick, glad she’d not dropped it in her mad run. In the first locker she opened hung a red hooded cape. The fabric felt soft and velvet. The next locker contained a hair comb. Such a small thing in the large space.

She had to either find a hiding place or a way back to her rope, but she kept opening lockers. Jewels spilled from some. Several had fanciful shoes. She determined to open every single one.

With each locker she opened, the patients grew more restless trapped in their rooms. Most were now out of their beds. Several readied themselves to run if anyone should open their door.

Best news! I’ve got a publication date for my novel! The novel isn’t The Fairy Tale Asylum. It’s a novel I wrote a long time ago–The Blue Jar. But I’ve got a lovely UK publisher and now a publication date. October 12th. That just after my chemo treatments should be over and just before my birthday.

And I did write something today.

Nurse Meredith was still outside when the Asylum flooded with light. She cursed. Her failure was found out. Either they knew the boy was missing or they’d discovered the intruder.

She wished she hadn’t cut the rope now because she might be the one needing an escape. She ran to the back door. It was locked, so she decided the intruder must still be outside. Inside they had to be looking for the boy.

Once she unlocked the door and stepped inside, she was grabbed and thrown to the floor. “Stop!” came a rough voice. “She’s a nurse.”

She was pulled to her feet but light shined in her eyes. She couldn’t see who she was facing, and she knew that was a good thing. “I’m Nurse Meredith.”

“I know. What are you doing here? Why aren’t you on your rounds?”

This wasn’t a question she expected. “There were two young men visiting here earlier. I was just checking that they were taken care of properly.”

“Did you see anything suspicious outside, nurse?”

Meredith weighed her options. The truth could get her into as much trouble as a lie. Did they know about the intruder? They couldn’t. They had to be wondering about the boy. “No,” she said. Once the visitors were seen to, all was as usual.”

“You’re lying,” the voice said.

“Why would I?” she asked even though she knew arguing with him was useless. “What do you think I saw?”

“The question is why you have conspired against the place that has looked after you all these years.”

Meredith groaned inwardly. The intruder. They didn’t know about the boy. “I’d never conspire.”

“The individual you assisted is somewhere in the Asylum. What is your plan? Do you think that you have any power here?”

“I have no powers above my station,” she said in what she hoped was a meek voice.

“You will be questioned further.”

Nurse Meredith found herself dragged down the hall to the officer. She dreaded what waited for her there.

altered art

I’ve been trying to write while sitting here in the oncology infusion room. It’s hard to concentrate and I’ve dozed off twice. But I am writing, and that’s the main thing.

The suddenness of the light littered Hannah’s eyes with spots. She dropped the file but still held a lockpick, and she held it like a knife. She sensed a rushing figure moer than she saw it.

She lashed out like her father had taught her to do. The pointed edge struck a cheek, and and reeled back. Hannah shoved him and ran. Hands reached for her but she twisted away, crashing into a book case. She didn’t slow down.

Almost to the door, someone snatched the hood of her sweater and jerked. Hannah fell, and the man—if indeed it was a man; her vision remained spotted and blurred—seemed confident he had her. Her thin frame was nothing to the muscle of her would-be captor. But Hannah possessed plenty of her grandmother’s blood in her veins, and she was hard to hold against her will.

Something felt odd about the arms wrapping around her. She didn’t, however, have time to think. She took a deep breath and slipped free. She ran to the door. Something grabbed her foot. She sprawled on the floor, but went down kicking. The heel of her boot made contact with something. She imagined it had to be someone’s nose.

A second later Hannah was up and out the door, pounding down the hall for her life. All the lights were on. Heavy, thudding noises raced behind her. She took the first turn and then another. A dark space appeared in the floor and she jumped.

I feel miserable and have chemo tomorrow, so this is it. Maybe during chemo I can write though. That would be good.

Hannah found the file cabinet labled M. The lock on the cabinet was easily picked. She assumed her grandmother would be filed under M for Martin, but she realized that the filing system was not what she expected.

She stared at the file in her hand and wondered how she’d ever find her grandmother in this mess. She wasn’t paying attention to anything other than the thoughts in her own head when light flooded the room. She was caught.