House of the Angels

Dylan didn’t sleep at all when everyone turned in. He lay in his bed with Rachel beside him, tossing and turning with uncertain notions haunting his mind. He couldn’t close his eyes for more than a few minutes without thinking about the people who had been locked away behind those walls. He snaked his arm around Rachel who slept soundly at his side, burying his face in the back of her neck and breathing in her sweet scent. At last he felt the sleep that had so evaded him finally catching up.

The further Dylan drifted, the more he began to hear an odd voice inside his head telling him in a quiet whisper, “Go to the well”. Every few seconds the voice crept back into his mind, nagging at him and urging Dylan to get up and go to Rachel’s Well.

“Rachel?” he whispered, still groggy from being awoken.

“Hmm?”

“You said you could see everything in the well right?” he asked.

“Mmmhmm.” Rachel hummed. “And if you want to be sure of something you have to jump in.”

Dylan pondered the thought as Rachel fell back asleep. Sybilla had forbidden them to use any sort of divination or transforming spells and he wanted to be sure that the Caulfields were using Lafayette Asylum as their unholy domain for rituals and practices. It was a risky decision, but he had to do it.

Dylan, still in his jeans and a white t-shirt, tiptoed down the hall to Alex and Grey’s rooms where the two were still up and about.

“I need you two for a while.” He whispered.

“What’s up?” Grey whispered back.

“I have to go to Rachel’s well.” Dylan replied.

Grey and Alex both threw on their sandals and followed Dylan downstairs, out the kitchen door, through the garden and down the path towards the grove where they found the well.

The night was silent save for the chirping of frogs, crickets and cicadas. Moonlight shone in through the tree branches, the silver shafts falling onto the trio as they approached the brilliant blue-green pool and the leaves rustled in the warm breeze.

“So what’d Rachel say we had to do again?” Alex yawned.

“If we want to be sure of something one of us will have to jump into the well.” Dylan answered.

The three of them knelt at the edge of the well, peering over the sunken bricks and into the water. Flecks of blue green illuminated their faces as they stared down into the depths of the seemingly bottomless hole, wondering who should be the one to jump in.

“Any volunteers?” Alex enquired.

Neither Grey nor Dylan answered at first. “I’ll do it.” Dylan said. “Unless you two want to.”

“All yours.” Alex told him.

Dylan didn’t strip himself of any of his clothes before stepping onto the sunken bricks. He drew in a deep breath and stepped off the edge, plunging into the cold water that swallowed him up in a matter of seconds.

Once beneath the water something odd began happening to Dylan. He opened his eyes and found that he could see and even breathe in that cold, unfamiliar place without growing any gills. But the water all around him was dark, as dark as the night on the surface. Dylan didn’t feel himself sinking further into the water at all. It was as though something was keeping him anchored in that spot, holding him there by his ankles to keep him from drowning.

Suddenly, Dylan began to see strange visions before his eyes. Frightening scenes flashed in his sight, visions of a dark maze full of evil symbols on their walls, visions of people trapped within the maze that could not get out. His heart began a fierce, maddening throb within his chest as more visions flashed by in front of him. He could see the Caulfields gathered in a circle, performing some unholy ritual within the darkest part of the maze, their shrieks striking terror into his very core.

Just when he thought he could stand it no longer, Dylan broke to the surface of the well, gasping for air and soaking wet. Shakily, he climbed his way out and onto the dew stained grass where Alex and Grey were both waiting for him.

“Did you see what you were looking for?” Alex asked, handing Dylan a towel.

Dylan nodded. “They’re definitely at Lafayette.” He answered, throwing the towel around his shuddering shoulders.

So they had been right after all. Sally Caulfield had chosen Lafayette Asylum as her hiding place and where better than a place that had been turned into a place of suffering for all who entered there.

“We’ll let Sybilla know the first chance we have.” Alex told him. “It’s only a matter of time before….”

“I think there’s people trapped there too.” Dylan interrupted.

Alex furrowed his brow and gave Dylan a puzzled look. “What do you mean people are trapped there?”

“I could hear their voices.” Dylan explained. “You know how Kyle could sometimes hear dead people speaking?”

“Yeah so what’s your point?”

“I think that some of the people who died at Lafayette are still there.” Dylan replied. “And they need help.”

Alex didn’t need to ask any more questions though it worried him that there were still souls trapped within the hellish sanitarium. But now wasn’t the time to worry. That would have to come later.