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It was a blustery autumn day and the leaves were torn from their trees viscously, sent twirling and curling in the gray toned sky. The air was damp and heavy leaving a slight chill snap at the tip of your nose if you were outside too long. The ground was slippy for all the mushed up dead leaves that crashed to the ground previously. It was, as usual, a quiet day in Georgetown, Ohio and it was beginning to get colder, but as all the residents of this peaceful mountain town knew, the town autumn festival was coming.

The festival meant fun and laughter, music and games for all the locals. It was renowned across the state area and people would flock for miles to come and take part in the multitude of events that created the wonderful, joyous atmosphere of a small town party.

The festival was just a couple of weeks away, and that's what made Jefferson, Guy and Mary's arrival at the Peaceful View Asylum even more angst inducing. The three of them were being driven down a quiet road through the woodlands of Georgetown and as they sat there in the back of the rocking station wagon, they couldn't help but feel a little nervous. They were not heading there to visit someone and they were not heading there for a job interview. They were heading there to commit themselves, all three of them. However, neither one of them was crazy. They all knew it, and so did their Psychology teacher who was driving them to the Asylum himself. It was their final year at university and they needed to produce a really astounding project if they had any hope of passing with a decent grade. After recently studying an experiment by the sociologist, Rosenhan, who had committed some of his students into a mental asylum to test labeling theory, the trio of Psychology students enquired into possibility of doing such a thing with their Professor, Dr. David Cage. He had agreed that this was indeed a marvelous idea and that an updated version of the experiment would allow them to assess both the socialisation and psychology behind a mental asylum, a place where many in the small town feared to tread.

The woodlands emphasised the gloomy nature of the miserable autumn day. Muffled pockets of dulled sunlight shone through the naked branches of the trees surrounding them and the thick, slushing sound of leaves and fresh rainwater underneath the tyres rang out eerily.

"You kids nervous?" asked the Professor, glancing into the backseat of the car through the mirror.

The three students all looked at each other and then focussed back on the eyes of their professor, which glanced back and forth at them in the rear-view mirror.

"Maybe just a little," replied Mary.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad once you get in there really, I came up here a couple of years ago when I was producing a dissertation on the effects an enclosed surrounding has on the unstable mind. The place isn't that bad at all, I've seen worse, that's for sure."

"How much worse?" asked Guy.

"Trust me, you don't want to know how bad I've seen some of these sorts of places," muttered Dr. Crane.

"My trust in you has just sky rocketed, David," said Jefferson as he stared out of the window with a mild curiosity as to what lay deep within the woods he was surrounded by.

"That's good to now, because we're here. No turning back now!"

Mary, Guy and Jefferson all crept to the driver's side of the car to gain a better look at the building.

"It's not the Ritz, but I think it'll do, just don't lose our documentation Doc!" said Mary, "the last thing we want is to be trapped in there, this isn't The Blair Witch Project you know, I want to actually see my family again."

"Calm down, Mary. Trust me, this place is really not that bad. Sure it's big and all gothic looking, but when you get inside, it's a really friendly atmosphere and everything's clean and crisp. Just don't blow your cover when you get in there, we don't want you to be treated any different that any of the other patients, otherwise this is a total waste of time. Trust me, when it gets to the end of next month I'll send the notification into the staff. Only the head of the Asylum knows about this, so you'll be in safe hands all the way. Anyway, we're here now, so we're not turning back," reassured Dr. Crane.

The asylum itself was an old building from the last century and the owners were obviously not too bothered about keeping the outside clean. Mould coated the walls, as did a thick skin of lichen while long, running strips of rust stained the metal doors and bars on the windows. The rust even ran onto the stonework and trickled nearly all the way down to the ground. A heavy, black roof, which was beautifully decorated in miniature gargoyles and cherubs, adorned the forward facing façade of the building. Like something out of a bad horror movie, the building stood there in front of the three students who stopped there for a moment beside the car, in quiet, fearing awe of the over-powering building.

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