Memoirs of Asylum: Janet Blair

By Joel Walker

A freelance journalist travels to Asylum, North Carolina to do a report on the secretive region and its people. While there, she meets a profoundly gifted but mysterious boy whose unusual physical attributes and scar captivate her. Her story about him, along with the experience she had that changed her life forever, became the catalyst that threatened to expose Asylum's terrifying reason for existing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joel Walker
• Release date: Jun 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370383023

Joel Walker

I'm a writer, game designer, 3D artist, and hopeful alternative model in the near future. I'm currently working on a series of books entitled Asylum. It's a Gothic horror series infused with elements ranging from science fiction, historical, mystery and romance. I'm starting by publishing "Memoirs of Asylum" to familiarize the reader with the setting's dark history, its unique culture of eccentric people, the various creatures that stalk the region and the mysterious events that haunt it. Please check back often for further works. Thank you. Joel

Book preview

Memoirs of Asylum: Janet Blair

I crossed into Asylum shortly after 9:30 PM on the 13th of February, 2011. It was cold and pouring a hard rain. Being a freelance journalist I was instructed by the company that hired me to go there and a special on the place. I was too eager to show my journalistic qualities to let the trepidation of the assignment dissuade me, but I had no idea what I was in for!

Asylum rests in the mountains of Western North Carolina; its community comprised of Gothic architecture and eccentric people. Mysterious events that come right out of a dark fantasy novel pepper its long history; it’s a culture steeped in terrifying lore and those too eccentric to fit anywhere else.

My assignment was to interview the Weatherstone family, over the course of a week and learn first-hand about the region’s history and its darkly inclined culture. I didn’t do a lot of research into the prior to my long road trip, which was pretty stupid of me! They have since become an obsession to me after the events that transpired on the night of my arrival; I have detailed what I learned about them on my blog.

One has to drive up Shadow Mountain to reach the outskirts of the town. There are only two ways of getting there by road. If you're driving east, you have to take the Shadow Mountain way. If you're coming west, the only road available is the one that wraps around another frightening community.

I came to Shadow Mountain a couple hours after crossing into North Carolina by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The climb was very gradual. Eventually, I came upon a small diner off the right of the road, the Midnight Stop. I thought of turning in for some warm cocoa to soothe my nerves, but since it was so late and the weather so wild I just wanted to get to the room my employer had rented for me at the Weatherstone house; the drive from DC was exhausting!

The road began to ascend more steeply after passing the diner. In about twenty minutes or so, I came upon the entrance to the house off the road on the left. I saw that the gate was open and ready to receive me so I slowly pulled off the road and drove through the gate only to be swallowed up by a pitch black forest. The long, gravel gently curved and inclined its way between tall, violently swaying trees. Eventually, I came the house; it was not at all what I expected! It was a huge castle, not the quaint little B&B my me to expect. It looked like something out of a classic horror film! I realized that my employer had tricked me by intentionally withholding how frightening this place really was. If I had known what it really looked like I have come!

As I slowed to a stop at the