Hayden Institute for the Criminally Insane
Insane Asylums are a popular theme for haunted houses. But this one's a little different. Here, YOU are the patients, and the doctors have several cures they want to try out on you.
The entrance to the institute looks creepy. The glass window in the entry door reveals a scene of a long hallway lined with doors, and a strange lady dressed in white at the end of passage. She begins to advance, smiling and dragging an axe. This is not going to end well, but welcome to your new home!
The asylum had been empty for many years. Long enough for the survivors to have moved away or died, leaving few who remember the horrible stories of that place. Long enough for the grass to have grown up, covering the basement windows where the worst of the activities took place. But not so long that the echoes of screams that once filled the lower chambers to have faded away. No. If you listen carefully, you can still hear the screams on a silent night.
This was long before modern medicine. Leeches, electro shock, hallucinogenic drugs of all kinds, and hideous animal experimentations were common place. What makes the human mind work and what makes it malfunction? These were the questions on the minds of the medical staff of this once busy institution. But that all changed once the patients began escaping.
Word on the street was that the doctors were torturing the patients so many families stormed the institute, demanding that their loved ones be released. But the doctors wouldn't allow it, claiming they were not well enough to function in "normal society." The screams at night said otherwise. The screams were of people in pain.
The community won out and the Institute was officially closed...the stories hushed up. No one wanted to think about what could have happened in such a place, and the memories were nearly forgotten.
Today the Institute is once again the center of controversy. Scheduled for demolition next year, historians and survivors are pitted in a fierce public debate. The historians are demanding that it be restored and saved as an historic building. Those who remember the stories are all too happy to see it come down. For now, it seems the preservationists are winning the debate, because they've cleaned and prepped the building for public tours. They've even brought back some of the former staff to assist.
With Halloween fast approaching, it seems fitting that the old building be reopened for tours. The darkened halls are a perfect place to share a fun night of exploration with friends. But be wary of anyone who seems too comfortable here, or anyone dressed in medical attire. Rumors are beginning to spread again about the screams. It seems the old place isn't as dead as everyone thought.
Be sure to bring a change of underwear.
