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Criminally Insane: The Series (Bad Karma, Red Angel, Night Cage Omnibus) (The Criminally Insane Series)

Page 58

by Douglas Clegg


  As he drifted into unconsciousness, he thought he heard Susan Hannifin crying out for help from within one of the cages.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  1

  Jane checked Trey's pulse. It was weak, but there. He was alive. He'd get through it. She was certain.

  She stood up, and went back to the three doors to the Night Cages. "Dr. Hannifin? Susan?"

  "Help me! Dear God, somebody help me!" came the scream that was not as loud on Jane's side as it was on Susan's. But Jane found the door, and using some of the tools that Mary Chilmark had left, she managed to pull the door open a quarter inch, and then Susan pushed it on the other side.

  Jane held Hannifin close, while the psychiatrist wept against her shirt. "Look, we've got to get out. I'm going to need your help. It's a long way back upstairs."

  "There's another way out," Susan said. "From down here, there's an exit that goes out into the residency halls. But…what if the fire…"

  “I know you're feeling some form of shock. But it's important. I need your help to get Trey out of here. We have to find one of the other ways."

  Finally, Susan Hannifin said, "Please. Please. I don't know."

  "Get a grip," Jane said. "No one knows we're way down here. We might as well be buried alive if we can't find the other exit."

  "I know," a voice that sounded like a little terrified boy's came from one of the doorways. Doc Chilmark sat there, his knees drawn to his chest. "I know everything about this hospital. Since I was little. I know where every secret room is. I know where every doorway is."

  "That guy gives me the creeps," Jane said under her breath. Then, she stood up and went over to make sure Doc Chilmark wasn't going to try anything. When she reached him, he had already bounded his hands up in restraints; and he'd locked hobbles on his ankles. "He said he'd protect me from them," Doc said, pointing with both wrists extended toward Trey. "I know how to get out. I'll take you out. There's nothing but shadows here."

  2

  The two women lifted Trey up between them, each bearing half his weight on a shoulder. Trey drifted in and out of consciousness, and as they went down one of the tunnels, Trey murmured, "It's all right. It's all right."

  Doc Chilmark walked slowly in front of them. Jane retrieved the gun that Bloody Mary had, and kept it pointed at Doc in case he was trying to trick them.

  They passed other dark cells and rooms. Jane could not help but glance down them as they went – various cages and cells, and one long room off a tunnel full of metal beds. On the ceiling above, pipes of all shapes and sizes running the length of the tunnel.

  When they came near the end of the tunnel, where it veered off to the right and left, Doc kept them moving to the left, back toward the buildings of Darden State rather than away from them.

  Finally, they came to a utility room, and within it, metal stairs up a towering stairwell.

  A blue light wavered as if it were unstable, near the ceiling above. And at the top step, another door, this one short and wide, and slightly ajar.

  3

  Jane Laymon, with all her strength, drew Trey up the steps, slowly, painstakingly, until they'd reached the low-doorway at the top. She pushed through it, and drew him out into the gardener's shed, within the residency building. Then, out onto the lawn of Darden State.

  The sky, dark with clouds – but rain came from them, rather than more black smoke.

  Beautiful rain, Jane thought, as she drew Trey into it.

  His eyes opened slightly as he looked up from her lap to the sky.

  "It didn't reach us," Jane said. "The fire. It didn't reach us at all."

  Trees along the edge of the grounds had been turned gray with ash, but the fire had not crossed the boulevard. The firemen and rescue workers had held it back – and something more, Jane considered, as she looked skyward.

  Fate. Or God. Or Luck. Or Chance.

  And then she remembered Trey's own phrase: the goodness of life itself.

  Behind her, Susan emerged from the doorway, limping slightly,

  It was a moment out of time – an uplift from the horrors of the day that they'd experienced. Each of them felt, within that moment, a sense of overcoming the worst that anyone could throw at them. In the next few seconds, that might be gone, without any of them realizing why it had touched them and then passed.

  But in its touch – of rising up from the darkness into ordinary daylight, ordinary rain – there was a spark of something that would never leave them even in the worst hours of their existence.

  Except for Doc Chilmark.

  For the night fears always came back.

  Epilogue

  1

  His first night home after his release from the hospital, Trey lay in bed with his wife, and held her so much that she nearly had to push him away just to breathe.

  "I'm sorry," he said.

  "It's okay. After what you went through…"

  "I want the baby."

