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    The Warden
    The Warden
    The Warden
    Ebook86 pages1 hour

    The Warden

    By Madeleine Roux

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In this thrilling and creepy digital original story set in the world of Madeleine Roux’s New York Times bestselling novel Asylum, a young nurse starts work at the Brookline asylum—and quickly discovers that there’s more to its sinister warden than meets the eye.

    When Jocelyn and her best friend, Madge, arrive at the gates of Brookline sanatorium—fresh out of nursing school—they are eager and excited to start their new careers. But from their very first meeting with Brookline’s austere warden, they can tell their new boss will be . . . difficult. Then Jocelyn wakes up in her room one night to the sound of screaming, and she starts to wonder if the treatments in this asylum are entirely humane. But the warden has his eye on Jocelyn—and the treatment of patients should be the least of her concerns.

    With page-turning chills and a shocking final twist, The Warden is a short and terrifying installment in the Asylum series that can stand on its own for new readers or provide a missing piece of the puzzle for series fans.

    Epic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint focused on young adult short stories and novellas, with new releases the first Tuesday of each month.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperTeen
    Release dateFeb 2, 2016
    ISBN9780062424457
    The Warden
    Author

    Madeleine Roux

    Madeleine Roux is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Asylum series, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. She is also the author of the House of Furies series and several titles for adults, including Salvaged and Reclaimed. She has made contributions to Star Wars, World of Warcraft, and Dungeons & Dragons. Madeleine lives in Seattle, Washington, with her partner and beloved pups.

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    • 5/5
      I’ve loved this series and the House of Furies series! It’s so intricate and raw. With some books you know it’s not true whatsoever, but with this series, it’s based off a time when things like this really did happen and I love how she merges it with modern day.

    Book preview

    The Warden - Madeleine Roux

    EPIGRAPH

    The last temptation is the greatest treason:

    to do the right deed for the wrong reason.

    —T. S. ELIOT, MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL

    You know how I define idealism? Youth’s final luxury.

    —DOUG WRIGHT, QUILLS

    CONTENTS

    Epigraph

    Prologue

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    About the Author

    Books by Madeleine Roux

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    This exasperating girl still exhibits a strong tendency toward selflessness. Her naive obsession with fruitless do-goodery could prove hindrance or help—I need only convince her that by embracing my vision, she will, in fact, be doing good. My observation of her continues, particularly where the Catalyst is concerned. I thought her compassion for his condition troublesome at first, but no, I will use their deepening connection to my advantage.

    —Excerpt from Warden Crawford’s journals—June

    Brookline Hospital, Spring 1968

    It was raining. Pouring, actually—a fact that Madge, Jocelyn’s bus companion for the last six hours, delighted in reiterating every other minute.

    Do you know how long it takes to get my curlers to cooperate? Madge sighed, standing next to Jocelyn on the dark pavement, a copy of Photoplay held over her head to ward off the raindrops. The magazine buckled in the middle, sluicing water down the front of Madge’s coat. So much for making a good impression, she muttered.

    Jocelyn smirked, warm and dry under the ugly but decidedly practical plastic rain bonnet. It looks like you’ve got a condom on your head, dummy, Madge had teased on the bus, scrunching up her nose behind her Photoplay, so that both she and the full-color image of Jackie Kennedy were giving Jocelyn less-than-impressed looks.

    Now who’s the dummy? Jocelyn said as they turned to walk up the drive. They stepped through the lingering exhaust cloud the bus had left behind as a final, indifferent good-bye. The driver had glanced at them repeatedly during the trip. Jocelyn hadn’t noticed it at first, and then maybe she’d thought he was just admiring Madge. Madge was incredibly admirable.

    A few grumbles from Madge later and they were clicking their way across the paving stones toward the hospital. It looked . . . well, less cheery than it had in the hiring brochures pushed on them at their recruitment meetings. Jocelyn and Madge had graduated together from Grace Point in Chicago with Bachelors of Science in Nursing, Jocelyn with honors, Madge with style.

    In the brochure, Brookline shone like a lighthouse on a rock, white, pristine, all glimmering windows and tidy lawns. Patients beamed from their beds or wheelchairs. Nurses smiled with appropriate modesty and wisdom together in the halls. Doctors scrutinized charts, mustaches askew from the depths of their concentration.

    Goodness gracious, Madge mumbled, drawing to a halt at exactly the same point Jocelyn did.

    It’s not so bad, Jocelyn insisted. She forced a smile, first at the hospital and then at Madge. "Cheer up, buttercup. We’re hired. We’re professionals."

    "Single professionals, Madge said, giggling. Oh gosh, am I blushing? I think I’m blushing. It’s too good to be true. She cast a long look around, her smile wavering a little as another gush of rain poured down her front. Jackie Kennedy was looking severely worse for wear. And here I so wanted to say: we’re not in Kansas anymore. Or Chicago, I guess. You get the idea. But the rain’s just the same."

    Are you kidding? We’re practically New Yorkers, Jocelyn teased. A black wrought-iron fence surrounded the front grounds of the hospital. The building sat well back from the fencing, looming, a little hunched, either from the nearness of the dark clouds or from a shoddy foundation. To the left, New Hampshire College buildings encroached, but only a few students ran back and forth in the quadrangle, their heads bowed under umbrellas. Jocelyn turned back to the fence and stepped up to the gate, pushing on the handle and wincing at the rusty screech that followed. Yup. Very cosmopolitan.

    Now who’s the spoilsport? Come on, let’s get inside. I’m drenched. Madge hurried beyond her, one hand desperately holding the magazine over her buttercup yellow hair, the other toting along her one and only bag. What are you waiting for? I want to meet the staff. And the doctors! And my future husband!

    Jocelyn rolled her eyes, but she had to smile; Madge was right, this was a big day for them both. She hurried up the paving stones, her eyes flicking skyward at the suggestion of a silhouette in one of the windows above. It was there and then it was gone, but as Jocelyn ducked inside the hospital, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched.

    Warden Crawford looked up at her briefly in between each page of her application.

    Jocelyn squirmed. Wasn’t this already a done deal? She thought her application had been approved. Why else would she have made the exhausting trip from Illinois to the coast? That bumpy, cold bus trip hadn’t exactly been a Tijuana pleasure cruise.

    Keep still, she reminded herself. Eyes forward.

    The warden’s

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