Horror House Presents

Bedlam

Synopsis 

Bedlam has long been connected to the misfortunes of the insane, been the oldest mental hospital in the world. Hanna and her friend Celine have long had an interest in the paranormal, though their views are very different and neither has experienced anything themselves. When Hanna's cousin tells her about Bedlam, the old hospital which long closed down she could not resist dragging her friend along to investigate what the old walls hold inside. Neither girl could be prepared for the horrors hidden inside.

Story

Bedlam, a word that simply means 'a scene of uproar or confusion. The origin of the word is from the name of the oldest mental asylum in the world, St Mary's of Bethlehem in London. Known for a while simply as Bedlam. A place to dump the mentally ill and tormented, often treated more like a freak show than a hospital. In past, the hospital was often open to the public to come and see the mentally ill, like we would visit a zoo. It may be one of the most scandalous parts of the hospital's past, but it helped raised funds to keep the hospital open. It has moved many times in its long life as a mental asylum, but the part we are interested in dates back to before the 1800s. It's only a very small part of what the hospital was at the time, but still impressive in its size. Its windows are long been boarded up, letting little light inside the old walls. Like the patients, it once housed the floors and ceilings are rotting away, and the paint is peeling off the walls. An odd few relics are spread out over the three floors and the large basement, which has a corridor that once connected the building to the various other buildings which made up Bedlam at the time. In many of the rooms, modern graffiti marks the old walls. Mostly from teenagers who have broken in over the years.

"Come on Hanna you said you would come in. My cousin said it's really haunted. She claimed she saw a ghost, a real ghost! I know she wasn't lying. Please come in with us. Please." Celine pleas to her friend. Celine is fifteen and has always believed in the paranormal. Dressed in all black, with her shoulder-length hair dyed to match, most would call her a Goth, but she doesn't consider herself one. She often gets mistaken for been much older, mainly because of her height of five foot eight, and her well-shaped body and ample sized breasts. Her friend Hanna is the complete opposite. For a start, she is a year older, though you wouldn't think so. She is much shorter than Celine at only five feet, and her body is very petite and girlish. Her dress sense is very different too. Instead of been dressed in all black like her friend, she's wearing her favourite pink long-sleeved t-shirt and skinny blue jeans, with purple Converse on her feet. The main difference though between the friends is their views on ghosts. Hanna has always found them hard to believe in, not because she struggles to think they are real, but because the idea scares her. She has often lost sleep when she and Celine have had sleepovers and watched Paranormal Activity and other similar films. Now though is something she has been fearing, the night Celine has planned for months, the night they come to Bedlam.

"I don't Celine, can't we go back to mine? It looks really scary, plus how are we going to get in? I mean look at it, it's all boarded up and we don't have any touches." Hanna begs, hoping her words will be enough to deter her friend from dragging her to the gates of hell.

"You know me I have it all planned, come on I have a crowbar, torches, batteries, a camera, even some vodka if it comes to needing some Dutch courage. Come on what's the worst that could happen?"

"I don't know maybe see a ghost, and a pissed off one at that. You know the stories better than I do. What was that woman called? The nurse that patient killed that night he got out of his room?"

"Mary Sidale, yeah I hope to see her. God imagine what it be like to see her! Man, that would be amazing, even better to snap a picture of her. Wonder if her head would be split open where she got stabbed?"