Read Before I Wake for Free Online

sweeping staircase, it looked like something from the Natalie Wood weeper Splendor in the Grass .
    Mom loved that movie.
    Don’t think about her. Especially not here.
    This main architectural wonder was called Building 50, which never made sense to Arden, since it was the biggest structure and the center of everything. You’d think it would be called Building 1. Here it seemed that the larger the number, the greater the importance.
    The asylum was part of a therapeutic movement that took hold in the nineteenth century. During a short span of time, close to two hundred mental hospitals sprang up in small towns around the United States. The stunningly beautiful and serene structures and grounds were designed by Thomas Kirkbride, a visionary and leader in the health-reform movement.
    Everything was visually aesthetic. Or had been at one time, before drugs became the main avenue of treatment and patients were kicked out on the street and hospitals closed, condemning the buildings to years of neglect.
    Tall, thin panes of glass pressed down from above, at once imposing and grand, every window frame different in style and covered with ornate wrought iron, dwarfing and overpowering a person of stable mentality.
    On either side of the main entrance were what had once been separate wings for males and females. Beyond that, a person would have once found buildings that contained the blacksmith’s shop, power plant, bakery, upholstery shop, doctors’ offices, and a separate hospital that had boasted a maternity ward and surgery.
    Later in its history, the Madeline State Lunatic Asylum became the Madeline Mental Health Center, but most locals just called it the Hill.
    Serene would not now describe the grounds that had once been referred to as an oasis for the mind and spirit. The place was bustling. Dust-covered construction trucks were parked at odd angles. Scaffolding and thick, semitransparent plastic had been set up over outer walls and windows. Men used hammers, chisels, and drills to remove old cement and replace it with new.
    Beyond all that, hidden by buildings and landscape, was Cottage 25…
    Eli pulled the car to a stop in front of the pillared Building 50, near the old stone carriage steps. Together he and Arden dragged the duffel bag from the back and toted it up the stairs to the double doors.
    He let go, straightened, and stood there. Arden waited, expecting him to leave.
    The long good-bye was what Arden had always called this awkward moment when it was time for the characters to separate but it seemed something more should be said.
    She didn’t want him to go. She didn’t want to turn and walk through the doors by herself.
    A tip. He was probably waiting for a tip. She dug into her pocket and pulled out some bills. He waved the money away.
    He was such a sweet kid. Standing there, he reminded her of Daniel.
    Here she was, a person bleached, yet everything reminded her of something that hurt. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t the way it was supposed to work. Bleaching should have taken away the pain. What good was it if it didn’t do that?
    Then Eli was gone. Down the stairs to his car.
    She watched him go. Instead of making a U-turn, he continued up the road, going deeper into the grounds. There were many ways out.
    When she could no longer see his car, Arden grabbed her bag and dragged it across the threshold and through the double doors, where she was met by a woman who introduced herself as Victoria. She was tall and thin, with dark, curly hair and red lipstick.
    Arden followed her into a small office adjacent to the lobby.
    “We’re putting you on the fourth floor in what used to be the women’s wing,” Victoria explained. “You have a nice view of the park and town from there. I think when you were here before those rooms were closed, but the Hill has changed, and what was the men’s wing is now an assisted and independent living facility.”
    An old-folks’ home? The last time Arden had been on the Hill,