M'Alice of Forethought

Once upon a time, there was a little girl by the name of Mary Alice. But Mary Alice was quite a precocious little girl and so prone to wicked behavior that her family had shortened her name to M'Alice.
Now because of her bad behavior, the other mothers in the village wouldn't let their children play with her, which let M'Alice lonely for a playmate.
She would slip out of the house after dinner and run down to an abandoned graveyard. The spirits that lived there were delighted to have a new friend and they would spend many a night playing tag and hide-and-go-seek.
The village naysayer found out about M'Alice's newest venture and promptly denounced her to be a devil-child and told her parents about a hospital that M'Alice could be put in so as to assure that she couldn't bring any harm to the village.
Sadly for them, M'Alice's parents listened and sent for the hospital's doctor to come and visit.
The thought of being locked up and separated from the only friends she had known sparked an idea in M'Alice's warped little mind. How could she got to this "hospital" if it didn't exist?

The day the doctor came for a visit, M'Alice dressed in her best dress and put new ribbons in her hair. Seating herself in her father's armchair, she folded her hands and and answered the doctor's questions, doing her best to impress him with her "normality". By the time he told to her to run along and play, she was sure she would be staying.
But to her horror, the doctor asked her if she wouldn't mind "taking a short drive" with him. M'Alice flashed a sweet smile and requested that she might be able to bring her toy with her. Alas! The foolish man agreed and she ran up to her room to get her beloved Cuddles.
After a long drive and several vain attempts at getting M'Alice to talk, the arrived at the asylum. Clutching Cuddles to her chest, she climbed the cold marble steps to her sentencing.

She allowed the nurses to usher her to her new room. During the bustle of activity, she quietly lifted the Asylum keys from the head nurse's belt and hid them behind her apron.
That night, when the final rounds had been made and an eerie silence filled the halls, broken only by the moans of the Asylum's permenent "guests". Slipping out of her bed, and padding across the stone floor in her bare feet, M'Alice slid a chair up against her cell door.
Putting her arm through the grating at the top of the door, she was delighted to find she could reach the doorknob with no difficulty. Using the key she had pilfered earlier, she unlocked her door and cracked it open. Then, seeing no one around, she flung her door open and ran.
M'Alice froze in her tracks, remembering her toy, and scampered back to her cell to retrieve him. With a quick hug and a "Sorry, Cudds!", M'Alice carefully tore the stitching along Cuddles stomach.
Digging through the stuffing, she pulled out a vial of petrol and a box of matches. Sliding along the hall like a shadow, she stopped at the nurses station and faced her first obsticle; how to remove the guard from his post without noticing her.

Leaving Cuddles to guard the hallway, M'Alice crept across the the hall to a large grate, behind which were the stairs down to the Asylum basement. Shuffling through the head nurse's keys, M'Alice tried key after key until she found one that fit. Opening the grate and running back to Cuddles, she maneuvered a food cart into position and shoved it as hard as she could. The cart shot away and through the grating, tumbling down the stairs with a trmendous clatter.
The guard emerged from his post and went to investigate. As soon as he had stepped down onto the steps, M'Alice slammed the grating shut and locked it. Returning to the guard post, she started opening all the file cases and pouring petrol over the papers inside. Just as she was about to strike a match, a large red button caught her eye.
"Do Not Push" was written in large block letters above it. She smacked it and listened with satifaction at the clicking noise of all the cell doors being opened. Flicking a lit match onto the nearest file cabinet, she ran out the front door, snatching up Cuddles as she went.



(I haven't types the rest in yet, patence please)

The Dead Always Talk

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