Lights Out | ASMR

Once upon a time, at Arkham Sanitarium, you lay in bed restless and unable to sleep for what seemed like fifty-seven minutes and twenty three seconds. Twenty four. Twenty five. Twenty six. Twenty sev- well, you get the picture. The ticking of the clock on your nightstand was a constant reminder of each painful second that you remained awake as you lay there staring at the black void behind your eyelids. Sometimes it felt like you were staring into space, or even into the dark, unexplored recesses of your mind.

You tried focusing on your breathing, but that wasn't helping. You tried counting electric sheep, chickens and various other farm animals, but that didn't help either. You tried levitating, bending reality with your mind, and just outright wishing yourself to sleep, but none of the tricks that usually worked just weren't cutting it tonight. Perhaps it was the Devil's Reef special that you ate for dinner. Or maybe the fact that your regularly scheduled treatment session had to be cancelled because Dr. Dave was involved in an accident. Whatever the reason, you knew you weren't going to be falling asleep anytime soon.

As you tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable, hoping to find that perfect position that might help you finally fall asleep, your frustration continued to build. Having reached your boiling point, you threw off the covers and got up out of bed. You went to the door of your room and slowly opened it, peeking out to see if the coast was clear. You knew that breaking 10 pm curfew would put you in Margaret's garden for a week, but you didn't care. Better to be buried in her garden next to talking fruit & vegetables that recently had brain transplants, than to suffer another minute in bed. So you put on your slippers to help muffle your footsteps, and left the safety of your room.

You began to roam the dimly lit halls hoping that the exercise would be just what your body needed. There would be no way to avoid the infrared, motion-detecting security cameras, but that's why you donned your Bathrobe of Invisibility +2 vs. Security. As far as the Protectrons are concerned, they are easily enough avoided due to their slow movements and reaction times, if any of them are actually even working.

You wandered up and down the various halls of your ward, passing the rooms of other human residents such as Charlie Carl, Emma Goldman, Peter Sellers, Diogenes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Julius Caesar, Rob Ross, Aristotle, Jimmy Hoffa, Joan of Arc, Hamlet, Michael Bakunin, Cleopatra, Hershel Greene, Paleolithic Man and Paleolithic Woman (couples are allowed to share a room of course), Emperor Annei, Amelia Earhart, Green Man, Babur, Rene Descartes, Catherine the Great, Katherine the Mediocre, Mozart, Ramses II, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and that recruiter guy who helped you get a job with the Candy Man.

You stopped at a vending machine and gazed dreary-eyed at all of the delicious contents that beckoned you to take them home. The cupcakes looked at you with their sad cupcake eyes. A bag of potato chips was crinkling excitedly as it tried to get your attention. And a bottle of your favorite beverage was spinning around in place. You knew very well that sugar was the last thing you needed right now, even though you wanted to set them all free. Reluctantly, you waved goodbye to all of the imprisoned confections, and continued on your journey.

You continued to meander through the facility, passing the cafeteria, the pool, more vending machines, the morgue, and one of the entertainment rooms where it sounded like a few staff members were playing video games. You stopped for a few seconds trying to recognize the game being played and who the voices belonged to, but the closed door muffled the sounds too well.

As you rounded the next corner, you started to get a feeling of deja vu. You remember awhile ago having another one of these sleepless episodes and found yourself in a strange part of the facility, standing outside a door to an experiment room. But you were certain that was just a dream, which is what you told Corvus, who confirmed your suspicion. Is that where you were headed again? As the deja vu feeling wore off, the overhead fluorescent lights suddenly went out. While you remained motionless in the pitch black silence, expecting the lights to turn on any second, you heard someone approaching, followed by the turning of a doorknob . . .

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