Nancy Toppan
Prestigious philanthropist and celebrities from all the prominent affluent ‘Social Clubs’ were on the guest list, parading in, adding flair to the ‘Swanky Cocktail Party’ on this “All Hallow’s Eve.”
Could twisted minds in the Gilberti/Bryant’s Lunatic Asylum, both alive and perished, lusting for the ‘Ecstasy of Fright,’ delighting in man’s fears, be unshackled on the guests this hellish night?
We etch our way through the ghostly, groaning graveyard of the tormented souls of psychiatric patients deceased from this horrific insane asylum.
Are those demented patients screeching and trying to claw their way out of the bloody, boarded and barred windows?
Sanatoriums have a chilling, scandalous history. Do we dare enter the abominable chambers of this madhouse?
The creaking door opens to bloodcurdling cries of despair coming from pale, cold, mournful faces inside. We can barely distinguish in the flickering lights from the electrical storm between unearthly cursed spirits and the hideous earthly beings. A chained foot signifies no escape.
Visitors are greeted by doctors, nurses and staff wearing blood-soaked uniforms.
We are terror-stricken as we wander through the shredded, bloodstained curtains, blood-splattered walls with graphic bloody handprints and feel the scrutiny of the former landlords in their human and skeletal forms. We encounter dangling meat cleavers, knives and saws out of reach of the deranged schizophrenics, psychotics and unhinged. Ethereal Beings, Poltergeists and Phantoms are acting out their fates all around us. A fiery inferno, shackled, chained and caged skeletons, watching eyes and the recently expired in their caskets besiege us.
Upstairs in the operating room Dr. Head scouts the parlor for unsuspecting victims to operate on. You don’t want to find yourself on this sanguinary operating table infamous for lobotomies and unusual experimental surgeries. It is no wonder that the residents are flipped out of their minds.
Although in unnerving surroundings, a ‘Carousing Party’ is in progress, with lively music as ‘Flashy Socialites’ in fashionable but bizarre unconventional attire join in on the vivacious festivities. We savor strange but delicious food and drink, bearing an uncanny resemblance to human body parts. Gaiety, laughter and fascinating conversation abounds.
What intentions does the manipulative Inn Keeper have in store for you? Will you be detained to endure electric shock, hydrotherapy, insulin shock therapy, psychosurgery, restraining devices or to be served up for lunch? Or will you indulge in the joviality and good spiritedness of our hosts and prevail to party another day?