Lethal (Wellard Asylum)

by A.L. Maruga

It’s time I faced this new world, the one I have allowed myself to fall into willingly. I’m Alice, falling through the rabbit hole, and I don’t think I can go back to who I was. I need to know who I’m becoming, and how far I’m willing to go for them, and myself.

Am I prepared to hurt him, even kill him, if he tries to murder her in her current state? The question circled my mind over and over, but I refused to acknowledge the answer, knowing full well that there was no right choice, and no matter what I selected in the end, I could lose one of them.

“She’s not coming,” he whispers, a tremble in his tone now. “She changed her mind, brother. She remembered what we are when she woke up, because you let her go. Monsters, Bash, she knows we’re monsters. She hates us, she hates me. She only wants you!” “No,” I reply, sharper than I mean to. “No, she didn’t. She’s one of us now, and she doesn’t hate you.” The words leave my lips to reassure my brother, but in the pit of my stomach, a boulder is sinking. She’s mine. She belongs to me. She can’t hide from me. I will always find her. Her mind is a playground, and I refuse to lose our games.

The rage building in my chest feels good. It feels righteous. She is ours, and Halstead doesn’t get to touch what belongs to us, not anymore. I walk out of the door and into the darkened corridor, the one forgotten by time, and only remembered by the ghosts that inhabit this place. “Are we going to get my broken dolly back, Bash?” Wren’s childlike voice echoes behind me. “Yes, brother, we’re retrieving what belongs to us, and while we are at it, we will do some redecorating of Wellard Asylum.”