  "Oh."

  "Do you?" he asked.

  She nodded. "I guess it just was such a shock to find out. But I do. I'm just scared to have a baby this late. All the things we have to go through, what's going to happen with my work. What'll happen with the other kids, and how old we'll be when the baby's 18, and well, all the stuff you think about."

  Trey reached to her and drew her back to him. "I want the baby because I want to know that something good can come into the world," he said. "I want us to be the kinds of parents who raise kids who have purpose. Who get help when they need it. Who allow their kids to be productive and happy. Who protect them when we can."

  She kissed him on the neck. "That's why I married you. Because you're a good man."

  "There are plenty of good men out there," he whispered.

  "None like you," she said.

  "There's so much bad in the world," he said. "I don't even like thinking about it. Or our kids – how they'll be affected by it."

  "You see too much bad," Carly said.

  "I do. Now and then, I do. This family keeps me sane," he said, trying to block out the memory of what he'd seen beneath Darden State. "You make me thing about what's good." He began kissing her, and he never wanted to stop.

  2

  Quentin "Doc" Chilmark was given a new cage as part of his therapy in Darden State. It was not quite a dog crate, but simply a large box. He slept in it at night, but with all the lights on in his room, which had gotten smaller and had no views at all.

  He lay in his straitjacket at night, his eyes open wide, listening to the shadows that came and went, talking of death and of heaven. And sometimes the dead girl came to him, too, and sat with him in the cage and told him that she was happy to have made a friend, because she had been so lonely when she'd been alive.

  But sometimes, she didn't come.

  Sometimes he felt the crawling fears, moving toward him, coming for him just as he fought off sleep.

  Sometimes they spoke with his mother's voice.

  3

  Within three weeks, much of the underground to Darden State was sealed up. The entrances in various underground buildings were closed off with concrete, and the doorway in the Canteen of Ward D was re-fitted with a reinforced steel door that only opened with specific identification cards in a bar-code-like device. An administrative memo circulated about the need for a cleaning crew to go into the two levels beneath Darden State, clear out any material, as well as to seal rooms individually, particularly the old night cages on the lowest level.

  At Darden, a budget was drawn up within six months of meetings of several directors and the Board itself, and so it was put to the state to provide three million dollars for the project to clear out the underground once and for all.

  Nothing came of this, and the hospital ran as it always did, and always would.

  Above ground, several new patients were admitted; there were staff reassignments; Trey Campbell returned to work once he'd recuperated from his injuries completely; Dr. Susan Hannifin sold a second b
ook about her time at Darden State, called Inside The Night Cage: The American Asylum and the Mind's Secret Places, although she resigned from her position and went into private practice in San Diego; when Trey and Carly Campbell's son was born in the summer, his wife suggested they name the boy "Jim," and Trey felt that was a damn good name if you asked him.

  * * *

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  Have you read all of Douglas Clegg’s novels and collections? Here are some to check out at the link above, or at your favorite online bookseller:

  The Hour Before Dark

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  Publisher Information

  Copyright © 2004, 2012 Douglas Clegg

  Cover Design Copyright © 2012 Alkemara Press

  Cover image courtesy of iStockphoto.com, used with permission. Copyright © 2010 Nuno Silva

  eBook Creation by Book Looks Design http://www.booklooksdesign.com

  ISBN-10:

  0-9849756-8-3

  ISBN-13:

  978-0-9849756-8-6

  FICTION - SUSPENSE

  FICTION - THRILLER

  About the Author

  Douglas Clegg is the award-winning author of more than 25 books, including Afterlife, The Children’s Hour, You Come When I Call You, The Harrow Series, The Criminally Insane Series, Purity and many others.

  Subscribe to his free book update newsletter at http://DouglasClegg.com

  Table of Contents

  Criminally Insane: The Series

  Bad Karma

  Douglas Clegg’s eBooks

  On Facebook

  On Twitter

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Get More eBooks

  Publisher Information

  Red Angel

  Douglas Clegg’s eBooks

  Prologue

  PART ONE

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  PART TWO

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  PART THREE

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Epilogue

  Get More eBooks

  Publication Information

  Night Cage

  Douglas Clegg’s EBooks

  Prologue

  PART ONE

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  PART TWO

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  PART THREE

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  PART FOUR

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Get More eBooks

  Publisher Information

  About the Author

 

 

 


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