Eight Asylum Hours

Eight asylum hours is a snippet of a novel I started, but adjusted to a stand-a-lone short story. It is also this story that inspired me to write other stories for this book that gravitated towards the same theme. How we perceive the world is only a fraction of what is really going on.

Summary of the Story

The protagonist, Steven wakes up in a mental hospital, not even knowing his own name. His mind is fussy and as the day progress, so does his memory. At first, his body doesn't respond, but that changes while he learns everything he was supposed to remember from the previous day.

Steven was in a horrific attack, and PTSD causes him to suffer from illusions that turns him into a raging fighter. Until his mind is ready to deal with his past, he is sedated each time his rage surfaces, but the side effect of the serum suppresses his memories while not having control over his bodily functions.

Steven has an appointment, and the nurse who resembles his dead wife, takes him to the doctor. As he gets more lucid, he recognizes characteristics of his wife, and instantly falls in love with the stranger. As they approach the doctor's office, he regains functionality of his body. Doctor Wilson, his psychiatrist, hypnotizes him and we are introduced to his past.

After his session, he goes to a "steak lunch" with his family. He gets agitated with the condition of the steak as well as how he is allowed to eat it, which slowly enable him to remember who his family is.

Steven goes into another rage, and his sister, the Matron injects the serum so that he calms down into a nearly vegetative state.

What excited me about writing this story

• I tried, with extensive research, to imagine what it would be like to wake up and know nothing. No memories, unable to move, just existing. Waking up in a hospital bed should be horrific, but you don't care right away. Imagine waking without an alarm. Happened to you lately, but long after sunrise. Now imagine that you don't feel like opening your eyes yet, so you start to notice sounds and temperature around you. Imagine it is winter, your room is brilliant white, and you shat your adult diaper. You don't know you're wearing one, but you can smell it. Now, open your eyes and stare out of the window. The sun is too bright at first, but your eyes adjust. Only then your eyes focus on what you see.

• I like to explore the emotion love. The instantly fall in love kind. What attracted you to a specific person. Was it based on the unique qualities of that person, or similar traits to a fond past experience. Do you want to recreate the experience you enjoyed in the past. Most of the time, you can't remember where these likes come from, but your memory stored it in your subconscious. Is it fair to potential life partners who display different characteristics? You're basically polarized to certain traits, and block out the rest. We do that with everything in life. There is so much that we miss, happening around us all the time.

• I tried imagining how it would be when you know where you're supposed to go, but on the journey, your senses start to wake up. Each step is a new experience, because your abilities are constantly changing. Isn't that what life is? We learn new skills, while getting older, we lose some abilities.

• I enjoyed the part where the doctor searched for memories that Steven didn't know he have, like he was a walking memory stick. How much of reality is our friends and family protecting us from by not telling us what we don't know. We continue believing one thing, while everyone knows different. We make ourselves look like fools, but in return, the same is happening to everyone.

• I'm a self proclaimed foody, and I would throw a tantrum if someone ruined a steak. It isn't about working in the restaurant business for many years, but the realization that quality food is something you enhance, try to retain, almost never create. By getting good quality produce, one can quickly lose one's temper with someone who don't understand the principals of handling a potential out of this world experience, by ruining it with stupidity.

• The time counter is to incorporate the feeling of a beating heart. A rhythmic thing that indicates that live goes by. We might think nothing of it as changes happen in minuscular increments, but they add up.

Secret Details

1. I tried my hand at recreating this as an erotic short story. Playing with the dark-perverted side of my mind. Martha helps Steven with more than just his diaper.

2. Martha plays a secret role in working with the resistance of another species in my novel. She finds help from Elton, a character in the beginning of the book who hasn't died yet, and break Steven out of the asylum. Dr. Wilson is working for the enemy, and used to be Elton's training officer.

3. The incident that caused Elton's problems, was a brutal South African farm attack.

4. The bird Steven woke up with was guarding him.

5. At the night of the attack, Martha was guarding the house. She wore off another more brutal attack, and Steven was the subject of their efforts. You win some and you lose some.

6. Martha is the one who helped Steven to the asylum. He went on a self destructing rampage, and after another one of my erotic short stories, she guides him to safety.

7. Martha is the same character found in the next short story, The Lucid Flipside.

8. That is enough inside details of my novel. You just need to wait until I've completed it. Haha...sorry.

If you like to read the story, you are welcome to buy the book from our store page. It is available in eBook format at Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, as well as in a Print on demand paperback format at Amazon Paperback. In South Africa, I recommend buying from Takealot.