"Where are Mama and Dadda?" Ellie squealed despairingly in her crib as Valerie picked up the three year old girl into her arms without hesitation to soothe her desperation over her parents' absence tonight.

In the interim, Tristan didn't cry like his slightly older sister as he looked up at his aunt who carried the baby though he craved for attention and love. Agnes couldn't sleep as she struggled falling asleep as she burst out crying just like her older sister, yearning for affection, attention and comfort. It wasn't an easy task for the young mother of one daughter to supervise three children in the same time, on the same place.

Valerie's daughter, Shona was already asleep as she should get up early tomorrow and go to school. It was tough for the red-haired maid to leave her daughter on her own in their one story house though she get used to do it when the circumstances were serious, worrisome.

Valerie didn't have many opportunities as she rocked, bouncing up Ellie, thereafter one after one child until they stopped being so capricious and rowdy. She soothed them with rocking up their wee bodies in her protective, maternal arms, planting kisses on their foreheads and cheeks, they couldn't express more their gratitude just with words. They giggled sweetly, cheerfully as she asked them if they were feeling better as they told her they were actually.

"Sweethearts, your parents aren't here as they told me to look after you." She fondled every child's head tenderly as she runned her elegant, thin fingers through their still growing hairs as Ellie had upper back length curly chestnut hair that resemble the mini Timothy and Jude, inhibiting so much from her both gorgeous parents.

"They won't delay for so long. Do you want me to read you something for bedtime?" She asked as she placed them eventually in their bassinets as Ellie and Tristan were almost old to have a single bed for each twin as they were already three years old.

"Yaaa, nana." They all replied in unison as Tristan rubbed with his tiny fists his eyes as his eyelids were building its ounce, preventing him from being awake as he sensed the betray of his body. Ellie and Agnes were more than excited to listen to their parents' old friend reading them a bedtime story. Tristan didn't make an exception too, as well.

"Well then, just wait for your nana." She walked away from their cribs as she wandered around their room, finding children's book on the cupboard's top as she picked it up, approaching the bassinets as she swallowed a lump in her throat, inhaling before starting to read.

"Once upon a time, there was a lady called..." The young woman started reading for the children as her melodic voice jingled mellifluously in their tiny ears.

They were smiling as they paid attention to their auntie who loved them, withholding themselves to not ruin the sweet bedtime fairy tale.

***

Frank couldn't sleep as he struggled to fall asleep even close his eyes, despite his fatigued body but his frustration over the younger notorious monsignor McKenzie.

He clutched fists as his face was burried in his knees as his body crouched in the corner of the solitary's gray, jejune walls with cold, stodgy floor as his bare feet contacted, trembling as he had almost no strength over his still surviving body over the murderously harsh conditions in the madhouse that hadn't been improved in the last four years. They were rather exarcebating as Briarcliff's apogee would dawn quite soon, facing its ultimate desertion.

He had eaten for almost straight four years severe, disgusting food that nauseated him though he needed some energy and physical strength to survive the seasons annually just like the other neglected by God and society inmates, who had no relatives and family after their miserable death that haunted them daily, due to the worse conditions after Father McKenzie's power dwelled in the asylum, finding a new home as it plagued everything like an epidemy.

Not only he was desperately alone, furthermore, he was like a neglected, forsaken expatriate who lost hope in everything. Frank haven't believed of getting out from Briarcliff alive, unfortunately. He had friends as well but he almost had no family, in fact he is a widow for many years. He has already two wonderful grown-up children.

He lost all hope as the night dawned, scarcely moving a single muscle, spending every second self-pitying himself for having almost the same fate as the other patients. He wanted freedom and to be with his two children though he should temporarily stay with Jude and Timothy under their roof until his wounds and bruises heal. Until he comes to his normal condition.

When an uproar of driving car jingled through his ears, initially he commenced to ponder, losing himself in profound philosophical theories. Until he thought, on other hand, there's still hope. Even out of the grayish walls of Briarcliff.

Headlamps of the lamp flashed as they reflected its light on Frank's solitary small window, illuminating the old iron, rusty grids.

"Oh, it's too dark." Jude complained as she grunted, holding a sack by her side with some useful items to protect her, in case. In the meantime, Timothy stopped his car's engine as he sighed, pursuing for his wife's lips.

"But it's not too dark for a kiss." Timothy teased as the both adults chuckled.

Jude turned to face him as their faces approached, crashing their lips uncontrollably as Jude's arms were around Timothy, encircling him in an embrace. He dangled his strong arms around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him as they deepened the kiss when they opened their mouths as their tongues began dancing against one another.

His mammoth hands traveled up and down her back, moving down to her buttocks, grabbing them as he lifted her up from her seat to his lap, as she sat on his hips whilst her hands eagerly moved up from his shouldera to his hair, running them through his thin hairs as his lips moved from hers to her neck, planting feather, lovely kisses.

