The Asylum

By Matt Dymerski

What is the nature of insanity? Follow one doctor's hunt for dark Truth through a series of patient accounts...

All six of the poplar Asylum horror series are gathered here for your enjoyment and fear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matt Dymerski
• Release date: Feb 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301994786

Matt Dymerski

I'm an author of horror. I write a wide range; everything from short story anthologies to full-length novels. As an avid horror fan myself, I specialize in finding new ways to disturb even the most jaded horror reader.

Book preview

The Asylum

By Matt Dymerski

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Matt Dymerski

You can follow my work at MattDymerski.com,

or at my Smashwords Author page.

The Asylum

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Eating Disorder

Chapter 2: The Bonewalker

Chapter 3: The Scholarship

Chapter 4: The Friend Zone

Chapter 5: The Escape

Chapter 6: The Truth

A Word from the Author

****

Eating Disorder

In the interests of anonymity, I will say only that I work in health care. We seem to get more than our fair share of strange patients; one, specifically, has been on my mind lately.

The girl in question, a recent admission, had a story disturbing enough to run through the inter-department grapevine fairly often. Tired of hearing the same gossip repeated endlessly, I pulled and read her file, intending to debunk the rumors.

I wish I hadn’t.

The following is a cleaned-up version of her personal written account.

---

This is all a misunderstanding, honestly. I’m fine. I am not the problem. There’s someone else out there responsible for this - they’re doing this to torture me. I shouldn’t even be here.

I’ve had some issues with body image. That much is true. I was actually failing yet another diet when it first happened.

We were out celebrating Becky’s promotion. The five of us were at dinner - it was a really nice restaurant, but I can’t remember which - and my diet willpower was running on empty. We'd all had a glass or two of wine by the time my salad came. I’d resolved to eat only half of it, and only that much so as not to cause a scene on Becky’s night. The girls pestered me whenever I refused to eat…

Still, I couldn’t help but think it was no coincidence that the skinniest out of the five of us was the first to get promoted. We’d all graduated more than a year ago, and the real world was like slap in the face. None of us were really where we wanted to be.

Except Becky, of course.

Hunger filled me with constant pain, and hating myself for it stressed me to the limit… so when the waiter put cheese on my salad, I didn’t stop him. I wanted to throw the salad away, to refuse to eat, but I was so hungry…

And then, two bites in, angry but putting on a happy face for the girls, I found a long black hair. Wrapping around pieces of lettuce, it immediately disgusted me - I’d almost eaten it without realizing it.

We got our meals for free, and the girls didn’t even bother me when I couldn’t bring myself to eat. The hair had knocked out my hunger completely!

I was on cloud nine for the next day or two. I wasn’t hungry, I wasn’t stressed - it was amazing. I thought I’d stumbled onto some great new form of self-control.

But the girls thought otherwise - or maybe just Becky.

I was at lunch with Andrea when the hunger began to reach a breaking point again. Depleted, sad, I gave in and ordered a large salad. Andrea smiled and said something about being there for me if I needed to talk - I bet she was in on it. In my memories, her smile seems vaguely sinister and mocking, as if she anticipated what would happen…

I found a fingernail in my salad! A fake red fingernail!

Those things are disgusting - there are so many germs under fake nails - I know!

Lunch was free again, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat. The shock and disgust had, again, knocked out my hunger completely.

Part of me was relieved, and empowered. I was going on two weeks without eating, and this whole… disgust thing… was really helping me lose weight.

But I’m not crazy, or stupid. I know that you have to eat sometimes.

Another day or two passed, and I ordered a chicken salad while at brunch with Becky. She kept gloating on and on about her new job, about how her boss was vaguely hitting on her… I hated her so much, secretly, even if outwardly I was happy for her. I was mainly focused on my salad, though. It was sweet relief, finally eating…

…until I bit down on something hard and squishy.

I spit it out quickly; I remember Becky’s exact words.

"Oh my god, is that a toe?"

I remember staring at the thing as it sat on my napkin. It was mushed, ground up, red and cooked a little… but a bone clearly stuck out of it.

The entire place shut down temporarily after that, but nobody could figure out where the toe had come from. Obviously, none of the employees were missing it… but Becky basked in the attention from the scandal. She even got on local television, even though it was my salad that had the toe in it.

"This is a travesty. People can get seriously