Generation Annihilation by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

Author:Tracy Hewitt Meyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Teen Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Teen Suspense Fiction, Teen Horror Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Horror, Appalachian Fiction
Publisher: BHC Press
Published: 2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

The desk is as old as the asylum. It is carved from the forest’s vast supply of wood and distressed beyond repair. Dr. Esther Richter runs a hand over the surface, feeling decades of grooves and scratches. With a heavy sigh, she leans back in her modern chair and throws her feet onto the desk, crossing her legs at the ankle. Here she sits and stares out the window toward the forest. She is happy that she chose this room on the first floor of the asylum for her office.

Having grown up in Philadelphia, she is unused to so much nature, and she doesn’t much care for it. The trees are thick and oppressive, far worse than the pollution of the city. But they provide cover, and that is exactly what she needs.

To the right she can see the black wrought iron fence of the cemetery. The two weatherworn statues at the entrance reign like sentinels, protecting the souls of the deceased within. The tombstones fascinate her, and she often wonders about the stories of those who rest beneath them. Buried there are patients, nurses, doctors, and maintenance staff who called this asylum and its grounds home.

She’d done her research on the asylum. Construction on the main building began in 1830, using hand-cut sandstone carved from the nearby mountains, and the style was a blend of Gothic and Tudor Revival. To ensure patients had substantial exposure to natural light, over nine hundred windows were installed in the structure. Truth be told, Esther thought the windows, which were long and narrow like the pupil of a snake’s eye, added a sinister quality to the building.

In the 1930s, her grandfather performed the first lobotomy. It was a barbaric procedure, much like all the other practices permeating mental health care at that time. But it was also revolutionary.

“Those old procedures laid the groundwork for what I’m doing here,” she says to herself. Her work is worthy but isolating. Thankfully, she often prefers her own company anyway. When she’s perfected this new procedure, her worldwide acclaim will bring her notoriety, riches, and more friends and colleagues than she will know what to do with. More importantly though, she will finally be respected.

“The wait will be worth it.”

She is having trouble concentrating on paperwork, and feels distracted, caught between past and present. Her recent visitor from the Agency has left her unsettled, though she cannot say why considering her work is on track to become the pivotal change in mental health care and psychosurgery the world needs. But she is, and alas, she must accept that moments of turmoil come with such important work. If only he wouldn’t try to touch her…

When she is taking a moment to rest her restless mind, as she is now, she counts the tombstones. There are at least a hundred in various stages of decline. Some are tilted as if they’ve lost their balance, while others rest flat on the earth, having given up the will to remain upright for another hundred years.

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