Her soft moans floated the car with eloquent, pleasurable sounds. Jude threw her head back when Timothy's lips traveled to her neck, nibbling it with his teeth, kiasimg aggressively every undiscovered spot. Their groans were singing.

Suddenly they stopped aa they broke off, withdrawing their faces as they wanted to look in another one's eye, smiling to one another. Their eyes oozed passion, desire and indisputable lust. Hazel eyes meeting chocolate as they smiled, liting their shining faces in the dim lit car.

Meanwhile, Jude attempted to catch her breath, panting fevered as her hands moved down to the nape of his neck , her fingers playing with his sensitive, creamy neck.

"I love you, Timothy."

"I love you too, my rara avis."

They smiled broadly, radiantly to each other as Timothy's hand was playing with her soft, amorous golden hair. Offering her a sheepish, cute smile. She returned his smile with a flashing smirk across her lips, her eyes darkened like a cloaked figure.

"I think we should go." Jude pulled off herself as she seated beside Timothy, rummaging for the flashlight in her sack.

"Oh yes. I almost forgot." Timothy ironised himself as he grabbed the car keys, getting out of the car as he opened the door for Jude to help her to leave the car.

Once they got out of the car as they parked in front of the collapsed iron fence that once protected the facility's territory from intruders, now it laid on the dry, lost its colorful hues pile of leaves, blanketing the ground. The eerie nocturnal darkness terrified even more Jude herself, mortifying her to death if she faces her lethal destiny in Briarcliff or nearby the territory of the madhouse. She was tremendously lucky for having Timothy by her side.

Jude turned on the flash as the flashlight enlightened apart of the dark path as they walked away from the car as it was locked.

"I am... scared." Jude murmured as Timothy took her hand, pulling her closer to secure her as she was the source for light, stepping on the leaves' path.

"Sweetie, I am here. You shouldn't be afraid." He clarified as he grasped her hand as they approached the grand building.

"I know but this..." When the flash illuminated apart of the huge facade as her face turned pale, losing its chromaticity. She hadn't visited the place for two years. Two years were enoughly long time to figure out how Briarcliff looked much different. 

The facade itself looked much eerier from outside with its crumbling walls with cracked brick outer walls, destroyed windows' glasses as pile of thousand of shattered glass carpeted under the windows. The roof started to demolish as the building had crying need of repair though Father McKenzie didn't care about the institution and the funding in repairment at all. All he cared for was to steal every cash for himself, discriminate almost every nun and guard, treating everyone as his worst, abhored rivals ever in his life especially for his frail twenty five years old of living in this world. 

Nevertheless, the madhouse looked much creepier not only with its aggravating condition, further, the night rendered its ambience nearby the most notorious mental hospital for mentally ill criminals even much sinister, horrid especially in Jude's eyes though Timothy's thrill downhilled his self-esteem. To believe less in surviving tonight but not as much as Jude who was radically pessimistic that she will survive if she had either rescued Frank or not yet.

Once they climbed the stone stairs, thanks to Jude's flashlight that guided them to the path of the light as their last hope to puncture themselves inside the hints of desertion had prevailed, Timothy held tightly Jude's hand, not leaving her on her own as he feared to release her grip and let her wander alone inside the morbidly dangerous place. 

When Jude's flashlight light gleamed the multiple wing doors, they looked partly broken. Her heart froze as her blood turbulently boiled icy blood in her body and veins, despite she wasn't alone. 

"I cannot exactly remember to see Briarcliff in such heinous conditi..." Timothy was cut off by Jude who shushed to him as soon as they moved in the lobby after entering inside the widely opened almost destroyed doors.

"Quiet, Timothy!" She murmured exceedingly horrified as every corner of the facility stenched, retching her body even Timothy.

The lobby was dim light as they approached the spiral stairs that Judy used to call them "Stairway to Heaven", noting something different about them though it's just a petty detail. A few wooden planks were missing as they laid helplessly on the ground like just regular planks. Squawks from tortured, starving, repenting, perishing inmates collided against the grayish, lustreless walls, ringing in the couple's ears like horror movie's background as they were part of the movie, encircled by nothing more than to face their worst, somber fears. 

Timothy hesitated if he should either leave Jude to search on the second floor for Frank by climbing the stairs as he takes an elaborating discovery all over the first floor especially the men's wing where his first destination begins. His heart fell in his stomach once when a thought of leaving Jude on her own on the second floor crossed his mingled mind. He didn't want to do to it, however, he intended to do it. Moreover, Father McKenzie was always watching everything around him.

Jude scrutinized around her. Namely everything. From the long, almost endless halls to inmates' wings to the upper floors where she noted something even weirder, besides disturbing her. Corpses of dead inmates hanging from the ceiling as it sent chills and shivers down Jude and Timothy's spine of disgust, horror and even worse. 

The lights that hopefully bathed the lobby in dim light, flickered constantly as they verged to stop illuminate every territory's cubic centimetre. 

But also Jude and Timothy eschewed themselves from screaming and shrieking in fear and undeniable dread. 

To be continued...