“She will remain here for the rest of her life under the care of this hospital. She would have been convicted of attempted murder if it weren’t for her mental state.”
“And how long has she been under your care, Dr. Brancher?”
“Ever since the incident—that’s almost five years now.”
“I guess you could say she really wrecked his life,” and the intern chuckled after his attempt at tragic humor.
Dr. Brancher frowned at the ill-mannered remark and quietly shut the door to Room 122. He would be back later in the day to evaluate Erika Carpenter, and he would return tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on. But for Erika, there would be no going home.
Erika lay in her bed dreaming that she was the victim, that she was Vincent, that she was trapped forever in a strange land with skull trees, glowing forests, and hungry beasts, and that she was in search of The Spitting Post.
“You must rethink everything you thought you knew. You must let your mind go back to the beginning and reconsider what it is you thought was truth, what you thought was reality, and what you thought was a dream,” said the gray-skinned man in The Hall of Ridicule.
I dreamed the man that had it all and lost it was me, and then I woke up. I woke up as myself—Erika Carpenter.
A word about the author…
Jason R. Barden began writing poetry around the age of thirteen. At age thirty-three, he decided to transition into fiction writing with his first novel, The Spitting Post.
In addition to writing, he enjoys hiking and photography. Jason lives in Fort Worth, Texas, where he is currently working on a collection of his poems.
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