W05W
Official Inmate
Posts: 101 
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Post by W05W on Aug 6, 2018 4:25:05 GMT
The afternoon wore on to evening, or at least I assumed so, as there was no way to judge time. The longer we waited, the longer W24A did not return, I grew more and more numb. This was not the first time a girl had been abruptly extracted from our numbers, never to return.
When a Chaser finally arrives to usher us back to our cells for the evening, I have little hope we will see W24A again. I hold my darling W03Z close and wish her strength as we part, praying that we shall see one another soon in the coming days.
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W03Z
Official Inmate
"I'm running with the wolves tonight." -Aurora
Posts: 130
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Post by W03Z on Aug 8, 2018 20:40:35 GMT
W05W hugs me, and I whimper softly. W24A had been gone all day, and I had the feeling she wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. I hope to see W05W tomorrow, but as the Chaser closes the door to my cell, it seems less and less likely that I will ever see her OUTSIDE the Asylum.
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W05W
Official Inmate
Posts: 101
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Post by W05W on Aug 22, 2018 3:32:08 GMT
Time is a strange thing in the Asylum, sometimes days seem an eternity, sometimes months seem to go by in a blink. I cannot say how long it has been since I was last allowed into the walking yard. Between a brief incarceration in Quarantine, and a poor reaction to one of the Doctors' many "medicines", I have been quite isolated of late. Today, however, I find myself rudely awakened by a familiar, though unwelcome, voice.
"Time te get off your arse!", grunts Ivan, opening the door to my sell with a crash. Everyone else has left the ward for the day, and it seems I have been remembered at last. He pulls me from the floor and half carries me down the hall. My health is weak and I have been making fewer trips to the dining hall. By the time we reach the lower floors leading to the yard, I can feel his fingers imprinting on my upper arm, a bluish shadow blooms from beneath them.
He wrenches the door open and pushes through. For a moment I can hardly see, as the sun is high and bright, and I have not been outside in what must be weeks. Despite the suns prominence, the air is crisp and cool now, it feels wonderful to breath it in. I slowly adjust to the light and begin to take in the walking yard.
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W03Z
Official Inmate
"I'm running with the wolves tonight." -Aurora
Posts: 130
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Post by W03Z on Aug 23, 2018 2:09:46 GMT
The door to cell W03 swings open, and a Chaser stumbles in. He smells of the fermented fruit I have been told is called 'wine'. The scent is everywhere, and I reel back with a growl at the unnatural scent. I had tasted old fruit once in the wild, and my wolf mother had needed to care for me in the den an entire week afterward!
"Come 'ere," slurred the Chaser. "I's gots something I'd like to show ya..."
He holds out a strange contraption, a new torture device, I must assume, a stick with a metal loop attached to the end. It is familiar to me, and then I remember why. When I had been loose in the wild, I had seen a man referred to as a 'dog-catcher' catch a dog with the very same device!
I am so startled, I do not react until the Chaser has looped the metal noose around my neck. I howl in anger and terror, but he only tightens the loop and laughs. He begins to drag me out of the cell, and my claws scrabble on the ground for purchase.
The Chaser violently drags me down the stairs to ground level, and then thrusts me into the Walking Yard. I feel dizzy. My neck aches and I can hear myself whimpering. Is it just me, or are the Chasers being particularly brutal today? Through the haze at the rim of my vision, I see my dear W05W. I hope she has not suffered in the way I have, being treated like a common dog...
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W05W
Official Inmate
Posts: 101
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Post by W05W on Aug 23, 2018 4:45:47 GMT
I am still staring out into the yard, blankly, trying to adjust, when a commotion causes me to turn. The door has been thrust open again and through it falls none other than my beloved W03Z! She is at the end of a pole held by a Chaser who is quite clearly intoxicated. He is cackling and wolf-whistles at her before releasing the mechanism that holds the rope taut about her throat. I pick up a rock and hurl it at him as he turns back into the Asylum, but the door closes before my missile can meet its mark.
I sigh and walk over to W03Z on shaky legs, I have not had so much activity in a long time, and the meager stimulation of today has quite fatigued me.
"I'm so sorry, my darling," I say, just above a whisper from my unused vocal chords, "I've been unwell for so long, and I see you are treated much the same." Already a dark shadow is forming about her throat from the rope, matching the fresh hand print on my own arm. What a sorry sight we must be, and with my mind sharp again I can now see that we are not alone. The other girls in the yard look thinner, paler, and more wounded than ever. It would seem conditions are deteriorating in our Asylum, if such a thing is really possible considering how lowly they were to begin with.
But I shake my head and push such thoughts away. I am here once again, out in the fresh air with my friend, and it is my favorite season. I see that the grass has gone brown, the dandelions have all died though a few of their fluffy seed pods still sway in the slight breeze, and the leaves of the maple trees that shade the yard are just beginning to show their vibrant autumn colors. Now if only I had a book and a cup of tea...
I turn my face to the sun and smile, sinking to the ground and leaning against the cool stone of the Asylum, and begin to pick the long, brown grass to braid.
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W03Z
Official Inmate
"I'm running with the wolves tonight." -Aurora
Posts: 130
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Post by W03Z on Aug 23, 2018 14:26:49 GMT
I smile faintly at W05W and gently lick the hand print on her arm. Those horrible Chasers must have grabbed her, I assume. I crawl across the Walking Yard toward the maple tree W05W was looking at. Hopefully some sap is dripping, that was always a favorite treat of mine in the wild.
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W05W
Official Inmate
Posts: 101
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Post by W05W on Aug 24, 2018 2:27:42 GMT
I smile at W03Z's kind gesture, and stand to follow her across the yard. She is sniffing about the base of the maple tree in a curious fashion and I wonder what she is looking for? I sit and lean into the rough bark, still fiddling with the stalks of brown grass.
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W03Z
Official Inmate
"I'm running with the wolves tonight." -Aurora
Posts: 130
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Post by W03Z on Aug 24, 2018 15:09:27 GMT
W05W is twisting grasses when I ask her. "Do you think this maple tree bears sap?"
She gives me a sad smile, and I know what she -and everyone else- is thinking. Nothing sweet can exist in this asylum. But friendship exists, and that gives me hope.
"What are you doing with the grass?" I decide to ask.
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W05W
Official Inmate
Posts: 101
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Post by W05W on Aug 28, 2018 2:10:29 GMT
I have heard talk among the Staff that the Asylum was built on a landfill. There is no nourishment in the ground here, and I doubt the dry trees can produce anything. They can barely survive here, same as us. I begin picking up dry leaves and weave them into the grass I have already woven together.
"I'm making a wreath", I reply. "I used to make them every year for the harvest season, to hang about the house."
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W03Z
Official Inmate
"I'm running with the wolves tonight." -Aurora
Posts: 130
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Post by W03Z on Aug 29, 2018 1:49:55 GMT
"I have heard tell of these 'wreaths'. Humans hang them up on..."Christmas", right? I'm unfamiliar with such a holiday."
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W05W
Official Inmate
Posts: 101
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Post by W05W on Sept 3, 2018 3:39:10 GMT
"Yes, Christmas is probably the most common time to hang wreaths, but they can be made year-round with plants that are in season." I explain. "I always liked making them at harvest time to celebrate my favorite season. Now I think I just like to keep my hands busy." I smile, a little sad, and add some dry weeds to my wreath.
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