April Brown awoke to a resounding bang. As her eyes adjust to the dark, she realizes her surroundings were unfamiliar. Terror stricken, a loud blood curdling scream is emitted through her quivering lips, for April Brown thinks that she has indeed been kidnapped. In her attempt to further examine her surroundings, she hears the loud noise once again. She soon finds the source of the noise, a heavy metal door has just opened and closed. In walks a lady with a rather prominent hunch back pushing a cart full of medicine. April jumps out of the small hard bed and flees to a small corner in the room. She sees a name tag on the crooked woman; the tag read Lynette. She feels lost, scared, and confused. She desperately tries to recollect her past but the last thing she remembers is making lemonade to drink on a hot summer day.

She runs to the small window which are protected by thick metal bars and screams at the top of her lungs,
“Where am I?”
“How many times do I have to tell you April? You’re in an insane asylum,” Lynette replies. April’s heart drops to her stomach, her vision blurs, and her head hits the cold tile ground.

April slowly opens her eyes a couple hours later, a bright light above shining into them; to her horror she realizes that her nightmare is in fact reality. She thinks the people who run this asylum have mistaken her for someone else; surely she is not a patient here. Her thoughts came to her like the rushing waters of a mighty flood, she fought to collect them, but this seemed next to impossible to do over the screams of women coming from each sides of the wall. ‘Calm down, the mistake will be sorted out soon with the help of my relatives,’ she tells herself. Soon after, Lynette returns to her room. April questions Lynette’s absurd allegations. Lynette explains in a soft tone that it is a violation of the asylums rules to take part in conversation with a patient. However, she breaks the rule considering her relationship with Aubrey. April stares at Lynette with a puzzling look on her face. April takes a moment to process Lynette’s outrageous news.
“I am not your friend. I don’t know how I got here. Please, I’m begging you to help me,” says April. Lynette puts her head down in her hands and responds,
“April, you have been a patient at the County Insane Asylum for a month.” Stepping backwards from Lynette, April bangs on the door. Lynette’s leaves the room in silence. April sits back on the sheet less bed, assuring herself home is in close reach. Curling up on the side of the mattress, she closes her eyes as tight as she can.


The next morning, Lynette leads April from her tiny room to another room with a table with a chair on both sides. Sitting in one chair is her step dad, Leon.

April’s mind travels to the dreadful memories that haunt her each day. She has not seen the malevolence eyes of her step father in two years. She could smell the scent of the courtroom she once testified in. Her heart beats faster and faster as the image of her mother’s still, cold body on the bedroom floor comes to mind. Rage embodies her as she sits four feet away from the man she put behind bars for the brutal crime against her mother.


April’s eyes drift open, finding herself lying back in her bed. She remembers seeing Leon but not having the chance to speak. She begins to count the endless days that pass while kept in the dainty room. Tears drip down her innocent face. The image of Leon sticks to her mind like glue.

She could no longer hear the screams of other woman. However, she could hear footsteps and noises coming from above. Collecting herself, she sits close to the filthy window looking at the outside world. She wants to feel the life she had beyond the thick glass she now was entrapped by. Day after day, April sits looking at the sky. Dark clouds roll in bringing rain and thunder. She slowly convinces herself that maybe she has gone crazy. Her appetite diminishes; feelings of helplessness and worthlessness consume her mind and faint body.

The blazing sun gradually recedes down. April aches as she turns her head away from the window. She tries to fit the pieces together. She reflects on her days at the Asylum from the very beginning. She pictures Lynette’s middle- aged, dreary appearance. The more she imagines her face, the more she thinks she has seen her before. Then, she reasons that she is only convincing herself that she has seen her before, but in reality she has not. Her emotions go up and down like a roller coaster. Her rage turns into fright at the revelation of her step father’s freedom. She struggles to comprehend how he no longer is behind bars but she is.

Three times a day, someone brings food to April through a tiny hole in the door. April tries to speak with whoever creeps so quietly on the other side, but no one responds. Lynette stops coming into her room. A different nurse, without a name tag, comes in every other day to give April medicine. April refuses, but then gives in, feeling powerless. The medicine makes her sleepy and difficult to concentrate. Days turned into months, the months turned into years.

April entertains herself by drawing on the walls. She uses a small pen she stole from a nurse’s pocket one afternoon. She keeps track of the days she has been held like a prisoner. On the 802nd day, a large man busts open her door. His tall and muscular stature startles April. He holds a black handset to his mouth and speaks with a deep voice,
“920 F, I repeat 920F.”
He looks into April’s glistening eyes, “Don’t worry April, I’m bringing you home.”He lifted April into his arms, carrying her down the grimly hall, and up the steep stairs.

At the top of the stairs, April stopped breathing as she sees Leon’s home…