The plane had landed in Piedmont with no difficulty and now she was speeding down a narrow highway in a rented car. Her thoughts dark and brooding. Again she was doing something she didn't want to do!
"Please sorella, please don't make me do this. Something bad happened there. I don't want to go back. Things are fine, really! I promise I will do better..."
"My darling little rose, you know we have to do this. I have protected you all these years, but you have now made it so that I cannot protect you any more. You allowed Josephine to take too much control and now here we are. You will do this. Turn left there. And you will become stronger for it."
She swung the car left having almost missed the turn. She shook her head. "Show no weakness. I have shown weakness too often..." Her words trailed off as the massive stone building loomed out of the darkness ahead of her. She slammed on the breaks and just sat there, staring up at the four story building. So similar, yet so different.

There to the left was the solarium. To the right was the garden, but it wasn't there anymore. Slowly she pulled the car into a visitor spot and entered the building, each step slower than the last. Her eyes saw a pristine lobby area with a nurses station and a receptionist. Her mind saw two couches stuffed with people waiting to be processed. She froze in the lobby, unable to merge the two worlds she saw.

The receptionist smiled warmly at her. "Is there something I can help you with ma'am?"
***
The two orderlies snatched another helpless victim off the couch and began shoving him into a straightjacket. She moaned as her anxiety rose.
***
The receptionist came from around the desk toward her. "Ma'am? Are you alright? Do you need to sit down?"
***
"Look you! You need to sit down! We'll get to you in a minute!" the orderlies practically threw the now restrained man down a hall where a guard pushed him through a door and locked it behind him. In the brief moment the door was open, the wailing of the insane could be heard throughout the building. She wasn't even 18 years old yet, she didn't belong here! She began to shake as one of the orderlies dragged her to the couch and forced her to sit.
***
"Do you need me to call someone ma'am? Can you hear me?" the receptionist looked truly worried about her well-being. Maddalena reached into her purse to look for her phone. She wanted to call Stan and tell him this was all a bad idea and ask him to come get her. Instead her hand came out of her purse with credentials naming her as a doctor of psychiatry and a letter of reference asking permission to allow her to view the entire hospital. Confused, she handed it to the woman.
***
The orderly in front of her snatched the note with disdain. "Dear hospital, this is my neice Maddalena Bonnadeo. Please take good care of her." The man sneered and jerked her to her feet.
***
The receptionist read the credentials as Maddalena stood up again. "Oh yes, we were told to expect you Doctor. We're so excited to have you. Please just join me over here at the desk and I'll get you the guest master key. It will open every lock in the building. Even the old wing that isn't used anymore." The receptionist looks at Maddalena conspiratorially "I'm told that's where they have all the old devices. Can you believe they used to tie people to these chairs and then spin them around as fast as they could?"
***
"And once you've gotten all settled in your new room, we'll take you for a spin in the chair! How's that sound little girl? You like to swing don't you?" The orderly pinched her butt as he walked her toward the hall.
***
"Oh... I, I can believe a, a great deal... All those things are kept in one wing you say?" She closed her eyes breathing deeply trying not to turn and run screaming. 'Give me strength sorella' she thought.

"Yep! I guess some museum wants them for display so the hospital is keeping them in storage. You should go check it out if you have time... Alright! Here's your guest badge and your key. Wear the badge at all times and no one gets the key but me. Not even another guard."

