#EscapeFromAsylum

[thefallingdownthebookhole]

Nothing better than starting a new book! ⁣ ⁣ I’m fully embracing my basic witch side. Drinking a pumpkin spice latte, watching Practical Magic and about to start Escape From Asylum by Madeleine Roux! ⁣ ⁣ #bookstagram #practicalmagic #pumpkinspicelatte #basicwitch #escapefromasylum #madeleineroux #malificent #wonderdamebookmarks #bookmark #bookish #books #toberead #asylumseries #downthebookhole #fallvibes https://www.instagram.com/p/CEzIu1vAYz5/?igshid=7ay9ofjxojqu

[harasnicole]

I'm late to the party because I only found out about the #atlareadathon yesterday, the day after it started, but I wanted to join so here's my late #TBR. Team Fire Nation, baby! (May or may not be because of any residual crush I may or may not still have for a certain Fire Nation prince. 😉) It's also a watch-along, and iirc, today we're supposed to watch episodes 5 & 6, which means that I have to binge all six and I can't wait. I've been wanting to.watch this series again for the longest time but never made the time until now. Also, the group book is on my Kindle. I figured I'd just buy because it was only $2.99 on Amazon. #ACOTAR is my pick for the prompt, "Give a book a second chance," since I DNF'd it, like, two years ago at Chapter 22. #EscapeFromAsylum is my pick for the prompt, "Read a book with an interesting villain," which I won't spoil, but it takes place in 1968 in an asylum, and it's a prequel to the #asylumtrilogy. I'm so glad I have the whole month for this. #bookblogger #bookdragon #bookblog #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booktube #booktuber #readathon #readathontbr #atlareadathontbr https://www.instagram.com/p/B182xO2Ac-r/?igshid=7sti77gergt7

[xxravenonmyshoulderxx]

My own recent book mail: ‘Escape From Asylum: An Asylum Prequel’ by Madeleine Roux I now have all the ‘Asylum’ books and can binge-read the entire series at my convenience! I’ve only flipped through them but I can already tell you they are GOOD. #bookstagram #bookmail #asylumbooks #escapefromasylum #anasylumprequel #madeleineroux (at Wolseley, Winnipeg) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvkSHMvgNuY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=v5smq6zc9dqg

[bolognaponysnugglewumps]

A cold glass of lemon water and a relaxing moment with a book, it brings me joy #lemon #water #icewater #lemonwater #escapefromasylum #escapefromasylumprequel #madeleineroux #bookstagram #books #readersofinstagram #read #ilovebooks #growyourimagination

[chardaearchive]

Shadows of Redemption Short Story By Chardae Hilson

The Doctor

“There was the smell of wood burning, in an eerie way like a forest fire, not as a comfort like a fireplace.” She stared out of the window as she spoke, arms slender and gray as they wrapped around her wiry body, like the vines of an ever-aging tree. 

I could not help but to peer gently at the young lady before me, all of twenty-one and so obviously on the brink of insanity. I had worked five long and strenuous years, numbing my mind with copious amounts of coffee and my own cocktail of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anti-whatever-else-that-kept-me-up-so-late-at-night. Most of my patients were just like her, Kairo. They all shared the same dead in the eyes look, like an animal caught in the headlights of a semi-truck or a lamb who somehow knew he was up next for the slaughter. Despite this fact, Kairos was an interesting case— she was a young african-american girl with skin like chestnuts or really tree bark, as Kairos had scars all over her body. Typically, she hid them well with baggy clothes and her usually guarded stance but me and her had developed such a level of trust that she showed me them. To the outside eye she looked as if she would disappear if you came too close, so no one here ever did.

Kairos was a patient in our sexual assault unit, as a victim of the foster care system, she endured the worst kinds of sexual abuse. Her main coping mechanism had been self mutilation, Kairos was sure that if she made her body disgusting enough to the eyes of the world she would never be touched again. At a younger age a case like hers would have brought me to tears, today it was as normal as breakfast. Kairos sat ten feet away from me during every session, any closer and she would fall into a full blown panic attack, gasping for air as if my presence alone took up far too much of her own breathing material. For this reason I kept my distance, I sat stiffly at my desk and when the doors opened I allowed her to saunter to her corner of the room. Her seat remained darkly shadowed, just how she liked it. Next, the girl would almost slither into her seat, curling her body into the smallest ball of a position, and only then—once her limbs were held tight in her own arms would she begin to speak.

Lately our sessions focussed on her dreams.

“And where was the fire coming from?” I asked, pushing my glasses more firmly onto the lack of bridge to my nose. My black eyes squinting in confusion at the vague nature of her descriptions, the girl had a habit of saying a lot yet saying so little.

She seemed not to like this response as her face crinkled up and her eyebrows furrowed as if I had said the most mind-numbingly idiotic thing that I could possibly think of. The girl grunted in frustration, reaching up to pull at the roots of her afro as she spoke. “I never said it was a fire, I said I could smell wood burning.”

And so she was right, how could I have missed such a thoroughly expressed detail.

 “My apologies Kairos, I meant to ask where the smell of firewood came from.” I smiled sheepishly in a feigned apology but I could tell she hadn’t missed the bite behind my words. 

Her eyes rolled but remained taped to the window, she began to rock with her words as she spoke to me again. “The smell was coming from my wardrobe..I could even see the flames crackle through the crack of the door, I know I wasn’t dreaming!” This time she slammed her hand flat against the glass, startling us both at the sheer force of it. The sound echoed in the room so loud that the door flew open and the guard outside rushed in ready to deescalate an altercation between us. The short, mostly balding asian man could only be described as puzzled when he found us sat just as shocked in our own seats.

“My apologies, sir.” The man murmured with an awkward cough, before scurrying out of the room. As the door closed I turned my eyes back to Kairos, we fixed each other with stiffened glares and this time I rolled my eyes at her. I scrawled my usual notes into my notepad and called the guard to discharge her as I prepared for my next patient.