"Yes, badge, key, you... Thank you miss." Maddalena walked slowly toward the patient areas. She unlocked the door and stepped through before she could change her mind.
***
There were women everywhere, all ages, all conditions. One woman was obviously about ready to have a baby, her water had just broken and no one seemed to be paying her any attention. The orderlies walked her down several corridors to a cell with a cot in it. There was some sort of garment on the bed. "You change into that little girl. Give us the dress. We'll keep it nice and safe for you. Promise."
Maddalena had no idea what was going on or why her aunt had sent her here. She had been getting better, she could have gone home and found Arturo. There was no reason to be here! Almost numbly, with tears streaming down her face she undressed in front of the orderlies and put the gown on. It was made of a rough material and hung loosely on her frame. Head down, she took her dress and handed it to the men. Laughing as they locked her in the cell, they then walked away, dragging her dress on the ground. Suddenly she knew why all the patients were wailing. Despair. Complete and utter loss of hope. She would never leave this place, she had no one.
***
The walls were painted a fresh calm shade of beige and the lighting was adequate without being harsh. Private individual rooms lined each side of the hallway and each room had a door. She could see a common area at the end of the hall. She walked slowly toward that area.
***
"ISABELLA!! HELP ME!" She curled up on the cot, crying. She sobbed and smacked her hands against the wall trying to get someone, anyone, to hear her and let her out.
***
"Please little rose, don't give up now... Keep going. We have much to see here. Remember the voice. Our friend in the dark..."
***
She couldn't remember how many ice baths they'd given her. Dunking her whole body under the freezing cold water to calm her tempers. The shock treatments barely hurt anymore, although she had learned the more you shook around during it, the less electricity they used. If you just laid still, they would keep upping the dose until you danced with current. She'd stopped crying in front of them though, she now saved that for the nights, when she was alone.
"But you are not alone. I am with you." the voice came from a shadowed corner but no one was there. That was the first night she had heard the voice. He had become her constant companion through the nights. He had given her the strength to survive the days of torture. He had taught her techniques for the steam treatments, the spinning chair, the ice baths, the shock therapy. He had taught her how to deal with the orderlies. He had protected her.
***
She turned left at the end of the hall automatically. Thank goodness the room was currently unoccupied. She sat on the bed, rocking back and forth. This room, this bright, safe, soft, refuge away from reality, was nothing like it had been when she had been a prisoner here.
***
She couldn't remember how long she had been a prisoner here and the voice would not tell her. He said it was best that way. He spoke to her of family, of loyalty, of dedication to a cause. He even spoke of helping the less fortunate. He spoke of revenge, of getting even, of being strong enough to do what she wanted.
***
"I can do this sorella. Stan helped me through this. I can get through this. He made me strong. We can do this."

"No little rose, not we, you. I will do whatever it takes to make sure you survive this, even if that means I have to leave you."

"No you can't leave me! No, you have to stay! I've never been away from you and I'm not about to start!"

"But I have spent almost 300 years away from you my little rose."
***
The doctor had been dismissive at first, barely acknowledging her complaints when he asked her how she was. It was months before he showed any kindness. And then, it became too much kindness. His hand lingered on her shoulder and then lower when he spoke of a new treatment that was still being studied where the patient would transfer his or her issues onto the doctor so that the issues could be talked out and worked through. It never crossed her mind that all she'd been talking to the doctor about had been Arturo and how much she wanted to be with him, marry him, bear his children...
***
Maddalena's hands gripped the soft mattress, she didn't even remember shutting the door before going back to the bed. She was curled in a ball as if trying to sleep.
***
As she tried to lay quietly, listening to the voice, her smile faded. Someone was coming, and the voice confirmed it. The voice went away, and the doctor unlocked her cell door.
"Well now little Maddy, mad Maddy..." He laughed at his own joke as she tried to pretend she was asleep. "We're going to try that new therapy I was telling you about." He took off his belt as he approached her cot. She curled into a ball, trying to keep him away from her. Dear Father in Heaven save me! "I'm going to be your Arturo and we're going to consumate our marriage little Mad Maddy" he laughed again. He reached the bed and began roughly pulling her toward him, his pants around his knees now.
"NNNOOOOO!" she screamed. As the word left her lips, something touched them. Warm, tangy, blood. She touched her hand to her face and realized she was covered in blood and gore. There was a hand sticking out from the doctor's chest. That's when the screaming started, on some level she knew she was the one screaming. Slowly the doctor's body slid off the hand and to the floor. What she saw next made her scream more in fear and cry in joy. This man, her disembodied voice, had a body. Dressed simply, he was covered from head to foot in the blood and viscera of the doctor. He stood watching her, a look of love and concern on his face. he reached his dripping hand out to her, and, somehow knowing what this meant, she took his hand, accepting that her life was over.
***
She managed to stop herself from screaming before everyone in the hospital realized what was going on.
"That was the bad thing... The doctor! Stan saved me!"
"Yes little rose, you are one step closer and we have to leave now. We can't let them keep us here again. You have to keep moving."
"Yes, moving..." Maddalena stumbled out of the room, obfuscating amidst the chaos that her screams had created. Quietly she made her way to the stairwell and became visible again. She returned to the receptionist and returned the key and the badge with a sincere thank you.
She got in the car without ever noticing the ghostly man in the window, watching her, wishing she had given him enough time to end his own torment while she had ended her's.